Category World News

Mohamed Salah scored, and Egypt eliminated the defending champions, Ivory Coast, to move into the 2025 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) semifinals with a 3-2 victory.

Liverpool forward Salah nabbed his fourth goal of the tournament – Egypt’s third of the game – in the 52nd minute of Saturday’s encounter, and the Pharaohs needed it, as Ivory Coast threatened to twice come back from two goals down.

Egypt, however, held on in Agadir despite relentless Ivorian pressure, and booked a semifinal date with 2021 champions Senegal in Tangier on Wednesday.

Ivory Coast had a woeful start, as Franck Kessie lost the ball in the midfield after a poor touch and Odilon Kossounou fell over instead of cutting out Emam Ashour’s ball for Omar Marmoush, who scored in the fourth minute.

Ramy Rabia produced a brilliant block to preserve the lead, and then scored himself with a header from a corner in the 32nd.

Ivory Coast finally pulled one back five minutes before the break, when Ahmed Abou El Fotouh bundled in a dangerous Yan Diomande free kick, which Kossounou headed on.

Salah restored Egypt’s two-goal cushion early in the second half, when Rabia caught the Ivorian defence out with a long ball for Ashour, who set up Salah with the outside of his boot.

Guela Doue pulled another one back with his heel in a goalmouth scramble, after goalkeeper Mohamed El-Shenawy clawed the ball away in the 73rd, but the equaliser never came.

Egypt are bidding for a record-extending eighth AFCON title.

Earlier, three-time champions Nigeria, who lost the final to Ivory Coast in the last edition, beat Algeria 2-0 to set up a semifinal meeting with Morocco.

The Super Eagles are bidding to win the title for the first time since 2013.

For almost a decade, the Southern Transitional Council has been the main player in southern Yemen while the country reeled from division and civil strife.

But in a matter of hours, the separatists lost control of all the territory they had previously held.

The developments followed a military intervention by Saudi Arabia to stop what it called a threat to its national security.

Earlier this week, in a statement issued in Riyadh, the STC announced the movement’s dissolution.

Saudi Arabia is now planning a conference of the main political factions to shape the future of the south.

Will the outcome serve its long-term goals in Yemen?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Khaled Batarfi – Political analyst

Farea Al Muslimi – Research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme

Protests against US President Donald Trump’s militarised anti-immigration push are sweeping the United States, after the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent sparked outrage this week.

Indivisible, a social movement group, said hundreds of demonstrations were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other US states on Saturday.

“ICE’s violence is not a statistic, it has names, families, and futures attached to it, and we refuse to look away or stay silent,” Leah Greenberg, Indivisible’s co-executive director, said in a statement.

Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to attend a protest in Durham, North Carolina, because of what he called the “horrifying” killing of Renee Nicole Good by the ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks told The Associated Press news agency. “We have to stand up.”

Senior Trump administration officials have justified Good’s killing, saying she “weaponised” her vehicle and threatened the life of the ICE officer who shot and killed her.

But video footage from the scene showed Good attempting to drive away before being shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

The incident has renewed scrutiny of Trump’s push to deploy heavily armed law enforcement officers to carry out an anti-immigrant crackdown across the US, with local authorities demanding that ICE agents leave their cities.

The killing of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, came as the US Department of Homeland Security pushes ahead with what it has called its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

‘ICE Out For Good’

Many of Saturday’s protests were dubbed “ICE Out for Good”, with organiser Indivisible saying the rallies aimed to “mourn the lives taken and shattered by ICE and to demand justice and accountability”.

In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups called for a demonstration at Powderhorn Park, a large green space near the residential neighbourhood where the deadly shooting occurred on Wednesday.

They said the rally would call for an “end to deadly terror on our streets”.

Reporting from a rally in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo said the protesters have been expressing outrage “but overwhelmingly, we hear people say they’re here to demonstrate peacefully.”

“We’re also hearing a lot of calls for justice. What I’m not hearing is too much optimism that there will be justice in this case,” Rapalo said, referring to Good’s killing.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who demanded that ICE leave the city after the deadly incident, said on Saturday that 29 people had been arrested overnight as police responded to continued protests.

Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who damage property or endanger others will be arrested.

Minneapolis ​Police ‌Chief Brian O’Hara said one police officer ‌was injured ‌during the ⁠protest response.

Meanwhile, three US lawmakers representing Minnesota attempted to tour an ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning but were told to leave after initially being allowed to enter.

US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.

Nigeria powered to a deserved 2-0 victory over Algeria in their Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal with second-half strikes from Victor Osimhen and ‍Akor Adams to set up a semifinal with hosts Morocco.

Osimhen steered home a long cross from the left by Bruno Onyemaechi ⁠two minutes into the second half on Saturday as Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane made a bizarre jump to try ​and stop the effort, but ended up getting his angles wrong and conceding an ‍easy goal.

Adams increased Nigeria’s lead 10 minutes later as Osimhen unselfishly fed him the ball, and he took it around Zidane before placing it into an empty net.

It was an impressive performance by Nigeria, who two months ago missed out ‍on World Cup ⁠qualification, as they overwhelmed their opponents from the start at the Grand Stade de Marrakesh, looking more determined, quicker around the field and stronger in the challenges, and denying their opponents a single scoring chance.

Algeria were already hanging on grimly in the first half, with Nigeria having good chances to be ahead at the break.

Algeria centre back Ramy Bensebaini cleared off the line in the 29th minute from Calvin Bassey after the depth of Ademola Lookman’s free kick ​was misjudged by Zidane and the Nigeria fullback was able to steer an ‌effort goalward from a tight angle.

Bensebaini hooked it clear, although television replays looked to show the whole circumference of the ball had crossed the line. A VAR check in the absence of goal line technology, however, ‌did not award a goal.

In the 37th minute, a poor clearance from Zidane to full-back Aissa Mandi was intercepted by Alex Iwobi, who quickly ‌fed the ball to Adams, but the Sevilla striker‘s left-footed effort ⁠missed the target with only the goalkeeper to beat.

Adams also headed against the upright in the 82nd minute as Osimhen’s enterprise and persistence again set him up with a clear chance.

Algeria had been forced to play extra-time before winning their last-16 clash ‌against the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday and the exertion could have been the reason many of their key players turned in listless performances. In contrast, Nigeria had a comfortable 4-0 win over Mozambique ‍on Monday.

Nigeria, who have reached the last four 17 times in the last 20 tournaments they have qualified for, will take on Morocco in Rabat in the semifinals on Wednesday.

The Super Eagles, who had a far from ideal preparation with reports of bonuses not being paid, will face host Morocco in the second semifinal in Rabat on Wednesday.

Thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets in Aden to show support for the Southern Transitional Council (STC) amid conflicting reports about the separatist group’s purported plans to disband following deadly confrontations with Saudi Arabia-backed forces.

STC supporters chanted slogans against Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s internationally backed government in demonstrations on Saturday in Aden’s Khor Maksar district, one of the group’s strongholds.

The crowd waved the flag of the former South Yemen, which was an independent state between 1967 and 1990.

“Today, the people of the south gathered from all provinces in the capital, Aden, to reiterate what they have been saying consistently for years and throughout the last month: we want an independent state,” protester Yacoub al-Safyani told the AFP news agency.

The public show of solidarity came after a successful Saudi-backed offensive to drive the STC out of parts of southern and eastern Yemen that it had seized towards the end of last year.

The confrontations exposed heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a top ally that the Saudi authorities have accused of backing the STC.

The group had taken over the provinces of Hadramout, on the border with Saudi Arabia, and al-Mahra, a land mass representing about half the country.

After weeks of Saudi-led efforts to de-escalate, Yemeni government forces, backed by the Gulf country, launched an attack on the STC, forcing the separatists out of Hadramout, the presidential palace in Aden and military camps in al-Mahra.

On Friday, an STC delegation that travelled to Riyadh for talks had announced the dissolution of the group in an apparent admission of defeat.

Secretary-General Abdulrahman Jalal al-Sebaihi said the group would shut down all of its bodies and offices inside and outside of Yemen, citing internal disagreements and mounting regional pressure.

However, Anwar al-Tamimi, an STC spokesman, contested the decision, writing on X that only the full council could take such steps under its president – highlighting internal divisions within the separatist movement.

During Saturday’s protest in Aden, STC supporters held up posters of the group’s leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who was smuggled from Aden to the UAE this week after failing to turn up to the talks in the Saudi capital.

Saudi-backed forces have accused the UAE of helping him escape on a flight that was tracked to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.