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  • Messi eyes glorious farewell as Spain, Argentina clash in World Cup final

    Messi eyes glorious farewell as Spain, Argentina clash in World Cup final

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the largest edition of the tournament in history, will reach its climax this Sunday at East Rutherford’s MetLife Stadium, where European champions Spain and South American titleholders Argentina will lock horns for the sport’s most coveted global prize. The 80,012-capacity venue will host a star-studded crowd that includes former U.S. President Donald Trump, alongside thousands of passionate fans from both nations who have traveled across continents to witness the historic cross-continental showdown.

    Preparations for the final have not been without minor disruptions: tournament organizers confirmed this week that they are closely monitoring air quality in the New Jersey metropolitan area, where smoke plumes from ongoing Canadian wildfires have drifted south. The match is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), and the half-time break will be extended to an unprecedented 25 to 30 minutes to accommodate a star-studded Super Bowl-style halftime show featuring global music icons Madonna, Shakira and Justin Bieber.

    All off-field buzz will fade into the background once the first whistle blows, however, as the match centers on one of the biggest narratives in modern football: what is widely expected to be the final World Cup appearance of Argentina captain Lionel Messi. At 39 years old, the Argentine icon, regarded by most fans and pundits as the greatest player to ever step onto a football pitch, will make history as only the second men’s player to feature in three World Cup finals, matching the legendary feat of Brazil’s Cafu, who played in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 title matches.

    Messi has delivered a career-defining tournament to reach this final, currently leading all scorers with eight goals and on track to claim the Golden Boot. Beyond his goal tally, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has repeatedly dragged his side back from the brink of elimination, embodying the relentless, never-say-die resilience that head coach Lionel Scaloni has built into the Argentine squad. In the round of 16 against Egypt, Messi inspired a stunning late comeback after Argentina trailed 2-0 with just 11 minutes left, engineering a 3-2 victory that kept their title defense alive. Most recently, he notched two assists in a dramatic 2-1 semi-final comeback against England in Atlanta, securing Argentina’s spot in the championship match.

    Scaloni, who has led Argentina to consecutive Copa America titles and the 2022 World Cup crown, says his squad’s strength comes from their collective fearlessness and team unity. “This group is difficult to explain,” he said. “It is a show of the collectiveness, the brotherhood that we are in, the willingness to fight to the very end. I know the guys. They fear nothing.”

    Standing between Argentina and a historic title defense – which would make them the first team to retain the World Cup in 64 years – is a Spanish side that has dominated the tournament with their trademark possession-based style of play. Spain, who won their first and only World Cup title in 2010, entered the tournament as dark horses but have steadily built momentum, shutting out pre-tournament favorites France 2-0 in the semi-finals to book their place in Sunday’s final.

    La Roja’s biggest strength this tournament has been their impenetrable defense: the side has conceded only one goal across seven matches, notching six clean sheets. If they win Sunday’s final and keep Argentina off the scoresheet, they will set a new World Cup record for the fewest goals conceded by a title-winning team. Led by captain Rodri, Spain’s midfield trio of Rodri, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo completely neutralized France’s high-powered attack in the semi-finals, controlling possession for large stretches and creating the openings that led to their decisive goals.

    The outcome of the final could well hinge on the form of Spanish teenage prodigy Lamine Yamal. The 19-year-old Barcelona winger, who was the standout star of Spain’s 2024 European Championship winning campaign, has been working his way back from a hamstring injury through much of this World Cup and has yet to hit his electrifying best. But he showed glimpses of his elite talent against France, drawing the penalty that gave Spain their opening lead and having a spectacular goal ruled out by only the narrowest of offside calls.

    Adding another layer of personal drama to the matchup is the relationship between the two head coaches. Spain manager Luis de la Fuente, 65, who took over the senior national team in 2022 after a successful career leading Spain’s youth sides, mentored Scaloni when the Argentine was working toward his professional coaching license in 2018. Scaloni, 46, maintains deep personal and professional ties to Spain, where he lives with his family, but says he will put his friendship and respect for his former mentor on hold for 90 minutes on Sunday.

    “He was my mentor, and he taught me everything I know and now we are facing each other in a final,” Scaloni said. “Everyone knows I live in Spain and have Spanish family. And I’m very, very sorry, but on Sunday I’m going to try to beat him.”

    For millions of football fans around the globe, Sunday’s final is more than just a match: it is a chance to witness one of the game’s greatest legends cap his historic career with one last world title, while watching a new generation of Spanish stars write their own place in football history.

  • US, Iran trade attacks in return to full-blown war

    US, Iran trade attacks in return to full-blown war

    Just 30 days after the United States and Iran signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding aimed at de-escalating their open military conflict, the two long-time adversaries have returned to large-scale hostilities, launching a wave of reciprocal drone and missile strikes across the Middle East that marks the sharpest escalation since fighting first erupted in late February.

    The renewed clashes are concentrated around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil and natural gas trade, ending the brief lull in violence that followed last month’s tentative ceasefire. Iran has opened a wide front of retaliatory strikes targeting what it says are American military assets across six Middle Eastern nations, following accusations that U.S. forces launched pre-emptive attacks on Iranian civilian and energy infrastructure.

    Iranian state media reports that at least eight Iranian civilians were killed and 20 more wounded in U.S. strikes that hit a civilian airport, a major railway station, and two key bridges inside Iranian territory. Tehran also confirmed that U.S. attacks on energy generation facilities have severely strained the country’s national power grid, prompting the Iranian energy ministry to issue an urgent appeal for citizens to cut back on electricity consumption and turn off air conditioning during peak demand hours, even as regional summer temperatures climb to extreme highs. As of Saturday, Iran’s health ministry has confirmed 38 civilian deaths and more than 400 injuries across the country since fighting resumed six days ago.

    There was no immediate on-the-record response to Iran’s accusations from official U.S. government sources. However, the strikes mark an apparent expansion of U.S. military operations to target Iranian national infrastructure, a step that former U.S. President Donald Trump publicly threatened during earlier rounds of tensions.

    The current full-scale conflict between the two powers first ignited on February 28, when a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iranian targets killed multiple Iranians and sparked immediate retaliation from Tehran. In response to the opening attack, Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz to international commercial shipping and launched its own strikes targeting Israeli and American interests across the Persian Gulf.

    Major General Majid Mousavi, commander of the aerospace division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reaffirmed Tehran’s commitment to continuing retaliation in a public statement Friday. “Effective and targeted strikes from across Iran against the enemy will continue until the U.S. ends its operation against Iran’s coastal facilities in the south and around the strait,” Mousavi said.

    Friday’s wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes stretched across the Middle East, leaving damage and casualties in multiple allied nations that host U.S. military forces. In Kuwait, Iran’s strikes damaged a joint power and water desalination plant, prompting Kuwait’s electricity ministry to call for immediate energy rationing. The Kuwaiti military confirmed that several of its service members were wounded when Iranian drones targeted multiple national military bases and encampments.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said strikes targeting U.S. radar systems and military aircraft in Qatar were launched to “punish the aggressor” for earlier U.S. attacks. Qatari officials confirmed their air defense systems intercepted an incoming missile attack, though falling debris from the interception caused residential damage in coastal areas. Abu Baker, a Sudanese expatriate living in Qatar, described the shock of the attack to reporters: “I was about to go to sleep when I heard the air alerts, hoping the interception would be out at sea. Then it hit and it shook my house. I am worried that this war will drag on… but thank God we’re in a country that protects us.”

    Tehran also announced strikes on two U.S. radar sites in Oman and the long-contested Al-Tanf military base in eastern Syria. A senior Syrian military source denied any attack had taken place on Syrian territory, while U.S. military officials confirmed they had fully withdrawn all personnel from Al-Tanf earlier this year. Jordan’s military announced it shot down three incoming Iranian missiles that entered its airspace, while U.S.-led coalition forces shot down multiple Iranian drones over the city of Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.

    Strikes on Erbil also killed nine members of an exiled Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group, the group announced Friday, blaming the attack directly on Iranian forces. The presidency of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region issued a formal condemnation, calling the attack “a serious escalation and a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.” In Bahrain, Iranian state media confirmed strikes targeted U.S. helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft at a major U.S. airbase on the island, prompting Bahrain’s civil defense authorities to urge all citizens to seek immediate emergency shelter.

    Six consecutive days of reciprocal fire around the Strait of Hormuz has fully rekindled the conflict that the preliminary ceasefire was meant to end. Iran has long claimed full territorial sovereignty over the waterway, which remained open to unimpeded global commercial shipping before the outbreak of war.

    International mediators have moved quickly to call for an immediate end to hostilities, with the foreign ministers of China and Pakistan issuing a joint statement urging both Washington and Tehran to return to the negotiating table to de-escalate. As part of its expanded military operations, the U.S. has reimposed a full naval blockade on Iranian commercial ports, and attacks on commercial shipping transiting the region have continued. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported early Friday that an unidentified commercial tanker was struck by an unclaimed projectile off the coast of Oman overnight Thursday.

    Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, noted that the latest round of fighting signals a shift in U.S. military objectives. “In the latest round of fighting, Washington’s apparent objective is more specific: to weaken and ultimately remove Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz,” Azizi explained.

  • Wildfire smoke engulfs millions in US ahead of World Cup final

    Wildfire smoke engulfs millions in US ahead of World Cup final

    A thick, choking plume of wildfire smoke drifting south from Canada has triggered widespread unhealthy air quality alerts across a large swath of the United States, stirring last-minute uncertainty just two days before the 2026 World Cup final kicks off in an open-air stadium outside New York City. The toxic haze has already pushed major metropolitan areas across the Midwest and Northeast into some of the worst air pollution levels on the planet, raising public health alarms for millions of residents and forcing questions about potential impacts on Sunday’s high-profile match.

    By Friday, Detroit and Chicago posted Air Quality Index (AQI) readings that fell into the official “hazardous” category, global air quality tracker IQAir ranked the two cities as the most polluted urban centers on Earth. Washington D.C., also caught in the southward drift of wildfire emissions, recorded “very unhealthy” AQI levels, prompting local officials to urge all residents to skip non-essential outdoor activity to avoid exposure to fine particulate matter linked to respiratory and cardiovascular harm.

    In the New York City metro area and neighboring New Jersey, home to the stadium that will host Sunday’s final, regional air quality fell into the “unhealthy” range Thursday, with smog obscuring the iconic Manhattan skyline so thoroughly that landmarks were barely visible from across the Hudson River. Forecasters with the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) warned that smoke concentrations could rise again overnight heading into Saturday, as shifting wind patterns carry additional Canadian wildfire emissions into the Northeast.

    “What we should start to see is a return of northwesterly winds over the Great Lakes, and that’s going to pick up some of that smoke and push it over the Northeast,” Peter Mullinax, an NWS meteorologist, told Agence France-Presse. While hazy skies are expected to persist through match day on Sunday, Mullinax added that forecasters do not anticipate pollution levels will reach the dangerous highs recorded earlier in the week.

    “I don’t believe that this should be as impactful as if you might be playing a game today,” he said. Mark Parrington, a senior scientist with the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, noted that forecast rain across the Northeast this weekend could also help clear the worst of the smoke from populated areas, though the long-term situation depends on whether Canadian wildfire activity continues at its current pace.

    Across affected regions, millions of residents are already adapting to the hazardous conditions: people are donning protective filtering masks for any outdoor trips, and public facilities including New York City libraries and train stations have been distributing free masks to help at-risk communities. The upper Midwest, which lies closest to the active Canadian fire zones, has borne the brunt of the pollution, with large parts of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin recording “hazardous” AQI readings for multiple consecutive days. The NWS has extended its air quality alert for Chicago through Friday, noting that additional smoke could return to the area Saturday evening and persist through Sunday.

    Climate and environmental advocates have highlighted this repeated wave of cross-border wildfire smoke as clear evidence of the link between accelerating climate change and worsening extreme wildfire risk. “Increasingly smoky skies underscore the importance of a rapid transition to clean energy rather than building more polluting fossil fuel infrastructure that further contributes to climate change,” said Paul Mathewson, science program director for Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy group. Wisconsin has recorded a sharp rise in the number of smoky days annually in recent years, mirroring trends across much of North America.

    Parrington confirmed that climate change has created far more favorable conditions for intense, long-lasting wildfire seasons across Canada, driving higher surface air temperatures and drying out soil and vegetation across vast regions. “When there’s an ignition we see these really large-scale, persistent burning where these fires can burn for weeks and weeks at a time through summer,” he explained.

    As of Friday, Canadian authorities reported that more than 200 blazes were burning out of control across the country, with the most intense activity concentrated in Ontario. While the 2026 season has so far burned far less total area than 2023 — Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, which saw nearly 18 million hectares consumed — fire activity has escalated dramatically over the past seven days. Latest government data shows roughly 2.8 million hectares have burned across Canada since the start of 2026, up from just 1.6 million hectares a week earlier. No casualties have been reported from Ontario’s wildfires, but multiple remote indigenous and rural communities have already been evacuated to safer locations as blazes advance.

  • ‘Completely laughable’: Trent Robinson outraged by penalty call as Roosters overcome poor attack to beat the Storm

    ‘Completely laughable’: Trent Robinson outraged by penalty call as Roosters overcome poor attack to beat the Storm

    The National Rugby League premiership race has been shaken up by a tense, rain-soaked clash that ended with a controversial refereeing call and a crucial win for the Sydney Roosters over defending contender Melbourne Storm, leaving Melbourne’s 2024 finals hopes all but dashed.

    The 14-6 final result pushes the Roosters to within just two points of ladder-leading Penrith Panthers, but the victory was overshadowed by a soft penalty decision in the second half that has drawn fierce criticism from Roosters head coach Trent Robinson.

    Melbourne had failed to threaten the Roosters’ try line for the opening 55 minutes of the match, until referee Gerard Sutton awarded the Storm a critical penalty for an alleged high tackle from Roosters forward Nat Butcher on Melbourne’s Alec MacDonald. The penalty gifted Melbourne prime field position deep in Roosters territory, and two minutes later, Stefano Utoikamanu crossed for the Storm’s only try of the night, setting up a nervy final stretch for the home side.

    Replays of the tackle contradicted the referee’s call, showing barely any contact between Butcher and MacDonald with negligible force applied. Robinson did not mince words in his post-match press conference, calling the decision “completely laughable.”

    “How do you find that (a penalty)? Why would a referee even look at that? It was laughable. It was completely laughable,” Robinson told reporters. “You’ve got to defend it, and there were some things that went our way against it, but if they have an error on that and then you’re looking at that, then you’re looking at the wrong thing.”

    The controversial call left Butcher fuming, and the forward immediately began arguing with match officials, only to be calmed down by teammate Victor Radley—until Radley saw the replay on the stadium big screen. “Nat was blowing up at the time. I was thinking ‘mate, be quiet Nat’ until I saw it on the big screen. I said ‘oh, you’ve probably got a right to blow up there,’” Radley recounted after the match.

    Despite the controversial setback, the Roosters’ defensive line held firm through the closing minutes of the game, and a late try from winger Daniel Tupou sealed the narrow win. Robinson acknowledged that the Roosters’ attacking play was far from their best, a issue he attributed to disrupted combinations following the recent State of Origin series and wet, slippery playing conditions. The side earned plenty of field position throughout the match but failed to convert those chances into points, leaving the coach frustrated with his side’s offensive execution.

    “We should have defended it, which is disappointing, but it is what it is,” Radley said. “It is reassuring (for us to win those tight games). It didn’t feel great at all, but our defence just held on, which was pleasing. I think those games, it didn’t feel great at the end of it at full-time there, but often those close contest games can be enjoyable. We won in the end, so happy days.”

    While Robinson was critical of the refereeing and his own side’s attacking performance, he praised the team’s relentless defensive energy in wet conditions, a result he believes will build critical confidence heading into the Finals series, where close, low-scoring contests are the norm.

    “I loved the defensive performance. We didn’t execute well and it wasn’t pretty, but I felt the energy we did have we put into defence, and I felt like we controlled the game through our defence,” he said. “There was a lot of live play, so the ball was in play a lot. There was a lot of kick return footy, both teams were going with high completion rates. If you want to play in decent games, you’ve got to play that style, so that was really pleasing. The execution of our attack was poor. I’ll take that. Just coming out of Origin, I’ll take that with different guys in and out in the wet. Of course I would have liked to have had better combinations and increased that because I thought we had enough field position there to do so. But there are also some really good signs on the defensive side of the ball.”

    For Melbourne, the loss all but ends their 2024 premiership campaign, falling further adrift of the top eight with few rounds remaining in the regular season.

  • ‘Concerns’ after Amnesty labels J.K. Rowling women’s centre ‘anti-rights’

    ‘Concerns’ after Amnesty labels J.K. Rowling women’s centre ‘anti-rights’

    A brewing controversy over a retracted Amnesty International UK briefing that labeled a women’s sexual violence support center founded by author J.K. Rowling as ‘anti-rights’ has prompted Britain’s Charity Commission to review concerns raised about the incident.

    Rowling, the 60-year-old creator of the globally successful Harry Potter franchise, has been a prominent public voice in debates over gender identity for years, openly advocating for the preservation of single-sex spaces for women and speaking out against what she describes as overreach from trans activism. The author, herself a survivor of domestic abuse, launched Edinburgh-based Beira’s Place in 2022, a facility that provides free advocacy and support services exclusively to women who have experienced sexual violence and abuse.

    Last week, the controversial briefing document titled *A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK* was published to Amnesty UK’s website. According to international media reports, the briefing categorized dozens of organizations across the United Kingdom as either ‘gender critical’ or ‘anti-rights’—including Beira’s Place. The document was quickly removed from the platform after drawing public backlash.

    Earlier this week, Amnesty UK issued a public statement acknowledging the misstep, saying it regretted the briefing had been uploaded to the organization’s website without completing the internal review processes designed to ensure content aligns with the group’s official positions, maintains accuracy, and retains policy consistency. ‘Its use of language does not reflect the position of Amnesty International UK which is why it was promptly removed,’ the statement read.

    For leaders of Beira’s Place, the inclusion on the list remains a shocking and hurtful oversight. Lesley Johnston, chief executive of the center, called the labeling ‘inexplicable,’ adding that the designation was ‘deeply offensive’ to both frontline staff who work daily to support abuse survivors and the women who rely on the center’s services.

    Rowling, who has repeatedly pushed back against accusations of transphobia by framing her position as a defense of women’s rights rather than an attack on trans people, has been a frequent target of activism from militant transgender rights supporters in recent years. Following the publication of the now-deleted briefing, concerns about the incident were formally filed with the Charity Commission, the UK’s independent charities regulator.

    A representative for the Commission confirmed Thursday that the regulator is currently reviewing the concerns raised to determine what action, if any, it may take as the official oversight body for charity law in the UK. At this stage, no formal investigation has been opened into the matter.

  • Russia fines anti-war politician in chaotic court hearing

    Russia fines anti-war politician in chaotic court hearing

    In a chaotic, widely watched court hearing on Friday, a Russian judge handed down a $13 fine to veteran opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, a prominent critic of the Kremlin’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine, convicting him of violating laws against the display of what the Russian state labels “extremist symbols.” The ruling came just minutes after emergency medical personnel were called into the courtroom to conduct an urgent cardiogram on the 63-year-old politician, who was found to be suffering from severely elevated blood pressure.

    The charges against Nadezhdin stem from a 2023 social media video he reposted that featured an image of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader whose organizations have been officially designated as extremist by Russian authorities. Nadezhdin, who has a pre-existing history of heart conditions, recorded his blood pressure before the hearing began, and court observers from AFP confirmed the reading reached dangerous hypertensive levels.

    Nearly an hour after Nadezhdin’s legal team requested an ambulance, paramedics entered the courtroom and carried out the urgent cardiac assessment around midday local time, or 0900 GMT. Despite repeated pleas from his lawyers to postpone the verdict due to the politician’s acute medical distress, the judge declined to delay proceedings and moved forward with the guilty ruling.

    The charge Nadezhdin faced carries a maximum penalty of 15 days of custodial prison time. Before the ruling, Nadezhdin had publicly described the case against him as baseless nonsense, and warned that he would not survive imprisonment given his fragile health.

    Following the announcement of the verdict, Nadezhdin spoke to reporters outside the courtroom, saying, “I’m glad to be alive… We live in a sick state.” Nadezhdin is one of the last remaining high-profile anti-war politicians still operating openly within Russia’s borders. Before his arrest this Monday, he had been actively campaigning for a seat in the local legislature for the Moscow-region district of Mytishchi, where September elections are scheduled to take place.

    In a Wednesday interview with AFP, Nadezhdin claimed Russian authorities brought the politically motivated charges because they were unnerved by his growing grassroots popularity among voters. Since launching its full-scale military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has enacted sweeping restrictions on public dissent, jailing or fining thousands of people who have spoken out publicly against the war or criticized government policy.

    Nadezhdin’s political career stretches back more than two decades: he served as a member of Russia’s national parliament, the State Duma, from 1999 to 2003, and most recently held a seat as a city councillor in Dolgoprudny, his hometown located just outside the Moscow city limits.

  • Stepson sentenced for leaving man to rot in bed for 14 months

    Stepson sentenced for leaving man to rot in bed for 14 months

    A shocking case of concealed death and neglect has unfolded in Brisbane’s Supreme Court, where a 51-year-old man has been sentenced for the manslaughter of his stepfather, a beloved Yugoslavian migrant who built a new life in Australia. Tomislav Nemes, 69, a retired successful businessman who helped countless new arrivals settle in the country, was discovered mummified and decomposing in his Gold Coast bedroom in early 2023 – 14 months after he died in February 2022.

    Court documents detail that for more than a year, Nemes’ stepson Nikola Golem lied to family members, telling relatives that the ailing Nemes was under medical care for a coma and gradually recovering. Prosecutors revealed that for months after Nemes’ death, his wife of nearly 30 years – Dragica Nemes, who was never charged – slept beside his remains, believing the overwhelming stench of decomposition was just toxin release from herbal treatments she and Nemes, both devout Jehovah’s Witnesses who rejected Western medicine, were using. As the odor grew impossible to ignore, Golem stuffed towels along the bedroom door frame to trap it inside the room, court was told.

    When authorities finally entered the home, they found Nemes’ body in an advanced state of decay: his upper body had mummified to the point his face was unrecognizable, his lower half had decomposed into the mattress, his right hand bones were exposed, and the room was infested with insects and littered with animal droppings.

    The tragedy traces back to 2021, when Nemes – who already lived with diabetes – suffered a serious fall that left him bedbound, reliant on Golem and his mother for daily care. Crown prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher told the court that while Nemes received basic food and pain relief, his severe untreated medical needs were ignored. He developed large, gaping bedsores that likely led to sepsis before his death. Though an exact cause of death could not be confirmed, Gallagher argued that Golem’s deliberate denial of medical care accelerated the death of the already vulnerable man. She added that Golem, who had seized Nemes’ phone months before his death over suspicions he was wasting family money on bad investments, chose to hide the death from his “mentally fragile” mother after Nemes passed.

    Nemes was only located after persistent pressure from his two daughters from a previous marriage, Suzanna Beljanski and Elizabeth Marzano, who lived interstate and had not heard from their father in months. When their 2019 last contact stretched into silence, the sisters raised alarms. During a Gold Coast holiday, Beljanski demanded access to the home, but was turned away by Golem and Dragica Nemes. She spent days contacting police and hospitals begging for a welfare check, and finally convinced an officer to climb over the property fence to investigate, leading to the grim discovery.

    In emotional statements to the court, the sisters described the lingering trauma of their father’s death. “There is no word in English or in my father’s own language about what it is to have your dad hidden in his bed for 14 months while you search for him,” Beljanski said. Marzano added that she is haunted by the details of his death: “When I think of my father today, the first image that comes to mind is no longer the wonderful life that he lived but the way he died.”

    The sisters also painted a portrait of their father as a hardworking, generous man who arrived in Australia as a young migrant from the former Yugoslavia (now Croatia) with next to nothing, and built a successful business while making a point of supporting other new migrants. “Even today, decades later, people still approach our family and tell us their lives in Australia began because dad gave them a chance,” Marzano said. The court also heard that Nemes had raised Golem as his own son for nearly 30 years, helping him through his own lifelong health challenges.

    Defense barrister Martin Longhurst explained that Golem suffers severe long-term cognitive impairments after being run over by a lawnmower as a young child. Golem, who uses a wheelchair and wears a padded skull cap after brain surgery to insert a shunt that also causes regular seizures, had no ill will toward Nemes, Longhurst argued. He told the court that Golem was only following Nemes’ own wishes to avoid Western medicine, and became trapped in a web of lies to calm his mother’s concerns, fearing he would face punishment if he revealed Nemes’ death. Longhurst conceded that Golem’s decision to hide the body for more than a year remains “markedly inexplicable” and deeply disturbing.

    Justice Rebecca Treston, who called Golem’s actions – particularly the concealment of the body after death – “truly difficult to understand”, noted that the helpless Nemes “was quite simply left to rot.” She sentenced Golem to nine years in prison, with eligibility for parole on August 21, 2026, giving Golem credit for the almost three years he has already spent in pre-sentence custody.

  • Argentina await FIFA decision over displaying World Cup Falklands banner

    Argentina await FIFA decision over displaying World Cup Falklands banner

    A geopolitical firestorm has erupted in the wake of Argentina’s 2-1 semi-final victory over England at the FIFA World Cup, after the Argentine squad displayed a banner asserting national sovereignty over the Falkland Islands — a long-disputed territory that has fueled tensions between the UK and Argentina for nearly 200 years. Now, global football’s governing body is weighing disciplinary action over the incident, which has reignited longstanding debate over the separation of sport and politics.

    In the hours after the match concluded in Atlanta, a senior British government minister called on FIFA to launch a formal investigation into the banner, which carried the Spanish phrase “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, translated as “The Falklands are Argentine”. By late Thursday, FIFA confirmed it had begun the standard assessment process in a public statement.

    “FIFA’s independent disciplinary committee is currently assessing the match reports and considering the relevant circumstances before deciding on potential further steps based on the FIFA disciplinary code,” the statement read.

    The call for action was led by UK Business Minister Peter Kyle, who labeled the display an “egregious violation” of FIFA regulations that explicitly ban political symbols from being displayed on the pitch during official matches. Downing Street, the official office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, quickly issued its backing for Kyle’s demand, doubling down on the UK’s territorial claim.

    “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

    The dispute over the South Atlantic archipelago is one of the longest-running territorial conflicts in modern history. The UK first occupied the islands in the 19th century, and has administered them as a British Overseas Territory ever since. The conflict escalated into full-scale war in 1982, when the Argentine military invaded the islands. Then-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a naval taskforce to retake control, and the brief conflict ended with British victory. The 10-week war left 649 Argentine and 255 British service members dead.

    Top Argentine officials have rallied firmly behind the national team’s gesture, rejecting any criticism of the display. Argentine President Javier Milei called the squad’s action “perfectly valid and legitimate” in an interview with El Observador radio, noting the sentiment of sovereignty over the islands is shared by all Argentines.

    “It’s a feeling that exists within all Argentines. The Malvinas are Argentine, we’re going to recover them, and we will do it through diplomatic means,” Milei said.

    The tension had already been stoked ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, when Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel referred to the English as “usurping pirates”. The latest diplomatic clash between the two nations comes even after the match, as Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno announced Buenos Aires had filed a formal protest over the recent passage of British warship HMS Medway through waters Argentina claims as its own near the islands. Quirno posted on social platform X to voice “the strongest rejection” of what Argentina calls the “unconsulted and illegal” passage.

    This is not the first time Argentina’s national football association has faced FIFA punishment over the same sovereignty message. In 2014, the governing body fined the association £20,000 ($27,000) after players posed with an identical banner ahead of a friendly match against Slovenia, ruling the gesture violated FIFA rules banning political action and team misconduct.

    Kyle emphasized in his comments to BBC Television that the core principle of separating sport and politics is a central tenet of the World Cup itself, saying “Politics needs to be separate from football. In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football.”

  • US-Iran strikes: latest developments

    US-Iran strikes: latest developments

    A sharp new escalation of long-running tensions between the United States and Iran has sent shockwaves across the Gulf region, with cross-border strikes, attacks on US allies, and clashes near the strategic Strait of Hormuz plunging the Middle East into renewed violence. As fighting entered its sixth consecutive day on Friday, multiple nations are calling for an immediate de-escalation and return to diplomatic talks.

    Casualty figures released by Iran’s health ministry confirm that 38 people have been killed and over 400 injured in US strikes carried out across the country since June 22. The violence has spread far beyond Iran’s borders, with Tehran launching retaliatory strikes against a string of targets including US military assets and partner nations across the Gulf region.

    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced Friday that it had successfully targeted and destroyed two US-operated radar sites in Oman — one configured for maritime surveillance and the other for air monitoring. Further afield, the IRGC carried out a surprise strike on the Al-Tanf US military base in southern Syria, framing the attack as retaliation for the recent killing of Iranian soldiers in Iranshahr.

    Multiple Gulf US allies reported coming under Iranian missile and drone attack early Friday. Jordan’s military confirmed it intercepted three Iranian missiles, with no reported casualties or infrastructure damage. Kuwait said it was responding to incoming attacks after Tehran stated it had targeted US military infrastructure on Kuwaiti territory. Both Bahrain and Qatar also reported attempted attacks, with Qatari defense forces confirming they successfully intercepted an incoming missile.

    On the US side, American military forces have continued their pressure campaign against Iran. US Central Command announced Friday that it had launched the sixth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian targets, stating the operations are designed to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities.” US forces also intercepted shipping traffic in the Gulf of Oman as part of Washington’s reimposed blockade on Iranian ports, redirecting three vessels that attempted to circumvent the trade restrictions since the blockade was restored amid rising hostilities.

    Multiple locations across Iran were targeted in fresh US strikes Friday. Explosions were reported in Bushehr, the city that hosts Iran’s only civilian nuclear power plant, though there has been no confirmation of damage to the nuclear facility itself. Strikes also hit an airport, a railway station in the key port city of Bandar Abbas on the Gulf coast, and two bridges in southern Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, leaving three people dead, according to Iranian state media. Local Iranian officials also confirmed US strikes targeted locations near Qeshm Island, a major Iranian landmass located just off the coast near the strategic strait.

    The violence spilled further into neighboring Iraq on Friday, when an unidentified drone struck a commercial ship carrying American-branded cars near the southern Iraqi port of Basra. The vessel had arrived in the area from the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq’s oil ministry confirmed that an unknown object fell near a separate tanker in the same area, though no further details on damage or casualties have been released.

    Amid the escalating fighting, diplomatic pathways remain partially open, according to the White House. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday that former President Donald Trump, who currently leads the US executive branch, remains open to diplomatic negotiations with Tehran despite the renewed hostilities. “The president will hold them accountable when they turn their back on the words that they state to the United States. But he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time,” Leavitt said.

    International calls for de-escalation grew Friday after top diplomats from China and Pakistan met in Shanghai, issuing a joint appeal for the United States and Iran to end all hostilities and return to the negotiating table to resolve their differences through dialogue.

  • Startups bet on AI — and a leaner future

    Startups bet on AI — and a leaner future

    Across the global startup ecosystem, a quiet revolution is unfolding in how software is built, driven by a new wave of artificial intelligence-powered coding tools that are rewriting the rules of tech hiring and product development. Where startups once relied on large rosters of entry-level coders to grind out line-by-line code, today’s companies are leaning on AI to deliver more output with smaller, more experienced teams — leaving early-career programmers facing a shrinking job market.

    At Giftory, an online gifting platform run by Eric Lauer, the shift in hiring priorities could not be clearer. Lauer no longer prioritizes newly graduated junior coders; instead, he seeks out what he calls “smart lazy mid-career architects”: experienced developers who know how to leverage AI tools to amplify their output, rather than writing every line of code manually. “To be an architect, you need that previous world experience, and you need to know all the workflows,” Lauer explained in an interview with AFP. Candidates unfamiliar with end-to-end development workflows simply do not fit the needs of the modern lean startup model, he added.

    This new approach is not an isolated trend — it is becoming the industry standard. AI coding assistants including Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex have fundamentally redefined the role of programmers, shifting their work from manual line-by-line typing to strategic project oversight. With a simple text prompt, AI can now draft, test, and debug large blocks of code instantly, allowing small teams to build complex products that once required dozens of additional employees.

    Industry data underscores how widespread this shift has become. A recent survey of developers at small startups conducted by leading tech newsletter *The Pragmatic Engineer* found that 75% of respondents already use Claude Code in their daily work. Jared Friedman, Managing Partner of prominent startup accelerator Y Combinator, added that a quarter of all companies in the accelerator’s Winter 2025 cohort built their core products using code that is 95% generated by AI.

    For startup leaders, the economic case for AI adoption is overwhelming. At Giftory, which employs roughly 30 people, the company covers a $200 monthly premium AI subscription per employee — a cost Lauer calls “peanuts” compared to the $100,000 average annual salary for a new hire. The cost savings are so substantial that offshoring development work to lower-wage regions is now “uncompetitive,” he said.

    Other startup founders echo this logic. Haitham Mengad, co-founder of Stems Labs, noted that his company already operated with a small, highly skilled team before integrating AI tools. “We already had a pretty lean team and very talented engineers, so the approach I took was, let’s do more with the people that we have,” Mengad explained. At enterprise software firm Espresa, Lindsay Euller, vice president of customer success, said AI adoption has already cut the company’s annual costs by millions of dollars. Looking ahead, Euller predicts any future request for new headcount will require teams to first prove they have fully optimized AI tools before new hires are approved.

    While the efficiency gains are clear for existing companies and workers, the trend has cast a long shadow over the next generation of aspiring software developers. Recent economic research has documented steep declines in entry-level tech employment as more companies adopt generative AI.

    A study from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, which analyzed payroll data from millions of U.S. workers, found that employment among 22- to 25-year-olds in AI-exposed occupations including software development fell nearly 20% from its late 2022 peak. Separate research from Harvard University, which examined resume and job posting data covering 62 million U.S. workers across 285,000 firms, found that junior employment at companies using generative AI dropped roughly 9% relative to non-adopting firms over a year and a half, even as senior-level hiring held steady.

    Many startup leaders have openly acknowledged the slowdown in entry-level hiring. Ian Amit, CEO of cybersecurity startup Gomboc AI, said widespread hesitation around hiring new junior workers is pervasive across the industry. “I’m hearing of a lot of companies that are interviewing multiple candidates across the board but are not pulling the trigger on actual hiring decisions,” Amit said.

    Not all industry leaders agree that cutting entry-level roles is a sustainable long-term strategy. Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, one of the world’s largest cloud computing providers, has called the idea of replacing junior developers with AI “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.” Garman warned that the industry is risking its own future by cutting off the pipeline that培养 the next generation of tech leaders.

    So far, the impact of that shrinking pipeline is already visible. The Computing Research Association reports that computer science enrollment has begun to slide across the United States, dropping 6% across the entire University of California system and falling at two-thirds of all computing programs nationwide.

    For now, however, the economic pressure pushing startups to adopt leaner, AI-powered team structures shows no sign of reversing. Lauer, whose Giftory remains in a hyper-growth phase, summed up the trade-off facing most modern startups: when deciding whether to add resources or add people, the answer increasingly favors AI over new headcount. In the heart of the tech sector, the future is increasingly defined by more artificial intelligence and fewer human employees.