Spain will host the final of the 2030 World Cup, which it is cohosting with Portugal and Morocco, according to Rafael Louzan, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Morocco wants to play the game at Casablanca’s Grand Stade Hassan II, a sizable stadium that is currently being constructed north of the city. However, Louzan has other objectives.
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Spain has demonstrated its organizational prowess over time. At a meeting organized by the Madrid Sports Press Association late on Monday, Louzan declared that it would lead the 2030 World Cup and that the final of that World Cup would take place here.
For instance, at Barcelona’s Camp Nou or Madrid’s Bernabeu, the two top candidates, Louzan did not specify a location for the game.
The new stadium for Casablanca is anticipated to have 115, 000 capacity when it is finished in late 2028. Faouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), requested a final game between Spain and Morocco in Casablanca last year.
The Barcelona-based Camp Nou stadium, which is undergoing renovations, is a strong contender for the 2030 Olympic Games.
Louzan also made reference to the difficulties Morocco faced while hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, including the tumultuous scenes that occurred during this month’s Senegal vs. Morocco match.
Senegal won the match, but fan protests and fan disruptions temporarily halted play.
Moroccan football is actually undergoing a transformation, Louzan said. We must acknowledge the success of our efforts. However, scenes from the Africa Cup of Nations have ruined the reputation of international football.
The location of the final has not been provided by FIFA, the FRMF, or the Portuguese Football Federation.
Trader frustration over the government’s strategy and strict control over Onitsha Main Market in Anambra State have expressed their dissatisfaction with the closure of the market.
Some traders questioned the fairness of the shutdown, claiming that many business owners who had traveled abroad and to larger markets had purchased goods and were prepared to launch sales following the yuletide period. However, others claimed that the directive would cause hardship for many who depend on daily income to survive.
Some traders, on the other hand, praised Governor Chukwuma Soludo for the action, noting that compliance with an order issued by a recognized state authority outweighs compliance with an order issued by unknown actors.
Some people said they are prepared to resume business after the governor appealed to maintain the same level of security for Monday.
READ MORE: Soludo shuts down Onitsha Main Market for a Week Over Sit-At-Home.
Employees from the Department of State Services, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Army, and the Nigerian Police Force were immediately dispatched to help block entrances and obstruct traders from gaining access to their stores. To turn back those attempting to enter the market, additional operatives were stationed at crucial locations.
Police spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga responded to the development by stating that the state government’s directive requires the government to maintain law and order.
In order to protect public safety, security, and economic stability, he urged traders to abide by the directives, adding that security forces would keep Onitsha and other Anambra State’s calm and orderly.
Following an unscheduled inspection on Monday, Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s order to close Onitsha Main Market resulted in the closure of the business. Most traders had not yet opened their stores in accordance with the sit-at-home rule put in place by non-state actors.
The government has stressed that Mondays are now routine working days and warned against imposing stricter sanctions on any contravention.
To retrieve one body, the Israeli military mobilised a fleet of tanks, drones, and what locals described as “explosive robots”.
They turned a neighbourhood into a “kill zone”, dug up approximately 200 Palestinian graves, and left four civilians dead in their wake.
The focus of this overwhelming force was Ran Gvili, an Israeli policeman killed more than two years ago, the last Israeli captive in Gaza after more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged enclave.
His successful recovery on Monday was hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a triumph of commitment. But just metres (yards) away from where Gvili’s remains were carefully extracted, a very different, gruesome reality persists.
According to the National Committee for Missing Persons, more than 10,000 Palestinians remain entombed under the rubble of Gaza, decomposing in silence, lost and without identity.
Families grieve without closure for their missing, presumed dead loved ones.
There are no explosive robots clearing the way for them, no forensic teams flying in to identify them, and no global outcry demanding their recovery.
International media do not rush to break news about them.
The digging up of the al-Batsh cemetery in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood has become a visceral symbol of a deadly double standard: A world where one Israeli corpse commands the attention of an army, while thousands of Palestinian bodies are treated as part of the decimated, apocalyptic landscape.
(Al Jazeera)
A ‘kill zone’ around the graves
Khamis al-Rifi, a journalist in Gaza who reported from the vicinity of the incursion, detailed the sheer scale of force used to isolate the area.
“It started with exploding robots and air strikes … clearing the path for the tanks,” al-Rifi told Al Jazeera. He explained that approaching the cemetery was impossible, as tanks enforced a deadly perimeter, firing at anything that moved.
From his position near the “Yellow Line”, Israel’s self-proclaimed buffer zone inside Gaza, al-Rifi described a “wall of fire” created by artillery and helicopters to protect the engineering units. Inside this sealed zone, witnesses and video footage obtained later revealed that the forces spent two days churning up the earth.
“They dug up about 200 graves,” al-Rifi said. “They pulled the martyrs out, tested them one by one until they found the [Israeli] body.”
The disparity was most evident in the aftermath. Gvili’s remains were airlifted for dignified burial in Israel. The Palestinian bodies, however, were left to the mercy of bulldozers.
“When citizens went to the area [after the withdrawal], they found the martyrs put back randomly … covered with sand by the bulldozers,” al-Rifi said. “Some bodies were still visible on the surface.”
‘The world’s largest graveyard’
While Israel used satellite technology and DNA labs to close the chapter on its missing policeman, Palestinian families are denied even the basic machinery to dig.
Alaa al-Din al-Aklouk, spokesperson for the National Committee for Missing Persons, stated last November that Gaza has become “the world’s largest graveyard”.
“These martyrs are buried under the rubble of their homes … without their last dignity being preserved,” al-Aklouk said. He highlighted the “fatal injustice” of an international community that mobilised resources for Israeli captives while blocking the entry of heavy civil defence equipment needed to recover Palestinian victims.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera on Monday that while he respects the right of any family to bury their dead, the contrast is inescapable. “The lack of equal treatment, the lack of respect to Palestinians as equal human beings, is really astonishing,” he noted.
A cost paid in blood
The dark irony of this Israeli mission is that it created new victims. On Tuesday morning, as residents approached the desecrated cemetery to check on the graves of their loved ones, Israeli fire struck again.
“Four martyrs fell in the area this morning,” al-Rifi said, noting that one of them, his relative Youssef al-Rifi, had simply gone to inspect the destruction left behind.
Elina Svitolina has the words “carpe diem” tattooed on her right hand.
But “seize the day” was not always a phrase that sat comfortably with her style of tennis.
Known for her defensive play, Svitolina soared up the rankings but struggled for a big breakthrough win at the majors.
However, after having daughter Skai in 2022, Svitolina returned to the tour a different player.
In the past three years, the 31-year-old has reached six Grand Slam quarter-finals, converted two of those into semi-final appearances and swept up three other tour titles.
She has also become a spokesperson for her country; speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, raising funds and keeping the nation’s plight in people’s minds.
Now, a 6-1 6-2 win over world number three Coco Gauff has propelled her back inside the world’s top 10 for the first time since October 2021.
“That was a total annihilation,” former British number one Annabel Croft said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.
2 hours ago
Before her maternity leave, Svitolina won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and had been as high as third in the world rankings.
However, she had some tough losses at the majors, particularly at the quarter-final stage.
Seeded third at the 2020 French Open and the highest-ranked player remaining in the draw, Svitolina was stunned by world number 131 Nadia Podoroska in the last eight.
Her defensive style of play could allow opponents to hit her off the court.
That has changed. She barely let up against Gauff, whose serve and forehand disintegrated. Svitolina hit 12 winners to Gauff’s three, hit four aces and won 71% of first-serve points to overwhelm the American.
Her win over Gauff is her fourth over a top-five player at a major – and all of those victories have come since her return from maternity leave.
“Since I came back after pregnancy, it’s been trying to find those opportunities to attack,” Svitolina said.
“There’s so many aggressive players who, if you’re not at your best, they are taking the match from you.
43 minutes ago
1 hour ago
Svitolina ended her 2025 season early, saying she had “not been feeling like myself”.
She has begun 2026 with a 10-match winning streak – the third-longest of her career. She has dropped just one set in that sequence and triumphed in Auckland shortly before the first major of the year.
“If I would keep pushing last year, I think I wouldn’t start here. I would be exhausted, and even not sure if I would be injury-free,” Svitolina said.
“It was important to just step back. I have no regrets to take this time.”
Svitolina will face a tough task if she is to break further ground. She has lost her past four meetings with her semi-final opponent, world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
But Svitolina knows what all of her victories mean back home.
She took a break from the game in 2022 because of, among other things, the emotional strain of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Svitolina wrote in her BBC column in 2024 that many Ukrainians feel people have lost interest in their ongoing fight to repel the invasion. She speaks about the war frequently in her post-match news conferences and often writes a message to her country on the camera lens after victory.
“For my country, it’s great. I know that lots of people been watching, especially the matches that I had before,” Svitolina said after her victory over Gauff.
“It’s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians. It was, I think, one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people.
“I feel like [I] bring this light, a little light, to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching my matches.
Elina Svitolina has the words “carpe diem” tattooed on her right hand.
But “seize the day” was not always a phrase that sat comfortably with her style of tennis.
Known for her defensive play, Svitolina soared up the rankings but struggled for a big breakthrough win at the majors.
However, after having daughter Skai in 2022, Svitolina returned to the tour a different player.
In the past three years, the 31-year-old has reached six Grand Slam quarter-finals, converted two of those into semi-final appearances and swept up three other tour titles.
She has also become a spokesperson for her country; speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, raising funds and keeping the nation’s plight in people’s minds.
Now, a 6-1 6-2 win over world number three Coco Gauff has propelled her back inside the world’s top 10 for the first time since October 2021.
“That was a total annihilation,” former British number one Annabel Croft said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.
2 hours ago
Before her maternity leave, Svitolina won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and had been as high as third in the world rankings.
However, she had some tough losses at the majors, particularly at the quarter-final stage.
Seeded third at the 2020 French Open and the highest-ranked player remaining in the draw, Svitolina was stunned by world number 131 Nadia Podoroska in the last eight.
Her defensive style of play could allow opponents to hit her off the court.
That has changed. She barely let up against Gauff, whose serve and forehand disintegrated. Svitolina hit 12 winners to Gauff’s three, hit four aces and won 71% of first-serve points to overwhelm the American.
Her win over Gauff is her fourth over a top-five player at a major – and all of those victories have come since her return from maternity leave.
“Since I came back after pregnancy, it’s been trying to find those opportunities to attack,” Svitolina said.
“There’s so many aggressive players who, if you’re not at your best, they are taking the match from you.
42 minutes ago
1 hour ago
Svitolina ended her 2025 season early, saying she had “not been feeling like myself”.
She has begun 2026 with a 10-match winning streak – the third-longest of her career. She has dropped just one set in that sequence and triumphed in Auckland shortly before the first major of the year.
“If I would keep pushing last year, I think I wouldn’t start here. I would be exhausted, and even not sure if I would be injury-free,” Svitolina said.
“It was important to just step back. I have no regrets to take this time.”
Svitolina will face a tough task if she is to break further ground. She has lost her past four meetings with her semi-final opponent, world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
But Svitolina knows what all of her victories mean back home.
She took a break from the game in 2022 because of, among other things, the emotional strain of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Svitolina wrote in her BBC column in 2024 that many Ukrainians feel people have lost interest in their ongoing fight to repel the invasion. She speaks about the war frequently in her post-match news conferences and often writes a message to her country on the camera lens after victory.
“For my country, it’s great. I know that lots of people been watching, especially the matches that I had before,” Svitolina said after her victory over Gauff.
“It’s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians. It was, I think, one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people.
“I feel like [I] bring this light, a little light, to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching my matches.
Elina Svitolina has the words “carpe diem” tattooed on her right hand.
But “seize the day” was not always a phrase that sat comfortably with her style of tennis.
Known for her defensive play, Svitolina soared up the rankings but struggled for a big breakthrough win at the majors.
However, after having daughter Skai in 2022, Svitolina returned to the tour a different player.
In the past three years, the 31-year-old has reached six Grand Slam quarter-finals, converted two of those into semi-final appearances and swept up three other tour titles.
She has also become a spokesperson for her country; speaking out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, raising funds and keeping the nation’s plight in people’s minds.
Now, a 6-1 6-2 win over world number three Coco Gauff has propelled her back inside the world’s top 10 for the first time since October 2021.
“That was a total annihilation,” former British number one Annabel Croft said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.
2 hours ago
Before her maternity leave, Svitolina won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and had been as high as third in the world rankings.
However, she had some tough losses at the majors, particularly at the quarter-final stage.
Seeded third at the 2020 French Open and the highest-ranked player remaining in the draw, Svitolina was stunned by world number 131 Nadia Podoroska in the last eight.
Her defensive style of play could allow opponents to hit her off the court.
That has changed. She barely let up against Gauff, whose serve and forehand disintegrated. Svitolina hit 12 winners to Gauff’s three, hit four aces and won 71% of first-serve points to overwhelm the American.
Her win over Gauff is her fourth over a top-five player at a major – and all of those victories have come since her return from maternity leave.
“Since I came back after pregnancy, it’s been trying to find those opportunities to attack,” Svitolina said.
“There’s so many aggressive players who, if you’re not at your best, they are taking the match from you.
42 minutes ago
1 hour ago
Svitolina ended her 2025 season early, saying she had “not been feeling like myself”.
She has begun 2026 with a 10-match winning streak – the third-longest of her career. She has dropped just one set in that sequence and triumphed in Auckland shortly before the first major of the year.
“If I would keep pushing last year, I think I wouldn’t start here. I would be exhausted, and even not sure if I would be injury-free,” Svitolina said.
“It was important to just step back. I have no regrets to take this time.”
Svitolina will face a tough task if she is to break further ground. She has lost her past four meetings with her semi-final opponent, world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
But Svitolina knows what all of her victories mean back home.
She took a break from the game in 2022 because of, among other things, the emotional strain of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Svitolina wrote in her BBC column in 2024 that many Ukrainians feel people have lost interest in their ongoing fight to repel the invasion. She speaks about the war frequently in her post-match news conferences and often writes a message to her country on the camera lens after victory.
“For my country, it’s great. I know that lots of people been watching, especially the matches that I had before,” Svitolina said after her victory over Gauff.
“It’s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians. It was, I think, one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people.
“I feel like [I] bring this light, a little light, to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching my matches.
