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  • Trump hails a ‘unique’ Cabinet meeting at Camp David as he seizes on Spain’s migration crisis

    Trump hails a ‘unique’ Cabinet meeting at Camp David as he seizes on Spain’s migration crisis

    CAMP DAVID, Md. – In a break from regular Washington protocol, former President (current 2025 office-holder) Donald Trump brought his Cabinet’s weekly meeting to the wooded, historic presidential retreat of Camp David in northern Maryland on Friday, leveraging the iconic location’s symbolic weight to tout his administration’s policy wins and frame a looming immigration warning for midterm election voters.

    Marking a first for the storied site, this gathering was the first-ever televised Cabinet meeting held at Camp David, a detail the White House prioritized in its morning communications leading up to the event. Opening the session, Trump emphasized the uniqueness of the setting, noting “It’s Camp David, and this room is a very, very special room.”

    After opening remarks, Trump moved through his standard campaign-season talking points, highlighting economic growth, border security policy and the administration’s approach to Iran before pivoting to a sharp political warning. Pointing to the recent dramatic surge of undocumented migrants arriving in Ceuta, a small Spanish overseas territory in North Africa, Trump framed the unrest as a cautionary tale for American voters ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

    “You know I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people,” Trump told the assembled Cabinet. “And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected. Except worse, much bigger.”

    Following Trump’s opening address, top administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered brief remarks, before the president opened the floor for questions from the press pool. Journalists exited the closed meeting after nearly an hour of questions and discussion.

    This gathering marked the first successful in-person Cabinet meeting at Camp David during Trump’s second term. A planned May meeting at the retreat was canceled entirely due to severe inclement weather, though Trump held one similar session at the site during his first term in office. Unlike the format used by many previous presidents, Trump has opened the full public portion of his Cabinet meetings to press access, a move his aides have framed as proof of his commitment to government transparency. In previous sessions, public portions of meetings stretched as long as three hours, with every Cabinet head offering department updates that often included personal praise for the president’s leadership. More recently, however, Trump has pushed for tighter time limits, urging brief remarks and cutting back on the number of oral department reports to avoid overly long sessions. “Everybody around here has got a lot to say. But we did that once, and it lasted for like four or five hours. It was a little much,” Trump explained during the scuttled May meeting.

    Beyond its role as a setting for Friday’s political gathering, Camp David has occupied a unique place in American presidential history for more than 80 years. First established in 1942 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, the retreat was created after military and Secret Service officials raised safety concerns about Roosevelt’s habit of relaxing aboard a presidential yacht on open water during World War II. Roosevelt asked the National Park Service to identify potential rest sites within 100 miles of the White House, and ultimately selected the Catoctin Mountain location, originally naming it Shangri-La after the fictional utopia from James Hilton’s novel *Lost Horizon*. President Dwight Eisenhower later renamed the retreat Camp David, in honor of his grandson and father.

    Every U.S. president since Roosevelt has used the 180-acre mountain retreat, which offers both a private escape from the pressures of Washington and a secure, discrete location for sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Its most iconic diplomatic moment came in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter hosted Egyptian and Israeli leaders for 13 days of closed talks that ultimately produced the landmark Camp David Accords, a historic peace agreement between the two nations. In 1979, Carter also gathered a cross-section of American civic leaders at the retreat for discussions ahead of a nationally televised energy policy address that later became known as the “malaise speech,” despite Carter never using the term in his remarks.

    In 2019, during his first term, Trump made headlines when he canceled a planned secret Camp David summit with Taliban and Afghan government leaders just days before the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The cancellation came after a Kabul bombing killed 12 people, including one U.S. service member.

    During his first term, Trump was a frequent visitor to Camp David, often spending multiple weekends a month at the retreat. In his second term, his visits have been far less frequent, with his most recent prior stay coming in June for a Father’s Day weekend break.

    Today, the Navy-operated, Marine-guarded retreat includes the presidential Aspen Cabin, roughly a dozen guest cabins, a main lodge with conference facilities, a presidential dining room and private office, and a wide range of recreational amenities, including a fitness center, bowling alley, movie theater, heated swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, and an on-site chapel for religious services. Its core purpose, maintained across eight decades, remains to give sitting presidents a private, secure space to rest, recharge and meet away from the public spotlight of Washington.

    Superville and Kim contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

  • Human-caused climate change made Spanish, French fires much more likely, scientists calculate

    Human-caused climate change made Spanish, French fires much more likely, scientists calculate

    As out-of-control wildfires continue to scorch vast swathes of Spain and France this week, two independent scientific studies released Thursday deliver a clear, data-backed conclusion: human-caused climate change has directly amplified the extreme fire-conducive weather driving these catastrophic blazes, and has drastically raised wildfire risk across Southern Europe over the past eight years.

    The first analysis, from international scientific collaborative World Weather Attribution (WWA), found that anthropogenic climate change made the record-breaking extreme inferno conditions in Spain 20 times more likely to occur, while doubling the odds of dangerous fire weather for the ongoing blazes in France. Looking at a longer 26-year warming trend, the report notes extreme fire risk probability has tripled in Spain and risen by 40% in France. WWA conducted its rapid assessment while fires were still actively spreading across the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern France, meaning the work has not yet completed formal peer review — the traditional gold standard for scientific publication. But WWA lead researcher Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, emphasized the team uses widely accepted methodological approaches, and many of the group’s rapid analyses are later peer-reviewed and published in major academic journals.

    Otto pointed to Spain’s unique combination of risk factors that turned dry heat into unprecedented fire danger: the country is currently experiencing its hottest summer on record, following an unusually wet January that spurred dense vegetation growth. A severe, prolonged drought then hit, drying out that excess plant life to create massive amounts of ready-to-burn wildfire fuel. Additional risk stems from widespread land abandonment in parts of Spain, which leaves overgrown, unmanaged vegetation to dry out and increase fire severity. In France, the Bordeaux region — one of the areas hardest hit by the current blazes — has large, dense pine forests that burn intensely once ignited, Otto added.

    To quantify climate change’s impact, Otto’s team compared current fire weather severity — measured across four key factors: air temperature, drought levels, humidity, and wind speed — to historical regional data, and modeled what conditions would look like if the planet had not warmed by 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) since the pre-industrial era.

    A separate, pre-planned study published Thursday in the journal *Scientific Reports* adds broader long-term context to the current crisis. Lead author Raúl Cordero, a climate scientist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, found the average annual number of extreme fire-prone weather days across Southern Europe has more than doubled since the mid-20th century, jumping from roughly 10 days per year in earlier decades to around 25 days annually today. Not only are extreme fire days more frequent, Cordero’s analysis found they are also 50% more intense than the average recorded between 1981 and 2010.

    Cordero’s research also highlights a troubling trend: from the 1980s through 2018, better fire suppression and land management practices led to steady reductions in the number of wildfires and total acreage burned across Southern Europe. But those hard-won gains have been completely wiped out by the rapid acceleration of climate-driven fire risk. “It doesn’t matter how many resources or how much money you have, you just cannot stop the propagation of a fire when the weather is so extreme,” Cordero explained. “The climate forcing is so extreme nowadays that it’s just amazing.”

    Independent fire and climate scientists not involved in either study say the findings confirm long-held understanding of climate change’s wildfire impact. “This study makes sense and provides numbers to confirm what fire scientists already knew,” said Jacob Bendix, a fire researcher at Syracuse University. “We have always known that fires ignite more easily and spread more explosively under conditions of extreme heat and drought. And we’ve known for decades that extreme heat and drought are becoming more common due to anthropogenic climate change. So the general outline of these events, if not all the details, was tragically predictable.”

    John Abatzaglou, a fire scientist at the University of California Merced, added that the research underscores that climate change is not a distant threat. “These findings make clear that climate change is not just a future problem, it’s already here,” he said.

    Otto stressed that the solution to worsening wildfire risk requires urgent action to cut fossil fuel use. “We need to stop burning fossil fuels,” she said. “Because as long as we keep burning fossil fuels, temperatures will increase globally. And that will mean that these fire weather conditions will get worse and worse and worse. And there are hard limits to what we can adapt to.”

  • Danube’s record low levels force shutdown of Hungary’s only nuclear plant

    Danube’s record low levels force shutdown of Hungary’s only nuclear plant

    A historic climate-fueled drought has pushed water levels in the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river, to their lowest point in decades, triggering cascading energy disruptions, shutting down key nuclear infrastructure, and halting shipping across multiple Central and Eastern European nations this summer. What began as a gradual drop in water levels amid months of below-average rainfall and a sustained record-breaking heatwave has escalated into a full-blown energy and transportation crisis, with implications that underscore the growing vulnerability of European infrastructure to accelerating climate change.

    Hungary’s prime minister, Péter Magyar, announced last week that the country’s only nuclear power plant, the Soviet-era Paks facility, will be forced into a complete, temporary shutdown for the first time in its history. The plant relies on Danube water to cool its reactors, but receding waters have left the facility’s water suction nozzles unable to reach the river’s surface. Magyar warned that the combination of the Paks shutdown and ongoing heatwave, which will keep temperatures hovering around 37°C for a full week, could push Hungary’s national energy supply into a “critical” state starting Monday.

    To avoid a total grid collapse, the prime minister has called on all Hungarian residents to cut back on high-energy activities during peak evening demand hours between 17:00 and 22:00, including electric vehicle charging and heavy use of air conditioning. He added that authorities are also preparing a contingency plan for rotational power outages if voluntary conservation fails to balance grid supply and demand, and the government is currently compiling a list of commercial and industrial users whose electricity and water consumption can be restricted if necessary.

    Hungary is far from alone in facing crisis. Neighboring Romania has already shut down one of its two operational nuclear reactors at the Cernavoda power plant, which generates roughly 20% of the country’s total electricity output. The 706-megawatt unit was taken offline earlier this week due to the catastrophic drop in Danube levels, and state power firm Nuclearelectrica was working frantically late this week to prevent the shutdown of the remaining reactor. If the second unit goes offline, Romania will join Hungary in losing 100% of its nuclear power generation temporarily, a devastating blow to national energy security. Official hydrological data from Romania’s National Institute of Hydrology shows that average July flow of the Danube at the country’s entry point is 4,700 cubic meters per second; this week, that figure dropped to less than a third of the normal level at 1,600 cubic meters per second, with forecasts calling for further declines to 1,500 cubic meters per second by next Tuesday.

    The current crisis is the product of months of abnormal weather that has gripped much of Europe, a continent that the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms is warming twice as fast as the global average, making it the fastest-warming continent on Earth. Climate change has amplified the frequency and intensity of summer heatwaves, dried up continental water reserves, and increased the risk of catastrophic wildfires across the region. This summer, persistent drought and high temperatures have pushed Danube levels to their lowest point in 30 years across most of the river basin, with some Serbian hydrologists noting levels have not been this low in 50 to 60 years. Low rainfall this spring combined with summer’s extreme heat has compounded the problem, according to experts, and no significant recovery in water levels is expected before mid-September.

    Alongside energy disruptions, the falling river has all but halted commercial and passenger shipping along large stretches of the Danube. In Bulgaria, shipping has completely stopped, and earlier this week border police were forced to evacuate 186 passengers from the Viking Ullur river cruise ship after the vessel ran aground near the border city of Vidin. Stranded passengers faced dwindling food and water supplies after the ship could not dock in Vidin, and a secondary rescue vessel initially struggled to reach the grounded craft due to shallow waters. “I have never heard of such low levels over the years. There has certainly not been a similar situation since 1990,” Ivan Zhekov, head of river supervision at Bulgaria’s maritime administration agency, told local news outlet BTA. The low waters have even exposed vast stretches of riverbed around the Bulgarian-Romanian border, leaving dozens of small boats stranded on dry ground near the Calafat-Vidin cross-border bridge.

    While the crisis has brought severe disruption, the receding waters have also uncovered rare long-submerged artifacts and natural remains. In Croatia, the wreck of a sunken Hungarian cargo ship has resurfaced, while in Serbia’s Prahovo region, the hulk of a World War II German warship that had been submerged for decades is now fully exposed. Most remarkably, a resident of the Bulgarian city of Ruse discovered well-preserved mammoth bones on the exposed riverbed, including a lower jaw, two tusks, and what experts believe to be a rib bone.

    The Danube, which stretches 2,857 kilometers across 10 European countries, is a critical transportation artery and key water source for power generation and agriculture across Central and Eastern Europe. Its tributaries, including the Sava and Tisa in Serbia, are also hitting record low levels this summer, compounding regional stress. Beyond the Danube basin, the broader European climate crisis continues to escalate: extreme fire weather is spreading toward central Europe, after France and Spain experienced some of the most intense and widespread wildfires on record in recent weeks, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Greece and Turkey remain the worst-affected countries for wildfire activity this season.

  • UK police arrests dozens at protest supporting banned group Palestine Action

    UK police arrests dozens at protest supporting banned group Palestine Action

    LONDON – In a dramatic escalation of tensions over the United Kingdom government’s terrorist designation of pro-Palestine advocacy group Palestine Action, 77 demonstrators were taken into custody Thursday outside a central London courthouse after gathering to show public support for the banned organization. The arrests coincided with a landmark procedural ruling that cleared the way for the group to appeal its proscription status before the UK Supreme Court, setting up a major constitutional showdown over the boundaries of free speech and counterterrorism policy.

    The UK government first outlawed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization one year ago, in response to a high-profile direct action protest in June 2025 where activists breached security at a Royal Air Force base to demonstrate against British military backing for Israel’s offensive in Gaza. The ban carries severe legal consequences: anyone found guilty of membership or public support for the group can face up to 14 years in prison. Since the designation took effect, more than 3,000 people have been arrested for acts as minor as holding public signs reading “I support Palestine Action”, according to official figures. More than 1,200 of those detained have been formally charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act, though no convictions have been secured in any of these cases to date.

    The legal battle over the ban has wound through multiple levels of the UK judicial system over the past year. The High Court struck down the government’s proscription order in February, ruling in the group’s favor. But the government appealed that decision, and the Court of Appeal reversed the lower court’s ruling in June. The appellate judges characterized the ban as a “justified and proportionate” limitation on freedom of expression, concluding that Palestine Action had crossed the line from legitimate civil disobedience by using violence to damage property and threaten public safety.

    On Thursday, the Supreme Court granted Palestine Action founder Huda Ammori permission to bring the challenge before the court’s top justices. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled to take place between October and December. Court officials confirmed that all ongoing prosecutions of people charged under the ban have been paused pending the Supreme Court’s final ruling, which will set a binding precedent for future counterterrorism proscription cases in the UK.

    The demonstration outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday drew hundreds of supporters, with detained protesters shouting chants including “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” as onlookers responded with cries of “Shame!” The Metropolitan Police confirmed that nearly all of the 77 arrests were made on charges of violating the proscription ban by publicly expressing support for Palestine Action.

  • Uefa to boycott World Cups if Fifa plans approved

    Uefa to boycott World Cups if Fifa plans approved

    A seismic rift has opened at the highest level of global football after all 55 member associations of European football’s governing body UEFA voted unanimously to boycott every FIFA competition if FIFA proceeds with its controversial proposal to sell minority stakes in its top tournaments, including the men’s and women’s World Cup, to private investors. The historic decision was reached during a virtual emergency meeting chaired by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, held to address the plan FIFA unveiled earlier this week to the shock of the global football community.

    FIFA’s proposal would establish a new commercial subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which would hold ownership of FIFA’s flagship competitions. The governing body has opened the door for third-party private investors to acquire minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE, a plan that requires a formal approval vote from FIFA’s 211 global member associations. To secure backing for the initiative, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has offered a $40 million payout to every member association that votes in favor of the plan, with an initial $20 million available to supporters who confirm their backing by the September 19 deadline. If approved, the investor group is set to be led by Thrive Eternal, an American venture capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

    UEFA has emerged as the most vocal opponent of the plan, and Thursday’s vote cemented the unified opposition of every European national federation. In a hard-hitting statement released after the meeting, UEFA stressed that the World Cup is far more than a commercial asset, calling it one of the greatest sporting legacies in global football, built over generations by players, national teams and fans across every continent. “The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product. No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale,” the statement read.

    The organization doubled down on its criticism of FIFA’s process, condemning the plan as having been developed in complete secrecy without any meaningful consultation with global football stakeholders, calling the lack of input “irresponsible and indefensible.” The statement went further, framing the move as a fundamental failure of global football leadership: “This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football. National associations around the world are now presented with an ultimatum: accept the irreversible capture of football’s greatest competitions or bear the consequences. This is not a ‘democratic decision’, but governance by intimidation – an act of coercion unworthy of an institution entrusted with the stewardship of the global game.”

    Major European federations have already lined up to back the unified stance. England’s Football Association confirmed it stands “shoulder to shoulder” with European colleagues, adding “We oppose Fifa’s plans – the Fifa World Cup belongs to football and always will.” The Scottish Football Association echoed the criticism, highlighting deep concerns over the lack of full consultation and disregard for good governance in how the proposal has been rolled out with a tight binding deadline.

    Under the boycott terms, all UEFA member nations will withdraw from all FIFA-run competitions if the proposal passes, with the first potential test of this commitment coming as early as October, during the scheduled Women’s World Cup play-offs. Other upcoming FIFA tournaments include the Women’s Under-20 World Cup kicking off in Poland on September 5, well before the September 19 vote deadline for the proposal.

    Industry analysts and football insiders warn this confrontation represents one of the most existential challenges to global football’s governing structure in modern history, drawing comparisons to the 2021 failed European Super League breakaway as a threat to the core identity of the sport. Simon Stone, BBC Sport’s chief football reporter, notes that private investment in FIFA competitions would almost certainly lead to frequent expansion of tournament size and frequency, putting massive pressure on global football calendars that would trickle down through every level of the domestic game in every football-playing nation.

    While UEFA only represents 25 percent of FIFA’s total global membership, its member associations include the majority of the world’s most successful and commercially valuable national teams. Data from recent World Cups underscores UEFA’s outsize influence: at this summer’s men’s World Cup, six of the eight quarter-finalists were European sides, including eventual champion Spain. The 2022 and 2018 men’s World Cups saw five and six European quarter-finalists respectively, and European nations have won 13 of the 23 men’s World Cups held to date. The pattern holds across other FIFA competitions: three of the four semi-finalists at the last Women’s World Cup were European, and three of four semi-finalists at the 2025 Club World Cup also came from European confederations.

    Football insiders say a World Cup held without participation from top European sides would be commercially unviable, as it would lack the star power and fan appeal needed to generate the revenue FIFA requires to fund the $40 million payouts it has promised to voting supporters. For now, the global football world waits for the September vote, with the future of the sport’s most iconic tournament hanging in the balance.

  • Greek police probe ‘foul play’ in death of woman found in suitcase

    Greek police probe ‘foul play’ in death of woman found in suitcase

    A shocking death investigation is underway in Athens, Greece, after the remains of a 38-year-old Scottish national, Elisabeth-Jane Ross, were discovered hidden inside a suitcase in an abandoned downtown structure. The grim find was made on July 18 by a homeless person navigating the Kypseli district, a busy central neighborhood popular with international travelers, young expats, and packed with short-term Airbnb rentals.

    Authorities have confirmed Ross arrived in Greece from Cyprus roughly two weeks before her body was located. Preliminary estimates place her time of death between five and seven days prior to the discovery, and an initial physical examination of her remains failed to pinpoint a clear cause of death or rule out criminal intervention. A Greek police spokesperson told the BBC that official investigations are currently pending results from toxicology testing, which will help investigators confirm how Ross died and whether any third-party foul play contributed to her death.

    Further details emerging from the investigation suggest suspicious activity following Ross’s death: according to The Guardian’s Athens correspondent Helena Smith, someone maintained control of Ross’s mobile phone after she passed away, sending outbound messages to mislead loved ones and authorities who were attempting to locate her. Smith also added that Ross had family based in Edinburgh, pre-existing connections to Greece, and had been staying with a friend in Athens before she went missing.

    Scottish and UK authorities have moved quickly to support Ross’s grieving family. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney confirmed that the Scottish Government and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office will provide full support to Ross’s next of kin. Swinney called the case deeply appalling, saying he shares profound concern over the tragic incident.

    The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed Wednesday that it is providing consular assistance to the family and maintaining close coordination with Greek law enforcement. A spokesperson for Police Scotland added that the force is aware of the incident, is in regular contact with Greek investigating authorities, and has assigned officers to support Ross’s family members who remain in Scotland. Interpol has declined to issue any comment on the ongoing investigation, citing its policy against discussing open individual cases.

  • Wildfires force George Clooney’s family to evacuate their home in southern France

    Wildfires force George Clooney’s family to evacuate their home in southern France

    PARIS – A-list Hollywood actor George Clooney and his family have been compelled to abandon their countryside residence in southeastern France after an out-of-control wildfire encroached on the local area, his representative confirmed to reporters this Thursday.

    The Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for headlining the blockbuster *Ocean’s Eleven* franchise and decades of acclaimed film and television roles, shared details of his family’s evacuation in a personal letter addressed to Didier Bremond, the mayor of Brignoles. Brignoles is a small regional town located roughly 55 miles northeast of the Mediterranean port city of Marseille. Publicist Guido Gotz verified the authenticity of the correspondence in an email response to the Associated Press.

    In the warm, community-focused message opening with “Dear Didier,” Clooney acknowledged that the outcome for his property remained uncertain as the blaze continued to spread. “At this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment,” the actor wrote. Despite the uncertainty facing his own assets, Clooney made clear that his first priorities were the safety of local residents and his commitment to the region he calls a second home.

    He outlined two core points he wanted to share with local leadership: “first we hope you and the people of our city are safe and second that Amal and I are committed to making sure that whatever happens to our village,” Clooney stated, referencing his human rights lawyer wife Amal Clooney. “We are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole.”

  • European nations vow to boycott World Cup, other FIFA tournaments over Infantino private equity plan

    European nations vow to boycott World Cup, other FIFA tournaments over Infantino private equity plan

    GENEVA — In an unprecedented move that has sent shockwaves through global soccer governance, all 55 member national associations of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) voted unanimously Thursday to withdraw from all FIFA competitions indefinitely, in open revolt against FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s controversial plan to sell a 20% stake in World Cup commercial operations to private equity investors.

    The boycott announcement, delivered following an emergency virtual strategy meeting of European soccer leaders, puts immediate upcoming FIFA tournaments at risk. The FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, scheduled to kick off in just weeks on September 5 in Poland, is now under serious threat of cancellation. Additionally, the only active bid for the 2035 Women’s World Cup comes from a consortium of four British national federations, leaving FIFA with no alternative candidates as it prepares to award hosting rights on November 23.

    In a sharply worded statement released after the meeting, UEFA drew a clear line in the sand over the sanctity of global soccer’s marquee event. “Some things are simply too important to sell,” the statement read. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

    Infantino’s surprise plan, first exposed this week, would spin off FIFA’s entire commercial division into a new $20 billion subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), offering a 20% ownership share to outside private investors. The lead investor lined up for the deal is a New York-based investment firm founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

    To push the plan through for a vote by FIFA’s 211 global member associations, Infantino has offered a one-time $20 million payout to every member that approves the proposal by mid-September, double the $10 million in base development funding members were already promised for the next four years. He projects that by 2038, each member would receive $86 million in total FIFA funding under the new model, up from the current projected $36 million. But UEFA argues the plan represents a fundamental betrayal of FIFA’s non-profit mission as the global custodian of soccer. “This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” UEFA said, noting Infantino spent decades as a senior UEFA administrator before being elected FIFA president in 2016.

    The high-stakes financial gambit has now put Infantino’s 11-year hold on the FIFA presidency in serious jeopardy, just months before a scheduled presidential election. Just 11 days ago, after the men’s Club World Cup final in New Jersey, Infantino appeared poised to win a fourth and final term unopposed through 2031, even amid controversy over his decision to allow U.S. forward Folarin Balogun to play against Belgium despite carrying a red card suspension from a previous match. Now, open opposition has emerged from three of FIFA’s six continental confederations, and candidate filing deadline for the election, set for November 18, is looming. Soccer insiders have also privately noted Infantino has been positioning himself for a highly paid executive leadership role at FFE after his presidential term ends in 2031.

    Fan groups have already thrown their support behind the boycott, with Football Supporters Europe, an organization that advises UEFA on fan-related issues, posting “Game over, Gianni #InfantinOUT” on social media following Thursday’s announcement.

    UEFA outlined clear, long-standing concerns about the risks of bringing outside private investment into the core of global soccer governance. “The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” the group’s statement explained. “Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.” While Infantino has framed the proposal as a way to “turbocharge” development funding for soccer in emerging nations, where most of FIFA’s 211 members rely on FIFA grants to operate, European officials counter that FIFA already holds multi-billion-dollar reserves that could be used to expand development programs without ceding control to private investors.

    The boycott will remain in place until the FFE plan is scrapped entirely, UEFA confirmed. “As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.”

    In a rare break from his past alliance with Infantino, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who lost the 2016 FIFA presidential election to Infantino, also joined the criticism Thursday in a letter to AFC’s 46 member associations. “FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,” Sheikh Salman wrote, warning that the plan poses direct risks to the autonomy of regional and national competitions. “Such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.”

    In a pre-recorded video message released Wednesday, Infantino attempted to downplay the opposition, framing the FFE plan as “an offer, not an obligation” for member associations. Internal FIFA presentation materials, co-written with banking advisor J.P. Morgan and reviewed by the Associated Press, state FFE’s goal is to bring “commercial rigor and expertise to better capitalize on broadcast rights, sponsorships and a growing tournament portfolio.”

    Critics warn the plan would allow FIFA to expand its event portfolio, potentially adding more teams to men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups, and even staging the tournaments more frequently than the current four-year cycle, most likely in the United States. This expanded FIFA calendar would further crowd an already overloaded global soccer schedule, eroding the value, profile and scheduling space of continental competitions run by bodies like UEFA and AFC, including World Cup qualifiers, continental championships, and continental club competitions such as the UEFA Champions League. Sheikh Salman emphasized the need for Asian soccer leaders to understand the full impact of the plan on the long-term sustainability of regional and domestic competitions.

    This is not the first time European soccer bodies have used a World Cup boycott threat to block one of Infantino’s major structural changes. In 2021, a similar European boycott derailed Infantino’s proposal to switch the men’s World Cup from a four-year cycle to every two years.

  • Glen Hansard: Meeting heroes and the tape that changed his life

    Glen Hansard: Meeting heroes and the tape that changed his life

    The global music community is reeling from sudden, devastating news this week: beloved Oscar-winning Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has died at age 56 following a motorbike accident in his hometown of Dublin on Wednesday. Tributes have flooded in from across the world, from U2’s Bono to Bruce Springsteen, as fans, peers, and loved ones mourn the loss of a musician whose work touched millions and reshaped Ireland’s cultural legacy on the international stage.

    Born and raised in Ballymun, a working-class Dublin neighborhood grappling with mass unemployment, crime, and drug addiction in the 1980s, Hansard left formal schooling at just 13, already on a precarious path that risked being consumed by the systemic deprivation surrounding him. It was two seemingly small gifts that altered the entire trajectory of his life: a guitar left at his family home by an uncle who was imprisoned, and a Bob Dylan cassette tape gifted by his girlfriend’s brother. In a February 2025 interview with Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, Hansard recalled that the discovery of Dylan’s work flipped his world upside down. “I stayed in the bedroom, I played Bob Dylan songs every day, I learned my craft, I decided music was all I cared about. So that was a real turnaround for me, it was a life changer and I suddenly had my path,” he said. A supportive school headmaster further cemented that path, telling him: “I can’t guarantee you’ll be famous, but if you start now, then you’ll always be able to live from your guitar.”

    Hansard went on to form the iconic Irish rock band The Frames, signing his first record deal in 1990 – the same year he stumbled into a role that would launch his public profile. By chance, he accompanied a friend to an open audition for Alan Parker’s 1991 musical comedy *The Commitments*, a story about a working-class Dublin soul band. With his natural red hair, Dublin northside accent, and existing guitar skills, casting directors asked him to read for the role of guitarist Outspan Foster, a part he landed despite never intending to audition. The film became a surprise global hit and earned permanent cult status, and Hansard later clarified he cherished the experience, despite long-running rumors he disliked the production. “I loved it, I had an absolute ball. I just sort of felt it didn’t define me and that was my little bit of resistance,” he told the XS Noise podcast earlier in 2026.

    That accidental foray into film opened the door to another career-defining, Oscar-winning opportunity decades later. For the 2007 indie Irish romance *Once*, director John Carney originally cast noted Irish actor Cillian Murphy in the lead male role, planning to train the actor to sing. When the creative team opted instead to cast a skilled musician who could grow into the acting part, they turned to Hansard, who had already co-written original music for the film opposite Czech musician Markéta Irglová. The pair’s duet *Falling Slowly* went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008, catapulting Hansard to global stardom and cementing his place as one of Ireland’s most celebrated creative exports.

    Throughout his decades-long career, Hansard counted many music legends among his close friends and mentors. A lifelong fan of Bob Dylan and Northern Irish icon Van Morrison, he recalled his first awkward meeting with Morrison at age 19 or 20, when he was invited to the star’s birthday party at a Guinness family estate. After an initial gruff reception, Morrison invited Hansard to play, and the pair spent an hour and a half jamming, trading songs back and forth long after Hansard ran out of his own material. In a 2023 interview with BBC Radio Ulster, Hansard spoke of the close-knit community of global music stars he got to know over his career, recalling sessions with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder that drew unplanned appearances from Ringo Starr, Stevie Wonder, Iggy Pop, and Morrissey. He also shared a beloved family anecdote about his mother, a diehard Beatles fan who snuck into the band’s backstage dressing room at Dublin’s Adelphi Cinema in 1964, only to be kicked out just moments before meeting the group – a story she repeated proudly for the rest of her life.

    Beyond his iconic discography and film work, Hansard was deeply committed to philanthropy, particularly focused on addressing homelessness in Dublin. For 15 consecutive years, he organized an annual Christmas Eve busking event on Dublin’s Grafton Street to raise funds for homeless charity the Simon Community, persuading fellow Irish stars including Sinead O’Connor and U2 band members to join him. The tradition began after a moment of reflection in 2009: when Hansard turned down a last-minute request to join a group of carol singers raising funds for the organization while he was out Christmas shopping, he returned home realizing the true meaning of the holiday lay in giving back, not buying gifts. Pat Green of the Simon Community told BBC News NI on Thursday that Hansard’s annual busks have raised more than €2 million (£1.7 million) to support the organization’s services in Dublin, turning the event into a beloved local holiday tradition.

    Hansard was also a close, loyal friend to late Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, and stepped in to organize all musical arrangements for MacGowan’s 2023 funeral in just 24 hours after the singer’s death. MacGowan’s widow Victoria Mary Clarke told Today FM on Wednesday that she only asked Hansard to help with a small portion of the service, but he insisted on handling all of the planning to take the stress off her. The event featured performances from an all-star lineup of Irish and international music talent including Nick Cave, Imelda May, and The Frames, with readings from Bono and Bob Geldof. “As people who watched it will testify, he did an incredible job, absolutely incredible, and in a short space – 24 hours – he pulled that together,” Clarke said.

    As the world processes Hansard’s sudden passing, the outpouring of grief underscores the profound impact he had on music, film, and his local Irish community – a legacy that stretches from a working-class bedroom in Ballymun to the Academy Awards stage, and will continue to resonate with audiences for generations to come.

  • George and Amal Clooney evacuate French home amid wildfires

    George and Amal Clooney evacuate French home amid wildfires

    As sweeping wildfires tear through southern France, A-list actor George Clooney, his human rights attorney wife Amal Clooney, and their two young children have evacuated their countryside property in Brignoles, joining thousands of residents and tourists forced to flee advancing flames in the region.

    The Clooney family purchased the sprawling Brignoles estate back in 2021, and just six months prior to the 2026 wildfire outbreak, the entire family officially became French citizens. In a heartfelt letter shared publicly with the BBC, George Clooney reached out to Brignoles mayor Didier Brémond to express the family’s concern for local residents and confirm their commitment to the community.

    “As we evacuate Brignoles we want to emphasise two things: first we hope you and the people of our city are safe, and second that Amal and I are committed to making sure that whatever happens to our village, we are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole,” the letter read. “We have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment, but we love Brignoles and our friends who live here.”

    The Brignoles fire ignited in nearby forested areas this week, prompting local prefecture officials to order mandatory evacuation of at-risk neighborhoods by 8 p.m. local time Wednesday. While evacuated residents were permitted to return to their properties by 1 p.m. Thursday, local authorities maintained urgent warnings that dangerous conditions persist. Unseasonably high temperatures combined with forecasted afternoon wind gusts leave the landscape highly vulnerable to rapid fire spread, and officials have urged continuous vigilance across the region.

    Long before the current wildfire crisis, George Clooney opened up about the family’s decision to relocate the bulk of their life to France from Los Angeles, explaining that the quieter rural lifestyle offered far more stability for their 12-year-old twins Ella and Alexander. “I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids,” he told Esquire magazine in 2025. “We live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid, I hated the whole idea of it. But now, for them, it’s like – they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life.”

    This Brignoles evacuation is just one small part of a far broader wildfire emergency sweeping across Southern Europe. A record-breaking heat wave has turned large swathes of the continent into dry tinder, triggering hundreds of uncontrolled blazes across France, Greece, and Spain. To date, wildfires in France’s pine forest regions have forced more than 220,000 people to leave their homes and vacation properties. The largest blaze, burning in the Gironde region, has already destroyed more than 42,000 hectares (103,784 acres) of land, making it the most destructive wildfire in France since 1949. Officials reported this week that the Gironde fire has now been contained for three consecutive days, raising cautious optimism that its spread has been halted, with forecasted rain expected to further dampen hot spots on Thursday.

    Neighboring countries are facing far deadlier conditions. On Crete, strong winds fanned an out-of-control blaze that forced thousands of residents to evacuate on Wednesday. Two Greek firefighters died after being trapped near the Crete town of Krya Vrysi, while a third firefighter was killed battling a separate blaze near the Peloponnese port of Gytheio. As European fire crews work around the clock to contain multiple outbreaks, officials across the continent have warned that climate change-driven heat waves will continue to increase the risk of catastrophic wildfires in coming years.