For days, workers have been trying to rid the Reflecting Pool of algae after a more than $14 million renovation that President Donald Trump said was “done properly” and “could last for 100 years.”
But now workers have another problem to contend with: peeling paint. On Thursday, a sheet of the pool’s surface — painted in American Flag Blue, a color selected by the president — was seen floating on the north side of the pool. It undulated in the water as curious tourists gathered, some of whom had come to see the green algae.
At 5:35 p.m. on Thursday, a worker came to remove the sheet of pool surface, telling a Washington Post photographer not to photograph it, despite being on public land.
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to questions about the paint and why the pool surface is separating. The agency said in a statement on Wednesday that it is treating the pool with hydrogen peroxide and “high-tech nanobubble ozone technology” to effectively cut off the algae’s food supply.
On Thursday, the Interior Department press office posted on X that “the Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool — just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf.”
Indeed, some areas of the Reflecting Pool were looking cleaner compared with earlier in the week. Workers in chest-high waders stood in the middle of the pool and vacuumed the algae. The neon green-tinted water could be seen pouring out of tubes into nearby drainage grates. The center of the pool, though, was still neon green, and residual algae remained in the cleaned portions of the pool.
Within days of the renovation’s completion, the Reflecting Pool had more algae in it than at any recorded point in the month of June for at least five years, according to a specialized analysis of satellite data.
The Reflecting Pool renovation, Trump has said, was prompted by a friend visiting from Germany who called the water “filthy, dirty … disgusting looking.” Algae has been a consistent problem for the pool and quickly reappeared after a $34 million renovation that was completed in 2012.
But this time would be different, the president promised. He touted his pool-building experience and praised the workmanship of his contractor, who got the job in a no-bid contract.
“I’m very proud of it,” Trump said in the Oval Office on June 3, saying that his six-week project had finally solved the pool’s yearslong leaking issues. “I’m very good at building things and constructing things.”
“This was not a paint job,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on June 5. “This was highly sophisticated material, industrial strength, that could last for 100 years, applied by very talented people.”
On Friday morning, the president reposted an artificial intelligence-generated video showing him filling the Reflecting Pool with what appeared to be critics’ tears (and blue-tinted water) on Truth Social.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a local advocacy organization, sued to stop Trump’s changes to the Reflecting Pool, but the work was completed before a judge could issue a ruling.
One of the reasons TCLF filed its lawsuit is because the National Park Service did not perform a review as per the National Historic Preservation Act, said Charles A. Birnbaum, the organization’s president and CEO.
Under that review, they would have been required to consult subject area experts who could “identify potential problems — like algae and exfoliating paint — and, perhaps, suggest solutions,” said Birnbaum in a statement to the Post. “Instead, the Park Service granted themselves a ‘streamlined review,’ which they admitted was done under pressure from ‘White House leadership’ even though the project was ineligible.”
ROME — The Italian government closed ranks on Friday to slam U.S. President Donald Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested America’s longtime European ally had had enough of Trump’s boasting and criticism.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly canceled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy.
Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated” and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally.
“Italy and I do not beg,” she said pointedly.
Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several moments, including alone on a small sofa.
According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster put a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.
Meloni is astonished and defiant
Trump’s posturing underscored how his alliance with Meloni — long seen as one of his closest friends in Europe — has frayed over his war in Iran, his tariffs against Europe, and his complaints when anyone disagrees with him.
But Meloni’s strong response on Friday suggested she no longer fears Trump’s verbal attacks — attacks that could actually play in her favor in a country where public opinion of the American president has chilled, said Lorenzo Castellani, a political scientist at Rome’s Luiss Guido Carli University.
“In some ways this was a favor to Giorgia Meloni, in the sense that she was accused until a few months ago of being a sort of Trump’s vassal in Europe,” he said.
In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response.”
“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”
It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni’s refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn’t respond publicly at the time. By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.
“I can only say that it’s a shame he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating,” Meloni said Friday. “But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”
The White House did not return an immediate request for comment on Meloni’s remarks.
Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second term, and had positioned herself as a “bridge” between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.
But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump’s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump’s tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.
Italian officials close ranks around Meloni
By Friday afternoon, solidarity for Meloni had poured in from across the government and political spectrum, and included a call from President Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s respected head of state.
“Whoever attacks @GiorgiaMeloni attacks all of us,” posted Transport Minister Matteo Salvini.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio referenced the sacrifice of American troops in World War II in underlining the harm to U.S.-Italy relations caused by Trump.
“The thousands of crosses marking the graves of American soldiers who died to free us from Nazi-Fascist dictatorship did not deserve such a painful blow to our fraternal ties,” Nordio said on X.
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said he didn’t believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, “not even under threat.”
Tajani had been due to travel to the U.S. on Sunday to take part in an Italy-U.S. business forum in Miami during which he was to have meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a U.S. State Department announcement of the meeting.
A ‘fantastic’ friendship frays
Meloni and Trump had gotten off to a strong start, and the two leaders are ideologically aligned on many issues. As the head of a far-right party, Meloni backs curbing migration and promoting traditional values.
Weeks before Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Meloni met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat, a visit that she said went “beyond expectations.” It was, she said at the time, “an opportunity to confirm a relationship that promises to be very solid.’’
In the months after, Trump had praised her repeatedly, as “fantastic,” “incredible,” beautiful, and a friend.
But stark differences emerged over Ukraine. More recently, Meloni sharply warned against U.S. threats to take Greenland by force, saying she didn’t believe Washington would go so far and that regardless Italy would never support such a move.
Meloni also received support from an unlikely ally in Europe: Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who was on Friday asked about the back and forth on the sidelines of a European Council meeting.
“About Meloni, first and foremost, all my solidarity,” he told reporters. “Secondly, I not only say this publicly in a response to your question, but also in private during the European Council meeting I offered her all my solidarity against this attack that is not political or personal … I really don´t know how to qualify it.”
Iranian officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting that Israeli strikes on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon must stop before the talks can take place, according to three regional officials and a person familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing mediation to try to get the talks rescheduled and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The situation was fluid as Israel and Hezbollah agreed on Friday to renew their ceasefire, according to a U.S. official and regional officials. It remains to be seen whether that could help put the U.S.-Iran talks back on track.
In Washington, President Donald Trump lashed out once again in the midst of the intensified fighting in Lebanon and the stalled nuclear talks.
“We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did,” Trump wrote in a social media post Friday. “They are FINISHED! We’ll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!”
Vance was ready for Swiss talks
Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, had been prepared to make an overnight flight to meet with his Iranian counterparts at a mountainside resort in the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen and begin the technical talks.
Vance’s staff and a small group of journalists had gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip. Dozens of White House officials, advance staffers, and more media were already in Switzerland.
Then the trip was called off — abruptly and for the time being.
A White House statement said Vance, tapped by Trump to lead the negotiations, decided to postpone his travel. It made no mention of the escalating violence in Lebanon.
“The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the statement said.
But, according to officials, the Iranians made clear to the White House that they had balked at starting the talks with Vance because of the Israeli action in Lebanon.
While Iranian officials and Vance did not make it to Switzerland Friday, a mediator from the Gulf country of Qatar found his way to the resort near Lucerne, Switzerland, where the U.S.-Iran talks are to be held. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met with the Swiss foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis.
Fighting in southern Lebanon intensifies
The fighting had intensified with at least 18 killed by Israeli airstrikes, while four Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military would stay in a “security zone” of southern Lebanon as long as “Israel’s security needs require it.”
Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the U.S.-Iran agreement.
Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal does not explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon’s “territorial integrity.”
Hours before postponing his trip, Vance gave some indication of the state of flux when he told reporters at a White House briefing that he was uncertain if the talks were going to happen this weekend.
“We think these technical negotiations start sometime this weekend,” Vance said. ”That’s still the plan. But that could change.”
Soon after Vance spoke to reporters, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, endorsed direct negotiations with the United States. His terse statement, read by state media, appeared to signal to the Islamic Republic’s leadership that it could move forward with a first round of talks.
“It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy’s opinion,” Khamenei said.
The messaging seemed to give Khamenei, who was badly wounded in the U.S. strike on Feb. 28 that killed his father, some maneuverability. Hard-liners in the Iranian government, including Khamenei’s father, long opposed direct talks with the White House, especially after Trump, during his first term, pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.
Meeting was initially supposed to be a signing ceremony
It says Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under rubble left by U.S. military strikes last year targeting Tehran’s key nuclear sites, must at minimum be diluted under international supervision.
It also says Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a commitment Tehran has made previously. Other commitments remain to be worked out.
Iran believes it’s in a strong negotiating position
Iranians would be going into the talks with a measure of confidence after effectively shutting down the strait, causing global economic reverberations, said Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities in Washington.
She said the U.S. is now “essentially trying to negotiate our way back to the prewar status quo.”
Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House think tank, said the “buoyant” Iranian leadership feels it has the upper hand. The endorsement of the talks by the Iranian supreme leader “sends a very strong signal domestically: ’We’re now on an equal footing with the U.S.’”
”‘Trump has gone from calling for regime change on Feb. 28 to this: Now they’re going to sit down with us directly and talk about these big issues,’” Quilliam said of the Iranians’ thinking. “So it’s intended more for the domestic audience, and telling them: ‘We are firmly in control of this. There can be no protests, no revolution: We are a new regime and we’re staying put.’”
Vance’s skepticism of foreign wars was a core part of his political identity during his political rise, which included election as a U.S. senator. Now he finds himself the chief defender of negotiating an endgame to Trump’s conflict that Democrats have largely derided as a foolish gambit. Some hawkish Republicans are aghast that Trump is getting behind a settlement that could put billions of dollars into Iran’s coffers.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairperson of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said aspects of the deal are “completely out of step” with Trump’s goals.
Trump fiercely criticized Obama for the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Trump argued failed to stop Tehran from advancing toward a weapon and funneled billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic. The Republican president exited the U.S. from the deal in 2018.
Trump has pushed back against comparisons to that earlier agreement, saying he had “negotiated from strength” after a major military campaign while asserting that Obama was paying the Iranians off and not receiving acquiescence.
Wicker (R., Miss.) was particularly concerned about the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran mentioned in the 14-point agreement. Trump and Vance have said no U.S. taxpayer money would go to such a fund and it would not come without concessions and reforms by Tehran.
Five months later, almost to the day, Bo Bichette stepped in the batter’s box in Citizens Bank Park.
Boooooooo!
(No, they weren’t calling his name.)
Depending on who you ask, Bichette was either on the verge of signing with the Phillies or deep in talks about their seven-year, $200 million offer. It was the middle of January, a pivot point in the offseason.
“I thought it was an opportunity, for sure,” he said. “But there was definitely things that needed to be worked out for that to become a possibility. So, no, I didn’t think that [it was close].”
In any case, Bichette is in town this weekend with the rival Mets, who swooped in with a short-term (three years), high-salary ($126 million) deal with two opt-outs. And not that anyone has forgotten, the visit is a helpful reminder that the Phillies still are searching for a big right-handed bat.
Bo Bichette, who signed with the Mets over the Phillies’ seven-year, $200 million offer in January, is in town for the first time with his new team.
The trade deadline is six weeks away — 6 p.m. on Aug. 3, if you want to set a calendar reminder. It’s a long way from here to there. The market hasn’t taken shape and likely won’t for a while.
Entering the weekend, 12 National League teams and 11 in the American League were no more than three games out of a playoff spot. Some are more realistic contenders than others; none is ready to wave the white flag.
“It’s pretty quiet right now,” Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly said this week on Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. “You’re talking to teams and checking in, and we’re having conversations to kind of lay some groundwork. But pretty quiet right now.
“I’m sure over the next two to three weeks to one month, things will start to pick up a little bit.”
The Phillies made a small trade last week to address a lack of outfield depth after losing Adolis García to a season-ending muscle tear near his right shoulder. They sent two minor leaguers to the White Sox for platoon outfielder Derek Hill.
It’s possible they will have to make a similar trade for starting pitching depth after demoting Andrew Painter to triple A with a 7.06 ERA.
But the deadline represents a chance to take a bigger swing. And the perception within the sport, based on conversations with league sources, is that the Phillies are prioritizing a right-handed hitter for the top half of the order to offset lefty-swinging Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Brandon Marsh.
Let’s take a still-too-early dive into a few players who may be available before the deadline by dividing them into categories:
The Phillies haven’t shown any interest in moving Bryce Harper back to the outfield.
Non-outfield options
The outfield is the most obvious place for the Phillies to add a hitter.
Unless …
“I’ve said it multiple years before — and this year, still — for the right player, I would do it,” Harper said of moving back to right field. “I mean, that’s as real as it gets. I don’t want to do it long-term. But if the right player comes along and that’s what we need, or if that’s what we want, I’d be open to it at any point.“
Could the right player be Willson Contreras? Or fellow first baseman Christian Walker? The free-falling Red Sox could move Contreras, who is under contract next year for $18.5 million. Astros owner Jim Crane once vowed to never be a seller. But if Houston keeps fading, Walker and third baseman Isaac Paredes could bring value.
Harper hasn’t played right field since April 2022, when he tore a ligament in his right elbow. He moved to first base a year later.
“I still feel like I can throw a baseball from right field, and I can catch a fly ball,” Harper said. “It’s been a long time. But, yeah, I would do it in a heartbeat for us to win a World Series, without a doubt.”
But the Phillies didn’t take Harper up on his previous offers, and it doesn’t sound like they’re about to start.
“I know he’s always been very open-minded to trying to help the organization however he can, but we haven’t talked to him,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said this week. “And I really don’t contemplate it because I really like the way he goes about his business at first base. … I’m looking at him as being a first baseman.”
With the Angels sinking to the bottom of the American League, outfielder Jo Adell could be on the move at the trade deadline.
Midrange outfield targets
Drafted a year apart, Marsh and Jo Adell came through the minors together with the Angels and became close friends.
What if they were reunited with the Phillies?
“That’d be kind of a cool reunion if they could get Jo there,” former Angels manager Joe Maddon said on a recent episode of Phillies Extra. “Because that man’s got some power.”
Indeed, Adell broke out last season with 37 homers and a .778 OPS. The 27-year-old’s production has dipped (10 homers, .683 OPS through Thursday) and isn’t helped by a 2.9% walk rate that ranks among the lowest in the majors.
But Adell would fit the Phillies as a right-handed hitter who bashes lefties (.862 OPS through Thursday). His defense has improved over the years in right field, too.
And the Angels are headed for their 11th losing season in a row. With one year left on Adell’s contract, this might be their time to cash in, especially if they won’t move Mike Trout, who went on the injured list this week with a hamstring strain.
Taylor Ward, a former Angels outfielder, represents an option as an outfield rental. A right-handed hitter and a free agent after the season, he has been an on-base machine for the Orioles, reaching at a .394 clip through Thursday, though he hit only three homers.
Lefty-hitting outfielder Jarren Duran is a trade candidate if the Red Sox continue to fall out of contention in the American League.
Lefty-hitting outfield options
The Phillies had seven left-handed hitters in the lineup Wednesday against Marlins ace righty Sandy Alcantara.
“I actually like it,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “I do. I just think hitting left-handed against righties, it’s an advantage, right? And there’s pitchers that get righties out maybe better. … It just takes certain pitches away from a righty.”
Said general manager Preston Mattingly: “I probably would side on the side of my dad. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to run out seven, eight, nine left-handed hitters vs. a right-handed pitcher. And I think we have [lefty hitters] that are well equipped to hit lefties.”
File that away. Because although rival evaluators are expecting the Phillies to hunt for a right-handed hitter, Dombrowski may not shy away from an appealing left-handed bat.
Maybe someone like Jarren Duran. The Red Sox will have a surplus of outfielders when Roman Anthony returns from an injured finger. Duran, drafted by Boston when Dombrowski headed its baseball operations department, could finally be the odd man out in left field.
Twins center fielder Byron Buxton would be among the most coveted hitters on the market if he waived his no-trade clause.
Pie in the sky
At last year’s All-Star Game, Byron Buxton pledged his allegiance to the only organization he has known.
“I’m a Minnesota Twin,” he said, “for the rest of my life.”
Buxton actually has control over that. The 32-year-old center fielder has no-trade protection and no desire to waive it, even after the Twins traded 10 players at last year’s deadline, including star closer Jhoan Duran and center fielder Harrison Bader to the Phillies.
Amid another stellar season (23 homers, .919 OPS through Thursday), Buxton is doubling down on his loyalty.
“I ain’t said nothing about leaving, nor will I,” Buxton told The Athletic. “I’m a Twin.“
But what if the Twins sell again at the deadline? What if they move ace Joe Ryan and catcher Ryan Jeffers? Maybe that would change Buxton’s tune. Maybe not.
The Phillies appear to lack the prospect capital to get him anyway. Justin Crawford and Gage Wood might be a start. But the farm system is in the bottom third of the sport, according to many evaluators, after the Phillies used Mick Abel, Eduardo Tait, Starlyn Caba, George Klassen, and Sam Aldegheri in deals over the last two years.
“We feel good where our system’s at,” Preston Mattingly said. “We’re not concerned about a lack of assets in the minor leagues. A lot of times you see that top-100 [prospects] list. That’s not necessarily what teams internally talk about, and those are not the players they ask about.”
It would be moot anyway if Buxton wants to be a Twin forever.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The morning of our walking tour of Belfast, my first task was to check Twitter for updates on local rioting the night before.
This tour covered “The Troubles” — the period in the 1970s when Catholics in Northern Ireland first marched for their civil rights, then escalated to vicious bombings to pressure the British Army to leave.
Now The Troubles 2.0 seemed to be erupting, threatening to plunge this weary city back into those dark times.
The spark was a shocking knife attack the evening of June 8; a Sudanese immigrant, who was in the country legally as a refugee, was charged in connection with it. The attempted beheading had been caught in a viral video so brutal it came with warnings.
For the next two nights, violence flared in several neighborhoods. Masked rioters quickly set up barricades, burned cars, torched the homes of ethnic minorities, and pelted police with paving stones they’d pulled from the streets and smashed with sledgehammers.
A generation after the Good Friday Peace Accords ended sectarian violence in 1998, rioting techniques live on in the muscle memory of Belfast. Need something to chuck at police? Ask your Da — he’ll show you how to break up the paving stones.
News of the riots spread internationally, and soon I had to reassure worried relatives back in the States that our vacation itinerary kept us in the city center, miles away from any commotion. Fanning the flames in the U.S. were the likes of Steve Bannon and Elon Musk, who both cheered on the pushback against immigration.
Police attempt to disperse protesters near Newtownabbey, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on June 10, following a stabbing incident two days earlier.
Yet over the next several days, a small miracle unfolded: There were two nights of rioting, followed by appeals for calm from the five main political parties, then a large peace march.
The march was even attended by 77-year old Gerry Adams, the reputed head of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who reinvented himself and went into politics. Earlier this week he wrote on Twitter, “Elon Musk and others who support these despicable actions from afar should shut up. Belfast says NO to racism.”
That a man whom many suspected was associated with flat-out terrorism was condemning the riots embodied the change that has taken root here.
Then lo and behold, the rioting stopped.
The incident actually dropped off the front page, temporarily replaced by this universal headline: “Belfast residents upset over pickleball noise.”
Belfast let the world know it has come too far — and its collective PTSD is still too raw — to be dragged back to that traumatizing era.
To be clear, riots or not, immigration remains a smoldering political issue in Northern Ireland. Immigrants from anywhere can apply for political asylum in any European Union country. Once that is granted, they are free to hop over to the Republic of Ireland, which is also in the EU.
From there, they can saunter into Northern Ireland without having to cross any physical border because all residents of the island are able to live, work, and travel freely between the two countries.
(As foreigners, we had to get a visa to enter the United Kingdom, but never had to show it to anyone. The only sign we’d driven across the border was a text message from Verizon, welcoming us to Northern Ireland.)
Demonstrators gather June 13 during an anti-racism rally outside Belfast City Hall sparked by a knife attack on a man in North Belfast.
That makes Northern Ireland’s immigration concerns world’s apart from those of the United States, no matter how hard Musk wants to link them. Both the details and the scale are vastly different.
Our tour guide, who wrote her doctoral dissertation about the generation born after the 1998 Peace Accords, said what bothered her most about these newest riots was the sight of “40-year-olds egging on teenagers.”
That view was echoed by the elderly proprietor of our bed-and-breakfast just south of the border the next day. She shook her head sadly, pursing her lips as she dismissed the rioters. “They’re just young tugs” — thugs, in her Irish brogue.
That generation has grown up in peace, spared the trauma of their elders. In the key years of The Troubles, 3,700 people were killed in bombings and executions, more than half of them civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine if Pittsburgh, nearly the same size as Belfast, had seen that many deaths.
We heard sickening stories of “No warning” bombs, execution-style slayings of young off-duty British soldiers out for a night at a pub, and an unrelenting stream of tit-for-tat retaliatory killings.
It was a descent into pure madness, as chronicled in Belfast, actor Kenneth Branagh’s movie about his childhood, and Say Nothing, the true-crime novel about the 1972 disappearance of a widowed mother of 10 thought to be a police informant.
The long shadow of those tragic years denied Belfast the economic development that makes Dublin a robust city of building cranes. Tourists still visit Belfast to see the Titanic Museum, but the designer shops catering to them disappear just a few blocks from City Hall.
The city’s nightlife remains muted — a legacy of the “Ring of Steel,” the fortified perimeter of barriers, turnstiles, and military checkpoints installed by the British in 1972 to protect the city’s commercial center.
Strikingly absent from this tragic landscape is any public expression of grief. Memorials to the innocent victims of the bombing campaign are absent in the “shared space” of the city center, our guide said, because they are too polarizing.
Instead, a discreet panel of ceramic tiles is embedded in a wall in Jubilee Square. Called the “Numbers Wall,” it assigns a digit to each of the first 1,500 victims of sectarian violence. However, it comes with no key, no way of telling which number represents which person. That’s intentional — a statement that each loss is equal.
The “Numbers Wall” in Jubilee Square in Belfast, Northern Ireland honors each of the first 1,500 victims of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Our vacation itinerary also took us 125 miles to the west, where a picturesque County Sligo harbor village has its own link to The Troubles. It’s where an IRA bomb killed Lord Mountbatten on his fishing boat in 1979, an attack designed to devastate Britain’s royal family. (See Season 4, Episode 1 of The Crown.)
Here, too, there is little in the way of a public memorial. There was a photograph displayed of the 2015 reconciliation visit by Prince (now King) Charles and his wife Camilla, but since the harbor is in the Republic of Ireland, it was soon vandalized, Charles’ face scratched out.
Instead, our travels through Northern Ireland revealed many examples of artwork dedicated to peace. There is a Peace Bridge in Derry/Londonderry, peace statues and murals in Belfast, and “Peace Walls” in both. Such walls are there not to celebrate a solid peace, but rather to help protect a fragile one by separating neighborhoods.
Our Derry tour guide, who as a teenager hid under his bed whenever he heard bombs explode nearby, summed up the irony of the term: “They’re evidence we’re not in a perfect peace.”
Perhaps this last week has shown Northern Ireland’s peace may be sturdier than people thought. It teetered for a few days, but Belfast displayed the resolve it showed three decades ago, when 71% of Northern Ireland residents voted in favor of the Peace Accords, turning a page on violence.
For a city in which everyone over the age of 30 is likely to have known a victim of The Troubles, peace is more than the absence of violence. It is a tangible state of being — and precious enough to be nurtured and protected.
Kathleen OʼBrien is a retired newspaper columnist who lives in North Jersey. While her recent DNA analysis shows her to be 78% Irish, she returned from her trip feeling 100% American.
As Philadelphia prepares to welcome visitors for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, one of its most notable historic sites will stir back to life — at least outdoors.
Historic Philadelphia Inc., through an agreement with Independence National Historical Park and in partnership with event company Cescaphe, plans to open the Garden at City Tavern on June 25, transforming the shaded plot behind City Tavern into a seasonal destination featuring food, drinks, historical interpreters, lawn games, and special events.
The garden behind City Tavern, Second and Walnut Streets, on June 18, 2026.
The garden will operate from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday to Sunday through Labor Day on the grounds behind the shuttered restaurant at Second and Walnut Streets, offering visitors a chance to gather at a site that played a prominent role in Revolutionary-era Philadelphia.
What visitors will not find, though, is a reopened City Tavern.
The restaurant inside the three-story brick building has been dark since October 2020. Though the closure became associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, former chef-proprietor Walter Staib said the building’s mounting physical problems were the larger issue.
City Tavern chef/proprietor Walter Staib serving Ralph Archbold, portraying Benjamin Franklin, on Dec. 21, 2005.
“COVID was the perfect excuse to close, but it wasn’t the real reason,” Staib said Thursday. “The tavern would have closed anyway. The liabilities had become too great.”
The National Park Service sought a long-term operator in 2023, but no successor has been announced. “Lease negotiations are in process, which we hope to conclude by the end of summer,” park superintendent Steven Sims said in a statement to The Inquirer.
For now, Historic Philadelphia is concentrating on the garden.
“We really wanted to activate City Tavern itself,” said Amy Needle, president and chief executive officer of Historic Philadelphia. “The garden has always been a gorgeous space. For now, we’re focusing on that.” She said the seasonal run could be extended if demand remains strong and hopes to bring the pop-up back each summer.
City Tavern, on Second Street near Walnut, on Jan. 26, 2023.
Founded in 1773, City Tavern served as a gathering place for merchants, politicians, and many of the nation’s founders. Delegates to the First Continental Congress dined there, while George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin were among its patrons.
The original structure was damaged by fire in 1834 and demolished two decades later. The current building is a reconstruction commissioned by the park service and opened in 1976 as part of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration.
For decades, City Tavern operated as both a restaurant and a living-history attraction, eventually becoming closely identified with Staib, the German-born chef, historian, and television personality who took over the operation in 1994. Under his stewardship, the restaurant gained national recognition for menus inspired by colonial recipes and traditions, helping launch cookbooks and the PBS series A Taste of History.
Chef Walter Staib is shown at City Tavern in 2013.
Staib said many people still contact him, especially around patriotic holidays, asking when the tavern will reopen. “I tell them, ‘I’ve got nothing to do with the tavern,’” he said.
He said he declined an invitation to appear at the garden’s opening, but he would be delighted to advise a new operator. At 80 years old, he said, his days of restaurant ownership are history.
Among the building’s challenges, Staib cited the lack of a sprinkler system in dining rooms, aging infrastructure, and the absence of an elevator. Even before the closure, he estimated that bringing the property into compliance would require millions of dollars. “Add another six years of deterioration,” he said, “and it’s even more expensive now.”
The garden behind City Tavern, Second and Walnut Streets, on June 18, 2026.
Historic Philadelphia, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to bring activity back to the property. Backed by a grant from the Connelly Foundation, the organization upgraded the garden with new landscaping, seating, and other amenities. It also enlisted Cescaphe — Historic Philadelphia’s partner in other ventures, including Franklin Square — to operate the seasonal pop-up; financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.
Despite the historic setting, the food and beverage offerings are decidedly contemporary. The menu includes turkey sandwiches, wraps, charcuterie boards, pretzels, beer, wine, and canned cocktails with names such as Patriots Punch, Birthday Brew, and Liberty Lemonade. Cescaphe will use an off-site commissary rather than City Tavern’s dormant kitchens. Unlike the former restaurant, staff will not wear colonial-era clothing.
City Tavern, Second and Walnut Streets, opened in 1976 on the site of a former colonial tavern.
Historic Philadelphia’s “History Makers” interpreters will appear regularly at the site, and the organization’s Independence After Hours tours will conclude at the garden on Saturday evenings. During the Historic District’s Red, White & Blue To-Do celebration on July 2, the garden also will host live music.
Needle said the project reflects Historic Philadelphia’s broader mission of bringing activity to public spaces and historic sites.
“The garden is already used by neighborhood residents,” she said. “People walk their dogs there, and visitors come through as well. Part of our mission is bringing these places to life, so we’re excited to do that here.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has declared a public safety emergency at Bartram Village, a vacant Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) complex in Southwest Philadelphia, after squatters moved in and caused extensive damage.
This declaration clears regulatory hurdles that had delayed PHA’s plans to rapidly demolish the 45-building complex, where the last tenant moved out in 2025.
“For too long, these vacant buildings have posed serious safety risks to surrounding residents and the broader community,” Parker said in a statement Thursday. “This action clears the way to remove those hazards and replace them with new housing, new opportunity, and new investment.”
Bartram Village dates to World War II, when it was built to host defense workers during the wartime industrial boom. The site was later transitioned to the traditional public housing program, providing affordable housing for up to 500 households.
PHA has been planning a probable demolition for a major redevelopment since at least 2018, when it was estimated the buildings required repairs reaching almost $200 million in today’s dollars. Former residents would have a right to one of the 688 new units planned for the site.
But after tenants were moved out, the 22-acre property attracted squatters despite PHA’s security patrols in the area. Beyond occupying the space, squatters tore copper wiring from the buildings and damaged the popular neighboring park and historic site of Bartram’s Garden.
“We boarded it up, it was secured, and almost immediately we realized that folks were penetrating those areas in the back and coming in through Bartram’s Garden,” said Kelvin Jeremiah, president of the housing authority. “But because of the size … it became a real issue. The more we removed people, the more they came in.”
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier’s office began raising alarms in February about the state of Bartram Village.
“I warned that failing to act quickly would [exacerbate] safety issues and cost taxpayers’ money,” Gauthier said. “The buildings became hot spots for squatters and provided cover for inflicting over half a million dollars of damage to Bartram’s Garden.”
An abandoned Bartram Village apartment, which will soon be demolished.
Jeremiah said the housing authority couldn’t move to demolish the buildings immediately because Bartram Village is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The mayor’s emergency declaration allows the agency to bypass a lengthy federal review process. The buildings are not protected by local preservation regulations.
Following Parker’s actions Thursday, “we are now prepared to move forward on an expedited basis to have the site demolished,” Jeremiah said.
PHA plans nine apartment buildings and over 150 townhouses for the Bartram Village site, supported in part by a $50 million grant from the federal government.
It is a major part of Jeremiah’s aggressive plan to renovate all of the authority’s existing holdings while building 3,000 new units and buying at least 4,000 units from the private sector.
The redevelopment has been years in the making because of tenant relocations and the federally mandated delay in demolition.
“Southwest Philadelphians have waited far too long for promised improvements at Bartram Village,” said Gauthier, who represents the area.
“I’m glad that Mayor Parker took the important step today of signing a public safety declaration giving PHA permission to demolish existing structures because they have been causing unsafe conditions to the community for a very long time,” Gauthier said in a statement.
Summer music is here in earnest, and the majority of the concerts on this curated list of highlights in a jam-packed season are happening outdoors.
Besides those featured below, there are still more: like Coltrane 100: Legacy featuring Ravi Coltrane with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Highmark Mann on July 22, or Ed Sheeran on Sept. 19 and AC/DC on Sept. 29, both at Lincoln Financial Field.
Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan throws a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs in 2024 in Boston. Kahan plays Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on June 26. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Noah Kahan
June 26, Citizens Bank Park
Noah Kahan broke through big-time with his 2022 album Stick Season, which the Vermont songwriter, who grew up on a tree farm, described as “a love letter to New England.” His new The Great Divide, produced with Gabe Simon and the National’s Aaron Dessner, is even huger. New Jersey’s Gigi Perez and Wayne’s Annabelle Dinda open. mlb.com/phillies/noah-kahan
River Roads Music Festival
June 27, Heuser Park
Dar Williams’ River Roads Music Festival has found a home in Heuser Park, the King of Prussia space that accommodates crowds larger than the nearby Concerts Under the Stars series (which has choice shows with Nasir Dickerson’s Coltrane tribute July 11, Preservation Hall Jazz Band on July 23, and Joan Osborne on Aug. 7). Williams co-headlines River Roads with 10,000 Maniacs, and the bill includes English punk-folk firebrand Billy Bragg and superb songwriter Amythyst Kiah. risingsunpresents.com
Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
All summer
The lineup at the Camden amphitheater with a lawn’s eye view of Center City spans genres. Hardy’s “The Country! Country! Tour!” is June 27, Dave Matthews Band’s two-night stand is July 10-11, and Tim McGraw plays July 23. Fresh from the Roots Picnic, Kehlani is Aug. 26, Chris Stapleton’s “All-American Road Show” arrives Aug. 28-29, and TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue team up Sept. 13. FreedomMortgagePavilion.com
DJ Jazzy Jeff during the second day of the Roots Picnic on May 31 in Philadelphia.
One Philly: Unity Concert For America
July 4, Ben Franklin Parkway
Pittsburgh-raised Christina Aguilera tops the bill of the free 250th birthday party concert, and British pop star Seal and New York family band Infinity Song are toward the bottom. Otherwise, it’s an all-Philly affair with Jill Scott, plus the Roots performing and serving as a backup band for Will Smith. Then there’s DJ Jazzy Jeff, State Property, Kathy Sledge, and more. phila.gov
Paul Simon was supposed to play three shows on his “A Quiet Celebration” tour at the Academy of Music last year, but the final two were canceled due to his bad back. Now he’s back, in a larger space, and, as always, with a stellar band. highmarkmann.org
Patti LaBelle performs during the “Victory at Sea” concert at the Temple Performing Arts Center in 2025.
Patti LaBelle
July 9, Dell Music Center
The highlight of the Dell season is this America 250 concert with hometown hero LaBelle, who will be joined by Chester, Pa., Grammy-winning R&B singer Avery Sunshine. The Isley Brothers on Aug. 6 are also standouts on the old school R&B and hip-hop calendar. DellMusicCenter.com
Camden County Concerts
All summer, Cooper River Park, Haddon Lake Park, and Wiggins Park
Across the river on the Jersey side, multiple concert series feature national and local acts. The Haddon Lake Park Sundown Music Series has Delco native Devon Gilfillian on June 24 and Young Gun Silver Fox on Aug. 12. Cooper River Park presents Color Me Badd July 9, and Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band on July 16. And Wiggins Park has Will Calhoun celebrating Miles Davis on Aug. 24. They’re all free. camdencounty.com
Megan Moroney performing in Nashville in 2025. The country singer will headline Xfinity Mobile Arena in South Philly in July.
Megan Moroney
July 11, Xfinity Mobile Arena
The country songwriter, with sharp words for foolhardy dudes, is on her first arena tour behind her album Cloud 9. The presence of Musgraves and Ed Sheeran on the album shows how big a star Moroney has become. XfinityMobileArena.com
Todd Rundgren
July 11-12, Keswick Theatre
Upper Darby’s own reluctant Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is playing the hits. The “Damned If I Do” tour is subtitled “The Fan-Favorite Classics Return.” So get ready to “bang on the drum all day.” KeswickTheatre.com
Bryn Mawr Twilight Concerts
All summer
Acts hitting the under-the-gazebo stage on the Main Line include Shovels & Rope on July 12, John Gorka on July 24, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams with Mutlu on July 31, and Mdou Moctar on Sept. 11. brynmawrtwlightconcerts.com
Bob Dylan
July 14, TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann
The world’s greatest living songwriter, who turned 85 this year, has been pulling surprises out of his hat of late, playing long-neglected songs like “You Ain’t Going Nowhere.” Jimmie Vaughan & the Tilt-A-Whirl Band and Brittney Spencer are also on the bill. highmarkmann.org
Lionel Richie at Union Transfer on March 29, 2025.
Ben Gibbard and Death Cab For Cutie sparkled at the NonCommvention this spring. The band is touring behind their excellent new I Built You a Tower, with Philly proud Michelle Zauner and Japanese Breakfast opening. HighmarkMann.org
Pavement will headline Connor Barwin’s Make The World Better Concert Weekend on Friday July 24 at the Dell Music Center.
Make The World Better Concert Weekend
July 24-25, Dell Music Center
After a year at FDR Park, former Eagle Connor Barwin’s fundraising event for his MTWB Foundation is back at the Dell. The Strawberry Mansion weekend’s bang-bang lineup features Pavement and Ratboys followed by Kurt Vile and the Violators with They Are Gutting A Body of Water and Twisted Teens. r5productions.com
Jill Scott is playing on the Ben Franklin Parkway on July Fourth and has four shows at the Met Philly later that month.
Jill Scott
July 24-25, and July 27 and July 29, The Met Philly
Multiple concerts will bring music to the Delaware River waterfront. Wild Pink plays July 23, Spirit of the Beehive is July 24, Snacktime plays Aug. 14. The 502s are Aug. 1, Ripe is Aug. 29, and Folk Bitch Trio is Sept. 26. delawareriverwaterfront.com
Morgan Wallen
July 31-Aug. 1, Lincoln Financial Field
The Sneedville, Tenn., country superstar’s South Philly weekend on his “Still The Problem” tour teams him with Brooks & Dunn on his first night at the Linc. Night two looks more enticing, with Ella Langley, whose Dandelion is the biggest country album of 2026. LincolnFinancialField.com
Dinner Party
Aug. 2, Heuser Park
Dinner Party, the supergroup that features adventurous jazz-funk-soul-hip-hop hyphenate Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, and Terrace Martin, have all of one date listed on their 2026 calendar. It’s in King of Prussia, with Digable Planets opening. RisingSunPresents.com/heuser-park
Lyle Lovett performs at the Lansdowne Theater on March 12.
Lyle Lovett & Esperanza Spalding
Aug. 4-6 and Aug. 25-26, City Winery
Two of the coolest, coziest indoor gigs of the summer. Lyle Lovett plays solo and tells tales in a three-night “Songs & Stories” stand. Then Esperanza Spalding, the jazz bassist and composer, plays two nights with her full band. citywinery.com/philadlelphia
Silvana Estrada plays Longwood Gardens on Aug. 13.
Arooj Aftab & Silvana Estrada
July 29 & Aug. 13, Longwood Gardens
World class global music-making women coming to Chester County. Arooj Aftab is a Pakistani American composer whose transporting 2024 album Night Reign features Chocolate Genius, Kaki King, and Philadelphians Moor Mother and Cautious Clay. Silvana Estrada, who grew up in rural Mexico, shines on Vendrán Suaves Lluvias, a luminous mixture of folk, jazz, and traditional Mexican musical forms. longwoodgardens.org
Jon Batiste performs at the Met in Philadelphia on Oct. 30, 2025.
Jon Batiste
Aug. 14, Highmark Mann
Jon Batiste’s joyous show at the Met Philly last fall ended with New Orleans’ second line parade out of the theater and onto Poplar Street. The bandleader will bring the life-affirming spirit of his 2025 album Big Money to Fairmount Park. HighmarkMann.org
Philadelphia Folk Festival
Aug. 14-16, Old Pool Farm
The storied Philly Folk Fest returns for its 63rd year with a lineup that includes progressive bluegrass innovator Sam Bush, tough-minded songwriter Mary Gauthier, brilliantly witty tunesmith Robbie Fulks, blue guitar wiz Eddie 9V, folk troubadour Tom Rush, and Philly’s the Tisburys. John Flynn will perform and emcee. FolkFest.org.
Mannequin Pussy’s Marisa Dabice performs at Union Transfer in 2024. The Philly band is scheduled to open for the Foo Fighters this summer.
Foo Fighters
Aug. 13, Lincoln Financial Field
The “Take Cover” tour brings Dave Grohl’s stadium rock band to the Linc behind the new Your Favorite Toy. It’s the band’s first time here with new drummer Ilan Rubin, who replaced Josh Freese, who briefly replaced Taylor Hawkins after his death in 2022. Openers are Queens of the Stone Age and Philly punks Mannequin Pussy, getting a deserved spot on the big stage. LincolnFinancialField.com
Rush
Aug. 21 & 23, Xfinity Mobile Arena
Rush fans are over the moon about the reunion of the Canadian prog-rock group. Core members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are back, with Loren Gold on keyboards and more importantly, new drummer Anika Nilles, who has won universal praise for taking on the daunting task of stepping in for Neil Peart, who died in 2020. XfinityMobileArena.com
Bruno Mars in Las Vegas on “Bruno Mars Day.” (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)
Bruno Mars
Sept. 1-2, Lincoln Financial Field
The hits never stop coming for Bruno Mars, from “Just The Way You Are” in 2010 to his “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga and “APT” with Rosé in 2024. Fabulous British vocalist Raye opens, as does DJ Pee .Wee, who is Mars’ Silk Sonic partner Anderson .Paak in disguise. LincolnFinancialField.com
Kacey Musgraves
Sept. 4, Xfinity Mobile Arena
The Texas singer has circled back to her country roots on her self-reflecting new album Middle of Nowhere, which features collabs with Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings, and Philadelphia-raised singer Gregory Alan Isakov. XfinityMobileArena.com
Charli xcx performs during the Glastonbury Festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, England, Saturday, June 28, 2025. She opens her ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ tour in Philadelphia on Sept. 11. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Charli XCX
Sept. 11, Xfinity Mobile Arena
Charli XCX is covering all the bases with her new album Music, Fashion, Film, which represents those realms with contributions from John Cale, Marc Jacobs, and Martin Scorsese. (Yes, really.) She opens her tour for the album, which drops July 24, in Philly. XfinityMobileArena.com
Angine de Poitrine plays Underground Arts on Sept. 16.
Angine de Poitrine
Sept. 16, Underground Arts
The masked Canadian math-rockers who hide their identities but not their musical prowess, are doing a UA basement show before returning to play Franklin Music Hall on Nov. 20. UndergroundArts.org
The WXPN-FM (88.5) weekend at Wiggins Park in Camden features headliners Dawes, Little Feat, Portugal. The Man, plus S.G. Goodman, Te Vista, Cyril Neville playing the Grateful Dead, Madison Cunningham, Sierra Hull, Rebirth Brass Band, and more. xpn.org/xpnfest
Lincoln Financial Field has been renamed “Philadelphia Stadium” for the duration of the World Cup. In addition to five group stage games, the city will host a Round of 16 game on July 4.
// Timestamp 06/19/26 10:38pm
Haiti first team eliminated from World Cup after losing to Brazil
Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior celebrates after scoring the third goal against Haiti Friday night.
Vinícius Júnior scored and assisted on one of Matheus Cunha’s two goals as five-time champion Brazil eliminated Haiti from the World Cup with a 3-0 victory on Friday night.
Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation that qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1974, became the first team guaranteed not to reach the knockout round. Meanwhile, the Seleção got the decisive performance they needed.
Cunha, the Manchester United standout, got the start and showed with every surf-and-slide goal celebration why he should have been in the starting lineup in Brazil’s listless 1-1 draw against Morocco. Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti made the surprising decision in the opener to instead insert Cunha as a late substitute.
Cunha thrilled the Brazilian fans who made up the bulk of the 68,324 spectators at Lincoln Financial Field when he tapped in a rebound for his first career World Cup goal. He then sent a left-footed strike into the upper left corner for a 2-0 lead in the first half against the overmatched Haitians.
Brazil forward Raphinha, who was subbed out with an injury in the first half, had an early goal disallowed on an offside call that only temporarily muted the yellow-clad Seleção fans in an otherwise festive atmosphere at the home of the two-time Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles — whose cheerleaders did their part to rally the crowd.
Cunha added to the frivolity in Philadelphia, home to nearly 6,000 Brazilian immigrants, when he flashed his familiar surfing celebration.
— Associated Press
// Timestamp 06/19/26 10:14pm
A full house in South Philly
It’s a full house at the Philly World Cup. We’re like the dang Tanner Family up in here.
Fans at the World Cup are riding the waves and doing the wave – three times around Philadelphia Stadium. My favorite part was the fan who kept yelling “It’s coming! It’s coming!”
Brazil fans Miguel Sosa and his son, Enzo, of Nebraska, attend Friday’s match against Haiti at the Linc. A happy Brazilian fan with a unique hat watches Brazil’s dominance in South Philly. A Brazil fan waves his national flag during Brazil vs. Haiti. Fans navigate the stairs in the upper concourse of the Linc, which has been rebranded Philadelphia Stadium.
SEATTLE — It turned out that the U.S. men’s soccer team didn’t need Christian Pulisic to beat Australia, and make history in doing so.
With the star playmaker unable to shake off a calf injury, the Americans used two first-half tallies and a raucous atmosphere in Seattle to earn a 2-0 win, before a packed-to-the-roof crowd of 66,925.
The win clinched qualification for the knockout rounds, and marked the first time since 1930 that the U.S. men’s program has won two games in a World Cup group stage.
The statisticians at TruMedia noted this marked the first time in World Cup history that one team benefited from own goals in consecutive games, following the opening tally of the U.S.’ win over Paraguay.
SEATTLE — I’ve just left the stadium here, three hours after the U.S. game ended, and all the sports bars across the street on Occidental Avenue are still packed.
The sun is shining, the temperature is in the 70s, there’s a breeze off the water, and it looks like the citywide party will keep going for a good while.
You can bet they’ll be watching Brazil-Haiti on the TVs here. And they’ll be watching the Mariners too, since they have a home game against the Red Sox in two hours. T-Mobile Park is a block south of Lumen Field, so there’s a mix of soccer and baseball fans around.
Emily Vanim of Pottstown welcomes fans to “FIFA-delphia” ahead of Friday night’s matchup betwen Brazil and Haiti.
Emily Vanim of Pottstown had one of the best FIFA volunteer jobs – sitting in a lifeguard chair with a megaphone welcoming fans to “FIFA-delphia” and answering all their questions.
“Never give a teacher a megaphone,” she said.
The sixth grade teacher said she’s met the best people as a FIFA volunteer.
“We’re friends for life and we’re having an awesome time,” she said. “It’s surreal and the fans are outstanding.”
Brazil fans tries to use Rocky curse against Argentina
🥊 🇦🇷 Nos Estados Unidos, é tradição entre torcedores rivais colocar bandeiras ou camisas na estátua de Rocky Balboa, em Filadélfia, para tentar dar azar ao adversário. Entrando na brincadeira, um torcedor brasileiro decidiu dar uma “forcinha” aos argentinos nesta Copa do Mundo.… pic.twitter.com/xvWKunH4It
Things got chippy towards the end of the U.S. men’s national team second group match against Australia, but it was forward Florian Balogun who kept composure in the face of a second yellow card.
Going in for a challenge in the 88th minute, Balogun and Australian defender Harry Souttar got tangled in the air and found Souttar with his arm wrapped around the neck of Balogun on the way down. Instead of reacting to the bait, Balogun who picked up a yellow card earlier in the match was smart to walk away.
It led commentator Stu Holden to say: “The Australians have come here to have a rugby match, but to have restraint in these moments, to not swing an arm and punch back. Souttar is trying to get under his skin.
It kicked off a string of chippy plays down the stretch, but in the end, the U.S. men picked up their second win in this World Cup, securing a berth into the knockout round of 32.
Depending on the result of tonight’s match between Turkey and Paraguay (11 p.m., FS1), should that game end in a draw, the U.S. will win Group D outright.
A lot of love in Philly as Brazil and Haiti fans get together
Bob Travers, 78, of Southhampton, was among tailgaters accepting high-fives at Lot L outside Philadelphia Stadium.
Travers wore a Brasil jersey and a hat that said “Dysfunctional Veteran.” This was his second World Cup, having gone to one in 1994. This one was better already though, he said, because he was accompanied by his sons and grandson.
“I love it,” he said “The atmosphere is fantastic!”
Perhaps the only time fans of opposing teams have gotten along while tailgating at the Linc, aka Philadelphia Stadium for the World Cup. The vibes are immaculate.
How bad was it for Australia? They made three subs at halftime.
Australia’s Paul Okon-Engstler reacts after a collision with a U.S. player.
SEATTLE – You know a first half went badly for a team when it makes three substitutions at halftime.
That’s what Australia did, with the biggest one being Nestory Irankunda replacing Mohamed Touré up front. Why Iranknunda didn’t start, as one of the Socceroos’ rising stars, was a big question among the Australian media before kickoff.
The other moves were Jason Geria replacing the yellow-carded Cameron Burgess on the back line, and Connor Metcalfe replacing Nishan Velupillay in midfield.
Alex Freeman doubled the U.S. lead in the 43rd minute off a free kick play. But it wasn’t surprising the offside flag was up initially, and by the rules it could have stayed that way.
When Sergiño Dest took the initial shot that deflected up in the air, Folarin Balogun and Weston McKennie were clearly offside, while Freeman was not. And when the ball came down, Balogun was right next to Freeman, in close range to the goalkeeper.
Though Balogun didn’t touch the ball, his presence there could be called interfering with the goalkeeper, and that’s grounds for keeping the flag up. But the video review crew decided that Balogun didn’t interfere enough, so they let the goal stand.
Double celebration for Alex Freeman’s goal to put the U.S. up 2-0 before the half — once before the VAR, and once after
‘It’s such a dream’: Brazil fans take over Stateside Live!
Brazil fans at Stateside Live! in Philadelphia hours before their country takes on Haiti.
Stateside Live! turned into Brasil Live! Friday as a sea of fans descended on the stadium bar complex prior to their team’s World Cup game against Haiti at nearby Philadelphia Stadium.
By 3 p.m., the entire complex was a sea of yellow-and-green, dotted with islands of Haiti fans (and a few team USA fans) in red, white, and blue.
Belange Pierre, 54, of Ottawa, Canada, waved a Haitian flag outside the gates. He drove to Philly with four friends to catch his team’s first World Cup game in 50 years. They were confident they’d be driving back to Canada with a win under their belts after the game.
“Allons-y!” the group shouted, which is French for “Let’s go!”
Andre Magalhaes and his wife, Kelly Bennett, traveled from Orlando to watch Friday’s Brazil-Haiti game.
Andre Magalhaes, 47, a native of Brazil now living in Orlando, was counting down the hours until his first World Cup game at Stateside Live! Friday.
“It’s a child’s dream come true,” he said of attending his first World Cup match. “I’ve waited for this moment my entire life to be here.”
Magalhaes wore a leather cangaceiro, a traditional hat from Northeast Brazil. His wife, Kelly Bennett, 44, wore a team Brasil shirt a U.S. flag as a cape.
“We’re going to watch the game here then I’m going to fold up the flag and I’m going into the stadium and root for Brazil,” she said.
The couple, who are only in town for the three days, said they loved Philly’s sports complex.
“You have all three stadiums and public transit right here!” Bennett said. “It’s such a dream, especially coming from Orlando.”
SEATTLE – It didn’t take long for the United States’ shift to a two-striker front line to pay off.
Folarin Balogun’s hot form continued just 11 minutes in, as he forced an own goal off Cameron Burgess to put the Americans ahead. Antonee Robinson sprung Balogun down the left flank, and he sprinted almost all the way to the end line, then laid a pass into the middle for Ricardo Pepi and Sergiño Dest’s late runs.
But the ball hit Australian centerback Cameron Burgess near the six-yard box instead, and pinged right into the net.
The crowd was thrilled, and the hosts were off and running again.
Lumen Field, known as Seattle Stadium during the World Cup, ahead of U.S. vs. Australia Friday.
SEATTLE – Like most NFL stadiums, Seattle’s press box is glass-enclosed, though it least it has some small windows that open to pick up a bit of the atmosphere.
But I wanted the real thing for a moment. So I snuck outside to the seating bowl for the players’ walkout and the national anthems.
Both sets of fans belted out their national anthems, with the Star-Spangled Banner ringing around the entire stadium. You could probably hear it up the street at the ferry terminal.
Media aren’t allowed to take videos inside the stadium unless they’re rightsholders, a FIFA rule I’ve lived with at every World Cup I’ve covered. But we can take photos, so here’s mine of what it looked like.
At Fan Fest, Mayor Parker thrilled to share ‘Philly-ness with the world’
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker at the opening of the FIFA Fan Festival in Fairmount Park Friday.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker helped open the gates of the FIFA Fan Festival ahead of the U.S.’s clash with Australia at 3 p.m.
Parker stepped out into the crowd waiting at the festival’s main gate and posed for photos with fans waiting in line, including one with a group of traveling Scottish supporters.
Before the gates opened, Parker said she was appreciative that fans are showing up to the city and the festival “authentically, as themselves.”
“We are a global culture, and we are one people,” Parker said. “What makes America and the world so amazing, is that all of us, no matter the fabric, no matter the patchwork in our quilt, we make up a global humanity, and an American community that’s representative of everyone. I’m excited about it all.”
After greeting the line of fans waiting to get into the festival on Sedgley Drive, Parker walked into the festival to greet a few vendors. She stopped at the Bank of America tent to make a bracelet – she chose a black band with all the Philly-specific charms and a World Cup trophy charm – then stopped into the FIFA store on the festival grounds.
With the help of a few store associates, Parker picked out some kits and World Cup merch, including both Brazil jerseys, a seafoam France away jersey, a yellow Curaçao jersey, two World Cup logo shirts and a stripes U.S. jersey.
Parker said she’s enjoyed seeing soccer fans out and about in the city – especially Brazilian fans, whose team will take the field against Haiti at Lincoln Financial Field at 8:30 p.m.
“We were on the parkway, and Brazil was turning it out and up,” Parker said. “Everywhere we’ve been, they’re like, ‘Philadelphia is beautiful, the experience is great.’ You can be a visitor one time, but they’ll feel Philadelphia.
“You have to feel the energy here. We are not like any other city in the nation. There is something special about Philadelphia, and being able to share that Philly-ness with the world is something really exciting.”
Check out The Inquirer’s all-new pop-up soccer show!
Ahead of today’s pivotal World Cup matches, get up to speed on all things soccer with the Inquirer’s Soccer Extra, our pop-up soccer show during the matches here in Philly, featuring writer Jonathan Tannenwald and host Lisa Carlin.
Catch the show Thursdays at 11 a.m., until the final match at Philadelphia Stadium (aka the Linc) through July 4. In their second episode, the duo take a look at this first week of World Cup action and look ahead to Philly’s upcoming matches in Brazil-Haiti tonight and France-Iraq on Monday.
— Inquirer sports staff
// Timestamp 06/19/26 2:35pm
Like Philly, Seattle putting the ‘city’ in ‘World Cup host city’
Seattle Stadium, usually called Lumen Field, as fans arrive for the World Cup match between the U.S. and Australia Friday.
SEATTLE – You might not think that Philadelphia and Seattle have much in common, thousands of miles apart and with different cultural vibes. But during this World Cup, it feels like they have a lot in common.
It’s not just that the U.S.-Australia and Brazil-Haiti games are on the same day, which has put the two cities at the top of the World Cup’s headlines. It’s that they’re true cities, the kind where you can feel the energy of a big event just by being there.
That’s how a World Cup is supposed to be, and has been at all the other ones I’ve been to. The sights and sounds of big fan gatherings are as important as the games themselves.
Philadelphia has seen that a few times now, from the Club World Cup last summer to the masses of Ecuador and Brazil fans in recent days. Soccer brings people together from all over the place like nothing else, even in a city where other sports are more important.
Another thing you can tell out here is how different things are from the first U.S. game in suburban Los Angeles. The stadium is exceptional and the atmosphere was great, but there just wasn’t the same kind of buzz beyond the game because L.A. isn’t the same kind of city.
Fans at Pioneer Square in Seattle.
The downtown doesn’t matter as much, and everything else is way too sprawling – and that’s before getting to the U.S. camp being over an hour south in Orange County. You’re never going to have the same kind of buzz when everything around is highways and shopping centers.
In Philadelphia, you can walk anywhere in Center City, then take a quick subway ride to the game. Here, you can walk from the waterfront to the stadium, and there’s a light rail line across town too.
I made that walk this morning, and saw thousands of fans going in both directions. A “Men in Blazers” live show on one of the piers drew a huge crowd that filled the plaza and the sidewalks beyond it.
The big crowd here isn’t just wearing red, white, and blue. There are plenty of Australia backers too, all in their traditional green and gold. You’ll see them behind one end zone, behind the team’s bench, and in a few sections of the upper deck.
I unexpectedly walked through their fan march on the way to the stadium. Everyone was in good spirits, including the U.S. fans at bars nearby who responded with lighthearted boos and “USA!” chants.
One Socceroos fan carried the amusing sign you see above. A bunning snag is Australia’s similar culinary tradition, a grilled sausage in a folded piece of white bread topped with grilled onions, then ketchup and/or mustard.
Christian Pulisic is still recovering from his calf injury.
SEATTLE – Christian Pulisic will not play in the U.S.-Australia game, as he hasn’t recovered enough from his calf injury to make the squad.
“Christian is not available,” U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino told Fox Sports’ broadcast moments before FIFA published the teams’ starting lineups. “Let’s hope that as soon as possible he can be ready to be selected again, and to be part of the team. Now we need to be focused on our team, and the players that are going to play. We have ahead very important game – Australia is going to be really tough.”
Pochettino said Pulisic trained Friday morning and “the feelings are good” on the star playmaker’s overall recovery.
“A little bit sad,” Pochettino admitted. “He wanted to participate today. But it’s still [too] early.”
EXCLUSIVE: USA star Christian Pulisic is OUT today with a calf injury against Australia and Ricardo Pepi will get the start, USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino tells FOX Sports’ @JennyTaft. pic.twitter.com/ZobSiOfjYx
Ricardo Pepi comes into the U.S. lineup, and that means a tactical shift with two strikers on the field. My guess is the Americans will line up in a 3-4-2-1 formation that looks like this:
Australia has all of its players healthy. The Socceroos’ starting lineup is headlined by rising star striker Nestory Irankunda and 6-foot-6 centerback Harry Souttar. There’s also a familiar face from MLS in New York City FC midfielder Aiden O’Neill.
The #USMNT starting lineup with Christian Pulisic out – Ricardo Pepi comes in to throw two strikers at Australia.
I am guessing it will look like this formation-wise…
Fans from all over gather for entrance into the FIFA Fan Festival
Fans wait to enter FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill in East Fairmount Park Friday.
The gates of the FIFA Fan Festival don’t open to visitors until 2 p.m., but a line has already started to form at the main gate.
Gus Sanchez said he and his family had been in line since about noon after biking over from Northeast Philly.
Sanchez said he wanted to watch the U.S. men’s team take on Australia with a crowd, leading him to come over to the Fan Festival.
“It’s something I can’t explain,” Sanchez, 53, said. “Seeing people from different countries getting together, having fun, enjoying the game.”
The crowd is full of U.S. kits, but other nations are represented, too. Kits from Haiti and Brazil, which will face off tonight at Lincoln Financial Stadium, can be spotted in the line, as well as fans from Scotland.
Alex Nelson said he traveled from Prestwick to the U.S. to soak in the environment of the World Cup.
He traveled from Boston, where the Scots played Haiti on Saturday, to Philadelphia to take in Scotland-Morocco at the Fan Festival.
Nelson, sporting a tartan kilt, said he’s loved his time in Philly so far.
“Very clean city,” Nelson said. “Everybody has been so helpful. Everybody’s mixed in —the Brazilians, the Moroccans, U.S.A., all mixed. That’s what it’s all about.”
Brazil fans bring the party to Philly’s Rocky steps
// Timestamp 06/19/26 9:36am
Photos: Brazil fans take over Philly
Brazil fans play a little soccer as they rally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Thursday. Thousands of Brazil fans swarmed the streets ahead of their team’s matchup against Haiti in Philly. Brazil’s Lucas Paquetá poses for a photo with fans outside the Sofitel Philadelphia at Rittenhouse Square.Brazil soccer fans wait outside of the Sofitel Philadelphia at Rittenhouse Square to greet the players. A Brazil soccer fan cheers outside the Sofitel Philadelphia at Rittenhouse Square. Brazil fans are hoping for the team’s first 2026 World Cup win in Philly.
// Timestamp 06/19/26 8:09am
Everything you need to know about the World Cup in Philly
Philadelphia’s second World Cup game is Sunday night.
Brazil fans work to avoid Rocky curse again of Philly game
Brazil fans guard the Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to prevent being jinxed.
International soccer supporters, be warned — clothe the Rocky statue at your own risk.
The fans of the Ecuadorian national team learned Sunday what many NFL fans already know about draping their colors over the statue of Rocky on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Ecuadorian supporters fitted Rocky with a yellow La Tri kit, then saw their team concede a 90th-minute winner in its FIFA World Cup group-stage opener against Ivory Coast on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field (aka Philadelphia Stadium).
The effects of the “Rocky curse” are well-documented when it comes to football, but it was relatively untested on the beautiful game. Ecuador lost, 1-0, to the Ivorian side, which entered the tournament ranked 10 spots behind La Tri in the FIFA World Ranking.
With Brazil coming to Philly for a Group C match against Haiti on Friday (8:30 p.m., Fox29), Movimento Verde Amarelo, Brazil’s main supporters’ group, went to great lengths to ensure the yellow and green of the Canarinho stayed off the Rocky statue.
The Rocky statue was roped off with a four-post retractable nylon stanchion, with four members of MVA, sunglasses on and earpiece in, standing at attention at each corner as Brazilian fans gathered for a rally in front of the Art Museum.
The bodyguards discouraged fans from draping any Brazilian garb on the statue, holding signs that read:
“Operation Rocky Protectors — Attention: it is forbidden to put Brazilian colors on the statue.”
Matheus Henrique, 30, was one of the MVA members protecting the statue. Henrique, a native of Belém, Brazil, moved to Los Angeles a decade ago for college.
Henrique is friends with the person who helped organize Brazil’s takeover of the steps and responded when a call went out for volunteers to guard the statue.
“It’s a superstition, we heard,” Henrique said. “We’re enjoying the event as well.”
Christian Pulisic’s status a mystery ahead of USMNT-Australia
Christian Pulisic during a United States men’s national soccer team in Seattle Thursday.
There was no surprise news about Christian Pulisic from U.S. men’s soccer team manager Mauricio Pochettino in his news conference before Friday’s game against Australia (3 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62). Pochettino did not rule the star playmaker in or out, and that was not surprising.
“As you know, he was training in an individual way the whole week,” Pochettino said. “But like always, I think tonight, the day before the game, we have a meeting with our medical area, and we will assess the whole group, the players, and tomorrow we will communicate all the things that we can agree tonight.”
Pulisic was seen briefly at the start of Thursday’s practice, then headed off to work on his own. When he arrived, he wasn’t wearing the sleeve over his injured left calf that he sported on Wednesday. But after a few minutes, he sat down on a bench by the sideline and put it on.
“He is evolving, he is much better from [last] Friday,” Pochettino said. “I think at the moment we’ll see. … He’s doing a massive effort trying to be ready.”
The manager also praised Pulisic for being “strong and with a great mentality” as the Hershey native works to be ready for kickoff.
Asked who might play if Pulisic can’t go, Pochettino didn’t answer. This was no surprise either.
“I will tell tomorrow if that is the situation,” he said. “At the moment, we are evaluating all the possibilities just in case, and then we will decide when we have the confirmation in one or another direction tonight.”
Former U.S. men’s star Landon Donovan will be on the call for Brazil vs. Haiti in Philly Friday night.
The second of six World Cup matches will take place Friday night in Philadelphia, with Brazil taking on Haiti (8:30 p.m., Fox) in Group C action.
Calling the game on Fox tonight will be veteran soccer announcer Ian Darke, joined by former U.S. men’s national great Landon Donovan. Natalie Gedra will handle reporting at Philadelphia Stadium, otherwise known as Lincoln Financial Field.
Brazil vs Haiti
Time: 8:30 p.m. Philly time
Location: Philadelphia Stadium (Lincoln Financial Field)
TV: Fox (Ian Darke, Landon Donovan)
Spanish: Telemundo (Luis Omar Tapia, Diego Balado)
Philly hosted its first-ever men’s World Cup match last week, with Ivory Coast topping Ecuador.
Philadelphia was the star during its first 2026 World Cup match, which featured an Ivory Coast upset in front of a re-branding Lincoln Financal Field filled with Ecuador fans.
Philadelphia Stadium, as it’s called during the tournament, will host five more World Cup games, including a Round of 16 matchup on July 4.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court finally made clear what has been obvious to every other commonsense observer: Skill games are slot machines.
The question now is what will the General Assembly do about the estimated 70,000 skill games that it irresponsibly allowed to proliferate across the commonwealth?
If Gov. Josh Shapiro and state lawmakers place public health and safety above raking in more tax revenue, they will follow Kentucky’s lead and ban skill games.
But don’t expect Harrisburg to do the right thing when it comes to gambling. Governors and state legislators here have been hooked on gambling for two decades.
They view the billions in tax revenue that comes from gambling as easy money that helps avoid raising taxes or operating the government more efficiently. But they ignore the hard truth that much of that tax revenue comes from billions of dollars in losses from repeat and problem gamblers.
Research has found that slot machines are designed to addict users. Indeed, some Pennsylvania casino operators boasted early on that many customers came as often as six times a week.
The explosion of online gambling apps — especially on sports — via smartphones, is even more addictive. One Pennsylvania man said he sometimes placed 500 bets a day.
Unregulated gaming devices known as “skill games” inside a convenience store in Philadelphia. The State Supreme Court recently ruled the devices are slot machines.
Studies have linked problem gambling to job loss, depression, suicide, domestic violence, and divorce. But lawmakers continue to ignore the growing public health crisis that impacts broader society. That’s because the same lawmakers are also in the vise grip of the influential gambling lobby that pours millions into their campaign coffers.
Recall that the gambling lobby helped write the law that legalized slot machines in Pennsylvania back in 2004. Then-Gov. Ed Rendell and former State Sen. Vince Fumo (D., Philadelphia) pushed through the measure with little debate. They morphed a 33-line document about background checks at horse racetracks into a 145-page bill known as Act 71, which cleared the way for up to 61,000 slot machines in 14 locations.
In the ensuing years, Harrisburg lawmakers have legalized more and more gambling, adding table games, online betting, and sports betting.
Pennsylvania now leads the country in gambling revenues it takes in, thanks to a surge in online betting that is reaching teens and kids as young as 11.
Casino backers argue that problem gambling only affects around 3% of the population. But that includes most people who do not gamble.
Advertisements for sports betting apps are seen in downtown Kansas City, Mo., in November.
Studies found 60% to 90% of casino revenues come from problem or at-risk gamblers. When it comes to sports betting, 86% of the revenues come from just 5% of the gamblers. So, the business model essentially depends on problem gamblers.
But as Harrisburg lawmakers rushed to legalize additional gambling options, they looked the other way as thousands of skill games popped up in local taverns, gas stations, laundromats, convenience stores, and social clubs, like VFW halls.
In the gambling industry food chain that preys on the most vulnerable, skill games are among the bottom-feeders.
But skill games have been allowed to operate for years with no regulation or taxation. Many machines are in poor neighborhoods in Philadelphia and small towns.
Some small business owners — such as the corner taverns and social clubs — argue that skill games help attract customers. But if a business is dependent on repeat gamblers mindlessly pumping money into a machine, it is time to innovate.
In addition, skill games have been linked to increased crime, including armed robbery and murder.
Last year, a Philadelphia jury ordered Pace-O-Matic, the leading skill game maker, to pay $15.3 million to the estate of a Hazleton store clerk killed during a 2020 robbery.
A convenience store clerk in Frankford who was shot during an armed robbery recently sued Banilla Gaming, a North Carolina-based skill games manufacturer, alleging it enticed the robbery because of the large amounts of cash the store maintained to pay gamblers.
Skill game devices inside Philly Market in the city’s Frankford section.
In 2024, the Philadelphia City Council voted to ban skill games because they attracted crime, but the Commonwealth Court quickly lifted the ban.
Now, it is up to the General Assembly’s lawmakers to fix what they have long ignored.
Shapiro has proposed regulating and taxing skill games at 52% — the same rate as slot machines in casinos. Before becoming governor, he expressed disdain for gambling, but now he is all in. Shapiro estimated skill games could bring in $2 billion in revenue for the state — glossing over that the money comes from individual gambling losses. (The state doesn’t even use the word gambling; they call it “gaming” as if it is all good, clean fun.)
Pace-O-Matic, the most influential skill game player, wants a much lower tax rate of around 16%. Its army of lobbyists — and lawmakers willing to do their bidding — will surely have a lot to say about what comes next. So will the lawmakers on the side of the casino lobby, which wants an even playing field.
Average citizens don’t have a voice in this fight.
The state Supreme Court gave the General Assembly 120 days to figure out what to do next. If the legislature fails to act within that period, the skill games will be deemed illegal and could be subject to seizure.
During the 2023-2024 session, three state Senate Democrats introduced a bill that called for banning skill games. That remains the best path forward.
But expecting Harrisburg to protect citizens from gambling ills is a long shot.
