Global Pulse

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  • Who is the African World Cup goalscorer older than Ronaldo and Messi?

    Who is the African World Cup goalscorer older than Ronaldo and Messi?

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup unfolds, modern football legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi continue to add new chapters to their already unparalleled legacies, breaking countless tournament records along the way. Yet one iconic all-time record still remains out of their reach, held decades ago by Cameroonian football great Roger Milla.

    Ronaldo made history when he netted the opening goal in Portugal’s second group-stage clash against Uzbekistan, becoming the second-oldest goalscorer in the 96-year history of the men’s FIFA World Cup. Scoring at 41 years and 138 days, the Portuguese superstar edged Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who turned 39 just two days before his 2026 tournament goal, down from third to fourth place on the exclusive list of the tournament’s oldest goalscorers. Messi scored against Austria at 38 years and 363 days, still far ahead of other veterans but short of both Milla and Ronaldo’s benchmarks.

    At the very top of the ranking remains Roger Milla, whose record has stood for more than 30 years. Milla, who made his first World Cup appearance at the 1982 Spain finals, catapulted to global fame at Italia 1990, when he scored four goals to lead the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon to the quarter-finals — the first African men’s team ever to reach that stage of the World Cup. His iconic corner flag celebration dance became a global football trademark, cementing his status as a trailblazer for African football.

    Four years later, at the 1994 World Cup hosted by the United States, Milla extended his historic record. He found the back of the net against Russia from 8 yards out at 42 years and 39 days, a mark that has never been beaten in the three decades since. Even with his landmark 2026 goal, Ronaldo still sits more than 200 days younger than Milla’s record, leaving the Cameroonian icon’s place at the top untouched for now.

    The 2026 tournament has already seen a wave of veteran players climb the rankings, with several stars still in contention to overtake Messi’s current fourth place. Bosnia-Herzegovina striker Edin Dzeko and Croatian midfield maestro Luka Modric are both 40 years old, and either would jump above Messi with a single goal in the remaining matches. Japan centre-back Yuto Nagamoto is nine months older than Messi, though he has yet to make an appearance at this year’s tournament. Even a handful of veteran goalkeepers are older than Messi, including Germany’s Manuel Neuer, Cape Verde’s Vozinha and Uruguay’s Fernando Muslera. However, no goalkeeper has ever scored in the 22 editions of the World Cup held since the inaugural tournament in 1930, making a breakthrough from that group highly unlikely.

    Austria’s 37-year-old Marko Arnautovic has already secured his spot in the top 10, thanks to a late match-winning penalty against Jordan in the group stage. His strike at 37 years and 58 days puts him eighth on the all-time list.

    For now, Milla’s long-standing record looks likely to remain intact for the foreseeable future. The only chance it could fall in the coming years would be if Ronaldo or Messi choose to extend their careers all the way to the 2030 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by their home nations of Portugal and Argentina, alongside Morocco and Spain. Given the two superstars’ relentless dedication to the game few would count them out from making one more run at history.

    The full top 10 list of the oldest goalscorers in FIFA World Cup history is as follows:
    1. Roger Milla (Cameroon): 42 years 39 days, vs Russia, 28 June 1994
    2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal): 41 years 138 days, vs Uzbekistan, 23 June 2026
    3. Pepe (Portugal): 39 years 283 days, vs Switzerland, 6 December 2022
    4. Lionel Messi (Argentina): 38 years 363 days, vs Austria, 22 June 2026
    5. Gunnar Gren (Sweden): 37 years 236 days, vs Germany, 24 June 1958
    6. Cuauhtemoc Blanco (Mexico): 37 years 151 days, vs France, 17 June 2010
    7. Felipe Baloy (Panama): 37 years 120 days, vs England, 24 June 2018
    8. Marko Arnautovic (Austria): 37 years 58 days, vs Jordan, 17 June 2026
    9. Obdulio Varela (Uruguay): 36 years 279 days, vs England, 26 June 1954
    10. Martin Palermo (Argentina): 36 years 227 days, vs Greece, 22 June 2010

  • Banned swimmer’s daughters to realise family’s Commonwealth Games dream

    Banned swimmer’s daughters to realise family’s Commonwealth Games dream

    Forty years after political upheaval stole her chance at a Commonwealth Games gold medal, Annette Cowley Nel is set to watch her twin daughters step onto the very Scottish stage she was never allowed to compete on, closing one of sport’s most emotional chapters of generational healing.

    In 1986, Edinburgh played host to the Commonwealth Games that would become far more remembered for political protest than sporting glory. Thirty-two nations across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean boycotted the event to oppose then-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to impose economic sanctions on South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime, which enforced state-led racial segregation and barred South African athletes from most international competition.

    Then 19-year-old Annette Cowley, a South African native who qualified to compete for England through her mother’s heritage, was already a British champion and one of the clear favorites to take gold in the 100m freestyle. A rising talent who split her time studying in Texas, U.S. and racing across the U.K. in the summer, she had done everything required to earn her spot at the Games. But as the boycott pushed the event to the brink of financial collapse, and media tycoon Robert Maxwell stepped in with controversial backing to rescue the competition, pressure mounted on organizers to appease protesting nations.

    In a move widely seen as a political concession, officials banned Cowley and fellow white South African athlete Zola Budd from competing, citing technical residency rule violations despite Cowley being a legal British citizen. On the eve of her race, police escorted her out of the athletes’ village, and her lifelong dream of a Commonwealth Games medal ended before it began. She watched from the stands as Canadian Jane Kerr won gold with a time slower than Cowley had posted in qualifying. The disappointment left her disillusioned with competitive swimming; when apartheid ended and she sought selection for South Africa at the 1992 Olympics, she was passed over because of her prior representation of England.

    Looking back on the era, Cowley Nel calls apartheid a “terrible time” for South Africa, and says she personally supported equality for all. While she acknowledges the enormous positive progress the country has made in the decades since apartheid fell, she still expresses frustration that all South African athletes of the era were lumped together and punished regardless of their individual beliefs. That youthful hardship, though, shaped her resilience: “I had a lot to deal with at a young age, and that stood me in good stead for life,” she said.

    Now, four decades on, the 2026 Commonwealth Games return to Scotland, this time hosted in Glasgow. When the Games open next month, they will fall on the 24th birthday of twins Georgia and Olivia Nel, Cowley Nel’s daughters, who have both been named to South Africa’s official swimming team. For the Nel family, the moment is a full-circle emotional reckoning decades in the making.

    Olivia, who already has 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games experience under her belt, says the family history adds extra meaning to the moment. “I do it for myself, I do it for my family, but having that history really makes me so much more inclined to want to do it and represent my country and to do well,” she said, noting that holding the Games in Scotland makes the moment “quite special.”

    For Georgia, it will be her first appearance at the Commonwealth Games. She called the opportunity to compete alongside her sister, and step into the spot their mother was forced to leave empty, “a really unique opportunity.” “I’m very grateful not only to represent South Africa, but to represent her at these Commonwealth Games,” she said, adding that she often gets emotional thinking about her mother’s hard work cut short by politics.

    The sisters could even share the pool together, with a strong chance both will compete in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Annette Cowley Nel and her husband Jeremy will be in the Glasgow stands to watch, and she says the moment is beyond anything she could have imagined four decades ago. “It is incredibly special that they have both made the Commonwealth Games,” she said. “It will be quite an emotional moment.”

  • Palace in the Mist: The inside story of the 1908 Young Turk revolution

    Palace in the Mist: The inside story of the 1908 Young Turk revolution

    For history enthusiasts and casual readers alike, few experiences match the excitement of gaining exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the hidden inner workings of one of humanity’s most influential imperial dynasties. That rare opportunity has arrived with the July 3 release of *Palace in the Mist*, a new work by Ayse Osmanoglu — a professional writer, and a direct member of the House of Osman, the ruling family of the Ottoman Empire.

    Osmanoglu, who currently resides in England, carries unmatched ancestral context for this project: she is a direct descendant of two Ottoman sultans, Murad V and Mehmed Resad, and her grandfather was an imperial prince forced into exile from Istanbul in 1924, when Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk formally abolished the Ottoman caliphate. This unique lineage puts her in an unparalleled position to chronicle the final, turbulent era of the Ottoman Empire.

    Set against the transformative upheaval of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, *Palace in the Mist* tells the deeply personal story of Osmanoglu’s own ancestors within the imperial palaces of Istanbul. The work occupies a rare middle ground between narrative fiction and rigorous academic history: every central figure in the book is a real historical person, and Osmanoglu went to extraordinary lengths to ensure all portrayals adhere strictly to the historical record. While this commitment to avoiding unsubstantiated embellishment occasionally leaves supporting characters feeling less developed than they might be in a conventional novel, critics note this small trade-off is more than justified by the book’s extraordinary accuracy and authentic voice.

    Osmanoglu draws on one-of-a-kind source material that no outside scholar could easily access: obscure contemporary memoirs written by people who lived through the era, plus oral histories of the imperial family passed down directly to her through generations. In the book’s opening, she explains that during her childhood, her paternal grandparents and great-aunts and uncles shared countless stories of the dynasty’s final decades, and she committed these intimate anecdotes to memory to preserve them for future readers. “They gave me a precious insight into what life was like for the people who lived in the Ottoman palaces at the turn of the 20th century,” she writes.

    To ground the narrative, Osmanoglu begins by recapping the decades of political tension that led to the revolution: In 1876, a reformist faction called the Young Ottomans launched a coup against Sultan Abdulaziz, deposing him and installing his liberal nephew Prince Murad — Osmanoglu’s direct ancestor — as the new sultan. Plagued by paranoia that others would accuse him of conspiring against Abdulaziz, Murad suffered a severe nervous breakdown, was deemed unfit to rule, and was replaced by his younger brother, who took the throne as Sultan Abdulhamid II in September 1876.

    Though Abdulhamid initially accepted a constitution and established a parliament, he soon grew authoritarian, dissolved the legislative body, arrested political dissenters, and even imprisoned members of his own family who he saw as threats. That included Murad and his son Prince Mehmed Selahaddin, who were confined to the so-called “gilded cage” of Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace for 28 years.

    *Palace in the Mist* picks up its narrative in the final years of Abdulhamid’s iron-fisted rule, with Osmanoglu reconstructing this history through vivid prose and meticulous attention to sensory detail. She paints a clear portrait of the sultan, noting his “crisp white linen shirt and navy-blue trousers” and the gold buttons of his custom jacket, and captures his growing paranoia in a small, revealing moment: “The world moves against me,” he whispers, waving a pistol through an empty room.

    Betrayal and popular revolt stand as the book’s central themes. Young Turk revolutionaries, including key protagonist Captain Hafiz Ismail Hakki, grapple with the moral weight of betraying the sitting sultan to build a democratic constitutional monarchy. Political intrigue permeates every chapter, seen in one iconic scene where masked rebels gather around a table holding “the Qu’ran and the revolver, gleaming ominously in the golden light.”

    Beyond high politics, Osmanoglu devotes significant attention to the often-overlooked private lives of women in the Ottoman imperial family, many of whom lived in forced confinement. Readers meet Princess Rukiye, Murad’s granddaughter, who secretly reads the Sherlock Holmes novels that Arthur Conan Doyle gifted to Abdulhamid, and the tragic Princess Hadice, Murad’s daughter, whose illicit romantic correspondence with a young officer named Kemaleddin Pasha leads to her public disgrace and his exile; when he finally returns to Istanbul decades later, she refuses to meet him.

    Osmanoglu also brings the opulence of late imperial palace life to life, describing glittering parties held under high ceilings where “chandeliers dripped with countless crystals.” In this rarefied, privileged world, “the scent of oud and musk clung to the tailored frock coats” of princes and politicians sipping sherbet and “cardamom-scented coffee,” all to the accompaniment of the “soft melodies of the Imperial orchestra.”

    The book’s turning point arrives in July 1908, when Young Turk forces compel Abdulhamid to reinstate the 1876 constitution and reconvene parliament. At the most critical moment, the empire’s highest religious authority, the sheikh-ul-islam, sides with the revolutionaries. When asked to issue a religious ruling declaring the insurgency illegal, he tells a stunned Abdulhamid that “the Constitution accords with Sharia… To refuse it would be to defy Divine law.” With that ruling, the sultan’s absolute power is broken, and parliament gains the authority to hold the monarchy accountable.

    The political shift frees Murad’s imprisoned family from their long confinement, but the new era of reform proves short-lived. Osmanoglu introduces readers to Ali Kemal, a liberal journalist and ancestor of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who declares boldly, “They may silence a man, but never an idea. If ink is treason, let the gallows be our pressroom.”

    Many leading Young Turks, however, favored a centralized, bureaucratic state over the decentralized model reformers had initially promised. Prince Sabahaddin, the revolutionary son of Abdulhamid’s sister, argued unsuccessfully that “it is essential that the provinces be given autonomy if the Empire is to survive,” and lost the internal debate. Ultimately, the revolution is betrayed from all sides: an uprising led by disgruntled soldiers and madrasa students erupts, the Young Turk leadership consolidates power into a new authoritarian regime and crushes the rebellion, and Abdulhamid is accused of appeasing the mutineers, deposed, and exiled from Istanbul. “Allah and history will bear witness that I have served the State faithfully,” he insists before leaving. Osmanoglu’s ancestor, Mehmed Resad, is installed as the new sultan, with far more chaos and bloodshed still waiting for the empire in the years ahead.

    Critically, the work is widely praised as beautifully written and carefully constructed, moving seamlessly between high-stakes imperial politics and intimate family drama to create an extraordinary literary achievement. Osmanoglu has delivered a truly insider account of the dynasty’s final years, and the work is considered essential reading for anyone with an interest in Ottoman history. *Palace in the Mist: The Ottoman Dynasty Chronicles* by Ayse Osmanoglu is available in both paperback and hardcover editions starting July 3.

  • Congress has told Trump to stop the Iran war, will it matter?

    Congress has told Trump to stop the Iran war, will it matter?

    A high-stakes constitutional clash has erupted in Washington D.C. after the United States Congress passed a war powers resolution aimed at forcing former President Donald Trump to halt any unauthorized military action against Iran that could escalate into a full-scale conflict. The move marked a rare moment of bipartisan pushback against executive authority on military matters, as lawmakers from both major parties raised alarms over rising tensions in the Persian Gulf that threatened to draw the U.S. into another costly Middle Eastern war.

    BBC senior White House correspondent Gary O’Donoghue has broken down why this specific congressional resolution triggered such a sharp reaction from the then-sitting president. At its core, the resolution represented a direct challenge to Trump’s claims of broad executive power to launch military operations without formal congressional approval, a long-running point of contention between the legislative and executive branches that predates his administration.

    For Trump, the rebuke from Capitol Hill was not just a policy disagreement—it was a public insult to his authority as commander-in-chief, undermining his leverage in ongoing diplomatic and military posturing against the Iranian government. Even as many political analysts question whether the resolution will have any tangible practical impact, given its limited enforcement mechanisms and the president’s willingness to push back against congressional constraints, its symbolic significance cannot be overstated. It exposed growing unease among lawmakers across the political spectrum about the risk of an open-ended war in Iran, and set a precedent for future congressional efforts to rein in unilateral military action by future presidents.

  • Israeli officials discuss renewed push to expel Palestinians from Gaza

    Israeli officials discuss renewed push to expel Palestinians from Gaza

    On Tuesday, senior Israeli national security officials convened an urgently called meeting to revisit a long-stalled, highly controversial plan to push Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip, Israel’s leading daily newspaper Haaretz has confirmed. The gathering, organized by Shmuel Ben Ezra, head of Israel’s National Security Council, brought together top representatives from the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet internal security agency, and the Mossad external intelligence service, with discussions centered on advancing what officials frame as “encouraging voluntary emigration” of Gaza’s civilian population.

    Multiple participants told Haaretz that the urgency of the meeting took many defense officials by surprise, as the idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza has been floated dozens of times in Israeli political circles for years without ever moving forward due to insurmountable international and practical barriers. Most notably, Mossad officials confirmed during the discussions that the agency has not identified a single sovereign nation willing to accept large numbers of displaced Palestinian refugees from Gaza. One senior anonymous official stressed that there has been no shift in the global stance that would make this plan feasible, noting that any large-scale population transfer would require unprecedented, complex coordination across the international community that currently has no support.

    The renewed push for the plan has sparked speculation among Israeli security circles. One unnamed security source told Haaretz that it cannot be ruled out that the reactivation of discussions is part of a potential political “compensation” package that former U.S. President Donald Trump offered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of a U.S.-Iran agreement. Regardless of the political motivation, a senior member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee bluntly told the outlet that the entire proposal lacks any political or international legitimacy or feasibility, due to unified opposition from Arab states and the overwhelming majority of the global community.

    Calls for the forced or incentivized expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza have grown louder in mainstream Israeli political discourse since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Top members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, including the prime minister himself, and cabinet ministers Israel Katz, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, have all publicly endorsed the idea, with rhetoric echoing through the ruling Likud party. Most recently, in 2025, Katz established a dedicated government directorate within his ministry to manage what it calls the “voluntary emigration” of Gaza residents, and just last month Katz publicly reaffirmed his stance that the expulsion of Gaza’s Palestinian population will take place “at the appropriate time.”

    Public opinion polling conducted last year by the Jewish People Policy Institute found that more than 70 percent of Likud voters support the policy of expelling Palestinians from their historical homeland. Support for population transfer extends beyond Gaza to the occupied West Bank, according to comments this week from senior Likud lawmaker and Knesset Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi.

    Vaturi made his extreme views explicit during an interview with Israeli Channel 14 News on Tuesday, stating that Jewish citizens of Israel will never achieve peace “until we expel all the Arabs from this area” of the West Bank, which Israel refers to by the biblical names Judea and Samaria. “There should not be any Arabs there at all,” Vaturi said, adding that expanding illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied territory is the only path to what he calls peace in the Land of Israel.

    In the same interview, Vaturi doubled down on his call for mass displacement, saying: “It is now necessary to discuss where Arabs should be removed and where Jews should be settled. That’s what needs to be done to strengthen Israel. There is no other way; they all need to be expelled from here.” This is far from the first time Vaturi has publicly endorsed the expulsion of Palestinians. Back in November 2025, he stated that ultranationalist rabbi Meir Kahane, who famously called for the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, was correct in his ideology. In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, Vaturi also made incendiary comments calling for the Israeli military to “separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza” and publicly called to “burn Gaza” to the ground. Political analysts have noted that Vaturi’s open endorsement of population transfer, a policy widely classified as ethnic cleansing under international law, demonstrates how extreme ultranationalist views that were once on the fringe of Israeli politics have become fully mainstream within the ruling Likud party, indistinguishable from the ideology of far-right factions like Otzma Yehudit.

  • Tunisia coach Hervé Renard open to staying on with national team after a chaotic World Cup stint

    Tunisia coach Hervé Renard open to staying on with national team after a chaotic World Cup stint

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Just weeks before Tunisia’s 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign kicked off, the North African side found itself in sudden turmoil. A lopsided 5-1 pre-tournament defeat to Sweden prompted the Tunisian Football Federation to dismiss head coach Sabri Lamouchi abruptly, leaving the team without a leader at the worst possible moment. That is when 57-year-old French manager Hervé Renard stepped in, a veteran with deep experience coaching across African and Middle Eastern national programs, who was already in the region scouting matches in Senegal when the call came. Now, as his short-term interim contract nears its end following the team’s final group stage match against the Netherlands, Renard says he is willing to consider extending his tenure with the “Eagles of Carthage” for the long haul.

  • Crime boss Steven Lyons arrives in Spain after extradition

    Crime boss Steven Lyons arrives in Spain after extradition

    One of Scotland’s most high-profile organised crime leaders, 46-year-old Steven Lyons, has been transferred into Spanish custody after a months-long international legal process that stretched across Southeast Asia and Western Europe. The career criminal, who heads the infamous Lyons criminal syndicate, was first taken into custody back in March during a routine immigration check at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Immigration Office, acting on a long-standing European Arrest Warrant issued by Spain’s Guardia Civil.

    Because Indonesia does not have a formal extradition treaty with Spain, Lyons was deported from Indonesia to the Netherlands shortly after his arrest, rather than being sent directly to the Spanish authorities. From there, Lyons launched a legal appeal to block his extradition to Spain, but his challenge was rejected last week by an Amsterdam court, clearing the way for his transfer to Madrid.

    Footage shared publicly by law enforcement shows Lyons being escorted off an inbound flight from Amsterdam on the tarmac of Madrid’s Barajas Airport, before being loaded into the back of an unmarked police van for transfer. Spanish authorities confirm that Lyons is already facing charges connected to large-scale drug trafficking and transnational money laundering, and have recently added a new line of investigation into his alleged role in a 2024 murder on Spanish soil.

    Law enforcement officials have confirmed that following his initial court appearance before a duty judge in Madrid, Lyons will be moved to a high-security prison in Andalusia, to await trial. The Lyons syndicate, which Steven Lyons has led for decades, has been locked in a brutal, decades-long gang feud with a rival criminal group headed by the Daniel family, a conflict that has left multiple people dead across the United Kingdom and Europe.

    The case comes less than a year after Lyons’ own brother, Eddie Lyons Jr., and associate Ross Monaghan were gunned down in broad daylight at a beachfront bar in Fuengirola, a popular resort town on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Spanish investigators have charged 44-year-old Michael Riley, a native of Liverpool, UK, with that double homicide.

    Lyons’ extradition is the culmination of a years-long coordinated transnational investigation into the Lyons organisation, carried out jointly by law enforcement in Scotland, Spain, and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA). In a series of simultaneous raids carried out across four countries in March, authorities arrested 14 alleged members of the gang, and seized a cache of evidence including encrypted electronic devices, hundreds of thousands of euros in untraceable cash, corporate documents linked to shell companies, luxury high-end watches, and cryptocurrency holding wallets.

    An official statement released by Spain’s Guardia Civil back in April laid bare the scale of the Lyons syndicate’s global criminal operations. The gang established an extensive transnational network stretching across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, built around a sophisticated money laundering system that relied on anonymous shell companies and cross-border financial transactions to move millions of euros in illegal profits derived primarily from international drug trafficking. The statement noted the group maintained active operations in Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, labeling the Lyons syndicate “one of the most significant players in contemporary European organised crime.” The March raids totalled 18 targeted property searches, most concentrated in the Costa del Sol and Barcelona, two key hubs for the gang’s European activities.

  • ‘Our idol is back’: Neymar debuts in this World Cup as a sub for Brazil against Scotland

    ‘Our idol is back’: Neymar debuts in this World Cup as a sub for Brazil against Scotland

    MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Brazilian football icon Neymar stepped onto the FIFA World Cup pitch for his first appearance in this year’s tournament Wednesday, making a successful comeback from a month-long calf injury just in time for the competition’s knockout round starting next week.

    The 34-year-old forward, who missed Brazil’s opening two group stage matches through the right calf injury, entered the match as a 76th-minute substitute with Brazil already holding a comfortable 3-0 lead over Scotland. The final scoreline held firm, securing Brazil’s place in the knockout stage of the tournament.

    Neymar’s return had been teased for days: the Brazilian camp confirmed earlier this week he had recovered enough to be available for selection, matching head coach Carlo Ancelotti’s early projection that the star would feature off the bench rather than starting. When Neymar rose from the substitutes’ bench to begin warm-up sprints and stretches along the sideline in the second half, the stands packed with Brazilian fans erupted into deafening roars. Cheers grew even louder when he officially checked into the match and made his first touch of the ball.

    Hours before kickoff, Neymar had already given fans a sign of his readiness: he was one of the last players to exit the team bus upon arrival at Hard Rock Stadium, flashing a cheerful thumbs-up, waving to crowds and high-fiving well-wishers on his way to the locker room.

    Speaking to reporters after the match, Brazil star Vinícius Júnior – who netted two of Brazil’s three goals against Scotland – called Neymar’s return a landmark moment for the whole squad. “Our idol is back, a guy who always fought hard and did everything to be here, returning after a spell out with injury,” Vinícius said, speaking in Portuguese. “I hope he can keep evolving and keep improving, helping us throughout the competition. That’s what matters most.”

    A day before the match, Ancelotti had confirmed Neymar’s fitness and his place in the squad, telling reporters: “He trained very well this week. He is fit and able, ready to play. We are very happy that he is back. He is a high-quality player.”

    The calf injury that kept Neymar sidelined ahead of the tournament kept him out of action for more than a month, with a full training session on Sunday marking the final clearing hurdle for his return. This World Cup marks Neymar’s fourth consecutive World Cup appearance for Brazil, and he enters the knockout rounds as the nation’s all-time leading international goalscorer, with 79 goals across 130 senior caps. He has previously scored eight goals across the last three World Cup tournaments.

    Neymar’s place in the 2024 squad has been a topic of heated debate among Brazilian football fans in recent months. The star has struggled for form and fitness since tearing his left knee ACL during a 2023 World Cup qualifier, with just four goals in eight club appearances for Brazilian side Santos this season. Still, his teammates have voiced full confidence in his ability to contribute to Brazil’s World Cup run. “Every player here will be a huge help to us in this competition,” Vinícius reaffirmed Wednesday.

    This report was compiled with contributions from AP Sports Writer Alanis Thames.

  • Andy Burnham chooses Labour Friends of Israel ex-chair as chief of staff, report says

    Andy Burnham chooses Labour Friends of Israel ex-chair as chief of staff, report says

    As Andy Burnham prepares to take office as Britain’s next prime minister – a transition widely expected to be complete by July 17 – the Labour Party front-runner has made a high-profile key appointment, reportedly offering the critical role of chief of staff to former Blair and Brown-era minister James Purnell. Multiple sources confirm Purnell has signaled he will accept the position, which would place him as Burnham’s closest senior advisor in Downing Street.

    The selection of Purnell, a veteran Labour figure with cross-sector experience spanning government, public broadcasting and corporate lobbying, underscores Burnham’s broader strategy of assembling a unifying administration that draws talent from across the ideological divides of the UK Labour Party. Purnell, long identified as a figure on the centre-right of Labour, has a long personal history with Burnham: the pair shared a parliamentary office when both served as junior ministers during Tony Blair’s premiership in the 2000s.

    Most recently, Purnell held the position of chief executive at Flint Global, a major London-based lobbying firm. He stepped down from his director role at the firm earlier this week to clear the way for the Downing Street appointment. Purnell’s career path also includes a four-year stint as director of strategy at the BBC starting in 2013, and senior cabinet roles in previous Labour governments, including Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and senior positions at the Department for Work and Pensions.

    A point of particular note in Purnell’s political background is his longstanding connection to Middle East policy: he served two years as chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a pro-Israel parliamentary lobbying group, and voted in favor of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. During his 2002 chairmanship of LFI, Purnell undertook an official visit to Israel, where he documented on-the-ground observations that included both moments of cross-community cooperation between Israeli kibbutz members and nearby Arab villagers, and the violence that had already become an endemic part of the conflict. He met with then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during the trip, and wrote at the time that while peace would require mutual goodwill, progress depended entirely on the Palestinian Authority cracking down on militant activity – while also acknowledging the deep economic deprivation faced by Palestinians in Jerusalem, where he noted average annual incomes fell below $1,000 and rising malnutrition had become a crisis.

    Burnham’s own approach to Middle East policy adds layers of context to Purnell’s appointment. Like many current Labour MPs, Burnham has been a member of LFI, but he also holds longstanding ties to the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), a group that advocates for Palestinian rights, and undertook a fact-finding visit to the occupied West Bank with the organization in 2012. Burnham broke publicly with Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership in October 2023, when as Mayor of Greater Manchester he joined London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza war, taking a far more critical stance on Israel than the party’s frontbench at the time.

    In recent weeks, Burnham has largely avoided public comment on foreign policy, a strategic choice aligned with his campaign for a parliamentary seat in Makerfield, a majority working-class constituency where local political observers say the party views foreign policy discussion as unhelpful to securing a by-election win. But as Burnham accelerates preparations for his premiership following Starmer’s expected departure, foreign policy is set to return to the forefront of his agenda.

    Political commentators have noted that Burnham may look to adopt a firmer, more critical policy toward Israel to distinguish his premiership from Starmer’s tenure, and to win back left-leaning Labour voters who have shifted their support to the Green Party or independent candidates in recent years. As of yet, Burnham has not confirmed his pick for foreign secretary, and further senior appointments are expected to be announced in the coming days as the transition of power continues to unfold. Burnham’s emerging team already reflects a balance of competing factions within Labour: it includes Josh Simons, former director of the centrist think tank Labour Together widely credited with delivering Starmer’s Labour leadership win, as well as MP Louise Haigh, who has been publicly identified as a target of internal factional opposition from Labour Together.

  • Former EU vice president Borrell accuses body of abandoning Kaja Kallas over Israel spat

    Former EU vice president Borrell accuses body of abandoning Kaja Kallas over Israel spat

    A sharp new rift has opened within European Union diplomatic circles after former European Union Vice President Josep Borrell publicly accused the bloc of abandoning its current High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas to curry favor with Israel. The controversy ignited last week when leaked details of a confidential May meeting between Kallas and Mexican officials emerged, revealing the EU’s top diplomat had drawn a parallel between Israel’s governance of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa between 1948 and the early 1990s.

    According to multiple sources including Euractiv, which first broke details of the closed-door talks held during Kallas’ May 20–22 trip to Mexico City as part of a senior EU delegation, Kallas referenced her 2023 visit to Johannesburg’s apartheid museum to frame the comparison. The revelation immediately sparked fierce backlash from Israeli officials, with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announcing he would suspend all diplomatic contact with Kallas over the remarks.

    Just days after Israel’s punitive move, the EU confirmed it would send Dubravka Suica, the bloc’s Commissioner for Mediterranean and Demographic Affairs, on a scheduled visit to Tel Aviv. It is this decision that drew Borrell’s scathing rebuke in a post to the social platform X on Wednesday. In his critique, Borrell pointed out that after Israel declared Kallas persona non grata over claims of antisemitic sentiment, a fellow EU official traveled to Tel Aviv just one day later, exchanged cordial pleasantries with Saar, and failed to issue any public rebuke of Israel’s actions against Kallas. “What a fine display of ‘solidarity and coordination’ in the EU,” Borrell wrote, his words laced with biting irony.

    The leak of Kallas’ private comments has also laid bare a stark contradiction in her public approach to international affairs: while Kallas’ private remarks aligned her with critics who label Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as apartheid, she has repeatedly and publicly backed Israel’s claim to “self-defense” amid the ongoing military campaign that has left Gaza under deadly bombardment, crippling siege, and mass displacement. This duality has drawn accusations of selective application of international law from critics, who note Kallas has taken an uncompromisingly hard line on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, pushing for sweeping, harsh sanctions against Moscow.

    The controversy also amplifies long-simmering discontent among progressive factions in the European Parliament, who have already attacked the EU’s response to the Gaza crisis as weak and hypocritical when compared to the bloc’s swift, forceful reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These progressive lawmakers have ramped up calls for sweeping action from Brussels, including the imposition of tougher sanctions on Israeli officials, the formal suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and an end to the bloc’s longstanding political protection of Israel on the international stage.