Category World News

Real Madrid suffered a shock 2-0 loss and finished with nine men against Celta Vigo in their La Liga clash after Williot Swedberg scored an audacious goal with his heel and a second in stoppage time to leave the hosts four points off leaders Barcelona.

Swedish substitute Swedberg cleverly diverted a cross from Bryan Zaragoza past Thibaut Courtois in the 53rd minute to put Celta ahead, and had an easy finish three minutes into added time, going around the goalkeeper to wrap up the points on Sunday.

Celta jumped from 14th to 10th, while the defeat ended Real’s 100 percent home league record this season after six successive wins.

Xabi Alonso’s stuttering Real team have now won only one of their last five league games as they await the midweek arrival of Manchester City in the Champions League.

Alonso chose to rest centre-back Antonio Rudiger, starting with Alvaro Carreras in the heart of defence, but Rudiger’s break did not last long, with the German defender coming on midway through the first half after Eder Militao pulled up injured.

Celta Vigo goalkeeper Ionut Radu made a handful of good saves in the first half, keeping out a Jude Bellingham header and Arda Guler’s drive from range.

Madrid struggled to create serious danger as Celta set up in a tough-to-crack low defensive block, denying dangerous forwards Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior space.

Guler missed Madrid’s best chance of the first half, with the Turkish playmaker sending a shot wide on the swivel after Mbappe teed him up.

Radu also thwarted Vinicius Junior after Aurelien Tchouameni chopped a ball in behind the defence for the Brazilian to run onto, a rare crack in Celta’s armour.

Celta’s Romanian goalkeeper turned away a fierce Fede Valverde effort from distance early in the second half, before Celta stunned the hosts.

Bryan Zaragoza crossed from the left for Swedberg, who produced a gorgeous flicked finish to beat Thibaut Courtois to send the Galicians ahead.

Madrid were wounded, literally in the case of Bellingham, with blood running down his face from a cut sustained in a tussle with Celta target man Borja Iglesias.

Adding insult to injury, Fran Garcia earned two yellow cards inside a minute, the second for a clumsy foul on Swedberg, to leave Los Blancos with 10 men for the final third of the match.

Mbappe sent a lob over Radu but down onto the roof of the net, and substitute Gonzalo Garcia headed just wide as Madrid searched for an equaliser, which did not come.

Carreras was dismissed in stoppage time as Madrid lost their heads, receiving a second yellow for dissent as he protested a decision by referee Alejandro Quintero.

With Madrid down to nine and in disarray, Celta wrapped up their win as Swedberg rounded Courtois and ran the ball home.

Speaking to the media after the game, Iglesias praised his side’s defensive resilience to win a game with a “strange” ending.

“They have got a lot of quality. It is difficult to play against them. We defended very well,” he said.

“The end of the game was pretty strange. There were a lot of situations, and then there were stoppages, and then some fouls. They then got a bit desperate.

“We are doing well on the road [as it is Celta Vigo’s fourth away win this season]. It is difficult to explain.”

Alonso criticised his team’s “disappointing” effort and intensity, as well as the decisions of the referee.

“We were better with 10 men than with 11 tonight. Simply because with 10 men, at least we started running and working hard,” Alonso said in comments to the media after the game.

“We have to try to turn the page as quickly as possible. It’s just three points – there’s still a lot of the league games left.”

After nearly 14 years of civil war, Syria is trying to turn the page on its past.

It has been a year since Ahmed al-Sharaa’s now-defunct armed group walked into Damascus to little resistance.

Bashar al-Assad, whose family had been in power since 1970, had already fled to Moscow.

Crowds cheered the end of a dictatorship, and political prisoners walked out of the most notorious jails in the country, shocked at their own freedom.

But the optimism of that day has now given way to the realities of transition – sectarian tensions, grinding poverty and demands for justice over atrocities carried out by the Assad regime.

So, can the new government bring real change and unity to Syria? And what can be learned from the steps it has taken so far?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Haid Haid – researcher at Chatham House

Ammar Kahf – executive director at Omran Center for Strategic Studies.

Asian champions Qatar have been knocked out of the FIFA Arab Cup 2025 after a shocking 3-0 loss to Tunisia, with Palestine advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time with a 0-0 draw against Syria.

Home favourites Qatar needed a big win over Tunisia to have any chances of progressing from Group A, where Palestine and Syria were in the lead as the last round of the group fixtures was played on Sunday.

A poor defensive display from the Asian Cup winners saw them concede the lead in the 16th minute on Sunday, when Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane pounced on a goalkeeping error by Meshaal Barsham, allowing the Tunisian midfielder to poke the ball into the net from close range at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.

While the Annabi (the Maroons) were able to hold off further Tunisian goals in the first half, the home crowd was left frustrated by Qatar’s attack.

Led by star striker Akram Afif, the forwards looked jaded as they failed to produce goal-scoring opportunities despite holding 60 percent of the possession.

They were made to pay for not converting their shots into goals when Tunisia doubled their lead in the 62nd minute through a low and close-range header by Yassine Meriah following a corner.

A few minutes later, Tunisia were reduced to 10 men when Seifeddine Jaziri was sent off for a foul with 25 minutes left until full time, but Qatar failed to capitalise on the advantage.

Tunisia’s win was sealed in the closing minutes of the game when an unmarked Mohamed Benali received the ball in the Qatari half and slotted in a powerful strike.

He went on to celebrate the goal and the win, but Tunisia’s joy was short-lived as the result from the other group game confirmed that both teams were knocked out.

Widely contrasting scenes unfolded 48 kilometres (30 miles) away at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, where Palestine and Syria played out a goalless draw to secure their respective qualification for the last-eight stage.

Palestine beat Qatar dramatically in the opening game of the tournament when an own goal gave the war-torn nation a shock win over the favourites.

The Fidai – as the Palestinian team is known – then put on a dogged display against Tunisia as they came back from 2-0 down to draw their second match.

Syria, too, won their first match when they beat Tunisia 1-0 and were level on points and goal difference with their fellow Levantine nation.

This left both table-topping teams needing a point from the final Group A match to secure their progress, and when the full-time whistle was blown by the referee signalling a goalless draw, both sets of players fell to the ground in an outpouring of the emotions they had held back for 90 minutes.

The Palestinian team brought out their flags, keffiyehs and loudest roars as they celebrated in tandem with their vociferous supporters.

Syria’s players were equally emotional as they jumped around in joy and disbelief.

Several Palestinian players, including Gaza-born defender Mohammed Saleh, waved both Palestinian and Syrian flags as the celebrations carried on well past full time.

The results and their impact on the tournament’s next round are shocking, not only because both Palestine and Syria are reeling from the effects of war, but also due to the gulf in the teams’ standings in world football.

Palestine are 96th in FIFA’s team rankings, 45 places behind Qatar, while Syria are placed at 87. Tunisia, the sixth-best team in Africa, are ranked 40th in the world.

Qatar are among the six Arab teams to have qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, and Tunisia are among the nine African nations in the finals.

Neither Palestine nor Syria have ever qualified for football’s showpiece event, but for now, their fans will not care as their teams march on in the Arab Cup.

The Kremlin has praised a new national security strategy adopted by US President Donald Trump, saying it aligns closely with Russia’s own view of global affairs.

The US document published last week warns that Europe faces what it calls “civilizational erasure”, identifies ending the war in Ukraine as a “core” US interest, and signals a shift towards restoring what Washington describes as strategic stability with Moscow.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday that the changes “correspond in many ways to our vision”.

He also welcomed language in the strategy about ending “the perception … of the NATO military alliance as a perpetually expanding alliance”. Moscow has long opposed NATO enlargement, citing its security concerns.

But Peskov cautioned that the position of what he called the US “deep state” – a term the US president has used to accuse officials who he believes are undermining his agenda – may differ from Trump’s new security strategy.

Ukraine war diplomacy

Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, successive US strategies have identified Moscow as a destabilising force threatening the post-Cold War order.

Under Trump, Washington’s approach to the conflict has shifted amid public clashes with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has previously described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “friend”.

Trump’s new strategy comes as efforts led by the White House to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war approach a crucial moment. Zelenskyy will travel to London on Monday for a four-way meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly sought strong backing from European partners, especially when US officials have endorsed Moscow’s position that Kyiv should consider territorial concessions under any peace agreement.

Focus shifts to China

The new security strategy places the Indo-Pacific at the centre of US foreign policy, describing it as a “key economic and geopolitical battleground”. It pledges to expand US military power to deter conflict between China and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Russia, isolated by Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine, has deepened its economic and political ties with China.

Trump in March told Fox News that “as a student of history, which I am, and I’ve watched it all, the first thing you learn is you don’t want Russia and China to get together.”

Experts say the document marks Trump’s desire to overhaul the US-led post–World War II order, reshaping global alliances through a so-called “America First” lens.

British documentary photographer Martin Parr has died at the age of 73, his foundation announced.

One of the best-known documentary photographers of his time, whose lens was often focused on the peculiarities of the English class system, Parr died at his home in the western English city of Bristol on Sunday.

“Martin will be greatly missed,” said the Martin Parr Foundation on Instagram, noting it would be working with Magnum Photos “to preserve and share Martin’s legacy”.

No details on the circumstances of his death were provided, though the photographer had previously revealed being diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer.

Born and raised in Surrey, south of London, in the 1950s, Parr was inspired by his grandfather, a keen amateur photographer, and opted for his chosen profession while still a teenager.

He launched his career after studying at the University of Manchester, taking black-and-white shots that aped the great masters of the time such as Henri Cartier-Bresson.

But he found himself drawn to colour photography, which was becoming the standard form, inspired by the style of amusing seaside postcards and other kitsch items of everyday 1970s Britain.

“Once I tried colour, I never looked back,” he told news agency AFP in 2022.

Parr rose to prominence with his 1980s collection, The Last Resort, which depicted working-class visitors to the seaside town of New Brighton, with highly saturated shots of frazzled beachgoers lit by lurid flash.

In The Cost of Living, Parr captured gentrification under the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, documenting the middle classes keeping up appearances at suburban garden parties and fundraising events with an always satirical eye.

His controversial style was not universally liked. Parr was sometimes accused of cruelty for his refusal to flatter his subjects, though he remained unapologetic and became widely considered as a master of his craft who spawned many imitators.

Cartier-Bresson himself was among several photographers who tried to block Parr’s entry into Magnum, saying he appeared to come “from a totally different planet”. Parr later responded: “I know what you mean, but why shoot the messenger?”

Though he travelled the globe during his decades-spanning career, snapping images everywhere from North Korea to Albania and Japan to Russia, he was best known for his unvarnished, warts-and-all depictions of Britain.

He told AFP he felt connected with Britain’s “history of satire and humour”, but had a “love-hate relationship” with the people, particularly amid the divisions of Brexit, which he captured after the 2016 referendum with photos depicting the volatility of the era.

“I love the country… the hate is from the bigotry, xenophobia that caused the Brexit vote,” he explained at the time.

In an interview with the AFP news agency published last month, he argued that the world has never been more in need of the kind of satire captured in his images.