UNITED States President, Donald Trump, has said he is unconcerned about whether Iran national football team participates in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, amid growing uncertainty surrounding the country’s involvement in the tournament. Trump made the remark in an interview with Politico on Tuesday, saying, “I really don’t care,” if Iran takes part in the competition. “I think Iran is a very badly defeated country. They’re running on fumes,” he stated. Questions have emerged over Iran’s participation following rising tensions in the Middle East and concerns about whether Iranian officials and supporters would be allowed entry into the United States,…
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A CEREMONY commemorating Iran’s late leader Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran has been postponed, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, days after he was assassinated along with family members in joint air strikes by Israel and the United States. The news agency quoted an official citing logistical issues for the delay, including requests from people in different provinces to attend the ceremony. Funeral arrangements are ongoing and are expected to draw huge crowds, and, with them, the potential threat of US-Israeli attacks on a gathering of mass mourning. Some 10 million people attended Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s funeral in…
A RUSSIAN tanker carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) has sunk in the Mediterranean between Libya and Malta, as Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking the vessel. The Libyan port authority said the tanker was hit by “sudden explosions followed by a massive fire, which ultimately led to its complete sinking” on Tuesday night north of the port of Sirte, Libya. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of attacking the gas carrier. “This is a terrorist attack. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of thing,” Russia’s Putin told a reporter from Russian state television on Wednesday, accusing Kyiv of…
COMPUTER tablet screens glow inside a row of partitioned booths at a new-style Ethiopian police station. There is no commotion. There is no front desk, no bench of anxiously waiting civilians, no officer calling out names. It is a pilot project of what is being called a “smart” – or unmanned – police station in the Bole district of the capital, Addis Ababa, is the latest chapter in Ethiopia’s bid to catch up with the digital revolution. A large monitor on the wall cycles through welcome messages as well as images of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. But at the moment…
THE UK government will stop issuing study visas to people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan from this month, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said, as well as stopping skilled work visas to Afghans. The Home Office said the action was being taken due to what it said was widespread visa abuse. According to official figures, people from the four countries were the most likely to make an asylum claim after originally coming to the UK to study. “The government is clamping down on visa abuse so the UK can maintain its ability and proud tradition of helping those genuinely…
QUESTION: Salaamu Alaikum, Ya Sheikh. People often say, ‘Ramadan Kareem’. So what is the ruling concerning this phrase? Saminu Labaran Inuwa, Gombe – ANSWER: Amin Alaikum Salaam Wa Rahamatullah. Shaykh Uthaymeen [rahimahullaah] said : The ruling concerning this is, this phrase Ramadan Kareem is not correct, and the only phrase that should be said is Ramadan Mubarak or what resembles that. Because Ramadan is not the one that gives such that it can be called generous (Kareem), rather it is only Allah the Exalted that put virtue in it and made it a virtuous month and made the time period…
CAPTAIN and forward for Al-Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo, has left Saudi Arabia for Madrid, Spain, following escalating tensions in the Middle East after US-Israeli strikes in Iran. According to the Daily Mail on Tuesday, the 41-year-old departed Riyadh late at night aboard his £61 million ($81 million) Bombardier Global Express 6500 private jet. His reported departure follows regional strikes. The US embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones overnight, and Iranian state media reported that a command and staff building in Bahrain had also been destroyed. “Riyadh, where Ronaldo lives with his partner Georgina Rodriguez and their five children, has…
US President Donald Trump has said his administration’s war against Iran “successfully knocked out” the country’s air force and navy. “We’re doing very well,” Trump said on Tuesday, during a news conference at the White House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before their meeting. “They have no navy; it’s been knocked out. They have no air force; it’s been knocked out. They have no air detection – that’s been knocked out,” Trump said. Trump’s comments came on the fourth day of US-Israeli strikes on Iran as Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz and continued its retaliatory missile and drone attacks…
THE airline and tourism industries are scrambling to deal with the fallout from the escalating US and Israeli air war against Iran, while governments have rushed to bring stranded travellers home from the Middle East following the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights over a handful of days. Major Gulf hubs, including Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, remained closed or severely restricted for a fourth day on Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded. According to Flightradar24, some 21,300 flights have been cancelled at seven major airports, including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, since the strikes started. The…
THREE people have been detained in Belgium as part of a probe into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Cameroon linked to the country’s secessionist rebellion, Belgian prosecutors say. They are suspected to be leaders of the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF), a militia fighting for the independence of Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions in what is a mainly French-speaking nation. “Money is reportedly being raised for the armed struggle and for the purchase of arms and ammunition, and instructions for attacks… are said to be given from Belgium,” the federal prosecutor’s office said. The UN says more than 6,500…
THE US has imposed sanctions on the Rwandan army and four of its senior commanders, accusing them of fuelling the conflict in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fighting has persisted despite a US-brokered peace deal in December between the Congolese and Rwandan governments aimed at ending the long-running conflict in eastern DR Congo. The US treasury department accused the Rwandan army of undermining the peace deal by training, equipping and fighting alongside the M23 rebel group. Rwanda swiftly rejected the accusations, saying the sanctions had unfairly targeted one side and “misrepresent the reality and distort the facts of the…
QUESTION: Salaamu Alaikum, Ya Sheikh. I embraced Islam recently without my parent’s knowledge. If they knew they would be very angry and would cut off my study allowance for university. Hence I tried to keep the matter secret. But on the third day of Ramadan, I had no choice but to go to a meeting at the University, and after I arrived I found out that they had prepared dinner that happened to be one and a half hours before Maghrib. The problem was not my refusing to eat with them; rather the problem was that my parents were also…
MICHAIL Antonio says he had to “swallow his ego” after his near‑fatal car crash as he prepares to make his first club appearance in 15 months. The 35-year-old striker, who has joined Qatari side Al‑Sailiya, says owners of English clubs were wary of signing him following his accident in December 2024, which left him with multiple leg fractures. He returned to competitive action with the Jamaica national team with three substitute appearances in June – his only football since the crash. But Antonio told BBC Sport he “feels like a schoolboy again” as he looks to prove his fitness during…
UNITED States President Donald Trump has said the plan for the Iran war initially “projected four to five weeks”, adding the US military has the “capability to go far longer than that”. Speaking on Monday from the White House, Trump outlined his administration’s justification for going to war against Iran alongside Israel, saying that Iran posed “grave threats” to the US, even as he again claimed that US strikes on Iran in June of last year led to the “obliteration of Iran’s nuclear programme”. Trump also said that Iran’s ballistic missile programme was “growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed…
SPAIN says the United States is not using and will not be using joint military bases on its territory for operations against Iran, a mission condemned by Madrid. “Based on all the information I have, the bases are not being used for this military operation,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish public television on Monday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Saturday as an “unjustified” and “dangerous military intervention” outside the realm of international law, in another break from US policy. “The Spanish government will not authorise the use of…
THE authorities in South Sudan have said at least 169 people, including senior officials, were killed on Sunday when a group of unidentified men launched an assault on an area in the north of the country. Describing the attack as carried out by dozens of armed youth, Ruweng Administrative Area’s Information Minister James Monyluak Mijok alleged that they came from neighbouring Unity state and were linked to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO). The SPLA-IO has denied any involvement in the attack, accusing the Unity state authorities of politicising the violence. The UN has repeatedly warned that the…
ACROSS the African continent, reactions have been pouring in since the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday evening and the subsequent retaliation which saw Iran attack several countries across the Middle East. Most African countries have called for de-escalation and respect for international law, while others support Tehran’s right to respond. The African Union (AU) said in a statement that the military strikes and Iran’s subsequent response, “represent a perilous and deeply troubling escalation, one that marks a serious intensification of hostilities in the Middle East and threatens to engulf the entire region in an uncontrollable…
LOUD explosions were heard in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and the Qatari capital of Doha for a third consecutive day of Iranian retaliatory strikes on neighbouring Gulf states in response to ongoing attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran. Loud bangs and sirens were also heard in Kuwait early on Monday morning, with a witness quoted by Reuters news agency saying smoke was seen rising from near the US embassy. Kuwaiti air defences intercepted the majority of the drones near Rumaithiya and Salwa neighbourhoods, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported, quoting the director general of civil…
QUESTION: Salaamu Alaikum Sheikh. Is it true that giving charity purifies the soul? Ahmad Ali Maina, Borno – ANSWER: Amin Alaikum Salaam Wa Rahamatullah. One cannot attain piety unless he regularly spends his wealth in good causes according to his capacity. Qur’an reminds about charity and alms giving in so many places that it won’t be an exaggeration to say that it is one of the basic elements of belief. In surah Aal Imran, Allah says, “By no means shall you attain righteousness unless you give (freely) of that which you love. And whatever you spend; indeed, Allah is Knowing…
ARSENAL reestablished a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League as the Gunners overcame 10-man Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday. Defenders William Saliba and Jurrien Timber got Arsenal’s goals as Chelsea’s ill-discipline saw them lose ground in the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League after Pedro Neto was sent off 20 minutes from time. The Blues could not cope with Arsenal’s prowess from corners as Mikel Arteta’s men edged closer to a first league title in 22 years. Saliba forced home the opening goal on 21 minutes after Gabriel Magalhaes headed Eberechi Eze’s delivery back across…