Six of the world’s biggest sports organisations, including FIFA, the International Cricket Council & Formula 1, are being challenged to justify their sponsorship deals with state-owned Saudi Aramco. These partnerships may place them in breach of international human rights standards.

Amnesty has written to call on FIFA and UEFA to suspend the Israeli FA until clubs from illegal settlements are excluded from its leagues. While football supports Israel’s occupation, over 800 athletes & sports officials in Gaza have been killed in its genocide. www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne....

Many migrant workers who came to Qatar to build the 2022 WC infrastructure found themselves jobless after the tournament. @josimarfootball.bsky.social reveals how some of them have been recruited by the Russian army, are fighting and die on the Ukrainian front. josimarfootball.com/2025/09/25/t...

A wonderful day for a remarkable man and his amazing family fairsq.org/alaa-abd-el-...

Crypto-grifting, Dubai resident and would-be Reform candidate for London Mayor proudly posts a video of him hanging out with Tommy Robinson before a far-right gathering in the city he claims to want to lead.

ex-IDF chief confirms Gaza casualties over 200,000 That’s 10% of the entire population of Gaza in 2 years www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

EU divisions over Gaza hit Eurovision as Ireland pulls out

Hundreds of migrant workers at Saudi firm Sendan Intl., including those on Aramco projects, went unpaid for up to 8 months—many stranded, undocumented, or forced home without wages.‬⁩ #SaudiArabia www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

On Saturday, an estimated 1500 people sat down on Parliament Square in London in a peaceful protest, holding up placards declaring their opposition to genocide and their support for a non-violent activist group. 890 of these people were arrested.

This is what today looks like: elderly people arrested just for holding signs. Shame on this government and its police.

That Labour's objection to Reform's programme of aggressive white nationalism is "they don't have a fully costed plan for their network of concentration camps" tells you just how dangerously lost this government is.

No end to the cruelty for Palestinians www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

FFS. He didn't "kick off". It's not a "jibe". He said, with dignity and restraint, what we were all thinking - that Al-Obeid didn't just "die" - he, like tens of thousand of other innocent civilians, was killed by Israel as part of its ongoing programme of ethnic cleansing.

This is what *athleticide* looks like, a term scholars like @nkalamb.bsky.social & others are increasingly using

"Who nowadays bothers to pay heed to Starmer or the EU’s Kaja Kallas, for example, when they express outrage on behalf of Ukrainian civilians? .... that the west seems only to pay only lip service to the suffering of Gazans, Ethiopians, South Sudanese and others comes across as distinctly racial"

An aerial view of what the Gaza City area looked like this week. Taken from a Jordanian military aircraft, by our colleague Heidi Levine.

While the climate crisis hits football hard, Gianni Infantino still plans to promote the world’s biggest polluter - Saudi Aramco - at next year’s World Cup.

“This is the cruel reality confronting many in Gaza today after months of insufficient aid being allowed into the territory, and parties to the conflict failing to uphold basic responsibilities to protect civilians.” - UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell Full statement: unicef.link/40Kib1K

Israel’s defence minister has laid out plans to force all Palestinians in Gaza into a camp on the ruins of Rafah ‘a blueprint for crimes against humanity’. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

We're gearing up for the big Parliamentary debate on a fossil ad ban. We spot that the ad self-regulator, the ASA, has chosen this moment to "reassure" the public about advertising. 😏 But worth noting a fossil fuel ad & sponsor ban is the tobacco control for 21st century &...

The *athleticide* continues in Gaza, as Palestinian National Team player Muhannad Fadl al-Lay died yesterday after being wounded in an Israeli attack on his home earlier this week. Israel's attacks have completely destroyed 184 sports facilities in Gaza. www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-fo...

So very grateful to all my guests over 100 eps. Invidious to pick out some, but I will anyway. Thanks to @mrjamesob.bsky.social @helenebismarck.bsky.social @warmatters.bsky.social @ionacraig.com @wanderinggaia.bsky.social @samirpuri.bsky.social @johnsweeneyroar.bsky.social @lynchj.bsky.social

Important caveat: What the UAE hopes to achieve is not necessarily what it can realistically achieve. But everyone can have dreams of grandeur, and the UAE surely does.

Reports suggest as many as 71 have died in rising daily killings as hungry seek food at GHF sites.

West doesn't even offer thoughts and prayers. We're bankrupted in the eyes of the world.

Saudi Arabia executes a journalist after 7 years behind bars. Activists say it was over his tweets - The Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

"What awaits them is suffocating overcrowding, one of the densest concentrations of human beings in the world. Unlike in other heavily populated urban settings, such as the slums of south Asia, there is no sanitation and no running water." www.ft.com/content/ba6e...

"Any plans for the conference announced by the Egyptian government last year to 'pump British investments' should be shelved immediately and there should be no discussion of UK support for financial packages to Egypt": Helena Kennedy www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Release Ala'a.

Deeply concerned that Laila is in hospital. Sending best wishes to her, Alaa and all family members. Laila should not have to resort to this to get Alaa free. UK govt must use all levers with Egyptian govt. PM must call President Sisi to insist on Alaa’s release. x.com/monasosh/sta...

Outrage, horror after Israeli attack kills nine children of Gaza doctor. The young victims, two of whom remain under the rubble, range in age from seven months to 12 years old. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...

FIFA’s ongoing failure to enforce sanctions against the Israeli Football Association (IFA) despite long-standing and irrefutable evidence that the IFA is in violation of FIFA Statutes is further evidence of the organisation’s ad hoc and selective enforcement of its rules. fairsq.org/fifa-continu...

The horror of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the injustice of their continued (and growing) occupation of the West Bank, the impunity of attacks on Syria and Lebanon. All with the explicit approval or at best inaction of the international community. It’s maddening

Video from Riyadh. Gianni Infantino is asked to stand up for a round of applause by fellow (future) Qatari private jet user Trump. He's being applauded by the Gulf state leaders who give FIFA all the money they want, in exchange for full promotion of their fossil fuels (Saudi Aramco, Qatar Airways).

New @Amnesty report reveals the severity of exploitation and racism faced by Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia - who remain locked out of the country's labour law protections. Saudi Arabia says it's changing, but behind closed doors it's a different story. www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

FairSquare co director @lynchj.bsky.social in conversation with the BBC Today programme on our prediction of a surge in unexplained deaths in Saudi Arabia.

Fantastic to hear @lynchj.bsky.social on #r4today. If you want much more detailed discussion with him on (lack of) rights of migrants in Gulf, check this podcast I did with him a few weeks ago podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

Pressure grows on Fifa as reports warn of serious risk to workers amid Saudi World Cup building boom

Ufff... What a headline Really shows how Gaza has just ripped the veil off in so many ways, and we'll be living with the ramifications of what's happened(ing) for at least the next decade www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The human rights risks associated with sporting events in the US has dramatically escalated under Donald Trump. Instead of dismissing it, Infantino should make sure FIFA continues to conduct human rights due diligence to identify and address those risks.

“Even in the petrostates of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the vast majority – about 80% – were willing to give 1% of their income to climate action. How many of these wanted more government action is unknown: these countries did not allow the question to be asked.”

‘The retreat of US power doesn’t pave the way for a fairer world, but for opportunistic predation by regional bullies.’ —⁦‪ @nesrinemalik.bsky.social UAE fuels the RSF's Darfur massacres while the 'rules-based order' refuses to pressure their ally. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Karim is doing important work. Support him if you can.

2-Please read and share the article that my colleague and I, from Helpline ( with help from others from @accessnow.org ), wrote about the seriousness of this, explaining its impact and how to protect organizations. www.accessnow.org/u-s-funding-...

Executions at 10-year high after huge increases in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International confirms 1,518 people executed in 2024 but says real total is likely to be thousands more. Saudi Arabia doubled its yearly total from 172 to at least 345. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

The feared total breakdown in Gaza seems to be upon us now. Dr Fadel Naim. Surgeon at our Al Ahli Hospital has issued a desperate emergency appeal for ACTION. This still seems to fall on deaf ears.

"Football unites the world" - Gianni Infantino, FIFA president and Trump acolyte www.theguardian.com/football/202...