HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — While Hershey is cherished for its reputation as the “Sweetest Place on Earth” due to its rich chocolate legacy, it also boasts a different kind of star: Christian Pulisic. As the standout player of the U.S. national soccer team, Pulisic heads into the World Cup with high hopes as part of the team hosting the prestigious event.

On Wednesday, the team triumphed over Bosnia-Herzegovina, ensuring a place in the round of 16 where they will face Belgium this coming Monday.

“Hershey means the world to me—it’s my family’s home, the place where I grew up,” Pulisic shared recently on Instagram. He was highlighting the new limited-edition Pulisic’s Milk Chocolate Bars by the Hershey Company, adorned with custom wrappers and his autograph. “It’s where I developed my skills, and it just feels like home.”

Growing up in the serene surroundings of south-central Pennsylvania, Pulisic’s early years were filled with farm landscapes and gently rolling hills. Notably, Chocolate Avenue’s streetlights here are uniquely designed to resemble Hershey’s Kisses. This community was established in 1903 by Milton S. Hershey, the visionary entrepreneur who not only founded the Hershey Company but also created a vibrant community complete with homes for workers, a hotel, and a theme park—a frequent Pulisic family destination.

Fast forward over 120 years, the Hershey Company remains at the heart of Chocolatetown, USA’s economy. Yet today, the legacy of “The Man Behind the Chocolate Bar” is shared with Christian Pulisic, the soccer star affectionately known as “Captain America.”

Pulisic inspires young soccer players in Hershey

Pulisic’s hometown roots run deep, and during the World Cup, his community has rallied around him as the U.S. plays some of its most exciting soccer ever.

“It’s pretty amazing that he came from Hershey and played for my club,” said Hershey High School rising freshman Cecelia Stefanelli who, on a recent afternoon, kicked a ball to score a goal on her father at a field where Pulisic played.

The Americans won their first World Cup elimination game in 24 years on Wednesday evening, defeating Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 in the round of 32 despite playing a man down for more than 35 minutes. They had a healthy Pulisic in action after the star missed the second group-stage game with a calf injury and played only 33 minutes as a sub in the final group match against Turkey.

“I’d love if USA won the World Cup; it’d make me happy,” said Stefanelli, a center back who also plays for the Pennsylvania Classics soccer club. Pulisic often credits the structure and coaches at PA Classics, where he played for eight years, with helping develop his skills. In 2021, he returned to the club for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for new fields that he financed and helped design. It’s now known as the Pulisic Stomping Grounds.

The club is located in Lancaster County, surrounded by chicken and dairy farms that give off a pungent odor of fermenting feed and manure.

On a recent day, Liam Gustafson and Moussa Oumarou juggled a soccer ball and passed it back and forth as they warmed up for training in front of a huge collage of photos of Pulisic that trace from his childhood training to starring for the U.S. at the World Cup.

“It’s really special to see someone from around here, where we live, playing in the World Cup,” said Gustafson, a 17-year-old forward who dreams of playing pro soccer and calls Pulisic his role model. “It’s really inspiring to see someone who paved the way, so that we can do that someday.”

Pulisic’s path to USMNT stardom ran through Hershey

The road to soccer was paved early as Pulisic followed in the footsteps of his parents. He was born in Hershey on Sept. 18, 1998, to Kelley and Mark Pulisic, both former collegiate soccer players at George Mason University. His father went on to play pro indoor soccer for the Harrisburg Heat. The family moved to England for a year while Pulisic’s mother completed a Fulbright Program teacher exchange and their 7-year-old rising star played for the Brackley Town youth team.

“Mark and Kelley could write a playbook on how to raise a humble, smart, kind superstar, while maintaining family relationships,” said Tara Seymour, a family friend and retired health and physical education teacher at Hershey Middle School. She met the family at a soccer camp and became close friends with Pulisic’s mother.

“She just quietly said to me one time, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’ This is a kid who could juggle the soccer ball hundreds of times when he was in elementary school,” Seymour said. Pulisic, she said, would practice in his backyard for hours, trying to emulate the moves of pros he saw on TV.

“He has an intensity that couldn’t be taught,” she recalled. “I think he had the opportunity to go pro earlier or go to Europe earlier and they held back just to make sure emotionally and maturity-wise he was ready.”

When the family returned to Hershey, Pulisic joined PA Classics at the age of 10. The club’s president and co-founder Doug Harris said Pulisic’s talent allowed him to play with older age groups, and he was often the smallest player on the field.

“I think if you were to pull kids in the world who want to achieve the level of Christian Pulisic, you’d have millions that would step up, raise their hand. They’re all gifted; they all can play,” Harris said. “But there’s something fundamental about what Christian has been able to do and I’d credit Mark and Kelley Pulisic with a lot of that.”

Looking forward to the future of American soccer

The Americans’ only World Cup knockout win came on June 17, 2002, when they defeated Mexico 2-0 in the round of 16 in South Korea. Pulisic has said the team’s approach won’t change in this round and the mood remains light despite the high stakes.

“It’s just special to be here,” he said. “You just don’t want it to end.”

Ahead of the game against Bosnia-Herzegovina, PA Classics coaches Brittney Jakobson and Nick Jakobson took their children, Declan and Camden, to kick a ball at Pulisic’s former club. The Americans, they said, have a shot at winning the tournament. But their legacy goes beyond the trophy.

“Their goal is to inspire a generation and it’s really fun to see that happening in real time … to hear people going out and watching the games, to see people buying the jerseys,” Brittney Jakobson said.

“Pulisic, obviously, in the short term is a great kind of figure to follow,” said Nick Jakobson. “But he does very much encourage that it’s not just about him. It’s not about just these four years. It’s about the next eight, 12, 16. It’s forward-thinking, and they’re laying a good foundation for what we can build on.”

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

An unexpected fright unfolded on the beloved attraction, “It’s a Small World.”

Guests at Disney World faced an alarming incident during a mid-morning visit to the iconic ride, as a fire reportedly erupted while they were in transit.

Videos captured from within the attraction depict cast members swiftly mobilizing to tackle the situation, even as the boats proceeded on their path.

A TikTok video uploaded by user @Coach Bragg revealed a Disney team member utilizing a fire extinguisher to address the smoke hovering over the boats at Magic Kingdom. Additionally, another perspective was shared by TikTok user “lowkey.lilyana15.”

The uploader commented on the promptness of the response, noting, “Disney Cast Members were fast acting to extinguish the small fire!”

Online accounts circulating alongside the footage claim the incident was caused by a guest’s portable phone charger that allegedly ignited inside a bag during the ride.

One TikTok user wrote that the device, not the attraction, was responsible, saying: “This was a guest’s portable charger exploding – not Disney or the ride. You can blame them for a lot but not this one…”

Another user, Hanna, claimed a family member was involved and described the incident, alleging a child placed a bag containing a new magnetic portable charger between their legs before it burst into flames, forcing an evacuation of guests.

A separate comment from someone identifying as a Disney cast member also circulated online, backing up the account and saying the ride itself was not damaged, writing: “This is correct. SW CM here! Everyone is okay, including the ride itself.”

Disney has not publicly confirmed the cause of the reported fire.

The California Post has reached out to Walt Disney World for comment.

The incident comes as Disneyland in California has seen a separate string of ride disruptions and on-ride incidents in recent months, leaving guests briefly stranded or exposed to behind-the-scenes elements of attractions.

On May 27, the Haunted Mansion reportedly stalled near closing time, leaving riders stuck in the graveyard scene inside “Doom Buggies.”

Guests said they were initially told to remain seated while cast members worked on an evacuation plan before the ride lights were turned on to assist with exiting.

Riders described sitting for several minutes in the illuminated scene before being instructed on how to manually release restraints and exit the ride vehicles.

In another recent incident at Disneyland, a 13-year-old boy reportedly went over a waterfall on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure after allegedly attempting to exit a ride vehicle as it approached a roughly 50-foot drop, according to footage obtained by TMZ.

The ride was stopped immediately.

The teen was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation and later released.

Officials said the attraction was inspected by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) and reopened the following Monday without issue.

The District of Columbia has agreed to a settlement with a protester who was arrested after following an Ohio National Guard patrol and playing the iconic Darth Vader theme from “Star Wars” on his cellphone.

According to court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Sam O’Hara will be compensated $50,000 after alleging that he was unlawfully detained and subjected to excessive force.

O’Hara, an artist in the hospitality industry, expressed satisfaction with the settlement, although he expressed concerns over taxpayers footing the bill. 

In a statement given to The AP, he remarked, “Those who violated my constitutional rights should be the ones held accountable, perhaps through their pensions. That’s what real accountability entails.”

On Sept. 11, 2025, O’Hara reportedly walked behind several National Guard troops down a street and played “The Imperial March” from “Star Wars” on his phone.  

He alleged that his protest, which the lawsuit characterized as satire, was aimed at President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops patrolling D.C. neighborhoods 

According to the lawsuit, one of the National Guard members called police, who stopped O’Hara and kept him handcuffed “tightly” for 15 to 20 minutes before releasing him without charges. 

The following month, O’Hara sued Washington, D.C., four Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers and an Ohio National Guard member. 

In court documents, O’Hara alleged the defendants violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights, accusing them of unlawfully restricting free speech and initiating an unlawful seizure while using excessive force.

The lawsuit sought compensatory and punitive damages for claims including false imprisonment, battery and constitutional retaliation.

Last August, Trump began deploying National Guard members after declaring a crime emergency in the nation’s capital.

The increased federal presence heightened tensions among some residents in the heavily Democratic district who criticized the deployment as an overreach of federal authority. 

In a surprising turn of events, Ohio’s capital city found itself in a bit of hot water recently. An announcement had been made suggesting that the flag of Somalia would be hoisted above City Hall, a move that quickly stirred controversy.

The announcement, shared by the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department on Wednesday, was meant to celebrate the historic unification of the Trust Territory of Somaliland and the State of Somaliland into the Somali Republic back in 1960.

Concluding the post, the department noted that ‘City Hall will be raising the flag of Somalia,’ and included an illustrative graphic of Somalia’s national flag, featuring a prominent blue background and a central white five-pointed star.

This announcement was not met without backlash. Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, a Republican, expressed his disapproval, questioning the appropriateness of the purported flag-raising ceremony.

‘There is only one nation’s flag that should ever be flown on American government buildings or property,’ Moreno wrote on X.

He sharply criticized the action by stating, “This action by Columbus is a total disgrace and takes away from the epic celebration on Saturday of this country’s 250 year celebration.” This sentiment underscores the divide in perspectives regarding the city’s international gesture.

Somalia Independence Day is celebrated on July 1, while the United States will commemorate its 250th anniversary this upcoming July 4.

The post, which was also made on Facebook, has since deleted after sparking wide backlash from conservative figures.

The now-deleted post even caught the attention of officials in the orbit of President Donald Trump, with White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller weighing in.

‘Columbus, Ohio raising the flag of Somalia for America 250,’ Miller wrote on X.

Ohio State Rep. Brian Stewart, a Republican, said the post was ‘one more way in which we encourage the refusal to assimilate.’

‘If Somalia is such a failed state that we need to take in tens of thousands of its citizens as ‘refugees,’ then we really don’t need to be celebrating its supposed ‘independence’ with patronizing posts on social media,’ Stewart wrote on X.

Columbus has the second-largest Somali community in the US, according to WBNS.

More than 60,000 Somali people live in the city, per the outlet.

Texas Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican, was among the lawmakers who criticized the post.

‘The United States of America is about to turn 250 and Columbus, Ohio has decided to raise the flag of Somalia,’ Gill wrote on X.

Tricia McLaughlin, the former Department of Homeland Secretary (DHS) assistant, also reacted to the post about the Somali flag.

‘Ohio’s capital city hoisting the flag of a foreign nation,’ McLaughlin wrote on X.

A spokesperson for Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther, Jennifer Fening, said the social media post ‘created by a city department falsely stated that City Hall would raise the Somalian flag in recognition of Somali Independence Day.’

‘While the City recognizes and respects the aspirations of people around the world to live in freedom, this post was inaccurate and has been deleted,’ the mayor’s spokesperson told the Columbus Dispatch.

However, it was still not entirely clear why the post was made in the first place.

A Somali flag was not on the City Hall building as of 3.20pm local time on Wednesday, according to the outlet.

Somalia’s Independence Day was celebrated in Columbus last year, with City Hall being lit blue in honor of the country’s flag, according to Spectrum News 1.

No events were scheduled to take place at the City Hall in commemoration of the country this year.

In 2021, Ohio State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, a Democrat, helped lead a lighting ceremony at Columbus City Hall.

That was followed by a flag raising ceremony on a flag raising ceremony on the grounds of the Ohio Statehouse.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Columbus Mayor’s office and the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department for comment.