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BRUNO Fernandes has reportedly rejected a huge offer to leave Manchester United for the Saudi Pro League, opting to be part of Ruben Amorim’s rebuild at Old Trafford. Reports said Al Hilal were willing to pay United up to £100 million ($135 million) for the 30-year-old Portugal international but had not made an official approach. United endured their worst finish of the Premier League era, finishing 15th. They also lost the Europa League final to Tottenham. United captain Fernandes was one of the few players to emerge with credit from a disastrous season, scoring 19 goals and making 19 assists…

ISRAELI forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians and injured 90 more as they opened fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The latest killings came early on Tuesday at the Flag Roundabout, near an aid hub operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It was the third such incident around the Rafah hub in as many days. Gaza’s authorities report that more than 100 aid seekers have been killed since the United States- and Israel-backed GHF started operating in the enclave on May 27, with reports of violence, looting…

SAUDI authorities have asked pilgrims performing the hajj to remain in their tents for several hours during the high point of this week’s pilgrimage, citing high temperatures. According to a report in Saudi media, Hajj Minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah has requested that pilgrims refrain from leaving their tents between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm on Thursday. The “Day of Arafat” traditionally marks the high point of the hajj, when pilgrims scale Mount Arafat on the outskirts of Mecca. There, pilgrims assemble on the 70-metre (230-foot) high hill and its surrounding plain for hours of prayer and Koran recital, staying there until…

TWO suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, including a female suicide bomber, were killed in an explosion near a prominent Catholic shrine in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, as crowds gathered to mark Martyrs’ Day. The blast on Tuesday took place in the upscale suburb of Munyonyo, outside the Munyonyo Martyrs’ Shrine, where Ugandans were assembling to commemorate 19th-century Christians executed for their faith. No civilian injuries were reported. “A counterterrorism unit this morning intercepted and neutralised two armed terrorists in Munyonyo,” said army spokesman Chris Magezi on X. He confirmed one of the assailants was a female suicide bomber “laden with…

AFTER Sudan’s army recaptured the national capital region of Khartoum in March, tens of thousands of people returned to check on their homes and reunite with loved ones. The joy of returning was tempered by the shock of seeing the damage caused during nearly two years under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), recognised by many Sudanese and the UN as the de facto authority in Sudan, since April 2023. In a region whose hospitals and food and medicine stores had been systematically plundered by the…

BRENTFORD forward Bryan Mbeumo has decided to snub interest from other suitors and complete a move to Manchester United, according to David Ornstein of The Athletic. Bolstering the attacking department was a top priority for Ruben Amorim heading into the summer transfer window, following a toothless season in front of goal. In addition to securing a new striker, United are also believed to be keen on strengthening the number 10 position. On Sunday, the club confirmed the signing of Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers, but their ambitions don’t stop there, with Mbeumo emerging as a top target. Mbeumo enjoyed a…

ISRAELI forces have opened fire again on Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid from a distribution site in Gaza, killing at least three people and injuring more than 30, as the United Nations demands an independent investigation into the repeated mass shootings of aid seekers in the strip. The shooting erupted at sunrise on Monday at the same Israeli-backed aid point in southern Gaza where soldiers had opened fire just a day earlier, according to health officials and witnesses. “The Israeli military opened fire on civilians trying to get their hands on any kind of food aid without any kind of warning,”…

UKRAINE and Russia agreed another large-scale prisoner exchange at talks in Istanbul on Monday, but failed to make a breakthrough on an immediate halt to the fighting. At the second round of direct talks between the warring sides, Ukraine said Moscow had rejected its call for an unconditional ceasefire, offering instead a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline. Urged on by US President Donald Trump, Moscow and Kyiv have opened direct negotiations for the first time since the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, but have yet to make progress beyond prisoner exchanges and…

THE United Kingdom “considers Morocco’s autonomy proposal, submitted in 2007 as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute” over the Moroccan Sahara, and “will continue to act bilaterally, including economically, regionally and internationally in line with this position to support resolution of the conflict”. This position was expressed in a Joint Communiqué signed, Sunday in Rabat, by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, David Lammy, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita. This…

A SOUTH African court opened an inquest Monday into the murders 40 years ago of four anti-apartheid activists by a police hit squad in one of the most notorious atrocities of the apartheid era. No one has been brought to justice for the 1985 killings of the so-called Cradock Four, and their families have accused the post-apartheid government of intervening to block the case from going to trial. Teachers Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe and Sicelo Mhlauli and railway worker Sparrow Mkonto were abducted and killed while returning home from a political meeting in the southern town of Cradock. “After 40…

TWO people died, hundreds were arrested and cars were set ablaze in France overnight as football fans celebrated Paris Saint-Germain’s stunning Champions League final victory, the interior ministry said on Sunday. The epicentre of the euphoria was in Paris, which was a theatre of car horns, cheers, singing in the street, and fireworks throughout the night following PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich, Germany. The ministry said 491 people were arrested in the capital when crowds converged on the Champs-Elysees avenue and clashes broke out with officers. Across France as a whole, including Paris, a total of 559…

ISRAEL has killed at least 32 Palestinians waiting to get food at two aid distribution sites in Gaza, leaving more than 200 others injured. Israeli tanks opened fire on thousands of civilians gathered at a distribution site in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Sunday morning, killing at least 31 people, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Soon after, another person was killed in a shooting at a similar distribution point south of the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza City, said the office’s statement on Telegram. The aid is being distributed by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial group backed by Israel and…

ELON Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the 2024 campaign trail. The New York Times reported Friday that the billionaire adviser to President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a post Saturday on X,…

THE Ivory Coast’s political opposition, an alliance of parties known as the Coalition for a Peaceful Alternation, called on Saturday for political dialogue with the ruling party, Rally of the Republicans (RDR), five months ahead of the presidential election. Opposition leaders denounced President Alassane Ouattara’s potential candidacy, as well as the exclusion of several political figures from the electoral list, including banker Tidjane Thiam, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Swiss bank Credit Suisse. To allow the candidacy of all political leaders, the country’s former First Lady, Simone Gbagbo asked President Alassane Ouattara “to take his pen to write an…

MARKING the World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) launches a new publication and calls on governments to urgently ban all flavours in tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, pouches, hookahs and e-cigarettes to protect youth from addiction and disease. Flavours like menthol, bubble gum and cotton candy are masking the harshness of tobacco andnicotine products turning toxic products into youth-friendly bait. Flavours not only make it harder to quit but have also been linked to serious lung diseases. Cigarettes, which still kill up to half of their users, also come in flavours or can have flavours added…

PARIS Saint-Germain won the Champions League for the first time in their history as Luis Enrique’s brilliant young side outclassed Inter Milan on Saturday in the most one-sided final ever as teenager Desire Doue scored twice in an astonishing 5-0 victory. Achraf Hakimi, playing against his former club, gave PSG an early lead and Doue went from provider to finisher as his deflected shot doubled their advantage in the 20th minute. Doue scored again just after the hour mark, ending any doubt about the outcome before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran away to get the fourth and substitute Senny Mayulu made it…

GAZA is the “hungriest place on Earth” and its entire population is at risk of famine, warns the United Nations, as desperate Palestinians are shot at, starved, and forced from their homes by the Israeli forces. Calling on Israel to stop its campaign of deliberate starvation and allow food into the besieged enclave, the UN on Friday said its mission to help Gaza’s Palestinians is the “most obstructed in recent history”. “The aid operation that we have ready to roll is being put in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations, not only in…

INDIA’s chief of defence staff says the country suffered initial losses in the air during a recent military conflict with neighbouring Pakistan, but declined to give details. “What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we will do after that,” General Anil Chauhan told the Reuters news agency on Saturday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore. India and Pakistan were engaged in a four-day conflict this month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10. More than 70 people were killed in missile, drone and artillery fire…

IN the Democratic Republic of Congo, pressure is mounting on Justice Minister Constant Mutamba after explosive allegations over a multi-million dollar no-bid contract and suspicious fund transfers. On Tuesday, lawmakers grilled the Attorney General for six hours and Mutamba for five. The focus: a $29 million deal awarded without competition, and a $19 million payment to Zion Construction—wired just one day after the company opened its bank account. The funds didn’t come from the state treasury, but from FRIVAO, the agency managing $325 million in war reparations from Uganda. That agency falls under Mutamba’s direct authority. Defending himself, the minister…

A MISSION from the West African Regional bloc, ECOWAS, has left Guinea-Bissau saying the president had threatened to expel it. The team was sent to the country last month to help it reach a “political consensus” on how to conduct elections this year. It said it had “prepared a draft agreement on a roadmap for elections” and had started presenting it to the stakeholders for their consent. But the team decided to leave early on Saturday morning after President Umaro Sissoco Embalo’s threat. It says it will now present its report to the ECOWAS president, including a proposal for an…