BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump’s interference with FIFA’s disciplinary measures ahead of the U.S.-Belgium match had unintended consequences: He fired up the Belgians.
After limping through the group stage and first knockout round, Belgium cleaned the floor with the U.S. in the round of 16, after Trump intervened to help overturn a suspension for America’s key attacker, Folarin Balogun.
The Belgian squad wasted no time in trolling Trump after the match, as a viral clip from the team dressing room showed the players jiving like the U.S. president to his favorite campaign rally anthem: Y.M.C.A. by the Village People.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, a notorious soccerphobe, was then asked about Trump and the suspension saga during a key NATO military summit in Ankara.
“We didn’t speak about football,” De Wever said. “Football is, as they say, the most important of the non-important subjects, but it is still non-important, so I didn’t raise it,” he added, paraphrasing a remark widely attributed to soccer nut Pope John Paul II.
The Belgian national soccer team social media crew was blunter in its victorious post-match summary: “Overturn this,” it noted pointedly.
The Guardian and other outlets have reported that police from the UK are preparing to travel to the United States to speak with members of Virginia Giuffre’s family as they continue investigating allegations connected to the former Prince Andrew.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York leaves the headquarters of Crossrail at Canary Wharf on March 7, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
Authorities reportedly plan to meet with Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, and his wife, Amanda Roberts, during the visit.
While neither family member is considered a direct witness, investigators believe they may be able to provide valuable context about Giuffre’s allegations and the years leading up to her death.
Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her while she was being trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell when she was a teenager.
Andrew has consistently denied the allegations.
In 2022, however, he reached a multimillion-dollar civil settlement with Giuffre without admitting liability or wrongdoing.
Giuffre’s family has expressed support for investigators’ efforts and hopes the inquiry demonstrates that no one is above the law.
The planned meetings are expected to be informal conversations rather than official witness interviews because the relatives were not present during the alleged events.
The trip to the U.S. is just one part of a broader investigation that has expanded significantly in recent months.
Detectives are also reviewing historical case files, seeking additional evidence from U.S. authorities, and are expected to interview former royal protection officers as they continue examining allegations tied to Andrew’s relationship with Epstein and his conduct during his years as the United Kingdom’s trade envoy.
Officials have also reportedly received information from another woman who claims she was sent to the United Kingdom by Epstein in 2010, although she has not chosen to pursue legal action publicly.
Investigators are evaluating that information as part of the ongoing inquiry.
Police have emphasized that the investigation remains active, with authorities continuing to pursue new leads both in the U.K. and abroad.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
Even the country’s flag carrier, Brussels Airlines, has gotten in on the act.
In a tongue-in-cheek gesture, Brussels Airlines is flying its Trident aircraft, painted in the colors and bearing the emblems of Belgium’s national football teams, to Spanish destinations including Madrid and Barcelona ahead of Friday’s World Cup quarterfinal between Belgium and Spain.
Asked about the move, Brussels Airlines declined to elaborate, saying via email: “We did not provide any comments, as we think the joke speaks for itself :).”
The specially designed aircraft features a trident in reference to the Red Devils, Belgium’s men’s national football team, alongside flames representing the women’s team, the Red Flames.
According to Brussels Airlines, the design was intended to highlight both teams because “it’s high time that the women’s team gets as much attention as the men’s team.”
Iberia, Spain’s national airline, also has a specially designed aircraft that flew the country’s national football team across the Atlantic. Instead of tridents and flames, it features an image of Spain’s squad alongside the slogan: “A team takes off. A country flies.”
Why is anyone discussing James Woods, of all people, in 2026?
The actor has made his social media profile private after being bombarded with allegations of attempting to pick up teen girls whom he knew to be underage.
Woods is infamous for multiple reasons, both political and personal.
As for why people are talking about him now, there’s actually a very good reason.
Actor James Woods at Pacific Design Center on April 9, 2013. (Photo Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
‘”I’m 16″ I said. “Even better” he said’
In the summer of 2017, Woods was posting what would be the precurser to the more recent “groomer” anti-LGBTQ+ smears. He was discussing an age gap among fictional characters.
“James Woods tried to pick me and my friend up at a restaurant once,” actress Amber Tamblyn wrote on what was then Twitter.
“He wanted to take us to Vegas. ‘I’m 16’ I said. ‘Even better’ he said,” she tweeted. Woods would go on to deny that the event ever took place.
This prompted Tamblyn to pen an open letter, which Teen Vogue published that September, recalling the incident as having happened just after she got her driver’s license.
“Upon leaving the restaurant we were stopped by you and your friend, who both seemed very nice,” Tamblyn described.
In early July 2026, James Woods once again set his X/Twitter account to private amidst hard-earned backlash. (Image Credit: Twitter)
“At one point you suggested we should all go to Las Vegas together,” Tamblyn wrote. “‘It’s such a great place, have you ever been?” You tried to make it sound innocent.”
She observed: “This is something predatory men like to do, I’ve noticed. Make it sound innocent. Just a dollop of insinuation. Just a hair of persuasion. Just a pinch of suggestion.”
“‘It will be so much fun, I promise you. Nothing has to happen, we will just have a good time together,” Tamblyn recalled Woods telling them.
“I told you my age, kindly and with no judgment or aggression,” she continued. “I told you my age because I thought you would be immediately horrified and take back your offer.”
Tamblyn wrote: “You laughed and said, ‘Even better. We’ll have so much fun, I promise.’”
Why are people talking about James Woods now?
Most of us have lived with the knowledge that the actor, who has had a number of solid roles during his career, is a dreadfully awful person in a number of ways.
But why is this story from nearly 9 years ago making the rounds on social media?
For one thing, it’s because some people didn’t know. There are, to be blunt, so many horrible men on the internet that not everyone can keep track.
But it also has to do with a seemingly different and yet not-so-dissimilar man, Graham Platner.
The disgraced Senate candidate from Maine dropped out amidst sexual assault allegations following nearly a year of scandals, including his totenkopf tattoo, his use of the r-slur on social media, and more.
🚨 Republican actor James Woods is now facing child predator allegations after trying to take a 16-year-old on a private trip to Vegas.
Woods is an avowed fan of Donald Trump. He has even declared that he is an Independent, believing that the GOP is not radically in Trump’s corner enough. So decrying his own political foes as a “Nazi,” true or not, seems hypocritical.
Similarly, a man accused of sexual misconduct (Tamblyn is not his only accuser; she is simply relevant to the topic that has seemingly driven Woods underground yet again) celebrating a politician stepping down after allegations of sexual assault seems … less than overly self-aware.
We’re sure that Woods believes that he and Trump are both entirely unlike Platner, and that these comparisons and this topic of discussion are all unfair. People seldom see themselves the way that the world perceives them.
Separatist politics have long spilled onto Spanish football pitches. In Catalonia, where nationalist sentiments run deep, clubs like FC Barcelona have historically served as powerful symbols of the pro-independence movement. Their matches have often become venues in which fans display separatist flags and placards, and at major games they’ve expressed their support for separatism by whistling while the Spanish national anthem is played and booing dignitaries like Spain’s King Felipe VI.
The national team, which plays a World Cup quarter-final match Friday against Belgium, has also found itself enmeshed in separatist controversy. But the political drama has largely been missing from this year’s squad.
In the nearly 9 years that have elapsed since the Catalan independence referendum, the pro-independence movement has lost steam and the region’s citizens have grown tired of the constant tension with the rest of Spain. Since regional elections were held in 2024, when nationalist parties failed to win a majority of seats for the first time since 1984, the Catalan government has since focused on normalizing relations with Madrid.
That shift is evident in football. While FC Barcelona remains the region’s most beloved team, it is today a much more international operation, a powerhouse with a commercial strategy that targets an international audience with global football stars like Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.
They stand in contrast to figures like long-time Barcelona player Gerard Piqué, a much-decorated defender who was also a member of Spain’s national team.
When Piqué, who was born and raised in Barcelona, was first drafted to play on the national team, the Catalan separatist movement had not yet exploded, and the center back largely avoided publicly discussing Catalan independence. Indeed, after Spain won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he became a beloved figure across the country. Likewise, when he was drafted for the 2014 edition of the tournament in Brazil, he wasn’t associated with the growing push to separate Catalonia from Spain.
But in 2017 Piqué publicly declared his support for a proposed referendum on the region’s independence, and after the Spanish government moved to shut down the unauthorized vote, he criticized the violent crackdown that saw police deployed to polling stations. Although the footballer insisted that he was not a separatist, he stressed that Catalans should have a say in their future. “You should be able to vote yes, no, or abstain, but you should be able to vote,” he said at the time.
Piqué’s stance made him a controversial figure ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In the lead up to the tournament, he was verbally abused by spectators at training sessions, leading him to offer to drop out of the national team if he was determined to be too much of a distraction. He played, but announced his retirement from the group following Spain’s elimination from the tournament.
There’s no lack of Catalans on Spain’s current national team. The country’s biggest star, Lamine Yamal, plays for Barça and was born in a suburb of Barcelona, and he’s accompanied by eight other players born or raised in the region, among them Pau Cubarsí and Marc Cucurella.
While none of them are known for making pro-independence statements, three of them — Eric García, Dani Olmo, and Joan García — were recently embroiled in controversy after being photographed with a separatist symbol. After FC Barcelona won the Spanish league title last May, the players were seen waving esteladas — a flag associated with the Catalan independence movement — while parading through the regional capital. Although some conservatives called for them to not be included in the national team, all three were ultimately tapped to take part in this year’s tournament.
Bunnie Xo is addressing the decision to take down her Dumb Blonde Podcast episode titled “The Divorce,” where she shared an emotional and honest conversation about her recently announced divorce from Jelly Roll.
Alongside hosting the podcast, Bunnie regularly teams up with her close friends Mimi and Hailee Clark, aka “The Coven,” for a segment called “Ask, Tell, Confess,” where they share wild, embarrassing stories and often reveal secrets submitted by fans. This time, the New York Times bestselling author used this portion of the show to address the deleted YouTube video and give an update on what life looks like after ending the marriage.
Photo Courtesy of Bunnie Xo
The former couple’s divorce was announced in June and just a few days later, she used her Podcast to discuss the reasons behind their split, details of their divorce agreement and she and Jelly Roll’s plans to still have a baby together and co-parent their future child.
Many of the clips from this episode still live on TikTok, but the full-length video itself is no longer available for viewing on YouTube. Bunnie explains the main reason for taking it down is because she says she is in a very different place now than she was when the episode was filmed. And although she has and always strive to have honest and open communication with her fans, she didn’t want to let this part of her life to continue to be a topic of conversation.
“I took it down because I realized I just don’t want one of the hardest moments of my life to become a permanent headline. I don’t want to live in that,” she explained honestly. “I believe in being transparent with you guys and that’s never, ever, ever going to change, but I also believe that people deserve the space to heal, to evolve and to move forward. That episode served a purpose for me at that time and it was real. It was honest and it came from exactly where I was emotionally in that moment. But I’m not in that same place anymore.”
Bunnie admits she has seen all the comments from online users, pointing out that it appears she moved on too quickly after the divorce, but she explains the public doesn’t see everything and the truth is she has actually been mourning their failed marriage for the past year.
“I had visions of the news breaking of it happening. And there is so much behind the scenes that I have not spoken on and that I will never speak on because it doesn’t matter. I will only tell you guys my part in the demise of my marriage. And when people see me out having fun and just living my best life, I can see where they would be like, ‘Wow, they just announced the divorce.’ But really you guys have to understand, I have been sitting in purgatory for two and a half months in my studio house.”
What fans didn’t see were the days when Bunnie was on the floor “screaming, crying,” while her friends brought IVs to the house because she wasn’t eating or drinking and was barely able to stand amid the devastation she was facing.
“You guys took turns watching me, not just because I wouldn’t eat, but because you guys were so scared for my mental health. None of you guys would leave me alone. You, Monica and Mimi always fu**ing just made sure that somebody was there for me,” she said talking to the guests on the couch across from her.”
Bunnie goes on to say that she made a promise to herself a long time ago not to let the public see her in a weak state. Part of the reason behind that is her mission to let other women know that they will get through whatever struggles they are facing and will find that there are much better days ahead. Plus, she has no desire to make this divorce her entire personality moving forward.
“I don’t want to be the poster child for divorce. I don’t want people DMing me saying, ‘I’m so sorry your husband left you.’ When you guys really don’t even know the whole story, you guys only know bits and pieces. There’s so much more to me than just one painful chapter in my life and there’s so much more that I want to talk about and that I want to create and that I want to laugh about and that I want to experience with you guys.”
The divorce episode was Bunnie’s highest viewed post to date and it made her a hundred grand, but she still took it down because she made it clear she doesn’t care about the money.
“If I cared about the money, I would’ve left it up and let it get another fu**ing hundred grand…I think the key points of what you guys wanted to know about the divorce podcast is all on TikTok. Just type in ‘Bunnie Xo Divorce Podcast.’ You’ll see all the clips.”
Photo Courtesy of Bunnie XO
Bunnie is clearly in a new season of life and she is looking forward to embracing that rather than letting the past define her.
“I am so much more of a different human now than I was in that relationship. I feel so good. I’m so happy. I am so free. They said to me the other day, they said, ‘Bunnie, I haven’t seen you this happy in eight years. I’ve never seen this side of you.’ My OCD is getting better. And I think it’s because of the HRT that I got on. It’s been really interesting getting to know myself after this.”
However, Bunnie acknowledged that moving forward, she plans to be more private about her dating life and the moments she shares publicly with others. This comment was made in reference to the recent viral video of her kissing a 24-year-old reality star during a Fourth of July celebration in downtown Nashville at her former husband Jelly Roll’s bar.
“Listen, can your girl get a sweet little kiss under the fireworks? I’ve never had that done. I though it was so sweet… It’s just let your girl live. Let her just live a tiny bit. I’m not dating anyone. I don’t want to date anyone. I am here for fun, baby. I am having fun. I learned a lot of lessons this week and I’m going to take it on the chin because I did this and I take full accountability for it.”
She added, “I just want to clarify though, I wasn’t on a fu**ing date…I’m not dating anybody. I do not want to be with anybody. There’s an icebox where my heart used to be…And that shit is chained up. Trust me, nobody’s getting through. I’m working on healing myself. I want to come and go as I please. I might even have a roster, never know.”
She closed by asking fans to stop jumping to conclusions and assuming that every person she posts with or every artist whose music she uses is someone she is connected to romantically.
“If you guys ever have any questions, of course ask me. I will always tell you. And your girl’s just out here fu**ing having fun, living my best life and going back and forth with you.”
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Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius on Friday lambasted Moroccan football fans who clashed with police across the Netherlands following their team’s World Cup defeat to France.
“One by one, countries are knocked out. That’s what a football tournament is all about. We’re disappointed, but we move on with our lives. Except for these ‘supporters.’ Whether they win or lose, they act like madmen,” the leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) wrote on X.
“Don’t you feel ashamed that this is how the world sees you?” Yeşilgöz asked.
Dutch media reported several incidents after Moroccan fans took to the streets in multiple cities Thursday night, following their team’s 2-0 loss to France in the World Cup quarterfinal.
Fans threw glass bottles at the police, prompting anti-riot officers to disperse crowds, according to the daily newspaper De Telegraaf.
In Rotterdam, police were pelted with eggs, while in Amsterdam rioters reportedly fired fireworks at law enforcement and behaved aggressively toward journalists.
Yeşilgöz is known for her tough stance on migration. “There are too many people coming into our country,” she wrote on X last year, prior to becoming minister. “This has to be different. And fast too.”
Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders also weighed in, accusing Yeşilgöz’s VVD party — which is part of the governing coalition, alongside Prime Minister Rob Jetten’s liberal D66 party and the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) — of having let “scum” into the country.
This is not the first time disturbances have occurred in the aftermath of a Morocco match. Following Morocco’s victory over the Netherlands in the Round of 32, police in The Hague arrested 13 people on suspicion of public violence or disrupting public order. Earlier in the year, after unrest linked to the Africa Cup of Nations final, authorities in The Hague detained a further 14 individuals.
