Belgium's Revenge and the Dance of Defeat

Speaking to reporters at the White House hours before the round-of-16 World Cup game between USA and Belgium, Donald Trump stated: "If they beat us, they can be really proud. The other way, if they beat us, we'll say – I'll say it was rigged, just like the election was rigged in 2020".

The context surrounding his unsavoury comments stems from an unprecedented political intervention in the tournament. US star striker Folarin Balogun was shown a straight red card during a match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering an automatic one-game ban. 

Trump admitted, to personally calling FIFA President Gianni Infantino to lobby for a review of the "horrible" red card suspension. FIFA subsequently suspended Balogun's ban, allowing him to play against Belgium. This decision sparked global outrage, with UEFA accusing FIFA of "crossing a red line". 

Trump brazenly defended his action by saying he wanted both teams to have their full-strength squads.

But, despite the American-born Nigerian being cleared to play and starting the match, USMNT were unceremoniously dumped out of the World Cup when the clinical Red Devils trounced the former 4-1 in the knockout clash on Monday. It was their heaviest defeat since 1990. 

After Belgium scored their fourth goal several of their players were pictured dancing in a style similar to the 'Trump dance' – where he rocks his hips and slowly pumps his arms – which gained notoriety during the 2024 US presidential campaign. 

The official Instagram account for the Belgium national team also appeared to taunt the debacle, posting a picture of striker Romelu Lukaku cupping his ear with the caption "overturn this"!

And their midfielder Nicolas Raskin even triumphantly said his side’s victory felt like a measure of justice after that disgraceful FIFA decision.

😁😁😁

Donald Trump’s New Tariffs

We're seeing another TACO moment! 

United States President Donald Trump on Monday extended a pause on his sweeping reciprocal tariffs to August 01, while also sending “tariff letters” to fourteen countries, warning they would be subject to the new tariff rates if they failed to reach a trade deal with the US by the new deadline. 

As he spelt out in the letters, the rates could be modified "upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country". I'm not even sure anymore what he actually means. 

[Note: The term TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out – was coined by Financial Times commentator Robert Armstrong to describe what he says is the president's tiresome pattern of announcing heavy tariffs on countries causing economic shock, panic and stock market hits and then later reversing course with pauses or reductions that create a market rebound]. 

For South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, these tariff rates are identical to what Trump had announced on April 02. Malaysia and Japan saw a 1 percent increase and the other eight countries – Kazakhstan, Laos, Myanmar, Tunisia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, Serbia and Cambodia – will now encounter lower tariffs than they did on "Liberation Day". 

FYI, during the 90-day pause, the US only managed to broker two "deals" (if you can call them deals!) with the United Kingdom and Vietnam. 

The first deal was secured on May 08, between the US and the UK, setting a 10 percent tariff on UK exports to the US. The deal states that the first 100,000 vehicles imported into the US from the UK each year will face a 10 percent tariff, down from the 27.5 percent imposed earlier. Additional vehicles imported each year will face a 25 percent tariff. 

On July 02, Trump announced that he had secured a deal with Vietnam, which now faces a minimum 20 percent tariff in exchange for opening its market up to the US. Transshipments from third countries through Vietnam will face a 40 percent levy, while US products will not face any tariff in Vietnam. Specific details for this deal are unclear. On April 02, Trump had announced a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam. 

Meanwhile, US stocks, based on the three major indices, fell on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.94 percent; S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 leading US companies, fell by 0.79 percent; and the Nasdaq Composite saw a 0.92 percent drop.

May 09 is Russia’s Victory Day

Foreign leaders from 27 countries graced Russia’s Victory Day parade on Friday. 

[Two Heads of State, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith did not turn up – the former pulled out at the last minute and the latter due to illness]. 

As well as military contingents from 13 countries – Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Egypt, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam – joined in to march alongside Russian forces on the day of the parade. 

The May 09 event commemorates 80 years since the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany in the Second World War (referred to by the Russians as the Great Patriotic War). 

[Notes: The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the Great Patriotic War (40% of all human losses in World War II), with civilian deaths accounting for the larger part of these losses. According to data of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of Atrocities of the German Fascist Invaders, the German troops destroyed fully or partially over 1,700 cities and towns, more than 70,000 villages and settlements in the USSR. 

And Western revisionists are deliberately downplaying the USSR's vital contribution to World War II. Partly because of the Cold War rivalry but more due to a Western bias to focus on the Western front and American and British victories]. 

The twenty-seven leaders who came: 

In case you're wondering, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are "separatist" regions of Georgia in the Caucasus. Most countries recognise them as part of Georgia, while Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria regard them as independent.

Shovels and Mercenaries

Ukraine provoked Russia. And when the latter lost its patience and launched a special military operation to halt the former’s aggression, Ukraine realized too late it is no match for Russia. 

Still, with ringing encouragement and belligerent instigation from the US and NATO, it carried on fighting, in spite of heavy losses. Obviously, it wants to continue fighting until the last Ukrainian. 

And to keep on fighting, it grovels and begs the collective West for weapons, financial support and sanctions on Russia. 

In fact, as recent as Thursday, its ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova had asked for more weapons, more financial support and more sanctions on Russia. 

And on Monday, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister speaking on a German news broadcaster ARD talk show, even declared that Ukrainians “will fight with shovels if they had to”! 

But there’s no shortage of mercenaries going to the country and fight alongside Ukrainians. From a Scott Ritter News posting on Monday: 

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Poland has the most number of mercenaries in Ukraine. And of course, mercs from that country suffered the most serious losses, i.e. the most killed and the most wounded. 

It’s okay to die for your country – but for these hired guns, it’s wasted lives and needless deaths.

Iran Fail to Make the Cut

On Wednesday, Bosnia-Herzegovina beat Iran 3-1 in their Group F match at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil and in the process, denied the West Asians any chance of advancing to the next stage of the Wolrd Cup. 

Iran, whose only World Cup victory came in 1998, had required all three points against Bosnia and a win for Argentina over African champions Nigeria to have any shot of grabbing a surprise place in the last 16. The Iranians were found wanting even though the South Americans did what they were supposed to do by thwarting the Super Eagles 3-2 in Porto Alegre and topping the group on nine points. 

 




France could not maintain their prolific start to the 2014 World Cup but still finished top of Group E following a goalless draw with Ecuador. 

On Monday, I was at the MidValley Toastmasters meeting and took up the role of General Evaluator. I acknowledge that club members are putting in serious effort to improve the conduct of their meetings and I am happy to report that they are making good progress. 

Overall, it was a good meeting but I have to admit that I was disappointed with one of the speakers – I know him well – as he wasn’t showing seriousness with the speech he was presenting. It was more a case of tomfoolery than anything else. Plus the fact that he wasn’t well-prepared. 

In any case, I would give this meeting a score of a 6 over 10.