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  • World Cup what to know: Cristiano Ronaldo aiming to get on track after disappointing start

    World Cup what to know: Cristiano Ronaldo aiming to get on track after disappointing start

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup has already delivered no shortage of star power and memorable storylines through its opening matches, with global superstars Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland living up to their billing as tournament favourites. But one iconic name has found himself at the centre of unexpected scrutiny: 41-year-old Portugal legend Cristiano Ronaldo.

    Ronaldo arrived in North America for this World Cup chasing a unique piece of history, aiming to become the first player to score in five different men’s World Cup tournaments, extending his record to six straight editions. Instead, his opening outing against debutants Congo was far from memorable: the forward squandered two clear second-half scoring chances as Portugal were held to a surprising 1-1 draw, leaving the Portuguese camp hungry for a bounce-back performance. Ronaldo and his side will get that opportunity on Tuesday, when they face Uzbekistan in Houston as they look to get their Group K campaign back on track.

    Portugal entered the tournament as one of the pre-tournament favourites to lift the trophy, and a three points against Uzbekistan are critical to stay in contention for knockout stage qualification. Group K opened with Colombia claiming a full three points in their opener against Uzbekistan, while Congo earned a historic point in their first World Cup appearance in 52 years. The Group K doubleheader concludes on Tuesday night when Colombia face Congo in Guadalajara, Mexico, looking to lock in their place in the knockout round just two matches into the group stage.

    Colombia, who missed out on qualification for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, got off to a flying start in their opener: Liverpool winger Luis Diaz notched one goal and one assist in a 3-1 victory over Uzbekistan, putting them on the cusp of early progression. However, they will face a tough test against a well-organized Congo side that already proved they can frustrate elite opposition by holding Portugal. Congo will look to forward Yoane Wissa, who made history for his nation by scoring their first World Cup goal in 52 years, a first-half stoppage-time header against Portugal, to repeat his heroics against Colombia.

    Alongside the Group K action, three critical Group L matches will unfold across North America on Tuesday, headlined by England’s showdown with Ghana in Foxborough, Massachusetts. English captain Harry Kane has already made history in this tournament, notching a brace in the Three Lions’ opening 4-2 win over Croatia to bring his career World Cup goal tally to 10, matching Gary Lineker’s all-time record for an English player. The result also pushed Kane into a seven-way tie for seventh on the men’s World Cup all-time scoring charts. Against Ghana, Kane has a chance to climb further: one more goal will draw him level with Germany legend Jürgen Klinsmann and Hungary great Sándor Kocsis for sixth on the all-time list. A win over Ghana would also book England’s spot in the knockout stage for the third consecutive World Cup.

    Ghana head into the match surprisingly tied with England atop Group L, having earned a dramatic 1-0 opening win over Panama thanks to Brandon Thomas-Asante’s goal in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time. The Black Stars are targeting their first trip to the World Cup knockout round since a historic quarter-final run in 2010, and enter the match with historical context: England has never lost to an African nation at the World Cup, holding an unbeaten record of five wins and three draws across 88 years of tournament play.

    The day’s opening Group L fixture, which kicks off in Toronto before England face Ghana, is a do-or-die clash between Panama and 2018 runners-up Croatia. Both sides suffered opening-match defeats, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the Group L table, two points back from England and Ghana. For both nations, a loss will all but end their hopes of progressing to the knockout round, while a win keeps their tournament dreams alive. Panama looked set to earn a credible point against Ghana before Thomas-Asante’s late strike broke the deadlock, while Croatia, who finished third in Qatar 2022 and second in Russia 2018, are already on the brink after a 4-2 defeat to England in their opener.

    The busy day of World Cup action is bookended by a series of the tournament’s latest off-field and on-field milestones. Defending champion Argentina already booked their knockout spot after a 2-0 win over Austria, where Messi scored his 17th and 18th World Cup goals, breaking Miroslav Klose’s all-time record of 16 World Cup goals. Messi also notched an unwanted personal record: his first-half missed penalty marked his third non-shootout penalty miss in World Cup play, one more than Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan for the most all-time, while he also set the record for most penalty kicks taken in tournament history.

    Additional late tournament updates include United States star Christian Pulisic returning to team training after missing his side’s last group match with a soft tissue injury, Germany defender Nico Schlotterbeck being ruled out of the rest of the tournament with an ankle injury, and the tournament already seeing a record-breaking goal surge, with 121 goals scored across the first 40 matches, with many analysts crediting the official tournament match ball for the open play scoring surge.

    For fans looking to tune into the full slate of June 22 matches, all fixtures will be broadcast across Fox Sports networks and Peacock in the United States, with Telemundo providing Spanish-language coverage. The full kickoff schedule (in EDT) is as follows: Portugal vs Uzbekistan at 1 p.m. in Houston, England vs Ghana at 4 p.m. in Foxborough, Panama vs Croatia at 7 p.m. in Toronto, and Colombia vs Congo at 10 p.m. in Guadalajara.

  • Iranian foreign minister declares ‘major progress’ in peace talks

    Iranian foreign minister declares ‘major progress’ in peace talks

    High-stakes peace negotiations hosted in Switzerland have achieved “major progress” toward regional de-escalation, Iran’s top diplomat announced late Sunday, even as belligerent threats from former U.S. President Donald Trump and ongoing Israeli military assaults in Lebanon have created severe risks of derailing the talks.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi highlighted that tireless mediation efforts from Pakistan and Qatar have delivered key breakthroughs aligned with the recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU), including binding commitments to launch a specialized deconfliction cell tasked with overseeing the full termination of Israeli military operations across Lebanon.

    Beyond the Lebanese ceasefire framework, Araghchi confirmed that negotiators have reached consensus on three additional critical points: an end to the long-running U.S. economic blockade on Iran, the unfreezing of a portion of Iran’s overseas sovereign assets, and the adoption of a major national reconstruction and development plan tailored for Iran.

    The Iranian delegation departed the Swiss negotiating venue shortly after Trump issued extreme threats that included vows to assassinate Iranian diplomatic personnel and forcibly “take over” the sovereign state of Iran. These threats directly violate core terms of the existing MOU, which mandates all participating parties to refrain from any threat or use of military force against one another.

    In a joint official statement released Sunday evening, the governments of Pakistan and Qatar, the two lead mediating nations, confirmed that negotiators have finalized a 60-day roadmap to reach a binding final peace agreement. The framework clears the way for immediate technical talks to begin, laying the groundwork for sustained progress.

    “In addition, a direct communication line between the relevant parties has been established to prevent unintended incidents and miscommunication, with the core goal of guaranteeing safe passage for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,” the joint statement added. “The mediating parties will continue to exert every possible effort to maintain a constructive negotiating environment and advance toward a comprehensive final agreement.”

    The optimistic outlook from Araghchi and the mediator governments comes after the first round of formal talks got off to a rocky start. The Iranian delegation initially delayed its arrival to Switzerland in response to a deadly wave of Israeli airstrikes that targeted southern Lebanon late last week.

    Notably, Israeli leadership is not a participating party to the Swiss negotiations, and it has repeatedly refused to end its military occupation of southern Lebanon — a key sticking block that remains a major obstacle to a final deal ending the broader conflict that the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran in late February. Iran has repeatedly stated that the Trump administration must pressure Israeli authorities to end their offensive in Lebanon as a core condition for any final agreement.

    Over the weekend, as talks unfolded in Switzerland, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reaffirmed his government’s hardline stance in a social media post. “Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Beaufort, which is an integral part of the security zone in Lebanon and essential for the defense of the Galilee settlements and IDF forces,” Katz wrote. He added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and he have repeatedly made clear that Israel will not withdraw from its occupied security zone in Lebanon, leaving a key unresolved hurdle for the ongoing negotiation process.

  • Once Keir Starmer had beaten the left, he had no plan for government

    Once Keir Starmer had beaten the left, he had no plan for government

    When Keir Starmer first launched his bid for the UK Labour Party leadership, his core pitch to party voters was straightforward: retain the bulk of Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing policy platform, but package it in the polished, establishment-friendly image of a suited, buttoned-up professional. Long before Labour’s crushing 2019 general election defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson that forced Corbyn out of the leadership, Starmer’s inner campaign circle had already identified him as the perfect candidate to pull off this rebranding.

    Backed by a bloc of Labour right-wing figures including Morgan McSweeney, Peter Mandelson and Roger Liddle, Starmer secured the leadership after making 10 explicit left-wing pledges to the Labour members who voted him into office. Within months, every single one of those commitments had been either fully abandoned or quietly watered down. For his entire tenure, first as opposition leader and later as prime minister, Starmer clung to that carefully crafted image of competent, managerial professionalism, while systematically discarding the policies he had promised to carry over from Corbyn — the man he once publicly called a friend. To the party’s left-wing members, who he publicly disparaged as antisemites, he sent a clear message: “The door is open, and you can leave.”

    But according to multiple insiders — serving and former civil servants, Starmer’s former legal colleagues, and senior Labour Party sources who spoke on condition of anonymity to Middle East Eye — the now-resigned Starmer, who leaves office as the most unpopular British prime minister in decades, also failed to deliver on his core promise of being a competent, results-focused grown-up in office. This failure, they say, rippled through every area of his governance, most glaringly in the UK’s approach to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where long-held international legal norms were cast aside.

    People who have interacted with Starmer in personal settings — including regular football teammates near his north London home in Kentish Town — describe him as a man defined almost entirely by raw ambition and ruthless competitiveness. He hates losing, they say, but once he climbed to the highest office in the UK, he had no clear plan for what to do with power. In less than two years, he lost it entirely.

    “He was rubbish on all metrics, apart from the fact that he isn’t a liar or a cheat – but really that should be an entry requirement,” one senior civil servant who worked closely with both Starmer and his former chief of staff McSweeney told MEE. “Height, voice, inspiration, achieving anything: he was rubbish on all fronts.”

    That same official noted that McSweeney, the veteran Labour strategist widely credited with engineering Starmer’s rise to power and a close ally of Peter Mandelson, had no clear roadmap for governing once he controlled the levers of power. “He was a campaigner,” a second civil servant explained of McSweeney. “And he just stayed in that mode once he was in government. He didn’t look to get things done.”

    Labour MP Clive Lewis framed the core failure of Starmer’s leadership in three clear terms. “Leadership at this moment needs three things: vision, a clear sense of where we are taking the country and why,” Lewis told MEE. “It needs empathy, a real grasp of how people are living and what they are up against. And it needs a plan equal to the scale of what we face. Keir had none of these.”

    Lewis added: “Even so he would not be the first PM to be guilty of such failings. But these are not normal times. Facing us is the spectre of the far right and such failings become catastrophic as opposed to just electorally problematic. That could not be allowed. Hence his early departure.”

    McSweeney’s pro-Starmer group Labour Together, which raised more than £700,000 in undisclosed donations — a portion of which came from prominent pro-Israel business figures such as Trevor Chinn — successfully seized back control of the Labour Party for the right wing, with Starmer serving as its public face. A source who has known McSweeney since his childhood in County Cork, Ireland, told MEE that McSweeney’s political project was driven first and foremost by a visceral hatred of Corbyn and the Labour left, a conflict that dates back to his early days as a grassroots organiser across London.

    While McSweeney is often publicly described as economically left-of-centre but socially conservative, the source called him an unapologetic neoliberal. “He joined the Labour Party because he knew he had a chance of doing well there… The contempt he and his wife [Imogen Walker, who became a Labour MP in 2024] have for Corbyn, is visceral,” the source said.

    That contempt was front and centre even in Starmer’s final resignation speech. The outgoing prime minister claimed he had inherited a Labour Party “that was politically, financially and morally bankrupt” and that he had rooted out “the poison of antisemitism, restoring trust on the economy, defence, and national security.”

    Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesperson hit back with a scathing rebuke: “Keir Starmer ends as he started: with lies. Corbyn turned Labour into the largest party in Europe, built and funded by half a million people who believed in social justice and peace. Starmer swapped political principles for corporate donors – and leaves behind a legacy of broken pledges, grotesque inequality and complicity in genocide. If that isn’t moral bankruptcy, then what is?”

    On the same day of Starmer’s resignation, Corbyn announced he would formally reintroduce his private member’s bill calling for an independent public inquiry into the British government’s complicity in Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

    Madeleine Rees, a prominent British human rights lawyer who worked closely with Starmer in the 1990s, pointed to his stance on Gaza as his defining moral and political failure. “He capitulated on things he really shouldn’t have. The biggest of these was Gaza,” Rees said. Another former legal colleague from Starmer’s days as a liberal barrister at Doughty Street Chambers noted that very few of his former professional associates would still publicly defend his record as prime minister.

    “I didn’t think his reign would be so short. It shows how important principle and optimism are,” Rees told MEE. “He capitulated on things he really shouldn’t have. The biggest of these was Gaza. Abetting a genocide. He could have taken a legal stand and called it a crime. I feel sorry for him because he is a decent man, despite all this, and this will be super hard for him,” she added.

    Beyond Gaza, foreign policy observers also painted a picture of directionless, unprincipled governance. Asked about Starmer’s approach to key global regions, an Indian foreign policy adviser and analyst who participated in UK-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations told MEE: “Have you an inkling of what UK policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, southeast Asia, Hong Kong and India is? I have no clue what the UK stands for anymore.”

    The adviser argued that the negotiated UK-India FTA would only “make rich UK wallahs richer. What is the UK but land around the City of London?” He added: “Starmer’s foreign policy was foreign to the UK’s interests. The development aid is gone. The BBC has no support from them. British universities in India are all shops, with no research and development angle.”

    Andy Burnham, the popular Labour mayor of Greater Manchester commonly known as the “King of the North,” is now widely expected to replace Starmer as party leader and prime minister. But one left-wing Labour activist warned that Burnham could simply be “Starmer 2.0.”

    Josh Simons, who replaced McSweeney as head of Labour Together before winning election as the MP for Makerfield in 2024, recently vacated his seat to clear the path for Burnham’s leadership bid and was a prominent fixture in the by-election campaign. Wes Streeting, the favoured candidate of Labour’s right wing who resigned as health secretary last month, has already thrown his support behind Burnham; if Burnham wins and keeps Streeting in a top cabinet role, Labour’s left wing faces an uphill battle to retain any influence in the new administration.

    John McDonnell, who served as shadow chancellor under Corbyn, has called on the party to return to its historic “broad church” model. That model, he said, is one “in which the views of the full range of traditions, left, right and centre, are respected and engaged with.” Asked whether that inclusive model is likely to be re-established after Starmer’s departure, McDonnell told MEE: “We’ll see, but if the broad church is not re-established, any administration will fail.”

  • National Portrait Gallery display withdrawn after Churchill row

    National Portrait Gallery display withdrawn after Churchill row

    A heated debate over former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s connection to the 1943 Bengal famine has led to the removal of a controversial video installation from London’s National Portrait Gallery, sparking new conversations about artistic freedom, historical interpretation, and institutional accountability.

    Created by Turner Prize-winning artist Helen Cammock, the 40-minute work titled *Persistence* was developed in partnership with the gallery beginning in 2023. Part of the temporary exhibition “Artists First: Contemporary Perspectives on Portraiture”, the piece had been on public display for 10 months and was scheduled to run through August. In her self-narrated installation, Cammock drew a parallel between Oliver Cromwell’s 17th-century mass starvation tactics during military campaigns in Ireland and what she described as “the wilful starvation of the Indian population by Winston Churchill” during the devastating 1943 famine.

    The artist’s framing quickly drew fierce pushback from prominent historical figures and politicians. Churchill biographer Lord Roberts of Belgravia organized an open letter to the gallery leadership, which gathered signatures from more than 50 members of the House of Lords — including Churchill’s own grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames. The letter argued that Cammock’s characterization of Churchill was factually incorrect, dismissing the claim as an “ideologically motivated rant”. Lord Roberts contended that the famine was primarily triggered by a devastating typhoon, and that Churchill had directed his war cabinet to deploy all available resources to support affected regions, even requesting emergency grain shipments from global allies. While this perspective is shared by some historians, other academics have long argued that wartime policy decisions made by Churchill’s government exacerbated the crisis. An estimated 3 million people died in the famine that struck eastern India, and Churchill’s exact role remains one of the most hotly contested topics in modern colonial history.

    Beyond the open letter, the gallery also received direct complaints from members of the public. Initially, the institution defended the work as a legitimate expression of the artist’s personal perspective, but the controversy gained sustained national media attention last week, ultimately leading to the work’s removal on Monday.

    In an official statement provided to BBC News, the National Portrait Gallery confirmed that Cammock had made the independent decision to withdraw her piece. “We respect her decision, just as we acknowledge the opinions of those who were offended by what was said in the film,” the gallery said. It emphasized that the exhibition framework was designed to center artists’ personal creative responses to the gallery’s permanent collection, noting “the work was presented as an artistic piece, not a documentary, and the views expressed in the film do not necessarily reflect those of the NPG.” The institution added that it remains committed to balancing respect for the historical legacies of figures in its collection with support for free artistic expression.

    Cammock, however, has pushed back against what she describes as overwhelming external pressure to censor challenging historical narratives. In her own statement released Monday, she said: “There is an incredible pressure on artists and arts institutions to bend to external pressure; to be benign at best and silent at worst. I do not accept this pressure. To question, challenge and explore ideas and histories is vital to a healthy society and art is intrinsic to this.”

    The artist added that her work was rooted in existing academic research on the famine, and that its core goal was to interrogate how society chooses to honor and memorialize historical figures. “It asks us to think about who is honoured and valorised and who is not; whose stories are told and whose are not,” she said. Echoing activist and artist Nina Simone, Cammock noted: “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times, and sometimes this means revisiting, enquiry and challenge.”

  • ‘Devotion is everything’: Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito converts to Islam

    ‘Devotion is everything’: Breaking Bad star Giancarlo Esposito converts to Islam

    Hollywood star Giancarlo Esposito, best known for his iconic Emmy-nominated turn as calculating drug kingpin Gus Fring in *Breaking Bad*, has become the center of a viral global conversation after unconfirmed reports emerged that he has converted to Islam, sparked by his recent public remarks and on-site activities during a film tour in Morocco.

    The 66-year-old multihyphenate — who counts acting, directing and producing among his credits — traveled to the North African kingdom this June to promote *7 Dogs*, a Saudi-backed Arabic-language action thriller in which he portrays Roman, a shadowy antiquities trafficker with deep ties to the elite ranks of the eponymous criminal syndicate.

    While walking the red carpet for the film’s premiere, Esposito made striking remarks that quickly drew attention: “In your country, Muhammad is everything. For me, it’s the same.” In a subsequent interview with Radio Abraham, filmed while Esposito held what appeared to be Islamic prayer beads, he expanded on his comments, describing Moroccans as “a mirror” for himself. He praised the community’s open devotion, noting their shared understanding “that there is one God, one Allah,” and added that his time in the country allowed him to “see the truth.”

    Days after the premiere, Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Alalshikh shared a video on the platform X that pushed the story into viral territory. The footage captures Esposito leading a prayer alongside his *7 Dogs* production colleagues inside Casablanca’s iconic Hassan II Mosque. Alalshikh’s accompanying caption claimed Esposito made the decision to embrace Islam during months of filming *7 Dogs* on location in Saudi Arabia. As of press time, the post has racked up more than 13 million views.

    In a pre-video interview with *Lalla Fatema* magazine at the Casablanca premiere, Esposito himself had already confirmed that his first stop after arriving in Morocco was the Hassan II Mosque, where he said he stopped to pray. To date, the acclaimed actor has not issued an official, personal confirmation of the conversion reports. Multiple requests for comment from Middle East Eye went unanswered ahead of publication.

    Even without an official statement, the news has exploded across social media, with overwhelmingly positive reactions pouring in, particularly from Arabic-speaking users around the world. Dozens of posts across X and Instagram have welcomed Esposito to the Islamic faith, with many users calling the announcement one of the most pleasant and surprising pieces of entertainment news in recent memory. One user wrote on X: “By God, this is the best news of the day. Esposito converted to Islam and pronounced the testimony of faith, may God make him steadfast.” Another commented: “One of the most shocking and heartwarming news stories at the same time. Uncle Gustavo Fring from *Breaking Bad* and *Better Call Saul* embraces Islam. Praise be to God, that God guides whom He wills.”

    Alongside sincere messages of welcome, many social media users have leaned into humor, creating lighthearted memes that tie Esposito’s reported conversion to his most famous on-screen roles. One viral X post edited a classic promotional photo of Esposito standing next to the sign for Gus Fring’s fictional fried chicken restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos, replacing the original logo with that of beloved Saudi fried chicken chain Albaik. On Reddit, users joked: “Los Pollos will now be serving halal chicken.” The playful content has only amplified the story’s reach, turning a celebrity religion story into a global viral conversation.

  • Ben Gvir says Lebanon should be ‘Israel’s playground’, urges Netanyahu to defy Trump

    Ben Gvir says Lebanon should be ‘Israel’s playground’, urges Netanyahu to defy Trump

    In a provocative address that upends ongoing regional ceasefire efforts, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir publicly ruled out any potential truce with Lebanon on Monday, doubling down on extreme rhetoric that frames the entire country as a legitimate military target for Israeli forces.

    Speaking at the weekly faction meeting of his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party held in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Ben Gvir issued a direct demand to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: formally reject any negotiated peace agreement with Lebanon in upcoming talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. He argued that Washington would understand the hardline position, drawing a inflammatory comparison to how the United States would never accept hostile armed groups operating along its borders.

    “You wouldn’t tolerate having Nazis on your border. You wouldn’t tolerate your soldiers being attacked and being limited in terms of the response. Our response must be 100 percent,” Ben Gvir stated. “I want to say thank you to the Americans, but our red line is harming soldiers and harming civilians.”

    Going further, the minister issued an explicit threat to the Lebanese capital Beirut, warning it could suffer the same near-total destruction that the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun has endured amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the besieged Palestinian enclave. “The equation must be very simple and clear: the State of Israel must be safe. If Israel is not safe, Beirut will look like Beit Hanoun,” he said.

    In subsequent comments carried on Israel’s Channel 14 and shared widely on social media by the Quds News Network, Ben Gvir doubled down on his radical stance, rejecting the distinction between targeting Hezbollah and launching attacks across the entirety of Lebanon. “Lebanon, all of Lebanon, should become our playground. All of Lebanon should be our target,” he declared, justifying the blanket targeting by noting that Hezbollah operatives hold positions within Lebanon’s national government.

    The minister also reiterated dehumanizing comments he made over the weekend, arguing that no hardship for Lebanese civilians should stand in the way of Israeli military goals. “Not a single tear from an Israeli mother can be tolerated. Even if there are tears from a thousand Lebanese mothers, we need to keep going,” he said.

    Ben Gvir’s hardline rejection of a ceasefire comes as escalating Israeli military activity across Lebanon creates major friction in international diplomacy. Spiking Israeli air strikes and expanding ground deployments in southern and eastern Lebanon have already derailed ongoing ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran, negotiations that were being brokered by third-party mediators including Pakistan and Qatar. The situation on the Lebanon frontier has emerged as a major point of disagreement between the Trump administration and the Israeli government, with Washington and other G7 nations repeatedly calling for Israel to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon—calls that have been consistently rejected by Israeli leadership.

    For its part, Hezbollah has demanded the Lebanese government refuse any direct negotiations with Israel as long as Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory continue. Despite this, Lebanon’s national government has publicly expressed hope that a U.S.-Iran deal could bring an end to the ongoing hostilities that have devastated large swathes of the country.

    According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, Israeli military strikes across Lebanon launched since March 2 have killed at least 3,798 people and wounded an additional 11,781, leaving a growing humanitarian crisis in the conflict zone.

  • Explosion at Qatar gas hub leaves 54 injured and 18 missing

    Explosion at Qatar gas hub leaves 54 injured and 18 missing

    A sudden overnight explosion at Qatar’s primary liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing hub has left at least 54 people injured and 18 others unaccounted for, Qatari authorities confirmed in official statements released Monday.

    The blast took place at the Barzan plant within the Ras Laffan Industrial City, a major energy complex located approximately 80 kilometers north of the capital Doha. Qatari Interior Ministry officials characterized the incident as an “internal explosion” stemming from a technical malfunction, ruling out foul play in the initial assessment. Emergency search and rescue teams were rapidly deployed to the site immediately after the incident was reported, and operators of the facility confirmed they have successfully brought the resulting fire under control.

    In a public update, the ministry emphasized that no hazardous leakage from the facility has been detected, and there is no current threat to broader public safety in the surrounding areas. The facility is operated by QatarEnergy, the Gulf state’s state-owned national energy giant, which confirmed that all emergency protocols were activated without delay after the blast.

    Spanning 295 square kilometers — an area roughly one-third the size of New York City — Ras Laffan Industrial City is the beating heart of Qatar’s multi-billion-dollar natural gas industry, the sector that forms the foundation of the country’s national economy. The complex processes massive volumes of natural gas extracted from Qatar’s offshore North Field, one of the largest natural gas reserves on Earth, converting the raw resource into LNG, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), liquid fuels, petrochemical feedstocks and other valuable energy products for global export.

    The incident comes on the heels of severe damage the facility sustained just months earlier, in March, when Iranian missile strikes targeted sites across Gulf nations hosting U.S. military installations, in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. Those strikes damaged two of Ras Laffan’s 14 LNG processing trains and one of its two gas-to-liquid facilities, cutting the country’s total LNG export capacity by 17% overnight. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi explained after the attack that the disruption would take 12.8 million tonnes of annual LNG production offline for three to five years, resulting in an estimated $20 billion in lost annual revenue.

    Virtually all of Ras Laffan’s energy output is shipped to global markets via the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow strategic waterway separating Iran from Oman’s Musandam peninsula that Tehran has effectively closed in response to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli campaign. The combination of the March attack on the facility and the closure of this critical shipping chokepoint has already severely constrained Qatar’s primary export, adding new layers of uncertainty to the country’s energy sector and global natural gas markets already grappling with regional instability.

  • Israeli raid in Hebron kills two Palestinians, including child

    Israeli raid in Hebron kills two Palestinians, including child

    In an early morning military incursion on Monday, Israeli forces stormed the town of Beit Ummar, located northwest of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, leaving two Palestinians dead — one a 15-year-old child — and two others injured, local and official sources confirmed. The deadly confrontation unfolded near Karmei Tzur, an unauthorized Israeli settlement built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.

    According to on-the-ground reports, Israeli troops opened fire on a group of young Palestinian locals near the settlement perimeter. Two of those hit were left bleeding for an extended stretch before Israeli forces seized and retained their bodies, per local accounts. The two wounded victims were evacuated to nearby hospitals, where medical staff confirmed their conditions are currently stable. The Palestinian Ministry of Health officially identified the deceased as 15-year-old Reda Sami Hassan Awad and 19-year-old Issa Arafat Ismail Awad.

    Israeli military officials defended the operation, stating that troops fired on the group after members allegedly threw Molotov cocktails and started small fires near the settlement boundary. Following the shooting, the Israeli military carried out an extensive house-to-house search operation across Beit Ummar.

    In response to the killings, the town declared a full general strike to protest the fatal raid. The incident is part of a sharp upward trend in Israeli military incursions and settler expansion across the occupied West Bank, particularly in the Hebron governorate. Over recent months, Israeli forces have launched repeated incursions into Hebron neighborhoods, enforcing multi-day curfews, blocking access to work and basic services, and deploying armored vehicles and bulldozers to seal off community entrances. These raids often facilitate visits by Israeli officials to the occupied city under heavy military guard; earlier this month, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led a heavily secured convoy march through central Hebron, a move that stoked widespread Palestinian anger.

    Local residents say the escalating raids have a clear strategic goal: expanding existing Israeli settlement outposts, connecting isolated settlements to one another, and permanently entrenching Israeli settler control across more Palestinian land in the West Bank. Leading international bodies including the United Nations and Amnesty International have repeatedly warned that this pattern of activity constitutes a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian communities, forcing entire populations out of their historic lands to make way for Israeli settlement expansion.

    The latest fatalities have pushed the total death toll from Israeli attacks in the West Bank to 70 since the beginning of 2026, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Of those killed, 17 are children, five are women, and two are elderly. Since the launch of Israel’s large-scale military campaign in the Gaza Strip, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and civilian settlers across the occupied West Bank.

  • ‘They took a healthy kid and returned him dead’: Bedouin dies in Israeli custody with signs of torture

    ‘They took a healthy kid and returned him dead’: Bedouin dies in Israeli custody with signs of torture

    A 21-year-old Bedouin Israeli man held on suspicion of arms smuggling by Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet has died in hospital after being found unresponsive in his cell at a southern Israeli prison, with his family and legal representatives claiming his body bore clear signs of severe abuse. The case of Saber Amitel, a Negev-based locksmith and welder with no prior criminal record, has reignited scrutiny of treatment of detainees in Israeli custody amid a sharp rise in prisoner deaths since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October.

    According to reporting from Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Amitel was arrested earlier in June and transferred immediately to Shikma Prison in the coastal city of Ashkelon, where authorities blocked him from meeting with legal counsel for days. His family only learned of his arrest after searching for him for two full days following his disappearance during a trip to Beersheba, and reported him missing to local police, who confirmed he had been taken into custody.

    Officially, Israeli police have stated Amitel attempted to die by suicide in his cell. But family and lawyers reject this account outright, noting the extensive bruising they observed when they were finally granted access to the detainee at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital on June 8. This access only came after Haaretz journalists contacted Israeli authorities to inquire about the previously unreported detention.

    Amitel remained hospitalized in an unresponsive, brain-dead state hooked up to life support for 12 days before his death on June 20. His body was moved to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine for official examination, but the family has declined to permit an autopsy on religious grounds, limiting officials to only an external inspection of the body.

    In an interview with Haaretz, Amitel’s father Odeh described the devastating shock of seeing his healthy son reduced to an unresponsive patient on life support. “From a healthy boy who was arrested while walking on his own two feet, he ended up in this condition,” he said. “He was under guard and handcuffed. Medical staff told us that this is how he arrived. They took a healthy kid away from me only to return him dead. There’s no law in this country anymore; people are being killed under torture.” Odeh added that his son was never given the opportunity to speak with interrogators prior to being found unconscious, and had never been a violent person.

    Amitel’s legal team has filed an urgent legal petition with the Beersheba District Court, calling for an independent judicial investigation into the circumstances of the young man’s death. The petition names four parties as respondents: the Israel Prison Service, Shin Bet, Israeli police, and Barzilai Medical Center. Attorneys are also requesting access to full closed-circuit camera footage from Shikma Prison, official guard duty logs, and all of Amitel’s medical records from his time in custody.

    “It is inconceivable that the police and Shin Bet detained a young man, healthy in body and mind, with no criminal record, who worked long hours at a factory supporting his family, and returned him to his family as a dead body,” attorneys Esther Bar Zion and Victor Ozen told Haaretz in a statement.

    In response to media inquiries, the Israel Prison Service declined to comment on any personal or medical details related to Amitel, stating only that “the circumstances are being examined by the competent authorities.” Shin Bet issued its own statement claiming that “Amitel was interrogated in accordance with the law,” and repeated the official account that a suicide attempt was discovered in his cell on June 7, after which the detainee was transferred to hospital for treatment.

    The death of Amitel comes amid a growing crisis in Israeli detention facilities, following the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023. Rights monitors and Palestinian sources report that at least 100 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since the war began. Many analysts and advocacy groups believe the official death toll is a significant underestimate, and that the actual number of fatalities among detainees is far higher.

    For anyone experiencing mental health crisis or suicidal thoughts, free, confidential support is available globally: In the United Kingdom and Ireland, contact Samaritans at 116 123; in the United States, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or access online support at 988lifeline.org; additional international resources can be found at befrienders.org.

  • Keir Starmer resigns as British prime minister

    Keir Starmer resigns as British prime minister

    In a sudden development that has shaken British politics, Keir Starmer has stepped down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party less than two full years after securing a landslide victory in the UK general election. His announcement came Monday morning outside 10 Downing Street, ending days of swirling public speculation about his political future.

    Starmer confirmed in his address that he would formally resign from the party’s top leadership role, and has requested the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee launch a leadership selection timetable that will open nominations on July 9, with the full process wrapped up before parliament’s summer recess. Under this schedule, a new party leader will be confirmed and installed before MPs return to Westminster in September, regardless of whether a contested election is held.

    Addressing the pressure that led to his exit, Starmer acknowledged that the Parliamentary Labour Party had delivered a clear answer on whether he remained the best candidate to lead the party into the next general election. “I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace,” he said. “Every decision I’ve taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour party.” He added that he had already notified King Charles III of his decision during a conversation earlier that morning.

    The collapse of Starmer’s leadership follows a string of damaging political setbacks. A catastrophic round of local election results, widely blamed on Starmer’s deep unpopularity among voters, preceded last week’s by-election win in Makerfield by Andy Burnham, the former popular mayor of Greater Manchester. That victory solidified Burnham’s position as the overwhelming favourite to replace Starmer, and political insiders now widely expect him to run unopposed, potentially taking office as prime minister as early as mid-July.

    In his departure speech, Starmer defended his two years in office, framing his tenure as a period of necessary reset for the Labour Party. “I inherited a Labour Party that was politically, financially and morally bankrupt,” he said. “We changed our party, ripping out the poison of antisemitism and restoring trust on the economy, defence and national security.” He pledged full, unwavering support to his successor, adding: “They will inherit a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the one I inherited two years ago, better prepared for the challenges ahead and better able to ensure the Labour Party secures a second term in office.”

    Burnham is scheduled to take his seat in the House of Commons later on Monday, completing his transition from municipal leadership to national politics. While former Health Secretary Wes Streeting previously indicated he would enter the leadership race, sources close to Streeting have confirmed he is now reconsidering his bid. Polling data shows Streeting is even less popular among Labour Party members than the outgoing Starmer, making a successful challenge unlikely.

    Politically, Burnham is positioned on the soft left of the Labour Party, and has long been described as a pragmatic “political chameleon” who has adjusted his policy stances significantly over his career. During his tenure as Greater Manchester mayor, he and his allies developed a policy framework they have branded “Manchesterism”, which he now proposes to roll out across the entire country.

    Unlike Starmer’s more centrist economic approach, Manchesterism advocates for far more interventionist government action in the economy – stopping short of full socialism, but bolder than the outgoing government’s vision. In Burnham’s own framing, it is a “modern and functional response to the high-inequality, low-growth trap that came from the 1980s drive to privatise economic power and overcentralise political power in the Treasury”. He has already publicly pledged to bring water and energy utilities back into public ownership if he takes office.

    Still, questions remain about which policy iteration of Burnham voters and party members will see as prime minister. During his recent by-election campaign, he indicated he would retain key elements of Starmer’s policy agenda, most notably continuing the government’s push to dramatically cut net immigration. This position is intended to win back voters who have defected to the right-wing Reform Party, but it has already become a potential target for criticism from the left-wing Green Party, which has seen a major surge in national polling in recent months.

    Burnham and his campaign team are well aware of the political risk posed by the Green Party’s rise, and observers expect many of his upcoming economic policies will be crafted to appeal to left-leaning voters who have abandoned Labour for the Greens. If Burnham takes office as expected, the coming months could bring sweeping policy shifts across British politics.