MANCHESTER City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne confirmed on Friday that he will leave the club at the end of the season. De Bruyne, 33, has won 14 major trophies since joining City from Wolfsburg in 2015, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2023. “Nothing about this is easy to write, but as football players, we all know this day eventually comes. That day is here – and you deserve to hear it from me first,” De Bruyne said in a post on social media. “Football led me to all of you – and to this city.…
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ISRAEL has now restricted Palestinians’ access to roughly two-thirds of Gaza, either by declaring large areas as no-go zones or issuing forced displacement orders, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Among the restricted areas is a large swath of southern Rafah, where Israel’s military issued a new displacement order on March 31, declaring it was returning to “fight with great force”. The restrictions also cover parts of Gaza City, where Israeli troops launched a new ground offensive on Friday morning to expand their “security zone”. These escalations have triggered one of the largest mass…
UNITED States President Donald Trump has again extended a deadline for owners of the popular video app TikTok to sell to non-Chinese buyers or be banned in the US. The executive order announced on Friday would extend the deadline by 75 days. Trump had previously extended a January deadline set out in the law passed by the US Congress last year. “My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress,” Trump posted on the Truth Social network, which he owns. He added “the deal requires more work to ensure all…
LIBYAN authorities have accused aid groups of plotting to change the country’s ethnic make-up by encouraging African migrants to stay there, and has ordered them to close their offices. Ten groups have been singled out – including Doctors Without Borders, the UN refugee agency, and Norwegian Refugee Council. “This plan to settle migrants of African origin in our country represents a hostile act. It aims to change the demographic composition of the country and threatens the balance of Libyan society,” said Internal Security Authority spokesman Salem Gheit on Thursday. It echoes a similar announcement made by Tunisia two years ago,…
THE UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said he is appalled at what he described as “credible reports” of extrajudicial killings of civilians by the Sudanese army, after it recaptured the capital Khartoum last week. In a statement Volker Türk called for a full investigation into the allegations. He expressed his concern over the “credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces.” Videos have been circulating for several days on social media of alleged killings of civilians by armed men,…
THE media have already been awash with the news that some licensed tour operators have dumped the slots allocated to them by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) and withdrew from further participation in the 2025 Hajj processes. However, we were forced to set the record straight, because from the reports we have read so far, there were sinister attempts aimed at twisting the narrative to turn us against our colleagues and members with whom we sweat day and night to ensure they got a better deal and a more acceptable bargain for their teeming and innocent Pilgrims. WHO…
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said on Thursday it would be “a bad idea” for FIFA to expand the World Cup to 64 nations for the 2030 tournament. The 2026 edition in the United States, Mexico and Canada will already see the format increase from 32 teams to 48. But the head of the Uruguayan football federation, Ignacio Alonso, suggested further expanding the tournament at the last FIFA Council meeting in March. Football’s global governing body said it “had a duty to analyse” the proposal, which European chief Ceferin denounced at UEFA’s congress in Belgrade. “It’s maybe even more surprising for…
AT least 33 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Israeli air attacks on three schools housing displaced people in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to local officials. Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement that 29 people – including 18 children – were killed and more than 100 were injured when Israeli air raids hit the Dar al-Arqam School-turned-shelter on Thursday. The school was hit with at least four missiles, a Civil Defence spokesperson said. Sources told Al Jazeera that at least four people also were killed in an Israeli attack on the…
DESPITE its sophistication as a country, research has shown that the United States of America (USA) is ranked as the country most anxious about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), especially on jobs. This was revealed by a study conducted by ZeroBounce, which ranked the countries most anxious about AI. The research analyzed search volume data for terms related to AI job loss alongside positive AI sentiment percentages across major economies. The AI Anxiety Score combined search volumes for terms indicating concern about AI replacing human workers with inverse positive sentiment measurements. Higher scores indicate greater population concern about AI’s…
A PROTEST march has been held in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, against a recent spate of reports of men raping children. Over the last two months, Zambians have been shocked by several cases of child rape, some of which resulted in death. Among the most horrific reports was that of a father allegedly raping his seven-year-old daughter while she was admitted to hospital for cancer treatment. There have also been reports of a five-year-old allegedly being raped by a gang of four men, while another father was jailed for raping and infecting his six-year-old with genital warts, a sexually transmitted infection.…
CIVILIANS in Sudan’s North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, and surrounding towns are starving. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have imposed a siege on them for about a year, yet they managed to forestall an invasion thanks to the Joint Forces – an array of local armed factions backed by the army. The besieged civilians are now pleading for help, but some fear the army has neither the political will nor the capability to rescue civilians, say experts, local journalists and civilians. The nearly 500,000 civilians in Zamzam camp – the largest refugee camp in North Darfur – are already suffering…
LA LIGA said Wednesday Barcelona did not have the financial capacity to register players Dani Olmo and Pau Victor and still lack it, ahead of a decision by Spain’s sports council (CSD) over the duo’s eligibility to play. In January Barcelona announced a deal had been reached to sell VIP boxes at the club’s Camp Nou stadium, currently being rebuilt, worth a reported 100 million euros ($108 million), which gave them the financial fair play room for new licences for the players. La Liga said Barcelona used an unnamed auditor between December 31 and January 3 which recorded the deal…
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is seizing areas to dissect Gaza Strip further, after defence minister says military will “capture extensive territory” to be added to “buffer zones”. The announcement comes as the death toll from Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza rises to at least 77 since dawn. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since Israel broke the truce last month. In a statement, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Palestinian civilians would be ordered to evacuate areas where fighting is ongoing. He urged residents to take action against Hamas and secure the release of Israeli captives…
MYANMAR’s governing military has declared a unilateral, temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war to facilitate rescue efforts after last week’s powerful earthquake, as state television reported the death toll from the disaster had surpassed 3,000. MRTV said that the truce would last from Wednesday until April 22 and was aimed at making quake relief efforts easier. The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. Those groups must refrain from attacking the state, or regrouping, or else the military will take “necessary” measures, the army said in a statement. The death toll from…
AFTER spending eight years in jail, a Nigerian televangelist accused of raping young women from his South African church has been found not guilty of all charges. Timothy Omotoso had denied the 32 charges in a trial that was broadcast live and gained huge interest across the country. In 2018, one witness told the court she had been raped by the pastor – who ran a church in the city of Port Elizabeth – when she was 14 years old. When delivering the verdict on Wednesday, the judge presiding over the trial said that Mr Omotoso had been found not…
NIGER’s military leaders have released more than 50 detainees, including former ministers in the government they toppled in 2023. Among them are the former ministers of defence, oil and finance, as well as several senior army officers, convicted or accused of plotting previous coups. Ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been under house arrest since the 2023 military takeover, was not on the list of those released despite international calls for him to be freed. When the BBC asked about President Bazoum’s continued detention, Justice Minister Aliyou Daouda cited “national security and sovereignty” concerns. “The question of his release is…
BRIGADIER-GENERAL Maharazu Tsiga (rtd) has regained his freedom after spending 56 days in captivity. This newspaer had reported how the former Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was abducted from his hometown in Bakori local government area (LGA) of Katsina state, on February 5, 2025. He was kidnapped alongside nine other residents. However, after payment of ransom by his family, his abductors still held him captive for weeks. There were conflicting figures regarding the ransom paid earlier. While some claimed the sum of N60m was paid, this newspaper reliably learnt that the actual money paid for his release…
THE Confederation of African Football (CAF) has ordered a replay of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier between Cameroon and Kenya over match-fixing allegations The match, originally played on October 16, 2024, in Yaoundé, has been deemed compromised due to irregularities identified by FIFA’s Integrity and Compliance Unit. In a statement signed by CAF Integrity Officer Marjan Marjan and addressed to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) General Secretary on April 1, 2025, CAF detailed the findings of a forensic review of match footage and intelligence reports from global sports integrity monitoring agencies. The investigation pointed to potential instances…
THE United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as “ridiculous” an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries in the enclave supported by the World Food Programme. No aid has been delivered to the Palestinian enclave since March 2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said it would not allow the entry of all goods and supplies into Gaza until Hamas releases all remaining hostages. Then later in March Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza after a two-month truce and sent…
THE United States said Tuesday it has approved a sale of $5.58 billion in F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, as Washington backs its ally in rising tensions over China. The State Department said it was green-lighting the sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States. The sale will “improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia,” a State Department statement said. The sale will boost “the Philippine Air Force’s ability to conduct…