🚨🗣Steven Gerrard: "this fifa world cup in USA is becoming the worst tournament even before it get started! This is not how it is supposed to be, the weather in the US is terrible for players to play in, and we have news of the Somali referee Omar Artan who was appointed by FIFA denied entry, Iran saying FIFA has withdrawn fans World Cup ticket allocation, couple with funny security checks [Kevin Debruyne Belgium and Senegal players]
"I have to say it again this World Cup is starting to look like a mess, and the tournament hasn't even properly begun yet."
"Usually, before a World Cup, we're talking about the favourites, the star players, and the football. Instead, we're talking about travel problems, ticket controversies, and immigration issues."
"The Omar Artan situation is one of the most disappointing stories I've seen. FIFA selected him because they believed he was good enough to officiate at the World Cup, yet he was denied entry into the United States and will miss the tournament."
"Imagine working your whole life to become the first Somali referee at a World Cup and then being prevented from taking part for reasons completely unrelated to football."
"Then you have Iran's federation saying their allocation of World Cup tickets for supporters was withdrawn just days before the competition. Whether you agree with a government or not, supporters should not be the ones paying the price."
"I've also seen players and delegations complaining about the level of security checks and the delays involved. At some point, people stop feeling welcomed and start feeling like they're being treated as suspects."
"The weather is another concern. We're talking about matches being played in extreme summer conditions. The players are expected to perform at the highest level while dealing with heat that can completely change the rhythm of a game."
"A World Cup should be about bringing the world together. Instead, every day seems to bring another story that has nothing to do with football."
"The worrying thing is that these aren't isolated incidents anymore. When ticket disputes, entry restrictions, and organisational concerns keep appearing, people naturally begin questioning the tournament itself."
"I still hope the football saves the competition because the World Cup is bigger than any host nation. But right now, the headlines aren't making FIFA look good, and they certainly aren't making this look like the celebration of football it was supposed to be."
This is a small film by myself and Ollie Weaver a tribute to Beside The Sea - Martin Parr & JJ Waller a collaboration 2025 https://t.co/IwrteR6SOL via @YouTube
🇮🇹 The speech that all of Italy heard. And that the world must hear.
In a country that will host the Olympic Games, Italian Senator and Vice President of the Human Rights Commission Filippo Sensi took the floor and said what should have been said out loud long ago.
He called it a disgrace that the International Olympic Committee disqualified Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych.
Not for doping.
Not for violating fair play.
But for… memory.
For a helmet bearing the faces of Ukrainian athletes — his friends, colleagues, champions — killed by Russia.
The IOC stated that the helmet “did not comply with regulations.”
And then Sensi asked a question that brought silence to the chamber:
Does aggressive war comply with regulations?
Is there a separate technical protocol for it?
The correct angle of a missile strike?
The permissible size of a crater?
An athlete prepares for the Olympics for years.
A Ukrainian athlete trains between air raid sirens, in shelters, under news of the dead.
He overcomes fear, exhaustion, and loss.
And he steps to the start line not only for a medal — but for the right to exist.
And he is suspended… for remembering.
Because memory is the most dangerous substance. It is hard to add to a prohibited list. But apparently, someone would very much like to.
The senator named names. Just a few among more than 650 Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia:
▪️ Yevhenii Malyshev, 19, biathlete — killed in Kharkiv.
▪️ Mariia Lebid, 15 — missile strike in Dnipro.
▪️ Dmytro Sharpar, 25, figure skater — killed in Bakhmut.
▪️ Volodymyr Androsiuk, 22, track and field athlete — also Bakhmut.
▪️ Daria Kurdel, 20 — missile strike in Kharkiv.
▪️ Alina Perehutova, 14 — standing in line for water with her mother in Mariupol.
▪️ Maksym Halinichev, 22, boxer — killed defending Luhansk region.
▪️ Viktoriia Ivashko, 9, judoka — missile strike in Kyiv.
▪️ Kateryna Diachenko, 11, gymnast — airstrike on Mariupol.
▪️ Karina Bakur, 17, world kickboxing champion — shielded her father with her body.
These were the faces Heraskevych wanted to carry with him to the start line.
So that they would “compete” alongside him.
So that their dream would not die with them.
And for that, he was punished.
Because it turns out that the faces of murdered athletes violate regulations.
But their absence on the track does not.
In his speech, Sensi said the most important thing:
The Olympic Committee did not lose an athlete.
It lost its most valuable medal — its conscience.
Sport without memory is just a show.
Sport without humanity is just decoration.
Sport that fears truth is not about peace.
The Olympic movement was born from the ideals of honor, dignity, and unity.
Yet today Ukrainian athletes must prove not only their strength — but their right to remember their fallen.
And if memory becomes a violation of regulations — then the problem is not the helmet.
The world must hear this.
Because silence is also a position.
And indifference is also a choice.
Memory cannot be disqualified.
And conscience cannot be added to a prohibited list.
🇺🇦 We remember every one of them.
And we will not allow their names to be erased.
𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐔𝐏 🗓️
We’re back at home this Saturday, hosting the side who we faced on this season’s opening day - @RamsgateFC 🤝 With just two places and two points separating the two sides, this promises to be a good one 🙌
Tickets available via the link below, or on the gate 🎟️
https://t.co/57aKafcFA3
#COYH 🦅
@melsorbit@veggie_eric Agreed.
I think Duolingo is a bit of a con really. Yes, you can learn a lot of words, but you don't learn to really speak. One to one lessons or live in the country (or with a native speaker 😉) is, I reckon, the best way.
BREAKING: The White House melts down and attacks music legend Jack White after he insults Donald Trump's "disgusting" and "vulgar" redecoration of the White House — prompting White to unleash a scathing takedown for the ages.
MAGA should have just left well enough alone...
“Jack White is a washed-up, has-been loser posting drivel on social media because he clearly has ample time on his hands due to his stalled career,” claimed White House spokesman Steven Cheung.
In truth, White is still enormously popular and successful, far more so than any of the actually washed up musicians and "celebrities" that
MAGA likes to trot out as Trump supporters.
“It’s apparent [White]’s been masquerading as a real artist, because he fails to appreciate, and quite frankly disrespects, the splendor and significance of the Oval Office inside of ‘The People’s House,'” Cheung added.
The idea that agreeing with Trump's infamously tacky interior design sensibilities is a prerequisite for being a "real artist" is laughable. Donald Trump has always had awful taste in aesthetics.
Cheung's remarks led to White posting a lengthy screed on Instagram, in which he listed off Trump's staggering number of failures and scandals—
"Listen, I’m an artist and not a politician so I’m in no need to give my answer or opinion on anything if I’m not inspired or compelled, but how funny that it wasn’t me calling out trump’s blatant fascist manipulation of government, his gestapo ICE tactics, his racist remarks about Latinos, Native Americans, etc. his ridiculous 'wall' construction, his attacks on the disabled, his attempted coup and mob insurrection and destruction of the sacred halls of congress, his disparaging sexist and pedophilic remarks about women, his obvious attempts at distraction about being a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein and his inclusion in the Epstein files, his ignorance of the dying children in Sudan, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his lack of empathy for military veterans and those struggling with poverty, his attempts to dismantle healthcare, his obvious wimpy and pathetic kowtowing to the dictators Putin and Kim Jong Un, his nazi like rallies, his attempts to sell merchandise and products like Goya beans through the office of the President, his fake 'gunshot to the ear' that he showed no medical records or photographs of, his constant, constant, constant lying to the American people, etc. etc. etc." White wrote.
"No, it wasn’t me calling out any of that, it was the f*cking DECOR OF THE OVAL OFFICE remarks I made that got them to respond with insults," he continued. "How petty and pathetic and thin skinned could this administration get? 'Masquerading as a real artist'? Thank you for giving me my tombstone engraving! Well here’s my opinion, trump is masquerading as a human being."
"He’s masquerading as a christian, as a leader, as a person with actual empathy," he wrote. "He’s been masquerading as a businessman for decades as nothing he’s involved in has prospered except by using other people’s money to find loophole
after loophole and grift after grift."
"His staff of professional liar toadies like Steven Cheung and Karoline Leavitt have been covering up and masking his fascism as patriotism and fomenting hatred and division in this country on a daily basis," White went on. "And I have 'ample time on (my) hands'? That orange grifter has spent more tax payer money cheating at golf than helping ANYONE in the country. Improve. Anything. There is no progress with him, only smoke and mirrors and tax breaks for the ultra wealthy."
"So maga folk, enjoy your concrete paving over of the rose garden, your 200 million dollar ballroom in the White House, and your gaudy ass gold spray painted trinkets from Home Depot, cause he ain’t spending any money on helping YOU unless you fit into his white supremacist country club rich idiot agenda," he continued."
"Wow, he hates who you hate....good for you, be proud of yourselves, how christian of you all," White went on.
"The only way you can support this conman is because you are a victim of the 2 party system and you 'defend your guy no matter what he does.'" he wrote. "No intelligent person can defend this low life fascist. This bankruptor of casinos. This failed seller of trump steaks, trump vodka, trump water, etc."
"This man and his goon squad have failed upwards for decades and have fleeced the American people over and over," wrote White. "This professional golf cheat, this grifter who has hundreds of thousands of deaths from his inaction of the pandemic on his hands, this man that the majority of the country somehow were fooled into supporting and voting into office (through the flawed electoral college) and their love of reality
television stars."
"Being insulted by the actual White House that this particular conman leads is a badge of honor to me, because anyone who trump supports and likes is a villain who gives nothing to their fellow man, only takes what can benefit themselves," he continued.
"And no I’m not a Democrat either, I’m a human being raised in Detroit, I’m an artist who’s owned his own businesses like his own upholstery shop and recording label since he was 21 years old who has enough street sense to know when a 3 card monte dealer is a cheap grifter and a thief," he concluded before signing his name.
In his Instagram post, White also shared a photo of Trump hawking his ugly golden sneakers, one of Trump selling MAGA merchandise at the White House, and memes about Trump scandals. He also wrote a caption—
"I was raised to believe that we defeated fascism in World War II and that we would never allow it again in the world. I don't always state publicly my political opinions, and like anyone I don't always know all of the facts, but when it comes to this man and this administration I'm not going to be like one of the silent minority of 1930's Germany. This man is a danger to not just America but the entire world and that's not an exaggeration, he's dismantling democracy and endangering the planet on a daily basis, and we. all. know. it. -JW III... 'To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.' - Theodore Roosevelt"
By just about any metric, this is one of most brutal, comprehensive takedowns of Donald Trump to date. Let's hope that the White House hits back again, so that Jack White has an excuse to tear into him even more.
Please retweet and ❤️ to thank Jack White for speaking the truth!
If you want to see Michelle Mone kicked out of the House of Lords and arrested until she pays the £232,000,000 she owes give this a RT.
If you want Rishi Sunak's involvement in the £14,900,000,000 PPE Fraud he covered up investigated, LIKE.
@coopuk
Hey Co-op, what on earth are you doing?
You don't need to do this.
I find it very disappointing that you would do this.
Please explain why you need this. You have a bigger store literally a few yards away.
This is not a good look.
https://t.co/GBRNNtB3uI