United States officials have said Iran could be just weeks away from acquiring enough weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb. Now, the man who had been tasked with reviving a nuclear deal to constrain that program has been sidelined.

A prominent diplomat who has been steering the Iran nuclear talks for the Biden administration, Rob Malley, was last month placed on leave without pay, after his security clearance was suspended earlier this year during an investigation into his handling of classified material.

But on Friday, Deputy Envoy Abram Paley took over the official twitter handle for the Office of the Special Envoy for Iran. Paley tweeted “the entire team at the State Department remain engaged in implementing our policy on Iran.” The State Department website has also removed Malley’s name as the Special Representative for Iran.

In an interview Sunday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he “could not speak to the current circumstances” of whether Malley would be returned to his post.

According to a US intelligence assessment published last week, Iran has rapidly expanded its nuclear program since the assassination one of its key scientists in November 2020, but it is not conducting activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.

Malley’s sidelining has raised questions about the fate of a long-stalled nuclear deal with Iran, which is seen as more urgent than ever as Tehran proceeds with uranium enrichment, and as both the US and Iran brace for key elections next year.

The Islamic Republic will hold parliamentary elections next year, and the US is due to hold presidential elections. Progress on nuclear talks, as well as the fate of detained Americans in Iran, is likely to boost the incumbents in the polls, analysts have said.

Malley was one of the architects of the 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran under the Obama administration. This was subsequently abandoned in 2018 by former President Donald Trump.

After Biden’s election, Malley was brought back in 2021 as Iran envoy and became a leading figure in talks to return to a deal.

Last year, a number of sticking points emerged in negotiations, and talks came to a standstill by September. Relations only worsened as the Iranian regime brutally cracked down on a protest movement at home and after it began supplying Russia with drones in its war with Ukraine.

A polarizing figure

Malley had been a polarizing figure even before his appointment as Iran envoy. In 2008, he resigned from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign after it emerged that he had met with members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas while working at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, where he was president and CEO.

Malley’s critics, among them anti-regime Iranians in the diaspora, US conservatives and supporters of Israel, have accused him of being too sympathetic to the Islamic Republic and too hard on its archenemy, Israel.

Asked about Malley’s sidelining, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on July 3: “We do not comment on the internal issues of other countries,” referring to the US.

A former Iranian official was less inhibited. Javed Gurban Oghli, a retired diplomat, was quoted in Iranian media as saying that Malley had “inclinations toward Iran,” which, he said, turned “lobbies close to Israel” against him.

Gabriel Noronha, a former State Department official under the Trump administration who is now a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, says Malley’s methods were to blame.

“At the same time, Iran was rebuilding its economy and supercharging its nuclear program,” he said, adding that Tehran consequently believed it had had increased leverage over the US. “As a result, he failed to earn the Iranians’ respect or fear, dooming his negotiation prospects.”

But those who have worked closely with Malley disagree that the 60-year-old was too soft on Iran.

Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at the IGC, said Malley’s actions were in line with the national security strategy of the US administration.

“With or without Rob Malley, the Biden administration believes that the only sustainable solution to the nuclear crisis with Iran is a diplomatic one,” said Vaez, who has known Malley for more than a decade and has reported directly to him at the ICG.

“Those who accuse this administration of ‘being too soft’ on Iran will have a hard time explaining why the US now has more, not less, sanctions on Iran than when President Biden came into office,” Vaez said.

Foad Izadi, associate professor at University of Tehran’s Faculty of World Studies, said Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi wanted a deal and may have been hopeful of reaching one with Malley as envoy.

“The fact that Malley was on the other side was a sign that maybe a similar situation (as the earlier rounds of talks that led to a pact) could be repeated after Biden became president,” he said. “But now we know more than two years after, that that was more or less wishful thinking.”

Where things stand now

US talks with Iran are proceeding without Malley. While Paley is serving as acting Special Envoy for Iran, Brett McGurk, a US National Security Council official and veteran on Middle East policy, has been tapped as the leading official to constrain Iran’s nuclear program.

When Biden took office in 2021, he appointed McGurk as coordinator on Middle East and North African issues at the National Security Council. The administration began negotiations to re-enter an Iran nuclear agreement later that year.

Since then, McGurk has made several trips to Oman for indirect discussions with Iranian officials. The latest was in May this year, and Malley appears to have been sidelined from those talks.

McGurk has indicated that he is eager to see a deal take form again, but it’s unclear how his tactics may differ from Malley’s.

He has criticized Trump’s 2019 “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which further isolated the Islamic Republic and crippled its economy but failed to stop its nuclear program from advancing. He said that the added sanctions had Iran behaving “more provocatively, not less.” McGurk was also critical of Trump’s other Middle East policies, including those on Syria.

Vaez of the ICG expects no change on US policy toward Iran.

“US policy is informed by the administration’s national security calculations, and not any one person in the national security apparatus,” Vaez said. “With or without Rob Malley, the Biden administration believes that the only sustainable solution to the nuclear crisis with Iran is a diplomatic one.”

Noronha said Malley’s potential departure likely means that a “grand bargain” with Iran won’t be reached, “but the administration’s efforts to reach some limited deal are still proceeding.”

Condemnation grew in Iraq after a 300-year-old minaret, viewed as a heritage site by the Ministry of Culture, was demolished in the southern city of Basra on Friday.

Built in 1727, the 11-meter Siraji minaret, was demolished to create road expansion following complaints of traffic around the mosque, Basra Governor Assad Al Eidani said in a televised interview with Al Taghyeer news channel on Friday.

Al Eidani, who was in attendance when the centuries-old mosque was being demolished, said that that it was in the name of public safety as the minaret was in danger of falling.

He added that the leveling was a necessary step for road expansion in a growing city experiencing traffic jams.

Local residents and government officials were left furious with the decision to proceed with the demolition.

Iraq’s Minister of Culture Ahmed Al Badrani threatened legal action and called on Sunni and Shia parties to intervene.

The Sunni endowment, who own the land and the mosque, say that the demolition violated a long-standing agreement with the government of Basra to arrange a safe removal of the historic minaret and include it in a new mosque, rather than have it destroyed.

“Other solutions should’ve been found instead of demolishing it,” Ibrahim said.

“All countries preserve their history, unlike Iraq, which is demolishing its antiquities,” Ibrahim added.

Former Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has asked for privacy to begin “rebuilding his life” after he was found not guilty on a charge of rape and a separate charge of attempted rape.

The 28-year-old former French international walked free from Chester Crown Court in northwest England on Friday following the acquittal in his second trial stemming from two charges left undecided from a previous court proceeding.

Mendy was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault at the same court in January. But jurors at the time failed to decide on two charges, resulting in the second trial.

Outside court, Mendy said, “Alhamdulillah,” meaning “praise be to God” in Arabic.

His lawyer Jenny Wiltshire said her client was “delighted that both juries reached the correct verdict”.

“Benjamin Mendy would like to thank the members of the jury for focusing on the evidence in this trial, rather than on the rumor and innuendo that have followed this case from the outset,” she said.

“In the three years since the police started investigating this matter, Mr. Mendy has tried to remain strong, but the process has inevitably had a serious impact on him,” she continued, adding that the footballer would now “ask for privacy so he can begin rebuilding his life.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to prosecute rape cases wherever our legal test is met, no matter how challenging the case, and encourage anyone who is a victim to report to the police,” a spokesperson said.

“It is not the function of the CPS to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offense, but to make fair, independent, and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for the criminal court to consider,” it said.

Mendy, who plays as a left-back, was suspended by Manchester City in August 2021 when the original charges against him were announced. His contract with the club expired at the end of the 2022-23 season.

He began his career playing professional leagues in France for Le Havre, Olympique de Marseille, and Monaco before moving to Britain to play for Manchester City.

The case of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who went missing in Rome 40 years ago, has taken another twist as her brother dismissed what he described as a “shameful” attempt by the Vatican and Rome prosecutors to cast blame on the family by suggesting a dead uncle was behind the teenager’s unsolved disappearance.

The case has gripped Italy ever since and sparked conspiracy theories involving everyone from the mafia, to international terrorists to the top ranks of the Catholic Church. It gained further international attention with the release last fall of Netflix’s “Vatican Girl” docuseries by filmmaker Mark Lewis.

Pietro Orlandi, who has dedicated his life to the search for his missing sister, made the comments at a press conference Tuesday, a day after the Italian news channel La7 ran a special report based on documents included in an investigative dossier the Vatican handed over to Rome prosecutors in June after reopening the case in January.

Among the documents was correspondence between Agostino Casaroli, then Vatican secretary of state, and a Colombian priest who had been the spiritual guide and confessor of the Orlandi family.

According to the documents turned over by the Vatican to the city of Rome prosecutor, which Pietro Orlandi and his lawyer Laura Sgro verified as authentic, Mario Meneguzzi, who was married to Emanuela’s maternal aunt, had sexually harassed Emanuela’s then 21-year-old sister Natalina, around the period the teen disappeared, suggesting he may have abused the missing girl.

The document about the uncle, which the prosecutor gave the Italian television program, suggests that the potential lead was overlooked, even though the Orlandi family says the claim against the uncle was investigated and his involvement dismissed. Now the Orlandi family fears that the Vatican dossier does not include investigatory leads they hoped the Rome prosecutor would follow – primarily that the Vatican was somehow involved.

Orlandi wrote on his Facebook page after the program aired that his hopes of hearing “some good news” had been dashed. “By the way, my uncle was 200 kilometers (124 miles) away on holiday with his family that evening when my father phoned him and he came straight away to Rome – things the Prosecutor’s Office knew very well because everything has been in the documents for 40 years. A shameful action that happened this evening.”

The Vatican has also responded to the documentary, with a spokesman saying “the Holy See shares the family’s desire to get to the truth about the facts and, to this end, hopes that all investigative hypotheses are explored.”

The spokesman also stressed that the unnamed priest had not broken any vows related to the sacred sacrament of penance, commonly known as confession, since the priest had spoken with Natalina both in a confessional and conversational setting

Emanuela disappeared on June 22, 1983 after a lesson at a music school adjacent to the Sant’Apollinare Opus Dei Catholic Church near Piazza Navona in Rome.

The teenager was the daughter of a prominent Vatican employee and lived inside the fortified walls of Vatican City, where her mother still lives.

On the 40th anniversary of her death, Pope Francis mentioned the saga in his Sunday angelus, expressing his “closeness to the family, above all, the mother,” adding that he prayed for them and “all families who carry the grief, the disappearance of a loved one,” which gave hope to Orlandi family that perhaps the documents in the Vatican dossier might uncover a new lead.

Natalina Orlandi told the press conference that her uncle had “tried” to approach her for around a month, but she refused and eventually involved her boyfriend at the time.

“Then it was over, we never looked back,” she said, adding that the family had maintained good relations with the uncle, his wife and their children. While admitting that she had a “poor” opinion of her uncle, who died a decade ago, she does not think he was involved in her sister’s disappearance. “We exclude the possibility,” she said.

Pietro Orlandi emphasized that his sister Natalina was 21 and Emanuela was 15 at the time. “That would be pedophilia, a whole different story,” he said, when asked if he also excluded the uncle as a suspect.

Laura Sgro, the attorney for the Orlandi family, said at the press conference that the authorities had also cleared the uncle.

“The Italian judiciary had already dealt with this affair in the early 1980s without arriving at any result,” she said. “I hope these are not the only papers, which are by no means new, that the Vatican prosecutor has sent to the Rome prosecutor.”

The uncle, Meneguzzi, was questioned by police in 1985, according to documents presented on the La7 program and at the press conference, and his whereabouts outside Rome were corroborated at the time – meaning that even though he did harass Emanuela’s sister, which is a matter of public record, he was never considered a suspect by the Italian authorities in the teen’s disappearance.

After Emanuela disappeared, the uncle returned to Rome and played an integral role in fielding calls to the house, many of which contained tips and leads from alleged kidnappers. Eventually the Vatican secret service took over that role and manned the phones, keeping records that are part of their criminal investigation, according to Pietro Orlandi’s statements in various interviews and books he has written over the last 40 years.

The Vatican Promotor of Justice Alessandro Diddi said when handing over the dossier in June to Rome police, that he had found “some investigatory leads that merit further consideration,” adding at the time that he had sent “all the relevant documents in the past weeks to the Prosecutor of Rome, so that he can review them and proceed in the direction he considers most opportune.”

Pietro Orlandi gave an emotional plea at the press conference, asking why neither the Vatican nor the Rome authorities were focused on the people he asked them to interview, and the angles that he and the family felt had not been investigated properly.

“Why focus on our uncle when that case was closed 40 years ago?” he said. Instead, the family is pushing for a parliamentary commission investigation, which has been suggested but not approved, in order to access the Italian secret service investigations that are currently sealed.

Sgro also said that the only way to find the truth about what is in the investigatory records is through parliamentary intervention, which is rarely granted for individual cases.

Emanuela’s disappearance has been tied by the family and others to the organized crime gang Band of Magliana, whose leader Enrico de Pedis was buried in the Opus Dei church near where she disappeared. His body was exhumed by permission from the Vatican in 2012 in an unsuccessful search for her remains.

The Vatican has twice searched for her body, once in 2018 on the grounds of the Holy See embassy to Italy in Rome, where human remains found under a sidewalk did not match Emanuela’s DNA, and again in 2019, when the Vatican agreed to open the tomb of two German princesses thought to be buried on Vatican grounds.

The princesses’ bodies were absent from the tomb in the Pontifical Teutonic College and there was no sign of Emanuela’s remains there either. Two ossuaries were later found under a secret door inside the tomb.

Tom Brady is an athlete who needs no introduction. He’s arguably the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, a man who personally won more Super Bowls – seven (six with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) – than any other team as an organization ever has. He won more games, passed for more yards and for more touchdowns than anyone, ever.

Tom Brady did it all; he’s a paragon of excellence and a poster child for longevity. But he wasn’t quite perfect.

If there was anything that Tom Brady lacked, it was speed. On the eve of his iconic career, at the NFL scouting combine in 2000, he was timed as the second-slowest of the 18 quarterbacks in attendance.

Once drafted by New England, he would gain a little pace, but not much; mainly, Brady won games with his mind, his arm and the sheer force of his will. If it ever looked like his cleats were smoking, it would have been due to some kind of pyrotechnic residue from pre-game festivities and nothing to do with the speed at which he was advancing with the ball.

Brady was able to laugh about it; having burst through a gap in the Miami Dolphins defense in 2014, the then Patriots quarterback posted an ironic video clip that had been edited to the “Chariots of Fire” theme tune, the footage of his run mixed with images of a cheetah and a jet-powered car. He was so good at football that he didn’t need to be faster, but perhaps he wanted to be.

“If I couldn’t run that fast, I better figure out a vehicle that could move fast!” quipped Brady.

Going cleaner in the water

In 2024, Brady will line up as a team owner in the E1 Series, which is hoping to turn heads on the coastline and change our attitudes about renewable energy and water pollution.

Races that have been scheduled so far will take in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, then Venice, Monaco and Rotterdam in Europe. The organizers are already eyeing future series in North America and Asia, where Miami, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Macau and Tokyo are possible venues.

According to the co-founder of the E1 series, Alejandro Agag, who’s already created electric car racing championships with Formula E and Extreme E, the objective “is to be able to decarbonize lakes, rivers and eventually the ocean. We saw that there was a demand in the market to go cleaner in the water.”

“[This] championship is a platform to develop technology that can then be used on regular boats that people can use every day,” added Agag.

Brady can’t wait to get started. “I finished my football career and wanted to stay very involved in competitive sports,” the former quarterback explained. “Being down in this amazing climate here in Florida, I got into the boating culture, and I’ve always loved racing.”

It’s clear he’s already been seduced by the sleek and futuristic design of the ‘RaceBird’ boats, which rise out of the water on their twin hydrofoils to race at speeds of up to 93 kph (58 mph).

“You’re damn right I’m going to be in that cockpit at some point,” Brady enthused. “I love speed! I love driving fast! Absolutely, I’m going to be on one of those as soon as I can.”

But he’s quick to point out that he won’t be one of the pilots on race days. “Nope!” he chuckled, waving his hand to emphasize the point. “No way! Our team is going to be much better served having a real professional in there. I’ll be a good cheerleader when it comes to racing.”

‘Competitive people’

Brady isn’t the first athlete to sign up to the E1 project; other team owners hail from other sports around the world, where they’ve achieved legendary status of their own, and there’s still room for more to join.

Chelsea soccer great Didier Drogba, a Champions League and Premier League winner from Ivory Coast, is involved, along with the 22-time grand slam tennis champion Rafael Nadal from Spain. Another team will be headed up by Mexican F1 star Sergio Pérez.

Agag concedes that their involvement is crucial to finding and growing an audience. “These sports personalities are literally and figuratively getting on board,” he explained.

In Formula One, many of the drivers are household names globally, but that’s not the case in powerboating.

“We thought we need to have great figures as team owners that will help us catch the attention of the public, competing against each other as team owners,” added Agag.

“It’s a novel idea; there’s no other sport in which tennis players, F1 drivers, soccer and football stars would be able to go head-to-head, and Brady is already a fan of their work.

“Most athletes love sports, and we love competitions, so we pay attention to a lot of them. I’ve known Didier quite a while; he’s been a long-time friend, an incredible player, and a great humanitarian, too. My mom has been the biggest tennis fan, so I’ve been watching tennis since I was two years old. Rafa is obviously a great competitor, I think his will to win is unmatched. So Rafa is someone I look up to and admire.

“We’re all very competitive people, and we’re going to want to make sure that we’re on top when it’s all said and done.”

Agag says that he’s only had a few meetings with Brady so far, but it didn’t take long for him to see why the quarterback was so successful in the NFL.

“For me, he’s a very, very impressive person. And we’re so lucky to have him.”

Next chapter of Brady’s life

Brady himself believes that the leadership skills that he honed on the football field are easily transferrable to other sports.

“So much of it is about teamwork, the ability to communicate, really the ability to be on the same page, to have a degree of discipline where everyone’s working together to achieve a goal. There’s a very level playing field in this sport. We’re going to have to find ways to gain an advantage on the competition and it’s going to be a very fun journey,” said the former 45-year-old quarterback.

Having initially retired from the NFL in 2021, Brady returned for another season with Tampa Bay, but confirmed that he will definitely not be going back to the gridiron this time around.

“I’ve done my part in professional football,” said Brady. “I love looking forward to the amazing things I have ahead and different ways that I can make a difference in the world in a positive way.

“Hopefully, in the next chapter of my life, I’ll be able to do a lot of really enjoyable things that can create great awareness for the future generations, as well as keep up my very competitive instincts.”

Australia striker Sam Kerr, who is the face of this Women’s World Cup, will miss the opening two matches of the tournament after sustaining a calf injury in training.

One of the world’s best players, Kerr’s absence is a huge blow to the Matildas who played the Republic of Ireland in their opening World Cup game on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, I sustained a calf injury yesterday in training,” Kerr wrote on Instagram.

“I wanted to share this with everyone so there is no distraction from us doing what we came here to achieve.”

According to the Matildas, Chelsea forward Kerr will also miss next Thursday’s match against Nigeria, but should return for the July 31 game against Canada.

Kerr has been a key player for Australia throughout her international career, scoring 63 goals in 120 appearances for her country.

Kerr racked up five goals in four matches at the 2019 World Cup, including four goals against Jamaica in the group stage.

The 2023 edition represents her fourth World Cup, having debuted at the showpiece event in Germany in 2011 as a 17-year-old.

The 29-year-old Kerr has been equally pivotal in her club Chelsea’s success in recent seasons, picking up the Player of the Year award in England’s Women’s Super League in both of the last two seasons as the side won league and cup doubles.

Manchester City striker Mary Fowler, who scored the winner in a friendly against France last week, started in Kerr’s place.

The 20-year-old Fowler, wearing the number 11 shirt, started brightly alongside Arsenal’s Caitlin Foord as Australia dominated the opening exchanges against the Republic of Ireland.

Thursday’s match marks a first World Cup outing for Fowler, who in 2019 traveled to France with the squad at the age of 16 but didn’t play at the tournament. She burst onto the international scene aged just 15.

Even without its captain, Australia should still have enough quality to progress from the group stages.

Still, that is an improvement: last time, in 2019, it was less than eight cents per dollar, according to data provided by world governing body FIFA and global players’ union FIFPRO.

The gender pay gap will be very much alive and kicking at a tournament which begins on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.

FIFA announced in June that, for the first time, about $49 million of the record $110 million Women’s World Cup prize money would go directly to individual players — at least $30,000 each for participating and $270,000 to each player on the winning squad.

The rest of the pot is going to be split between participating federations who will decide what share of this money to allocate to teams and players – if any at all. In addition to prize money, FIFA committed to paying $42 million to the federations and players’ clubs for Women’s World Cup preparations.

At the time, he said FIFA was embarking on a “historic journey for women’s football and for equality,” adding that the aim was equality in payments for the men’s and women’s World Cups in 2026 and 2027 respectively.

With its estimated worldwide audience of more than one billion viewers, the Women’s World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

Yet, this year’s edition kicks off in Australia and New Zealand with the sport at somewhat of an inflection point, not least because of the disparity between what women players are paid in comparison to their male counterparts.

Players such as Australia’s Sam Kerr, as well as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan of the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) are celebrated as household names, while England’s Lionesses adorn billboards across the country.

The popularity of the sport is undoubtedly growing, but from Jamaica to Canada, South Africa to Spain, several teams arrive at this tournament having been locked in disputes with their federations.

Despite the huge progress made in recent years, the fight for respect and equity – or sometimes to even be paid at all – continues.

History repeating

When Jamaica’s Havana Solaun threaded the ball into the net against Australia four years ago, she was mobbed by her teammates as they celebrated the first Women’s World Cup goal in their nation’s history.

Having overcome almost every conceivable obstacle – the team disbanded in 2016 before an unlikely heroine, Bob Marley’s daughter, Cedella, came to the rescue – here they were competing at the pinnacle of the sport.

Two months later, the players still hadn’t been paid by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF). Eventually, they were – but four years on and history is beginning to repeat itself.

Just weeks before their first game, Jamaica’s players released a statement, expressing their “utmost disappointment with the [JFF],” saying that the women’s team had missed several friendly matches due to “extreme disorganization,” and that they had “showed up repeatedly without receiving contractually agreed upon compensation.”

The Reggae Girlz now have a contractual agreement with their national federation, according to Asher, but still had to release a public statement to ensure that they received the best possible support for a World Cup.

“The people holding the torch in [the equal pay] fight are normally the active players and that’s a really vulnerable space to be,” Asher said. “If you’re having to fight against people that are creating opportunities for you to play … it can get really messy.”

An unequal footing

Soccer players’ pay is composed of many different elements: salaries from their club, match fees when representing their national team, prize money and sponsorship. As such, equal pay can become nebulous.

While Morgan and Rapinoe were the highest paid female soccer players last year, earning $5.7 million each on and off the pitch, their most successful male counterpart, Cristiano Ronaldo, was earning $136 million from both on-field and off-field revenue, Forbes estimated.

But Morgan and Rapinoe’s own estimated multimillion-dollar earnings are an outlier at even the highest echelons of the sport.

While top earners’ wages in countries such as the US and France average nearly $250,000 per year, salaries vary greatly between countries and can be less than $600 per month if any at all, according to a 2020 report by global players’ union FIFPRO.

The report also found that, across the board, top female players get paid the same or less in a year than what male soccer players of the same level receive per month.

The Women’s World Cup is an important source of income for players. But many who will be competing over the next few weeks have needed other jobs to sustain themselves.

A FIFPRO report released in June found two thirds of surveyed players reported having to take unpaid leave from another job to play for their national team in World Cup qualifying tournaments, such as the CONCACAF W Championship or the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Almost a third weren’t paid by their national teams at all during these past 18 months, and for those who were paid, it was often dependent on participation and performance, creating instability.

“It’s not like an amusement park, we’re footballers, most of us are pro players,” Asher said, recalling that she worked as a coach at points during her career to help make ends meet.

“This is our career and that deserves compensation and a reward for the work that’s put through,” she said.

According to a 2022 FIFA Benchmarking Report, nearly a quarter (23%) of 225 clubs across 25 national leagues have mainly amateur players, while the rest work with a mix of professionals – who have an official contract with the club and are paid more than their incurred expenses – and amateurs.

More than half (53%) of the surveyed federations still don’t have regulations on players’ minimum wages.

Ahead of the Women’s World Cup, Infantino threatened a tournament broadcast blackout in five major European countries over unacceptable offers of media rights. Though it should be noted that FIFA isn’t short of money – its record-breaking revenue during the 2019-2022 cycle stood at $7.6 billion.

FIFA’s move to introduce individual prize money this year came after more than 150 players from 25 national teams, backed by their global union FIFPRO, sent a letter to soccer’s governing body last October calling for equal conditions and prize money.

“Many players at the Women’s World Cup come into the tournament as amateurs or semi-professional, which undermines their preparation and, in turn, the quality of football we see on the pitch,” said FIFPRO in the letter sent to Infantino in October 2022, adding that many players also had no agreement with their member associations to ensure guaranteed World Cup compensation.

More than simply closing a pay gap

The gender pay gap is typically referred to in monetary terms, measuring how much women earn for every dollar a man earns. But for the players, equal pay encompasses more than simply closing this gap to the salaries enjoyed by male footballers.

“I know that’s not realistic (immediately),” Asher said, highlighting the importance of facilities, scheduling and maternity leave. “Anything that creates space for a professional women’s player to show up and feel just as professional as a man.”

At the beginning of her career, Riley recalled playing in the World Cup was “just for honor,” rather than something that could provide financial security.

“It’s not just the increase in prize money,” she added. “But also, the equal conditions in terms of the delegation size and having single rooms. These are things that you would have thought we would have had a long time ago.”

Meanwhile, Canada’s players told a parliamentary committee in March that the team had been forced to cut training programs and staff, were paid significantly less than their male counterparts in 2021 – the year they became Olympic champions – and that there had been “disregard” for any attempt to establish a women’s domestic league.

And in 2022, when the men’s team qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 and was eliminated in the group stages, Canada Soccer spent even more – $19.5 million on men’s national teams of all ages. The women’s national team qualified for the World Cup too, but their teams only got $14 million.

‘Sexist attitudes’

Such attitudes are deeply entrenched. Until relatively recently, women were not even able to play soccer in several countries around the world.

It was “quite unsuitable for females,” an English Football Association (FA) minute book said in 1921, and the organization banned women from playing at its clubs until 1971. The French Football Federation only recognized women’s soccer in 1970, and the Royal Belgium Football Association a year later.

Even today, most decision-makers in soccer continue to be men – UEFA’s executive committee has 20 members, 19 of whom are men, while FIFA’s Council has 37 members, 30 of whom are men. All but one of those women sitting on those decision-making bodies fill quota seats, specifically reserved for women.

And nearly three quarters (74%) of head coaches across all women’s soccer leagues are still male, with no women at all in top positions in Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway, according to the 2022 FIFA Benchmarking Report.

“I think it’s a mindset. It’s tradition,” Riley said. “The women’s game is still new.”

‘Our duty to make the sport better’

The recent history of women’s soccer is intertwined with its fight for equal pay and treatment.

Days before the start of the World Cup, England’s Lionesses announced they would put on hold discussions with their federation over performance-related bonuses until the end of the tournament.

Earlier in July, the English Football Association said it will not be paying bonuses to the players for their World Cup performance, on top of the individual prize money pledged by FIFA.

“We are disappointed that a resolution has still not been achieved,” the players said in a statement.

Four years ago, chants of “equal play, equal pay” echoed around the stadium as the USWNT lifted the World Cup trophy.

USWNT players reached an equal pay deal with US Soccer in May 2022, after six years of legal wrangling, dating back to a claim of wage discrimination filed in 2016 by five of the team’s stars – Carli Lloyd, Rapinoe, Morgan, Hope Solo and Becky Sauerbrunn – and a gender discrimination lawsuit that the whole team filed in 2019.

As a result, the USWNT earned more money from its male counterparts reaching the knockout stages of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar than it did from winning its own tournaments in 2015 and 2019.

“For six years, we had been in this fight and nobody wants to be fighting with their employer,” she added. “[But] long gone were the days of thinking that we just need to accept what’s given to us. So it was our duty to fight and to make the sport better … just like all the players before us had done.”

There were different challenges for the generation before Lloyd, the generation who advocated for and participated in the fledgling international tournaments of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“In the old days, players paid to represent their country,” Reid said, recalling that every player had to contribute $850 when Australia traveled to China for the 1988 FIFA Women’s Invitation Tournament, a pilot World Cup.

While the sport has professionalized since then, those same issues still disfigure it.

“People want to know, what’s the progress been like from the last World Cup,” Asher said. “And I’m like: ‘We’re here doing it again.’”

World Cups are so often defined by their upsets, the surprise results that stun crowds and cause delirious celebrations.

The first match of the 2023 Women’s World Cup duly delivered such scenes as co-hosts New Zealand shocked Norway 1-0 in Auckland, thanks to a stunning Hannah Wilkinson goal just after half-time.

For so long, winning a World Cup game had proved to be an elusive goal for New Zealand. The Football Ferns’ previous five appearances in women’s tournaments had yielded not a single victory while the men also have not secured a win in their two World Cup appearances.

It seemed fitting, then, that its first ever victory came on home turf in front of more than 40,000 raucous fans at an almost sold-out Eden Park, as New Zealand held on for the win despite Ria Percival’s penalty miss late in the game after a VAR decision.

“I’m so, so proud, we’ve been fighting for this for so long. We had a clear goal that we wanted to inspire young girls here and around the world, and I think we did that this evening. Anything is possible,” New Zealand’s tearful captain Ali Riley told the BBC.

Coach Jitka Klimkova said the win was “well deserved” and “means so much” especially for the three current players who were part of the previous winless World Cup squads, including Riley.

“Seeing them having tears in their eyes and enjoying it in front of their families and friends and fan, incredible moment for me as a coach,” Klimkova said. “I will never forget this moment.”

The start of this World Cup has also been marked by tragedy as a rare multiple shooting in the center of Auckland rattled the city just hours before the opening match of the tournament.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins outlined details of the attack in a hastily called news conference, confirming that three people had died – including the gunman – and several others were injured.

Riley added: “This morning, something really, really tragic happened and we wanted to bring something positive tonight and we thought of the victims and the first responders and they made us so proud and we just wanted to just help bring something amazing today.”

Breaking the deadlock

Harnessing the energy of the home crowd, New Zealand began brightly, holding the more favored Norway to a scoreless first half.

The Football Ferns launched the first attack of the game as Wilkinson broke clear of the Norwegian defense before Norway began displaying its own offensive prowess, its star Ada Hegerberg just mistiming an ambitious bicycle kick at her first World Cup in eight years before Frida Maanum, under pressure, skied her attempt on goal.

But immediately after halftime, all of New Zealand’s pressure eventually paid off, as Wilkinson scored the first goal of the game, clinically finishing a sweeping team move that sliced open the Gresshoppene defense.

Klimkova told reporters afterwards she believes the team’s halftime chat helped the squad secure the win.

“We knew that our performance is very good. We wanted to stay consistent. Consistency of keeping the ball, getting to the final third, being very organized in defense,” she said.

“Those messages stayed the same, but we added few priorities: how we can use our spaces a little bit more wisely and more efficiently,” she added. “We could see it in the second half and I believe that helped us to get the goal in.”

Still the game remained finely poised; Norway struggled to get the ball to its dangerous front three but still created chances as only an outstretched hand from New Zealand’s goalkeeper Victoria Esson prevented Tuva Hansen’s powerful long-range effort from finding the back of the net on 80 minutes.

New Zealand had a chance to double its lead and effectively end the contest 10 minutes later when Norway conceded a penalty for handball, but Percival’s miss kept the game alive, and the tension coiled around it as nine minutes of injury time were added on and Norway continued to press for a last-gasp equalizer.

The home team had done enough, however, and held on until the final whistle blew, prompting wild celebrations around the stadium as the players ran onto the field and the crowd exploded with joy.

A tornado in North Carolina severely damaged a Pfizer plant, damaged several other structures, shut down a major interstate and injured at least 16 people Wednesday afternoon.

The tornado was on the ground for 16.5 miles, lasting about 30 minutes, and produced peak winds of 150 mph, an EF-3 tornado, the National Weather Service said. The tornado tore through Dortches, Nash County – around 45 miles northeast of Raleigh – and ended nine miles east-northeast of Battleboro in Edgecombe County. The maximum path width was about 600 yards.

It was the first EF-3 tornado in central North Carolina during the month of July, the weather service said. The EF scale runs from 0 to 5 and rates tornadoes after they’ve hit by assessing damage to determine wind speed.

More than a dozen people were treated for minor injuries in Nash County as a result of the storm, a county spokesperson said.

Three people were injured in neighboring Edgecombe County – two with life-threatening injuries – when the storm passed through, the sheriff’s office said.

Some structures in the tornado’s path were flattened. Pfizer’s Rocky Mount facility suffered severe damage – video from helicopters showed the roof crumpled like paper and building debris scattered into the surrounding parking lot. There were no reports of injuries at the plant, according to a statement from the company.

“We are assessing the situation to determine the impact on production. Our thoughts are with our colleagues, our patients, and the community as we rebuild from this weather incident,” the statement said.

Homeowner Mike Poythress, who just purchased the home last year, told the station he put his significant other, Deborah Moore, in the bathtub and grabbed his dog. They were tossed when the home went flying, the bathtub landing nearly 30 yards away. Moore was “pretty banged up” and remains at a hospital, where she is expected to recover, he said.

“I was holding on to her nightgown, and my dog, and this is the results. We came out of it, but nothing we owned did,” Poythress told WTVD.

“I don’t have anything to rebuild with,” he said. “This is it. Everything I had was put into this home – the furnishings, the appliances, the house itself.”

Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone urged people to stay off roads because of downed power lines, a gas leak and other severe damage across the area.

The tornado toppled trees onto Interstate 95, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said, shutting the highway down in both directions for at least an hour before reopening.

Gov. Roy Cooper acknowledged the damage on Twitter and said that first responders were on scene helping clear roads and provide other aid.

An initial survey by the National Weather Service found EF-2 damage in Dortches late Wednesday afternoon, but the storm damage survey later revealed EF-3 damage north of Rocky Mount with winds estimated at 150 mph. Teams still were surveying the area.

Malaysian food doesn’t get the global recognition it deserves. But the fact is, this stuff is good!

The sum of many delicious parts, Malaysian cuisine’s influences include Chinese, Indian and Malay.

In some ways it’s similar to Indonesian food, with the two nations sharing many of the same dishes. (Warning: debates over dish origins can turn nasty in these parts – such is the passion of the region’s food lovers.)

Regardless, once you’re in Malaysia and eating, you’ll quickly dispense with historical concerns and wonder instead where your next meal is coming from and how you can you get to it sooner.

To help narrow your choices here are 40 of Malaysia’s top dishes, in no particular order.

1. Mee goreng mamak

This Indian Muslim dish is the complete package. Yellow noodles. Beef or chicken. Shrimp. Soy sauce, veggies and eggs. A bit of chili tossed in for an irresistible jolt.

Sounds simple, right?

Sadly, you can try to replicate this one at home, but it’s just not going to taste the way it did when you chowed down at that gritty Malaysian hawker stall.

2. Apam balik

You haven’t truly experienced Malaysian food until you thrill your taste buds with this sweet treat.

A pancake-style snack wedded with the compact package of an omelet, apam balik is stuffed with more than a sufficient amount of sugar, peanuts and the occasional sprinkle of corn – it’s a dish that’s constantly being reinvented.

3. Nasi kerabu

If the blue rice doesn’t spark your curiosity, the lines of people around the country waiting to order this favorite Kelantanese dish should.

From the state of Kelantan in northern peninsular Malaysia, nasi kerabu gets its eye-grabbing color from telang flowers, which are crushed and mixed into flour.

The aquamarine dish is topped with bean sprouts and fried coconut, then drenched in spicy budu, a fermented fish sauce. In true Kelantan style, you use your hands to dig into this one.

4. Ayam percik (chicken with percik sauce)

KFC’s popularity in the region (and across Asia) over other fast food chains won’t surprise those familiar with ayam percik.

Basically, it’s barbecued chicken slathered in spicy chili, garlic and ginger sauce mixed with coconut milk. With the right amount of percik sauce, this staple Malaysian stall food packs more zing than anything the Colonel can muster.

5. Nasi lemak

Nasi lemak is often referred to as Malaysia’s unofficial national dish.

Basically, it’s rice cooked in coconut milk. But it’s the sides that matter.

Depending on where you are in Malaysia, it comes with a variety of accompaniments such as hard-boiled egg, peanuts, vegetables, lamb/chicken/or beef curry, seafood and sambal (chili-based sauce).

Nasi lemak is traditionally eaten for breakfast but these days people are ordering it any time of day.

6. Roti john

Whoever John was, it’s apparent that he preferred his sandwiches made with grilled minced meat and egg in the middle of slim bread, and drowned in a confection of condiments.

Mayonnaise, ketchup, barbecue and chili sauce – choose one or choose them all.

7. Rendang (beef, chicken or lamb)

Though sometimes erroneously called a curry, Malaysian food aficionados point out that this chunky cauldron of coconut milk and spices is nothing of the sort.

The difference is in how it’s prepared: slowly simmered (to let the meat absorb the spices) until the rosy liquid completely evaporates. A favorite, especially during festive seasons, rendang is found across Malaysia.

8. Kuih

Variety, variety, variety – that’s the way to explore kuih, or Malay-style pastries. Small enough to snap up in a gulp and sugary enough to give you a modest jitter, kuih vendors are the most colorful stalls of all.

This kaleidoscope of soft, sugary morsels goes quickly – few pieces are left by the time daylight begins to fade.

9. Nasi kandar

Nasi kandar is essentially rice served with your choice of toppings, which commonly include curry, fish, egg and okra. Everything is laid out buffet style, though you can also order a la carte.

Found all over Malaysia, nasi kandar eateries are extremely popular, most open 24 hours and run by ethnic Indian Muslims.

10. Laksa

A staple of Malaysian cuisine, laksa eateries have been migrating abroad, making appearances in Bangkok, Shanghai and further afield.

There are multiple variations. For anyone who enjoys a taste of the volcanic kind, this spicy noodle soup can get you there in its curry form.

Some like it with fish, others prawns.

Our favorite is Penang’s asam laksa, in which tamarind features heavily (“asam” is Malay for tamarind) to create a spicy-sour fish broth.

11. Popia basah (wet spring roll)

A hefty sort of spring roll, popia basah speaks to those in need of the familiar crispy snack, but without the added oil.

Not to be confused with wet rolls found in parts of Vietnam, popia basah comes complete with its own regional-specific flavor. In place of lettuce, the Malay wet spring roll has turnips, fried onions and bean sprouts.

12. Bubur (porridges)

Bubur vendors are easy to spot. They’re the stall with the giant steel pots and matching ladles.

The contents of these coconut milk-based, sometimes sugary soups include a medley of vegetables and meats, and even dyed balls of flour and coconut milk. There’s no standard recipe in preparing bubur – different regions boast their own specialty.

13. Roti jala

Roti jala, or net bread, gets its name from the net-like formation that’s created by making zigzagging lines with flour on a large skillet.

The final product is folded up like a crepe and usually served with chicken curry. Roti jala is eaten any time of the day.

14. Cendawan goreng (fried mushrooms)

Deep-fried fungus doesn’t get better than this. One version, cendawan goreng, is typically peppered with chili or barbecue seasoning, giving it its own sass.

Eaten as an appetizer or snack, with a meal or while on foot, this one will have you imagining what else you can fry – and how else it can be seasoned.

15. Sambal udang

Sambal udang is a Peranakan dish, created by descendants of 15th-and-16th-century Chinese immigrants.

The Baba Nyonya people, also known as Peranakan or Straits Chinese, are mainly of Chinese descent, originally from Fujian province in southeastern China. They settled along the coast of Malaysia mainly in Penang and Melaka, as well as parts of Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. These days, they’re famous for their incredible food.

A popular Peranakan dish, sambal udang is all about prawns. Whole prawns are sent swimming into a delicious pool of sambal – chili paste – that’s flavored with prawn paste. The addition of tamarind juice gives it a tangy kick.

16. Murtabak

This pan-fried bread stuffed with minced meat and onions and dipped in spicy sauce is a meal and a half, only recommended to the famished.

Perfect murtabak is made with a robust amount of minced meat, so that the taste comes through on the first bite. So spicy-sour it’ll make your tongue curl!

17. Asam pedas

Nazlina Hussin, founder of the popular Penang cooking school Nazlina Spice Station, says it’d be outrageous not to include asam pedas on any short list of her country’s best foods.

A fish curry popular throughout peninsular Malaysia, it’s commonly made with freshwater fish or stingray.

Asam, which means tamarind, features heavily, along with ginger, shrimp paste, garlic, chilies and other herbs.

18. Lemang

Eaten with a meat or vegetable dish, lemang is glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk, which is cooked in bamboo.

The time-consuming process to make lemang starts by lining hollowed-out shoots with banana leaves. The bamboo is left over a fire to slowly cook the rice in a process known as tapai.

The result is sticky, wet rice that can, and regularly does, make a nice substitute for its plain Jane counterpart.

19. Otak-otak

Otak-otak translates as “brains” in Malay – but it gets this graphic moniker from its appearance, not its taste or ingredients.

This fish paste mixture of spices and diced onions is loosely wrapped in a banana leaf and barbecued over charcoal until the pinkish contents become warm and the leaves are slightly charred.

No fuss or frills when it comes to eating – picking at it straight from the leaf is the only way to do it.

20. Tepung pelita

A kind of kuih (Malay-style pastry), tepung pelita easily takes the cake when compared with its post-dinner relatives. At some point just about everyone has overindulged in this two-layered coconut milk-based sweet.

On the top layer, thick coconut milk with salt; on the bottom, a similar milky liquid mixed with sugar and pandan leaves to turn it green.

Served in bite-sized pandan leaf bowls, the packaging of tepung pelita makes it easy to fulfill those gluttonous desires.

21. Rempeyek

Few snacks come saltier, or more gratifying, than rempeyek. This top Malaysian food is commonly made by deep frying a doughy batter into a thin brittle and topping it with peanuts and anchovies.

The amount of salt can vary and there are variations that use dried shrimp or garlic instead of anchovies.

22. Satay

Though considered by many to be a dish native to Thailand, satay is actually believed to have originated in Indonesia. Origins aside, can we all just agree that meat on a stick is good?

Malaysia has its own variations of the grilled skewers, served nationwide in chicken, beef or pork forms (the latter in non-Muslim venues only).

Sauces vary from region to region, including the peanut sauce that’s loved the world over.

23. Rojak

Rojak (“mixture” in Malay) is essentially a fried dough fritter with fruits and veggies, though there are regional variations.

But vegetarians shouldn’t get their hopes up. The whole mixture is combined with Malaysia’s ever-popular shrimp paste. It’s the perfect combination of sweet, spicy and sour.

24. Putu piring

Like roti jala, putu piring is enjoyed in India and Malaysia.

Putu piring has the taste of a cake, with the added bonus of pockets of palm sugar. It’s plate-like shape is formed by flattening the flour before covering it in a white cloth and placing it in a conical steamer.

25. Satar

If otak-otak is the hodge-podge, hot dog variety of grilled fish, then satar is its more refined cousin.

At one bazaar in Kelana Jaya, Malaysia, a vendor has set up what he calls “mackerel-filled food from the east coast.” Roasted in a banana leaf, the process and look are a Photostat of otak-otak, but with more fish, less spice and larger portions.

26. Roti canai

An Indian-inspired flatbread that’s also popular in Singapore, roti canai is made with flour, butter and water, though some will toss condensed milk in to sweeten it up.

The whole concoction is flattened, folded, oiled and cooked on a heavily oiled skillet, resulting in a sublimely fluffy piece of bread with a crispy exterior. You can eat this one as a snack on its own or use it to scoop up a side of curry.

27. Mee rebus

In case you haven’t noticed, Malaysia has done a lot with the simple Chinese noodle.

Another one to set your taste buds into party mode, mee rebus is made with blanched yellow noodles drowned in an insanely addictive curry-like potato-based gravy and spices like lemongrass and ginger.

It’s similar to mee goreng. Common proteins added to the mix include prawns, mutton and dried anchovies. Garnishes include lime, spouts and halved boiled eggs.

28. Gulai ayam kampung

This chicken curry dish can be cooked in a number of ways. For instance, in the “village” style, traditional herbs and potatoes are tossed in.

The best thing about gulai ayam is the smell. Turmeric and kaffir lime leaves, plus lemongrass, give it an irresistible aroma. Palm sugar and coconut paste add that extra oomph to knock your socks off.

29. Lor bak

A Nyonya specialty of Penang, lor bak is braised pork that has been marinated in five-spice powder before being wrapped in soft bean curd skin and deep-fried.

Lor bak is served with two dipping sauces, a spicy red chili sauce and a gravy thickened with cornstarch and a beaten egg called lor.

30. Ikan bakar

The direct translation of this dish means “burned fish.”

You shouldn’t let that turn you off. This is one tasty grilled bit of seafood.

After being marinated in the all-important sambal, the fish is placed on a banana leaf and grilled over a flame. Great for sharing.

31. Char kuey teow

We asked author and chef Norman Musa, one of Malaysia’s most famous exports, which dish he’d be outraged not to see on a list of the country’s top dishes. This is the one.

Another one to thank China’s migrants for, char kuey teow — made with flat rice noodles — is one of Southeast Asia’s most popular noodle dishes.

The noodles are fried with pork lard, dark and light soy sauce, chili, de-shelled cockles, bean sprouts, Chinese chives and sometimes prawn and egg. Essential to the dish is good “wok hei” or breath of wok, the qualities and tastes imparted by cooking on a wok using high heat.

32. Chai tow kway

In this dish, rice flour and grated white radish is mixed and steamed into large slabs or cakes.

These are cut up into little pieces and fried with preserved turnip, soy sauce, fish sauce, eggs, garlic and spring onions.

You can have it “white” or “black” (with sweet dark soy sauce added). Also known as fried carrot cake or chye tow kueh, this grease-laden belly warmer is available at many hawker centers.

33. Goreng pisang

The popular Malay snack of goreng pisang (banana fritters) is one of those dishes that has variations in banana-growing countries around the world.

The deep-frying helps caramelize the natural sugars in the bananas, making them even sweeter than they were to begin with. Some of Malaysia’s Chinese versions have unusually delicate and puffy batter.

34. Chicken curry kapitan

This isn’t an ordinary curry. A Peranakan dish, chicken curry kapitan has a tangy flavor made from tamarind juice, candlenuts, fresh turmeric root and belacan (shrimp paste.)

As for the name, kapitan was the title of an Indian or Chinese leader in Penang. Legend has it a kapitan once asked his cook “what’s for dinner tonight?” The chef replied, “Chicken curry, Kapitan!”

35. Ketupat

It would be a crime against the dumpling gods to leave this fancy little package off a list of Malaysia’s top foods.

More of a side than a main dish, ketupat comes in several varieties. Basically, it involves weaving a pouch made of palm leaves around a handful of rice. The rice expands and compresses, resulting in a neat little bundle you can dip in your curry or rendang.

36. Jeu hoo char

Another Peranakan great – we could easily put together a list of 40 delicious Peranakan dishes – this salad features a finely shredded mixture of stir-fried carrots, onions, mushrooms, pork and cuttlefish.

This dish is particularly popular during festivals – especially Chinese New Year.

37. Kaya toast

Kaya is a sweet and fragrant coconut custard jam, slathered onto thin slices of warm toast with ample butter. It’s as divine as it sounds, particularly when downed with a cup of thick black coffee.

Many locals have this for breakfast supplemented by two soft-boiled eggs with soy sauce and pepper.

It’s also a popular dish across the border in Singapore.

38. Ais kachang

Shaved ice desserts are always a popular treat in the tropics.

Ice kachang (ice with beans) evolved from the humble ice ball drenched with syrup to be the little ice mountain served in a bowl, drizzled with creamed corn, condensed milk, gula melaka and brightly colored syrups.

Dig into it and you’ll discover other goodies hidden within – red beans, palm seeds and cubed jellies.

39. Air tebu

While inhabitants of some regions in Asia prefer to gnaw on sugar cane (China and Vietnam, for instance), others take a more refined approach when it comes to extracting the sweet nectar within.

Much of the smoke wafting through Malaysia’s bazaar crowds comes from pots of boiling, frying liquid, but a significant portion also originates from the engine of a sugar cane grinder.

Stalks are fed into industrial-sized juicers; the liquid is collected and served by the bag and bottle. There’s no dearth of syrupy drinks on offer, but air tebu is the only one that comes with a show.

40. Wonton mee

You’ll find variations of wanton mee, a dish of Chinese origin, all over Asia, but the one in Penang stands out.

Springy egg noodles are served al dente with a sticky sauce made from soy sauce and lard oil. A spoonful of fiery sambal is added to the side.

It’s topped with pieces of leafy green Chinese kale, sliced green onions, pickled green chilies and wontons. The wontons are either boiled or steamed, as you’ll find them elsewhere in Malaysia, or fried, in a unique Penang twist.

Special thanks to author and restaurateur Chef Norman Musa, cooking school owner Nazlina Hussin and the other Malaysian locals who helped compile this list by sharing their favorite dishes, cooking tips and explanations.