Global Pulse

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  • Former Spain defender Capdevila asks Trump for help getting into the US for the World Cup final

    Former Spain defender Capdevila asks Trump for help getting into the US for the World Cup final

    MADRID — A decorated Spanish football legend is making a public plea for help, scrambling to secure entry into the United States in time to watch his national team take on Argentina in Sunday’s highly anticipated World Cup final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. Former Spain national team defender Joan Capdevila, who was a key part of Spain’s only men’s World Cup title win in 2010 and their 2008 European Championship triumph, has found himself locked out of the U.S. due to a long-standing travel restriction, stemming from a single exhibition match he played in Iran more than a decade ago.

    Capdevila took to the social platform X on Friday night to launch his public appeal, directly tagging former U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Spain’s national ministry of sport in a bid to cut through red tape. “I NEED HELP @realDonaldTrump!” Capdevila wrote, confirming that his application for visa-free entry through the U.S. Electronic System for Travel Authorization, commonly known as ESTA, had been formally rejected.

    For 48-year-old Capdevila, being at Sunday’s final is far more than a casual spectator trip: he hopes to reunite with all of his 2010 World Cup-winning teammates in the stands to cheer on the current generation of La Roja as they chase the sport’s biggest global prize. The barrier to his entry traces back to 2010s, when Capdevila joined a squad of Spanish La Liga legends for an exhibition all-star match against a team of Iranian top players in Tehran.

    Under current U.S. visa waiver program rules, which allow pre-screened travelers from eligible countries to enter the U.S. without a full visa via ESTA, travelers who have visited Iran after March 1, 2011 are explicitly barred from ESTA eligibility. Any traveler in that category is required to apply for a formal visitor visa through U.S. consular offices before entering the country, a process that often takes weeks or months to complete — too slow for Capdevila to get approval in time for Sunday’s match. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both the visa waiver program and the ESTA system, has been contacted for comment on Capdevila’s case as of Friday.

  • Mali rebels ambush an army convoy, killing or capturing scores of soldiers

    Mali rebels ambush an army convoy, killing or capturing scores of soldiers

    In a coordinated pre-planned assault that underscores the growing security crisis in the Sahel, an alliance of jihadi militants and Tuareg separatist fighters ambushed a Malian military convoy in Mali’s violence-plagued northern region on Saturday, with rebel spokespeople confirming dozens of government troops were either killed or taken prisoner. The attack, which took place in a remote stretch of the Gao region, has been officially confirmed by Mali’s national military, which issued a brief statement confirming the assault on the convoy carrying Malian soldiers and their foreign allies. The military declined to release further details on casualties or damage, noting only that a counteroffensive against the armed groups is currently ongoing.

    Two separate groups have independently claimed joint responsibility for the operation: Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the regional al-Qaeda affiliate active across the Sahel, and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a unified Tuareg separatist movement formed in 2024 to push for an independent Azawad state in northern Mali. In their public statements, both groups confirmed that the targeted convoy included members of Mali’s regular military alongside personnel from Russia’s Africa Corps, the paramilitary force that has propped up Mali’s ruling junta since the country cut ties with United Nations peacekeeping forces in 2020.

    FLA spokesperson Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane outlined the details of the assault in a press statement, noting that the convoy was traveling from the northern outpost of Anefis toward the regional capital of Gao when the attack unfolded in the open Sahara Desert. Observers have identified the convoy as a likely logistics support unit, as visible fuel tankers accompanying the column indicate it was moving supplies to forward government positions. Ramadane added that multiple army vehicles, including armored vehicles, were destroyed in the ambush, while other working vehicles were seized by the alliance.

    The rebel alliance has released multiple videos purportedly documenting the aftermath of the attack. The footage, which has not been independently verified by The Associated Press, shows captured Malian soldiers surrendering while surrounded by rebel fighters, as well as armed rebels transporting detainees in their own vehicles. One clip shows rebels opening fire on a group of soldiers lying on the ground, confirming the heavy violence of the assault.

    This attack marks the latest in a growing pattern of coordinated operations between the once ideologically opposed JNIM and FLA, a partnership that regional security analysts warn poses a severe threat to Mali’s fragile stability and the authority of its military junta, which has ruled the country since a 2020 coup. Mali, a landlocked nation at the heart of the Sahel, a vast semi-arid belt stretching across Africa south of the Sahara, has become the global epicenter of Islamist extremist violence over the past decade. Tuareg separatist groups have waged an on-again off-again insurgency for independence since 2012, and the FLA unified multiple separate separatist factions into a single movement earlier this year.

    The April 2024 coordinated assault on Malian forces, the largest such attack in the country in more than 10 years, first signaled the depth of the growing collaboration between JNIM and the FLA. The new ambush adds to a sharp upward trend in militant attacks against government forces across the Sahel, where armed groups are increasingly pushing to expand their territorial control and influence amid a fragmented security landscape.

  • Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 5,000

    Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 5,000

    CARACAS, Venezuela – Local Venezuelan authorities announced Friday evening that the total number of fatalities from the two powerful seismic events that struck the nation last month has climbed to 5,069. In an official statement from the interim government led by President Delcy Rodriguez, officials confirmed that the count of injured people has held steady at 16,740, a figure that has not changed over the past 11 days.

    Officials attribute the upward adjustment in the death toll to ongoing search, recovery and debris clearance work, which is being carried out across affected regions. The coastal state of La Guaira, located along the Caribbean Sea and the area hardest hit by the tremors, has seen the bulk of the newly recovered fatalities. As of Friday, national geological monitoring agencies had documented a total of 1,331 aftershocks following the initial major quakes.

    According to Venezuelan government data, the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes that struck on June 24 have left 856 buildings damaged, with another 190 structures completely leveled. Hundreds of critical public infrastructure assets, including transportation routes such as bridges and highways, also sustained damage, disrupting access to many affected communities.

    Full coverage of Latin American and Caribbean regional news is available via AP News at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america.

  • The classroom moment that bonds finalists De la Fuente & Scaloni forever

    The classroom moment that bonds finalists De la Fuente & Scaloni forever

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup final will bring two very different coaching journeys to a head in New Jersey, when Spain’s Luis de la Fuente and Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni go head-to-head for the sport’s most prestigious international prize. Though their paths to the final diverged wildly in every sense, a little-known personal connection binds the two managers together, one that traces all the way back to 2017.

    That year, Scaloni found himself adrift after retiring from playing, and enrolled in the Spanish Football Federation’s UEFA Pro Licence course – the highest-level coaching qualification available in European football. It was here that the two men first crossed paths: De la Fuente, who was then leading Spain’s Under-19 national team, taught the course’s technical skills module. Scaloni went on to graduate with one of the highest marks in his cohort, and has repeatedly credited De la Fuente for providing critical, generous guidance to him and his fellow students. The pair have maintained a close bond in the years since.

    Where De la Fuente is a product of Spain’s structured national youth development system, Scaloni’s coaching ethos was shaped by the unique, unwritten locker-room culture of Argentine club football. What unites them, beyond that 2017 classroom encounter, is that both climbed to the pinnacle of international football after periods where the sport had left them on the margins, and both have built their national sides around the core principle of team as family – values rooted in the shared Catholic faith both men practice. It is an unlikely milestone for two coaches who have never managed a single top-flight club game between them.

    De la Fuente’s journey to the World Cup final began in Haro, the heart of Spain’s Rioja wine country famous for its annual chaotic wine battle where thousands drench each other in red wine. After hanging up his playing boots in 1994, he spent 15 years bouncing between lower league club roles, youth coaching positions and assistant coaching jobs. He was dismissed from his role as manager of Segunda División side Deportivo Alaves in 2011, and spent 18 months out of work, slowly drifting away from the sport he dedicated his life to.

    His turning point came when he spotted a newspaper advertisement for a youth coaching role with the Spanish Football Federation. He reached out to former Spain manager Inaki Saez, who endorsed him to the federation as the perfect candidate. He was offered a three-month contract to lead Spain’s Under-19 side at the European Championship in Lithuania; while they lost to France in the semi-finals, his performance earned him a permanent spot. His next Under-19 squad, featuring future senior stars Rodri, Unai Simon and Mikel Merino, took home the European title, and a steady rise up the ranks followed. By the time he was appointed senior Spain manager in 2022, he had coached most of the current 2026 World Cup squad since their teenage years, across Under-19, Under-21 and Olympic levels, winning multiple youth titles along the way. He has known star players including Pedri, Dani Olmo and Martin Zubimendi, and their families, for more than a decade.

    De la Fuente’s coaching philosophy centers on fostering respect for opponents, trust in the process, and calm, patient leadership. His life and work are built on sacrifice, humility and collective responsibility – values that mirror his religious beliefs, visible in small, personal gestures. Ahead of the Euro 2024 final, as the stadium filled with fans, he took time to call his family to confirm they had arrived safely. Midway through a World Cup match this year, when he learned the federation’s photographer had lost his mother, he pulled the man into a group hug with the entire squad. And ahead of this tournament’s semi-final against France, he was visibly overcome with emotion when asked about his brother, who passed away three years ago. For De la Fuente, family is the foundation of everything: his own son Alberto now serves on his senior Spain coaching staff.

    In contrast, Scaloni’s coaching education did not come from a federation classroom, but from the decades he spent in Argentine locker rooms, where unwritten hierarchies and norms place senior players’ authority above all else. He grew up in the small farming town of Pujato, near Rosario, where his family still grows corn, wheat and soy, and he learned the game on local fields driven by his father Angel. Scaloni was part of Argentina’s 1997 Under-20 World Cup winning squad alongside Walter Samuel and Pablo Aimar, who now work alongside him as assistant coaches. That tournament also left him with a lifelong fear of flying after a forced landing during the event; for years, while playing for Deportivo La Coruna, he would travel to away matches with the team but drive hundreds of kilometers home alone with his father after the game. He made more than 200 appearances for Deportivo, helped the club win a La Liga title, and went on to play for a string of European clubs, including a loan spell at West Ham United in 2006, before retiring in 2015.

    Retirement hit Scaloni harder than he expected. Having settled in Mallorca with his wife Elisa and their two young children, he struggled to adjust to life off the pitch. He took a job coaching a local under-14 side at small club Son Caliu, just 10 minutes from his home, and stood on the touchline freezing through cold mornings, but found it the first content he had felt since retiring. He has since spoken out in support of every club employing psychologists to help players prepare for the disorientation of post-retirement life.

    Unlike De la Fuente, Scaloni never built a career bouncing between domestic club roles. He became an assistant coach at Sevilla under fellow Argentine Jorge Sampaoli in 2016, and the pair moved to the Argentina national set-up a year later. When Sampaoli was sacked after Argentina’s early exit from the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Scaloni was eventually named interim, then permanent manager – despite widespread public criticism of his lack of top-level experience. He has held the post ever since.

    Scaloni’s greatest strength is not tactical innovation. His coaching staff is made up almost entirely of former teammates and players, who understand that elite international players need less tactical lecturing and more connection. Casual barbecues, team karaoke nights, and deliberately blending superstar status with ordinary, shared moments are the foundation of Argentina’s locker room culture. After leading Argentina to a 2022 World Cup win and a Copa America title, Scaloni began seeing a psychologist himself to process the pressure and emotion of the achievement, compounded by his parents’ illness at the time; long bike rides and therapy helped him navigate that period.

    For both coaches, their sides’ greatest strength is not individual stardom, but the collective trust built through intentional team culture. Former Spanish Football Federation director Fernando Hierro described De la Fuente as “an expert of the raw material there is in Spanish football who has built a family where they enjoy themselves” – a description that fits Scaloni’s Argentina equally well. Both prioritize continuity over upheaval: De la Fuente stuck by the generation of players he nurtured from their teens, while Scaloni retained the core of Messi’s supporting cast even after a devastating semi-final loss to Brazil at the 2019 Copa America. That loyalty paid off just two years later, when Argentina won the 2022 World Cup at the Maracana, securing Messi his first senior international trophy.

    When asked what success with their national team means, both men give nearly identical answers. De la Fuente calls it a privilege to watch “the people of your country enjoy themselves again”, while Scaloni repeatedly emphasizes the effort of fans who follow the team across the world and wait for them back home.

    On final match day, the former teacher and his former student will meet again as rivals. Both know that defeat is an inevitable part of sport. But whoever lifts the trophy, the moment will be a historic one: two men who were once cast aside by football have written their names back into the sport’s biggest story.

  • End-times prophecy jumps from lunatic fringe to US elite belief

    End-times prophecy jumps from lunatic fringe to US elite belief

    Recent revelations about a secretive elite network organized by German-American tech billionaire Peter Thiel have pulled back the curtain on a growing, underreported trend: the spread of apocalyptic, end-times worldviews among the most powerful figures in global politics and technology. Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and data analytics firm Palantir, has brought together top CEOs, billionaires, and high-ranking political leaders for his closed group called “Dialog,” with confirmed members including NATO Supreme Commander Alexus Grynkewich and former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. This year, Thiel also delivered a series of confidential lectures in San Francisco that framed modern debates over technology and politics through biblical apocalyptic language.

    Thiel has publicly argued that humanity faces existential catastrophe from two sources: nuclear conflict and unregulated, out-of-control artificial intelligence, which he claims could trigger a biblical “Armageddon.” In his framework, only the most innovative and privileged elite — those included in his secret network — would survive such a collapse. Thiel is far from an outlier; a growing share of powerful figures across technology and politics now view global affairs through the lens of imminent civilizational collapse, a shift that is reshaping policy and geopolitics.

    The use of end-times narratives to consolidate political power is not a new phenomenon. Centuries ago, Rome’s first emperor Augustus leveraged fears of moral decay across the empire to justify centralizing all authority in his own hands. But today’s iteration of “end-times politics” differs dramatically from historical precedents. Both real and manufactured threats now spread at unprecedented speeds, amplified by social media algorithms that prioritize outrage, hysteria, and conspiracy theories over nuanced, factual reporting.

    In Silicon Valley circles, AI is routinely framed as either humanity’s savior or its ultimate extinction event. Palantir CEO Alex Karp has gone so far as to call the global race to advance artificial intelligence “our Oppenheimer moment,” arguing that wealthy world powers must choose between halting development of a potentially catastrophic technology or racing ahead to seize a decisive geopolitical advantage.

    Yet this apocalyptic thinking has long since moved beyond the eccentric bubbles of Silicon Valley, embedding itself in the highest halls of formal political power. Political leaders now leverage end-times narratives to advance radical policy agendas, a trend that has been particularly pronounced in the second Trump administration. A large number of active-duty U.S. military personnel have filed official complaints alleging that senior commanders use biblical end-times rhetoric to justify planned U.S. military action against Iran, framing conflict with the country as a necessary precursor to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

    This rhetoric has grown alongside the Trump administration’s deliberate courting of the Christian right, particularly evangelical voters, who form a core constituency for the administration’s “spiritual warfare” agenda. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has repeatedly positioned himself as a divine instrument in an existential civilizational battle to defend Christianity, and senior administration officials have systematically stacked Pentagon and other executive department roles with evangelical Christians and Christian Zionists. This pattern forms part of a broader ideological shift, where leading political and business figures blend their interpretations of Christian eschatology with beliefs about American global supremacy.

    The tangible consequences of this apocalyptic myth-making are already visible in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Trump’s stark threats against Iran — including an April statement warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — illustrate how end-times framing paves the way for radical, high-stakes policy shifts, both in the U.S. and across the globe. The Trump administration has also pushed the narrative that Europe faces irreversible continental decline and “civilizational erasure” driven by immigration and European integration, echoing similar rhetoric from right-wing leaders across the West. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, for example, has repeatedly warned that the United Kingdom is on the brink of “societal collapse” driven by immigration and progressive policy change.

    Decades of social science research confirm that when populations believe they face an existential threat, they are far more willing to support extreme, extraordinary measures that would be rejected in ordinary times. Research also shows that the personal psychological dispositions of political leaders carry far more weight during periods of widespread uncertainty. The rapid, unforeseen changes brought by technological transformation and climate disruption have already created widespread public anxiety, and this creates a dangerous opening: leaders can frame political opponents, grassroots social movements, and marginalized minority groups as existential “foes” to justify consolidation of power and crackdowns on dissent.

    Modern end-times politics is ultimately a battle to define what counts as the ultimate threat facing humanity. In an era where the world faces a growing list of tangible, evidence-based risks, these elite apocalyptic worldviews will shape how both national and global politics evolve in the coming decades. This shift is compounded by another critical change to global power structures: for most of modern history, the most influential actors in global politics were elected officials and state institutional leaders. Today, a new class of unelected tech executives, armed with massive personal wealth and outsized media influence, exercise unprecedented power over state policy. Their influence often penetrates deep into the core of state institutions, exemplified by Elon Musk’s senior role leading the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency and SpaceX’s centrality to U.S. global defense and space strategy.

    For decades, political scholars analyzed global politics through the lens of formal institutions and structural power dynamics, and framed globalization as a product of cross-border business interests. Today, however, the future of both global governance and the global economy increasingly hinges on the personal beliefs and psychological outlooks of a small, unaccountable elite of political and corporate leaders.

    This elite apocalyptic framing often involves selective emphasis on certain threats while deliberately downplaying others. Many tech executives tie the promise of a prosperous, stable future exclusively to unconstrained, disruptive technological innovation. U.S. venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is a leading proponent of “technological accelerationism,” an ideology that argues unregulated, rapid technological development is the only viable solution to all of the world’s most pressing existential problems.

    The core challenge for the public and policymakers today is distinguishing between genuine, evidence-based threats and manufactured narratives that amplify fear to distract from more pressing issues. At a moment when public discourse is saturated with predictions of imminent collapse, it is more critical than ever to prioritize risks that are backed by empirical data — such as the accelerating climate crisis and the growing erosion of democratic institutions around the world.

    On the question of whether unregulated tech innovation can solve climate change and deliver global peace, there is good reason to approach the claims of tech billionaires with deep skepticism. After all, Thiel himself has already hedged against the collapse he predicts, preparing both a fortified bunker in New Zealand and a personal refuge in Javier Milei’s Argentina, signaling that even the biggest promoters of apocalyptic elite narratives do not believe their own rhetoric about technology saving the world.

  • Schmidt signs off in style as the Wallabies beat Italy 57-10 to end a 6-test skid

    Schmidt signs off in style as the Wallabies beat Italy 57-10 to end a 6-test skid

    PERTH, Australia – In a fitting send-off for departing head coach Joe Schmidt, Australia’s national rugby union team the Wallabies snapped a six-match losing skid on Saturday, recording a dominant 57-10 victory over Italy in the first concluding round of the inaugural Nations Championship.

    From the opening kickoff at Perth’s venue, the Wallabies seized control of the match that had evaded them in their previous two tournament outings. Lock Josh Canham, who would finish the day with a hat-trick of tries, crossed the try line just four minutes into the game. Fullback Tom Wright and hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa added two more tries within the next eight minutes, putting the home side up 19-0 before the 15-minute mark. Prop Angus Bell and center Len Ikitau extended the lead further with tries in the closing 15 minutes of the first half, bringing Australia’s first-half try total to six. Italy’s only bright spot of the opening 40 minutes came from captain Michele Lamaro, who scored the Azzurri’s lone first-half try in the 20th minute, sending the two sides into halftime with Australia holding an unassailable 38-5 lead.

    Canham completed his hat-trick seven minutes into the second half, picking up the ball at the base of a ruck just meters from Italy’s try line and burrowing over to push the lead to 45-10. Montanna Ioane scored Italy’s second try shortly after halftime, but that would mark the final points the visitors would put on the board. A late Italian try in the 75th minute was disallowed after video review confirmed a knock-on in the in-goal area.

    The match ended on a high note for the Wallabies, with replacement hooker Billy Pollard and substitute back Ben Donaldson adding late tries. Donaldson’s 80th-minute try, capped off by a rampaging break from backrower Rob Valetini, put the finishing touches on the 47-point blowout.

    The win carries extra weight for the Wallabies after their late-game collapses in the opening two rounds of the Nations Championship. The side held comfortable leads against both Six Nations champion France in Brisbane and Ireland in Sydney, only to surrender those advantages and drop both matches by narrow margins. This time around, Australia held onto its momentum from the opening whistle, closing out Schmidt’s tenure with the positive result the squad had targeted.

    “When you’ve let slip leads like that a few times, you’ve got to learn from those experiences, and I felt we did that tonight,” Schmidt told reporters after the match. “We got far enough in front that it wasn’t really going to matter if we weren’t as good in the second half, but there was still some really good stuff out there from the guys.”

    For Italy, the first phase of the Nations Championship ended without a single win, and the campaign was marred by off-field disciplinary issues. Head coach Gonzalo Quesada was suspended for the match after receiving an initial two-game ban for criticizing match officials following Italy’s 47-17 loss to New Zealand last week; his suspension was reduced to one game on appeal, leaving him unable to join his team on the sidelines Saturday. The Azzurri already dropped their tournament opener to Japan, and disciplinary trouble extended to the playing side Saturday: already-replaced prop Marco Riccioni received a red card after a melee between players spilled from the touchline into Italy’s technical area, knocking several support staff off their chairs.

    Lock Niccolò Cannone also received a four-match suspension after his yellow card for a head-butt against New Zealand was upgraded to a red card post-match. Captain Lamaro acknowledged the team’s underwhelming performance across the opening tournament phase.

    “Gutted. Obviously very disappointed with the result and the performance we put in,” Lamaro said of Saturday’s outcome and the tour as a whole. “We played a very good first half against the All Blacks last week, but apart from that we’ve been pretty poor.”

    Schmidt first announced his departure from the head coaching role last year, agreeing to stay on through the opening Nations Championship round to allow his successor, Les Kiss, time to complete his existing commitments with Super Rugby side the Queensland Reds. Looking back on his two-and-a-half year tenure, Schmidt said he leaves the program in a better position than he found it, with the squad building toward the 2027 Rugby World Cup, which will be hosted on Australian home soil. Despite a low overall winning percentage during his tenure, Schmidt noted clear progress in team culture and core on-field performance.

    “I think the players are more connected. I think the leaders are more vocal,” Schmidt said. “Our fundamentals, our set piece is getting better. To the rugby public, thank you for sticking with us. We’ve just had massive support, and it makes a difference to the players.”

  • US-Iran fighting escalates with infrastructure targeted

    US-Iran fighting escalates with infrastructure targeted

    Less than five weeks after the two sides signed a preliminary ceasefire deal meant to de-escalate months of open conflict, hostilities between the United States and Iran have surged to their most dangerous level in months, with both sides expanding attacks to critical civilian and military infrastructure across the Gulf region. What began as a series of limited tit-for-tat strikes has rapidly escalated into a widening conflict that now threatens to draw in neighboring US-aligned Gulf states, raising fears of a full-scale regional war.

    Iran launched coordinated retaliatory strikes across three Gulf nations on Saturday, responding to seven straight nights of US bombardment on Iranian territory that has killed more than a dozen people and disabled critical public services. According to officials in Kuwait, Iranian strikes hit one of the country’s oil processing facilities and a major power and water plant, forcing the shutdown of multiple power generation units. This marked the second consecutive day of attacks on Kuwaiti energy and water infrastructure: a Friday strike on the same power facility sparked an industrial fire and extensive structural damage. Kuwaiti state oil representatives confirmed unspecified injuries and property damage from the Saturday oil facility strike, and local fire department personnel confirmed multiple firefighters were injured while extinguishing blazes ignited by the Iranian projectiles.

    In Bahrain, another key US military partner in the Gulf, Iranian military officials confirmed via state television that their forces targeted Sheikh Isa Air Base, a primary operating location for US forces in the region. Drones struck aircraft hangars, parking areas for military aircraft, US fuel storage depots, and connecting access roads on the base, Iranian military statements said. Bahrain’s army confirmed its air defense systems successfully intercepted and repelled the majority of the incoming Iranian strike wave.

    Jordan, a key northern US ally bordering both Iran and Syria, was also drawn into the escalation Saturday. Iranian state media reported that fuel storage tanks at Jordan’s Al-Azraq Air Base, another frequent US military operating site, were targeted in the strike. Jordan’s army announced it had shot down all 10 incoming missiles, with no recorded casualties or infrastructure damage from the failed attack.

    The sharp escalation comes after weeks of slowly building tension following the preliminary ceasefire agreement. Senior Iranian military officials have issued stark warnings that the country is abandoning its previous policy of proportional, like-for-like retaliation for US strikes. “Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, matching responses… and no political border will be safe,” Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a top military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told state media Saturday. Rezaei added that if US strikes continue for another two to three days, Tehran will launch full-scale offensive operations against all hostile targets in the region.

    On the Iranian side, the damage from seven consecutive nights of US strikes has been extensive. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency confirmed Saturday that US strikes in the southern Hormozgan Province have killed three people and wounded eight more. Local officials reported that 116 telecommunications towers were destroyed in the bombardment, cutting landline, mobile phone, and internet access across large parts of northern Hormozgan. In the southwestern Khuzestan Province, deputy provincial governor told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that the US has struck 95 separate locations across 12 cities over the past 10 days, killing eight people in the province alone.

    Critical public services have been disrupted across large swathes of southern Iran. Tasnim reported that US strikes on power facilities and desalination plant pumps in the village of Bonji have cut drinking water access to multiple nearby rural communities. Iran’s energy ministry has issued an urgent public appeal for residents to cut electricity usage and turn off air conditioning during peak demand hours, as the national power grid struggles to cope with widespread damage to generation and transmission infrastructure. As of Friday, Iran’s health ministry confirmed that 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in the renewed fighting that erupted one week ago.

    Hope for a renewed diplomatic settlement to end the conflict has largely collapsed, even as regional mediators continue quiet efforts to bring the two sides back to negotiations. US President Donald Trump publicly threatened to target Iranian infrastructure earlier this week, though the White House has not issued any official confirmation of the ongoing strike campaign. The current round of violence was initially triggered by Iranian attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s global oil supplies pass, which Iran has sought to control as leverage in negotiations. The Strait has been a central flashpoint since the war began in late February with a joint US-Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear and military facilities; Iran closed the waterway to commercial traffic shortly after the war began, and control over the route remains the core sticking point in peace talks.

    In response to the latest Iranian escalation, the US has reimposed a full naval blockade of Iranian ports, aiming to cut off the country’s critical oil export revenues that fund its military operations. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed two oil tankers transiting the Strait had struck mines laid by the US, claiming the vessels were operating under US intelligence direction. The US military quickly issued a full denial of the Iranian claim. The Revolutionary Guards also announced Saturday that they had intercepted and stopped four commercial vessels attempting to transit the closed strait.

    Regional analysts warn the conflict is now on track to spiral out of control, as neither side is willing to back down for fear of appearing weak. “The paradox is that, while the conflict continues to escalate, neither side has a strategic interest in allowing this dynamic to continue. Yet both perceive any compromise as a form of capitulation,” explained David Khalfa, a Middle East specialist at the Paris-based Jean-Jaures Foundation, noting that the conflict is now drawing in a widening range of strategic infrastructure across the region that was previously untouched by hostilities.

  • US must learn to navigate its pay-for-play world to find a pipeline to World Cup competitiveness

    US must learn to navigate its pay-for-play world to find a pipeline to World Cup competitiveness

    As Argentina prepares to face Spain for its fourth FIFA World Cup title, a stark contrast in soccer development models has renewed longstanding questions about why the United States, a nation of 330 million people, has never reached the upper echelons of men’s international soccer success. After the U.S. men’s team’s early exit from the 2026 World Cup, soccer leaders and analysts across the country are zeroing in on one core issue: the pay-to-play system that dominates American youth soccer, and how it is holding back the nation’s soccer potential.

    Unlike Argentina, where developing a homegrown star who goes on to play for the national team is the highest honor for a local club, the U.S. youth soccer ecosystem is built around charging families for access to competitive play. Most youth organizations rely on player fees to stay operational, retaining players as long as their families can keep paying. For elite programs, the costs are staggering: a 2024 Project Play report found the average U.S. family spends $1,016 per year on a child’s primary youth sport, a 46% jump from five years prior. For elite soccer, that annual figure can top $12,000 once team dues, equipment, and tournament travel are added up. Retired Colorado salesman Dan Chisesi, who raised two children who played youth soccer, estimates he spent tens of thousands of dollars on the sport over decades. Even though his children gained positive memories, he echoes a common concern: “I believe youth sports have become somewhat elitist. I think we’re missing out on a lot of talent because people just can’t afford these travel competitive teams.”

    This financial barrier means countless talented young players never get the chance to showcase their skills. With between 4 million and 6 million children playing soccer across the U.S., the sport’s elite tier remains out of reach for low-income families. Longtime U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper Kasey Keller summed up the issue bluntly, noting that even a generational talent like Erling Haaland would likely be pushed into the NFL rather than professional soccer if he grew up in the current American system, where football and basketball dominate the attention of sports fans and athletes alike.

    The fragmented governance of U.S. youth soccer only exacerbates the problem. The sport is overseen by more than seven national governing bodies and 54 state federations, creating a fractured system that former U.S. Youth Soccer CEO Skip Gilbert describes as more focused on poaching players between competing leagues than building a cohesive talent pipeline. Gilbert, who recently updated his proposal for structural reform, argues that consolidating all youth soccer organizations under the umbrella of the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) would create a unified national talent database, eliminating the fragmented competition for paying players that currently plagues the system. Critics warn the plan would only consolidate power among existing governing bodies, but Gilbert counters that the current status quo leaves families with no alternative to the pay-to-play model: “And parents, God love all of us, we’re more than happy to write checks if we think it’s going to help our kids. The downside is, there isn’t another pathway. You have to go into that pay-or-play model.”

    Major League Soccer (MLS), which took over the country’s primary national development program as MLS Next in 2020 after the USSF shuttered its previous program amid COVID-19-related financial losses, is currently the closest thing to an official national talent pipeline. This fall, the league will serve roughly 53,000 players, but only a tiny fraction receive full subsidies for training, physical therapy, travel, and equipment. The top-tier homegrown division has more than 17,000 players, with just 3,000 playing for free in MLS club academies. While MLS has launched a grant program that compensates grassroots clubs for developing players who go on to join the top league, the fledgling system pales in comparison to the open talent ecosystems common in Argentina, Europe, and other South American soccer powerhouses.

    In those countries, a system of promotion and relegation across hundreds of pro and semi-pro leagues creates constant incentive for clubs to scout and develop undiscovered talent wherever it exists. Young players can earn a spot on a top team through performance alone, and transfer fees for top talent create a steady revenue stream that funds grassroots scouting and development. This system is far from perfect: Argentina’s top academies have faced decades of allegations of minor exploitation and sexual abuse, and constant high-stakes talent evaluation takes a heavy emotional toll on young players. But it also eliminates the financial barrier that locks talented low-income players out of elite development in the U.S.

    “If you’re not in that ecosystem, you might have a hard time understanding, ‘Well, how could what happens at the professional level have any impact on my son or daughter’s 12-year-old soccer team?’ But it has a huge impact. It’s just a very different bar to cross” than in America, explained Pennsylvania grassroots coach Rory O’Neill.

    USSF and MLS leaders are not calling for copying international models wholesale, however. USSF CEO JT Baston explained the federation’s current strategy: “Our strategy should not be to copy and paste what works in another country. It’s, how do we, in partnership with the pro clubs, design the right youth pathways here. It looks like the hub-and-spoke model where you’re leveraging the best of the professional clubs, leveraging the best of the rest of the ecosystem here and the national team program.”

    MLS leaders point to small wins that show the potential of improving the current system rather than replacing it. Brad Sims, CEO of MLS side NYCFC, shared the story of Seymour Reid, an 18-year-old Jamaican-born player from New York who was discovered playing pickup soccer five years ago, with no prior experience in an organized club. Reid has now signed a professional contract with NYCFC and was a finalist for the 2025 MLS Pathway Player of the Year. But Sims acknowledges that success stories like Reid’s are rare: “I wonder how many kids like that are playing around the country who don’t have the connections or don’t have the finances to play. But this is a bigger problem that’s not on MLS clubs or maybe even the MLS league to solve independently. I think U.S. Soccer obviously wants to figure that out as much as anybody.”

    Former U.S. men’s national team captain Michael Bradley, now head coach of MLS side New York Red Bulls, says the U.S. must build a model that fits its own unique sports culture rather than trying to mimic global powers. “We have our own soccer culture,” he said. “The way the game looks in this country, the way it feels, what we are as a soccer nation, is going to be different than other places, and that’s OK. We don’t need to pretend to be something that we’re not.”

    Even so, experts and families agree that overhauling the pay-to-play model and unifying the fragmented youth system will take decades. While incremental improvements to the current system can yield better results sooner, creating a sustainable pipeline of top-tier talent that can compete for World Cup titles will require long-term, structural change that addresses the core inequalities of the current American system.

  • France beats Japan 42-15 in Nations Championship rugby as Lucu tallies 15 points

    France beats Japan 42-15 in Nations Championship rugby as Lucu tallies 15 points

    In a decisive display of attacking rugby at Tokyo’s National Stadium on Saturday, the Six Nations champions France wrapped up a three-week summer tour with a 42-15 win over host Japan in the inaugural 12-team World Rugby Nations Championship. The result caps off a mixed but ultimately successful run for the French side, which opened the new tournament with a narrow 34-32 defeat to New Zealand’s All Blacks before bouncing back to beat Australia 42-26 in Brisbane a week prior to facing the Brave Blossoms.

    The opening half of the match proved far more competitive than the final scoreline suggests, with Japan matching France’s physical intensity across the pitch and keeping the game within one score going into the halftime break. France got off to a blistering start, taking the lead just two minutes in after hooker Maxime Lamothe crossed the line following a close-range lineout drive. Japan responded quickly, however: fullback Takuro Matsunaga slotted a penalty to cut the deficit, then sparked a blistering long-range counter-attack from his own 22-meter line that saw winger Kippei Ishida finish the move in the left corner, putting Japan up 8-5 by the 15th minute.

    France seized control of the match over the next 20 minutes, capitalizing on sustained forward pressure that earned Japan lock Harry Hockings a yellow card for repeated infringements. Fullback Matthieu Jalibert scored his first try of the night in the 19th minute, followed just four minutes later by a five-pointer from No. 8 Alexandre Roumat that extended France’s lead. Skipper and scrumhalf Maxime Lucu put the result out of immediate reach for Japan just before the half-hour mark, darting over the line after a strong, contact-breaking run from Lamothe to secure France’s fourth try and the all-important bonus competition point.

    Japan refused to wilt under pressure, though, and crossed for a second try four minutes before halftime to cut France’s lead to 28-15 going into the break, keeping their hopes of an upset alive.

    Those hopes faded quickly in the early stages of the second half, as France scored two quick tries to pull away out of sight. Jalibert notched his second try of the match in the 43rd minute, adjusting his running angle to take a short inside pass from Lucu and cross near the posts for an easy score. Lamothe followed suit eight minutes later, touching down after another sustained period of pressure from France’s powerful forward pack to push the score to 42-15.

    The final 20 minutes saw a shift in momentum after Jalibert was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle in the 58th minute. While Japan was unable to convert their one-man advantage into any points during the 10-minute power play, they successfully halted France’s scoring run. A late Japanese try was disallowed by officials in the 63rd minute, and the home side failed to put any more points on the board in the final half-hour of the hot, humid Tokyo evening.

    For Japan, the result leaves them with a 1-2 record after the first phase of the Nations Championship, having opened the tournament with a 27-10 win over Italy before dropping consecutive matches to Ireland and France.

  • Russian online retail warehouses hit by deadly Ukrainian strikes

    Russian online retail warehouses hit by deadly Ukrainian strikes

    A deadly wave of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting two logistics warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest e-commerce giant Wildberries has left eight people dead and 62 others injured, Russian regional officials confirmed this week, marking one of the most high-profile cross-border strikes on Russian commercial infrastructure in months.

    The deadliest incident unfolded in Tambov, a city located roughly 475 kilometers southeast of Moscow, where a nighttime drone strike killed seven workers on the night shift and left 25 people injured, seven of whom remain in critical condition. Evgeniy Pervyshov, governor of the Tambov region, wrote on Telegram that the attack was the “largest and most inhumane” strike the region has faced since the start of the full-scale invasion, noting that 28 incoming drones were intercepted and shot down before the strike. Most of the injuries reported were shrapnel wounds from the blast, he added.

    A second strike hit another Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal, a city in the Moscow Oblast, killing one more person and injuring 37, eight of whom are in serious condition. Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov added that 48 drones were shot down across the region overnight, and a separate falling drone debris hit a local Russian oil depot, causing what he called the incident with the “most serious consequences” of the overnight attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that Ukrainian forces had struck an oil facility alongside the logistics targets.

    Unverified footage circulating from the strike sites shows massive flames engulfing the large industrial warehouse buildings, with thick plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky over the facilities. Dozens of workers can be seen fleeing the burning structures to gather in adjacent parking lots, as emergency response teams including firefighters and local emergency services raced to contain the blaze and treat casualties. As of Thursday, response operations were still ongoing at both strike locations, with officials yet to release full details of structural damage to the facilities.

    In comments following the attacks, Zelensky framed the strikes as a targeted operation against Russian military supply chains, saying the hit facilities were “major logistics facilities” that had been used to store and move “sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment” for the Russian military. He added that the strikes were part of a broader set of operations that also hit military and infrastructure targets in the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and Russian-annexed Crimea. Zelensky emphasized the attacks were a direct retaliation for recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, which killed 14 people across Ukraine overnight Tuesday.

    Wildberries, often described as the Russian equivalent of Amazon, is the country’s dominant online retail platform. In 2026, the combined RWB Group — which merged Wildberries with domestic advertising firm Russ — was valued at roughly $12.6 billion by Forbes Russia. In a statement following the strikes, Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim called the incident a “terrible night” for both Russia and the company.

    The attack comes as Ukraine has significantly intensified its long-range drone campaign targeting Russian critical infrastructure over the past month, particularly focusing on the country’s energy and refining sector. Ukrainian officials claimed earlier this July that nearly 43% of Russia’s total oil refining capacity has been disabled as a result of these repeated strikes, a figure that the BBC has not been able to independently verify. Ukraine justifies targeting Russian energy facilities by noting that fossil fuel exports are the largest source of revenue for the Russian government, which relies on those funds to finance its full-scale invasion that launched in February 2022.

    Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare public acknowledgment that Ukrainian strikes had caused widespread domestic fuel shortages across Russia. In early July, he signed into law emergency legislation designed to boost domestic fuel supplies by restricting exports and increasing domestic production. Prior to the Wildberries strikes, the ongoing drone campaign had already created significant disruptions to Russian fuel distribution networks and driven up domestic fuel prices in many regions.