looking on my phone here, that they are heart broken to learn that we have lost grant wahl. the fans of soccer and journalism are the highest quality knew we could always count on grant to deliver insightful and entertaining stories about our game and all the teams and what have you. his passion for soccer and commitment to elevating his profile across our sporting landscape played a major role in helping to drive interest in and respect for our beautiful game. and it may be most important here, laura, as important as u.s. soccer is saying in a statement about grant wahl, grant s belief in the power of the game to advance human rights was and will remain an inspiration to all. there s several more sentences. but that is such an important point because it was grant who was wearing that rainbow t-shirt just a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, as the world cup began and was detained for, i
clear the qatari regime has other ideas. that was on november 21. john burman, i want to bring you back. it took on extra significance. the moments of many players who wanted to have as part of their other uniform or display of a rainbow flag within the different housing and the places they were staying and were comingling. the significance of this and the symbolism of it, just hearing this. this was as recently as really a few days ago before thanksgiving, november 21. john, you spoke about this very interview that night you were on air. when you re hearing about the death of journalist grant wall covering the world cup in qatar. tell me what you re feeling now. i m simply devastated. not only because grant was a preemptive soccer journalist on
grounder, posted the u.s. soccer statement on twitter and wrote, i am so thankful for the support of my husband, grant wall s, soccer family and of so many friends who have reached out tonight. i am in complete shock. christine brennan is with me now. this is unbelievable. we were just speaking about the world cup and in light of the title ix players. and now we re getting this horrible news about his death. what does the statement say? well, first of all, laura, grant was a colleague and friend of mine. i ve covered many, many soccer tournaments, especially women s soccer tournaments with him. there is no more respected, beloved soccer journalist in the country and potentially in the world than grant wahl. and this is absolutely heartbreaking news. it is stunning, shocking. it s just awful news. one of the most talented, lovely human beings, you could ever want to meet. what u.s. soccer has said,
grant wahl made headlines earlier on in the tournament when he wore a black t shirt with a circle in the colors of the rainbow wrapping around a soccer ball, in support of the lgbtq+ community. he claimed then he d been refused entry to the game initially because of what he was wearing. us soccer said it was heart broken by the news and grant made soccer his life was network. we will bring you more on that story when we have it on that story when we have it on bbc news. the united states and the united kingdom say russia and iran have strengthened their relationship into a fully fledged defence partnership. the white house s national security spokesman john kirby says washington has seen reports the two countries are considering joint production of lethal drones. it comes as the us announced a new $275 million aid package to help boost ukraine s air defences, against russian drones in particular. i asked our news reporter azadeh moshiri what else we know about these warnings.
wahl. what s your reaction tonight to this horrible news? i m gutted. i m shocked. i first met grant in 2010 in south africa, covering that world cup. grant was just given an award by fifa, the world soccer governing body because he was covering his eighth world cup. this was the eighth world cup in a row he s covered. he is as christine brennan, pre-eminent figure skating journalist on planet earth, grant wahl is the pre-eminent soccer journalist in america. but more than that. he was just a lovely, lovely, sweet guy. he adored soccer. he wanted to share his love with soccer with everybody. but he never lost sight of what