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2030 men’s FIFA World Cup to be hosted in six countries across three continents to mark 100-year anniversary of first edition

verifiedauthority.com 4 October 2023 0 Comments

The 2030 men’s World Cup will be hosted by six countries in three different continents to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the first edition of the tournament, soccer’s world governing body FIFA announced on Wednesday.

Spain, Portugal and Morocco will co-host the tournament, while Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina will all stage an opening match each to mark 100 years since the first World Cup was staged. The 1930 tournament was hosted and won by Uruguay.

“In a divided world, FIFA and football are uniting,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino. “The FIFA Council, representing the entire world of football, unanimously agreed to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup, whose first edition was played in Uruguay in 1930, in the most appropriate way.”

“The FIFA Council also agreed unanimously that the only bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2030 will be the joint bid of Morocco, Portugal and Spain,” added Infantino.

“Two continents – Africa and Europe – united not only in a celebration of football but also in providing unique social and cultural cohesion. What a great message of peace, tolerance and inclusion.

“In 2030, we will have a unique global footprint, three continents – Africa, Europe and South America – six countries – Argentina, Morocco, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay – welcoming and uniting the world while celebrating together the beautiful game, the centenary and the FIFA World Cup.”

All six teams will automatically qualify for the 48-team tournament, with FIFA announcing that the first game of the tournament will be played at the Estádio Centenário in Montevideo, the site of the tournament’s first ever final.

“It’s a historic event and CONMEBOL is happy. We’re honoring the memory of those who came before us and today we’re at the level. We appreciate again the confidence that FIFA and our colleagues showed for a historic event and date,” CONMEDBOL president Alejandro Domínguez said during a press conference.

“The good thing is that in having three countries, three hosts, we’re talking about almost no other investment more than what already exists. And that’s very good news because we all know that in that context, unfortunately we’re not able to compete if this had been a question of investment or money demands.

“If this had been a competition where our governments had to commit the funds which today countries commit to be hosts, I think it would have been an irresponsible proposal from us. And I think we wouldn’t have been able to either because we know that there are other countries who have much better economic conditions and fewer priorities than our nations. So I think this is a super responsible and very viable proposal.”

The 2030 edition of the World Cup will see Morocco host the global tournament for the first time, also becoming the first North African side to host official games.

Portugal will also be a new first-time host, with Spain having hosted the competition in 1982.

It had been reported before Wednesday’s announcement that Ukraine would be included in Spain, Portugal and Morocco’s bid, but safety concerns prompted it to withdraw from the running.

The 2030 competition will be the first World Cup to be hosted across three continents, and the first to have games take place in six different countries. The 2026 World Cup will be the only other tournament to be played in more than two countries, with Canada, the US and Mexico co-hosting the event.

FIFA’s congress in 2024 is set to ratify the 2030 World Cup tournament.

Argentina won the previous edition of the men’s World Cup, lifting the trophy in Doha, Qatar, in 2022 after beating France in the final on penalties. It was the third time Argentina had won the tournament.

US sues Elon Musk’s SpaceX over hiring policy

verifiedauthority.com 25 August 2023 0 Comments

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has said it is suing Elon Musk’s SpaceX, alleging the rocket firm discriminates against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring practices.

The DoJ says SpaceX falsely claimed that it was not allowed to hire non-US citizens.

The investigation into SpaceX by the DoJ was prompted after allegations of discrimination from a foreign worker.

The BBC has contacted SpaceX for comment.

The DoJ alleged that SpaceX “routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status” from September 2018 to May 2022.

An asylee is a person who has been granted asylum. They are authorised to work in the US, may apply for a social security card, may request permission to travel overseas, and can apply to bring family members to the country.

Elon Musk’s company said it was only allowed to hire citizens and green card holders because of “export control laws,” the DOJ said.

However, the DoJ also said that this was not correct and that these laws do not mandate such restrictions.

The jobs from which refugee and asylee applicants were allegedly excluded from were wide ranging – from rocket engineering to dish-washing and cooking.

The DoJ has asked SpaceX to look at providing backpay for those who were wrongly denied work because of this alleged discrimination.

This lawsuit is not the first time one of Mr Musk’s companies has been accused of discriminatory behaviour.

A group of former employees of the social media website formerly known as Twitter, now X, filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging that Mr Musk engaged in gender, age and racial discrimination.

OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky receives $338m payout

verifiedauthority.com 25 August 2023 0 Comments

The owner of OnlyFans, the online platform used by sex workers, musicians, celebrities and more, has been paid $338m (£268.5m) in dividends.

Its parent company, Fenix International, says annual profits jumped to over half a billion dollars.

The platform says it now hosts more than three million creators, serving almost 240 million users, or “Fans”.

UK-based Fenix’s sole shareholder, Leonid Radvinsky, has a personal fortune estimated at more than $2bn.

In accounts filed at the UK corporate registry Companies House, the firm said more than $5.5bn was spent on the OnlyFans platform in the year to the end of November 2022. That was up from $4.8bn in 2021.

The London-registered firm said pre-tax profits for the period reached $525m, up from $432m the previous year.

The number of creators on OnlyFans jumped by 47% to almost 3.2 million, while the number of users rose by 27% to close to 239 million.

The company also said that for the first time more than half of its revenues were from non-subscription services such as tips and on-demand content by creators.

The firm said it takes a fifth of the payments made on the site, with around 80% going to creators.

“OnlyFans recorded sustained growth and profitability,” Fenix said in the filing.

“This reflects both the platform growth, in terms of number of content creators and fans, as well as growth in existing content creators earnings,” it added.

Traffic soared for OnlyFans and other streaming sites during the coronavirus lockdowns as people were stuck in their homes.

However, many of those platforms have seen the pandemic-era gains drop away after restrictions were lifted.

OnlyFans was founded in 2016 by father and son team Guy and Tim Stokely.

They sold the company to Ukrainian-American entrepreneur and porn site owner Mr Radvinsky in 2018.

Mr Radvinsky has an estimated net worth of $2.1bn, according to Forbes magazine.

Pakistan: All eight people rescued from broken cable car dangling 274m above canyon

verifiedauthority.com 23 August 2023 0 Comments

All eight people have been pulled to safety from a broken cable car which had been dangling 274m (900ft) over a river canyon in Pakistan for more than 15 hours, officials have said.

Seven youngsters, aged between 11 and 15, and their teacher had been trapped in the gondola following the incident which started when a cable line snapped as the group were travelling to school.

Two of the children were rescued in the daytime by army commandos using helicopters, before the rest were also saved one by one during an even riskier night-time operation with a makeshift chairlift that used the working cable to get to the stricken carriage.

Two of the children were rescued in the daytime by army commandos using helicopters, before the rest were also saved one by one during an even riskier night-time operation with a makeshift chairlift that used the working cable to get to the stricken carriage.

Trump lawyers ask for January 6 trial to be pushed back to 2026 

verifiedauthority.com 18 August 2023 0 Comments

Trump’s lawyers ask to push back January 6 trial to April 2026

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Lawyers for former president Donald Trump asked the judge presiding over his federal 2020 election interference case to schedule his trial for April 2026 – more than two and a half years from now.

In a 16-page filing on Thursday, the lawyers argued that putting Trump on trial this coming January – as federal prosecutors have requested – would mark a “rush to trial” that would violate his constitutional rights and be “flatly impossible” given the extraordinary volume of discovery evidence they will have to sort through. Trump’s lawyers wrote:

The government’s objective is clear: to deny President Trump and his counsel a fair ability to prepare for trial.

Special counsel Jack Smith is expected to oppose the April 2026 start date, which would put the trial long after the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump is the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination. US district court judge Tanya Chutkan has said she wants to set a trial date at her next scheduled hearing on 28 August.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden will welcome his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, to Camp David today for the first-ever trilateral summit with the three countries, as the US hopes to cement ties with its two most important allies in Asia amid an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Washington’s ties with Tokyo and Seoul are “stronger than they have been at any point in modern memory”, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a Friday briefing, as he confirmed the US will announce “significant steps to enhance trilateral security cooperation” including new collaborations on missile defence and technology when the three leaders meet for their first standalone summit.

US has cleared way for F-16s to be sent to Ukraine, say Denmark and Netherlands

verifiedauthority.com 18 August 2023 0 Comments

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said on Friday that Ukrainian pilot training on F-16s will be followed by a transfer of jets to the country.

Speaking a press conference, Sullivan said: “What we did this week is formalised through a letter from Secretary Blinken to his counterparts in Europe, that upon the completion of that training, the United States would be prepared in consultation with Congress to approve third party transfer of F 16 aircraft to Ukraine.”

Denmark and the Netherlands have said the US has cleared the way to allow F-16 fighters to be re-exported to Ukraine after some of its pilots are trained to fly them, helping restore momentum to a process that appeared to be stalling.

Ministers from both countries, the leaders of an international coalition to help Ukraine obtain the jets, thanked Washington for the green light, although it remains unclear when any F-16 transfers could take place.

Kajsa Ollongren, the Dutch defence minister, said she welcomed the US decision “to clear the way for delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine”, which would allow the coalition “to follow through on the training of Ukrainian pilots”.

Denmark’s defence minister said donating F-16 jets was “a natural next step” after pilot training was completed. “We are discussing it with close allies, and I expect we will soon be able to be more concrete about that,” Jakob Ellemann-Jensen added.

A week ago the Washington Post reported that an initial group of six pilots was not expected to complete F-16s training by the next summer, meaning Russia would retain a dominant position in the air war well into next year.

The start of the training programme was repeatedly delayed, with the Dutch and Danish comments indicating the absence of formal US approval was among the factors holding back the start of the exercise.

Ukraine had resigned itself to a long delay. “It’s already obvious we won’t be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter,” the Ukraine air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television late on Wednesday.

“We had big hopes for this plane, that it will become part of air defence, able to protect us from Russia’s missiles and drones terrorism,” he added.

US officials had overnight indicated that Washington would formally approve re-exports of the jets, now made in the country, in a guarantee letter sent by Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, to Denmark and the Netherlands.

“I am writing to express the United States’ full support for both the transfer of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine and for the training of Ukrainian pilots by qualified F-16 instructors,” Blinken wrote. “It remains critical that Ukraine is able to defend itself against ongoing Russian aggression and violation of its sovereignty.”

Blinken said the approval of the requests would allow Ukraine to take “full advantage of its new capabilities as soon as the first set of pilots complete their training”.

It is unclear if the US approval can now lead to an acceleration. Another barrier to progress has been a perceived requirement to teach the pilots, and the related ground crews, military aviation terminology in English.

Previously the Washington Post reported that the pilots, despite being English speakers, would have to study for a further four months in the UK with the crews before the training programme could be begin.

Ukraine mounted a high-profile international lobbying effort to obtain the jets from the start of the war, eventually overcoming US reluctance in May, when the president, Joe Biden, endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s. At that time it was hoped training would begin “in the coming weeks”.

Ukraine currently operates a small air force based on Soviet standard aircraft, but it is not a match for its larger Russian equivalent. Its limited numbers means it can only run a handful of missions each day, and it struggles to counter Russian dominance of the air space close near the frontline.

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