Arsenal fans are in such high spirits as many flock to Budapest ahead of the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday, with the club now facing another opportunity to make history – this time by winning Europe's premier club competition for the very first time.

 

Budapest, Hungary —  

It’s been a non-stop party at Arsenal Football Club over the last two weeks, so no wonder its following faithful are still beaming from ear to ear.

The celebrations all began on May 19, when the team became Premier League champion for the first time in 22 years. Tens of thousands of fans spontaneously celebrated in the streets around the Emirates Stadium, despite no game even being played at the arena.

Then came party number two on Sunday, when Arsenal’s players finally got their hands on the trophy and lifted it above their heads in the last game of the league season – cue more scenes of celebration across the English capital and beyond.

It was a cathartic moment, one that shook off years of ridicule for a club that became known as the proverbial bridesmaid. Now, it’s very much the bride and is eyeing legendary status.

It’s exactly why Arsenal fans are in such high spirits as many flock to Budapest ahead of the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday, with the club now facing another opportunity to make history – this time by winning Europe’s premier club competition for the very first time.

No matter the result of the final, a million people are expected to line the streets of North London to celebrate at least one major trophy for their men’s team in a parade that promises to end all soccer parades.

It’s also why some fans heading to the Hungarian capital are, or at least were, treating this final as somewhat of a free hit.

“It’s just a bonus now,” one fan told CNN Sports as they waited to board their flight to Budapest from London on Thursday.

“Yeah, we can just enjoy it,” added his friend.

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It’s a feeling that was felt by many of the club’s supporters ahead of arguably the biggest game in Arsenal’s history but a nonchalance that perhaps wore off a touch during the flight to mainland Europe.

“I got a little bit nervous as soon as I stepped off the plane,” host of the hugely popular Arsenal Vision podcast Elliot Smith told CNN Sports ahead of the final.

“I know when the game kicks off, it’s only going to get worse.”

Arsenal fans flock to final

Few people understand Arsenal’s global fanbase like Smith – a man who has fostered a community of listeners from around the world from his home in the United States.

His obvious knowledge and passion for the club he lives thousands of miles from is indicative of the global nature of the supporters in Budapest this week, all of whom have been soaking up the sun and exploring the city’s copious bars as they await what will be a defining 90 minutes on Saturday.

All the conversation in the city centers around winning the league. Where did you watch it? How did you celebrate? Did you cry? When did you stop crying?

It’s true, too, that Arsenal’s red and white has overtaken the Hungarian capital, with the London club’s supporters outweighing the PSG support early on.

But don’t be fooled. The majority of PSG fans are due to arrive in their thousands over Friday night and into Saturday morning, and their team is already here, preparing to dampen Arsenal’s non-stop party.

“We’ll see tomorrow, we’ll see who is the better,” PSG manager Luis Enrique rather ominously told the press ahead Friday, before his team attempts to retain the title it won last year.

“I don’t think that there’s a favorite and I’m being honest with you. For us, the devil is in the detail and I think it will be a very close call.

“It’s about knowing how to manage that stress.”

Experience vs. vibes

PSG’s squad certainly knows how to cope with the occasion – and proved so emphatically a year ago. A very similar-looking squad secured the club’s first Champions League title by thrashing Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s final, gaining invaluable experience along the wa

Two of the Gunners’ biggest stars, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard, also told the media that they were “fully focused” on tomorrow’s match and said they had not lost any edge after seeing such historic success already.

“It was a special, special feeling,” Arsenal captain Ødegaard said of the celebrations following the league title victory.

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“Of course, the energy we take from that, and the mood, and the vibe, you know, it’s great going into this game, another final. So, yeah, just good vibes and we’re ready to go again.”

Those vibes were in full flow on Friday, with the difference between the two sides striking on the eve of the final. PSG players were more serious, almost glum before heading out to practice on the pitch at the Puskás Aréna.

They looked hyper-focused on the job in hand, running through very high-quality possession drills with an intensity that would scare most opponents.

But fear looked very far from Arsenal’s minds as they took their opportunity to familiarize themselves with the pitch ahead of such a historic game.

There was just a lightness about the whole Arsenal unit. Saka and Ødegaard were giggling in the media room while speaking to reporters and the entire team was all smiles during their own practice session – jumping on each other’s backs and playing games against the coaching staff, as music blared from a speaker they had rolled out with them.

For what it’s worth, the coaches won whatever party game they were playing, with the players having to do pushups as punishment.

It all felt just a little different to what you’d expect. It was bright, breezy and looked like watching friends kick a ball about in the school yard. It also felt closely connected to the party atmosphere enjoyed by fans across London, Budapest and all over the world this week.

One more win on Saturday would turn those party celebrations into something even more special and would only enhance those positive vibes around the club.

“It’s so important and it’s a massive opportunity to do something special,” academy graduate Saka told the media Friday.

“It will probably make the parade even more more crazy.”

President Trump sent changes to the proposed peace deal back to Iran after a meeting with advisers Friday, officials say.

 

President Donald Trump sent back changes to the proposed deal with Iran after a meeting with advisers Friday, officials said, extending the back and forth negotiations into another week.

The exact changes Trump requested weren’t immediately clear, but officials said the president has insisted on tougher language surrounding Iran’s nuclear commitments and its pledge to reopen to Strait of Hormuz.

Trump has also voiced concern at what financial relief might be provided for Iran as part of the deal, wary of comparisons to the “pallets of cash” that were delivered under the Obama-era nuclear deal he derides as weak.

The latest volley of proposed changes comes a week after Trump declared the deal “largely finalized” and signaled the end of the war was imminent.

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Since then, US officials have telegraphed progress on reaching an agreement that would end hostilities, reopen the strait and begin more detailed talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Yet even after Trump announced he would be making a “final determination” during Friday’s meeting, and spelled out some of the deal’s conditions on social media, the two-hour session ended without a conclusive decision.

While Trump claimed in his message that the US would seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and destroy it, Iran has consistently said it is not discussing details of its nuclear program under the current negotiations.

Trump also claimed there had been no discussion of exchanging money as part of the deal, a condition Iran says must be included in any agreement.

How those discrepancies are resolved remained unclear as the haggling over the deal’s language ground forward.

Axios and The New York Times reported earlier on Trump’s request for changes.

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday that no agreement will be approved with the United States until Tehran’s “rights” are secured, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

“The soldiers of the diplomatic battlefield have no trust in the words and promises of the enemy. What matters to us is tangible achievements that we must obtain, in exchange for which we will fulfil our commitments,” Tasnim cited Ghalibaf as saying.

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons on Sunday morning said the terms Trump outlined last week for a deal look acceptable on paper, but expressed skepticism it would be achievable in practice – particularly in regard to the Strait of Hormuz.

“While we can use our technological superiority to bomb big factories in Iran, we’re not going to be able to stop them from having the power to use their mines to close the Strait of Hormuz and their drones to attack us and our allies,” Coons, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re going to need a tough deal to actually address this new capability that Iran has demonstrated in this war.”

In response to Iran’s chokehold on the strait, a critical passage for the global energy trade, Trump has directed the US Navy to blockade the country’s ports and clear the strait of Iranian mines.

The blockade has continued amid the negotiations, with the US military on Friday disabling a Gambian-flagged vessel that was heading to Iran by firing a missile into its engine room, according to US Central Command.

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CENTCOM said in a statement posted to social media on Saturday the M/V Lian Star was en route to an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman when the US military issued “more than 20 warnings” that it was violating the US blockade of Iranian ports.

This marks the fifth commercial ship the US military has disabled since the blockade began, CENTCOMsaid. More than 100 vessels have also been redirected.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Billy Stockwell, Dalia Abdelwahab and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

Construction crews set to work this week building a “cage” on the White House lawn. The arched framework for a temporary sports arena already looms over the neoclassical building like a looping roller coaster at a theme park.

 

Construction crews set to work this week building a “cage” on the White House lawn. The arched framework for a temporary sports arena already looms over the neoclassical building like a looping roller coaster at a theme park.

For more than three decades, the cage — an eight-sided enclosure of vinyl-coated chain-link fencing — has been the official stage for mixed martial-arts combat, in which fighters from different disciplines square off under frequently brutal lowest-common-denominator rules. In April, the president traveled to Miami to sit cageside at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, embracing UFC CEO Dana White, his friend and supporter, and watching attentively through the wire as the fighters spilled blood.

Now Trump is getting to host his own fighting spectacle to ring in America’s 250th birthday and his own 80th. On June 14, also Flag Day, the White House cage will be the venue for the UFC Freedom 250 event, which will see Georgian Ilia Topuria and American Justin Gaethje face off in a title bout meant to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

UFC aficionados know the cage as the Octagon: Renderings shared by the company last weekend depict the White House foregrounded by the signature structure with its black fencing and light-colored padded canvas flooring, ideal for showing spilled blood. In this mock-up of the upcoming event, two ambiguously rendered fighters confront each other in the cage, as spectators seated all around the structure look on. The United States Marine Band stands below the South Portico. The stars and stripes stand tall in the distance.

This cage, the image proclaims, is America.

Why call the ring a cage? Cages were originally for holding birds or other animals, and then, by extension, for confining and punishing humans. In the late 19th century, “cage” took on various meanings in sports: the hockey goal, or the structure in which baseball players practiced batting. Early basketball games were played within enclosures of netting or wire mesh, and sportswriters kept referring to players as “cagers” for decades afterward.

But the true precursor to the UFC Octagon might be the wrestling cage. In the 1930s, professional wrestling employed cages to amp up the entertainment value of scripted matches, says Michael Thomsen, author of “Cage Kings: How an Unlikely Group of Moguls, Champions & Hustlers Transformed the UFC into a $10 Billion Industry.” Putting a match in a cage told spectators that the mayhem couldn’t be contained within an ordinary wrestling ring. Early cages were constructed from chicken wire, until steel began to be used around the ’80s.

In the ‘80s, Art Davie, a car salesman-turned-advertising executive in Southern California, was tasked with creating a marketing campaign for Tecate beer, Thomsen says. He pitched an idea that he hoped would endear the brand to younger consumers: a TV series, sponsored by Tecate, pitting martial arts fighters of different sizes and disciplines against each other.

While researching the pitch, Davie came across a magazine article about the Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Rorion Gracie, whose family pioneered a no-holds-barred style of fighting that would become a precursor to modern mixed martial arts. At the time, Gracie — who was making a name for himself in Hollywood as a stunt coordinator and celebrity trainer — was getting attention for his open invitation to fight anyone in the US for $100,000, Thomsen says. Davie approached Gracie about his idea and he agreed to come on board, but Tecate’s US importer swiftly turned down the proposal.

Undeterred, Davie quit his job and put his savings into bringing the ultimate fight night he had envisioned to life, Thomsen says. First, though, he and Gracie had to figure out the arena. Gracie ruled out a boxing ring, worrying that fighters could fall through the ropes, according to ESPN’s “30 for 30.” Davie, meanwhile, weighed a number of attention-grabbing gimmicks that would heighten the drama and intensity of the competition: “I thought about some sort of a cage, but maybe with a moat. We could put sharks in it,” he said in a VICE TV documentary. “Then I had thought about some sort of a circle and then maybe the outer ring would be electrified.”

At the advice of a cardiologist, Davie decided against an electric fence. But who deserves credit for the eventual eight-sided cage is a matter of dispute, as chronicled in the UFC’s short film “OCTO: The Disputed Origin Story of the UFC Octagon.” One account states that it was John Milius, a screenwriter and director and a student of Gracie, who suggested an octagon, based partly on the gladiator pit in his 1982 film “Conan the Barbarian.” (He and Davie also discussed a setup involving torch-bearing men and women on white horses dressed as the Vestal Virgins.)

Other accounts credit the TV production’s art director Jason Cusson or production designer Greg Harrison for the idea. Cusson noted in the short film that they considered plexiglass for the enclosure, but determined it would be dangerous for the fighters and difficult to keep clean. Eventually, the team settled on an eight-sided structure on a raised platform, with fighters contained by a chain-link fence.

Davie partnered with the pay-per-view production company Semaphore Entertainment Group to broadcast the event, which they decided to call the “Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Their first event, UFC 1, took place in Denver on November 12, 1993, and was a relative success. And the Octagon was crucial to the UFC’s promotion of the event as a taboo, death-defying competition, Thomsen says: “Being able to have some promo footage or pictures of people bleeding and mashed up against a chain-link fence made it seem a little bit more illicit.”

But while some viewers were eager for the hyper-violent spectacle of the UFC, other people and institutions regarded its lack of weight classes and rules as barbaric and bloodthirsty. The late Republican Sen. John McCain referred to the sport as “human cockfighting;” The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir wrote in a 1994 article that “The decline of western civilization can be viewed through the pay-per-view prism.” At the advice of a cardiologist, Davie decided against an electric fence. But who deserves credit for the eventual eight-sided cage is a matter of dispute, as chronicled in the UFC’s short film “OCTO: The Disputed Origin Story of the UFC Octagon.” One account states that it was John Milius, a screenwriter and director and a student of Gracie, who suggested an octagon, based partly on the gladiator pit in his 1982 film “Conan the Barbarian.” (He and Davie also discussed a setup involving torch-bearing men and women on white horses dressed as the Vestal Virgins.)

Other accounts credit the TV production’s art director Jason Cusson or production designer Greg Harrison for the idea. Cusson noted in the short film that they considered plexiglass for the enclosure, but determined it would be dangerous for the fighters and difficult to keep clean. Eventually, the team settled on an eight-sided structure on a raised platform, with fighters contained by a chain-link fence.

Davie partnered with the pay-per-view production company Semaphore Entertainment Group to broadcast the event, which they decided to call the “Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Their first event, UFC 1, took place in Denver on November 12, 1993, and was a relative success. And the Octagon was crucial to the UFC’s promotion of the event as a taboo, death-defying competition, Thomsen says: “Being able to have some promo footage or pictures of people bleeding and mashed up against a chain-link fence made it seem a little bit more illicit.”

But while some viewers were eager for the hyper-violent spectacle of the UFC, other people and institutions regarded its lack of weight classes and rules as barbaric and bloodthirsty. The late Republican Sen. John McCain referred to the sport as “human cockfighting;” The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir wrote in a 1994 article that “The decline of western civilization can be viewed through the pay-per-view prism.”

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to potentially print a commemorative $250 bill with the image of President Donald Trump to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.

 

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is planning to potentially print a commemorative $250 bill with the image of President Donald Trump to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.

A Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed the plans in a statement, saying it was conducting “appropriate planning and due diligence” in response to “active legislation.”

“Should this legislative mandate be signed into law, the BEP is moving proactively to produce a $250 commemorative note which will appropriately recognize the 250th Anniversary of our great nation,” the spokesperson told CNN.

Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina has introduced legislation that would “symbolically recognize the President of the United States during the Semiquincentennial anniversary,” per a press release from Wilson’s office. The legislation has languished in Congress and there’s no evidence it would be passed.

In fact, putting the image of a living person on US currency is not authorized by US statute. An exception to that law would have to be authorized by Congress. CNN has reached out to the designer of the mockup of the bill for comment.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during a White House press briefing that he didn’t think there was “anything untoward” about having Trump on a commemorative bill. But, he added, it was “up to” Congress if the bill became a reality.

The design, as reported by the Washington Post, resembles one that GOP Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky posted on X in January. It showed a stern portrait of Trump with the colors of the flag, the “250” logo and the president’s signature.

The Treasury spokesperson confirmed Trump’s signature is on the potential currency.

“Based on the recommendation of U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, Secretary Bessent will recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Trump by adding his signature to the currency,” the spokesperson said.

They also noted that no tax dollars were used, since the agency is self-sustaining and doesn’t rely on congressional appropriations.

The story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Kit Maher contributed to this report.