As the US moves to launch phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, a closer look at how Israel has fallen short on phase one.
Israel’s phase one Gaza ceasefire violations
Tielemans out until April as Villa injuries mount
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Aston Villa midfielder Youri Tielemans has been ruled out for up to 10 weeks to deepen their midfield injury crisis.
The Belgium international, 28, came off in Sunday’s 2-0 win at Newcastle with an ankle injury and checks have confirmed he is unlikely to return until April.
He is the latest key midfielder for the side currently lying third in the Premier League to suffer a serious injury in recent weeks. John McGinn has been sidelined for two months and Boubacar Kamara is out for the season, both with knee injuries.
Villa are close to signing their former midfielder Douglas Luiz on loan from Juventus to add cover.
“Tielemans is eight to 10 weeks out,” said manager Unai Emery on Wednesday. “Kamara is not going to play this season. McGinn is six to eight weeks out.
“After those updates of those players we need to manage the centre midfield in the matches we are going to play.”
Emery described the move for Luiz, who played for Villa between 2019 and 2024, as “close”.
Another midfielder, Ross Barkley, who last played in November, is “coming back in a few days,” Emery said. Defender Andres Garcia is set to be out for three weeks with a hamstring injury.
Tammy Abraham joined Villa in an £18.5m deal on Tuesday and winger Leon Bailey has returned after spending the first half of the season on loan at Roma, while Donyell Malen signed for Roma earlier in the window.
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Livingston contact SFA over alleged Bokila abuse
Manager David Martindale has said Livingston have written to the Scottish FA over an alleged racial comment made to striker Jeremy Bokila during their defeat against Aberdeen on Saturday.
Martindale said after the game that the 37-year-old was in tears in the changing room following a comment made to him on the pitch during the 6-2 loss at Pittodrie.
The former Democratic Republic of Congo forward was sent off after a second-half melee between the players.
Martindale said on Wednesday: “There was an incident. I think the incident’s now with the SFA, and that’s really all I can enlighten you with as far as I know.
“I think Bokila has been speaking to the club secretary. I don’t know any more than that.
“I just know the incident’s been referred to the Scottish Football Association.”
In a statement following the game, Aberdeen said: “The club is aware of an allegation that racist language was used. The player concerned has been informed of the allegation and vehemently denies it.
“Aberdeen FC condemns any and all forms of discrimination and we will co-operate fully with all relevant authorities during any investigation.
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- 18 June 2023
Keenan fractures thumb during Ireland training as Aki replaced
Full-back Hugo Keenan has returned home from Ireland’s Six Nations training camp in Portugal after sustaining a fractured thumb.
Keenan, who has established himself as Ireland’s first-choice full-back over the past few seasons, had been expected to return during the championship from the hip injury which has kept him on the sidelines since the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia in the summer.
Ireland are currently in Portugal preparing for their Six Nations opener against France in Paris on 5 February before facing Italy at the Aviva Stadium on 14 February.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is yet to name a replacement for the 29-year-old Leinster player, who has won 46 caps for Ireland and scored 13 tries.
When Keenan was absent for the autumn series in November, Jamie Osborne and Mack Hansen started two games each.
Osborne has not played since the game against Japan that month because of a shoulder injury, but was named by Farrell in last week’s initial squad announcement, while Hansen is currently out with a foot problem.
Jacob Stockdale and Ciaran Frawley have played at 15 plenty of times for Ulster and Leinster respectively this season, while there is also the option to deploy one of the squad’s three fly-halves, most likely Sam Prendergast or Jack Crowley, in the position.
News of Keenan’s injury follows the announcement that Bundee Aki did not travel to the training camp following a ‘disciplinary issue’.
Aki faces an independent disciplinary hearing on Wednesday.
Keenan’s latest setback is the third injury issue since Farrell named a 37-man squad for the Six Nations on 21 January with prop Jack Boyle and Tom Ahern also having withdrawn.
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Al-Sharaa meets Putin as Russia seeks to secure military bases in Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as the latter seeks to shore up Russia’s presence in the country, including militarily, just over a year after al-Sharaa ousted Russia’s former ally, Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking at a news conference before their meeting on Wednesday, al-Sharaa thanked Putin for supporting unity in Syria and what he said was the “historic” role Russia had played in the “stability of the region”.
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Putin expressed his support for al-Sharaa’s ongoing efforts to stabilise Syria and congratulated him on gaining momentum towards “restoring the territorial integrity of Syria”.
Putin and al-Sharaa spent more than a decade on opposing sides of Syria’s civil war, prompting concerns in Moscow about the future of Russia’s military presence there.
Before the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the presence of our soldiers in Syria” would be discussed. They are stationed at the Khmeimim airbase and the Tartous naval base in Syria’s Mediterranean coastal region.
Earlier this week, Russia reportedly withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeastern Syria, leaving it with only its two Mediterranean bases – now its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
Amberin Zaman, a correspondent with the Middle East news outlet Al-Monitor, published footage that she said was from the abandoned base in Qamishli on Monday.
Syria had historically been one of Moscow’s closest allies in the Middle East. Their ties go back to the Cold War when the Soviet Union provided extensive military and other types of support to the Baathist regime in Damascus, led first by Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar.
Moscow had been worried about the possibility of a “populist anti-Russia” government emerging in Damascus when Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the London-based RUSI think tank, told Al Jazeera.
“They feared he [al-Sharaa] would squeeze them out, but the Russians have been pleasantly surprised, even if they’ve had to downgrade their ties from before,” Ramani added.
Pragmatic approach
Al-Sharaa has taken a pragmatic approach, Ramani said, seeking to build his own relations with extra-regional powers as a hedge against possible political swings in the United States.
“The Republicans are lenient towards Syria engaging Russia as long as they keep Iran out,” Ramani said, “whereas the Democrats have been more sceptical overall and have wanted to move slower on the removal of sanctions and other issues.”
“Al-Sharaa also needs Russia, and that is why he is engaging,” he said.
Al-Sharaa played down Russia’s role in Syria’s war and sought to strike a friendlier tone during his first visit to Moscow in October despite Russia providing refuge to Bashar al-Assad and his wife, who fled the country in December 2024 as al-Sharaa-led opposition fighters advanced towards Damascus.
Al-Sharaa has requested al-Assad’s extradition and said at an event last month that there would be justice for Syrians who were victims of the former president’s repression.
Putin will be especially eager to maintain Russia’s presence in Syria, having lost another ally this month when the US sent special forces to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
On Tuesday, Russian Defence Minister Andrey Removich Belousov said after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow was closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela and with Iran, which has close ties with Russia and has been facing threats of attack from the US in recent weeks.
Syria’s new leaders have reoriented the country’s foreign policy away from Russia and have said they’re seeking to build a strategic relationship with the US, which has been reciprocated by the Trump administration.
The US appeared not to follow through with warnings to the Syrian government against engaging the Kurdish-led, US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces this month but later helped broker a truce to end the fighting.
‘Are we animals in the zoo?’ – Top tennis players call for more privacy
Jessica Pegula, Iga Swiatek and Novak Djokovic have all supported Coco Gauff’s concerns over the use of cameras away from the court at the Australian Open, insisting more privacy is needed for all players competing.