Jawad Iqbal

England vs Argentina is a match like no other. It is arguably the most highly-charged confrontation in the world of international football – haunted by the ghosts of war, perceived past wrongs on the football pitch, and a ready-made roll call of heroes and villains to choose from. Games between the two sides represent what might be described as a culture clash of ethics and values, an enduring scrap over the way the game should be played and what counts as fair. The match tonight in Atlanta, for the prize of a place in the World Cup final, is destined to be a titanic clash; it cannot be anything else. History be damned.

Andy Burnham, who will be prime minister this time next week, has apparently decided to spend part of the summer touring the UK. He wants to win over voters across the country by offering them a ‘hopeful’ message. What planet do Burnham and his merry band of sycophants live on? Do they really think that spreading positivity is the cure for the country’s many ills? Please, Andy, spare us. Life is already tough enough as it is.The Burnham tour will apparently focus on Labour ‘danger zones’ (it may come as news to him that the entire country outside his Greater Manchester bastion is an unsafe space for Labour right now) where the party has been losing support to Reform.

Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, has come out fighting in response to the intense scrutiny and revelations about his personal finances. He says he will resign his seat to fight a ‘people versus establishment’ by-election in Clacton and believes members of his constituency ‘should be the judges of my actions’. It is a clever move – perhaps the only move he could make – which gives him a chance to retake control of the political narrative. It also carries with it the obvious risk that the voters of Clacton may decide they’ve had enough of the circus surrounding their MP.In a much-trailed statement on his future in public life, Farage adopted a number of personas, sometimes defiant, threatening hellfire on his critics, and at other times playing the victim card.

At 41 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo is a shadow of the once brilliant player he was. Everyone can see it, except the great man himself. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is now focused on chasing the stupendous milestone of 1,000 career goals, which would be yet another achievement for a footballer obsessed with breaking personal records in a team sport. The 2026 World Cup marks yet another milestone achievement – the sixth time he has played in the tournament. It is a lot of football, and at the highest level, yet Father Time waits for no one, not even someone as rich and famous as Ronaldo. Portugal’s manager Roberto Martinez must take a fair share of the blame. Why does he persist in picking Ronaldo? This once supreme athlete is now a drag on the Portugal team.

The week-long funeral ceremony for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s former supreme leader who was killed in a US-Israeli military strikes four months ago, is expected to draw crowds numbering in the millions. The new rulers of the Islamic Republic will make sure of that. The Tehran hardliners will use every propaganda trick in the book to convey their message For the regime, this is much more than a funeral ceremony; it is a religious and political spectacle, a chance to present to the world its desired image of a beloved leader mourned by millions of supporters. The Tehran hardliners will use every propaganda trick in the book to convey their central message that Khamenei may be dead, but the regime lives on.

Serena Williams is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time – a seven-time Wimbledon champion and winner of an astonishing 23 Grand Slam titles in all. Even so, should she have been given a wild card to enter this year’s Wimbledon championship? No, not really: a player who has been out of competition for years should not receive a direct entry into a Grand Slam without even playing a proper warm-up tournament. It smacks of a decision based on nostalgia and a desire for cheap headlines on the part of the All England Club. Professional tennis should not be about rewarding superstars trying to relive past glories Wimbledon relies more than ever on marquee names to attract a global TV audience, and they don’t come much bigger than Williams.

It is time to talk about the real Andy Burnham and what he cares about most. In other words, let the discussion begin on his choice of clothing. What Burnham lacks in detailed policies and deeply-held political principles he more than makes up with a wardrobe overflowing with ideas on what to wear and when. Burnham’s wardrobe is all about telling put-upon voters everywhere that he is grounded and relatable The King of the North has spent the last decade or so away from Westminster thinking deeply (more deeply than he cares to admit) about things like bomber jackets and T-shirts. Andy now reaches places that the bog standard male politician (dressed in ill-fitting dark suit, pale shirt and dull tie) can only dream of.

Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election is a big blow for Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage. Farage and co. will offer up plenty of reasons for defeat in the coming hours and days. We should take these with a pinch of salt. Reform’s spinmeisters will be quick to suggest that it is all down to the Burnham effect. Gawain Towler, a long-time ally of Farage, admitted as much before the vote. He said that the Greater Manchester mayor 'does change the weather', adding that it would be a 'very, very hard task' beating him. Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party, meanwhile, will be blamed for denting Reform’s chances of victory by splitting the vote on the right. Excuses, excuses and more excuses.

Keir Starmer has entered what might be described as the peak delusion period of what remains of his time in Downing Street. There was fresh evidence of the Prime Minister’s all-consuming divorce from political reality in his latest comments about Andy Burnham, who is widely predicted to win the Makerfield by-election today, and then go on to launch a leadership challenge to turf the PM out of Downing Street. The PM just doesn’t get it Anyone and everyone knows all this and more, except Starmer apparently, who called Burnham “a great asset” and said he deserved “a big role in government”. What is Starmer smoking? The only big role in government that Burnham wants is Starmer’s job in Number 10. That’s the whole point of Burnham’s return to Westminster.

Why is Elon Musk so obsessed with what’s going on in Britain? The billionaire owner of Tesla and X has been busy posting on his social media platform about the murder of Henry Nowak and what it says about the state of British policing. What does Musk actually know about policing in this country? What the tech mogul definitely does know about is how to stir the pot. According to a report in the Financial Times, Musk has written more than 110 posts, retweets and replies about British politics since last Wednesday on X. This is almost three times the share devoted to his company Space X, which is valued at $1.8 trillion (£1.3 trillion) ahead of its highly anticipated IPO next week.

The Green party certainly knows how to pick them. Sarah Wakefield, the Green candidate in the Makerfield by-election, is the executive director of Eating Better, a charity that is open to the idea that British farming is a racist power structure, riddled with white supremacist tendencies, and thereby ripe for ‘decolonisation’. It must come as a shock to most people that the country’s farms are a hotbed of racists. Last year the charity shared a report and accompanying guidance that listed ‘defensiveness’, ‘perfectionism’ and ‘a sense of urgency’ as examples of ‘white supremacy culture’. Who knew that setting high standards in food production was simply a devious way of asserting racial and cultural superiority?

Thomas Tuchel is an England boss who isn’t afraid to be brutal and he doesn’t apparently much care for big names or what football fans think. That’s why there’s plenty of controversy following confirmation of Tuchel’s 26-man squad for the World Cup finals this summer. Unlike his predecessor, Gareth Southgate, Thomas Tuchel is a serial winner of big trophies Embarrassingly, the news of his final choices had leaked out 24-hours earlier. Out goes Trent Alexander-Arnold. Tuchel chose Djed Spence of relegation-threatened Tottenham over the Real Madrid right back: Tuchel has previously hinted that he doesn’t trust the right-back defensively.

Arsenal are Premier League champions after a 22-year wait: their first title since the famous Invincibles season under Arsène Wenger in 2004. The title was sealed after Manchester City (serial champions, let’s not forget) failed to beat Bournemouth last night, handing Arsenal an unassailable lead at the top of the table with one game remaining. The team deserves all the plaudits for winning the Premier League, but what is it with Arsenal and their fans when it comes to celebrations? Why do they always go so over the top? It is cringeworthy stuff, reeking of a certain smug sense of undeserved entitlement, and enough to bring out the “celebration police” mentality in every other fan across the land. What is it with Arsenal and their fans when it comes to celebrations?

The Labour party is pretty useless when it comes to getting rid of its leaders. That’s the only reason Keir Starmer is still squatting in Downing Street after an extraordinary 48 hours of resignations and plots. The PM is badly wounded, his premiership hanging by a thread, but there appears to be no one yet capable of delivering the fatal blow.Part of the problem in trying to get shot of Starmer is that his would-be assassins know all too well the party’s chequered history of failed and aborted coups. It gives them cause to pause. The Labour party has never successfully mounted an official challenge against a serving prime minister. It is a point that Starmer, ‘Mr Rules’, knows all too well.