Mahmoud Essam Wadi, a journalist who was killed on Tuesday by an Israeli drone strike, was laid to rest in Khan Younis. Another journalist was hurt in the attack. Since October 2023, more than 220 journalists have died in Gaza.
Published On 3 Dec 2025
From June 11 through July 19th, the expanded 48-team competition, which included 32 nations competing at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, will take place in all 50 states.
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Trump’s confirmation of his attendance at the Kennedy Center’s ceremony on Tuesday, which was confirmed by the White House, strengthens his relationship with Gianni Infantino, who has visited the White House numerous times and even has attended a joint North American bid more than once.
Given Infantino’s close ties to Trump, it is widely anticipated that the US leader will be chosen as the first recipient of a new FIFA Peace Prize, which will be decided at the drawing.
Trump’s second presidency and the 250th anniversary of US independence will both feature in the World Cup.
He has not paused to discuss domestic politics and has threatened to move World Cup games from Democratic-run cities if he believes the situation is “unsafe.”
Iran said it will boycott the draw because US authorities refused to grant visas to several members of its delegation in response to the global tensions surrounding a World Cup that will have 11 of its 16 locations in the US.
Mehdi Taj, the president of the Iranian football team, stated: “We have told the head of FIFA that this behavior must be told to stop at [Washington] because it is purely political.”
The contenders for the title will be divided into 12 categories, including a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina that won for the third time in Qatar in 2022.
Argentina, the host country’s USA, Mexico, and Canada, record-holder Brazil, two-time champions France, four-time champions Germany, Spain, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Belgium are the top seeds.
The 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be playing in his sixth World Cup finals with Portugal, would enjoy a long career with his nation’s first global title. He has stated that his will be his last.
A few of the first-time qualifiers, including Cape Verde, Jordan, and the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao, will also have a chance to participate in the enlarged cast.
The favorites want to avoid Italy, who won the World Cup in 2006 but haven’t qualified since 2014, with six more playoffs still to be decided.
The Italians can still advance to the finals by winning two sudden-death games despite a qualification campaign that has been rife with errors.
The Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which also hosted the 1970 and 1986 championship matches, will host the opening match, which will take place before the nearly six-week long tournament, which will culminate in the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, will host the final game.
Teams will only learn the full details of their matchday locations and kickoff times on Saturday, the day after the draw, due to the complexity.
Fans’ organizations have been warned that because of FIFA’s decision to use dynamic ticket pricing, fans could be paying eye-watering prices for tickets to the most attractive games.
Prices for the July 19 World Cup final in New Jersey starting at about $7, 000 have already soared on popular US secondary market websites like StubHub and SeatGeek.
Eagle Mujinga walks a tightrope in DRC’s dangerous mines to meet the world’s demand for cobalt. Eagle Mujinga defends workers’ welfare.
Workers at the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Shabara cobalt mine are led by Eagle Mujinga. The DRC contributes to the global supply chain that fuels renewable energy and electric vehicles. It is the world’s largest producer of cobalt. Miners in the DRC are exposed to risky working conditions and only make a few dollars per day to supply the multibillion-dollar industry.
When miners accuse foreign buyers of underweighing and undervaluing the cobalt they extract, there is an ape caught in the middle. Can Mujinga manage demands from miners while maintaining contact with foreigners once he becomes a miner himself?
Published On 3 Dec 2025
Republican nominee Matt Van Epps, who defeated Democratic state Representative Aftyn Behn, won Tuesday’s special US House election in Tennessee thanks to US President Donald Trump.
Mark Green, a former representative, resigned in July, taking the seat that Van Epps has vacated.
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The Republicans’ 219-213 House majority would have been even more narrowed if they had gotten upset by a Democratic upset.
What should I know:
Middle Tennessee’s election was won by Van Epps. After Republican leaders made a late push to woo their voters, the Associated Press called the election.
Van Epps received 53.9 percent of the votes, while Behn received 45 percent, according to the AP.
In a statement, Van Epps stated that “this race was bigger than just one campaign.” It marked a turning point for Tennessee, the country, and the country’s direction, according to the author.
He added that cost-of-living issues would be one of his top priorities as a result of the greater attention given to those issues in races this year, including the governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey and the New York City mayoral race.
Republicans typically enjoy a seat in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Trump increased that margin to 22 points in 2024 after winning by 15 points in 2020. However, unexpected outcomes can occur during special elections, as revealed by recent polls.
Trump congratulated Van Epps and called it “another fantastic night for the Republican Party” in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday night.
After Green, who had previously won the seat in 2018, resigned in July as a result of his decision to retire, Tennessee decided to hold the special election.
He had won the district’s re-election by 21 points to lead the district.
The seat he vacated belongs in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, a sizable portion of Nashville’s downtown area that extends from the Kentucky border to Alabama. After the state’s Republican-controlled legislature redefined congressional boundaries in 2022, the district’s political climate shifted more significantly.
Nearly all of Nashville was grouped under one firmly Democratic district prior to that redistricting.
The seventh district was then divided into three distinct districts by the city’s leaders, who combined Nashville’s heavily Republican suburban and rural counties.
By dispersing the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic, urban voters, who are disproportionately younger, Black, and more progressive, across a number of districts, the new map diluted Nashville’s Democratic voting bloc.
Large suburban and rural areas that consistently vote Republican, made up of older, whiter, and more conservative voters, were then combined with each other’s parts of the city.
Seats like the 7th Congressional District’s Democratic bloc were significantly more likely to elect Republican candidates because of this redrawing, which dispersed the Democratic bloc in Nashville’s Republican-leaning districts.
However, national Republican groups had to intervene this time to save the seat.
Van Epps’ 8.9-point victory is notable in contrast to the district’s previous Republican victories.
The significant investment from national Republican groups, who viewed the race as closer than expected, is credited as a key factor in shaping the outcome, according to analysts.
According to Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, who is based in Washington, DC, “It is undoubtedly going to concern the Republicans,” so much so that a poll suggested Behn might actually win.
Trump’s personal Political Action Committee (PAC), which she claims traveled to a rally with the candidate for more than $1 million, said the candidate. The president also called the rally at a campaign rally.
The super PAC, which supports Trump, has been funding campaigns for the first time since the election of last year.
Van Epps firmly supported Trump in his victory speech, stating that “running with Trump is how you win.”
He praised the president for his unwavering support, which he said propelled us to victory and charted this movement. “President Trump was in complete agreement with us.” That was crucial. I’ll support him in Congress.
THANK YOU, TENNESSEE 🇺🇸#TN07 #MattforTN pic. twitter.com/RJJiwOWi0H
One of his main goals, he added, was to stop rising living costs, which is a theme that is becoming apparent in a lot of campaigns this year.
Democrats recently had impressive victories in key races, including the New York mayoral contest, and they hoped a strong showing in Tennessee would help the party prepare for the midterm elections in November.
Behn stated in the Tuesday evening press release that “the momentum has been on our side.” “We are losing less in other areas than we should be,” the statement reads.
Van Epps, a West Point graduate, a decorated helicopter pilot, and a lieutenant colonel who served in the Tennessee Army National Guard, are described on his campaign website.
His public service includes positions in the governor’s office’s office and the state government of Tennessee, where he served as the department’s commissioner of general services’ deputy chief operating officer.
Van Epps describes himself as a strong fiscal conservative who supports tax cuts, Medicaid changes, and supports the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As part of Trump’s agenda, the bill passed in July increases immigration funds, cuts welfare programs, and increases tax cuts.
Additionally, he supports a “secure border”.
Matt will work with President Trump to finish the wall, give Border Patrol more authority, and put an end to the woke left’s open-border agenda to keep our borders safe. They will restore law and order, safeguard American families, and prioritize our country’s security, according to his website.
He has endorsed Israel on issues of foreign policy and Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, saying he will “ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”
Congressman-elect Matt Van Epps, welcome to the @HouseGOP! 🇺🇸 pic. twitter.com/HUw5T3qlxU
Analysts claim that the outcome is still a “big warning sign for Republicans” despite his victory.
According to Al Jazeera’s Culhane, “This will give Democrats a little bit of energy,” and it will serve as a referendum on Donald Trump.
Rights group Amnesty International has called for a war crimes investigation into an assault by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a displaced persons camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state earlier this year.
A report issued by the NGO on Wednesday documents accounts of atrocities committed by the RSF during a large-scale attack on the Zamzam camp. The RSF has been accused of indiscriminate killing and mass rape, among other crimes, numerous times amid its conflict with the military government of Sudan that has been running since April 2023.
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The assault on the famine-hit camp came as the paramilitary force laid siege to el-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur. The RSF now holds full control over the state and is pushing eastwards into the vast central Sudanese region of West Kordofan, adding to the millions of people who have been displaced.
The attacks on Zamzam – the largest for internally displaced people in North Darfur state – between April 11 and 13 saw RSF fighters deploy explosives in populated areas and shoot randomly in residential areas, according to the report.
The document details dozens of accounts of deadly attacks on civilians, with witnesses recounting seeing RSF fighters fatally shoot at least 47 civilians who were hiding in their homes, fleeing the violence or sheltering in a mosque.
“The RSF’s horrific and deliberate assault on desperate, hungry civilians in Zamzam camp laid bare once again its alarming disregard for human life,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.
“Civilians were ruthlessly attacked, killed, robbed of items critical to their survival and livelihood, and left without recourse to justice.”
The assault, which also saw RSF fighters deliberately set fire to homes and other buildings, and undertake acts “that may amount to” rape and pillage, caused an estimated 400,000 people to flee the camp during two days alone, the report said.
Based on interviews with 29 people – including witnesses, survivors, and the relatives of victims, as well as videos and satellite imagery – the report is the latest to accuse the RSF of committing atrocities in Sudan’s 30-month war, including mass killings, summary executions and rapes.
The military government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has also been accused of numerous war crimes.
The kind of depictions given by survivors of the Zamzam assault, of RSF fighters shooting and setting fires indiscriminately to send residents fleeing, have become familiar.
“[RSF] fighters were just shouting and shooting anywhere, so that is how many people were killed,” one man told Amnesty.
Another said: “You could not identify where the shelling [was] coming from. It was everywhere.”
One woman, a volunteer for a nongovernmental organisation, described an RSF fighter firing randomly from his vehicle as he drove near the camp’s main market.
Amnesty said that shooting without a specific military target could constitute an indiscriminate attack, a serious violation of international humanitarian law.
Another man described how he had witnessed about 15 armed men storm his compound and fatally shoot his 80-year-old brother and 30-year-old nephew.
“No one is concerned with our situation,” he said.
Amnesty also once again criticised the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the report for supporting the RSF – a widely made accusation.
The UAE has staunchly denied that it supplies arms or financial support to the RSF.
The SAF and RSF have remained locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million since hostilities broke out in April 2023.
Efforts to broker a truce have made little headway. The RSF announced a unilateral ceasefire last month following a peace plan issued by the “Quad,” a group of mediators including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the United States.