Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has stated that he will move games from any cities he believes are unsafe to the 2026 World Cup.
The 48-team tournament that Canada and Mexico will co-host will be held in 11 US cities this summer.
78 of the 104 matches, including the final, will be held in the US.
Any changes to the schedule now or at a later time would cause logistical difficulties because the world’s governing body, Fifa, is in charge of organizing the tournament and choosing host cities.
Despite having a close working relationship with its president Gianni Infantino and serving as the head of the World Cup taskforce, it is unclear whether Trump has the authority to make these changes.
Trump in the Oval Office declared, “The World Cup will be safe.” We’ll relocate it to a different city if we think it’s unsafe.
Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle are the 11 host cities in the United States.
Trump was specifically questioned about matches in San Francisco and Seattle, which are both run by Democrats. Both have six games scheduled.
He also mentioned Los Angeles, a second Democratic hotspot that will host the 2028 Olympics and eight other events in the coming year.
We won’t allow it to go if any city we believe will be even a little risky for the World Cup, or the Olympics, but for the World Cup in particular because so many cities are hosting it. He said, “We’ll move it a little bit.”
Trump has made combating crime a top priority on his agenda. Despite reports that crime has decreased since it last spiked in 2023, he sent National Guard troops and federal officers to Washington, DC, last month.
He claimed that he had plans to send troops into Chicago and Memphis as well.
He sent 2, 000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles in June to deal with unrest caused by illegal immigration raids.
On December 5th, in Washington, DC, the group stage of the World Cup will be drawn.
The tournament will run from June 11 through July 19th.
Trump has mentioned the World Cup before for the first time.
He claimed in May that Russia’s participation in the tournament might serve as an “incentive” to the end of Ukraine’s conflict.
Despite the fact that the Russian national football team has already qualified for the World Cup after being exempt from international competition by Fifa and Uefa following their country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He claimed that the tournament would benefit from the US’s co-hosts Canada and Mexico’s political and economic tensions in March.
At the end of the Major League Soccer campaign in December, Sergio Busquets, a former Barcelona and Spain, will step down.
In his 18 years at Barcelona, the Inter Miami midfielder, 38, won 32 major awards, including three Champions League titles and nine La Liga titles.
He made 143 appearances for Spain and made the team that won the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship.
Busquets and former Barca teammates Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suarez team up for Inter Miami in 2023.
“It’s about time to bid my professional footballing career adieu. In a video posted on social media, Busquets stated, “It’s been almost 20 years since I first dreamed of this incredible story.
“I’m retiring very pleased, proud, fulfilled, and most of all, grateful. I appreciate you all so much; see you soon.
Busquets made his first appearance for Barcelona in a 2008 league game against Racing Santander after joining the club in 2005 as a youth player and moving to Barca’s B side.
He made 722 appearances overall, which is the third-most in club history.
He made his international debut in 2009, retiring in December 2022 as the nation’s third-highest appearance-holder.
With a 4-0 victory over New York City FC on Wednesday, Inter Miami advanced to the MLS play-offs.
After Israel claimed to have launched “powerful” strikes on Houthi command sites, several buildings in a residential neighborhood in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, have been destroyed. The Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks against Israel since Israel started a genocidal war against Gaza.
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Josh Kerr has confirmed that he suffered a grade two calf tear earlier this month in the 1500-meter World Championship final.
The Olympic silver medalist and 2023 world champion had been anticipated to be in the medal race, but he abruptly missed out on the final lap, with fellow Scot Jake Wightman finishing behind Isaac Nader, who had already won.
Kerr, 27, revealed that the problem began as a “minor strain” following a “overstretch” toward the end of his semi-final.
He continued, “Grade two is what I’m being told.”
You never know what might happen in these races, but I definitely did some more harm to that in those final 600 than right away. My goal is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.
The journey back will be interesting, and it will be frustrating.
“I’m on my way back and getting better already. For 2026, we are definitely feeling the fire.
Kerr also shared videos of him working in the pool and images of his calf that were injured.
He explained that he had kept a low profile ever since the final to “process” the injury and to “keep the focus where the focus should be: on the winners and the medals of that race, not the sob stories.”
“Sorry, Jake, but what a great result for him, and it’s awesome to see him back on the podium,” Kerr said.
Donald Trump, president of the United States, has imposed severe new tariffs on big-rig trucks, furniture, and pharmaceuticals.
The Trump trade plan was resurrected late on Thursday, signaling a resumption of the Republican president’s trade war, and the announcement came on the heels of the shock announcement of reciprocal tariffs on virtually every US trading partner globally.
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On his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that “we will be imposing a 100% tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product, unless a company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America.”
South Korean-based Samsung Biologics was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Asia with significant exposure to the US market on Friday.
Australia, which exported pharmaceuticals worth an estimated $1.3 billion to the US in 2024, was critical of Trump’s decision, according to the United Nations Comtrade Database.
Trump mentioned a 25% tariff on “all ‘Heavy (Big) Trucks’ made in other parts of the world” in a separate post to support US manufacturers like Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others.
Volvo and Daimler, two foreign companies that compete with these manufacturers in the US market, are from Sweden. In Europe’s after-hours trading, shares of both companies were significantly lower.
Trump claimed that the truck tariffs were “for a number of reasons, but foremost for national security reasons”!
The Trump administration “determined the effects of national security” by starting a Section 232 investigation into truck imports earlier this year, setting the stage for Thursday’s announcement.
A trade law provision called Section 232 gives the president the authority to impose tariffs or other import restrictions when they are perceived as a threat to national security.
Trump also stated that he would impose a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture and a 50% tariff on materials used for home renovations because he claimed foreign buyers were dumping these items into the US market.
Imports, primarily from Asia, made up 60% of all furniture sold, including upholstered furniture and 86 percent of all wood furniture, according to the US International Trade Commission.
In after-hours trading, shares of home furniture manufacturers Wayfair and Williams Sonoma, which rely on imported goods, dropped.
Trump’s administration has already imposed a bare 10% tariff on all nations, with higher individualized tariffs on those that have exported far more than the US.
Trump has also invoked his emergency powers to impose additional tariffs on China and Canada, both of which have trade agreements, citing concerns about fentanyl trafficking and undocumented immigration.
How these new tariffs would be integrated with the current measures was not yet clear.
The US-EU trade agreement, which was reached in July, shields the bloc’s drug exports from tariffs of more than 15%, according to the European Union on Friday.
Trade spokesman Olof Gill claimed that the clear, all-inclusive 15 percent tariff cap for EU exports is “an assurance that no higher tariffs will arise for European economic operators.”
A wave of recognition from Western countries – led by France, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada – means that 157 countries now recognise a Palestinian state.
The latest countries to recognise Palestine include strong allies of Israel who have tried to frame the recognition as an attempt to keep alive the idea of a two-state solution, which envisions a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
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“In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East, we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution,” Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, said in a statement. “That means a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state. At the moment, we have neither.”
While diplomatically the recognition of Palestine is a major step forward, on a practical level, it does little to bring the possibility of statehood any closer.
Israel has only increased settlement construction in the occupied West Bank throughout its war on Gaza and responded to the recognition of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly this week by doubling down on its commitment to never allow a Palestinian state.
So does recognition bring Palestine any closer to statehood, and what does a territory need to be considered a state? Let’s take a closer look.
What does it take to be a state?
There is no single definition of a state, but international law widely cites the Montevideo Convention of 1933. The UN has previously referenced the Montevideo Convention when discussing Palestinian statehood.
The convention does not require a state to be recognised by others. Instead, it specifies that a territory must have defined borders, a government, the capacity to enter into relations with other states and a permanent population.
So could Palestine be a state?
While many of the states that recognise Palestine are vague about its exact borders, most envisage lines close to those before Israel’s 1967 war, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel has occupied Palestinian territory since 1967 despite that being illegal under international law.
The Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s were supposed to start the process leading to the formation of a Palestinian state and created the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The PA engages in foreign relations, maintaining diplomatic ties with numerous countries and operating various diplomatic missions, including embassies, representative offices and delegations
And in terms of its permanent population, millions of Palestinians live in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and have done so for generations despite decades of Israeli policies.
However, the degree to which Israel allows the PA to operate as an independent state is disputed. While the PA exercises some governmental functions, international bodies have questioned its full capacity to govern.
A view of the West Bank separation barrier where it separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem [File: Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu]
For example, the UN Secretariat in 2011 and the International Criminal Court in 2020 noted that despite meeting all the other conditions for statehood set out in the Montevideo Convention, Israel’s control over the PA’s borders, movement within the territory – where Israel maintains a heavy security presence – resources and security operations undermine the PA’s ability to govern.
So, why isn’t Palestine a state?
Because international law can go only so far.
Since establishing Kfar Etzion, its first settlement in the West Bank after the 1967 war, Israel has created more than 160 settlements across the Palestinian territory and occupied East Jerusalem, housing about 700,000 Israelis. These settlements are illegal under international law.
During its war on Gaza, settlement construction has surged. Israel’s latest plan to build about 3,400 new homes would bisect the West Bank while linking thousands of existing settlements by roads for Israeli use only, making any future Palestinian state almost impossible.
In addition, Israel has constructed industrial developments, such as the Barkan Industrial Park, in occupied territory.
Israeli and international firms are encouraged to locate themselves in the industrial parks, receiving government subsidies, low rents, favourable tax rates and access to cheap Palestinian labour in return for supporting the settlements’ economies.
Among them, according to Amnesty International, are international companies such as Airbnb, Expedia and JCB.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on August 14, 2025, holds a map of an area known as E1, where Israel plans to build 3,400 settlement homes, after a news conference at the site near the settlement of Maale Adumim [Menahem Kahana/AFP]
How likely is Israel to give up its settlements?
Very unlikely.
Many settlers and their supporters in the Israeli government see their presence in Palestinian territory as ordained by Jewish scriptures.
According to them, in addition to settling Gaza, they hold a “divine mandate” to reclaim the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria as they refer to it, and even to potentially expand Israel’s frontiers to form “Greater Israel”, a territory that includes parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
Settlers themselves are being increasingly aggressive in seizing Palestinian land, facing little pushback from the Israeli state, and their agenda is openly supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Many settler leaders are in government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
An armed settler stands near Israeli soldiers during a weekly settlers’ tour in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on August 23, 2025 [Mussa Qawasma/Reuters]
But what about international law?
Israel, with the absolute backing of the United States, has shown little regard for international law from the first ejection of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 to the present.
In fact, rather than recognise a Palestinian state as others have done, the Israeli Knesset voted in July in defiance of international law and approved a motion to annex the West Bank, which constitutes much of one.
![Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds a map of an area near the settlement of Maale Adumim, a land corridor known as E1, outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, on August 14, 2025, after a press conference at the site. [Menahem Kahana/AFP]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AFP__20250814__69HV6DR__v1__HighRes__IsraelPalestinianConflictSettlementPolitics-1755194568.jpg?w=696&ssl=1)
