Lionel Messi’s World Cup career ended in heartbreak at the age of 39.

This was after Spain won the 2026 World Cup in dominating fashion against Argentina, the defending champions.

The Spanish team held 68 per cent of possession and made more than 800 passes.

The Argentina players only managed fewer than 450 passes.

By the 110th minute, Spain had its 20th attempt at goal, 12 on target.

Argentina did not register an attempt on goal until the 117th minute in extra time.

They managed three attempts in total by the end, as they sought to draw level in the final dying minutes of extra time.

The match had ended 0-0 during regulation time.

Argentina were reduced to 10 men after Enzo Fernández was sent off in the 93rd minute, right before extra time.

He received a second yellow card following a reckless challenge on Pau Cubarsí.

Substitute Ferran Torres struck in the second half of extra time in the 106th minute to secure Spain’s second World Cup.

Messi cries

After the final whistle was blown, Messi was reduced to tears.

He was consoled by Spain's sensation Lamine Yamal.

Lamine Yamal comforting Lionel Messi after the final is easily the most wholesome moment you’ll see today. 🥹❤️ pic.twitter.com/efGNbaWc4A

— MC (@CrewsMat10) July 19, 2026

Before the tender moment was caught on camera, a skirmish broke out between both teams.

Will Messi retire from international football?

So far, Messi has stopped short of announcing his retirement from international football.

However, ahead of the 2026 World Cup final, the captain shared a message on his official Instagram account.

This was following Argentina's semi-final win over England.

In his post, Messi had thanked his teammates, coaches and Argentina staff before the final.

"The best thing about all these years has never been just the titles, but the whole journey. Sharing every day with this group, competing together, getting back up in difficult moments, and enjoying every step," Messi wrote.

"Thanks to each of my teammates, the technical staff and all the people who work every day to keep this national team a family."

Spain won the 2026 World Cup after dominating the whole game against Argentina, the defending champions.

Lionel Messi’s World Cup career ended in heartbreak at the age of 39.

His team were reduced to 10 men and did not register an attempt on goal until the 117th minute in extra time.

By the 110th minute, Spain had its 20th attempt at goal, 12 on target.

The match ended 0-0 during the 90 minutes of regulation time.

Argentina fell short

Argentina fell short in their bid to become only the third nation to retain the World Cup.

They were aiming to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups.

Substitute Ferran Torres struck in the second half of extra time in the 106th minute to secure Spain’s second World Cup.

Barcelona forward Torres was a 62nd-minute substitute for Mikel Oyarzabal.

Enzo Fernández was sent off for his reckless foul on Pau Cubarsí.

It was his second yellow card.

U.S. president Donald Trump was present at the match in New Jersey.

A domestic helper from the Philippines stole around S$217,000 worth of cash and jewellery from her Singapore employer's family over a period of four years.

She emptied their safe, sold the items in the Philippines and used the ill-gotten proceeds to buy condominium units, cars, and farmland.

On Jul. 17, Raguindin Alma Bassig, 47, was sentenced to three years and two months' jail after pleading guilty to two counts of theft by a servant.

According to Shin Min Daily News, three charges of a similar nature were also taken into consideration for sentencing.

District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan called the total amount stolen "staggering" and noted that it was "highly uncertain" that the stolen items could ever be recovered, reported CNA.

No restitution has been made.

Worked for the family for more than 10 years

Raguindin had worked for the family for more than a decade, having been employed by her 54-year-old employer since March 2016.

According to Shin Min, Raguindin was responsible for the household chores for the family of four, giving her unrestricted access to all rooms in the landed property.

This included her employer's bedroom, which contained a safe in an unlocked wardrobe.

Stole cash and jewellery worth S$77,851

In 2022, Raguindin found three keys in a coat pocket inside the wardrobe, reported CNA.

She used the keys to unlock the safe and found it contained various currencies and jewellery.

Between January and December 2022, Raguindin stole cash in euros, pounds and yen.

She also stole jewellery, including multiple Van Cleef & Arpels and Bulgari pieces, gold, jade and silver items, worth a total of S$77,851.

Raguindin brought the stolen cash and jewellery with her when she returned to the Philippines for leave.

Converted cash into pesos, pawned jewellery

According to CNA, Raguindin converted the cash into Philippine pesos, while the jewellery was sold, pawned or kept at her home.

She used the ill-gotten proceeds to purchase the condominium units, vehicles and farmland in the Philippines.

In June 2024, Raguindin stole again.

According to Shin Min, the items Raguindin took included: 

• Cash in Malaysian Ringgit and Vietnamese Dong
• 12 gold bracelets
• Two 24k gold necklaces
• A set of diamond jewellery
• Two 999 pure gold coins
• Several other gold jewellery pieces

The most expensive item was a princess-cut diamond jewellery set worth S$18,000, reported CNA.

She did the same as before and brought the stolen items back, using the proceeds to purchase more property, vehicles and farmland.

Thefts undetected till November 2025

The thefts went undetected until November 2025, when the victim noticed items missing from the safe but assumed it had been misplaced.

On May 27, 2026, the victim installed a motion-sensor camera in her bedroom and was alerted to movement two days later.

Raguindin was seen opening the safe and removing items, prompting the victim to lodge a police report that evening.

The domestic helper was arrested after midnight the following day.

Victim addresses court, speaks of betrayal

According to CNA, the victim who was present was invited to address the court.

She said she felt deeply betrayed by Raguindin, whom she employed for more than a decade.

The victim called herself "foolish" for trusting her former domestic worker.

"When I saw her opening my safe, my heart was broken. I cannot believe she was doing this to me."

She said she allowed Raguindin to return to the Philippines every year while paying for her air ticket.

This was instead of every two years as required under their agreement, because Raguindin's children were young.

"Shame on you Alma!"

The victim also disputed that the thefts were motivated by financial hardship as the stolen proceeds were used for luxury purchases.

She added that Raguindin's sister had told her that Raguindin did not send money to their mother.

She noted that some of the stolen jewellery had significant sentimental value, including pieces inherited from her mother-in-law when she and her husband got married, reported Shin Min.

According to CNA, at one point, the victim shouted "shame on you, Alma!" at Raguindin, who appeared via video link.

Borrowed from loansharks

According to Shin Min, Raguindin received a monthly salary of S$1,200 and an annual bonus of S$2,000 from the victim.

However, she also borrowed money from other maids and loansharks.

Shinmin reported that upon Raguindin's arrest, debt collectors harassed the victim, claiming that the defendant borrowed hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Raguindin said she had nothing

Through an interpreter, Raguindin said she had nothing when asked by the judge how much she had with her currently.

The prosecution said it would not seek a compensation order but would consider a separate confiscation order to help the victim.

The judge said the court could not order compensation if an accused person lacked the means to pay.

He added that the court lacked the power to issue the letter the victim sought to use to recover her possessions, but added that the victim was free to pursue civil action.

Penalties

For theft by a servant, an offender can face up to seven years' jail and a fine.

Manosphere social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Miami, Florida in the U.S. on Jul. 18, after the UK authorised 38 new charges against them, including Sex trafficking, assault, and rape.

Arrested in Miami

The Guardian reports that the brothers were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Miami, due to an extradition request by UK authorities.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that it had decided to bring the charges against the Tate brothers for “further [alleged] offences, including rape, arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, and offences relating to indecent images of a child.”

Andrew Tate, 39, was charged with seven counts of rape three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault, and 19 charges for offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.

His brother Tristan Tate, 38, was charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape, and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The BBC reports that the brothers are dual British-US citizens, and that UK prosecutors will being legal proceedings to extradite the pair to the UK.

Further charges

The head of CPS's Special Crime Division, Malcolm McHaffie, said that the charging decisions followed receipt of a further file of evidence from Bedfordshire Police and bring the total number of alleged victims in the case to seven.

The Bedfordshire Police said that this brought the total number of charges against the brothers to 59, with 42 against Andrew Tate and 17 against Tristan Tate, from incidents alleged to have occurred between 2010 and 2017.

Bedfordshire Police said that it was working closely with both the CPS and international law enforcement agencies in what it described as a “complex operation”.

This is not the first investigation of its kind that the Tate brothers have been involved in.

The CPS have charged the pair with 21 criminal charges in a separate case, also related to rape, bodily harm, and human trafficking, said to involve four alleged victims.

They were also charged and arrested in Romania in 2022, also for alleged human trafficking, rape, as well as forming an organised criminal group.

Manosphere influencers

The Tates are social media personalities known for portraying so-called “hypermasculine” personalities and misogynistic views.

Andrew Tate was a former kickboxer who gained prominence on UK reality TV, before going on to become a kind of self-help guru by selling "lessons" through his online "Hustler's University".

They also attempted to involve themselves in amateur exotic animal keeping, having offered to buy the maligned monkey “Punch” from a Japanese zoo.

Malaysian pedestrians and drivers were witnesses to an odd sight of a partially undressed woman holding holding a passport over hear head in Kuala Lumpur on Jul. 16, just outside the KLCC shopping mall.

Passport aloft

Threads user Azeeli Ramli detailed the unusual sight of a woman dressed only in a bra, long pants and socks standing at a traffic intersection between Jalan Ampang and Jalan P. Ramlee at around 6 pm.

The woman stood on the pavement, holding what appeared to be a People’s Republic of China passport high above her head in one hand.

In the other, she was apparently holding a shirt, her handbag, as well as her phone.

Azeeli said that he observed bruises on the woman’s cheek and left arm.

According to him, several Chinese tourists gathered to ask what she was doing, but the woman did not speak to them, instead remaining silent.

Police arrive

Within 15 minutes, police arrived on the scene and began to ask her to wear the shirt she was holding, but Azeeli said the woman “still refused to cooperate.”

Instead, she asked to speak to an officer from the Chinese embassy.

However, it appeared that the police were reluctant to interact with her physically, as there were no female police officers present at the time.

A user on Xiaohongshu also shared photos of the incident, showing the woman looking somewhat unfazed with police standing a few metres away from her, while a small crowd looked on.

The pictures also show her sitting on the road divider in the rain, although it is uncertain when that happened.

Attempted to flee

Azeeli said that over the next hour, the woman wandered from KLCC to the nearby Avenue K mall, and then back to KLCC.

The police were not able to discern what her purpose was, but had managed to convince her to put on some shoes.

By 8 pm, Azeeli said the woman had reached KLCC, just across the street from Avenue K, and had begun to speak to police officers, although he could not say what was discussed other than that she made a hand sign indicating she wanted something to drink.

By 8.15pm, two female police officers had arrived, but it still took half an hour to take her into a police car, holding on to the woman firmly after she had attempted to escape.

Viral moment

The incident has gone viral, with many suggesting that the woman should be deported.

However, several witnesses on Threads, Reddit, and Xiaohongshu claimed to have seen the woman that day and suggested that the woman appeared to be in some kind of mental distress, and expressed concern and hope that she was able to be helped.

WeirdKaya reported on the incident and stated that as of Jul. 18, no official statement had been issued by authorities, nor had the circumstances of the incident been made any clearer.

A widespread Meta outage has resulted in Facebook, Instagram and Messenger being down on the afternoon of Jul. 19.

Users across the world experienced an error message when trying to log in to the desktop version of Facebook.

Facebook users received the following error message: "Account Temporarily Unavailable. Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue. We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes."

According to the website Downdetector, outages were first reported at around 3:18pm, with more than 400 reports lodged at around 3:48pm.

The site's report numbers also spiked for Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

Issues affecting users worldwide

The issues appear to be affecting users worldwide but do not appear to affect the whole of the platforms.

Around 53 per cent of the issues reported on Facebook were on the website version of the platform, according to Downdetector.

Checks by Mothership showed that mobile versions of Facebook were still active.

Instagram users reported issues with accessing their feed on the platform's app, reported The Independent.

Instagram users were told: “Sorry, something went wrong. We're working on getting this fixed as soon as we can”.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared he will be supporting Argentina during the 2026 World Cup final.

Presents

In a social media post, Argentina's ambassador to Israel, Shimon Axel Whanish, presented Netanyahu with an Argentinian football jersey and an Argentinian-themed trionder football.

The pair used the ball to play a quick game, with Whanish tossing the ball to Netanyahu, who, in response, headed it through an empty doorway.

A video issued by the Government Press Office of Israel also showed Whanish playing a recorded message from Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, for Netanyahu.

The Israeli PM replied by calling Millei a great and true friend, and that he supported Millei in return, and Argentina in “so many ways, including tomorrow,” indicating the World Cup final, as reported by the Times of Israel.

Netanyahu and Milei are close allies on the international stage, with both right wing leaders professing support for each other’s countries, and Millei often acknowledged as one of the most openly pro-Israel leaders on the global stage.

Netanyahu, for his part, has touted his support for the Argentinian football team on multiple occasions, such as on Jul. 10, when he made an appearance on a local podcast.

There he confirmed his support, calling Millei an important ally of Israel, while also backing Milei’s controversial economic reforms.

Opposing calls

This is in contrast towards attitudes regarding Israel in Argentina’s opponent, Spain.

Spain’s PM Pedro Sanchez has previously called for Israel to be excluded from sports competitions and has severely criticised the country and Netanyahu’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.

Spain also recently refused to open its airspace to U.S. military aircraft during the U.S.-Israel War on Iran.

The World Cup final will take place in New Jersey on Jul. 19, and will see Spain compete for its second World Cup, and Argentina its third.

During their divorce proceedings and splitting of matrimonial assets, a Singapore man wanted a share of his estranged wife's S$450,000 critical illness insurance payout after she suffered a double stroke.

The man argued that he should have a cut of the sum as his income was probably used to pay for his wife's insurance policies' premiums during their marriage.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the wife suffered two strokes, one in 2017 and another in August 2020, which left "her physically incapacitated and unable to walk".

This was despite the payouts being intended for her recovery.

Second marriage of both parties

The couple married on Dec. 12, 2009.

This was the second marriage of both parties, and they have two adult children each from their previous marriages.

The wife was 47 years old, and the husband was 49 years old when the wife commenced divorce proceedings against the husband on Aug. 12, 2020.

The couple have two sons aged 13 and 14 years old; the elder son was diagnosed with autism, and the wife has also given evidence that the younger son has learning difficulties.

The wife was unemployed at the time the divorce commenced; she had previously run a drinks stall in a primary school canteen until March 2018 when her health declined following her stroke.

The stroke left her physically incapacitated and unable to walk.

Matrimonial assets

The husband operated his own companies, while the wife was earning less than S$2,000 monthly running the stall.

However, she had cash savings of over S$400,000, a S$250,000 life insurance policy, and a S$565,000 HDB flat and other inheritance from her previous marriage with her late husband.

The husband only had S$4,342.37 in his own bank account, as his wife managed his income.

According to court documents, the total net assets in the wife's name stood at over S$1.3 million while the husband's was around S$413,000.

Insurance claim

The wife's second stroke occurred around the time of her divorce, and as a result of her condition, four of her critical illness policies paid out more than S$450,000.

A fifth policy pays her S$1,200 a month for the rest of her life.

The husband contended that the payouts should be added to the matrimonial pool.

He reasoned that the payouts "were not intended to compensate the wife for her expenses relating to her disability, but were instead meant to provide a general cash payout to protect and/or provide for the Wife’s family in the event of her becoming critically ill".

Claimed he paid for majority of policy premiums

He noted his wife's low income as a canteen stall operator and said the majority of the policy premiums were contributed by him.

However, the wife said the insurance payouts were not investment profits but meant to provide a policyholder with financial stability during a genuine health crisis.

Since her claims were approved, the wife was using the funds for medical care and living expenses as she could no longer work.

The Family Justice Court also did not award her any spousal maintenance as she was paid the monthly sum of S$1,200 from her fifth policy, and the court considered it sufficient.

Senior High Court Judge Tan Siong Thye agreed with the wife and said the husband's argument had no merit and was "unsupported by any evidence".

Tan said: "It is also inconsistent with the husband’s own characterisation of himself as the 'main or substantial breadwinner of the family'."

Dismissed husband's allegations

Tan noted that the way the couple organised their economic affairs during their marriage also made it unlikely that the insurance payouts would be used for the wife's missing income to support the family if she became critically ill.

The judge also dismissed the husband's allegations that the wife deliberately tried to "launder" matrimonial assets by spending on medical insurance.

According to court documents, life insurance policies purchased by either spouse during marriage, or payouts therefrom, may be regarded as a matrimonial asset.

This would be the case for plans simply held as investments to be encashed for a profit in the future.

However, insurance payouts are different, as the High Court ruled that the husband could not touch his ex-wife's payout as it was compensation for her long-term care.

Asset split

The wife used her fully paid S$565,000 HDB flat from her previous marriage as her matrimonial home for her second marriage, and she was awarded 100 per cent credit for it.

Therefore, the court chose to divide the flat separately from the couple's other assets, which totalled S$1.16 million.

Based on the distribution of household duties, the husband was accorded a higher score of 55 per cent for indirect contributions, while the wife got a score of 45 per cent.

When considered together with her 100 per cent share of the house, she received 72.5 per cent of the flat, or about S$410,000, while the husband received 27.5 per cent, or about S$155,000.

The court ruled that both parties had equal contributions in accumulating their non-property assets.

Resulting in an outcome where the husband received a 52.5 per cent share, or about S$610,000, while the wife received 47.5 per cent, or about S$550,000.

In total, the wife’s share of the matrimonial assets amounted to about S$960,000, while the husband received S$765,000.

Secretary-General of the Reform Party (RP), Kenneth Jeyaretnam, died on Jul. 18 at the age of 67.

His death was announced in a Facebook post by his wife, Amanda Jeyaretnam, on Jul. 19.

She said he "died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family”.

"We are currently finalising funeral details for a small family service but will arrange a memorial to celebrate his life at a later date."

She noted that her husband was a "loving and devoted father" to their son, Jared.

"He filled our lives with joy and wonder, and we miss him so much."

Jeyaretnam was a familiar figure in the Singaporean political scene, having taken part in multiple general elections.

The police have arrested a 64-year-old man for his suspected involvement in a case of snatch theft at Balestier Road.

The police were alerted to the attempted snatch theft on Jul. 16 at about 8:40pm.

Investigations revealed that a 72-year-old woman was at a bus stop when an unknown man attempted to snatch her handbag.

The man was unsuccessful and fled the scene empty-handed.

Police subsequently established the identity of the man and arrested him on Jul. 18.

He will be charged in court on Jul. 20 for the offence of snatch theft.

Those found guilty can be jailed one to seven years and caned.

The police advised members of the public who encounter such cases to remain calm, take note of the physical appearance and distinctive features of the perpetrator, and call for the police as soon as possible.