US & Canada

Meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House, US President Trump said he is open to direct talks with Hezbollah if requested by Lebanon. He pledged continued US support for the country.

The consortium is led by British-Indian investor Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.

Liverpool are in talks with British-Indian investor Amit Bhatia over a potential deal for a minority stake in the Premier League football club.

Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool’s United States-based owner, confirmed the approach from Bhatia’s group on Tuesday.

“An investment consortium led, managed, and represented by Amit Bhatia has expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment in Liverpool Football Club,” an FSG spokesperson told the AFP news agency.

Bhatia, the son-in-law of Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, is heading a consortium interested in buying into the 20-time English champions.

The Financial Times reported that Bhatia has hired advisers to work on the offer, which the newspaper said could value Liverpool at more than $6bn.

Just hours after Bhatia’s interest in Liverpool emerged, the London-born 46-year-old stepped down from his role as a director and co-owner of English Championship side Queens Park Rangers (QPR).

Bhatia, who spent 18 seasons with the west Londoners, will transfer his ownership of the club to majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam.

“I step back from my formal responsibilities with pride, gratitude and affection. I want to thank the players, managers, staff, the community trust, my fellow board members and, above all, the fans, who have made me and my family feel part of the QPR family for so many years,” Bhatia said.

Bhatia’s discussions with FSG – who bought Liverpool for 300 million British pounds ($400m) in 2010 – are believed to be at an early stage, with no deal struck yet.

Any investment from Bhatia would be made to further position Liverpool for success, following FSG’s move in 2023 to sell a minority stake in the club to global sports investment firm Dynasty.

Reports at the time valued that transaction between $100m and $200m.

President Donald Trump has promised that the United States will “help” Lebanon as he met with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun amid continued occupation of the south of the country by Israeli forces.

The US president did not announce any concrete policies towards Lebanon as he spoke to reporters alongside Aoun at the White House on Tuesday.

Asked whether there will be a timeline for Israel’s withdrawal from the country, Trump said: “They’re in the process of doing that. They’re in the process of redeploying [to] other sections.”

In reality, Israel has not pulled back from any area it has occupied since March. On Monday, the US State Department announced the establishment of the first “pilot zone” under a Lebanon-Israel framework.

Such areas are supposed to see the Lebanese army deploy to previously occupied towns and ensure that there is no Hezbollah military presence, so reconstruction can begin and residents can return. But the three towns announced in the first pilot zone were not under Israeli control, so Israel did not withdraw from them.

Israel has been systemically razing entire villages in south Lebanon, with Israeli officials openly declaring the objective of erasing Lebanese border towns out of existence.

On Tuesday, Aoun did not mention Israeli abuses in his comments next to Trump. Instead, he heaped praise on the US leader and hailed the US-brokered framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel, which conditions Israeli withdrawal on disarming Hezbollah.

“I would like to thank President Trump, really, and his team for the historic visit and for the historic achievement that we did together by signing the framework with the ultimate objective of ending the state of hostility between Lebanon and Israel forever,” the Lebanese president said.

‘We’re going to help it a lot’

Israel has killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon since the all-out regional war broke out earlier this year, targeting hundreds of medics and journalists as it invaded the country.

In his opening remarks, Trump said that Lebanon had been “badly treated” for decades without elaborating on the source of the mistreatment.

“We’re going to help it. We’re going to help it a lot,” the US president said. “So it’s an honour to have the president and your representatives here.”

Trump also renewed his suggestion that neighbouring Syria should intervene militarily in Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah – a proposal that has been repeatedly rejected by Syrian authorities.

Hezbollah and the current government in Damascus – led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa – fought on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war.

The Lebanese group backed the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and al-Sharaa was a rebel commander who, early in the war, led the al-Qaeda branch in the country.

Trump took the opportunity on Tuesday to express his admiration of al-Sharaa once again.

“He’s pulled Syria together. He would like to come in and do something with Hezbollah. You know, they’ve been fighting. He’s been fighting Hezbollah for a long time. I think it’d be very effective. So it’s something I think about,” he said.

A Lebanese reporter asked Trump what concrete support he may offer Aoun during the visit. The US president said, “You’ll find out.”

‘I would speak to Hezbollah,’ Trump says

Trump also said he is open to speaking directly with Hezbollah.

“I would speak to Hezbollah. I speak to everybody,” he told reporters.

“I would say this: If the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah – you know, he’s lived with Hezbollah for a long time – and if the president wanted me to speak to Hezbollah, I would,” Trump added, referring to Aoun, who previously served as Lebanon’s top general.

Aoun had called for assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), saying that the military remains the “backbone of security and stability”.

Hezbollah has been highly critical of Aoun’s decision to engage in direct talks with Israel, as well as the framework in which Lebanon agreed not to pursue accountability for Israeli abuses in international courts and at the United Nations.

For his part, Aoun has accused Hezbollah of dragging Lebanon to war on behalf of Iran, stressing that the Lebanese military must be the sole armed force in the country.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel has “no interest” in joining the renewed US military campaign against Iran, arguing the current US-Iran conflict and sustained economic pressure on Tehran benefits Israel.

Mexican drug kingpin Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada has been sentenced to life in prison in the US, following a plea deal last year when he admitted to trafficking millions ⁠of kilograms of cocaine. El Mayo led one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel, for about four decades.

Argentina were beaten 1-0 in the final by Spain in what has been rumoured to be Lionel Messi’s final World Cup game.

After what may have been his ‌final World Cup match, Lionel Messi was in tears on the field on Sunday ⁠in East Rutherford, ⁠New Jersey, ruing a missed chance to win a second consecutive title for Argentina.

Messi, without hinting whether his World Cup career was officially through, congratulated Spain, who beat Argentina 1-0 in the final, ⁠and said the memories would last, in an Instagram post on Monday evening.

“The pain is immense, and this wound will take time to heal,” Messi wrote in his native Spanish alongside ⁠a photo of him bearing a silver medal.

“But I also hold onto all the good things… The matches we turned around by giving it our all – moments that will remain in our memories forever – and the support of an entire country which, combined with this group’s hard work and ‌effort, brought us back among the world’s elite once again.

“It is hard to fully appreciate our achievement right now, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals.”

Argentina defeated France on penalty kicks following a 3-3 draw in the 2022 final in Qatar, earning the last piece of major hardware Messi had yet to win in his illustrious career.

Argentina were once again one of the best teams in the ⁠2026 tournament in North America. They rallied past England in the ⁠semifinal before coming up against a Spanish defence that held them without a shot on goal.

Messi turned 39 during the tournament and will turn 43 during the 2030 World Cup, which will be held in Spain, Portugal ⁠and Morocco.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for every greeting and message,” Messi wrote. “Once again, we managed to unite ⁠as a country and stand together, sharing the immense ⁠pride of being Argentine.

“I also want to congratulate Spain on winning the championship.”

Messi broke Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 all-time World Cup goals early in the tournament, and he finished with 21, though he was caught ‌and surpassed by Kylian Mbappe (22).

The French star also denied Messi a Golden Boot, finishing with 10 goals to the Argentine’s eight.

ESPN reported on Monday that Messi and his national ‌team ‌and club teammate Rodrigo De Paul will not play the next two regular-season matches for Inter Miami, nor participate in the MLS All-Star Game, as they rest and recover from the World Cup.

Many white evangelical Christians view Donald Trump as chosen by God to lead despite not seeing him as personally devout. A recent study suggests 60 percent of them believe Trump has pushed the US closer to Christian principles, blurring the line between church and state.

For the full segment, watch Al Jazeera’s ‘This is America’.

Washington vows revenge for US military casualties, while Iran claims attacks on US sites across the region.

The United States is carrying out its 10th consecutive night of attacks against Iran, with Iranian media reporting explosions in Sirik, Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island, and Isfahan.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the operation on Monday evening, claiming that the strikes are “designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement claiming to have retaliated by launching ground-to-ground missiles at “US HIMARS missile systems” stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Two Greek-owned oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz were struck earlier on Monday, while the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors attacks on ships, reports that another tanker has been hit off the coast of Oman’s port city of Limah.

Shortly before the night’s bombing began, US President Donald Trump took to social media to warn that Iranian attacks on US military personnel would be paid back “many times over”. On Friday, two US soldiers were killed, and a third was reported missing when an Iranian missile struck a military site in Jordan, while another US service member was killed in northern Iraq.

Trump also reiterated earlier warnings that continued Iranian attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz would be met with a stronger response.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s pro-Iranian Houthis have declared a blockade on Saudi Arabia, escalating tensions and sparking fears that the Yemeni conflict, which had been relatively quiet for four years, may be about to reignite and threaten shipping in the Red Sea.

Tariffs apply to Canadian wine, hockey sticks, cement, and other products, sparking fears of escalating trade tensions.

US President Donald Trump will impose new 50 percent tariffs on many Canadian goods, claiming “discriminatory treatment” by Ottawa against US alcohol, automobile and dairy products.

The tariffs, ordered by Trump on Monday, will take effect in 30 days and cover a range of items, including wine, hockey sticks, and cement, according to a White House fact sheet.

Trump, who saw many of his tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year, is using an untested legal provision for the new duties: Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

The latest duties will not apply to energy, potash, and goods already impacted by sector-specific tariffs, the White House said.

Crucially, however, they will hit products covered under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA).

The tariff announcement quickly raised concerns of escalation among some businesses.

While Trump has slapped sweeping duties on US trading partners since returning to the presidency last year, the orders generally exempted goods entering his country under the North American free trade pact.

His latest actions threaten to further strain ties with the second-largest US trade partner and come just days after he threatened Canada with increased tariffs over a wave of wildfire smoke that descended on the US.

The White House, in announcing the new tariffs, said Canada was one of only two countries – along with China – to retaliate against Trump’s tariffs last year.

It also took aim at the fact that most Canadian provinces have stopped buying US alcohol, boycotting the products over Trump’s tariff threats and repeated calls for annexation of Canada as America’s “51st state”.

“Canada has taken US alcohol products off Canadian shelves, given better market access to dairy products from the European Union, and has put a cap on US vehicle exports to Canada from companies reshoring to the United States,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer charged in a statement.

The tariff announcement aims to “hold Canada accountable for its retaliation and discrimination”, he added.

Argentina’s Leandro Paredes was seen shoving Spanish players, which led to an on-field melee while Spain’s Lamine Yamal prayed calmly.

FIFA says it is investigating an on-pitch altercation between Argentinian and Spanish players at the conclusion of their World Cup final in New Jersey in the US, where the European champions dethroned their South American counterparts in a 1-0 win.

Football’s global governing body confirmed the probe on Monday, saying its disciplinary committee assessed match reports of the multi-player brawl which resulted in an ugly end to a heated match that was decided in extra time.

“FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee has appointed a Disciplinary and Ethics Prosecutor to investigate potential breaches of the FDC with regard to the post-match incidents,” FIFA told Al Jazeera in a statement.

A report on the findings and results of the probe will be shared once it is completed, the statement added.

Spain’s celebrations after winning their second world title were marred by the melee, which seemed inevitable given the flared tempers and angry outbursts between both teams and their staff.

When the referee blew the full-time whistle at the end of extra time, a few players from both teams fell to the ground in celebration and heartbreak, but several others were involved in an ugly brawl.

In what has now become a viral video, Spanish star Lamine Yamal is seen going down on his knees and raising his hands in a prayer of thanks while multiple fights break out in the background, with Argentinian players physically attacking their Spanish opponents.

Argentina defender Leandro Paredes shoved Spain’s Eric Garcia by the throat, and when Spanish substitute player Gavi jumped in to intervene, Paredes pushed him to the ground.

The 2022 champions’ coach Lionel Scaloni rushed to the scene and separated Paredes from the two players, only for the number five to push more Spanish players before he was physically pulled back by a teammate.

While a few players from both sides greeted each other after the match – most noticeably, there was a warm embrace between Yamal and Argentine captain Lionel Messi – the overall atmosphere remained bitter between the two finalists.

As the post-match ceremony stage was being set up, Spain’s players formed a guard of honour for the runners-up and applauded the Argentinian players when they walked up to receive their silver medals.

However, Argentina did not return the favour and instead turned their backs on the newly crowned champions as they were handed gold medals and the famous winners’ trophy.

It is unclear when FIFA’s probe into the incident will conclude and whether any action will be taken against the players.

Last week, FIFA said it was investigating Argentinian players’ display of a political banner after their World Cup semifinal victory over England, a move that violated its stadium code of conduct and struck a nerve in the United Kingdom over the political sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British overseas territory off the coast of Argentina.

Defender Lisandro Martinez and unused substitute Giovani Lo Celso held up a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, meaning “The Falklands are Argentinian”, as they celebrated the win on the pitch, grinning and waving to fans in the stands after securing a dramatic comeback win on Wednesday.

The move sparked a row in the UK, where top government officials urged FIFA to investigate the matter and the global governing body confirmed it had launched a probe as a “standard procedure”.

“FIFA’s independent disciplinary committee is currently assessing the match reports and considering the relevant circumstances before deciding on potential further steps based on the FIFA disciplinary code,” a FIFA spokesperson told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

FIFA has not provided an update on the probe.

The US intensifies air strikes on Iran, targeting critical sites after the deaths of American soldiers in the region.

US President Donald Trump says Iran will “pay” for killing United States soldiers after multiple service members were killed in action over the weekend.

“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump said on Monday on social media. “This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military. President DONALD J TRUMP.”

Trump’s warning came after the US earlier on Monday launched its ninth night of air strikes on Iran after announcing the death of a US service member, killed in Iraq during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

The US military also identified two soldiers who were killed in Jordan on Friday while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks. Seventeen US troops have been killed since the start of the five-month US-Israel war on Iran.

The renewed exchanges of fire, now in their second week, have seen the US target Iranian bridges and electrical facilities as the countries appear to inch closer to a return to full-scale war. Iran on Monday retaliated with attacks on US allies Kuwait and Bahrain, home of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

Roughly 430 US troops have been injured in the conflict so far.

The White House said Trump would attend dignified transfer ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the service members killed.

It is unclear what specific “directive” Trump passed to the Pentagon. But a US official told Reuters that prior to the deadly attack in Jordan, the US had already started moving additional military aircraft, including fighter jets and refuelling tankers, to the Middle East.

In the past week, Trump has threatened to expand the targets being struck in Iran to include energy plants and bridges, sending ground forces to seize Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub and bombing a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.

Sources have told Reuters that recent waves of US strikes on Iran aimed at forcing open the Strait of Hormuz are also targeting Iranian military capabilities the US would want to destroy before executing more complex operations against the country.

The war, including its monetary cost, is set to dominate a US congressional hearing on Tuesday with Hegseth and Caine.

For the ninth consecutive night, the United States mounted attacks on Iran’s defence facilities and maritime capabilities into the early hours of Monday, with Tehran hitting back in tit-for-tat strikes as warning sirens blared in neighbouring Gulf countries and Jordan, home to US military bases.

Both sides have accused each other of violating the memorandum of understanding (MoU) they had signed in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 17. US President Donald Trump has said he views the truce as over, while Iran has said it no longer intends to adhere to the MoU.

Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz — through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas passed during peacetime — is shut again, sending crude prices shooting up yet again. On Sunday, the US military said another American service member had been killed late last week, bringing the total number of deaths to 17.

So, what has changed in the last two months for the US, Iran and the Gulf countries as the MoU has unravelled in terms of economic impact, widening of military targets, and how they view the war?

Economy

The Strait of Hormuz — the kill switch of the global economy — has been closed down by Iranian authorities, warning that not even a drop of oil shall pass through the waterway amid US attacks and a naval blockade against Iran’s ports.

The MoU had paved a path for the reopening of the strait. And that had briefly pulled oil prices to par with pre-war levels.

The GCC

The strait is of critical importance, especially for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which saw their economic security and energy strategy severely affected by export curbs. The war on Iran has brought about the largest disruption to global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies in modern history.

The costs go beyond just energy revenue losses, noted Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, an economist at Germany’s Marburg University.

“The conflict also threatens the GCC countries’ diversification strategies. Tourism, aviation, logistics, construction, real estate and foreign investment all depend on perceptions of regional stability,” he told Al Jazeera. “Continued war increases insurance and transport costs and encourages investors and tourists to reconsider their exposure to the region.”

Iran

For Iran, the MoU lifted the naval blockade against Iranian ports and offered oil and banking sanctions waivers, and Tehran rushed to export tens of millions of barrels of crude oil.

The earlier US blockade had curbed Iranian exports, with Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, telling Iranian state TV in an interview last month that “we did not export even one barrel” during the blockade.

However, as fighting resumed, the US disabled a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, reported to be carrying Iranian crude. Tehran has also hit commercial vessels in the waterway, and the US has been bombing Iran’s coastal areas since then.

“[The renewed US naval blockade] is more damaging than conventional sanctions because the restrictions are now enforced physically,” said Farzanegan. “Iran therefore has much less room to use intermediaries, alternative flags and informal shipping arrangements to maintain oil exports.”

“The immediate consequences are lower foreign-exchange revenues, further depreciation of the rial and stronger inflationary pressure,” the economist told Al Jazeera.

Iran’s economy has been suffering from one of the world’s highest inflation rates. The rial touched nearly 1.9 million against the US dollar this week, a new all-time low. The Tehran Stock Exchange’s main index lost another 120,000 points or 2.4 percent on Saturday to stand at 4.77 million.

The US

Trump’s war has been widely unpopular in the US. The president recorded a 60 percent disapproval rating on the economy, as per the latest CNBC polling, with a net approval rating of -22, reported to be the lowest of his political career.

As per the poll, 61 percent of respondents said they are pessimistic about the state of the economy, the highest percentage since December 2023.

“The effects are most visible in energy prices and consumer purchasing power. This increases household costs and complicates the political position of President Trump and Republican candidates ahead of the November 2026 congressional elections,” said Farzanegan.

Military

The US

The US military has had 17 personnel killed in the war with Iran so far. Three of them have been killed since the resumption of the war about 10 days ago.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” Trump said on Sunday, adding, “We did that in honour of the – probably three – it’s probably three great patriots.”

Two US personnel were killed in an Iranian attack on an airbase in Jordan on Friday, and a third is missing. Another soldier was killed last week in Iraq while defusing unexploded ordnance from an Iranian drone.

Tehran has claimed to have hit several US military facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, including an aircraft at Aqaba airport.

Al Jazeera could not immediately verify the extent of damage to any facilities.

The Gulf

The renewed attacks from Iran on most Gulf countries, as well as Jordan, have forced them to deploy their interceptors. GCC countries had already used hundreds of expensive interceptors during the first phase of the US-Israel war on Iran in March and April.

But the Iranian military’s attacks have also hit civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries. The bombing of power and desalination plants in Kuwait has drawn widespread regional condemnation.

“What is happening is a severe shock to the GCC countries,” Nader Habibi, an Iranian-American economist, told Al Jazeera. “Now, after the disruptions of the past seven months, even as they have tried to avoid getting involved, the civilian population is indirectly impacted.”

Iran

The US insists that it has focused its attacks on Iran’s military infrastructure, especially on the country’s southern islands — some of which act as forward military or surveillance posts, and others that are believed to host missile bunkers.

But Tehran has accused the US of targeting civilian infrastructure as well in recent days, including bridges and tunnels, ports and dock facilities, power stations and water plants. Iranian officials have said more than 50 people have been killed and about 500 wounded in US attacks in the past three weeks.

Narrative

More than the war itself, a significant part of the messaging from the US and Iran has been over the control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The US

Washington says its renewed attacks are aimed at degrading Iranian capabilities to disrupt maritime traffic in the waterway, with Trump saying last week that “the US controls the Strait”.

Iran

Tehran has pushed back on Trump’s claim.

Farzanegan said Iran’s “ability to influence shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains a unique source of bargaining power”. “Tehran is therefore prepared to bear considerable costs to preserve this leverage.”

He added that Iran may also calculate that extending part of the economic costs to neighbouring oil-exporting countries will encourage these governments to use their political influence in Washington and push the US towards negotiations.

“This appears to be one reason why Iran is prepared to maintain pressure in the Strait despite the considerable costs to its own economy,” the analyst added.

Aniseh Tabrizi, an associate fellow on the Middle East and North Africa Programme at think tank Chatham House in London, said the significant change since the MoU unravelled “is that there is less optimism than before about diplomacy being feasible”.

“For all the sides,
it is difficult to foresee a scenario in which another deal is not only reached, but also implemented successfully,” she told Al Jazeera. “And that makes it particularly concerning for all the parties involved.”

Tabrizi noted that there appears to be “no imminent drive” from the Iranian side to sign a deal. “They are still maintaining escalatory attacks, but also reciprocating the kind of attacks that are conducted against the country,” she said.

The Gulf

GCC countries have continued to condemn Iran’s attacks on the regional countries, while calling for diplomacy to dial down the escalation. They have made it clear that Iran’s unilateral control over the Strait of Hormuz would not be acceptable to them.

Tabrizi added that, like the weeks before the Islamabad MoU, regional countries, especially Qatar, are still batting for talks.

If anything, Farzanegan said, the economic losses can bring all the sides to the table again for talks.

“Higher economic losses increase the incentives for negotiations,” he said. “A return to negotiations becomes more likely when both sides conclude that continued escalation cannot improve their bargaining position.”

Economist Habibi agreed that if an agreement is reached again, “it would be primarily because of the stability of the economic pressures on both sides”. However, he added that the probability of escalation in the next couple of weeks is higher than the probability of negotiation.

A million jubilant Spain supporters are expected to greet their heroes on Monday in Madrid, as the World Cup winners return home after clinching their second star.

Spain’s 1-0 victory against Argentina in New Jersey on Sunday, secured by a Ferran Torres strike in extra-time, has sparked an outpouring of national pride in the football-mad country, whose only other World Cup triumph came in 2010.

Coach Luis de la Fuente and his squad’s flight had a scheduled landing time in Madrid of 12:50pm (10:50 GMT) with the golden trophy in tow, after a dominant performance with “total control” against a “helpless Argentine side”, according to Spanish daily Marca.

Many younger supporters were not yet born when Andres Iniesta’s extra-time goal against the Netherlands secured Spain’s first World Cup in South Africa 16 years ago.

On Monday morning, the Castellana, Madrid’s main avenue, bore the marks of a boozy evening – the tarmac strewn with rubbish, beer cans and shards of glass.

Among the last remaining supporters, some slept with grins on their faces on the pavement or on benches, while others were still staggering home as cleaning crews worked from the early hours to prepare the route for tonight’s party.

“I didn’t sleep much, because … [of] the celebration and then the tension of the match. I think it was a little more difficult for all of us to fall asleep,” Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida told RNE radio.

After landing, the players will be received by King Felipe VI at Zarzuela Palace, on the outskirts of Madrid, according to the mayor.

It is not yet known whether the team will be met by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at the government headquarters, La Moncloa, as he had to make a swift visit to Algeria.

Spain’s World Cup winners will enjoy an open-top bus parade, starting at Moncloa and heading to Cibeles Square, the central government’s representative in Madrid, Francisco Martin, told Spanish public television.

A ceremony involving the players will then be held at the square, the traditional gathering point for celebrations by the Spanish national team and its supporters.

About one million people are expected to line the parade route, with additional security and transport measures planned to handle the crowds, Martin explained.

A total of 2,050 police officers and 400 Civil Guard personnel will be deployed, he added.

Some supporters who already had only a short night’s sleep are planning to celebrate again, like Bruno Gonzalez del Yerro, a 32-year-old financier.

“We’ll have to celebrate it one way or another, given that it only happens every four years and that Spain hadn’t won it for about [16] years now. It definitely deserves a party,” he said.

Spain’s women’s side won the World Cup in 2023, meaning for the first time a country has both trophies at the same time.

In 2030 Spain will defend their crown on home soil, as one of the World Cup hosts along with Portugal and Morocco.

The Spanish press was running out of superlatives to describe its heroes after they overcame favourites France in the semifinal before downing Argentina.

“The kings of all-time!” wrote Marca, celebrating a “second star that will now be stitched onto the Spanish jersey after yet another masterclass in collective play”.

On a tragic note, a 13-year-old boy was killed at about midnight in the town of Ciudad Rodrigo in the west, after a fountain crumbled under the weight of supporters who had climbed onto it to celebrate.

In Buenos Aires, the initial silence after defeat was striking, and then the tears came once the reality sank in. Their hopes of a fourth World Cup were dashed, but hundreds of thousands of people are expected to greet the team on their return at 5pm local time (20:00 GMT).

After more than five weeks of competition with the expanded format and 48 teams, only Spain and Argentina were left standing by the 104th and final match.

The 2022 champions, despite the presence of all-time great Lionel Messi, failed to create clear chances against Spain’s well-organised and more positive side.

Enzo Fernandez’s red card left Argentina with their backs pinned to the wall, and Barcelona forward Torres slammed home after fellow substitute Nico Williams teed him up.

“It’s not my goal, it’s the goal of 47 million people,” said Spain’s match-winner.

Messi had a sensational World Cup but drifted through the final like a ghost, shedding tears at the end. In Madrid, tears will also flow on Monday night, but tears of joy.

Tragedy struck in the Salamanca province when a 13-year-old died during celebrations for the win against Argentina.

A 13-year-old died and another child was among the injured when a fountain partially collapsed in western Spain during mass celebrations of the ⁠country’s second football World Cup final victory, regional emergency services have said.

The accident occurred shortly after midnight on Monday in Ciudad Rodrigo, a ‌walled medieval city of about 12,000 in Salamanca province, near the border with Portugal.

Hundreds of residents had gathered at the Arbol Gordo fountain in the city’s centre ⁠when the upper part ⁠of the monument broke loose and struck several people, emergency services said.

In a statement, ⁠Ciudad Rodrigo’s town hall expressed condolences for the ⁠victim.

“The entire city feels ⁠this loss and accompanies the minor’s friends and family in their grief … What should ‌have been a celebration of the Spanish national team’s World Cup victory ‌has turned into a tragedy,” it said.

It is understood that the fountain collapsed under the weight of numerous people who had climbed onto it to celebrate Spain’s first World Cup victory since 2010.

“A few minutes after 12:30 am local time, rescue services received calls over a fountain collapsing on numerous people,” emergency services said in a post on X, adding that another youth, believed to be in a serious condition with a broken leg, was among the injured.

Spain beat Argentina 1-0 to win the 2026 edition of FIFA’s showpiece global event, which was staged at New York New Jersey Stadium by cohosts United States.

The match was 0-0 after regulation time, forcing the game to extra time where Ferran Torres scored the only goal of the game.

The United States has attacked Iran for a ninth consecutive night after the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) announced a US soldier had died in northern Iraq in a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.

Here is what happened over Sunday night and Monday morning and what officials on both sides have said:

Where was Iran attacked?

CENTCOM announced in a statement on X that it completed the ninth wave of attacks against Iran at 02:00 GMT on Monday.

It said it “targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.

The US military did not provide details about the actual sites hit in Iran.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two oil tankers “exploded” and were halted in the southern Strait of Hormuz late on Sunday, according to a report by the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency on Monday.

The IRGC stated the vessels were trying to transit through the strategic waterway under what it described as US coercion.

“This passage is unsafe for the transport of chemical fertiliser or even a single drop of oil and gas,” the group warned, adding that the corridor would remain unsafe as long as US military operations in the region continue.

An MQ-9 drone was intercepted and shot down over Eslamabad-e Gharb in western Iran’s Kermanshah province, according to the Mehr News Agency on Monday.

Mehr said the drone was targeted by an advanced air defence system operated by the IRGC aerospace force.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported on Monday that US strikes targeted an area in the town of Khormoj in southwestern Iran. It quoted a local official.

Where did Iran strike, and where were warnings issued?

Jordan: The IRGC said on Monday that it launched ballistic missiles at US C-17 transport planes and P-8 aircraft at Aqaba airport, claiming several were heavily damaged. In a statement carried by the state-controlled IRIB broadcaster, the IRGC also said 20 hangars housing US forces in the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq were destroyed.

Bahrain: The US embassy in Bahrain said it has information suggesting Iran may seek to target unspecified locations in central Manama. It urged Americans to remain vigilant, follow instructions from local authorities and immediately seek shelter if warning sirens sound or explosions are heard.

US soldier in Iraq: A US service member was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from an Iranian drone, CENTCOM said.

What happened in the Strait of Hormuz?

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency reported late on Sunday that a vessel about 8 nautical miles (15km) northwest of Kumzar, Oman, had caught fire.

It is unclear whether this happened due to an attack by Iran. The UKMTO said the cause of the fire had not been verified and advised vessels in the area to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity while authorities investigate.

What have Iranian and American leaders said?

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US is hitting Iran to honour American service members who have been killed.

“We hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honour of the, probably three, it’s probably three great patriots,” Trump told reporters as he returned to Washington, DC, after the World Cup final in New Jersey. At least two US soldiers were killed in Jordan last week after Iranian missiles struck a US base there, and the third soldier Trump referred to was killed in Iraq during the detonation of the Iranian drone.

“We feel very badly,” he said when asked about the military fatalities, adding that those who died were fighting so “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with state media that Tehran would end the war with the US when it had “the upper hand in the field”, local news reported on Monday.

Talking with the IRNA news agency, Araghchi said the most critical decision in crisis management was identifying the precise moment to halt hostilities and begin negotiations.

“The end of the war is possible either through absolute military victory or through negotiations. The right time to negotiate is precisely when you have achieved a reliable field and strategic achievement on the military front,” Araghchi said.

“You cannot take risks with the lives of the people and the fate of the entire country. Decisions must be made based on accurate and complete calculations,” Araghchi said.

Last night, Spain defeated Argentina to win the World Cup. Ordinarily, for those of us with no national connection to either country, the choice of whom to support would have been gloriously trivial. We might have chosen the team that played more beautiful football, the player we most admired or simply the side whose colours we preferred.

But these are no ordinary times.

Gaza and Palestine have changed the way many of us see the world. It has become a moral prism, refracting our judgments not only about governments and political leaders, but about institutions, universities, media, corporations and public figures. We have watched people and institutions we once respected avert their eyes from the destruction of a people. We have watched others discover elaborate vocabularies of qualification and equivocation when confronted with horrors that, in another place and against another people, they would have condemned without hesitation.

And we have remembered those who refused to look away.

That is why, last night, I was Spanish.

Of course, a football team is not a government. Spanish footballers are not responsible for the policies of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, any more than Lionel Messi and his teammates are responsible for the politics of Argentinian President Javier Milei.

But sport has never existed in the hermetically sealed apolitical world we sometimes pretend it inhabits. We bring ourselves to sport. We bring our histories, our identities, our sympathies and, inevitably, our moral judgements. We decide whom we want to win for reasons that often have very little to do with formations and statistics.

And so, for many people of conscience, Spain has come to represent something larger.

At a moment when much of the Western political establishment has twisted itself into moral and linguistic contortions over Gaza, Spain has stood apart. Sánchez and his government have been willing to speak with a clarity conspicuously absent from many of Spain’s Western allies. Spain recognised the State of Palestine. Sánchez has openly used the word genocide to describe what is being done in Gaza. His government has moved to entrench an arms embargo against Israel.

One need not agree with every policy of the Spanish government to recognise the significance of that position. Moral courage is measured precisely when taking a position carries a cost.

There was also something deeply moving about seeing Lamine Yamal, one of the brightest young stars in world football, waving the Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s celebrations after winning La Liga.

It was a small gesture in the vast landscape of Palestinian suffering. But symbols matter, particularly when so many powerful institutions have worked so hard to make Palestine invisible.

There was Yamal, at the summit of sporting success, surrounded by celebration, holding up the flag of a people whose suffering the world has been asked repeatedly to forget. And last night he wore the colours of Spain in a World Cup final and emerged a world champion.

On the other side stood Argentina, a magnificent footballing nation led by perhaps the greatest footballer of his generation. And here, too, Gaza intruded upon the emotions with which some of us watched. An image of Lionel Messi at the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem has circulated widely. It dates back to Barcelona’s 2013 visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, years before the present catastrophe. But images have lives beyond the circumstances in which they were created, and Gaza has transformed the way many of us see them.

The contrast with Lamine Yamal is striking. There is the image of Messi at the Western Wall. And there is the image of Yamal, at one of the happiest moments of his young career, waving the Palestinian flag. Different moments, different circumstances, different intentions.

But symbols matter. For those whose view of the world has been transformed by Gaza, it is impossible not to feel the emotional force of the contrast.

And beyond Messi stands the politics of Javier Milei. Argentina’s president has made his allegiances clear. He has embraced US President Donald Trump and declared himself “the most Zionist president in the world” at precisely the historical moment when Palestinians in Gaza have endured unimaginable destruction.

Argentina’s footballers are not responsible for Milei, and its people cannot be reduced to their president. But neither can those politics be entirely erased from the emotions with which the rest of us watch.

Then there was another recent vote, far removed from Gaza but revealing in its own way. In March, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution confronting the historical wrongs of the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans and calling for reparatory justice. One hundred and twenty-three countries voted in favour. Fifty-two abstained. Only three countries in the entire world voted against it: the United States, Israel and Argentina.

There is something extraordinary about that alignment. On an issue concerning one of humanity’s greatest historical crimes and the continuing demand for reparatory justice, Trump’s America, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel and Milei’s Argentina found themselves standing together, virtually alone.

It is difficult for those of us who increasingly view the world through the prism of Gaza not to notice the pattern. The issues are different, the histories are different and the legal questions are different. But the moral instinct seems eerily familiar: when the victims of historical injustice demand recognition, accountability and redress, the same governments so often seem to find reasons to stand on the other side.

So, yes, last night I watched a football match.

I admired Messi because greatness remains greatness. I marvelled at the extraordinary history of Argentine football.

But I wanted Spain to win.

And Spain won.

Perhaps that says something about what Gaza has done to us. It has rearranged our moral geography. Countries that once felt distant can suddenly feel close because they spoke when others were silent. Governments we barely thought about can earn our respect because, at a moment of profound moral testing, they refused to avert their gaze.

And sometimes that moral geography spills into the most unexpected places.

Last night it spilled onto a football pitch.

Millions celebrated Spain’s victory because they love Spanish football, because they admire Lamine Yamal or simply because their team had won the greatest prize in the sport.

But many also celebrated out of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

A World Cup cannot deliver justice to Palestine. Spain’s victory will not feed a hungry child in Gaza, rebuild a destroyed home or bring back the dead. We should never confuse symbolism with justice.

But human beings live partly through symbols. And last night, for some of us, the red shirt of Spain carried a meaning it was never designed to bear.

When Lamine Yamal and his teammates lifted the World Cup, I celebrated with them.

Not because football can change what has happened in Gaza.

But because Gaza has changed the way I watch even a game of football.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Hundreds of protesters have rallied in Houston in the US state of Texas to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent this month.

Protesters marched from Ervan Chew Park on Sunday and briefly shut down a bridge on Dunlavy Street, according to local media and videos posted online. They held banners that read, “Abolish ICE” and “Justice for Lorenzo”.

Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, was fatally shot by an ICE agent on July 7 while he was driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston. The protests came amid mounting scrutiny of United States President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

According to The Associated Press news agency, encounters with ICE and other immigration agents have resulted in at least 10 deaths since the start of Trump’s second term in January last year. Two of those happened in the days after Salgado Araujo’s killing in the states of Maine and Florida.

After the shooting in Houston, ICE claimed Salgado Araujo had used his vehicle to try to ram an agent who fired his weapon in self-defence. But witnesses contradicted ICE’s version of events, and a statement issued on Thursday by the US attorney for the Southern District of Texas made no mention of any collision between Salgado Araujo’s van and a law enforcement vehicle nor did it explicitly state that the officer feared for his life.

In a video posted online by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a campaign group, an activist at Sunday’s march called for further protests to shut down the city.

“We need to show ICE, the Trump administration and the entire country that the city of Houston is not to be messed with,” the protester said.

“We cannot just sit here and let ICE hunt and murder more of our daughters, our brothers, our uncles. If we want justice, we have to demand it,” she said.

The activist said the “shutdown” of Houston, the fourth largest city in the US, will take place on Friday.

Sunday’s protest followed similar rallies held across the country on Saturday, including in Portland, Maine, where, on July 13, Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man, was fatally shot during a traffic stop in nearby Biddeford.

On Saturday, Duran Guerrero’s family paid tribute to the father of a three-year-old girl, telling the Telemundo news network that he still had “many dreams to fulfil”.

Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have demanded an investigation into ICE’s hiring practices after it was alleged that the officer responsible for Duran Guerrero’s killing had a history of mental health issues and had subjected his ex-wife to violent and threatening behaviour.

Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi congressman and the top Democrat on the Committee on Homeland Security in the US House of Representatives, told AP that the officer’s alleged violent history “directly call[s] into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits”.

After the killings, the Trump administration’s top immigration enforcement official, Tom Homan, said the agency would start a “short pause” on traffic stops. And on Sunday, he announced ICE will now require at least one agent to wear a body camera during vehicle stops.

“I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took that action,” he told the Fox & Friends Weekend programme on the Fox News network.

Trump, meanwhile, has urged the agency to continue traffic stops despite the killings.

“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.‘s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”

In addition to the deaths, at least 13 people have been wounded since Trump’s immigration crackdown began, according to The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub. At least 52 people have also died while in ICE detention, according to Human Rights Watch.

As of January 2026, ICE had deported more than 540,000 people from the US.

US President Donald Trump said the latest strikes on Iran, now in their ninth consecutive night, were carried out ‘in honour’ of American military personnel killed in Jordan and Iraq. The latest casualty figures bring the total number of US service members killed since the war began to 17, with more than 420 others wounded.

Iranian media report blasts in cities in the far north and far south, including Tabriz and Chabahar.

The United States has launched strikes on Iran for a ninth consecutive night, with Iranian media reporting explosions in multiple cities, including Sirik, Jask, Tabriz and Chabahar.

The attacks on Monday came as the US military announced the death of a third soldier in recent days and as a month-old ceasefire agreement between Tehran and Washington unravelled amid a struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement, the US military said the latest strikes were aimed at “degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz”.

Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster said several explosions were heard in the port cities of Mahshahr and Imam Khomeini, in the southwestern Khuzestan province. It reported further explosions near the cities of Sirik and Jask in the Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast, as well as near the city of Khvormuj in the Bushehr province.

Three explosions were also heard near the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran, IRIB added, while air defences were activated in the southeastern cities of Konarak and Chabahar in the Sistan and Baluchestan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Tehran promises retaliation

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from the Iranian capital, Tehran, said the latest US strikes had again targeted Iran’s southern coast. He added that the explosions in Tabriz, if confirmed, mark the first time the northwestern city has come under attack since the recent escalation began.

“We are having yet another night of exchange of fire,” he said. “The Iranian side is also talking about retaliatory strikes, with Iranian media reporting a new wave of missiles from the province of Lorestan targeting US military assets across the region.”

Earlier, Kuwait reported confronting “hostile drone threats”, while air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain for a second time on Sunday. Sirens also sounded in Jordan, where the military said it shot down three Iranian missiles. Kuwait’s government said a desalination plant had been attacked for the second day running on Sunday, causing a fire, in what it said was a direct strike on vital civilian infrastructure.

Both Iran and the US have also taken aim at shipping traffic, with Washington saying it is enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports, and Tehran saying it targets vessels violating its rules on navigating the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sunday that four vessels had attempted to transit the strait via an “unsafe route” with US backing after ignoring IRGC warnings. It said two had abandoned the attempt, while the other two were involved in an “accident”. It did not elaborate.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it has redirected six commercial vessels and disabled another ship to ensure “full compliance” with its blockade.

Earlier, CENTCOM also said that an American soldier was killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance” from a downed Iranian drone. It added that “unidentified remains” had been found at the site of a deadly Iranian attack in Jordan on Friday and that “an examination process to verify the remains is ongoing”.

Two US soldiers died in Friday’s attack, while a third was reported missing in action.

The latest deaths bring the number of US service members killed since the war began to 17, while more than 420 have been wounded.

The conflict, which began when the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and led to major disruptions to energy supplies and fears over global inflation.

US forces attack Iran for the ninth consecutive night as one US soldier killed in northern Iraq.

JD and Usha Vance welcome a baby boy, the first child born to a sitting vice president in more than 150 years.

United States Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, have announced the birth of their fourth child.

In a statement, Vance and his wife said their son was born on Sunday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning,” the statement said.

“Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” it added.

Vance, an Ohio native, and Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, met while attending Yale Law School, where they graduated in 2013.

Their first son, Ewan, was born in 2017, followed by another son, Vivek, in 2020. The couple’s daughter, Mirabel, was born in 2021.

Alec Neel Vance is the first child born to a vice president in more than 150 years.

The last time a sitting vice president became a new father was in the 1800s.

Schuyler Colfax and his second wife, Ellen Wade, had a son, Schuyler Colfax III, in 1870, when Colfax was serving as vice president, according to the White House Historical Association.

Vance, a former US Marine, is a passionate advocate for Americans to have more children. He repeatedly expressed alarm about declining birth rates in the US as he launched his political career in 2021 with a bid for a US Senate seat from Ohio.

As vice president, he said in Washington at the 2025 March for Life anti-abortion rally, “I want more babies in the United States of America.”

The newest addition to Vance’s family was part of a recent mini baby boom among top members of President Donald Trump’s administration.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie, recently gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had her second child with her husband, Nicholas Riccio, in May.

Ferran Torres scores the only goal of the game as Spain win their second World Cup.

Ferran Torres scored ‌in the 106th minute to lift Spain to their second World Cup title with ⁠a 1-0 win ⁠in extra-time over 10-man Argentina in the final.

Torres’ deserved winner on Sunday came 16 years and eight days after Andres Iniesta also scored in extra time ⁠to lift the Spaniards to their first World Championship with a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands.

It came on La Roja’s 20th shot on the contest against a defending champion Argentina ⁠that failed to manage any to that point and struggled to wrest possession away from their superior Iberian opponents.

That was true at even strength and became more difficult when La Albiceleste’s numbers were reduced when Enzo Fernandez’s late challenge of Pau Cubarsi left referee Slavko Vincic no ‌choice but to produce a second caution just before the end of normal time.

Spain remain the only nation ever to win a European Championship and World Cup in successive tournaments, having now done so a second time. They are also the first World Cup champion ever to concede only once across an entire tournament.

Lionel Messi’s Argentina failed to earn a title for the first time in three major tournaments, having also captured the ⁠2021 and 2024 Copa Americas either side of their 2022 World ⁠Cup triumph.

The 39-year-old, eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi finished the competition with eight goals and four assists, but had little time on the ball until Spain finally took the lead and never seriously looked like lifting his ⁠side to another great moment as he has so many times in the last two World Cup cycles.

Emi Martinez made 11 ⁠saves for La Albiceleste, who fell short in their ⁠bid to be the first consecutive World Cup champions since Brazil won the 1958 and 1962 titles.

What had felt so difficult for the first 105 minutes suddenly looked easy after 37 seconds of play in the second period of ‌extra time.

Pedro Porro curled in an outswinging cross from the left to the back post, Nico Williams won the header and nodded it back into space, and Torres hammered a ‌half-volley ‌at last past the flailing Martinez.

It was his only goal of the tournament, making him the seventh player to score during a tournament in which his side never trailed.

Asked about his goal, Torres said after the game: “Honestly, I didn’t think too much. I just saw the ball coming to me, and I just shot with the power of all the Spanish people.”

The win made Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, at 65, the oldest coach ever to lead a team to the World Cup title.

“We are world champions,” de la Fuente said. “It was together we reached this stage.”

There was some pushing and shoving after the final whistle, which was quickly cleaned up and Spain commenced its celebration as most Argentina players sat on the turf in disbelief.

Cooler heads prevailed, and Spain’s players lined up minutes later to form an honour guard of sorts for Argentina’s squad to walk through on their way to the stage for the runner-up medals.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni admitted Spain were the better team.

“They were the better side – that’s the truth – but I’ll cherish the memory of them [his side], of what they achieved, and of the value of making it this far,” Scaloni said.

“We have to place immense value on this because it takes so much effort.”