Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – US politics, US news, US domestic policy, World news, Surveillance, US Congress
Title – A powerful US surveillance law is set to expire – what happens now? | US politics | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sanya-mansoor
Link – A powerful US surveillance law is set to expire – what happens now? | US politics | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T10:00:42.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/12/fisa-law-surveillance

Donald Trump’s bid to install a controversial ally as the country’s leading intelligence official has shone a light on the wide reach of a powerful surveillance law, and raised questions over its future.

Privacy advocates say it deserves scrutiny, and reform, regardless of who the US president appoints as director of national intelligence (DNI).

A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa) is due to expire on Friday night amid a backlash to Trump’s announcement that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and a major Republican donor, would be acting DNI.

While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney , to take the role on a permanent basis – US Congress has so far failed to extend section 702 of Fisa in time for Friday’s deadline.

While the Pulte row brought Fisa back in the spotlight, the program’s balance of civil liberties and national security has been the subject of fraught debate in recent months, and years.

“If Bill Pulte had never become part of the conversation, many of the underlying concerns about section 702 – if not all of them – would still exist,” said Jason Pye, vice-president of the Due Process Institute, a bipartisan nonprofit focused largely on criminal justice. “These debates didn’t start in this Congress, and they didn’t start with this administration.”

Section 702, first enacted in 2008, allows national security agencies to collect and review texts and emails sent to and from foreigners living outside the US, without a warrant. If an American is talking to a non-American target living abroad, their communications can get swept up too.

Privacy advocates say that while the law is intended to surveil foreigners outside the US, the federal government uses this loophole to spy without warrants on Americans, an unconstitutional practice. Intelligence agencies say they need these surveillance powers to prevent terror attacks.

This year, Congress has only been able to pass short-term reauthorizations of the section 702 program. Trump and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have tried, unsuccessfully, to push through longer extensions that do not include key reforms demanded by a broad coalition including progressive Democrats and far-right Republicans.

In late April , Congress punted the original section 702 expiry date to 12 June, after negotiations failed to lead to a lengthier renewal.

“We’ve reached a point where we’re kicking the can” and trying “the same status-quo approach over and over”, said Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “It’s time to let these reform bills have a chance.”

In refusing to allow a vote on a warrant requirement to surveil Americans’ communications, Republican House leadership has closed the door to the most important change that dissenting lawmakers and privacy advocates are asking for. They, in turn, blame House speaker Mike Johnson for tanking repeated attempts to extend the program by taking a “my way or the highway approach”.

There appears to be an appetite for a warrant requirement. In 2024, lawmakers voted on an amendment that would have included one – but it failed after a dramatic 212-212 tie. Privacy advocates say they’re confident they now have the votes for a warrant requirement, based on their conversations with legislators who have changed sides, and new members of Congress.

Government surveillance under section 702 can still continue through March 2027, because it operates through year-long certifications approved by a special federal court.

Some lawmakers are worried about a statutory lapse and the program “going dark” – and the Trump administration has accused Democrats of playing politics with national security by blocking its renewal over Pulte’s appointment. But privacy advocates say this is a scare tactic, since all existing certifications and directives continue to be valid.

“It is shameful, and it is very, very dangerous,” an angry Johnson told reporters after Thursday’s failed House vote. “We did everything in our power to try to ensure that this statute does not expire,” he claimed.

The House has left town and is scheduled to return on 23 June – two weeks after the surveillance program’s deadline.

Laperruque, with the Center for Democracy and Technology, said Johnson’s willingness to send lawmakers home this week, without resolving the Fisa issue, is proof the national security implications aren’t as dire as he has suggested. “They would not be flying off to go home if they actually thought it was a real threat,” he said.

Keyword – US news
Trefwoorden – US Congress, US news, US politics, Donald Trump, Surveillance, US domestic policy, US foreign policy, US-Israel war on Iran
Title – Fisa spy powers almost certain to expire after Congress fails to act – US politics live | US Congress | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tom-ambrose,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lucy-campbell,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/taz-ali,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sanya-mansoor
Link – Fisa spy powers almost certain to expire after Congress fails to act – US politics live | US Congress | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T14:19:15.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/jun/12/donald-trump-fisa-kennedy-center-iran-ufc-white-house-latest-news-updates

Congress fails to act as Fisa spy powers set to expire

Hello and welcome to the US live blog.

A key surveillance tool that allows the US to collect intelligence abroad appears certain to expire after Congress failed to temporarily extend the program.

The impasse is a protest against president Donald Trump’s temporary pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, AP reported.

Trump doubled down on his choice of Bill Pulte for acting director of national intelligence, despite the federal housing finance regulator having little experience.

In response, Democratic politicians said they would not support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Fisa, unless Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.

The House vote collapsed, with 19 Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure, 198-218. The Senate tried to approve its own versions, but also failed, with the law due to expire today at midnight.

After the votes, Trump announced Jay Clayton, a US attorney who previously served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his permanent pick as intelligence director. But the president’s move did not seem able to break the standoff over Pulte before the deadline.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said:

Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.

In other developments:

Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.

Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

Congressman Robert Garcia , who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.

US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall . Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”.

Further to my earlier post , Andrew Giuliani, the CEO of the World Cup task force, confirmed yesterday that Donald Trump will not be in attendance when the United States opens its World Cup competition against Paraguay tonight in Inglewood, California.

“He’s not going to end up attending the opening game,” Giuliani told TalkSport. “As we’ve said, his scheduling is tight. But I know he’s going to be engaged throughout this World Cup.”

As you will remember, Trump will be very busy hosting the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House on Sunday, which is also his 80th birthday.

While it is uncommon for a head of state from a host country to miss the nation’s World Cup opener, it is not unprecedented. The US delegation will be led by secretary of state Marco Rubio , transportation secretary Sean Duffy , and homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin .

Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, said he wasn’t sure when Trump would make an appearance.

“Having known President Trump for now 30 years, what I can tell you is: expect the unexpected. Always expect a cliffhanger with him,” Giuliani said. “Throughout the course of this tournament, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see him engage more and more with the World Cup.“

Trump has attended several big sporting events while president, including Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden earlier this week, where he was met with a chorus of boos .

Trump lashes out at ‘dishonourable’ Iran over terms of deal reported in state media

Donald Trump has dismissed Iranian media reports on an imminent deal with the US as “fake news”, saying they were not the terms Washington agreed to.

Several Iranian media outlets have been reporting what they described as details of a draft proposal being reviewed by Iran’s leadership. Some of the terms of the agreement, according to the reports, include Iran’s control of the strait of Hormuz and postponed discussions on its nuclear programme (see more here and here ).

Trump said the reports were inaccurate and lashed out at Iran , calling them “very dishonorable people” and warning, “They better get their act together, and FAST!”

He wrote on Truth Social:

The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing. What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING! Also, their totally rebuffed Drone attack last night against Indian Ships leaving the Hormuz Strait is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They better get their act together, and FAST!”

Analysis: controversial spying power is set to expire – what happens now?

Section 702 of Fisa due to expire tonight – and remain so for at least a week during recess – amid backlash to Trump’s pick Bill Pulte for acting DNI.

While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney , to take the role on a permanent basis, yesterday – Congress has so far failed to extend the key power in time for tonight’s deadline.

But, per my colleague Sanya Mansoor while the Pulte row brought Fisa back in the spotlight, underlying concerns over the program’s balance of civil liberties and national security has been the subject of fraught debate and controversy in recent months, and years.

Section 702, first enacted in 2008, allows national security agencies to collect and review texts and emails sent to and from foreigners living outside the US, without a warrant. If an American is talking to a non-American target living abroad, their communications can get swept up too.

Privacy advocates say that while the law is intended to surveil foreigners outside the US, t he federal government uses this loophole to spy without warrants on Americans, an unconstitutional practice . Intelligence agencies say they need these surveillance powers to prevent terror attacks.

This year, Congress has only been able to pass short-term re-authorizations of the section 702 program. Trump and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have tried, unsuccessfully, to push through longer extensions that do not include key reforms demanded by a broad coalition including progressive Democrats and far-right Republicans.

In refusing to allow a vote on a warrant requirement to surveil Americans’ communications, Republican House leadership has closed the door to the most important change that dissenting lawmakers and privacy advocates are asking for. They, in turn, blame House speaker Mike Johnson for tanking repeated attempts to extend the program by taking a “my way or the highway approach”.

What happens now? Well, government surveillance under section 702 can actually still continue through March 2027, because it operates through year-long certifications approved by a special federal court.

Some lawmakers are worried about a statutory lapse and the program “going dark” – and the Trump administration has accused Democrats of playing politics with national security by blocking its renewal over Pulte’s appointment. But privacy advocates say this is a scare tactic, since all existing certifications and directives continue to be valid.

“It is shameful, and it is very, very dangerous,” a vexxed Johnson told reporters after yestserday’s failed House vote. “We did everything in our power to try to ensure that this statute does not expire.”

As you know, the House has left town and is scheduled to return on 23 June – two weeks after the surveillance program’s deadline.

Jake Laperruque, with the Center for Democracy and Technology, said Johnson’s willingness to send lawmakers home this week, without resolving the Fisa issue, is proof the national security implications aren’t as dire as he has suggested . “They would not be flying off to go home if they actually thought it was a real threat,” he said.

Also in attendance at the match later will be California governor Gavin Newsom . According to Politico, he and secretary of state Marco Rubio – both widely considered potential future contenders for the presidency – are expected to sit within close proximity of each other at kickoff at SoFi Stadium.

“The Governor is there to support Team USA. Any frame-mogging that occurs will be purely incidental,” an official familiar with the governor’s plans told Politico. Rubio’s office declined to comment.

The United States begin their World Cup challenge – their first on US soil for 32 years – today, taking on Paraguay in a high-stakes match in Los Angeles.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio will attend the opening match. Donald Trump has said he would be present at other games in the tournament, but hasn’t specified which.

The start of the action on the pitch yesterday will have come as a welcome relief to football’s world governing body Fifa , which has faced stinging criticism over the eye-watering cost of tickets.

In addition, Trump’s immigration crackdown has seen a top Somalian referee, Iranian team officials and dozens of fans refused entry to the United States .

For all things World Cup, my colleagues have got you covered:

About half of evangelical Christians – a core component of Donald Trump’s political base – believe his administration’s approach to the Iran war and immigration enforcement is not in line with their understanding of Christianity, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Evangelicals helped power the Republican’s 2024 election victory, and Trump and his top officials including defense secretary Pete Hegseth have regularly used religious language in describing their goals and policies.

Republicans will be counting on them in the November midterm elections, when they will be defending thin majorities in the US Senate and House of Representatives.

Some 54% of evangelicals in the 3-8 June poll said Trump’s use of the military in Iran was not in line with their understanding of Christianity, while 41% said it was in line with it.

Some 51% of evangelicals said the administration’s approach to immigration policy was not in line with Christian values, with 44% saying it was.

Donald Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday.

The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

The formal stay will be filed on Friday, the person said.

Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.

The board move marks a shift from a 4 June memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel saying email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center”.

The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped the president’s name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the 28 June Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.

Autistic children injected with unapproved stem cell treatments supported by RFK Jr

Autistic children as young as 18 months old are being injected with human stem cells derived from umbilical cords in unapproved, unproven and potentially harmful “treatments” that scientists warn are proliferating across the US under the active encouragement of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr .

Clinics in Florida, Texas and other states are selling what they bill as “regenerative medicine” to families with autistic children who have intensive care needs.

The procedure, which can involve the child being sedated with ketamine before receiving intravenous doses of millions of stem cells , costs up to $20,000 each treatment. Families are often advised to return for regular top-ups.

Profoundly stressed parents are being wooed to the clinics with promises that a high-dose infusion of umbilical cord stem cells can lead to dramatic improvements in their children’s ability to speak, socialise, or avoid aggressive or self-harming behaviour. Yet there is no scientific evidence that the procedure works – the most comprehensive clinical trial staged so far, a placebo experiment conducted by Duke University , found insignificant benefits for most of the 180 children tested.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directly cautions parents that if they are being offered stem cell treatments outside an approved clinical trial, “you are likely being deceived and offered a product illegally” .

Though the Duke trial found minimal safety concerns with properly administered stem cell infusions, authorities continue to highlight the potential risks of under-regulated therapies.

The FDA warned in 2021 that it had received reports of complications following applications of umbilical cord stem cells and other related unapproved products leading to “blindness, tumor formation, infections and more” .

In his 16 months as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services within the Trump administration, Kennedy has undercut established scientific endeavors. He has fired thousands of federal health officials, dismissed longstanding scientific advisers , defunded $31m in autism-related research and attempted to shrink the recommended list of childhood vaccinations.

At the same time, largely unnoticed, he has given his backing to alternative health providers moving to fill the gap. Kennedy appeared by video link at the first two annual summits held in San Diego by Autism Health, a leading advocate of stem cell infusions for autistic kids.

At the summit last year, he told the audience that “your issue is no longer on the fringe”. At this year’s gathering in April, he promised to “create opportunities that extend across a lifetime” and to work with the stem cell providers “to drive solutions together”.

Here’s Ed’s full report:

Congress fails to act as Fisa spy powers set to expire

Hello and welcome to the US live blog.

A key surveillance tool that allows the US to collect intelligence abroad appears certain to expire after Congress failed to temporarily extend the program.

The impasse is a protest against president Donald Trump’s temporary pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, AP reported.

Trump doubled down on his choice of Bill Pulte for acting director of national intelligence, despite the federal housing finance regulator having little experience.

In response, Democratic politicians said they would not support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Fisa, unless Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.

The House vote collapsed, with 19 Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure, 198-218. The Senate tried to approve its own versions, but also failed, with the law due to expire today at midnight.

After the votes, Trump announced Jay Clayton, a US attorney who previously served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his permanent pick as intelligence director. But the president’s move did not seem able to break the standoff over Pulte before the deadline.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said:

Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.

In other developments:

Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.

Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

Congressman Robert Garcia , who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.

US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall . Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”.

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Qatar, World Cup 2026, World Cup, Football, Sport
Title – Julen Lopetegui: ‘Going to the World Cup just for the sake of going is stupid’ | Qatar | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/sidlowe
Link – Julen Lopetegui: ‘Going to the World Cup just for the sake of going is stupid’ | Qatar | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T07:00:38.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/12/julen-lopetegui-going-to-the-world-cup-just-for-the-sake-of-going-is-stupid

W hen the Qatari national team’s flight from Dublin touched down in Los Angeles at 2.12pm on 30 May there was applause on board the Boeing 777‑300ER. For the 26 players arriving in America, this represents the first time they have qualified for a World Cup . For the coach who has led them there it is the third, but this time is different; this time he will get a game.

“Football didn’t owe me anything,” says Julen Lopetegui in the dining room at the team hotel in Montecito, Santa Barbara, yet maybe he owed himself a moment like this. And, he says, if there were many reasons to answer the call from Doha 12 months ago, the simplest stood out most of all: this is the World Cup.

The first time Lopetegui went to a World Cup was 32 years ago, also in America. The last time was Russia in 2018. In 1994, he did not play a minute: Spain’s third-choice goalkeeper, he never expected to and, the way he tells it, he might not even have been able to if they had asked.

Eight years ago, he arrived as Spain’s head coach, unbeaten in more than two years in charge, but was sacked one day before the tournament started after agreeing to coach Real Madrid once it was over .

Now, here he is again, third time lucky. If lucky is the word. Getting a game is one thing, winning a game another. Qatar may be the weakest team at the tournament, their preparation hit by bombings and a lack of competition. Lopetegui, though, is determined to compete.

The game that secured Spain’s qualification in 1994 was against Denmark the previous November. “I was back-up goalkeeper to Zubi [Andoni Zubizarreta], but I suffered a back injury a couple of weeks before,” Lopetegui says, slipping into an impression of the coach, Javier Clemente, as he tells the story.

“I had two herniated discs. I rang Javi and said: ‘Javi, sorry, I’m not in a fit state to be called up because if I have to play I don’t think I can’. And he says, very Clemente: ‘Bah, don’t be daft. Like an old man’s going to get flu on a Monday.’ I shouldn’t worry; I wasn’t going to be needed. I said: ‘Yes, but if he does get flu I can’t come on.’ ‘Right, I’ll call that Santi kid from Celta’.”

“And then,” Lopetegui says, laughing, “what had to happen, happened. Clemente called up Santi Cañizares and, although the old man didn’t get flu, Zubi did get sent off, 10 minutes in, the only red in his [international] career. Santi comes on, plays very well, wins the right to be No 2, later No 1.

“Although I wasn’t playing well at Logroñés, struggling with the injury, Javi called me up as third-choice as a reward for that gesture. I couldn’t enjoy it much because I was living with a lot of pain, but I did what I could, knowing I wasn’t going to play and supporting everyone, contributing my bit.”

Lopetegui is one of three coaches at the World Cup, along with Hong Myung-bo and Ronald Koeman, who went to USA 94 as players and the only coach who used to be a goalkeeper. He finds it difficult to list any goalkeeping coaches: “Nuno [Espírito Santo], [Dino] Zoff, [Walter] Zenga, [Ricardo] La Volpe …”

Which is when he cracks up and says: “But if you’re a sub goalkeeper you watch most games from next to the manager.”

Not just any manager either: after USA 94 Lopetegui joined Barcelona, where he was also a backup, occupying a place on the bench near Johan Cruyff and Cruyff, he says, was unique, even if “there was no point asking Johan how to defend”.

Cruyff awakened a curiosity in his players, Lopetegui says. “There’s a photo from the Super Cup final, one of the few games I played, and nine of that starting XI became coaches.”

There were other elements too: a Spanish footballing culture and coaching structure that emphasises the collective and the Basque milieu that led him, Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola to emerge from the same, tiny province. The son of a champion stone-lifter, there was his own family’s sporting heritage, too .

All of which took Lopetegui into coaching and the biggest honour of all: leading Spain into a World Cup. But then, at dawn and with less than a day to go, that was taken from him in one of the most shocking stories the competition has produced . Sacked by the since disgraced Spanish federation president, Luis Rubiales, Lopetegui flew back to Madrid alone, leaving behind the team he had built, his dream shattered. In his absence, Spain collapsed . “It was the saddest day of my life,” Lopetegui said.

Now, via Real Madrid, Sevilla, Wolves and West Ham, here he is. Back at a World Cup.

The mind is inevitably drawn to Russia, to what might have been, towards some kind of nostalgia. “Nostalgia?” Lopetegui says. “No. There’s no time for that. But you think about it. I’ve lived many wonderful experiences, but, yes, that one too.

“I haven’t stopped working since, you don’t look back, and that experience gives you a thicker skin. You learn from them, too. But if you asked me: ‘Would you do the same again?’ One hundred per cent. Why? Because we always took what we thought were the right decisions from a position of deep respect for our responsibilities.”

An opportunity is returned at last. It is not the same, but it is something. “We came for two main reasons: to take on a huge challenge no one had done [qualifying for the World Cup, Qatar were in automatically as hosts in 2022] and to test ourselves in a very different context,” Lopetegui says. “And, of course, there was that feeling, the hope of being at a World Cup, which we could have had with another national team.

“We could have gone out straight away against Iran, the Brazil of [the region], but we won 1-0, which gave us time for Emirates [UAE] and Oman. We had to see what we could do, not what we wanted to do.

“You’re used to different players, intensity, qualities. That was an important shock for us when we started. Qatar is a country of 300,000 people; maybe 10,000 play. Against us, the Emirates had maybe one starter who was from the Emirates: the rest were Brazilians, Portuguese, Poles … we beat them. You have to improve quality, but maintain that essence.

“The biggest difference we found was in the level of competitiveness, the pace, the games they’re playing. We’re maybe the only national team [here] with lots of players who have only played four, five times this year. Our league has a lot of foreigners so there are 19, 20, 21-year-old players not getting the opportunity. The goalkeepers are all Qatari so often it’s as little as two outfield players.”

In March, two planned friendlies were cancelled when Iran bombed Qatar. “Those games would have been useful, especially to define our gameplans,” Lopetegui says. “We had to make do with sessions among ourselves and there were three weeks when players couldn’t train at all because they weren’t allowed to leave home. The physical preparation wasn’t ideal.

“It was unpleasant, unlike anything I have ever experienced. You’re waiting on the alerts, hanging on your phone. You get a message saying don’t leave home, another when the risk has dropped. Stay in safe areas, indoors, away from glass.

“Most of the bombs fell where the US bases are so you felt more or less safe away from there, but your family is saying: ‘Come back.’ First, you can’t: for 10, 15 days the airspace was shut. Then I didn’t think it was right.

“When the airspace opened and my wife went back, I stayed. I had a responsibility to be there. It’s not being a hero or anything; it’s that I felt that was our duty, what I had to do.”

Through it all, Lopetegui had a team to prepare. This is unlike anything he has experienced and it is enriching, he says, making a better coach of him. “One of the things that most concerned us was finding a message that reflected our reality without losing that excitement.

“The first part of the process is emotional, the second is footballing. Find a structure to extenuate our qualities and hide our defects. We need a plan for three games without getting frustrated.

“We know that when the ball [at the draw] comes out with Qatar in, the other teams are happy. That shouldn’t annoy us; we should know. They have to beat us.

“We have to construct the best competitive scenario. We have to find a balance. We can’t let a player’s head drop – we still have ambition, still have excitement – but nor can we think we’re something we’re not.

“All this has been an incredible experience, tremendously constructive, a reset. It’s been a period of personal introspection and that’s been a powerful process: a lesson in humility, in accepting what I can do and what I can’t do.

“When you go to a World Cup, you can think: ‘Bloody hell, this is a success.’ And it is a success in capital letters, but you can’t just cling on to that. You can’t think: ‘It’s done.’ No. Not likely. That’s a mistake. So now we have to ‘sharpen’ our ‘lance’ and compete.

“Qatar celebrated being here as something unique and it is. But as José Mota[’s famous comedy sketch] goes: We can go, but going just for the sake of going is stupid. We’re going to the World Cup to compete. We’ve earned the right to try.”

Keyword – World news
Trefwoorden – Gaza, Palestine, Middle East and north Africa, Children’s health, World news
Title – Video of visually impaired Palestinian boy crying over broken glasses draws global attention | Gaza | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seham-tantesh,https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lorenzo-tondo
Link – Video of visually impaired Palestinian boy crying over broken glasses draws global attention | Gaza | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T04:00:37.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/12/video-visually-impaired-palestinian-boy-gaza-ayoub-junaid-crying-broken-glasses

A video of a seven-year-old Palestinian boy in Gaza who suffers from a severe visual impairment crying over his shattered glasses has drawn widespread attention across social and international media.

The footage of Ayoub Junaid has shone a light on the plight of the many visually impaired children in Gaza who, because of Israel’s blockade and the devastation caused by the war, have been unable to access eye examinations, corrective lenses or specialist ophthalmic surgery.

After the clip was viewed by tens of millions of people, Ayoub received a new pair of glasses. This good news, however, does not solve the underlying problem, as he urgently needs surgery.

Ayoub’s mother, Eman Junaid, 30, displaced in the Gaza City port area, tells the Guardian her son’s problem began when he was two.

“Ayoub suffers from very severe nearsightedness after having a fever illness,” she says. A doctor told Junaid that Ayoub’s vision would gradually improve as he got older, but the opposite happened – the prescription he required increased and the lenses he now needs are not available in Gaza.

“We were preparing to travel for treatment, but the war started and everything stopped,” she adds.

Ayoub rarely leaves his tent, Junaid says. When he wants to play with his siblings or other children, he clings tightly to his glasses and moves with extreme caution. He does not run, jump or move freely. The doctors warned the family not to let him engage in strenuous activities because any fall or blow could cause further damage to his retinas.

Ayoub used to ask his mother why he was different from other children. He often asks her: “Why don’t the other children wear glasses like me? Why can’t I move like them? Why can’t I go to school like them?”

“At the end of April, while walking with a family member along a road strewn with rubble, he fell and struck his face on the ground, breaking the glasses,” his mother says. “He burst into tears, rolled on the ground and desperately tried to piece them back together. For Ayoub, those glasses were everything. Even with them, he cannot see clearly and often has to hold objects just inches from his face. But without them, he can barely move around at all.”

His family says the time Ayoub spent without glasses was particularly distressing. For three or four days, he rarely left a corner of the tent and was unable to move around without assistance. When he tried to walk on his own, he would crouch close to the ground, bringing his eyes near the floor in an effort to make out his surroundings.

Relatives said they repeatedly tried to repair his glasses, but the damaged lenses could not be fixed.

“ The video I shared was filmed after we reached the tent,” his mother says. “In the street, he was crying even more and saying he wanted to fix his glasses because he could not see without them. After the video spread, donors helped us and we were able to get a new pair of glasses, but it is still not the correct prescription he needs.”

According to his family, Ayoub’s emotional state has shown signs of improvement. In recent days, he has appeared more willing to interact with visitors and those offering support. While the change remains modest, his family say it has brought them a sense of relief and hope.

Health officials in Gaza say the war has devastated eye care services, leaving thousands of visually impaired patients without treatment amid severe shortages of medical equipment and surgical supplies.

Hospitals are lacking key items including surgical microscopes and phaco machines. Officials say more than 2,800 patients are currently waiting for cataract surgery alone, while the total backlog for eye procedures, including corneal transplants, glaucoma operations and reconstructive surgery, exceeds 4,000 cases.

In addition to this, Israeli bombardment around medical facilities has forced the temporary shutdown of Gaza City’s Government Eye Hospital, the only public eye care centre in the territory.

“The current situation clearly shows a shortage in all medical consumables and surgical tools,” says Dr Hussam Dawoud, a senior consultant in ophthalmology and eye surgery and the director of the hospital. “Currently, we are providing services at around 60% of what we used to offer before the war. The main reason is that Israel is preventing the entry of medical equipment and surgical instruments.”

Doctors have also reported a sharp rise in severe corneal infections, which they attribute to overcrowded living conditions, poor sanitation and limited access to medication, with some patients suffering permanent vision loss.

Their situation is part of a broader humanitarian crisis affecting Gaza’s children. There are more child amputees per inhabitant in the territory than anywhere else in the world. Tens of thousands of young people who are sick or injured remain in need of urgent medical treatment, while many who require specialised care outside the territory have yet to be evacuated.

According to the latest figures from health officials in Gaza, an estimated 4,000 children are in urgent need of medical evacuation.

“A child who breaks their glasses may remain effectively blind for a long time because replacement glasses are impossible to find,” says Dr Irdi Memaj, a surgeon working in Gaza with the humanitarian organisation Emergency. “Around 40% of the patients treated at our clinic in al-Qarara are children under the age of 14. One of the most recent concerns has been infestations of parasites and rats , with numerous reports of children being bitten by rodents while they sleep.”

Reached by the Guardian, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, rejected accusations over restrictions on Gaza. “Israel is working to allow and facilitate the entry of all required medical equipment and continues to facilitate the entry into Gaza of trucks carrying medical supplies without any quantitative restrictions,” it said.

Keyword – Opinion
Trefwoorden – Makerfield byelection, Andy Burnham, Keir Starmer, Labour, Labour party leadership, Reform UK, Politics, UK news
Title – Left, right and centre – I see all strands of the Labour tribe pulling together in Makerfield. This is bigger than Burnham | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/pollytoynbee
Link – Left, right and centre – I see all strands of the Labour tribe pulling together in Makerfield. This is bigger than Burnham | Polly Toynbee | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-12T07:00:37.000Z
Category – Opinion
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/12/andy-burnham-reform-makerfield-labour-party-wipeout

T hey flock to Makerfield from everywhere: canvassers and camera crews, MPs, peers and volunteers, from Swansea to Gateshead, 700 a day to help the Labour campaign. Every door has already been knocked four times, boasts the Burnham team.

How does it feel for voters to be the most important constituency in living memory ? Most are quite pleased, bar the usual “we only see them round here when they want our votes”. But with a chance to choose a prime minister , never was a vote so valuable.

Beyond Britain’s fate, the world sees in Makerfield a signpost on far-right populism: here, reporters have arrived from Italy, Germany, Sweden and five different Japanese TV news channels, among others. Expecting great rallies and flag-waving marches, they are crestfallen at nothing much to film beyond sparse signs on stakes in front gardens . This is a local, shoe-leather, person-to-person campaign by all parties. Andy Burnham himself leaves a personal video message for anyone who’s out, recorded on their front door security camera to show he really was there, with no grandstanding as he dashes around undecideds across the small towns here.

What a high-risk gamble to trigger an election here , rolling the dice in a constituency where every council ward voted Reform in May , making up part of Wigan, where 64% voted Brexit . Against that, Wigan voted 66% for Burnham as mayor , and he is the only popular senior politician in the country, the only one with a net favourable rating . To lose here would be an unimaginable calamity, everyone arriving at his HQ knows, clutching teas between canvass rounds. If not here, with this ultra-local man who offers them a rare chance to elect their own prime minister, then every one of Labour’s 402 MPs is in peril. Would the party survive?

The prospect of that cataclysmic wipeout has gathered a rarely united Labour campaign. Squeezed in a Makerfield taxi together was Tulip Siddiq – an ardent Keir Starmer loyalist, from his next-door constituency, who tells me that if Burnham wins he should make no leadership challenge – squashed up beside Miatta Fahnbulleh, the first minister to resign after the May elections because she and her constituents had “ lost faith and confidence in the prime minister ” for lack of clarity about “values” and “purpose”. How odd this campaign is, when Labour canvassers encountering “I hate Keir Starmer” (as voters often say, however unjustly) reply, in effect: “Vote for Andy to get rid of him.” The chief whip, Jonathan Reynolds, has been here , but who is he whipping to say what?

Look, there is John McDonnell, the Corbynite ex-shadow chancellor, pausing between canvasses to tell me what Burnham could do as PM: take control of water companies . No, Burnham need not be constrained by his pledge to stick to the manifesto, as there are wider interpretations available, he says. Torsten Bell, the former head of the radical Resolution Foundation, now Treasury minister, has a canvassing style that sees him bounding like a gazelle from door to door: a husband and wife give him a beaming thumbs up. He gets the best door-knock, when elderly Shirley says she has never voted before: “I’m not political.” But she will vote for Burnham. “Farage is like Hitler and Trump!” she says.

Someone could set up a profitable stall here, selling voxpops to any passing journo. When I worked in the BBC newsroom, it was easy: grab one of each, preferably in a picturesque market with a mouthy stall holder, and conclude “only time will tell”. I can take my pick here, but be none the wiser on the result.

There was the Reform voter whose home bears the sign, “This house is protected by the Good Lord and a pitbull”. He hasn’t voted Labour for years: “Andy will be gone off down to Westminster, won’t he?” Well, yes, that’s what you’re electing an MP to do. Or there was Susan, definitely Labour. “No one I know votes Reform,” she said, though there were Reform signs in gardens down her street. “I don’t speak to them.” The divide, she says, runs deep and many don’t like to say what they’re voting.

Every MP is under orders to be here at least twice. Murmurs condemn a handful of Starmer loyalist ministers not seen here (yet). I never got a reply from the office of one as to whether they had been here. You hear some MPs doubting yet another prime minister is the answer to Britain’s impossible spending problems, alarmed at some Burnham promises – though he denies a report that he would pay billions to the Waspi women’s pensions campaign.

But the big picture here is of right and left, loyalists and rebels, Burnham fans and not so much, knowing that their own, the party’s and the country’s fate depends on victory here. Even those doubting him as PM have no choice but to pray that his unique popularity, warmth and principled clarity will triumph against Faragism. His effortlessly strong and graceful Question Time performance encouraged many, and the misogynist posts of the Reform candidate boosted women’s support: the FT reports him with a 17% lead among women , only 2% ahead with men.

Don’t jinx the result by suggesting Labour is ahead, beg Burnham’s people, poring over meagre polls, less reliable in a single constituency. But the analyst Peter Kellner, YouGov founder, expects a reasonable Burnham win .

A loss would heap fury on Burnham for risking all on a needless contest. A win could save Labour. In the tooth-rattling anxiety of the next week, the prospect of a gloating triumph for Nigel Farage brings Labour people of all shades pouring in, begging Makerfield to “vote Andy for us”.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Keyword – UK news
Trefwoorden – UK news
Title – How the Belfast stabbing was the spark to a fuse loaded with grievance and provocation | UK news | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/rorycarroll
Link – How the Belfast stabbing was the spark to a fuse loaded with grievance and provocation | UK news | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T05:00:07.000Z
Category – News
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/11/how-the-belfast-stabbing-was-the-spark-to-a-fuse-loaded-with-grievance-and-provocation

Within minutes of the footage going online – of a Black man stabbing a white man – there was a sense of inexorability to what came next in Northern Ireland.

The grievances, the social media platforms, the politicians’ doublespeak and the international cheerleaders all provided a fuse. On Monday night came the spark.

Those who saw the video will not easily forget it: an assailant on a north Belfast street stabbing and slashing his victim in the face and neck, shouting in Arabic. Residents intervened and halted the assault but the victim, Stephen Ogilvie, was seriously injured, including having lost an eye.

On Wednesday, Hadi Alodid, 30, a Sudanese refugee, appeared in Belfast magistrates court charged with attempted murder. The judicial system was fast, but the gutted homes of minority ethnic families showed that a warped form of vigilante justice was even faster.

“Who was in there?” a woman asked on Tuesday night, indicating a scorched, smouldering ruin on McMaster Street, off Newtownards Road, in east Belfast.

“A Romanian gypsy family in that one,” came the reply.

The woman nodded, as if it made sense that a family should be expelled for a crime committed by a stranger on the other side of the city and that hundreds of youths, many with masks, should be prowling streets filled with acrid smoke and the drone of police helicopters. To the rioters who burned homes and vehicles, including a Glider bus and a police car, it did, in fact, make perfect sense.

Their social media feeds, elected representatives and far-right agitators, such as Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson, assured them it was all connected: immigrants and refugees were taking houses, imposing alien customs and committing crimes while the police did nothing, thus requiring community action.

That worldview underpinned riots in Belfast in 2024 , a copycat to riots in England after the Southport attacks , and impelled the ethnic cleansing of Roma from Ballymena last year and patrols by vigilante groups who intimidate dark-skinned men.

Yet Northern Ireland’s crime rate fell last year by 3.3% from the previous 12 months and reached its lowest level since 1998 , with especially steep falls in violence and injury. Racist hate crime and racist incidents, in contrast, reached their highest level since records began in 2004.

Within hours of Monday night’s attack, social media platforms crackled with rage. “Enough is enough!” many posted. By 10am on Tuesday activists where sharing lists of assembly points and times. All businesses were to close at 5.30pm – “no excuses” – and from 7pm crowds were to close roads. Some posts urged peaceful action, others advised the wearing of dark clothes and a readiness to be arrested.

At midday, leaders of five main political parties issued a joint statement condemning the stabbing attack and urging restraint. “We call for calm and for space to allow justice to take its course.”

Other statements, however, used loaded language. Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), called the attack “medieval”. Jim Allister, the leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice party, went further. “What is going to be done to stop this importation of an alien culture that seems to now include attempted beheading?”

From thousands of miles away, Musk and Robinson, who was in Moscow, chimed in with exhortations for mass protests.

By 4pm, steel shutters were coming down over African- and Arab-owned supermarkets, barber shops and gadget stores and their owners and staff were preparing to hunker at home. The Belfast Islamic Centre cancelled evening prayers and urged the congregation to stay indoors.

Crowds gathered at designated intersections from 6.30pm. Some remained peaceful and eventually dispersed. Others swelled and splintered into breakaway groups that attacked vehicles and homes owned or occupied by people with dark skin.

“Foreigners out!” some chanted. Others spraypainted “fuck Islam”, with crosshairs, on walls. By 10pm, smoke plumed over multiple locations: Oakley Street, Crumlin Road, Lendrick Street, McMaster Street, Newtownards Road. In places there was a carnival atmosphere, with people posing for selfies and drinking beer. One man hoisted up his young son for a better view of a burning house. “Get a duke at that,” he said. “Wow,” the boy replied.

Outside Belfast, mobs torched targets in Portadown, Dundonald and Newtownabbey. The fire service received 256 calls and attended 62 incidents.

Similar scenes have played out in England, but Northern Ireland’s history echoed through the mayhem. In 1969, mobs burned Catholic families from some of the same streets, setting a precedent. “It’s the same type of behaviour – driving out people who are the other,” said Peter Shirlow, the director of the Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool.

The Troubles provided the iconography of boys and men with dark clothing and covered faces posing as defenders of their communities, though now the enemy has changed. “The evidence we have collected on this is quite clear,” Shirlow said. ‘The majority of Catholics and Protestants agree that immigrants do not make a positive contribution to society and the economy.”

Elements of republicanism “monitor and suppress” xenophobic displays, but loyalists are fractured over the issue and some unionist leaders stoke the notion of cultural invasion, Shirlow said. “It is well within the definition of racism in terms of stereotyping and dehumanising ethnic minorities.”

Kashif Akram, a board member of the Belfast Islamic Centre, said some politicians sought scapegoats for Stormont’s failure to build enough houses. “The blame is directed at the most vulnerable: the immigrants.”

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland programme director, said this was the region’s third consecutive summer of organised racist violence, with each outbreak more serious than the last. “This was racist violence on a shocking scale. It did not emerge in a vacuum.”

On Tuesday night, a teenage boy on Newtownards Road, inspecting the remains of the burned bus, looked perplexed when asked why his peers were rioting. “If they don’t do it, who will?”

Keyword – Football
Trefwoorden – Real Madrid, La Liga, Football, Sport
Title – Real Madrid confirm José Mourinho’s return as manager after 13 years away | Real Madrid | The Guardian
Author – https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-sport
Link – Real Madrid confirm José Mourinho’s return as manager after 13 years away | Real Madrid | The Guardian
Publish date – 2026-06-11T18:29:53.000Z
Category – Sport
URL – https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/11/real-madrid-confirm-jose-mourinho-manager

José Mourinho’s blockbuster return as Real Madrid manager has been confirmed. The 63-year-old, who was in the dugout at the Bernabéu from 2010 until 2013, joins the 15-times European champions from Benfica on a three-year contract.

Mourinho’s appointment comes after a torrid season at Real Madrid, with Xabi Alonso sacked in January amid player unrest. Álvaro Arbeloa came in as interim head coach, but failed to turn around the campaign as Real exited the Champions League to Bayern Munich at the quarter-final stage and Barcelona cantered to the La Liga title. Disharmony within the squad also continued, with Fede Valverde taken to hospital to have stitches after a confrontation with his teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni.

Florentino Pérez, who was re-elected as president last Sunday, made Mourinho his target and will hope the Portuguese can restore order to the dressing room and success on the pitch. Mourinho won La Liga in the 2011-12 season, along with the Copa del Rey in 2010-2011. He achieved phenomenal feats in the early part of his managerial career, winning the Champions League with Porto and Inter and three Premier League titles across two spells at Chelsea.

Mourinho returned to Benfica, where he had started his managerial career, last September and guided them to an unbeaten league season, but that was enough only for third place. He has also had recent spells in charge of Fenerbahce in Turkey and Roma in Italy. Madrid said he would officially start on 13 July, when pre-season training begins.

On Wednesday Benfica said they would receive €15m (£13m) in compensation for Mourinho from Madrid and that an agreement had been reached for Marco Silva to take over on a two-year deal with an option to extend for a season. Silva left Fulham last week after five years.