It’s no longer just the Christian Pulisic Show for Team USA ahead of a home World Cup. But he’s still the leading man

 

Christian Pulisic of United States controls the ball wile under pressure from Iliman Ndiaye of Senegal on Sunday.

John Dorton/USSF/Getty Images

Charlotte —  

Christian Pulisic has dealt with being deemed America’s men’s soccer savior for so long that it’s just part of his existence.

It’s a title no one can really live up to – one player cannot simply erase generations of lagging behind the rest of the world in the globe’s most popular game, no matter how talented – but it has been foisted upon Pulisic since he was a teenager. Such is the price one pays for being the best-known American player in a sport where the USA has never truly excelled in the men’s game.

But if Pulisic plays in two weeks the way he did on Sunday in Charlotte, then he might do that rarest of things in sports: Live up to expectations. And if his teammates support him the way they did as they sliced Senegal open over and over on the Bank of America turf, then they might do that rarest of things for a Team USA squad at the World Cup: Exceed expectations.

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“I felt like relaxed, but also like just energized,” Pulisic said after the game. “It felt good. It felt good in a lot of ways. I’m sure guys are really happy being on the roster now, and now they can hopefully just be themselves and just try to take it all and enjoy the summer.”

The victorious 3-2 scoreline might not reflect it, but the USA thoroughly outplayed Senegal on Sunday in what will serve as a promising statement of intent for this home World Cup that kicks off in less than two weeks.

There are certainly some concerning defensive moments for manager Mauricio Pochettino to worry over in the coming days before a final warm-up match against Germany on Saturday in Chicago, but he can be confident that the squad he’s assembled might have unlocked his team’s best player.

Christian Pulisic of United States celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during the international friendly match between United States and Senegal.

Omar Vega/USSF/Getty Images

Pulisic’s promising afternoon

It took all of six minutes for Pulisic and company to show what the best version of this team could be.

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Iran’s reopened underground missile sites show limits of US bombing plan

 

Satellite images show Iran's efforts to excavate the entrances to its underground missile bases, after they were blocked by US and Israeli bombing.

Airbus

Iran is poised to fire far more long-range missiles at Israel and other Middle Eastern nations after rapidly digging out its buried arsenals – an effort that highlights the limits to US bombing strategy, experts said.

For weeks, strikes by the United States and Israel restricted Iran’s access to its underground missile sites by destroying roads and burying tunnel entrances.

But satellite images reviewed by CNN show how Iran has used simple equipment such as bulldozers and dump trucks to counter those costly campaigns — suggesting that Tehran’s missile capabilities can’t be destroyed just by targeting tunnel entrances, experts said.

While Iran and the US have reached a tentative agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, months of work remain to hammer out details.

If hostilities do resume, Iran is in position to “continue launching missiles so long as they have launchers and crews, even if production has halted,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who analyzes Iran’s missile capabilities. “There’s nothing to prevent the launchers from being armed with the ample stockpile of missiles that the Iranians still have.”

At a missile base in Dezful, Iran, four of the five entrances to the underground facility could be seen reopened on May 12. Circled in gray is the one entrance to the complex that remained blocked.

Airbus

During the fighting, Iran worked to excavate the tunnel entrances at great peril, with the US and Israel often striking the equipment used for digging. That work enabled Tehran to continue firing missiles throughout the war, though at vastly reduced rates. Since the ceasefire more than seven weeks ago, Iranian efforts to excavate the bases have accelerated significantly.

CNN found that Iran has now unblocked 50 out of the 69 tunnel entrances struck by the US and Israel at 18 underground missile facilities.

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Robots are redefining the war in Ukraine – and forcing Russia onto the back foot

 

Technology is giving an advantage to Ukraine against a bigger enemy.

CNN

Eastern Ukraine —  

There is a whirr, a flurry of dust, a pause as the grainy image recalibrates, and then a devastating blast.

Underground, dozens of miles away, veterans of the most brutal urban battles in Ukraine, of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, are commanders in a new kind of killing - one they cannot feel, smell or see up close. An entire mission directing six blasts against three Russian frontline targets in eastern Ukraine will involve no Ukrainian troops on the ground, the battle instead directed from gamer chairs, observed from reconnaissance drones above, run over dedicated livestreams.

Ukraine, suffering for months from manpower crises and uncertain backing from the United States, has undergone a remarkable evolution. Large parts of its war effort are now unmanned, the robots, drones, and remotely piloted tanks giving it a sudden, albeit fragile, edge over a lumbering and strained Russian invader. In April, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the first capture of a Russian position purely by robots and drones and added that since January unmanned machines had conducted 22,000 missions.

STREAMING NOW: Ukraine’s robot army is forcing Russian onto the back foot. Upgrade to watch the full report

Survival is the mother of invention, under the orange glow of computer processor fans and subtle overhead lighting. The unit here has learned from Russian prisoners of war that their enemy calls these robots – each carrying a huge payload of explosive on a four-wheel chassis – “silent death.” They can only hear their approach when they are 10 meters away – well within their blast radius.

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What’s in the proposed deal that could end the US-Iran conflict?

 

Ships remain anchored in the Strait of Hormuz on May 16.

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Iran and the United States have reached a tentative agreement to turn the existing ceasefire into a more long-lasting settlement, US officials said Thursday.

However, President Donald Trump hasn’t signed off on the proposal. It is also not clear whether Iran’s supreme leader has given his approval, believed to be another necessary step toward ending the conflict. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, citing unnamed sources close to the negotiating team, reported later Thursday that the text of the agreement “has not yet been finalized or made definitive.”

The tentative deal comes as the situation in the region remains tense. The US carried out new strikes in Iran early Thursday, targeting a site that posed a threat to US forces and commercial traffic, according to a US official.

A “memorandum of understanding” between the two sides would include language lifting constraints on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing unrestricted navigation by vessels and lifting of a US blockade on Iran’s ports.

It would also start a 60-day negotiation period to address Iran’s nuclear program, including the fate of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Sources said the most difficult issues related to Iran’s nuclear program still have to be worked out as part of those talks.

Here’s what we know about some of the key issues at stake.

The Strait of Hormuz

Vessels sail around the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Iran's Bandar Abbas.

WANA via Reuters

Trump wrote in a social media post late Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen under the memorandum.

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How the Laos cave survivors found the courage to rescue themselves

 

The men trapped in a cave in central Laos for over a week are welcomed by family members and rescue teams upon their ascent on May 30.

Chakkrit Taengtang/Reuters

Xaisomboun province, Laos —  

Hungry and weak, the Laos cave survivors huddled together in damp darkness for 11 days, clinging to hope as a wall of water blocked their way out.

When they noticed the water finally start to recede, they somehow found the strength to attempt a daring escape, completely unaided –– shocking the rescue team above ground when they appeared at the cave entrance on Saturday.

Their courage was born from fear, one of the survivors told CNN in an exclusive interview.

Through narrow, treacherous tunnels, some waterlogged and cold enough for wetsuits, others so tight oxygen was scarce, the men navigated 260 meters (approximately 850 feet), from the chamber they’d been trapped in to the cave’s mouth, a distance equivalent to the height of a 78-story building.

One member of their group, who had entered the cave searching for gold, was guided to safety by a multinational team of cave experts using diving equipment a day earlier. The other four were left to wait for when conditions were safe enough.

“I was afraid because we were there alone,” Mee Singfamalai, a 23-year-old barber, told CNN from Long Tieng Hospital, where he is recovering.

The water was at least a meter deep in sections of the cave.

“Sometimes we had to dive, sometimes we had to crawl. We crawled slowly. The passage was just about the size of a person.”

The rescuers had first reached the group of five on Wednesday, an entire week after they had entered the cave and become trapped when heavy rain came down over the jungle outside, during the humid Laotian summer.

Exhausted and surviving only on water, they slept as much as they could, and they prayed that salvation would come.

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