Free Republic

FIFA has provisionally suspended Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF), from all football-related activities for 90 days following his unsolicited kiss of Jenni Hermoso after the Women's World Cup final. Despite growing pressure throughout the week, including FIFA opening disciplinary proceedings Thursday, Rubiales refused to resign Friday, saying the kiss was "mutual and with consent." Pachuca forward Hermoso replied in a statement later in the day, disputing Rubiales' version of events and saying she "felt vulnerable and the victim of aggression, an impulsive, sexist act which was out of place and with no consent on my...

Spanish football federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales plans to resign Friday after FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against him over his unsolicited kiss of player Jenni Hermoso, sources have confirmed to ESPN's Rodrigo Faez. Rubiales' position had grown increasingly untenable since his behaviour after Spain won the World Cup by beating England in the final in Sydney this past Sunday. The kiss forced on the lips of Hermoso has garnered most of the headlines, but he was also seen effusively hugging other Spain players and kissing them on the cheek. Before that, immediately after Spain's victory, he had also grabbed his...

Leading the group with four points and a plus-three goal differential, the USA can advance to the Round of 16 with a win or draw against Portugal. The USA could even advance to the knockout rounds with a loss to the Portuguese but that would call for the unlikely scenario of a Vietnam win over the Netherlands with USA keeping its lead of the Dutch on goal differential. The USA will win the group with a victory over Portugal and a loss or draw by the Netherlands against Vietnam. The Americans could also top the group with a win and...

The U.S. women's soccer team stared ahead in silence while "The Star Spangled Banner" played through. Most of the U.S. players were silent with their fists behind their backs

The US Women’s National Soccer team was victorious in its opening match of the 2023 FIFA World Cup — but they’re not winners to fans left fuming after the most of the athletes stayed silent during the national anthem.

Orchestrated hostility toward Israel: Morocco is not in Palestine You just have to like World Cup outsiders Morocco – don't you? Adding an anti-Semitic touch to the joy makes things difficult. Palestine plays along: Morocco's team after reaching the quarter-finals How could we not be happy that Morocco has one of the eight best football teams in the world ! Finally a team that doesn't come from Europe or South America! In addition - and now follows an interpretation that is surprisingly seldom read at present - a North African team that has gradually chased one colonial power after the...

The European Commission is seeking feedback on whether the 27-country bloc needs to loosen state aid rules to allow governments to support companies affected by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, with plans for a European fund in future. The $430 billion act, which grants consumers tax credits for U.S.-produced electric vehicles (EV) and other green products, has triggered fears it could disadvantage European Union companies and tempt businesses to relocate to the United States. […] The EU executive will ask countries if looser state aid rules known as the temporary crisis framework, adopted in March for businesses hit by the...

The war on cash has just gone to an entirely new level. When I heard that the European Union was planning to completely ban all cash transactions above 10,000 euros, I had a hard time believing it. There are so many wild rumors flying around on the Internet these days, and so I wasn’t going to write about this unless I could confirm it. Unfortunately, this particular rumor is quite real. Under the pretext of fighting “money laundering and terrorist financing”, the European Union will be entirely outlawing all cash payments greater than 10,000 euros. The following comes from the...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - After all-night negotiations, the European Union struck a political deal on Tuesday to impose a carbon dioxide emissions tariff on imports of polluting goods such as steel and cement, a world-first scheme aiming to support European industries as they decarbonise. Negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament reached a deal at around 5am in Brussels, on the law to impose CO2 emissions costs on imports of iron and steel, cement, fertilisers, aluminium and electricity. Companies importing those goods into the EU will be required to buy certificates to cover their embedded CO2 emissions. The scheme is...

Every four years, the World Cup comes around and Americans become interested in soccer until the men’s team loses. Then it is back to football. There is women’s soccer, too, but it attracts little interest, in large part because it is woke.The rest of the world is soccer mad because it is three minutes of action packed into three hours of drinking beer. Americans have baseball for that.Soccer also has a political side, which Alain Destexhe of the Gatestone Institute explored in this year’s celebration in Belgium — the de facto capital of Europe. The cheering was raucous and illuminating.Destexhe...

Drew Gilpin Faust Office of the President Harvard University Massachusetts Hall Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Dear Dr. Faust: This letter is being sent to you on behalf of the Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition. The purpose is to inform you and the public of the activities of Qatar. Harvard University is assisting the Qatar Foundation to establish a law school in Doha, in order to “revitalize legal education in the Middle East, and represent Islamic and Arabic legal traditions in the global dialogue on legal and governance issues.” These traditions include Sharia law. Harvard University is arguably the greatest institution of...

'European democracy is under attack': Roberta Metsola addresses EU Parliament corruption scandal By Euronews • Updated: 13/12/2022 - 11:31 Roberta Metsola address the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, France. Roberta Metsola address the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, France. - Copyright Philippe BUISSIN/ European Union 2022 - Source : EP Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, warned on Monday that there would be "no impunity" for those found guilty of corruption as she addressed what is perhaps the gravest graft scandal to hit the hemicycle in recent years. "Make no mistake, the European Parliament, dear colleague, is under...

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 has achieved the unity of the Arab people, and proved that it is their meeting place," Qatar Press Center president Saad Mohamed al-Rumaihi said. He was speaking on the sidelines of a panel discussion on the 'Western campaigns against Qatar and the Arab countries, organised by Qatar Press Center (QPC) in co-operation with Qatar News Agency (QNA) on Sunday. "Today, the entire Arab world, east and west, north and south, stands behind the Moroccan national team. They all support the Lions of the Atlantic and hope that the Moroccan national team will reach the...

Second journalist suddenly dies covering FIFA World Cup 'He told me he received death threats!' | 01:05 Staff Writers from News.com.au December 12th, 2022 1:25 pm A second journalist has died while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The Gulf Times reports Qatari photojournalist Khalid al-Misslam passed away “suddenly” on the weekend. The Qatar news outlet wrote: “Al- Misslam, a Qatari, died suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. We believe in Allah’s mercy and forgiveness for him, and send our deepest condolences to his family.” Al-Misslam worked for the Qatari news channel Al Kass TV and...

The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team defeated the Iranian team on Tuesday in a must-win game. Now the American team moves on the playing The Netherlands on Saturday. There was a little extra sweetness in celebrating the U.S. victory this year because of the political protests going on in Iran now. Iranians in support of the protesters celebrated the U.S. victory in Iran. One woman spoke on the condition of remaining anonymous from her home in southern Iran. “Mahoora” said, “It’s not just some people in Iran, it is the majority of people in Iran that want the U.S. to...

Israeli journalists and fans are being boycotted and yelled at by fans, locals, and officials at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.Multiple Israelis have claimed to have been met by an atmosphere of hostility and hatred at the World Cup in Qatar, with fans refusing to speak to Israeli journalists, waving Palestinian flags in the background of their videos and yelling at them. Moav Vardy, KAN’s foreign affairs reporter, was yelled at by a Saudi fan who told him that “You are not welcome here. This is Qatar. This is our country. There is only Palestine; no Israel.” Other videos...

https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-club-world-cup/story/4816778/riots-in-brussels-after-morocco-beat-belgium-at-world-cup?platform=amp Protests against strict Covid measures in China have spilled into a second night and spread to the biggest cities. Demonstrators gathered in the capital Beijing and the financial hub Shanghai. Many held up blank pieces of paper to express their discontent and acknowledge the censorship. Some have, however, gone as far as calling for President Xi Jinping to step down. Millions have been affected by nearly three years of mass testing, quarantines and snap lockdowns.

When the singer Rod Stewart was offered more than $1 million to perform in Qatar, he said, he turned it down. “It’s not right to go,” Mr. Stewart told the The Sunday Times of London recently, joining a string of public figures to declare boycotts or express condemnation of Qatar as the Gulf nation hosts the soccer World Cup. In the prelude to the tournament, which started this past weekend, Qatar has faced an increasing barrage of criticism over its human rights record, including the authoritarian monarchy’s criminalization of homosexuality and the well-documented abuse of migrant workers.

The Big Apple’s jet-setting chief executive, Mayor Eric Adams, is heading to Athens, Greece for a conference on anti-Semitism and Doha, Qatar, to “learn more” about co-hosting the World Cup. According to a copy of Adams’ public schedule released Friday, Hizzoner will head to Athens on Nov. 30 to attend the 2022 Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism. The trip comes soon after the NYPD and federal law enforcement prevented an attempted attack on city synagogues by would-be terrorists Matthew Mahrer and Christopher Brown. Adams will then head to Doha, Qatar on Dec. 1 and stay until Dec. 4 — to “learn...

Iran considered carrying out a terror attack at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in an attempt to disrupt the event, military intelligence chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, according to The Jerusalem Post. Speaking at an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv, Major General Aharon Haliva said that the "only thing" stopping Iran from an act of terror was concern over how host country Qatar might respond, the report said. The FIFA World Cup 2022 kicked off on Sunday and is set to last through December 18. Iran's national team is one of...