“No one wants to fight for Israel.” US Senator Tim Sheehy joined police in forcefully ejecting anti-war protestor and former Marine Brian McGinnis from an Armed Services subcommittee meeting. McGinnis is running for the Senate as a Green Party candidate.
Israel closes Gaza crossings amid war with Iran, raising fears of famine. Tareq Abu Azzoum explains.
A power outage has struck most of Cuba, including the capital Havana, the state electric utility said, as the administration of United States President Donald Trump continues its attempts to cripple the Caribbean nation by curtailing vital oil shipments.
News of the widespread power outage on Wednesday emerged as the country’s diplomatic relations with Latin American neighbour Ecuador plummeted after the expulsion of Havana’s top envoy and diplomatic staff from the Ecuadorian capital Quito was announced.
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Cuban state media outlet Cubadebate said the blackout was caused by a fault at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, located about 100km (62 miles) east of Havana, which cut electricity from Pinar del Rio in the far west of the country to the eastern Las Tunas province.
In all, two-thirds of the country, including Havana, were left without power, according to the national electric company UNE, which said it was working to restore services.
In Havana, the outage briefly took Cuban state TV off the air. Its afternoon national news broadcast started more than half an hour after its scheduled airtime, with a presenter explaining the delay was due to the blackout.
Cuba’s electricity generation system has been in shambles for years. Daily power outages of up to 20 hours are the norm in parts of the impoverished island, which lacks the fuel needed to generate power.
The electricity crisis has become more acute since the US abducted Cuba’s top ally, President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, in January.
Venezuela had supplied about half of Cuba’s fuel, but Washington cut off that supply after abducting Maduro and imposing an oil embargo on Havana, which it has eased somewhat, amid warnings from other Caribbean countries that it could trigger an economic collapse in the country.
The fuel scarcity has also forced Cuba’s government to ration key services, including waste collection and public transportation.
In another sign of intense US pressure, Ecuador declared Cuban Ambassador Basilio Gutierrez and his diplomatic staff “persona non grata”, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday, giving them 48 hours to leave the country.
Authorities did not explain why Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa’s government made the decision, but cited Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which allows a country to declare – at any time – any member of a diplomatic mission persona non grata – unwelcome or unacceptable – in the receiving country.
President Noboa is a close ally of US President Donald Trump, who in recent days suggested that the US could carry out a “friendly takeover” of Cuba.
Ecuador did not address whether the move against the Cuban embassy implied a formal break in diplomatic relations with Havana.
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla fired back in a post on social media, saying he rejected “in the strongest terms the arbitrary and unjustified decision of the government of Ecuador to expel all personnel from the Cuban Embassy in that country”.
“It does not seem coincidental that this decision was taken in a context characterised by the intensification of US aggression against Cuba and the strong pressures from that country’s government on third states to join that policy,” he said on the X platform.
At moments like this, all you can do is say the right things.
Say the defeat was disappointing, that the performance was not what was hoped for and that lessons will be learned. Say the team will respond in a positive way.
It is not in Michael Carrick’s nature to throw players under the bus.
Unlike his predecessor, he will never say “this is maybe the worst team in the history of Manchester United”, Ruben Amorim offering that opinion just over a year ago after a home defeat by Brighton.
But Carrick is no-one’s fool either. He knows the 11 days between the chastening 2-1 defeat by 10-man Newcastle at St James’ Park and the visit of Aston Villa to Old Trafford on 15 March could be the most important of his season.
If he gets it right and Manchester United follow Chelsea’s lead by beating Villa, Carrick will have done two things. Firstly, he will have put his club in pole position to qualify for the Champions League, which few thought was realistic when he stepped into Amorim’s shoes.
In addition, from a personal perspective, he will also have shown he really can learn from defeats and respond.
As his old boss Sir Alex Ferguson used to say, “every team loses, it is part of the game; it is what you do about it that counts”.
“We are bitterly disappointed,” said Carrick. “It hurts.
“We came here in good shape. The way it panned out is very disappointing. There is no two ways about that.”
But results never tell the whole story.
Four games ago at West Ham, Manchester United were “stodgy'” by Carrick’s own admission. It took an injury-time Benjamin Sesko goal to salvage a point.
At Everton, Sesko finished off the only notable passage of play from either side. On Sunday, Manchester United’s response to going behind early to Crystal Palace was muted until Matheus Cunha won the penalty that also brought the red card that turned the game on its head.
Carrick’s team have been getting results. However, their most-recent performances have not matched those that beat Manchester City, Arsenal and Fulham at the start of his time at the helm.
Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo have not been a goal threat; Kobbie Mainoo’s performance levels have dipped, while penetration from full-back areas has reduced.
It is a basic reality that they do not have limitless numbers of top-quality players. By the final whistle at St James’ Park, Matthijs de Ligt, Mason Mount, Lisandro Martinez, Noussair Mazraoui and Patrick Dorgu were all absent because of injury. Casemiro and Luke Shaw were off the pitch feeling the effects of two hard games in four days. Carrick does not have the squad depth to cover those losses and still keep standards high.
So, embarrassingly, Manchester United lost against 10 men for the second time in just over three months. The damage was done by William Osula – a player who, as an 11-year-old, appeared on the pitch at Old Trafford to collect a Soccer Schools World Skills final victory prize.
His goal came after he got the better of Tyrell Malacia, who was making only his second appearance of a season he started as a member of Amorim’s ‘bomb squad’. The previous one was against Newcastle too.
The damage is not too bad though. Liverpool lost 24 hours earlier against the league’s bottom club before Aston Villa suffered a heavy home loss to Chelsea on Wednesday.
Manchester United remain third. They remain, out of the sides scrapping it out for three Champions League places in addition to the ones Arsenal and Manchester City will claim, the ones with no European or domestic cup distractions.
“We need to learn from this,” said Carrick.
“There is no sense in not learning lessons and understanding how tonight happened.
“We can’t lose sight of the bigger picture though – we have put ourselves into a position that can be really exciting.
“We’ve got to be positive going into the next game and look forward to it because there is a lot to play for.”
Carrick is right about that.
United States Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has met with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez in Caracas, as part of a push from US President Donald Trump to ramp up oil and mineral production in the South American country.
On Wednesday, the meeting culminated with the announcement that Rodriguez would submit a proposal to reform Venezuela’s mining laws to the country’s legislature in the coming days.
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Burgum also expressed optimism that economic relations between the US and Venezuela would continue to tighten.
“The opportunities for collaboration and synergy between our two great countries of Venezuela and the United States are unlimited,” he said.
He added that he was accompanied on his two-day trip by representatives from nearly a dozen companies seeking access to Venezuela’s oil and minerals.
“They are eager to get started, and they are eager to cut the red tape to allow that capital investment to flow,” Burgum said.
The growing economic ties between Venezuela and the US come in the wake of a January 3 military operation to abduct and imprison Venezuela’s former leader, Nicolas Maduro.
The military operation was criticised as a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty. Experts from the United Nations, for instance, described the incident as a “grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law”.
But in the months since the military attack, the Trump administration has sought to give private enterprises greater access to Venezuela’s natural resources, some of which were nationalised.
Trump himself has claimed that the US has a right to Venezuelan oil, as a result of early petroleum exploration in the country. He called the nationalisation push in Venezuela “the greatest theft in the history of America”.
Venezuela not only has some of the largest oil reserves in the world but also substantial deposits of gold, copper, diamonds, coltan and other minerals.
Burgum acknowledged the wealth of resources in his remarks on Wednesday.
“Venezuela is a rich, rich country filled with both oil and gas resources, but also rich in critical minerals,” he added.
But critics have questioned whether the US is exploiting Venezuela for its own economic gain.
International law, for example, has established that each country has permanent sovereignty over its “natural wealth and resources”. Violations of that principle, under the law, amount to an infringement of the right to self-determination.
Advocates have also pointed out that the Rodriguez administration has faced threats from Trump to act in accordance with his wishes.
In an interview with The Atlantic magazine in January, for instance, Trump warned that if Rodriguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro”.
Already, in late January, Rodriguez signed into law a reform to expand private investment in Venezuela’s state-controlled oil industry, satisfying one of Trump’s primary demands.
Her government has also transferred at least 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the Trump administration to sell, with Trump himself controlling how the proceeds are distributed.
Trump has been a vocal proponent of fossil fuel usage, having called climate change a “hoax” and a “scam”.
He has also praised Rodriguez for her cooperation, citing her administration as a model for other governments, including Iran’s.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump reiterated his satisfaction with Rodriguez’s job performance so far.
“Delcy Rodriguez, who is the President of Venezuela, is doing a great job, and working with US Representatives very well,” Trump wrote.
“The Oil is beginning to flow, and the professionalism and dedication between both countries is a very nice thing to see.”
The US diplomatic mission in Venezuela, meanwhile, characterised Burgum’s two-day visit as a “vital and historic step” in a “three-phase plan” to benefit both countries.
It noted the US and Venezuela would “work for a legitimate mining sector and safe critical mineral supply chains”.
Celtic had to dig deep into their superior resources for a win over Aberdeen that interim manager Martin O’Neill suggests “keeps us, at least for a little while, in the title race”.
Left-back Kieran Tierney suggested in midweek that the trophy winning experience of their players and team boss could give Celtic the edge in a four-horse race for the Scottish title.
In recent weeks, late goals have come to Celtic’s rescue time and again.
After Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Pittodrie, O’Neill again hailed the “resilience” and “fight” that secured a narrow but “big win” over Aberdeen.
O’Neill called for Celtic to avoid the slow starts that have left them facing uphill tasks in recent weeks.
And Tierney responded with their fastest Premiership goal of the season after less than five minutes gone at Pittodrie.
The 28-year-old left-back’s game time has been carefully managed since he returned from an injury plagued spell with Arsenal last summer.
However, Tierney was back to something like his best at Pittodrie, with more goal attempts than anyone else on the pitch and winning every duel in which he competed.
Listen: Sportsound reaction from Celtic’s win at Pittodrie
James Forrest was one of the highly decorated players picked out by Tierney in midweek and the 34-year-old played a vital cameo role at Pittodrie.
His low cross for fellow substitute Benjamin Nygren’s winner was the Scotland winger’s first league assist of the season, but Forrest has now created six chances in his last five appearances off the bench.
Forrest also came off the bench to secure the points late on the last time Celtic played Aberdeen – a 3-1 victory at Celtic Park in December.
SNSFormer Celtic striker Chris Sutton said of Nygren on Sky Sports: “What a strange player. He can go missing in midfield but comes up with goals.”
Just as well given Daizen Maeda is still looking like a shadow of the player who lit up Scottish football last season, January loan signings Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu have yet to fully impress and Kelechi Iheanacho has disappeared from view despite his return from injury.
Nygren is not one of the title winners Tierney talked about in Celtic’s squad, but the 24-year-old Sweden midfielder is doing more than most to make sure he gets that league winners’ medal.
Former Celtic midfielder Scott Allan enthused on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound: “The impact substitutes you’ve seen at the weekend, you’ve seen it again tonight with Benjamin Nygren and James Forrest linking up.
“Lovely tee-up from Forrest and Nygren just finishes – we’ve seen that time and time again and he’s had a real impact in this team.”
Indeed, Nygren has found the net three times and provided one assist in his latest four Premiership games – and his 15 goals are more than any other Celtic player in the league this season.
“I know Nygren gives up certain parts of the game, but what he does do is he gets into the box and gets on the end of things,” Allan said.
“I felt his overall play in the game was really good, played some lovely through balls, always looked like he was going to be a threat round about that 18-yard box and he was the difference again tonight.”
His manager was similary enthusiastic.
“He’s doing something that is the most difficult thing in the game – to score goals -and he’s popped up again with what proved to be the winning goal,” O’Neill said.
There were other individual heroes at Pittodrie.
Viljami Sinisalo has stepped in to replace the off-form and illness struck Kasper Schmeichel in goal and the Finn came up with a stunning stop to deny Kevin Nisbet a second equaliser.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old on-loan Brentford centre-half Benjamin Arthur was handed a first start after Dane Murray was injured in the warm-up.
“Half an hour beforehand his mind was thinking,’ I wonder will I get on at any given stage’ and then the next thing he’s called upon to start the game,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill insisted he always expected the “tough evening” they “certainly got”.
It was Celtic’s fourth midweek game in a row and now they can look forward to Sunday’s renewed rivalry with Rangers, this time in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.
“Our third game in six days, so that was tough,” he said. “We showed resilience to fight it out towards the end.”
