The Wire - November 6, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z November 6, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: RIOTS ERUPT IN BIRMINGHAM AS SPORTS MATCH TRANSITIONS FROM GENERAL HOOLIGANISM INTO LARGER GEOPOLITICAL CONFLICT. OVAL OFFICE PRESS CONFERENCE HALTED DUE TO PHARMA EXEC COLLAPSING SUDDENLY.//

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-International Events-

United Kingdom: A state of civil unrest has emerged following a soccer match inflaming local tensions. Following a much-anticipated soccer match between a team from Tel Aviv and the local Aston Villa team in Birmingham, riots broke out overnight as rival gangs took their disputes to the street. Riot police were deployed to the stop the roving bands of "youths" from destroying property and generally causing disarray. Throughout the day today, the unrest has continued as long-held social tensions in Birmingham reached the boiling point. Over 700x police officers have been called up for duty tonight as the riots are planned to become much more significant with tonight's match against Tel Aviv.

-HomeFront-

Washington D.C. - This afternoon the White House announced a special press conference on the topic of pharmaceuticals. Most notably the press conference was called to announce a partnership with Novo Nordisk to lower the price of the Ozempic drug when purchased through the TrumpRX program.

Analyst Comment: The press conference was abruptly cut short after Gordon Findlay, one of the senior executives of Novo Nordisk (the maker of Ozempic) collapsed in the Oval Office during the live broadcast. Dr. Oz, who was a part of the conference tried to render aid to him, and the rest of the press conference was delayed while Findlay received medical treatment. It's not certain why he dropped, but the White House stated that he was okay but feeling a bit lightheaded after the incident.

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Analyst Comments: Once more, the misfortune of our friends across the pond gives Americans absolutely critical insight as to how things might go if a similar series of events were to pop off here in a major American city. For obvious reasons, a relatively nondescript soccer match is less about the sport and more about social and political issues, thus the unrest concerns. In short, it's a fairly kinetic and complex situation that serves in many ways as an indicator of the future to come.

Birmingham has become a huge focal point for migrant housing, and these riots were not the work of the indigenous English. However, as with all soccer hooliganism, the rioting is almost never just one-sided. In this case, some (not all) Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were banned by British authorities from the Aston Villa stadium after starting a riot themselves, according to police. This resulted in two things happening simultaneously: the Islamic population of Birmingham rejoiced at this perceived geopolitical victory (and celebrated by breaking things and causing a ruckus), while many other Maccabi Tel Aviv fans lashed out in anger (again, also by breaking things and causing a ruckus). However, during the general state of unrest, rival gangs of mostly black and Islamic migrants (which had no interest in soccer) started fighting amongst themselves, adding in more diversity to the evening fray. Others still showed up to protest for more political purposes, but remained relatively calm throughout the evening. When the police arrived to restore order as this was getting underway last night (the day before the match), the more active elements of the crowds turned on them, targeting them with fireworks (which were probably used due to yesterday being Guy Fawkes Night). It is this unrest that continued from last night, throughout the day today, to tonight as well (the night of the match). So this is a two-day affair, not just a one-and-done scuffle, but a more prolonged period of unrest.

In short, what's going on in Birmingham right now is more or less a state of mild pandemonium; everyone fighting everyone else, mostly for a handful of different reasons. All the while the legitimate football hooligans have become involved to show all parties how to get a proper British street fight going. As for the various police forces, efforts were mostly made to keep the different cultural groups apart from each other, but in typical fashion ended up treating some people with a heavy hand, while others were allowed to break things. Many other people did not riot, and instead just gathered for a sports match, but those who did riot, did so for different reasons.

As a reminder, almost the exact same scenario played out in Amsterdam last year, which involved pro-Palestinian supporters clashing with Israeli fans mostly for geopolitical reasons, all kicked off by a football match. That situation was just as much of a mess, and now Birmingham is having to work through nearly the same exact series of challenges.

The only side that's a clear and innocent victim are the local English citizens who want no part in all of the geopolitical issues that have been transplanted from the Middle East, into their own backyard. As such, this provides valuable operational data for future clashes that may occur in densely populated cities where cultural and political views often are so incompatible that violence is often the end result. There is variance in cultures even amongst the global West, and not everything that happens in England is a clear example of exactly how things will go down in other areas. However, most western nations are importing the same people from the same places, so we get a lot of the same problems much of the time. In a fight like this, there are not usually any winners, but there are plenty of losers who have to clean up the mess when the conflict subsides.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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