Global Pulse

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  • Who is calling the shots in Iran?

    Who is calling the shots in Iran?

    A sudden diplomatic reversal following recent US-Iran talks in Islamabad has laid bare the dramatic new power dynamic reshaping Iran in the wake of six weeks of coordinated US-Israeli military strikes. On April 17, Iranian foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi took to the social platform X to announce that the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz was “completely open,” a signal that Tehran was prepared to show flexibility on two sticking points in negotiations: uranium enrichment limits and Iranian support for regional proxy armed groups.

    Within days, however, that public outreach was completely reversed following backlash from Iran’s most powerful institution. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander newly appointed as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, filed a formal complaint criticizing Araghchi for deviating from the negotiating mandate set by the IRGC leadership. The entire Iranian negotiating delegation was recalled to Tehran, state-run media launched scathing attacks on Araghchi, warning that his public statement had handed then-US President Donald Trump a political opening to falsely declare victory in the conflict, and the Iranian government issued a new declaration that the Strait of Hormuz was closed.

    This high-profile public clash is not an isolated misstep, argues King’s College London defense studies associate professor Andreas Krieg in analysis shared via The Conversation. It is the clearest visible indicator of a permanent power shift that has transformed Iran’s political order: the IRGC now holds total control over all state decision-making, while civilian and traditional religious institutions have been reduced to little more than a ceremonial facade.

    The decapitation strikes that opened the US-Israeli military campaign eliminated decades of entrenched Iranian leadership. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening day attack, alongside dozens of his most senior colleagues. Where Iran was once described as a sovereign state with an exceptionally powerful militia, Krieg argues the new reality is the opposite: Iran is now a powerful militia with a state, structured entirely around the IRGC as its core governing authority.

    Traditional centers of Iranian power, including the elected civilian government and the senior Shia clergy, have been pushed to the margins as mere front organizations. Even the newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ali Khamenei, functions only as a symbolic legitimizing figure. Multiple reports confirm Mojtaba Khamenei sustained severe injuries in the strike that killed his father, and he plays no active role in governing the country.

    The undisputed holder of power in contemporary Iran is IRGC leader Ahmad Vahidi, a founding member of the corps with decades of experience in Iranian security and politics. The IRGC was founded immediately after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his allies distrusted the existing conventional military and state bureaucracy to protect the new revolutionary order. Over the subsequent 47 years, the IRGC expanded far beyond its original mandate as guardians of the revolution, evolving into an all-encompassing network that spans every sector of Iranian life: it operates a conventional military force, a domestic intelligence apparatus, a multi-billion dollar transnational economic conglomerate, and a regional expeditionary network that projects Iranian power across the Middle East.

    Its domestic arm, the Basij militia, enables mass social control across Iran’s population, while the elite Quds Force manages the IRGC’s network of proxy armed groups across Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other regional states. Far from dismantling this network, decades of international sanctions against Iran actually strengthened it: sanctions pushed the IRGC to build a sprawling web of front companies for illicit trade and patronage networks that enriched IRGC-aligned elites, creating a parallel state that gradually outgrew the formal civilian government in both power and influence.

    The IRGC’s organizational structure is built around a “mosaic defense doctrine,” a decentralized network design with a centralized core that sets strategic direction, surrounded by semi-autonomous cells that can continue operating even after decapitation strikes that eliminate top leadership. This structure was explicitly designed to allow the IRGC to keep functioning even when facing large-scale military attacks targeting its command structure, a design that has been vindicated by recent events.

    After IRGC chief Mohammad Pakpour was killed on the opening day of the conflict, Vahidi— a former Iranian interior minister and founding IRGC figure— stepped into the top role in an emergency appointment. He has since consolidated full control over Iranian governance as civilian institutions have been hollowed out by war losses. With the new supreme leader incapacitated and the clergy sidelined, Vahidi and his coalition of hardline IRGC commanders and security council allies, including Ali Akbar Ahmadian and Zolghadr, now set all negotiating mandates and red lines for ongoing ceasefire and nuclear talks with the United States.

    The IRGC’s non-negotiable red lines are well-defined: it will not abandon its uranium enrichment program entirely, it will preserve its ballistic missile program and its regional network of proxy groups (known as the “axis of resistance”), it demands full lifting of international sanctions and the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian overseas assets. Only narrow technical details, such as enrichment level limits, sanctions lifting timelines, and the formal language of any final agreement, are open to negotiation.

    The decimation of pragmatic Iranian political figures in Israeli strikes has cleared the last remaining obstacles to IRGC control. Former Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani, a leading pragmatic voice, was killed by an Israeli strike on March 16, leaving no prominent opposition to the IRGC’s hardline agenda. While the war accelerated the IRGC’s consolidation of power, Krieg notes this shift was decades in the making: the IRGC spent generations entrenching its influence across Iranian institutions, capturing economic assets, and building up its coercive capacity. The war only provided the final opportunity to eliminate competing power centers, most notably the senior clergy, and solidify total control.

    This new power structure has profound implications for ongoing US-Iran negotiations. US negotiators are not bargaining with independent civilian diplomats; every Iranian negotiator operates on a short leash held directly by the IRGC leadership. Any progress in talks cannot be measured by public statements from Iranian diplomats, but only by what the IRGC is actually willing to implement in practice.

    The US-Israeli decapitation strategy failed to break the IRGC’s structure, and the hardline network now finds itself emboldened, as it recognizes the White House is desperate to secure a diplomatic exit from the conflict. Krieg argues that assumptions the IRGC will quickly capitulate to US demands are unfounded wishful thinking.

    Recent events have confirmed that the IRGC now governs Iran as a militia with a state, using the formal civilian and religious institutions of the Islamic Republic as a public outer layer. While there remains space for negotiation to reach a mutually acceptable agreement, the US administration must approach talks with a clear-eyed understanding of the IRGC’s non-negotiable red lines, and the resilience of a hardened network that has repeatedly demonstrated it can absorb severe punishment and maintain control.

  • PGA Tour mulls pathway back for golfers as LIV plots survival

    PGA Tour mulls pathway back for golfers as LIV plots survival

    The global golf landscape has been thrown into fresh turmoil in recent days, following widespread reports that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the primary backer of the breakaway LIV Golf circuit, will only guarantee financial support through the end of the current season. With an estimated $5 billion already poured into the four-year-old tour, a major funding gap would open if the circuit continues operations beyond this point, sparking intense speculation over LIV’s long-term future and triggering parallel moves from both LIV and its rival, the PGA Tour.

    Amid this uncertainty, the PGA Tour has confirmed it is actively exploring pathways to allow players who defected to LIV Golf to return to the premier tour. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp shared details of the ongoing discussions during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Monday, noting that the organization has already approved the return of five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, who rejoined after reaching out to request reinstatement once his LIV contract concluded.

    “Brooks came back onto the tour because he made a phone call and said, ‘Look, I’m out of my contract. I’m ready to come back,’” Rolapp told listeners. “So we’re thinking about it. We’ll react when we have an opportunity to react. I’m interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better.”

    The question of return looms largest for marquee LIV players whose contracts are set to expire soon, including two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau. It remains unclear whether DeChambeau would opt to return to the PGA Tour, given the steep financial penalties the tour has imposed on returning players like Koepka. The popular star, whose YouTube channel regularly draws more than two million views per video, could also choose to only compete in golf’s four major championships, which grant eligibility to top-ranked players regardless of tour affiliation. According to a recent report from The Athletic, DeChambeau is demanding as much as $500 million to renew his contract with LIV, a asking price that underscores the high stakes of LIV’s current fundraising push.

    For its part, LIV Golf is scrambling to implement a survival strategy as it confronts the potential end of Saudi backing. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil has reaffirmed to staff that the circuit will continue operations at “full throttle” through the current season, while acknowledging that the organization will almost certainly need to secure new external funding to continue long-term.

    One of the central strategies O’Neil has promoted is selling minority equity stakes in LIV’s 12 existing franchise teams, a move designed to unlock new capital while deepening local connections to fan bases and sponsor networks. This week, LIV took another step in that localization strategy with a high-profile rebrand: the team formerly led by Brooks Koepka, Smash GC, has been renamed “OKGC” to align with new captain Talor Gooch, a native of Oklahoma City.

    A LIV Golf statement called the rebrand “a significant step in LIV Golf’s strategy to connect its teams to home markets, creating stronger identities and deeper relationships with fans, partners and communities. As the league continues to grow globally, OKGC highlights the growing impact of localized, domestic team identities within the LIV Golf franchise model.” This follows earlier rebrands that tailored teams to specific regional markets, including the Korea-based Korean Golf Club and South Africa’s all-local Southern Guards.

    Even with this plan, however, analysts note that selling team equity is unlikely to come close to covering the massive spending LIV has drawn from Saudi backers to date. In January, Bloomberg reported LIV was targeting valuations as high as $300 million per team, but no public valuation of the franchise roster has been released, leaving the actual amount of capital that could be raised through equity sales uncertain.

    O’Neil has outlined other potential avenues to sustain the circuit, including forming strategic partnerships with established national open tournaments and doubling down on high-growth regional markets where LIV has drawn record crowds, most notably Australia and South Africa. In the United States, the circuit still retains high-profile backing, with its next tournament scheduled to take place at Trump National Golf Club, the owned course of former U.S. President Donald Trump, located just outside Washington, D.C.

  • ICE detains wife of US Army soldier at immigration appointment

    ICE detains wife of US Army soldier at immigration appointment

    A controversial incident playing out in El Paso, Texas has thrown a harsh spotlight on the overlapping tensions between US immigration enforcement policy and the treatment of military families, as an active-duty Army sergeant’s spouse has been taken into federal immigration custody — the second such case involving a service member’s family member this month alone.

    On April 14, Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of 28-year Army veteran Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after the couple attended a scheduled interview for a parole-in-place program, a federal initiative designed specifically to let immediate family members of US military personnel remain in the country while their immigration applications are processed. What was supposed to be a routine step toward legal permanent residency turned into a chaotic separation that has left Serrano distraught and searching for answers.

    “They just took my wife away,” Serrano shared in an interview with the BBC, describing the disorienting moments after the arrest. The long-serving soldier, who completed a deployment to Afghanistan and was born a US citizen in Puerto Rico, said he has been unable to settle since the detention, alternating between frantic online research for legal resources and anxious, aimless drives to cope with the stress. “I’m searching on the internet how I can help my wife. If not, I’m walking in the house back and forth. Or jumping in my car and just driving for four hours.”

    According to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records, Rivera Ortega is currently being held at an El Paso-area detention facility. DHS has characterized her as a “criminal illegal alien” from El Salvador, citing her 2016 illegal entry into the US as a federal offense. But her attorney, Matthew James Kozik, and court documents paint a more nuanced picture of her immigration history. After crossing the Rio Grande Valley border in 2016, Rivera Ortega filed a formal asylum claim, court records show. While an immigration judge ordered her removal to El Salvador in December 2019, the same ruling granted her withholding of removal under the UN Convention Against Torture, a protection that barred the government from sending her back to El Salvador on the grounds that she would face significant physical harm there. The ruling also explicitly granted her legal permission to reside in the US while waiting for long-term relief.

    Under the second Trump administration, DHS has expanded a policy of “third-country removals,” which allows the agency to deport undocumented individuals to countries other than their nation of origin. Kozik told reporters that ICE has notified the legal team it intends to deport Rivera Ortega to Mexico, a move Kozik calls completely unlawful and unjust. “She was following the prescribed law of what someone is supposed to do,” he said, arguing that her arrest is “arbitrary and capricious.”

    The couple’s official marriage certificate, provided by Kozik, confirms they were married in June 2022 in Westbury, New York, making Rivera Ortega the immediate family member of an active-duty service member — a status that should have qualified her for the parole-in-place program she was applying for when she was detained. Serrano recalled that the couple was told the meeting was a routine interview with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that handles parole applications. After officials flagged an unspecified issue with the filing, the couple was escorted down a hallway, where ICE agents were waiting to take Rivera Ortega into custody as Serrano watched.

    “It took me a minute, two minutes to react,” he recalled. “And then I started to ask, ‘what is going on, what happened, where are they taking her?’” That encounter was the last time Serrano has seen his wife, and as of this report, the next legal steps for the couple remain unclear. Despite the trauma of his wife’s detention, Serrano says he still retains pride in his nearly 28 years of military service, even as he acknowledges the Army has no control over the immigration agency’s actions. “I love the Army,” he said. “If I had to do it again…I’d go in and do it again.”

    This incident marks at least the second time ICE has detained a military spouse in the month of April. Earlier this month, the agency detained 22-year-old Annie Ramos, the newly married wife of Army Sergeant Matthew Blank. Ramos, an undocumented Honduran immigrant who was brought to the US as a child, was held for five days before ICE released her to her husband. The back-to-back cases have sparked renewed criticism of immigration enforcement policies that separate active-duty military families, who are already tasked with defending US national security.

  • Indonesia orangutan forest cleared for ‘carbon-neutral’ packaging firm

    Indonesia orangutan forest cleared for ‘carbon-neutral’ packaging firm

    A landmark joint investigation by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and non-profit investigative outlet The Gecko Project has uncovered massive deforestation of critically endangered orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo, linked to a supply chain that produces purportedly carbon-neutral packaging for major global consumer brands.

    The clearing, which took place across nearly 30,000 hectares of biodiverse rainforest in Central Kalimantan Province — an area almost three times the size of Paris — has unfolded between 2016 and 2024, according to satellite imagery analysis, government audit documents, trade records, and on-the-ground reporting from the investigation team. The timber is sourced from government-permitted industrial plantations, processed at Indonesia’s Phoenix Resources International (PRI) mill, and then shipped to pulp and paper manufacturer Asia Symbol, a subsidiary of Singapore-based multinational conglomerate Royal Golden Eagle (RGE).

    For years, RGE has positioned itself as a leader in sustainable supply chain management: the conglomerate pledged to eliminate deforestation from its operations by 2015, secured a $1 billion sustainability-linked loan in 2024, and is actively lobbying to regain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, which labels products as responsibly sourced. Asia Symbol, which supplies packaging to global pharmaceutical giant Haleon — maker of household brands Panadol and Sensodyne — also maintains a public no-deforestation policy.

    The investigation’s findings directly contradict these high-profile sustainability pledges. Analysts traced pulp from plantations that cleared old-growth rainforest, home to the last remaining populations of Bornean orangutans, all the way to Asia Symbol’s production facilities in China. Satellite data confirms that thousands of hectares of natural forest have been cleared to make way for fast-growing acacia and eucalyptus plantations operated by Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP), one of the top suppliers to the PRI mill. Trade data and ship tracking confirm that PRI has regularly shipped pulp to Asia Symbol’s Chinese mills since January 2025, with one 2024 shipment even celebrated with a formal welcome ceremony and ceremonial cannons at the Chinese port of Rugao.

    The environmental and human cost of the clearing has been severe for local communities. Indigenous and local residents who have relied on the Bornean rainforest for generations have lost access to traditional farming land and hunting grounds, with displaced residents forced to relocate to find work. Many families report that promised compensation for seized land has never materialized. Intact tree cover that once absorbed heavy rainfall has been removed, leading to a sharp increase in frequent and destructive flooding across the region. Local residents also report rising concerns over water pollution from plantation runoff, making once-safe river water unsafe to drink.

    “My eyes well up remembering how it was,” Agau, 69-year-old secretary of Humbang Raya village located inside the IFP concession, told AFP investigators. “It’s hard to find anything like it used to be. Our lives, our livelihood here, depend on the forest that we have. That is our only hope.” Ika Magdalena, a pregnant mother of three who lost her farm to the concession, added: “They’ve already damaged our crops, and they don’t want to take responsibility. It breaks our hearts, but they just stay silent.”

    Local government officials defended the concession, noting that IFP has not committed any formal violations of Indonesian forestry law and contributes tax revenue and reforestation funds to the region. But environmental campaigners say the permits prioritize corporate profit over community and ecological health, with almost none of the economic benefits of the concession reaching local residents. “Communities lose sources of livelihood, both food and income, and there are no alternative options,” said Bayu Herinata of the Central Kalimantan branch of Indonesian environmental group WALHI.

    In response to the investigation’s findings, Asia Symbol stated that it is committed to its no-deforestation policy and has launched a focused review of its sourcing from the PRI mill, noting that the complexity of global supply chains “creates real due diligence challenges.” The company also claimed that its carbon-neutral packaging produced for Haleon did not include pulp from the PRI mill, but failed to provide evidence of how it segregates pulp from different sources. IFP and PRI did not respond to multiple requests for comment from investigators.

    Environmental advocates say the case exposes a pattern of greenwashing by RGE, which has faced repeated allegations of deforestation and land conflict over the past decade. The company’s attempt to regain FSC certification stalled last year following allegations that affiliate staff attacked an Indigenous community, and a 2023 acknowledgement of deforestation in two other supply chain concessions never resulted in the promised policy changes. “Their commitments are nothing more than greenwashing to convince their buyers that they are cleaning up their act,” said Grant Rosoman, senior forest campaign advisor for Greenpeace International.

    Robin Averbeck, forest programme director at the Rainforest Action Network, added that RGE has leveraged its unfulfilled sustainability pledges to access billions of dollars in discounted green financing from global banks. “The findings of this investigation indicate that RGE is still very much in the business of deforestation,” Averbeck said.

    Following the release of the investigation, UK-based Haleon announced it would cut all ties with Asia Symbol. While the company stated its own internal investigations found no evidence of deforestation-linked material in its supply chain, it said it was “nevertheless very concerned by the allegations” and has ordered its suppliers to exclude all material from Asia Symbol and any other plantation linked to deforestation risk.

    Indonesia consistently ranks among the countries with the highest annual tree cover loss globally, according to Global Forest Watch. Deforestation in the country not only threatens endangered species like the Bornean orangutan and undermines global climate goals, but also increases the risk of deadly natural disasters. Last year, deforestation-fueled floods and landslides killed more than 1,000 people across Sumatra, a disaster the Indonesian government publicly acknowledged was worsened by forest loss, yet no major policy changes to curb deforestation have been implemented nationwide.

  • Virginia approves redistricting, giving Democrats edge in midterms

    Virginia approves redistricting, giving Democrats edge in midterms

    The national partisan fight over congressional redistricting reached a pivotal turning point in Virginia, where voters have greenlit a Democratic-backed ballot amendment that threatens to upend the fragile balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of November’s midterm elections.

    The vote comes in the wake of a years-long nationwide push by former President Donald Trump and national Republicans to aggressively redraw district lines across the country, a strategic move designed to lock in conservative control of the chamber through partisan gerrymandering. The first major shake-up of this effort came when Texas became the first state to implement a mid-decade redistricting shift under pressure from Trump, a change that projected to hand Republicans a structural advantage in five additional congressional seats.

    In response to the Republican power grab, Democratic leaders in blue states launched countermeasures to adjust their own maps to balance out the partisan skew. Last year, California voters backed a campaign led by Governor Gavin Newsom to abandon the state’s previously independent district lines in what Newsom framed as a necessary “fight fire with fire” move. That referendum, approved by California voters in November, delivered Democrats a competitive edge in five new districts, directly countering the gains Republicans secured in Texas.

    Now, Virginia’s approval of its own redistricting amendment has the potential to flip the partisan balance of congressional power on a national scale. Currently, Democrats hold 6 of the state’s 11 House seats, and the new redrawn map is projected to flip as many as four currently Republican-held seats, potentially pushing the state’s Democratic delegation to as many as 10 out of 11 total seats.

    Notably, the referendum has made history in Virginia: according to data from the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project, it is by far the most expensive ballot measure in the state’s history, with both proponents and opponents raising a combined total of more than $80 million (£59 million) as of earlier this month, reflecting how high the stakes of the national redistricting battle have become.

    In his first public remarks on the outcome of Virginia’s vote, Trump sounded the alarm on Monday, arguing that a Democratic takeover of the House majority in the midterms would “be a disaster” for the country. In a striking reversal of his own party’s aggressive gerrymandering efforts across the country, Trump added, “I don’t know if you know what gerrymandering is, but it’s not good.”

    Under standard U.S. redistricting rules, states redraw their congressional maps once every 10 years following the release of updated decennial U.S. Census population data. However, Trump’s push for mid-decade adjustments upended this longstanding norm, triggering a tit-for-tat cycle of map changes from both major parties as they fight to gain every possible advantage ahead of the 2024 midterms. Republicans currently hold a narrow, razor-thin majority in the House, and historical trends consistently favor the opposition party — in this case, Democrats — during midterm election cycles, making every competitive district a critical prize for both sides.

    Under current U.S. law, partisan gerrymandering — the practice of shaping district boundaries to intentionally favor one political party — is only illegal when it is drawn along discriminatory racial lines, leaving the current tit-for-tat partisan map changes largely unchallenged in courts.

  • ‘We go off early on young blokes’: Benji Marshall perfect man to help rising star Heamasi Makasini

    ‘We go off early on young blokes’: Benji Marshall perfect man to help rising star Heamasi Makasini

    When 18-year-old NRL rising talent Heamasi Makasini was left out of Wests Tigers’ line-up to face the Canberra Raiders, initial speculation swirled that the omission was a disciplinary drop following a rocky performance against the Brisbane Broncos over the weekend. But the real reason for his absence has come to light: a nagging foot injury, paired with a strategic planned rest to reset the young centre after a meteoric rise to the top flight of Australian rugby league.

    Wests Tigers head coach Benji Marshall confirmed Wednesday, on the eve of the Tigers’ clash with the Raiders at Leichhardt Oval, that Makasini has been diagnosed with bone bruising in his foot that would have ruled him out of selection this week regardless of form. Marshall added that the injury actually created a timely opportunity to pull the teen prospect out of the intense NRL spotlight, allowing him to heal physically and rebuild his confidence after a tough outing against Brisbane.

    The young outside back made his NRL debut in 2023, and catapulted into public consciousness during pre-season trials when a barnstorming, try-scoring run that steamrolled Penrith Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards drew immediate comparisons to All Blacks rugby legend Jonah Lomu. This season, the still-growing 18-year-old has held his own against far more experienced, older opponents, while adjusting to the pace and physicality of top-tier rugby league. While Makasini posted solid offensive stats against Brisbane, he was let down by four costly unforced errors—including two late in the match that contributed to the Tigers’ one-point loss. The rough outing has left the young talent grappling with a dip in confidence.

    Marshall, who burst onto the NRL scene as a teenage prodigy with Wests Tigers himself decades earlier, says his own early-career experience puts him in the unique position to support Makasini through this growing period. The coach has been quick to defend the young star, pushing back against unfair early comparisons to sporting legends that pile unneeded pressure on teen prospects, noting that the NRL’s high-stakes environment already brings enough pressure for young players new to the league.

    “He’s got a bit of bone bruising in his foot, so he wouldn’t have been available this week anyway,” Marshall told reporters ahead of the team’s captain’s run. “But it was probably timely because I think he was ready for a rest. But one thing I will say about Heamasi is he’s such a bright talent and he’s got a great future ahead of him, and he’ll just get some confidence back and come back into the team.”

    Marshall went on to praise Makasini’s start to the 2024 season, noting that starting out as an 18-year-old centre—one of the most defensively demanding positions on the field—was no small feat. “Part of my job as a coach is also to know when to take the pressure off him,” he added. “I just felt like he’s been up for so long with his intent and his enthusiasm, and players have been actually going after him, that it was a timely rest.”

    Makasini is only expected to miss one top-flight game, but Marshall has not ruled out a stint in the lower-tier NSW Cup to help the teen rebuild his confidence before returning to the NRL lineup, with experienced centre Starford To’a set to step back into the side this week after his own period of time gaining match fitness in reserve grade. Marshall pushed back on the common perception that a spell in reserve grade is a demotion or punishment, framing it instead as a strategic opportunity for young players to reset and refine their skills away from the glare of first-grade scrutiny.

    “A lot of people sometimes look at reserve grade for example, and if someone goes back to reserve grade, it’s looked at as a punishment,” Marshall said. “Sometimes it’s actually the best thing for you to go and learn your trade, get some confidence. Like for Starford’s case, going and getting some game time and some match fitness. So it’s not always a demotion, sometimes it’s what’s best for you at the time. And Heamasi is no different.”

    Marshall stressed that the club views Makasini as a core long-term talent for the franchise, and he is confident the young prospect will bounce back from his current confidence slump once he has had time to rest and reset. “He is a unique talent and someone we see as a long-term future for us,” Marshall said. “He’s having a bit of confidence issues at the moment, but he’ll bounce back.”

  • Trump buys time for Iran deal after frantic day of diplomacy

    Trump buys time for Iran deal after frantic day of diplomacy

    What began as a chaotic, high-stakes day of diplomatic activity in Washington on Tuesday ended with a last-minute shakeup to U.S.-Iran peace negotiations, as President Donald Trump announced an indefinite extension of the existing ceasefire between the two nations and scrapped a planned trip by Vice President JD Vance to Islamabad for talks.

    Earlier in the day, Air Force Two had been prepped and ready to fly Vance to the Pakistani capital, where Islamabad was set to host a second round of negotiations aimed at de-escalating the two-month-old conflict between Washington and Tehran. But the trip never moved forward: Vance never formally announced the visit, and Iranian officials never publicly committed to sending a delegation to the table, leaving the White House in an uncertain position about whether to send the vice president without a solid guarantee of Iranian participation.

    As hours ticked by, clues of a postponement mounted. Top members of the U.S. negotiating team – special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner – returned to Washington from Miami rather than proceeding directly to Pakistan as planned. Vance, meanwhile, traveled to the White House for closed-door policy discussions with the president and his inner circle to weigh next steps.

    By the end of the day, Trump made the official announcement via Truth Social, the social platform he has relied on to share updates on the conflict that began in late February. The president explained the decision came at the request of Pakistan, which has served as the neutral mediator for bilateral talks between the U.S. and Iran, to give Tehran additional time to draft a unified negotiating proposal to end the hostilities.

    “We have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote in his post.

    This marks the second time in as many weeks that Trump has stepped back from a threat to escalate military action, extending a truce that was originally scheduled to expire Wednesday evening. Unlike the first ceasefire, implemented earlier this month with a clear two-week deadline, Trump offered no timeline for how long the new extension will last. The first ceasefire came after mixed messaging from the president: he acknowledged talks were progressing while simultaneously warning he would resume military operations if Iran refused to engage in good faith negotiations.

    Experts note that Trump’s softer, open-ended approach on Tuesday represents a noticeable shift from his earlier harsh social media rhetoric targeting Iran, a shift that many analysts read as a signal of the president’s growing desire to end the conflict. The war has already caused widespread disruption to global energy markets, roiling the international economy, and has faced pushback from Trump’s own core base of anti-interventionist MAGA supporters.

    “This is a pragmatic decision based on what are quite obvious fractures in the current leadership of the Iranian government,” explained Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. Yet Katulis cautioned that the indefinite extension also creates new layers of uncertainty around the conflict’s trajectory.

    “This move begs the question though for Trump about how he can deal with the economic pain that Americans are experiencing and the political pain he’s experiencing from his base,” Katulis said. “He hasn’t answered the questions that are still driving this crisis.”

    James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, told the BBC that Trump’s balancing act – pairing open threats of military escalation with on-again off-again negotiations – is a tactic with precedent among previous U.S. commanders-in-chief. “There is no clear formula for ending wars,” Jeffrey noted, adding that Trump is not the first president to “threaten significant military escalation while also putting a good deal on the table.”

    While the extended ceasefire buys both sides additional time to work toward a durable peace agreement, major sticking points that have blocked progress remain fully unresolved. Iran has repeatedly called the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz an act of war, and Trump gave no indication Tuesday that he is prepared to lift the blockade – a measure Washington implemented to pressure Tehran into concessions that has so far failed to force Iranian backing down.

    Tehran, for its part, has also shown no willingness to compromise on two core non-negotiable demands Trump laid out for any final deal: ending Iran’s nuclear program and cutting support for proxy militant groups across the Middle East. Though Trump has gained extra time for diplomacy, a quick, lasting resolution to the conflict remains as out of reach as ever. Even as Pakistani officials finished preparations in Islamabad, where digital screens displayed welcome messages for the delegations, the planned talks will now wait for another day.

  • Material girl: Madonna offers reward for missing clothes

    Material girl: Madonna offers reward for missing clothes

    Pop icon Madonna has launched a public appeal for the return of one-of-a-kind vintage garments that disappeared following her surprise high-profile appearance at the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where she joined rising star Sabrina Carpenter on stage. The 67-year-old legendary entertainer, famous for groundbreaking hits including *Like A Virgin*, broke the news of the lost pieces via her official Instagram account, sharing a heartfelt call for assistance from fans and anyone connected to the festival’s post-show operations. In her online post, Madonna explained that the vanished items were pulled directly from her personal archive of stage wear, and included a signature jacket, corset, dress, and several other complementary garments that date back to key eras of her decades-long career. Beyond their material value, the singer emphasized that these pieces hold irreplaceable personal and professional significance, noting “These aren’t just clothes, they are part of my history.” She added that multiple other items from the same career-defining era of her work were also confirmed missing after the performance. Madonna’s surprise cameo alongside Carpenter was one of the most widely discussed viral moments from the first weekend of the annual Southern California desert festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees and global media attention each year. During the unannounced set, the pair delivered electric performances of two of Madonna’s most iconic global chart-topping hits: 1990’s *Vogue* and 1989’s *Like A Prayer* — tracks that dominated international music years before Carpenter, who was born in 1999, entered the world. Closing her appeal, the pop legend expressed hope that a member of the festival crew or attendee will come forward to return the garments, saying “I’m hoping and praying that some kind soul will find these items and reach out.” She confirmed that she is offering a financial reward for the safe return of the full collection of pieces, though she did not disclose the specific amount of the award publicly.

  • New batch of World Cup tickets to go on sale

    New batch of World Cup tickets to go on sale

    Fifty days before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across North America, soccer’s global governing body has announced that a fresh batch of tickets for all 104 tournament matches will become available to the public this Wednesday.

    In an official statement released Tuesday, FIFA confirmed that seats for matches hosted in 16 venues across the United States, Mexico and Canada will go up for grabs at 15:00 GMT exclusively through FIFA’s official website, with purchases allocated on a strict first-come, first-served basis. Beyond this immediate release, the organization added that additional ticket inventory will be rolled out incrementally through the tournament’s final match on July 19, as long as seats remain available.

    The announcement comes on the heels of comments from FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who revealed that more than five million tickets have already been sold for the tournament, which opens its doors on June 11. This early sales figure shatters the previous all-time World Cup sales record: the 1994 edition, the last time the U.S. hosted the tournament, sold just 3.5 million tickets in total. Overall, around seven million tickets are projected to be available for the 2026 tournament across the 16 host stadiums, meaning the event is already on track to far outpace any prior World Cup in terms of ticket volume.

    Despite the historic demand, the tournament has faced growing criticism over exorbitant ticket pricing. The most expensive seat for the 2026 final exceeds $10,000 before accounting for secondary resale markets, a price point that has drawn widespread pushback from fans. Organizers have pushed back against the criticism, with Infantino arguing that the high prices stem from “crazy” consumer demand. FIFA has employed a dynamic pricing model for the tournament, which automatically raises prices for matches that see higher fan interest.

    Controversy flared again this week after U.S. outlet The Athletic reported Tuesday that sales were sluggish for the U.S. men’s national team’s high-priced opening match against Paraguay in Los Angeles. FIFA was quick to dispute that claim, however. In a comment to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday, a FIFA spokesperson reaffirmed that sales across all matches remain robust, saying “Ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup remain strong with a high degree of interest for all matches.”

  • Rome summons Russian ambassador over insults against Meloni

    Rome summons Russian ambassador over insults against Meloni

    Diplomatic tensions between Italy and Russia escalated sharply this week after Rome summoned Moscow’s top envoy to formally protest a series of vicious, unprovoked insults directed at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by a prominent Russian state television host, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani confirmed Tuesday.

    The incident unfolded when pro-Kremlin presenter Vladimir Solovyov launched a brutal personal attack against Meloni live on air, switching between Italian and Russian to deliver his remarks. In Italian, Solovyov labeled Meloni a “disgrace to the human race”, a “wild beast”, a “certified idiot” and a “nasty little woman”. He continued his tirade after switching to Russian, claiming the Italian leader was a “fascist creature” who had betrayed her own voters and even former U.S. President Donald Trump, a claim that echoes longstanding misinformation pushed by Russian state media about European leaders.

    In a public post to social platform X, Tajani announced he had called Russian Ambassador Alexey Paramonov to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deliver a formal démarche over what he described as the “extremely serious and offensive remarks.” In a rare show of cross-partisan unity, even Italian opposition parties joined the government in condemning Solovyov’s aggressive comments, highlighting how the attack united Italian political factions against the external provocation.

    Meloni herself responded to the incident publicly, pushing back against the verbal assault and reaffirming her government’s policy commitments. “These caricatures certainly won’t make us change course,” she wrote on X. “Our compass remains one and only: the interest of Italy. And we will continue to follow it with pride, much to the chagrin of propagandists far and wide.”

    The diplomatic clash comes amid months of already strained relations between Rome and Moscow, driven by Meloni’s unwavering, staunch support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion. The incident also follows a recent shift in Meloni’s relationship with Donald Trump: the two once shared friendly ties, but relations have soured after Meloni defended the Vatican against verbal attacks from the former U.S. president.