Author: Gulf News Week
Abdulla AdnanIraqi fan Abdulla Adnan has been unable to get a visa to travel to the US to see his country playWhen Iraq’s football team qualified for the World Cup at the end of March, Abdulla Adnan bought tickets for his country’s matches against Norway and France, which will be played in the US cities of Boston and Philadelphia this month.”To go to a match, a stadium, a crowd, cheering, and see my team – that is worth the world to me,” he says. “It’s a feeling that no other feeling can compare to.” This is only the second time…
AFP via Getty ImagesThese foreigners, who watched the speech on their phones, are camped outside Durban’s home affairs department as they say they fear for their livesSouth Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has addressed the nation to announce a raft of new measures to crackdown on illegal migration as tensions rise over anti-foreigner marches and frustrations about high unemployment.These steps include jailing employers who hire undocumented workers, setting up dedicated courts to speed up deportations of undocumented migrants and having a register with biometric data “for every person in the country” to stamp out identity theft.But he also warned South Africans…
ReutersEmergency services at the scene of the Israeli strikes on SundayIsrael has hit southern Beirut in the first attack on the Lebanese capital since a truce brokered by the US last week.Two air strikes on two apartment buildings in a stronghold of Iran-backed Hezbollah killed two people and injured at least 20, including women and children, Lebanon’s health ministry said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had struck “terrorist headquarters in the Dahieh district of Beirut, in response to Hezbollah’s firing at Israeli territory”. Israel had limited its Beirut attacks under US pressure over concerns strikes there could put a wider…
@HQNigerianArmyThe former hostages received medical screenings and were gathered under trees overnightAt least 360 people kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists from a mainly Muslim community in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state in March have been freed from a remote mountain hideout.The circumstances of how they were freed are disputed. The army says it had launched an unprecedented intelligence-led operation that had been weeks in the planning and taken the Islamist militants by surprise.But a local group, the Borno South Youth Initiative, says it mediated the unconditional release, putting the number of those freed at 416.Mass abductions by armed groups for ransom…
DisneyFor years, Nicola Walker has played detectives, lawyers and women holding complicated lives together. But her latest role in comedy-drama Alice and Steve may be the closest she’s come to playing herself.The six-part series, written by Sophie Goodhart and co-starring Jemaine Clement, begins with a friendship-shattering premise. Alice (Walker) discovers her best friend Steve (Clement) is dating her 26-year-old daughter, Izzy. What follows is part comedy and part emotional warfare as two middle-aged friends spiral into a battle of resentment, jealousy and revenge.The show’s central dilemma may be extreme, but when asked how she would react in Alice’s shoes, Walker…
Mexico City attempts record-breaking waveIt’s a tradition repeated in stadiums across the world, with crowds of spectators rising up in a rippling roar.The largest wave so far, according to Guinness World Records, was at a Nascar racing event in the American state of Tennessee in 2008, when 157,574 people joined a wave that swept around the stadium.Now, as part of the countdown to the World Cup, Mexico City is attempting to surpass that mark.The chosen location was not a stadium, but an urban setting ideal for spreading a visible, continuous wave: the emblematic Paseo de la Reforma, an iconic arterial…
Eriksen conscious after collapsing in Denmark gameChristian Eriksen collapsed during Denmark’s friendly against Ukraine but is now conscious, says the Danish Football Association (DBU).19 mins agoDenmark
Lammy: Vance’s comments on Nowak murder were ‘wrong’Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has said he called US Vice-President JD Vance to tell him he was “wrong” in the comments he made about the murder of teenager Henry Nowak.Vance blamed the death of the 18-year-old British student, who was fatally stabbed by Vickrum Digwa last year, on the “mass invasion of migrants” and said the “only response” was “righteous anger”.Lammy told the BBC he had spoken to Vance on Saturday and told the vice-president the killing “has got nothing to do with mass migration”.Digwa falsely claimed he had been racially abused…
BBCWith just days to go until the World Cup, you’re probably hearing a lot more football chat than usual. But if you’re not a superfan, how can you keep up? Our nine easy conversation starters will make you sound like an expert.It’ll be bigger than everGetty ImagesThere’ll also be more matches than ever, as the tournament has been expanded from 32 to 48 teams. Critics accuse Fifa organisers of watering down the contest, but fans of Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan are happy to see their countries making their debuts.The final will be held in New Jersey and will…
AFP via Getty ImagesIran players Omid Norafkan and Saman Ghoddos celebrate after a qualifying match in 2025Iran’s Fifa World Cup 2026 football team have landed in Mexico amid an ongoing row over visas and access to the stadiums in the US where they are to play.All three of Iran’s group games are in the US, but the players and support staff have been told they have to fly in and out of the country on match day.Iran says 15 other officials and support staff have been denied visas altogether, which an official has described as political interference in sport in…