Egypt coach Hassan Hossam reportedly collapsed while trying to separate his two wives during an altercation; the coach was taken to the hospital after an overwhelming clash.
Egypt football coach Hossam Hassan reportedly collapses after his TWO wives fight at hotel
The Egyptian national coach was reportedly rushed to hospital after the altercation left him overwhelmed and unconscious
Police reportedly detained both women after arriving at the scene
Egypt football coach Hossam Hassan reportedly collapses after his TWO wives fight at hotel
The Egyptian national coach was reportedly rushed to hospital after the altercation left him overwhelmed and unconscious
This is for everyone who is suffering injustice, accusations and going through hardship. You must read Surah Yusuf and reflect upon this Surah. It is comforting to the heart. There are many lessons to derive. If you are familiar with this Surah you will understand what I’m reflecting upon.
Yusuf went through hardship because of his brothers but he was honoured because of his servitude and obedience to Allah.
No one can do to you worse than what was done to Yusuf. His brothers, his own brothers plotted against him. No one can do to you worse than what Yusuf’s brothers did to him until one of them said “kill him”, going to that extreme. KILL. But they ended up doing something less but still not far from that when they initially planned. They threw him into the well. But ALLAH planned for Yusuf.
Victory was for Yusuf, not his brothers.
Honour was for Yusuf, not his brothers.
Anyone who is dealing with hardship must read Surah Yusuf.
Anyone who is going through hardship due to other’s actions must understand that their test is to live through that hardship with worship and complaining only to Allah.
Anyone who is going through hardship brought upon them by others actions must spend that time in worship during that hardship and trying to attain closeness to Allah and turning that hardship into good deeds in the hereafter.
Yusuf did not forget what his brothers did to him. No he didn’t. He remembered.
He whispered to himself how Allah knew better the truth of what they were saying against the truth of their actions.
Allah made him witness them saying worse about himself when they said “if he stole, then HIS BROTHER (in the past) also stole”. Did they say what THEY did to HIM?
They say these words about Yusuf while THEY oppressed him to a great extent when they all agreed and threw him into a well.
The magnitude of both these actions are very far from each other maybe they are two galaxies apart.
Their actions caused a young boy to be lost in an unknown world and live among unknown people, be sold for cheap! But they said “he stole”
Allah made them humbled against their will and in neediness while He made Yusuf high and noble — He established him in the land, He protected him, He honoured him, He elevated him, He raised him in ranks.
This is how you are when you are with Allah in your high times and in your low times. He was appointed a king and remained a humble servant of Allah. He still forgave his brothers for the sake of Allah.
In all of this he was still respectful to his parents. Two people you shouldn’t hold any grudges with is parents. Let go and realise life is not as easy as black and white. As for others, it is none of your concern just as it was none of Yusuf’s concern. You be obedient in your dealing with them. Be obedient to Allah and you will find yourself honoured and even if you’re (against your will) hiding in a cave, thrown in a well, or anything other than that, Allah will protect you and honour you right in front of those who did not honour you if you are obedient to Allah.
He will raise you up.
And how would I have known this story except from the Quran? Read the Quran. This is the peace, the happiness, the promise and the removal of problems and worries that people talk about here when they tell you “read the Quran”. They cannot put it to words because these reflections cannot be documented. These reflections are sometimes momentary flashes. I am writing this and I still feel I have not captured the weight and the beauty of what I discovered.
I tried and I hope you understand that this is only a drop in the ocean of the many ways that the Quran heals you and soothes your soul and your heart. It’s not a remedy, it is THE remedy.
The Quran. My brothers and sisters. The Quran.
Listen, read, recite, recite beautifully, recite gently, recite audibly, study, learn, apply. This is the good life.
Tyquavious Sanders is a viral social media subject from Augusta, Georgia, who reportedly faked his own death to avoid paying back an $800 debt. In response to the bizarre ruse, his family humorously circulated a mock memorial flyer and obituary using a questionable photo, sparking massive online commentary.
Viral Story Details
The Alleged Motive: Sanders allegedly stole or borrowed $800 from a friend and staged his death to get out of repaying the money.
The Ruse: He reportedly went to extreme lengths, even texting his own mother while posing as someone else to claim he had been harmed.
The Family's Reaction: Rather than shielding him, family members played along with the joke by posting a viral "homegoing" memorial flyer and mock obituary details.
The Internet Fallout: Social media users heavily criticized or joked about the unflattering photo chosen for the flyer, leading family and commenters to trade jabs over why a better picture wasn't selected.
What amazes me about Israel's case is that not only is it the cheapest in the world, it's also one the fastest and they have some of the most generous unlimited data plans.
Ruben Amorim jokes Man United is 'more boring' without him in cheeky interaction
Ruben Amorim joked that Manchester United's press conferences are 'more boring' without him on Saturday evening.
Amorim, who is now in charge of AC Milan, beat his former side 4-2 in a pre-season friendly before laughing with journalists.
The Portuguese boss was sacked as Man United manager in January, with Darren Fletcher and then Michael Carrick taking over.
He departed the club following a very tough tenure, during which he won just 25 of his 63 games in all competitions.
Amorim was often slammed for his stubborn tactical approach, as he remained committed to a 3-4-2-1 set-up for United.
But it was that formation that put Carrick's Red Devils to the sword on Saturday, as Milan came out on top.
And after the win, Amorim was in such a good mood that he laughed along with some English journalists as he left the stadium.
What did Ruben Amorim say?
Amorim stopped to shake hands with journalist Simon Stone, as well as some other media professionals at the ground.
He chuckled and asked: "Do you miss me?"
To which one person replied: "We miss your press conferences!"
And that led to the former Man United boss hysterically laughing and joking: "They're more boring now!"
As he walked away, he continued to chuckle and pose for some pictures with fans before entering the Milan team bus.
Amorim's entertaining press conferences
Amorim's joke didn't seem to be a dig at new Man United boss Carrick, but more of a quip aimed at himself.
The 41-year-old was sacked as Red Devils manager just 24 hours after making a bombshell statement towards the club's board during his final press conference in his post.
He also went on to storm out of the explosive conference in January, in a chat that certainly wasn't boring.
On top of that, Amorim had many other interesting press conference moments during his time in Manchester.
Amorim was often very honest when speaking to the media, calling his own team the 'worst in the club's history' last year.
He admitted that he could be sacked at the end of 2024 too, following a third straight defeat during that season.
So, he's definitely not wrong that the United press room has lost of bit of spark, for journalists in particular, since his exit.
It's not his business because he occupied a high trust position in one of the best universities in the world. Several of the students whose PhD thesis he plagiarised had been planning to sue him.
babat89: My response was to someone who said, ''in dealing with white people, you have to be 'humble''
'Even if you know something, you keep quiet.'
Sounds like a life of servitude and stupidity to me.
There is evidence that he had been plagiarising the from the PhD thesis of several students who were under his supervision. They were going to sue him before he announced his resignation. Its unfortunate that he was too cowardly to face the consequences of his fraudulent, lying career.
Kemetian: IS THAT THE ONE YOU COPIED AND PASTED FROM WHITE RACISTS ON YOUTUBE?
HOW DO YOU KNOW THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH WHEN IT'S STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION?
CALL YOURSELF WhiteViper, cos ain't nothing Black about you.
Did Russia "crush" Germany alone in WW2? Were they not suffering until the United States joined the war?
WriteerNg: The same Germany that Russia crushed in WW2?
The same Germany that Russia currently occupies its territory in Kaliningrad?
Ukraine has the military backing of 50 countries and the US yet Russia is able to occupy them.
How many countries are backing Iran? And yet the US is unable to occupy the Strait of Hormuz talk more of Iran itself. Despite fighting together with Israel, UK and the 7 Gulf States.
This story borrows heavily from a much older Jewish story in the Talmud, specifically the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b, involving Rabbi Joshua ben Levi and Elijah.
According to the command, the suspects allegedly dug a pit inside Hassan’s room and buried a copy of the Qur’an along with semen, white and red kolanuts, underwear, dead animals and other items described by the police as fetish materials.
●Germany’s spies unleashed with licence to open fire
●Agents will also be able to commit sabotage abroad and spread disinformation under radical reforms
Germany’s spies have been granted permission to fire their guns for the first time in response to heightened fears of terrorism and Russian attacks.
On Wednesday, Friedrich Merz’s cabinet voted to enhance the powers of the BND, Germany’s federal foreign intelligence agency, and the BfV, the country’s domestic security service.
Agents will also be able to commit sabotage abroad and spread disinformation under the most radical reforms since the agencies were founded in the 1950s.
“We are equipping the services with operational capabilities and active powers to take effective action against modern state-sponsored terrorism and extremist violence,” said Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister.
The new measures, which must pass parliament, aim to help Germany fend off increasing hybrid attacks from Russia.
Last week, a drone laden with explosives was discovered at Leipzig airport in a suspected Kremlin operation, while in 2024 Armin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall, the defence company, was the target of a foiled Russian assassination plot.
“We are in the thick of a hybrid conflict not only with Russia but also with other actors,” Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of the parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, said.
A draft of the 700-page legislation, seen by The Telegraph, said the BND could now “go beyond information-gathering” and “take an active role with the aim of averting threats to Germany or its allies ... using kinetic means if necessary” – meaning that guns could be deployed.
But the draft measures stop short of an outright licence to kill, stating that guns could be fired only in self-defence.
The BfV, which has been locked in a legal battle with the Alternative for Germany party since classifying it as an extremist threat, will also gain new powers, including the ability to shut down computers used in cyber attacks and actively track foreign spies in the country.
Since its founding in 1956, the BND has primarily focused on gathering intelligence under strict oversight from parliamentary committees and the law to prevent the rise of another Gestapo, the Nazi secret police.
These limitations have meant that allied intelligence services, with greater technological capabilities and broader powers, have often been the ones to uncover terror plots.
Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of the Bundestag committee that monitors the work of the BND, said Germany’s cautious approach had left it “behind the curve” and unable to contribute to European security.
He admitted that the limitations on the agency “came out of good historical reasons”, but were no longer adequate.
“We face adversaries who play without any rules at all,” he said. “They have no regard for law and order. Their goal is not merely to put the West, the EU and Germany under pressure, but ideally to bring them to their knees.”
Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, noted last year that although the country was not at war, it was “no longer at complete peace either”.
The reforms have led to criticism from opposition politicians. Wolfgang Kubicki, the leader of the Free Democrat party, accused the interior ministry of “a historic break with taboo”, saying: “I don’t want a secret police in Germany. I want full judicial oversight regarding infringements on fundamental rights.”
Clara Bünger, of the Left-wing Die Linke, also criticised the “irresponsible” watering down of restrictions on collaboration between the BND and police.
The BND has faced numerous humiliations in recent years. August Hanning, the agency’s former director, described it as an “impotent watchdog”, telling The Telegraph in 2024 that it was constrained by “excessive bureaucracy”.
Bruno Kahl, then the head of the BND, was in Kyiv for meetings when Russia invaded in February 2022 after the agency had rejected British and American warnings of an imminent attack.
The agency was also criticised for intelligence failures before the Taliban’s capture of Kabul in 2021, which forced a major withdrawal of Western forces.
The BND recently came fifth in a peer ranking of European intelligence services, behind MI6, France’s DGSE, the Netherlands and Ukraine.
Bill Gates’ “nepo baby” daughter Phoebe Gates, 23, has been accused of “cookie stuffing” at her multibillion-dollar startup, Phia – an illicit practice that comes with a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, according to reports.
Phia – a digital personal shopping assistant co-founded by Gates with fellow Stanford alum Sophia Kianni – reacted with shock in July following reports that it was dropping more web “cookies” than it should, taking undue credit for online sales at retail partners.
The company released a statement that it had only learned of the issue “within the last 24 hours,” pledging to fix the glitch – but according to a new Bloomberg report, the young entrepreneurs had known for at least seven months that their startup was overcounting its sales commissions.
Ariel Givner, founder and principal attorney at Givner Law, warned in a post on X Tuesday that “cookie stuffing” can come with serious consequences.
“It’s typically treated as federal wire fraud in US courts. There’s a possibility of a max penalty of up to 20 years prison + fines/restitution,” Givner wrote.
A Phia spokesperson told The Post: “Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7. We are reviewing every transaction, we are fully committed to and have already begun issuing all transaction reversals to brand partners as a result of any misattribution, and we are hiring a head of compliance to make sure something like this never happens again.
“We are now continuing to connect our users with items and offers from thousands of brand partners,” the spokesperson added. “We will learn from this and want to ensure our users have the best possible shopping experience, with features like our new digital closet and more to come.”
The startup – which raised a jaw-dropping $30 million in 2025 from backers including Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner and Spanx founder Sara Blakely – operates as a browser extension, finding discount codes for customers across online retailers when they click on Phia at checkout.
When a shopper uses Phia by selecting one of its coupon codes, the software drops a “cookie” – which tracks activity across the web – to show that retailer it helped drive the sale and earn itself a commission.
But Kianni and Gates – the Microsoft princess whose dad is worth $108.4 billion, according to Forbes – were aware of features that dropped cookies into the checkout process even when customers did not use Phia, according to people familiar with the matter and internal Slack messages reviewed by Bloomberg.
Phoebe Gates insisted that she wanted to succeed without her billionaire parents’ help. Getty Images for Hearst The illicit cookie stuffing traced back to at least December across sales at several major retailers, including Nike, Gap and Nordstrom, and seemingly made up the bulk of Phia’s revenue, according to the news outlet.
After Phia disabled the features in July, average daily revenue at the company plummeted from around $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000, according to Bloomberg.
In June, cookie stuffing accounted for about 51% of the merchandise value that Phia claimed credit for selling, the report said.
A Phia spokesperson said part of the steep revenue decline in July was caused by the company disabling most of its monetization efforts at the time, not just the cookie stuffing, and that Bloomberg’s analysis of the data was overstated.
The Phia app is marketed as a digital personal shopping assistant. Bloomberg via Getty Images According to an internal dashboard viewed by Bloomberg, what Phia initially called a software bug in July was actually a feature called “enable coupon auto drop,” which the company was able to switch on and off.
At one point, Gates – who insisted that she wanted to succeed without her billionaire parents’ help, saying she has “such a desire to prove myself” – grew concerned that Phia wasn’t generating as much commission from Etsy as she had expected.
She messaged developers to make sure that Phia was dropping a cookie each time its browser extension popped up, even if the shopper didn’t click a coupon, which would allow it to earn commission for the total gross merchandise value, the report said.
In a Slack channel on Dec. 18, she wrote: “worried this is an issue across the board…can u confirm auto pop for cookie drop is live on ALL sites w a coupon to confirm we are monetizing on all gmv.”
In a separate incident, Kianni suggested a feature that would drop a cookie each time a user simply tried to close out a Phia pop-up, according to Bloomberg.
Phia co-founders Sophia Kianni (left) and Phoebe Gates (right) at The Female Force event in New York City on March 3. Getty Images for Hearst A colleague told Kianni that Google Chrome prohibits extensions from dropping affiliate cookies on “dismiss events,” or when a customer simply tries to close out a notification, and Kianni conceded.
But she added: “I guess we could say that the user is trying to open us and roll it back if they complain,” according to the report.
A Phia spokesperson told Bloomberg that this feature was never implemented.
Impact.com, one of Phia’s affiliates, had already suspended the network and reallocated commissions that it had set aside to pay Gates’ company, according to the report.
Though Phia said it has already started looking into transfer reversals, it might have to issue extra refunds since the policy was in place from December through July, a much longer time period than initially thought.
You really want us to believe that fully armed US Service men put down their Service issued fire arms and beat themselves to death with their bare hands?
At least try and apply intelligence when crafting these stories😂😂😂
Southeast children are in a bootcamp learning AI and robotic engineering as we speak, with the help of Alex Onyia.
In Northern Nigeria we teach our children islamism and hate for infidels. The South will export skill while the North will export terrorists
Southeast children are in a bootcamp learning AI and robotic engineering as we speak, with the help of Alex Onyia.
In Northern Nigeria we teach our children islamism and hate for infidels. The South will export skill while the North will export terrorists pic.twitter.com/UfHj8HVhqi
Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has married his longtime partner - model and influencer Georgina Rodríguez - in a civil ceremony in Portugal.
Calling it the wedding of the year, Portuguese media say the couple tied the knot on 11 August in the coastal town of Cascais near Lisbon - and that their five children attended.
The Instagram entry had more than 3m likes within 30 minutes of being posted.
The couple have been together for 10 years, after they met at a Gucci shop in Madrid where Rodríguez was working. He was playing at the Spanish club Real Madrid at the time.
At the time, Rodríguez posted a picture of a large ring, writing "Yes I do. In this and in all my lives" in her native Spanish.
Ronaldo has scored nearly 1,000 goals in a career in which he has played for Lisbon-based Sporting, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia and Portugal.
He recently played in his sixth World Cup, a record for appearances in the men's finals which he shares with Lionel Messi of Argentina.
A Yoruba Islamic cleric Shafiy Adeba (also referred to as Imam Shafiy Adeba) has gone viral on the popular mini blog social media platform popularly known as X, after making controversial comments about Yoruba traditional worshippers known as Isese.
In the video clip which is currently trending X, the popular cleric says as follows in Yoruba:
"You the government (of Nigeria), take the Onisese (traditional Yoruba religion practitioners) as captives/slaves, starting from Alagemo (Agemo), Ijebu land, Ololu in Ibadan, and all Onisese in Yoruba land."
The preacher is seen calling for this controversial measure while clutching a copy of the Quran in his hand.
The fact that these people go unchecked and not punish 💔 We pandemic Islamic extremists and terrorists in yoruba land. Just Imagine! pic.twitter.com/J8uKCsTJ4F
It is a nickname many men would not mind having, but Pedro Sánchez has never liked being called “El Guapo” – the good-looking one.
Nevertheless, he has got himself noticed recently for far more than his looks.
The Spanish prime minister recently made headlines around the world after about 72,000 migrants swam or burst into Spain’s north African enclave Ceuta, with at least 80 people dying in the process. By Aug 4, Spain estimated 70,000 of 72,000 who had crossed had returned to Morocco.
But the sight of tens of thousands of people streaming across Europe’s only land border with Africa prompted an extraordinary, critical response from 22 of the 27 European Union bloc members, who blamed Sánchez’s migration policy.
It was just the latest controversy for the socialist Spanish leader, who finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage.
Sánchez’s opposition to Donald Trump’s war against Iran and his condemnation of Israel over the conflict in Gaza have alienated him from his counterparts in Berlin, Rome and other European capitals.
The Spanish prime minister has also created divisions within the 32-nation Nato military alliance by refusing to raise defence spending beyond 2.1pc of GDP, well short of the 5pc demanded by Trump by 2035.
Germany and many Nordic countries, conscious of the Russian threat closer to their borders, have promised to find the cash. Others have paid lip service to pledges to raise defence spending, concerned that angering Trump might prompt further US tariffs against the EU.
Sánchez’s response to perhaps the biggest migration crisis to hit Europe in years speaks volumes about his inability to read the room.
Instead of staying in the red-brick Moncloa Palace, the prime ministerial residence in Madrid, to deal with Ceuta and its aftermath, Sánchez jetted off on holiday.
To the astonishment of many Spaniards, Sánchez even took the time to share his summer playlist of hits that he would listen to on the beach, including the likes of Charli XCX and Madonna.
Since coming to power eight years ago, Sánchez has notched up considerable gains for Spain.
The economy is on a roll and the Socialist leader can claim credit for defusing the Catalan independence crisis that caused the worst political division since the failed 1981 military coup.
He has also become a darling of the European Left, both at home and abroad.
As well as taking on Trump and Israel, he has announced windfall taxes on banks and energy companies, introduced rent controls and passed legislation allowing anyone over 16 to change their gender.
Though he plays basketball, not football, he is riding high on the wave of popularity over Spain’s World Cup Final victory over Argentina.
However, opponents of Sánchez are scathing.
Criticism has escalated after Spain’s border was breached, with some claiming the incident was encouraged by Sanchez’s amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Even former Socialist party supporters accuse him of selling out to Basque and Catalan separatists over a series of concessions to keep his minority coalition administration clinging on to power.
Opponents from the Right-wing People’s Party and the far-Right Vox have demanded he step down, as corruption scandals involving his wife, brother and close aides have embroiled his government. They have all denied wrongdoing.
So as Sánchez grabs international attention, who is the man behind the film star good looks? And should the West sit up and take notice of him or dismiss him as another Left-wing outcast who will disappear when, as polls predict, he loses next year’s Spanish general election?
Outsider on the inside
In many ways, Sánchez is the insider who has become the outsider.
He studied for a master’s degree at the Free University in Brussels, then worked in the European Parliament. In 1999, he served as chief of staff to the UN high representative to Bosnia during the Kosovo conflict. It was here that he mastered English, which has helped him shine on the international stage, say friends.
He is a true believer in the European project. Ode to Joy, the EU official anthem, might sit well on Sánchez’s summer playlist.
Yet he has steadily found himself alienated from Spain’s European partners in recent years as the global political landscape has changed.
During the pandemic, Sánchez was among five Left-wing leaders in Europe.
Today he is the only social democrat remaining on the Continent, apart from the leaders of Malta and Denmark.
Sanchez’s first major split from European allies came in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel in 2023, which prompted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to launch a ground war in Gaza.
Though Sánchez condemned Hamas, Spain later became one of the first European nations to recognise the Palestinian state.
He later condemned Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide – something Britain and France have shied away from.
Relations between Spain and Israel have never been good.
Madrid was the last European nation apart from the Vatican City to recognise Israel in 1986, a condition of it joining the EU.
This was largely owing to the close ties between Spain and the Arab world during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who died in 1975 after nearly 40 years in power.
When Trump returned to the White House after a second victory in 2024, the US president’s support for the Israeli land invasion of Gaza and the later war in Iran presented Sánchez with a new target for his ire.
In March, Sánchez summed up Spain’s attitude to the Iran war in a televised address by saying the Spanish government’s position was “no to war”.
Trump subsequently threatened to impose a full trade embargo on Spain in response to its refusal to allow the US to use the jointly run bases at Morón and Rota to strike at Iran, though the trade ban failed to materialise.
The Spanish leader has been careful not to mention Trump by name in any criticism of US policy, but did not restrain himself when he said Spain would not back an “illegal war” on Iran that was not supported by the United Nations.
Conspiracy theorists have even suggested that Mossad was behind the huge incursion into Ceuta, according to reports in El Mundo, a Spanish newspaper. Morocco is an ally of the US and Israel, and the Ceuta influx could help to destabilise Sánchez.
The recent crisis comes after Sánchez’s government launched an immigration amnesty earlier this year, which attracted about 1.2 million irregular migrants, such as those who remained in the country after their visas expired.
This sparked the ire of some European leaders, who put their names to a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, after the Ceuta incursion.
“We have a duty to effectively deter and relentlessly combat illegal migration, by coordinating our action, strengthening our external borders and addressing all policies that can serve as pull factors, such as the regularisation of [a] very large number of irregular migrants,” they wrote.
Giorgia Meloni’s Italy has since temporarily halted free border travel with Spain in response to the incident.
Stung by the criticism, Sánchez hit back in a separate letter to Brussels, accusing his opposite numbers of being “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance or political interest”.
William Chislett, a scholar who has published multiple books about Spain, says that with a failing birth rate and an ageing population, the country needs more migrants.
However, he says there have been seven migration amnesties in the past 40 years, but none have addressed the underlying problem of illegal immigration.
“There is no doubt Spain needs migrants, but Spain does not have a migration policy,” he says, adding that only two Latin American countries – where most migrants come from – need visas to get to Spain.
“Most come as tourists and overstay their time,” he says.
A report published earlier this year estimated that 91pc of irregular migrants in 2025 came from the Americas, including 290,000 Colombians, 110,000 Peruvians and 90,000 Hondurans.
The research by Madrid think tank Funcas estimated that about 50,000 came from Africa, 15,000 from Asia and 14,000 from Europe.
Falling foul of Nato
Sánchez’s policy towards Nato has proved equally divisive.
The Spanish leader, under pressure from the far-Left Sumar party, the junior party in the Socialist-led minority coalition, has refused to raise defence spending beyond 2.1pc of GDP.
At a Nato conference in Turkey last month, Trump reacted by saying he wanted to cut all trade relations with Spain and condemned his European ally as a “wasted cause” and a “terrible partner in Nato”.
Sánchez’s policy on Nato has earned him another nickname – Red Orbán – thanks to the Danish MEP Henrik Dahl, who said the Spanish leader was a Left-wing version of the former Hungarian president Victor Orbán.
“Like Orbán, he is seen as a spoiler,” says Dahl, of the European People’s Party, a Right-wing party. “Sánchez is not on the same page as everyone else and he’s seen as free-riding and really negligent on security issues.”
Carlos Miranda, a former Spanish ambassador to the UK and the United Nations, believes Sánchez’s policy towards Nato is mistaken.
“His attitude towards Nato is not correct,” he says.
“The Americans have been asking for more support not only during Trump’s time but for 20 years.
“If Europe does not support Nato then the Americans will get fed up and it will collapse. It is not a matter of being nice towards Trump, it is a matter of being prudent.”
However, Ignacio Molina, an analyst at the Real Elcano Institute, a Madrid think tank, says the Red Orbán nickname is unfair.
He says Spain has supported Ukraine with military aid to Kyiv, welcomed thousands of Ukrainian refugees and is involved with Nato exercises in Europe.
A former minister who knows Sánchez well but who did not want to be named, defended the Spanish leader over his stance on Nato.
“He did this because he wants the money to be spent on healthcare and social benefits,” she insists. “Sánchez is progressive.”
On a personal level, she says Sánchez got on fine when he met Trump at the World Cup Final last month in New York.
“Pedro is a very polite guy. They shook hands. It is a respectful relationship.”
She describes the Spanish leader as a “serious, principled politician who is a bit of a workaholic”.
Away from the West, Sánchez travelled to China this year on his fourth trip in as many years as Spain seeks to build closer trade ties to the Far East.
This has irked other EU countries, who have considered adopting tougher economic sanctions against Beijing over a flood of Chinese imports.
Analysts say Spain’s “pragmatic engagement” policy of seeking closer ties to China will draw dividends for its own economy and Europe.
However, it comes with political risk.
Road-trip comeback
Sánchez might have become an academic instead of a politician dominating headlines around the world.
He was not even an MP when, in 2018, he made history by becoming the first Spanish politician to unseat a government through a motion of no-confidence. Spanish law only requires a person to be over 18 and a citizen of Spain to lead a political party.
Only two years earlier he had been ousted in an internal party feud. Even then Sánchez demonstrated the kind of conviction – or perhaps stubbornness – which would later surface when he came to lead the country.
“On Monday, I’ll get in my car and travel all round Spain to listen to those who haven’t been listened to, to the grassroots members and Left-wing voters,” he said.
His road trip in a beaten-up Peugeot 407 around Spain became a symbol of his comeback.
Born in Madrid in 1972, he joined the Socialist party in 1993 and worked his way up the party ladder.
Away from politics, he met his wife Begoña Gomez at a party in Madrid and later told a television programme in 2015 that it was “love at first sight”.
The couple have two daughters, Ainhoa, who studied at the University of Bristol, and Carlota, who did her degree in Madrid.
Fast forward to 2026 and Sánchez finds his wife, his brother David and close former aides battling a series of corruption scandals.
When Gomez first faced legal problems in 2024, Sánchez stunned the country by taking time out from his job to consider his future.
Sánchez said he wanted to “stop and reflect” and urgently decide “whether I should continue to lead the government or renounce this honour”.
In the end, the Socialist leader carried on.
Now more than a dozen people, including Sánchez’s wife, his brother, high-ranking officials and an influential former prime minister, are under investigation for alleged graft, influence-peddling and other crimes.
The 54-year-old prime minister has not been named in any cases and says the allegations are politically motivated and driven by far-Right groups.
Spain’s supreme court jailed Jose Luis Abalos, a former transport minister who had been a close aide to Sánchez, for 24 years for corruption in June. He is seeking to overturn his sentence.
As for Gomez, she faces allegations that she used her position as the prime minister’s wife to secure sponsors for a university master’s degree that she directed, allegedly by bypassing a public bidding process. A judge has ruled that she must stand trial.
David Sánchez was last month banned from public life for nine years after being convicted of administrative misconduct relating to his hiring by a socialist-led council in south-west Spain nine years ago.
The case, brought by the far-Right group Manos Limpias in a private criminal prosecution, has led to calls from the opposition for a snap election – something the Spanish prime minister has so far refused.
Former Socialist prime minister José María Rodriguez Zapatero, a key Sánchez ally, is under investigation for allegedly leading a money-laundering and influence peddling network. He denies wrongdoing.
The scandals have hit Sánchez’s Socialist party in the polls as Spaniards prepare to vote in general elections next year.
Polls have consistently found the conservative People’s Party (PP) leading, ahead of the Socialists, with the far-Right Vox trailing in third place. A survey for Sigma Dos in July, before the Ceuta crisis, gave the PP 33.8pc of votes, the Socialists with 26.1pc and Vox with 17.3pc.
Growth miracle
Despite its recent migration crisis, and the fact that Sánchez is ruffling feathers on the Continent and in America, many rivals may still look at Spain with envy.
Its economy grew twice as fast as the wider euro area last year and more than six times as rapidly as Germany’s, at 2.6 %.
Unemployment may be high compared with Western European countries, but it has recently fallen to its lowest level since 2008, at 10%.
Meanwhile, Spain’s benchmark stock market index IBEX 35 has grown by 128% in the last five years, vastly outpacing the S&P 500 at 74% and the FTSE 100 at 53%.
Andrew Kenningham, of Capital Economics, says: “Immigration has been a very big part of the growth in the last few years because actually their productivity performance is not especially good.”
Other research has also found that roles in high-value sectors such as finance, IT and professional services have also grown twice as fast as wider employment since 2019, rising by over a fifth. This is double the increase in France and Italy.
Much suggests Spain’s growth miracle is still going strong. The private sector’s output grew at the strongest pace in more than a year and a half in July, according to a closely watched survey of purchasing managers by S&P Global, which noted that Spain’s performance stood out in the eurozone.
It marks a stunning reversal of fortunes from the late 2000s and early 2010s, when Europe’s fourth-largest economy was brought to its knees by the eurozone crisis.
In fact, Spain’s traumatic experience of the credit crunch has paved the way for its current success, suggests Kenningham.
“It went bust very badly. Then they had this pretty extreme adjustment period after that in which they did push through quite a lot of reforms, particularly on the fiscal side, getting their budget into a much better place,” he says.
“Now they’ve been able to benefit from that. In contrast to France, Britain or Italy, they haven’t had a really big fiscal constraint on what they can do for quite a while. They over-adjusted, and that’s given them a clean run.”
Ruthless dealmaker?
If the economy is doing well, then Sánchez can also claim credit for calming the political waters in Catalonia since he took office in 2018.
At that time, Spain was facing the aftermath of a failed Catalan illegal independence declaration, which had plunged the nation into the biggest political crisis since an unsuccessful military coup in 1981.
Sánchez’s current government depends on the support of Catalan separatist party Together for Catalonia, whose leader Carlos Puigdemont went on the run nine years ago after fleeing Spain in the wake of the 2017 illegal independence declaration.
His administration has also been backed by Bildú, a separatist party in the Basque Country.
Bildú has ties to Eta, another Basque separatist organisation behind the deaths of over 800 people during a 40-year independence conflict with Spain.
Though Eta declared a permanent ceasefire in 2011, the scars run deep.
Notably, Sánchez has made a series of concessions to Catalan separatists, pardoning those who were jailed over their roles in the illegal independence declaration.
The Socialist-led government has also introduced an amnesty law that could mean Puigdemont will finally return to Spain later this year.
Though Sánchez’s policies have helped to reduce support for identity politics in Catalonia and the Socialists run the regional government in the north-eastern province, the controversy angers many Spaniards.
Carlos Miranda, a former Socialist party member, is infuriated by Sánchez’s deals with Basques and Catalan separatists.
“I think Sánchez is divisive,” he says. “I think a good statesman does not do that. The Catalans and Eta never said sorry.”
Looking to the future, after making agreements with Catalans and Basques, Sánchez is regarded in Spain by some as a ruthless political operator who will cut any deal to survive.
Molina believes Sánchez will lose in next year’s general election but the Socialist leader may leave Spain more attuned to the changing world.
“Now Sánchez has lost centrality in Europe. But if you think about a world in which Europe and the West and the United States is going to be less important,” he says.
“And the global south and relations with China are going to be more important, so perhaps Spain is going to be best prepared for this world.
“It has a presence in the Arab world, Latin America and even China.”
However, if Sánchez has moved Spain to a better position on the world stage than it occupied five years ago, this has come at a price for a committed Europhile who now stands accused of turning his country into a Left-wing pariah.
How can staying in God's Temple to teach religious leaders be equated with leaving?
Isn't it the duty of God to teach His ways to religious authorities?
How can God remaining in His Temple be regarded as "leaving"? Where did He go?
AntiChristian: Once upon a time, there was a 12-year-old boy whose parents usually attended the Passover festival every year. One year, after the festival was over, his parents began their journey home, unaware that the boy had stayed behind in Jerusalem. When they realized he was missing, they searched everywhere—among relatives, friends, and the city—but could not find him. After three days of searching anxiously, they finally discovered him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening carefully, and asking thoughtful questions.
When his parents saw him, they were astonished. his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” the boy asked, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Luke 2:41-52
As a Nigerian father and a carpenter, wetin I go do to my pikin wey waka comot from house for three days without permission? Na to give am correct 2 by 2 pako!
This 12-year-old pikin sef, e get audacity to ask, "Why you dey find me?" As e be for your own papa house, e no suppose dey take permission before you comot?
Anyways, no forget say even Jesus own growing-up story get plenty blanks. From when e small pikin reach 12 years, then e disappear until e reach 30 years before e start im public work!
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