The World Cup kicks off on Thursday with FIFA hoping that the enduring appeal of soccer’s greatest showpiece can rise above the anger at soaring ticket prices, an uneasy political climate in the United States and the shadow of conflict in the Middle East. A record 48 teams and millions of fans are set to descend on the United States, Canada and Mexico for the first-ever World Cup co-hosted by three nations, the largest and most logistically complex edition of the tournament ever staged. The action gets under way at Mexico City’s iconic Estadio Azteca on Thursday, with co-host Mexico…
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A key governing body of the International Criminal Court on Monday suspended chief prosecutor Karim Khan as he faces sexual abuse allegations against a member of his office. The 21-member bureau of the Assembly of State Parties (ASP) decided to refer Khan’s case to the wider ASP that represents every member country of the ICC. The bureau decided “by qualified majority… to suspend the Prosecutor from duty with immediate effect pending the final decision of the Assembly of States Parties as the competent decision-maker,” the body said in a statement. “The bureau emphasises that this suspension is not an indication…
US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday praised Pope Leo XIV’s manifesto warning of the risks of artificial intelligence, calling it “profound” and a necessary act of moral leadership in a disruptive AI age. Vance has close ties to the tech industry, having worked as a venture capitalist before entering politics, and counts Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk among his most prominent backers. In an encyclical called “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity), the first US pope, who has clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict, set out on Monday a…
Pope Leo XIV on Monday issued an unprecedented apology for the Vatican’s role in justifying slavery and said the delay in condemning the practice was “a wound in Christian memory”. In a major text warning about the risk of “new forms of slavery” behind the digital economy, Leo said Church institutions owned slaves until the Middle Ages. “In the early modern period, the Apostolic See of Rome, responding to requests from sovereigns, intervened several times in order to regulate and legitimise forms of subjugation, and, in certain cases, the enslavement of ‘infidels’,” he wrote. It was only in the 19th…
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the nation’s government after months of tensions between the two men. A shock decree, read out on TV by a presidential aide, said Faye had “ended the duties of Ousmane Sonko… and consequently those of the ministers and secretaries of state who are members of the government”. Sonko, a popular figure among Senegal’s youth, said on social media that he would “sleep with a light heart”. The split comes as the country faces mounting economic pressure, with its public debt having reached the equivalent of 132% of…
In 1970 it was the introduction of yellow and red cards. In 2018 VAR made its World Cup debut, while in Qatar in 2022 a FIFA directive to referees led to huge extensions to the amount of stoppage time played in games. So what can we expect to see at this year’s World Cup in North America? Hydration breaks Pauses to allow players to take on fluids have been regularly seen in games played in hot conditions, but they have never been introduced as a compulsory element of every match at a World Cup. That will change this year, with…
A senior cleric and member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts has said that the country will select its next supreme leader soon, with candidates determined. Seyed Ahmad Khatami made the remarks in an interview with state-run IRIB TV four days after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack on the Iranian capital Tehran. He stressed that no problem has occurred in the country’s leadership, noting that the interim leadership council, comprising Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei and Alireza Arafi, a jurist from the country’s Constitutional Council, is running the country. Khatami expressed his…
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised concerns on Monday that the rule of law is being “outmuscled” by the rule of force in his opening speech at the 61st UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. Guterres also warned that a two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict was being undermined, noting that human rights “are under a full-scale attack around the world”. “Around the world, human rights are being pushed back deliberately, strategically and sometimes proudly,” he said, adding that the consequences are “devastating”. “I began this month speaking to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of…
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday warned against escalation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and resolve differences through peaceful dialogue and measures aimed at rebuilding trust. The secretary-general is closely following developments in Tigray, where renewed tensions and reported clashes have contributed to a worsening security environment, his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement. Guterres is “deeply concerned about the potential impact on civilians and the risk of a return to a wider conflict in a region still working to rebuild and recover,” said Haq. The UN chief urged the…
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Iran was “seriously talking” with the United States. Asked by reporters aboard Air Force One whether he had made a final decision on Iran, Trump said, “Certainly, I can’t tell you that, but we do have very big, powerful ships heading in that direction.” “I hope they negotiate something that’s acceptable,” Trump said, adding, “We could make a negotiated deal that would be satisfactory, with no nuclear weapons, and they should do that, but I don’t know if they will.” The president also told Fox News that the United States could not…
