Referee dies aged 38 after being dropped from FIFA World Cup following arrest - Yahoo Sports

Chinese referee Ma Ning has become the unlikely face of the 2026 World Cup in China, with memes about the 46-year-old going viral and multiple domestic brands announcing collaborations with him. Over the past week, Ma has been announced as brand ambassador for several major Chinese companies, including tech giant Lenovo, consumer electronics maker Hisense, and dairy brand Mengniu. Official accounts dedicated to Ma have also been launched on lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, and video streaming site Bilibili. Ma is the only Chinese match referee at this year’s FIFA World Cup, which will run from June 12 to July 20. It marks his second appearance at a World Cup, following his debut at the 2022 tournament in Qatar, where he served as a fourth official — an assistant referee who works off-pitch. With China’s national football team failing to qualify for this year’s World Cup, Ma has emerged as someone Chinese fans can still support. Ma is joined at the tournament by assistant referee Zhou Fei and VAR official Fu Ming.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.

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