Author: Editor

SUBSTITUTE Juanlu Sanchez struck a late winner as Spain came from behind to beat Morocco 2-1 on Monday and reach the final of the Olympic men’s football. Morocco had led in the semi-final through a Soufiane Rahimi penalty towards the end of the first half at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. However, Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez equalised midway through the second period and then set up Sevilla right-back Sanchez to fire in the winner. It is Spain’s second consecutive appearance in the final of the Olympic men’s football. They had to settle for silver three years ago in Tokyo after losing…

ISRAEL has returned the bodies of nearly 90 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has said. Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said on Monday that it was unclear whether the bodies had been dug up from cemeteries by the army during the ground offensive, or whether they were “detainees who had been tortured and killed”. “The occupation provided us with no information about the names, or ages, or anything. This is a war crime, a crime against humanity,” Abu…

A JUDGE in the United States has ruled that Google spent billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly for its search engine, exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation. Monday’s landmark decision that Google broke antitrust law marks the first major success for US authorities taking on the dominance of Big Tech, which has come under fire from across the political spectrum. “The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his 277-page ruling. Google’s dominance in the search…

SECURITY forces in Somalia’s southern city of Kismayo have seized hundreds of Islamic face veils from female residents, the city’s police chief says. Warsame Ahmed Gelle told state TV that authorities have been conducting operations to “fight” the veils, also known as niqabs. The crackdown was sparked by concerns that jihadists could conceal their identity and carry out attacks, Mr Warsame said. Large parts of southern and central Somalia are controlled by al-Shabab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda and has waged a brutal insurgency for nearly 20 years against the UN-backed government in Somalia. On Friday dozens were killed in…

MALI says it has cut diplomatic relations with Ukraine, after a military official suggested Kyiv had played a role in deadly fighting near the Algerian border last month. Dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group were killed in days of clashes with Tuareg separatist rebels and fighters linked to al-Qaeda. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said last week that the rebels had been given the “necessary information” to conduct the attacks. A top Malian official, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, said his government was shocked to hear the claim and accused Ukraine of violating Mali’s sovereignty.…

BANGLADESH’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country following weeks of deadly demonstrations. The removal of Hasina on Monday followed weeks of deadly protests and appears to have averted the threat of further bloodshed. The focus now moves to who will control the South Asian country. In an address to the nation, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced that an interim government will now run Bangladesh and called for calm. Hasina, who ruled the country for close to two decades, boarded a military helicopter on Monday, an aide told Al Jazeera, as huge crowds ignored a national curfew…

A HAT-TRICK from Erling Haaland helped Manchester City to a 4-2 pre-season win over error-prone Chelsea in Columbus. Haaland, 24, scored twice in the first five minutes, profiting from two disastrous Chelsea mistakes as Enzo Maresca’s side gifted the Premier League champions an early lead. The first goal came from a Tosin Adarabioyo loose pass, with Levi Colwill bringing down Haaland for a fourth-minute penalty, which the Norwegian scored after a re-take. Haaland doubled City’s lead almost straight away when he intercepted a miscued Moises Caicedo pass to slot in. Another quick-fire pair of soft goals in the second half…

At LEAST 30 people have been killed and many others injured in Israeli strikes on two United Nations-run schools in the west of Gaza City. The latest death toll was reported to Al Jazeera by Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of hospitals in the Gaza Ministry of Health. According to the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, 80 percent of those killed and injured in the strikes on Sunday on the Hassan Salama and al-Nasr schools were children. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that the schools, which have been used as shelters by displaced Palestinians, have been…

AT LEAST 91 people have been killed, including 13 police officers, and dozens more injured in a new round of violence in Bangladesh as police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who returned to the streets to ask Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign. The deaths were reported by the police and doctors on Sunday in the capital Dhaka and the northern districts of Bogura, Pabna and Rangpur, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south. The attack on the police…

THE Horn of Africa would experience below-average rainfall during the October-December season, potentially leading to drought conditions, international agencies warned on Friday. The agencies, which include the United Nations World Food Programme, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) of the East African bloc of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, said in an alert that climate models have predicted a transition to La Nina conditions during the second half of 2024, which could bring below-average rainfall. “The greatest impacts are expected in central and southern Somalia, southern Ethiopia, and…

AFRICAN finance ministers and central bank governors have outlined a four-point strategy to enhance intra-African trade and stimulate economic growth. The plan agreed upon at the 2024 African Caucus Meeting in Abuja, focuses on strengthening payment systems, improving energy access, leveraging partnerships with banks, and reforming the global financial architecture. The meeting, held amidst a challenging global economic climate, stressed the need to increase intra-African trade as a catalyst for job creation and investment. While acknowledging Africa’s economic resilience, the leaders emphasized the continent’s low share of global trade, currently at 14.4 percent. To address this, the caucus called for…

THE locker Kobe Bryant used for the majority of his legendary NBA career sold for $2.9 million on Friday in New York, as part of an auction of rare sports memorabilia at Sotheby’s. The price for the Staples Center locker, which Bryant used while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, nearly doubled the $1.5 million it was estimated to fetch. Bryant, an 18-time NBA All-Star guard, was killed in a 2020 helicopter crash at age 41. He spent his entire NBA career from 1996-2016 with the Lakers. A maintenance worker saved the locker from being discarded in 2018 during renovations…

AT least nine people, including a local commander of Hamas’s military wing, have been killed in two separate Israeli air strikes near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera on Saturday that one of the people killed in the first attack was Haitham Balidi, leader of the Qassam Brigades in the Nablus area. Another person was identified by a relative as one of the leaders of al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. The identities of the other people were not immediately clear. Family members went to a hospital in Tulkarem…

PROTESTERS in Bangladesh have taken to the streets to demand justice for the more than 200 people killed in last month’s student-led demonstrations over quotas in government jobs. The large protests on Saturday came as student leaders called for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign until Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government resigns. Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising the initial protests, rebuffed an offer of talks with Hasina earlier in the day. “She must resign and she must face trial,” Nahid Islam, the group’s leader, told a crowd of thousands at a monument to national heroes in the capital…

THE civil war in Sudan has pushed a camp housing about 500,000 displaced people near the besieged Darfur city of el-Fasher into famine, an independent group of food security experts says. The 16-month conflict and restrictions on aid deliveries were to blame, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) concluded after looking at new data. “The scale of devastation brought by the escalating violence in el-Fasher is profound and harrowing,” it said, explaining how Zamzam camp’s population had ballooned since April. The war – a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – has created the world’s…

AT least 32 people have been killed and many more wounded in a suicide bombing and gun attack on a popular beach in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, according to officials. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked armed group, claimed responsibility for the attack on Lido Beach late on Friday via an affiliated radio station. The assault began when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of Beach View Hotel. Several other attackers tried to storm the hotel and also fired on people on the beach, where many residents were walking or sitting, according to witnesses and police. “More than 32 civilians died…

FRANCE set up an Olympic men’s football semi-final with Egypt after beating Argentina 1-0 in a hostile quarter-final marred by ugly scenes at the final whistle. Players and coaches from both sides clashed on the pitch at the end as the hosts booked their last-four spot. Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta got France’s winner when he headed home Michael Olise’s fifth-minute corner at the near post. Argentina’s best chance came just before half-time with Giuliano Simeone heading over from close range. France had a late goal ruled out as the video assistant referee (VAR) ruled Maghnes Akliouche had fouled an…

THE United States will deploy additional warships and fighter jets to the Middle East to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies, the Pentagon said. Tensions remain high in the region over the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and a key commander of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Missile defence forces were placed on a state of increased readiness to deploy, the Pentagon said, adding that its commitment to defend Israel was “ironclad”. Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed “harsh punishment” against Israel for the assassination of Haniyeh, and declared three days of…

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has revoked a pre-trial agreement reached with men accused of plotting the 11 September terrorist attacks. In a memo on Friday, Mr Austin also said he was revoking the authority of the officer overseeing the military court who signed the agreement on Wednesday. The original deal, which would reportedly have spared the alleged attackers the death penalty, was criticised by some families of victims. The memo named five defendants including the alleged ringleader of the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, all of whom are held in Guantánamo Bay. The original deal named three men. “I have…

SUDAN’s ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ruled out negotiation with paramilitaries after he survived a drone attack on Wednesday in the war-torn country’s east. The army said five people were killed in a drone attack on a ceremony at the Gibet base, where Burhan was overseeing a graduation ceremony. “We will not retreat, we will not surrender, and we will not negotiate,” Burhan, who appeared unharmed, told troops at the Gibet base after the attack. “We are not scared of drones,” he said at the Gibet base, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Port Sudan, where the army-aligned government fled…