In today’s digest: a Seattle player competes for the Palestine national team and dreams of the World Cup; business owners hope to keep downtown clean after the Club World Cup; and a warning about traffic delays due to the annual Seattle–Portland bike race.
A Seattle player competes for the Palestine national team and dreams of the World Cup
Every young soccer player knows this feeling: you step onto the field with a national team emblem on your chest, you hear the roar of the stands, and you can smell the grass. For most, it remains a dream—but for 22-year-old Zjada Baydass from Issaquah, Washington, it’s a real goal she’s ready to fight for, despite serious obstacles. She plays for the Palestine women’s national soccer team and, at the same time, coaches kids and organizes amateur matches in the Seattle area. “I’m not stopping until we make it to the World Cup,” she said during a break between shifts at her job in Tukwila. “It will be history.”
Zjada has an unusual path into sports. She grew up in Seattle and the United Arab Emirates in a family with a Lebanese-Palestinian father and an American mother. She started playing soccer only at 13—not on a school team, but just to spend time with her dad. “He came with me to the field, coached me, and saw potential in me that I didn’t even notice myself,” she recalls. Her progress was so rapid that the Palestine Football Association took notice. The family didn’t even know there was a national team until a distant acquaintance suggested where Zjada could reach out. When she was 18, she received a call inviting her to a youth national-team tournament, and her father initially thought it was a prank.
The tournament was postponed due to the pandemic, giving Zjada time to prepare. She completely changed her training routine, tailoring it to the playing style of Kevin De Bruyne, the midfielder known for his precise passes. In 2023, she finally traveled to Ramallah to play for the youth team. It was her first trip to her father’s historic homeland—none of his relatives had returned to Palestine since 1948. “It completely redefined how I view everything I do and what I’m part of,” Zjada says.
The conditions in camp were harsh: near Israeli settlements, with gunfire nearby, and an atmosphere thick with tear gas. But it was there that she saw an incredible devotion to the game: “Pride, passion, and dedication—I’d never seen that in the U.S. For them, soccer is everything they have, a way to escape reality.” In 2024, Zjada was promoted to the senior women’s national team, and she took part in a major tournament of the West Asian Football Federation held in Saudi Arabia amid the war in Gaza. The team notched wins over Syria and Iraq, earning a chance to qualify for the 2027 women’s World Cup, but then lost to Jordan.
Playing for the national team, Zjada says, gave her a way to show the world the human face of Palestinians. “I want people to see that we’re just like everyone else,” she says. After the tournament, she faced serious injuries: first a broken bone in her foot put her out for a year, and then in January she fractured her kneecap. Her recovery delayed her plans to play abroad, but she stays connected with the Palestinian team and continues her active work in Seattle.
In December, Zjada graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in environmental studies and completed an internship with The Nature Project, a nonprofit that helps teens improve their mental health through sports and time in nature. The organization’s executive director, Jane Birman Zeibel, calls her a spark: “Her drive and passion for sports permeate all areas of her life.” At the same time, Zjada organizes local soccer tournaments to support Palestinian children and coordinates pick-up street games on hard courts at Judkins Park in Seattle’s Central District. For her, soccer is a universal language that brings together people from different cultures.
Recently, she started working as a coach at the massive new indoor facility Elite 90 near Southcenter mall. They also show men’s World Cup matches there, which only fuels her ambitions. “It only strengthens my desire to achieve success on the world stage,” Zjada says. “I feel like someday we’ll get there.” As noted in a story by The Seattle Times, her story is one of the most remarkable in Seattle soccer: a path from backyard training with her father to a national team player who isn’t afraid of either injuries or political challenges.
Cleanliness during the World Cup: Seattle business owners hope for lasting improvements downtown
After the Club World Cup wrapped up in Seattle, local business owners and advocates began thinking about how to preserve the level of cleanliness and safety achieved in downtown. The temporary measures put in place for international tourists delivered impressive results, but now business leaders are pushing for long-term solutions that could improve things on a lasting basis. As KOMO notes, during the tournament downtown was transformed: streets became noticeably cleaner, the number of people experiencing homelessness dropped, and the safety level increased significantly.
“The cleanup was seven stars—the best it could possibly be. Safety was top-notch too,” says Maxud Chowdhary, co-owner of International Cigar & Tobacco, located at the corner of Third Avenue and Pine Street. It’s in this area—one that is usually associated with problems—that the influx of international visitors was especially noticeable during the World Cup, and city officials went all out to make a good impression. But now that the tournament is over, the focus shifts to how to prevent a return to the old state. Chowdhary emphasizes: “We’re still looking for a permanent solution. People need housing, need rehabilitation programs, and need jobs—because right now they’re just being moved from one neighborhood to another.”
Volunteers with We Heart Seattle, who do street outreach work downtown every day, say that some areas were cleaned up for the tournament, but others were left untouched. “We live here. We want to see the same approach all year, not just during major events. For us locals, who pay taxes and want to enjoy our neighborhoods, it’s a real blow to see everything go back to chaos,” says Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle. She argues for tougher legal measures that hold accountable people who repeatedly break the law. “Three violations and you’re out: either a serious felony charge or six months of involuntary treatment. Until we see real consequences for those crimes, we’ll just keep spinning people in circles for no reason,” Suarez adds.
Alongside this, daily efforts to maintain cleanliness continue: specialized crews regularly wash sidewalks and remove graffiti. According to Downtown Seattle Association, more than 14,000 graffiti tags have already been removed from the streets this year. However, in the view of business owners and advocates, temporary steps alone aren’t enough. They’re urging the city to develop a comprehensive strategy that would include building affordable housing, expanding substance-abuse treatment programs, and creating jobs for people experiencing homelessness—as well as implementing stricter punishments for repeat offenders. Without those steps, the gains of the past few weeks risk becoming only a bright but short-lived chapter in Seattle’s life.
The annual Seattle–Portland bike ride: traffic is inevitable, but the spectacle is worth it
This coming weekend, July 11 and 12, residents and visitors in Washington and Oregon can expect major travel disruptions: more than 6,000 cyclists will hit the roads for the classic Seattle to Portland (STP) ride. It’s the largest multi-day cycling event across the entire U.S. Northwest, and its 207-mile route (about 333 kilometers) with a total elevation gain of more than 1,500 meters will run along key highways and local roads. Organizers and road crews warn drivers will need patience, especially during the morning hours on Saturday and Sunday.
The race starts at the University of Washington campus in Seattle. Then the cyclists’ column heads south, crosses the Columbia River via the Lewis and Clark Bridge, and finishes downtown Portland at Holladay Park. The entire route runs along state highways (State Routes) and local streets; cyclists don’t fully close roads, but share them with vehicles—creating additional congestion. Based on data from previous years, the first significant delays are expected as early as Saturday morning on SR 7 in Pierce County, and then on Sunday morning the traffic will shift to SR 411 from Castle Rock to Longview. Particular attention should be paid to the Lewis and Clark Bridge, where the flow of cyclists will be most dense as they enter Oregon.
For those who find the term “5,000-foot elevation gain” abstract: it means that over the full distance, cyclists will collectively climb more than twice the height of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper. Much of the climbing happens on hilly stretches between states, which helps explain why the race stretches across two days. Throughout the route, organizers and traffic-police officers will be on duty to manage traffic. A complete route map can be found on the official STP website.
The key takeaway for motorists: traveling through Seattle’s southern suburbs and northern areas of Oregon this weekend will require extra time. Even if you’re not planning to participate in the ride, it’s best to avoid sections of SR 7, SR 411, and the area around the Lewis and Clark Bridge during peak hours. At the same time, for spectators it’s a great chance to see hobbyists and professionals taking on serious distances—STP has long been a symbol of the summer season across the Pacific Northwest. As noted in a KOMO piece, organizers urge everyone on the road to show mutual respect and attentiveness.
