Global Pulse

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  • What to know about earthquake early warning systems

    What to know about earthquake early warning systems

    A string of significant seismic events stretching across three continents has put modern earthquake early warning (EEW) systems in the spotlight, demonstrating how mobile technology is buying vulnerable populations critical extra seconds to reach safety when shaking begins.

    Over a single week in early June, seismic activity triggered alerts for millions of people across North America, South America and Asia. The sequence opened with a moderate quake rocking parts of California, United States, and closed with two powerful back-to-back earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude striking northern Venezuela — one of the most intense seismic sequences to hit the South American nation in more than 100 years. The events came just weeks after a magnitude 6.5 quake near Mindanao in the Philippines claimed 37 lives. Even in nations without a national public EEW infrastructure, consumer mobile technology stepped in to deliver advance warnings to at-risk residents.

    Today, more than a dozen nations and territories operate formal public EEW programs, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), including the U.S., Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Romania, China, Italy and Taiwan. While Venezuela does not maintain a national system, many of its Android phone users still received advance warnings of the recent powerful quakes through Google’s crowdsourced Android Earthquake Alerts platform. For 39-year-old Caracas-based writer Pericles Sánchez, that advance notice meant enough time to get his entire family outside to safety before shaking reached his neighborhood. “It wasn’t until we were already outside that we started to feel it,” Sánchez said, adding his family’s home escaped structural damage.

    On the U.S. West Coast, the USGS runs a dedicated EEW platform called ShakeAlert for California, Oregon and Washington, which distributes alerts through multiple channels including the state-run MyShake mobile app. When the recent moderate quake hit California, more than 4 million users received advance alerts through the interconnected system, according to USGS scientist Robert de Groot.

    Though modern EEW technology is saving lives today, it remains a relatively new innovation that continues to evolve rapidly. The world’s first public EEW launched in Mexico in 1991, and the country now disseminates large quake alerts through broadcast networks, mobile apps and public alarm systems, alongside regular nationwide earthquake response drills to prepare residents. After the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 22,000 people and triggered the catastrophic Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown, Japan dramatically expanded its EEW infrastructure to include offshore monitoring. Its cutting-edge Seafloor Observation Network for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (S-Net) uses thousands of miles of undersea cables and sensors to monitor activity along the offshore subduction zone where destructive quakes often originate. The system, widely regarded as the most sophisticated in the world, has added an extra 20 seconds of warning time for most quakes and cut tsunami alert delivery times by as much as 20 minutes. California’s MyShake app, launched in 2019, has pushed out 6.8 million alerts for 194 separate seismic events to date, state data shows.

    All EEW systems operate on the same core scientific principle: earthquakes generate sequential waves that move at different speeds. Faster, lower-intensity P-waves arrive first, followed by far more dangerous, slower S-waves and finally the most destructive L-waves. Most traditional public systems use a network of ground-based seismometers to detect initial P-waves, rapidly process data to estimate the quake’s location and magnitude, and push alerts to at-risk regions before destructive shaking arrives. Alerts are distributed through multiple channels, including national Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) systems, dedicated mobile apps and regional public warning networks. Having overlapping distribution channels creates critical redundancy in case one system fails, de Groot explained. “It’s always good to have more than one way of getting alerts. It’s the reason why you carry a spare tire in your car or carry some small bills in your wallet because the ATM may not work,” he said.

    Google’s Android system uses a different crowdsourced model that leverages built-in accelerometer sensors already included in every Android device — the same sensors that rotate a phone’s screen when the device is turned. When multiple stationary phones in one region detect P-wave activity, the data is sent to Google’s central processing center, which confirms the seismic event and pushes alerts to nearby users. This model allows EEW coverage to extend to nations that lack the funding or infrastructure to build a traditional national seismometer network.

    Because alert signals travel at the speed of light — far faster than seismic waves move through the Earth’s crust — warning time correlates directly with distance from the quake’s epicenter. People closest to the epicenter typically get the shortest warning windows, sometimes only a few seconds or no warning at all before shaking begins, while people further away get more preparation time, almost always less than a minute. The level of detail included in alerts also varies by distribution channel: standard WEAs are limited to 90 characters broadcast directly from cell towers, while app-based alerts from platforms like MyShake or Google often include extra context such as the distance to the epicenter and estimated magnitude. All official alerts, regardless of format, include the universal safety instruction to “drop, cover, hold on.”

    This reporting was compiled from contributions by journalists across the U.S. and Mexico, with on-the-ground sourcing from Venezuela and California.

  • Venezuelans in the US rush to send aid to earthquake victims, but Caracas airport is closed

    Venezuelans in the US rush to send aid to earthquake victims, but Caracas airport is closed

    In the wake of two catastrophic back-to-back earthquakes that left at least 188 people dead and hundreds more injured across Venezuela, the large Venezuelan diaspora community across the United States has mobilized at speed to organize urgent donation drives to support relief efforts on the ground.

    The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude tremors, which struck Wednesday evening, rank among the most powerful seismic events to hit Venezuela in over 100 years. The quakes inflicted severe structural damage to Simon Bolivar International Airport, Venezuela’s primary air gateway located in the capital Caracas, a critical blow that threatens to slow the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to affected regions. Graphic imagery from the disaster zone shows dust-covered, bleeding injured civilians, children and animals being pulled from collapsed concrete rubble, while thousands of people remain unaccounted for — leaving relatives living in the U.S. desperate for updates on their loved ones.

    More than 770,000 Venezuelan-born people currently reside in the United States, with the largest concentration settled in Doral, a suburban city just outside Miami, Florida. Oscar Torres, a 28-year U.S. resident and sales manager based in Doral, has spent nearly a full day glued to a dedicated WhatsApp group connecting Venezuelan residents with their relatives abroad, tracking updates and coordinating donations.

    “Already this morning, I was looking at the Doral group and everybody’s pitching in — money, medicine, water. First, necessity items,” Torres explained. “They’re talking about making the first shipment as soon as possible.” Torres still has extended family living in Caracas and the hard-hit city of Valencia, where a number of his relatives suffered minor injuries while fleeing damaged buildings. “Their homes are destroyed and a few buildings have collapsed,” he said. “Thankfully, I don’t know anyone who passed away.” Local Doral officials and Venezuelan advocacy organizations have amplified calls for donations across social media and official press conferences, with Torres planning to contribute cash to the relief effort.

    Beyond Florida, other large Venezuelan communities in Texas have also sprung into action. In the Houston metropolitan area, where the western suburb of Katy has earned the nickname “Katyzuela” for its massive Venezuelan population, residents have leveraged Facebook groups and other social platforms to advertise local drop-off points for donations. The most urgent needs identified include first aid and medical supplies: gauze, bandages, antiseptic solutions, disposable gloves, face masks, syringes, thermometers and blood pressure monitors are all high priority for aid shipments.

    Daniel Arenas, a maritime industry consultant who relocated to Houston from Venezuela a decade ago, translated a Spanish donation call to English and shared it to his LinkedIn profile Thursday, urging a broader cross-section of the Houston community to contribute. “I came to this country ten years ago, built a life here, but my heart is still in Venezuela,” Arenas said. “It’s devastating what’s happening over there. They don’t have the resources to handle this.”

    Arenas shared that his wife spent hours anxiously waiting for news after her aunt, a Caracas high-rise resident, sent a panicked voice note moments after the quakes hit. “She was crying and screaming and saying she was in pain but not sure from where,” Arenas recounted. “She said she lost everything. She was desperate.” The family was later able to re-establish contact with her aunt, bringing an end to the hours-long period of uncertainty.

    The outpouring of organizing across U.S. Venezuelan communities comes as Venezuelan authorities assess the full scale of the disaster, with relief operations already facing logistical hurdles from damaged infrastructure.

  • Europe’s ‘punishing’ record-breaking heatwave shifts east

    Europe’s ‘punishing’ record-breaking heatwave shifts east

    After weeks of sweltering temperatures that shattered long-standing climate records across Southern and Western Europe, one of the most severe heatwaves the continent has seen in modern history is now shifting eastward. The punishing high temperatures have already left a widespread trail of disruption: wildfires have burned through thousands of hectares of forest and residential land across countries including Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, forcing tens of thousands of residents and tourists to evacuate their homes and vacation spots. Critical infrastructure has also been strained, with energy grids pushed to breaking point as demand for air conditioning spiked, and agricultural regions have reported devastating crop losses that are expected to drive up food prices across the bloc.

    Meteorologists confirm that the core of the heat dome, which parked itself over Western Europe for more than a week, is now migrating toward Central and Eastern European nations, including Poland, Romania, Hungary and the western parts of Russia. Forecasters are warning that temperatures in these regions could climb as high as 40 to 42 degrees Celsius in the coming days, bringing with it significant risks of heat-related illness, new wildfire outbreaks, and further strain on public services. Health officials across Eastern Europe have already issued heat-health warnings, urging vulnerable populations including the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun and stay hydrated.

    Climate scientists have repeatedly emphasized that this extreme heat event is consistent with long-term trends driven by anthropogenic climate change. Europe has warmed at more than twice the global average over the past century, making the continent increasingly susceptible to record-breaking heatwaves that are growing more frequent and more intense each decade. Public officials across the continent are now rushing to update climate adaptation and response plans, as communities grapple with the new reality of more frequent extreme weather events.

  • China-US youth pickleball tournament builds cross-cultural ties

    China-US youth pickleball tournament builds cross-cultural ties

    On Tuesday, a landmark people-to-people exchange event between China and the United States, the 2026 China-US Youth Pickleball Friendship Tournament, was officially held at the University of International Business and Economics in the Chinese capital, Beijing. The on-court competition brought together two distinct groups of young participants: student members of a study tour delegation originating from Iowa, the United States, and teenage athletes from Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School, located in North China’s Hebei Province.

    Organizers of the friendly competition note that the event was designed around a far more ambitious goal than simply crowning a winning team. By bringing young people from the two countries together through the fast-growing, accessible sport of pickleball, the tournament seeks to build a new, informal bridge for cross-cultural connection and dialogue. The initiative focuses on nurturing the next generation of advocates and informal ambassadors for lasting China-US friendship, with the ultimate aim of making a tangible, positive contribution to the long-term development of bilateral relations between the two nations.

  • Turkish journalism groups say independent outlets denied accreditation for a NATO summit in Ankara

    Turkish journalism groups say independent outlets denied accreditation for a NATO summit in Ankara

    As Turkey prepares to host a high-stakes NATO summit next week in its capital Ankara, a pair of controversies surrounding press freedom and civil liberties have emerged, drawing sharp criticism from domestic and international watchdog groups ahead of the gathering of 32 alliance leaders. On Thursday, Turkish journalism advocacy organizations confirmed that multiple independent and opposition-aligned Turkish media outlets have been officially denied press accreditation to cover the July 7-8 summit, a move that press freedom groups decry as a direct attack on core journalistic rights. The outlets locked out of the event include some of Turkey’s most prominent independent and critical voices: Halk TV, Sozcu TV, Cumhuriyet newspaper, online news platform T24, and ANKA, one of the country’s oldest independent news agencies. According to the Turkish Journalists’ Association, which released the findings alongside other cross-organization media solidarity collectives, none of the affected outlets or journalists received a formal explanation for the accreditation rejection, nor were they granted any avenue to appeal the decision. “Preventing certain media outlets from covering events of critical public importance undermines fundamental freedoms of information and independent reporting,” the association said in its official statement. The group also called on global bodies to back their stated democratic commitments by addressing the restriction. U.S. President Donald Trump is among the heads of state set to attend the summit, where alliance leaders are scheduled to debate ongoing collective defense spending commitments and work to project a unified front amid ongoing global security challenges. When reached for comment on the accreditation issue, a NATO spokesperson addressed the alliance’s process for host nation summits in a statement posted to the social platform X. Allison Hart, NATO’s spokesperson, noted that for summit gatherings held outside the alliance’s permanent Brussels headquarters, local accreditation decisions fall under the purview of the host country. Still, Hart emphasized the alliance’s priority: “We are in contact with Turkish authorities on accreditation for the NATO Summit in Ankara. It is very important for NATO that media can attend major events in person.” As of Thursday, Turkish government officials have not issued any public response to questions about the accreditation denials. The accreditation controversy comes amid broad security crackdowns in Ankara in the lead-up to the summit, which have also sparked condemnation from rights groups. Earlier this week, Ankara’s chief prosecutor’s office confirmed that Turkish security forces had detained more than 200 people ahead of the gathering, with officials saying the detainees are suspected of having ties to extremist organizations. But opposition parties and independent Turkish media reports have pushed back on that framing, noting that the detained cohort includes a sitting opposition politician, academic, working journalist, prominent LGBTQ+ activist, and multiple human rights lawyers. Opposition and advocacy groups have called for the immediate release of all detainees. Human Rights Watch became the latest major international body to criticize the pre-summit detentions on Thursday, urging NATO to hold host nation Turkey to basic democratic standards for the duration of the summit. “The misuse of terrorism laws to conduct mass arrests and silence people in the run-up to a NATO summit flies in the face of the founding values of the alliance,” said Benjamin Ward, the group’s deputy director for Europe and Central Asia. “The authorities should immediately release those detained, and NATO should insist that peaceful expression and assembly must be permitted around the summit.” In response to the criticism, Turkey’s government Communications Directorate defended the detentions in a Thursday statement, maintaining that all detainees “were assessed to have been involved in activities connected to various terrorist organizations.”

  • After Venezuela earthquakes, here are some of the deadliest in Latin America in the last century

    After Venezuela earthquakes, here are some of the deadliest in Latin America in the last century

    Two rare consecutive deadly earthquakes rocked Venezuela this Wednesday, leaving hundreds dead and injured across the affected region. The destructive doublet quake has drawn renewed attention to the severe seismic risk that has shaped the history of the Americas, prompting a retrospective look at the deadliest seismic events recorded across Central and South America over the past 100 years.

    In September 2017, Mexico faced an unprecedented seismic disaster when an 8.1 magnitude quake and a 7.1 magnitude aftershock struck within seven days, laying waste to large swathes of southern and central Mexico, including the capital Mexico City. The event claimed the lives of nearly 500 people and left thousands more displaced.

    Just one year earlier, on April 16, 2016, a 7.8 magnitude tremor hit Ecuador’s coastal provinces, leveling entire towns and killing more than 650 residents. In February 2010, central Chile was shaken by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake that shook the capital city for 90 straight seconds before triggering a devastating tsunami. The disaster resulted in 523 fatalities. Three years prior, in August 2007, an 8.0 magnitude quake off Peru’s central coast killed more than 500 people.

    One of the deadliest events in recent regional history unfolded in El Salvador across the first two months of 2001. A 7.7 magnitude offshore quake on January 13 was followed just a month later by a 6.6 magnitude aftershock. Combined with massive landslides triggered by the seismic activity, the back-to-back events killed more than 1,200 people. In January 1999, a 6.0 magnitude quake destroyed the Colombian city of Armenia, leaving roughly 1,170 people dead.

    In April 1991, a 7.4 magnitude quake killed more than 80 people across Costa Rica and neighboring Panama, leaving an estimated 30,000 residents cut off from critical food, clean water, and emergency medical supplies for days. In September 1985, an 8.1 magnitude quake hit central Mexico, killing an estimated 12,000 people; the true death toll has never been confirmed due to widespread reporting gaps in the aftermath of the disaster.

    Going further back, in February 1976, a 7.5 magnitude quake hit western Guatemala, killing more than 22,700 people. Four years earlier, in December 1972, a 6.2 magnitude quake struck Nicaragua, killing a minimum of 6,000 people, with unofficial estimates placing the death toll as high as 9,000. In May 1970, a 7.9 magnitude quake hit northern Peru, killing more than 66,000 people, making it one of the deadliest seismic events in the region’s modern history.

    The 1960 Great Chilean Earthquake, also known as the Valdivia Earthquake, remains the most powerful quake ever recorded in human history, registering a magnitude of 9.5. The disaster killed more than 1,655 people, many of whom lost their lives to the massive tsunami it triggered, and left more than 2 million people homeless. Nearly a decade earlier, in August 1949, a 6.8 magnitude quake in Ecuador killed roughly 5,050 people.

    In January 1939, an 8.3 magnitude quake hit the Chilean city of Chillan, killing approximately 28,000 people, with some estimates putting the death toll near 30,000. At the start of the 20th century, in January 1906, an 8.8 magnitude quake struck near Ecuador’s Esmeraldas, an event dubbed the Ecuador-Colombia earthquake. It generated a massive tsunami that killed roughly 1,500 people and traveled all the way north to the coast of San Francisco, California.

  • Women alleging rape and sexual assault in France call to abolish statute of limitations

    Women alleging rape and sexual assault in France call to abolish statute of limitations

    More than 50 women who have endured sexual assault or rape, whose cases have been blocked by France’s current legal time limits for pursuing criminal claims, have joined forces to demand sweeping reform of the country’s statute of limitations laws. The collective, calling themselves *Survivors’ Voices*, includes accusers of high-profile figures ranging from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his former business partner, modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, to late billionaire tycoon Mohammed Al Fayed. This marks the first time such a large group of survivors has come together publicly to push for legal change, drawing renewed attention to longstanding gaps in France’s justice system for sexual violence survivors.

    Under current French legislation, adult survivors of sexual assault and rape have just 20 years from the date of the incident to file a criminal report. For survivors who were minors at the time of the abuse, the limit is extended to 30 years from the date the crime occurred. Members of the collective argue that this arbitrary cutoff sends a devastating message that their trauma and claims are less valid simply because more time has passed since the abuse took place. “Rape doesn’t expire, trauma doesn’t expire,” said Thysia Husiman, who alleges she was raped by Jean-Luc Brunel in Paris when she was 18 years old. Brunel, who was awaiting trial on charges of raping and trafficking minors, died by suicide in his Paris prison cell in 2022.

    One of the most high-profile members of the collective is Lisa Brinkworth, a former BBC producer who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Elite Model Management head Gérald Marie while working undercover in 1998 to expose abuse in the global fashion industry. As part of a BBC *Donal McIntyre Investigates* documentary, Brinkworth posed as a model to infiltrate the agency, but she says BBC leadership pressured her to stay silent about the assault immediately after it happened, fearing the incident would derail the high-budget, high-profile production. She adds that senior BBC staff withheld key evidence from her when she attempted to move forward with a claim, and she did not formally file a report with French police until 2023 years after the alleged incident.

    Brinkworth’s case against Marie was ultimately dismissed by French courts after two appeals, including a hearing before France’s highest judicial body, because it fell outside the 20-year statute of limitations. Now, she is taking her fight to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the current French law violates her right to access justice. Brinkworth also alleges that the BBC continues to block her efforts by refusing to hand over raw footage from the 1998 documentary, which she says contains her firsthand account of the assault recorded just minutes after it occurred. After the documentary aired in 1999, Elite Model Management sued the BBC for misrepresentation, and the two parties reached a confidential settlement that Brinkworth says the BBC has used to silence her about the assault for decades. She claims network representatives repeatedly told her she was legally barred from speaking publicly about any part of the production, including her own experience of abuse.

    In a statement responding to the allegations, a lawyer for Gérald Marie noted that previous investigations into the claims against his client in France have been closed without further action. A BBC spokesperson pushed back on Brinkworth’s claims of obstruction, saying: “As we’ve always made clear, we take these matters very seriously and we know the situation is distressing for Lisa Brinkworth. The BBC is not trying to silence Ms Brinkworth; she is free to speak about the BBC investigation and her experiences, and has done so. We have already provided material to the French authorities to help Ms Brinkworth pursue the matter and investigators have assured us they have what they currently need from the BBC. We have also provided material to Ms Brinkworth directly. We will continue to do whatever we can to assist with the process.”

    The collective’s call for reform comes amid a growing global reckoning with sexual violence, particularly in high-power industries like modeling, entertainment, and finance. Both Epstein and Brunel have died, leaving many of their accusers without any path to criminal justice, and survivors say changing the statute of limitations is a critical step toward holding perpetrators accountable and honoring the harm that survivors carry permanently.

  • MP urges UK government to take action on English football ties to Israeli occupation

    MP urges UK government to take action on English football ties to Israeli occupation

    A cross-party independent British Member of Parliament, Iqbal Mohamed, has launched a formal call for urgent government intervention to cut ties between English football and corporations accused of complicity in Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid policies, and reported war crimes against the Palestinian people.

    In an official letter addressed to UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy dated Wednesday, and shared publicly via his social media channels on June 24 2026, Mohamed laid out his case that top-flight English football is being used to ‘sportswash’ grave human rights violations against Palestinians. He argued that the English Premier League (EPL), its 20 member clubs, and the Football Association (FA) — the governing body of English football — have no business maintaining commercial partnerships with firms linked to documented abuses of Palestinian human rights.

    Mohaved’s appeal draws heavily on a new investigative report released by UK-based pro-Palestinian campaign group War on Want, titled *Red Card: English Premier League Sportswashing of Israel’s Atrocities against the Palestinians*. According to the MP, the investigation identifies 16 major sponsoring companies that the United Nations and other leading international authoritative bodies have linked to complicity in Israeli violations. The named firms include global brands Alphabet/Google, AXA, BP, Canon, Carlsberg, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Expedia/Hotels.com, Eurobank, Evelyn Partners, HPE, HSBC, Meta, Oracle, Sony, and Standard Chartered.

    The report further finds that at least 10 top-flight clubs — Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur — maintain direct sponsorship deals with one or more of these companies. Five clubs — Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, and Manchester United — were named as the most deeply connected to firms that facilitate Israeli atrocities, while Arsenal, Fulham, both Manchester clubs and Newcastle United were also flagged for potential implication through the activities of their majority owners.

    Mohamed also noted that every EPL club receives indirect backing from Barclays, the league’s headline sponsor. While Barclays ended its practice of underwriting Israeli wartime bonds in 2024, other major sponsors maintain active operations in occupied territories. Coca-Cola, for example, holds subsidiaries and licensing agreements in Israel that operate facilities including agricultural vineyards in occupied East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, all territories held by Israel in violation of international law.

    “I am very concerned that our country’s great football institutions are sportswashing Israel’s atrocities,” Mohamed wrote in the letter. He added: “Our beautiful game must not be used to sportswash such grave injustice. I ask that you ensure that the EPL must not be a profitable safe haven for companies complicit in atrocities.”

    Mohamed is calling on Nandy to facilitate coordinated action between the UK government, the EPL, the FA, individual clubs, and other relevant stakeholders to end all sponsorship and advertising partnerships with linked companies as rapidly as possible. He also urged the government to enforce a policy that ensures no UK entity, public or private, provides material aid or assistance to Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime.

    Beyond commercial ties, the War on Want report also documents alleged restrictions on pro-Palestinian expression within top English football. It found that four EPL clubs — Arsenal, Brighton, Burnley and Everton — have disciplined pro-Palestinian staff and supporters in ways that may violate the right to freedom of expression and constitute unlawful discrimination.

    One high-profile case highlighted in the report is that of Mark Bonnick, an Arsenal kitman with 22 years of service at the club. Bonnick posted online criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and following what the report describes as a coordinated smear campaign led by politically motivated individuals who falsely accused him of antisemitism, he was abruptly terminated from his role on Christmas Eve 2024.

    Following an internal investigation by the FA, no misconduct was found. Arsenal’s own internal review also confirmed there was no evidence of antisemitism, a conclusion backed by independent Jewish anti-racism campaigners. Despite this, Arsenal dismissed Bonnick on the grounds that his social media activity had brought the club “into disrepute”.

    War on Want said of the case: “Arsenal appears to have prioritised seemingly prejudiced and racist views of those who targeted him online rather than its staff’s livelihood, wellbeing and rights – including the right to freedom of expression in support of people suffering genocide, illegal occupation and apartheid.”

    As of publication, no response has been issued from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Culture Secretary’s office, the EPL, the FA, or any of the named clubs or companies in response to Mohamed’s request.

  • Infantino’s Middle East playbook: How Fifa boss uses geopolitics on the World Cup stage

    Infantino’s Middle East playbook: How Fifa boss uses geopolitics on the World Cup stage

    As the 2026 expanded-format FIFA World Cup kicks off across the United States, Mexico and Canada, 48 national teams are competing across 104 matches to claim football’s most coveted global trophy. At the helm of this six-week sporting spectacle is Gianni Infantino, the Swiss-Italian president of FIFA, who oversees a multi-billion-dollar commercial and athletic empire second only to the Olympic Movement in global reach.

    For years, Infantino has publicly maintained that “politics should stay out of football and football should stay out of politics” — but this mantra has repeatedly collided with reality, nowhere more dramatically than across the Middle East, a region that has shaped Infantino’s tenure and drawn constant criticism of his leadership since he took over as FIFA president in 2016, replacing disgraced former chief Sepp Blatter.

    Infantino’s ties to the Middle East are personal as well as professional: his wife Leena al-Ashqar is Lebanese, and he was granted Lebanese citizenship by former President Joseph Aoun in early 2025. As the 2026 World Cup enters its knockout phase, a deep dive into his actions across the region reveals just how deeply intertwined politics and FIFA leadership have become during his tenure.

    The intersection of U.S. politics and FIFA’s operations came into sharp focus early in Infantino’s presidency. In early 2017, then-U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a travel ban targeting six Muslim-majority nations — Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — a restriction that was later expanded to cover 75 countries during Trump’s second term. By March of that year, Infantino acknowledged the ban could disqualify the U.S. from hosting future World Cups, noting: “Teams who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup.” He framed the comment as a general sporting rule rather than a direct rebuke of the Trump administration, a carefully calibrated statement that came just one month before the U.S. officially launched its joint 2026 bid alongside Mexico and Canada, which was awarded to the three nations in June 2018.

    Eight years later, those travel restrictions have created tangible disruptions for the 2026 tournament itself. Iran, whose national side is playing its group stage matches in Los Angeles despite ongoing U.S.-Israeli military action against Iran that has killed thousands of Iranians, has been barred from bringing Iranian fans into the U.S. Iranian head coach Amir Ghalenoei has publicly lashed out at Infantino and FIFA over the unequal treatment, calling his team “the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup.” Ghalenoei revealed that after Iran’s opening match, Infantino visited the squad’s dressing room to inform them they had to leave the U.S. immediately for their training camp in Mexico, adding: “It seems others are doing the planning for us.”

    Other Muslim-majority nations have faced similar entry issues: FIFA-appointed Somali referee Omar Artan was blocked from entering the U.S. over unproven Trump administration claims of ties to suspected terrorist groups. While FIFA ultimately paid Artan his full tournament fee, and UEFA later awarded him a 2026 UEFA Super Cup officiating assignment between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa, the incident highlighted the impact of U.S. policy on the tournament. Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein was detained and questioned for seven hours upon entry to the U.S. before being granted access — and went on to score in Iraq’s opening World Cup match against Norway.

    Critics have repeatedly accused Infantino of currying favor with Trump, a pattern that has played out across the Middle East. In May 2025, multiple FIFA member state delegates staged a walkout of the organization’s annual congress in Paraguay after Infantino arrived hours late, delaying the entire agenda. The delay came after Infantino traveled with Trump on a trip to meet with leaders in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The incident sparked a public rebuke from UEFA, which accused Infantino of prioritizing “private political interests” over the governance of the sport. Infantino blamed the delay on flight issues, claiming “important discussions took place in regard to the World Cup, and I felt that I needed to be there to represent football and all of you.”

    Trump, who has publicly sought a Nobel Peace Prize, was awarded the first ever “FIFA Peace Prize” by Infantino during the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington D.C. in December 2025. Infantino praised Trump for “exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world,” telling the U.S. president “You can always count on my support.” Infantino also attended Trump’s second presidential inauguration in January 2025 and the premiere of a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, and FIFA maintains a leased office space in New York’s Trump Tower.

    Questions of FIFA’s close ties to Middle Eastern nations with questionable human rights records date back to the 2022 Qatar World Cup, awarded to Qatar in 2010, six years before Infantino took office. The run-up to the first Middle Eastern World Cup was dominated by accusations of sportswashing, driven by reports of widespread migrant worker abuses that killed more than 6,500 migrant workers between 2010 and 2021, many of whom worked on World Cup infrastructure. Critics also raised alarms over extreme summer temperatures, which led organizers to move the tournament to the winter months.

    Facing mounting global criticism, Infantino delivered a controversial 57-minute speech on the eve of the 2022 tournament, declaring: “Today I have very strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel like a migrant worker.” He pushed back against critics, arguing that migrant workers earned higher wages in Qatar than they would in their home countries and claiming labor rights standards matched those of Western Europe. The comments drew fierce condemnation from global human rights groups including Amnesty International, which accused Infantino of ignoring the massive human cost of the tournament and FIFA’s own responsibility for the abuses. Qatari officials dismissed the allegations as racist double standards, but human rights organizations rejected that defense.

    Infantino’s actions around the awarding of future World Cup tournaments have also drawn scrutiny over political maneuvering in the Middle East. The 2030 tournament, marking the centenary of the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930, attracted multiple competing bids: a sentimental joint bid from South American nations Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay; a European bid from Spain and Portugal that at one point included Ukraine; and a standalone bid from Morocco, which had unsuccessfully bid for the tournament six times previously. Morocco had emerged as a rising football power, reaching the 2022 World Cup semi-finals as the first African nation ever to do so, and winning the 2026 Africa Cup of Nations in a controversial final.

    By late 2024, technical evaluations ranked the joint Morocco-Spain-Portugal bid ahead of other contenders, and in December 2024, an extraordinary online FIFA Congress confirmed Morocco would co-host the 2030 tournament alongside Spain and Portugal, with three ceremonial centenary matches held in South America. But leaked internal messages revealed Infantino had floated the idea of Morocco joining the Spanish-Portuguese bid as early as 2018, contradicting FIFA’s official position that it remained neutral throughout the bidding process. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez acknowledged in a message to then-Spanish FA president Luis Rubiales that both Rubiales and Infantino had proposed the idea to him, with Rubiales noting that FIFA’s neutrality meant the coordination should not be made public. FIFA has repeatedly denied Infantino played any role in bid negotiations. While the decision was praised by many for bringing the World Cup to Africa for only the second time after 2010’s South Africa tournament, critics have raised ongoing concerns about Morocco’s human rights record and its occupation of Western Sahara.

    The 2034 World Cup awarding process drew even sharper criticism, when Saudi Arabia was awarded the tournament as the only eligible bidder. Under FIFA’s continental rotation rules, only Asian and Oceanian confederations were eligible to host 2034, after North America hosted 2026 and Europe/Africa/South America co-host 2030. FIFA opened bidding for 2034 with no advance warning in October 2023, setting a tight 25-day deadline. Saudi Arabia immediately announced its bid, part of the kingdom’s broader strategy to rebrand its global image through major sporting investments, and Australia — the only other potential contender — withdrew before the deadline. FIFA pushed delegates to approve both the 2030 and 2034 hosts as a single package, meaning rejecting one would eliminate both. After a brief round of applause, Infantino declared the result “loud and clear” and approved both bids. Infantino argued the World Cup would act as a “catalyst for social improvements and social change” in Saudi Arabia, but a joint statement from 21 leading human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned the decision as “a moment of great danger” for global human rights.

    Infantino’s tenure has also brought tangible changes for football across the Middle East. In 2018, he lifted a 32-year ban on Iraq hosting competitive international matches, imposed in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq War that forced Iraq to play all home World Cup qualifiers abroad. Iraq has since hosted qualifiers in Basra and Karbala for the 2022 and 2026 tournaments, and qualified for the 2026 World Cup — its first appearance at the finals since 1986.

    In Iran, where women were largely barred from attending football matches after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Infantino took a public stand after the 2019 death of Sahar Khodayari, an Iranian woman who died by self-immolation after being arrested for attempting to enter a stadium disguised as a man. FIFA set a firm deadline for Iran to lift the ban, with Infantino stating: “Our position is clear and firm. Women have to be allowed into football stadiums in Iran.” The Iranian government has since allowed a limited number of women to attend selected matches at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, though full access remains restricted with small, limited ticket allocations for women.

    Infantino’s most controversial actions in the region center on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where he has faced criticism from all sides. He has attempted to use football as a tool for diplomacy, suggesting during a 2021 visit to Israel that Israel could co-host a future World Cup alongside the United Arab Emirates, noting “nothing is impossible. We need to think big.” The comment came months after the 2020 Abraham Accords, brokered by Trump, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, and the first UAE club side played in Israel the following year.

    Following the 2023 outbreak of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, global calls grew for Israel to be suspended from international football, mirroring the 2022 ban on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. In early 2026, Infantino called for Russia’s reinstatement to international competition and argued any ban on Israel would be a “defeat.” Months later, FIFA announced it would not sanction the Israeli Football Association for allowing Israeli clubs to play matches in the occupied West Bank, claiming “the final legal status of the West Bank remains an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law.” Instead, FIFA offered to mediate between the Palestinian and Israeli FAs, a decision that prompted the Palestinian FA to file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. FIFA did fine the Israeli FA $185,000 for failing to address repeated incidents of racist and discriminatory abuse by fans of two top Israeli clubs.

    In early 2026, FIFA signed a strategic partnership with Trump’s Board of Peace, a body created to administer post-conflict Gaza that includes no Palestinian representatives. Infantino framed the deal as an effort to “foster investment into football for the purpose of helping the recovery process in post-conflict areas.” Months later, at the 2026 annual FIFA congress, Infantino attempted to orchestrate a public handshake between Palestinian FA president Jibril Rajoub and Israeli FA vice president Basim Sheikh Suliman. Rajoub refused the handshake, exclaiming “We are suffering!” as he left the stage. Susan Shalabi, vice president of the Palestinian FA, later explained that Rajoub told Infantino he “cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and genocide.”

    Despite the public rejection, Infantino has pushed forward with plans for a symbolic under-15 youth “peace match” between Israeli and Palestinian teams scheduled for September 2026 in the U.S., according to reporting from The Athletic that has not been confirmed by FIFA. The idea was first proposed by Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter in 2015, but never moved forward after it was rejected by the Palestinian FA, despite support from then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian FA has stated it has no knowledge of the new plans and “rejects any attempt to promote or impose matches with an occupying power that systematically targets Palestinian athletes and sports infrastructure.” The Israeli FA has said it remains willing to use football as a tool to promote normalization and peace in the region.

    As Infantino prepares to run for a fourth term as FIFA president at the organization’s upcoming 2027 congress in Rabat, Morocco, the ongoing tensions between his stated goal of keeping politics out of football and the deep political entanglements of his tenure remain the defining story of his leadership of global football’s governing body.

  • Billionaire who owns Camden Market ‘finances’ Israeli military programmes

    Billionaire who owns Camden Market ‘finances’ Israeli military programmes

    A new investigative report from independent media outlet Novara Media has uncovered a direct connection between three popular UK-based online competition platforms and an Israeli billionaire with a long history of donating to the Israeli military, as a United Nations inquiry recently confirmed Israel’s commission of genocide in Gaza.

    At the center of the revelation is Teddy Sagi, the $7.1 billion billionaire (per Forbes 2024 estimates) who already holds high-profile UK assets including London’s iconic tourist destination Camden Market. Sagi controls a 69.5% majority stake in Winvia Entertainment Group, the British operator behind three of the most visited online prize draw websites in the country: Rev Comps, Best of the Better (BOTB), and Click Competitions.

    Novara’s investigation finds that hundreds of thousands of British consumers enter these platforms every month, paying entry fees in the hopes of winning high-value prizes ranging from luxury sports cars and residential properties to high-end watches and the latest consumer electronics. BOTB alone claims a track record of more than 500,000 unique winners and has disbursed over £147 million in total prizes to date, drawing consistent consumer engagement across the UK.

    Beyond his ownership of the prize draw group, Sagi holds a sprawling global business empire that includes gambling software giant Playtech, British-Israeli cybersecurity firm Kape Technologies, and a portfolio of major VPN services counting ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and ZenMate among its holdings.

    What has drawn renewed scrutiny in light of the crisis in Gaza, however, is Sagi’s longstanding pattern of financial contributions to the Israeli military. According to Novara’s reporting, as recently as November 2023 – weeks after Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began, when the Palestinian death toll already topped 15,000 – Sagi donated 1 million Israeli shekels (equivalent to roughly $340,000) to fund homebound taxi transport for Israeli soldiers on leave from frontline positions.

    That donation is just one in a series of contributions dating back years. Before the 2023 campaign, Sagi gave more than $3 million to an Israeli Ministry of Defense scholarship program for discharged soldiers. During a 2019 industry gala, he also publicly committed to offering employment at his global companies for active Israeli troops. Sagi is no stranger to controversy either: he was named in the 2021 Pandora Papers leak, which linked him to no fewer than 60 companies registered in secretive offshore tax havens. In 1996, he also served five months in an Israeli prison following conviction on fraud and bribery charges.

    The revelations come just as a United Nations Commission of Inquiry released a long-awa report confirming that Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza through the deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians, particularly children. Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar confirmed to reporters that since the launch of Israel’s campaign on October 7, 2023, more than 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed, and an additional 44,000 have been injured. Even after an agreed ceasefire in 2025, Muralidhar noted, children continue to face harm, with Israel disregarding both ceasefire terms and its obligation to protect Palestinian civilians under international law. Overall, the total Palestinian death toll from the campaign has surpassed 73,000, with more than 170,000 people injured, according to the commission’s data.

    Novara Media reached out to Winvia Entertainment Group for comment on the connections to Sagi and his donations to the Israeli military, but no response has been made public. This reporting was aggregated and contextualized by independent global outlet Middle East Eye, which specializes in on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East and North Africa region.