Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s ongoing efforts to stabilise his country as the two met in the Kremlin. Their talks were expected to include a discussion on the future of Russian military bases in Syria.
The Trump administration does not “intend or expect” to again take military action in Venezuela, Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio told the US Congress, but theoretical threats like an “Iranian drone factory” could change the government’s thinking.
A Chelsea supporter has described his “shock” after being stabbed and taken to hospital before Wednesday’s Champions League match against Napoli in Italy.
Marcus, 22, who did not want to give his surname, said he and a group of Chelsea fans were targeted in the centre of Naples by a group of Napoli ‘ultras’ – a term used for hardcore supporter groups in European football.
“We turned a corner – it wasn’t technically an alleyway, but it felt like one because there were no lights,” he said.
“There were about 20 or 30 people, all in black, walking towards us as soon as we made eye contact. Some people knew what was happening and ran straight away.”
Marcus, who was with “seven or eight” friends, added: “It was definitely a shock. Everyone was shaken up when we eventually found the police.
“I was in shorts and they were covered in blood, with blood going all down my leg. We think it was a screwdriver – it could’ve been a Stanley blade. It was either that or a screwdriver.
Chelsea issued a warning to supporters on their social media accounts following the incident on Tuesday night, urging them to be careful when out in public.
In a statement, Chelsea said: “The club is aware of an incident that took place on Tuesday evening in Naples. Two fans are being treated in hospital, having sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
“The club would like to remind all supporters to exercise extreme caution whilst in the city and take note of the advice shared ahead of this fixture.”
Marcus was treated in hospital between 23:00 and 04:00 local time before reporting the attack to police on Wednesday afternoon.
He said he still planned to attend the match at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, having avoided serious injury, but intended to leave Naples the following day to travel to Rome.
The other injured fan was treated in hospital after being punched and kicked.
West Ham midfielder James Ward-Prowse has joined fellow Premier League side Burnley on loan until the end of the season.
Ward-Prowse, 31, joined the Hammers from Southampton in August 2023 and has made 78 appearances.
The England international was loaned to Nottingham Forest for the 2024-25 season and played 10 times under then manager Nuno Espirito Santo, but the deal was cut short during the winter transfer window.
He was a regular under former West Ham manager Graham Potter and made six appearances this season before Potter was sacked in September.
Ward-Prowse has not played a single minute of football since Nuno was brought in at West Ham.
Burnley sit 19th in the Premier League and are 10 points from safety following Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Tottenham. The 18th-placed Hammers are five points above the Clarets.
Burnley manager Scott Parker brought in 18-year-old defender Cameron Scott from Rangers earlier this month and has now added experience with Ward-Prowse.
“As soon as I heard of Burnley’s interest and spoke to the manager, I knew this loan spell was just what I needed,” said Ward-Prowse.
“There’s a big battle between now and the end of the season, but I’m going to relish every moment.”
A young Tunisian man goes on a personal journey to find his biological mother and understand where he comes from.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed what he called an “extraordinary achievement”. Israeli forces retrieved the body of Ran Gvili, an Israeli man, who died on October 7, 2023, from a Palestinian graveyard in northern Gaza. Israeli TV showed Israeli soldiers singing a Hebrew song at the site. Western media spoke about the importance of the operation and this “moment of national healing”.
Here in Gaza, the Israeli operation to retrieve the body spread fear, pain and death. Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians near the graveyard and desecrated hundreds of Palestinian graves. Hundreds of Palestinian families now have to search for and gather the remains of their loved ones, and four families have had to dig new graves.
What was presented to the rest of the world as a “standard military operation”, was in reality, a serious crime under international law. Grave desecration constitutes a violation of a key provision of the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that dead bodies and graves must be respected.
In the Palestinian context, the attack on cemeteries is yet another form of collective punishment. It sends a clear message: that the Palestinian people will be denied dignity even in death.
This is, of course, not the first time Israel has committed crimes against the Palestinian dead.
Throughout the war, Israel has been attacking, bulldozing and digging up graveyards across the Gaza Strip. By January 2024, CNN reported that at least 16 Palestinian cemeteries in Gaza had been desecrated. Israel justified its actions by claiming that Hamas was using the cemeteries for “military purposes”. Satellite imagery and footage revealed that entire cemeteries were levelled, with Israeli troops converting some into military positions.
The excuse that Palestinian graveyards are desecrated only out of military necessity does not hold, however. Palestinian burial sites in the occupied West Bank are also regularly attacked. Just earlier this month, Israeli civilians stormed a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem and destroyed graves. In January 2023, a Christian cemetery, where a lot of senior Christian leaders were buried, was also defaced in Jerusalem.
And it is not just resting places for the dead that Israel is ravaging. Even Palestinian dead bodies themselves are a target. Last year, the Israeli army sent hundreds of bodies of Palestinians to Gaza. Many of them had clear signs of torture; others were so mutilated that they could not be recognised, forcing the local authorities to bury them in mass graves.
In other cases, the Israeli authorities have withheld Palestinian dead bodies from their families as yet another form of collective punishment. Currently, Israel holds the bodies of Palestinians who died as far back as the 1967 war. In 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court officially allowed the Israeli state to hold bodies for the purpose of “negotiations”.
All of this – the desecration, the exhumation, the mutilation, the withholding of dead Palestinians and its legalisation – is meant to wipe out the memory of the deceased and prevent their loved ones from mourning them and having closure. It is meant to punish; it is meant to humiliate. Even in death, Palestinians cannot have safety and peace.
All of these crimes against the Palestinian dead have not received even a fraction of the media attention that the burial of the dead Israeli captives released from Gaza did. The humanising stories, the extensive photoshoots, the reports on official ceremonies were not afforded to Palestinian victims, whose bodies Israel has dug out and desecrated.
There were no reports on the Palestinian families who went to the graveyard and experienced the horror of seeing the remains of the graves of their loved ones scattered. There was no global sympathy for their suffering and pain.
By now, we have seen and experienced all kinds of unimaginable crimes committed by Israel. What has made them that much worse has been the global silence about them.
It is tragic that we should have to remind the world that graves are sacred and protected spaces under international law, including Palestinian ones.