The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Israel’s assassination of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza. Guterres is demanding an independent investigation into the killings, his spokesperson said on Monday.
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the China tariff deadline for another 90 days.
The extension came only hours before midnight in Beijing, when the 90 day pause was set to expire, CNBC reported on Monday, citing a White House official.
The White House did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said he has been “dealing very nicely with China” as Beijing said it was seeking positive outcomes.
If the deadline had passed, duties on Chinese goods would have returned to where they were in April at 145 percent, further fuelling tensions between the world’s two largest trading partners.
While the US and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s products this year, reaching prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling global trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower tariffs at a meeting between negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland.
But the pause comes as negotiations still loom. Asked about the deadline on Monday, Trump said: “We’ll see what happens. They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with [China’s] President Xi [Jinping] and myself.”
“We hope that the US will work with China to follow the important consensus reached during the phone call between the two heads of state,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian in a statement.
He added that Beijing also hopes Washington will “strive for positive outcomes on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit”.
In June, key economic officials convened in London as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers again met in Stockholm last month.
Even as both countries appeared to be seeking to push back the reinstatement of duties, US trade envoy Jamieson Greer said last month that Trump will have the “final call” on any such extension.
Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade official during Trump’s first term and now with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, said she expected Trump to extend the 90-day “tariff detente” for another 90 days later on Monday.
“It wouldn’t be a Trump-style negotiation if it didn’t go right down to the wire,” she said.
“The whole reason for the 90-day pause in the first place was to lay the groundwork for broader negotiations, and there’s been a lot of noise about everything from soybeans to export controls to excess capacity over the weekend,” she said.
Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official now with the King & Spalding law firm, welcomed the news.
“This will undoubtedly lower anxiety on both sides as talks continue, and as the US and China work toward a framework deal in the fall. I’m certain investment commitments will factor into any potential deal, and the extension gives them more time to try and work through some of the longstanding trade concerns,” he said.
For now, fresh US tariffs on Chinese goods this year stand at 30 percent, while Beijing’s corresponding levy on US products is at 10 percent.
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent “reciprocal” tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair.
The Hundred men’s competition, Emirates Old Trafford
Manchester Originals 163-6 (100 balls): Buttler 46 (37); J Overton 2-26
London Spirit 153-6 (100 balls): Warner 71 (51); Tongue 3-29
Manchester Originals won by 10 runs
Highly-rated duo Ben McKinney and Sonny Baker caught the eye as Manchester Originals secured their first win of the men’s Hundred season with a 10-run victory over London Spirit at Old Trafford.
Twenty-year-old Durham opener Ben McKinney crashed three sixes in a 12-ball 29 on debut to give the hosts a fast start.
From there, contributions of 31 from Phil Salt, 46 from Jos Buttler and 24 by Heinrich Klaasen helped the Originals post 163-6.
Hampshire bowler Sonny Baker, 22, then took the first 10 deliveries of the Spirit’s chase and began with five dot balls as he troubled opener David Warner with swing and lively pace.
Though the Originals did not take wickets, they limited the Spirit’s scoring and always felt in control of the chase despite Australian Warner hitting 71.
Warner was caught down the leg side off England seamer Josh Tongue with 38 needed from 15 and Baker dismissed Australia international Ashton Turner for 13 after being given the penultimate set – a deserved reward for a fine spell that cost only 22 runs.
This match featured 17 full internationals but it was two youngsters, currently uncapped but tipped for big things, who impressed most.
Baker, who took 2-26 in the Originals’ opening game and was picked here with England great James Anderson rested, was given an England development contract in February after a successful winter with the Lions, despite having yet to make his County Championship debut.
This was him showing why he is so highly rated.
Warner was beaten outside off stump by the first three deliveries which zipped and moved away from the left-hander – each up towards 90mph. Only four runs come from the first 10 balls after Salt asked him to bowl back to back with opener New Zealand great Kane Williamson tied down like Warner.
After conceding 10 from his first 15 balls, all that was missing from his spell was a wicket. That came when he bowled quickly into the pitch and Turner was hurried. The right-hander skewed a catch into the leg side.
“He was outstanding,” Salt told Sky Sports.
“Jimmy had a rest today but that is the closest to what he did, if not better. Really pleased with how Sonny has gone for us and it will be hard to pick seamers for the next match.”
Durham opener McKinney is similarly regarded, having scored a century against Australia A on the same Lions trip.
He used all of his height and effortless hitting power to strike England spinner Liam Dawson for a straight six. Experienced seamer Richard Gleeson was also crunched back over his head and into the stands at square leg – the latter a 96m pulled six.
Birmingham Phoenix, still searching for their first win in the men’s competition, host Oval Invincibles on Tuesday from 18:30 BST.
You will be able to watch both the women’s (15:00 BST) and the men’s games live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
Washington, DC – The news was met with jeers.
United States President Donald Trump on Monday invoked a “crime emergency” in the US capital, allowing his Department of Justice to take control of Washington, DC’s local law enforcement. He simultaneously announced the Pentagon would deploy US National Guard forces to the city of more than 700,000.
Gathered just blocks away, with the White House looming in the background, protesters erupted in a chorus of “boos”.
The Pentagon later said 800 soldiers were activated on Monday, with 100-200 of them supporting law enforcement.
Trump’s latest move, said Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of Free DC, was not just another salvo against the long marginalised rights of the residents of the city, but a “major escalation”.
“This goes beyond the sort of words people have been using, like ‘unprecedented and ‘unusual,’” said Chatterjee, whose group advocates for DC self-determination.
“This is just authoritarianism,” she told Al Jazeera, over the chants from the crowd.
The rights of the hundreds of thousands of residents of Washington, DC have been the subject of debate since it was established by Congress in 1790 with land from Maryland and Virginia.
The district continues to fall under the direct auspices of the federal government, having never been granted statehood. However, it maintains a level of local autonomy per the Home Rule Act of 1973, which allows residents to elect some local officials. Congress still reviews all legislation passed by those elected officials and approves the district’s budget.
The city’s superlative as the first Black majority city in the US, and its current status as a Black plurality city, has further added a racial dynamic to what advocates have long decried as the systematic disenfranchisement of its residents.
Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton called the move the “ultimate affront to justice and civil rights,” in a statement.
“Donald Trump was inspired to take this disgusting, dangerous, and derogatory action solely out of self interest,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Let’s call the inspiration for this assault on a majority Black city for what it is: another bid to distract his angry, frustrated base over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files.”
In March, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser agreed to rename the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, where Monday’s protest was held, amid pressure from Trump and concerns that federal funding could be withheld.
Bowser said Monday that the deployment of the National Guard was “unsettling”, but not without precedent.
“My message to residents is this,” Bowser said. “We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many Washingtonians before me advocate for full statehood.”
For many gathered on Monday, Trump’s move again underscored how little power they had in directly influencing the policies of the local law enforcement that directly oversees their community.
Amari Jack, a 20-year-old college student, described what he saw as “the first step” in a wider consolidation of power over the city, noting Trump has for years floated the idea of taking more full control of the metropolis surrounding the White House. Such a move would likely require Congress overturning the Home Rule Act.
“I came out today because I was really scared about the potential that DC could lose any autonomy it has,” Jack told Al Jazeera.
“I feel like as DC natives, born and raised, we need to be able to represent ourselves and enrich our communities. We can’t just have a president come in and rule over our home.”
For his part, in an order declaring the “emergency”, Trump decried what he called the “city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety”, claiming crime rates posed “intolerable risks to the vital Federal functions that take place in the District of Columbia”.
Speaking to reporters from the White House, Trump vowed to “take our capital back”, outlining what he described as “massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street”.
Trump further claimed he was “getting rid of the slums”, and would clear homeless people from the city, without offering further details of his plans.
Among those pushing back on the characterisation was the District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who called the move “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”
“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia,” he said.
While DC crime rates are typically higher than the national average, violent crime rates have dropped significantly in recent years, plummeting 35 percent from 2023 to 2024 and another 26 percent this year compared to the same period last year, according to Metropolitan Police data.
Early this year, the Justice Department announced that violent crime in DC had hit a 30-year low.
Groups like the Center for American Progress have attributed the decline to both local law enforcement strategies, as well as “investments in crime prevention and resources such as housing and education and employment supports”.
Twenty-year-old Radha Tanner, like many gathered, saw Trump as using the pretext of crime to enact a wider political mission, one that paints Democrat-dominated cities like DC as “unsafe and riddled with crime”.
Over 90 percent of DC voters supported Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election. Trump, in turn, won about 6.5 percent of the vote.
Tanner saw Monday’s moves as in line with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, California to aid in immigration crackdowns and the protests they spurred.
“He’s doing this to make an example out of a city full of Democrats that is vulnerable because we don’t have representation,” Tanner said.
Maurice Carney, 60, saw a similar goal in Trump’s actions, arguing that long-term investment, not a short-term commandeering of local law enforcement or the deployment of the National Guard, would actually show a real commitment to addressing crime.
“When you see this increase in militarisation, whether it’s in DC or on the African continent or anywhere else in the world, you always see an increase in violence, either from resistance or from creating an environment that’s unstable,” said Carney, who works with a DC-based group that advocates for citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Like it or not, DC is seen as the capital of the empire, the capital of the world,” Carney told Al Jazeera. “So if Trump wants to show he’s this ‘law and order’ guy, DC is the best place for him to do that.”
No fewer than eight persons have been killed in a flood disaster in Kpoghirikpo, an ancient kingdom of Itim community in Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
The incident, which occurred following heavy rainfall, affected over 800 farmlands and 3,000 households, creating a major displacement crisis within the community.
Channels Television visited the community on Monday.
Residents said the flood disaster resulted in the loss of a mother and her four children, as a search and rescue team from the community was able to rescue four other children alive. Meanwhile, four bodies have been recovered and buried, while search efforts continue for those who are still missing.
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Further findings revealed that the flood occurred while many farmers were in their farmlands attempting to evacuate their produce.
With over 800 farmlands destroyed, 3000 households rendered homeless and hopeless, it’s a severe blow to the local economy and the livelihoods of the residents.
The community called on the federal and state governments for intervention and relief materials to help the displaced families and address the widespread destruction.
Responding to the flood incident, the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Human Capital Development, Ann Aligwe, said an emergency response team from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has been dispatched to the community for immediate intervention and rescue, adding that the state government has made provisions for relief materials to cushion the effect of the disaster to the affected victims.
Barcelona’s domination of Real Madrid last season resulted in Los Blancos bringing an end to Carlo Ancelotti’s second tenure – even though he had delivered a league and European double a year previous.
Rumours rumbled for most of the season, after a low-key start at home and abroad, that former Real midfielder Xabi Alonso would be making the switch from Bayer Leverkusen to replace Ancelotti.
With their La Liga and UEFA Champions League defence over, the Madrid-based club wasted little time in announcing Alonso, conveniently at a time when Brazil cranked up their interest in Ancelotti.
All seemed well for a dignified departure for the Italian, club football’s most decorated manager, who now will lead the record World Cup winners into next year’s 2026 edition.
For the perfectly written script to continue, however, Alonso will need to make a strong start on all fronts. Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the new La Liga season.
The first match of the new Spanish campaign is on Friday, August 15 and sees Girona, who finished only a point above the relegation zone last season, entertain a Rayo Vallecano side that claimed ninth spot in La Liga last year.
Girona were the league’s surprise package two seasons ago when they finished third – only four points behind Barcelona.
Barcelona kick off their La Liga defence on Saturday, August 16, when they make the trip to Mallorca.
Real Madrid are not in action until Tuesday, August 19, when they complete the first round of Spanish top-flight fixtures with a trip to Espanyol.
It has been a quiet transfer window for Barcelona, whose finances had been heavily in the spotlight last year with La Liga rules limiting spending on wages and transfers – complicating the registration of Dani Olmo.
The Spanish international arrived from RB Leipzig in Germany for a fee of $62.5m in the summer of 2024, but was nearly forced into a free transfer away from the Catalan club due to their dire financial situation.
The loan of Marcus Rashford, who made his debut in the 5-0 pre-season demolition of Como, from Manchester United is Barca’s only major addition in the off season to their ranks so far.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have been quick to bolster a defence that has been hampered by injury and suspension throughout last season.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was a much-heralded arrival at a snip from Liverpool for $11.3m. Little expense was spared, however, in the capture of Spanish defensive duo Alvaro Carreras from Benfica for $57.7m and Dean Huijsen for $67m from Bournemouth.
Barcelona won all four El Clasico matches between the football clubs last season, including the decisive La Liga clash, a May 11 meeting in Catalonia. The 4-3 win all but sealed the title for Barca, and also ended any thought that Ancelotti may stay on as manager of Real.
A 4-0 demolition of Real in Madrid on October 26 kicked off the derbies last season, the first major warning signs that Los Blancos may have a turbulent ride ahead.
That defeat for Ancelotti’s side was compounded by a 5-2 hammering in the Spanish Super Cup final in January, before a 3-2 Copa Del Rey final win for Barca in late April left Real facing up to the prospect of a trophyless season.
The lack of any major additions to Barcelona’s title-winning squad will throw doubt on whether manager Hansi Flick will be able to push the players to go again without further competition for places.
An early-season injury to Robert Lewandowski may mean an early opportunity for Rashford to make his mark in attack alongside Lamine Yamal and Raphinha. The England international has many questions himself to answer following his demise from his status as the star of Old Trafford.
Ferran Torres, the 25-year-old Spanish international, will also be a candidate to start in the place of Lewandowski in the early-season games.
With the resolution of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s dispute, both the backlines and midfield appear well-resourced for Barca. Flick’s side will be fully expected to put up a stern defence of their La Liga title and to go all the way in the Champions League, a competition they were heavily favourites to win last season until their shock semifinal elimination by Inter Milan.
Real Madrid will have to cope with the loss of Luka Modric in midfield, only a year after the retirement of Toni Kroos – an absence believed to have heavily contributed to Real’s demise last season.
The link-up between the front three of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo was another area of concern for Real. Indeed, so much so that it affected the role of Jude Bellingham, who was forced to sit deeper in midfield following the arrival of the former.
Mbappe eventually silenced the critics. The French international’s tally of 40 goals in all competitions surpassed that of Cristiano Ronaldo in his first season with Madrid.
Nonetheless, the link-up between an attack and midfield, which is now missing both of its mainstays for more than a decade, will be the major problem for Alonso to solve.
Atletico finished 14 points off top spot last season, but had offered hope at one stage, with a 15-game winning streak, that glory was on the cards.
Diego Simeone’s side finished sixth in the League Phase of the Champions League, but were eventually eliminated by Real, who themselves had to reach the knockout stage via playoffs. They did also have a disappointing group-stage exit at the Club World Cup, including a 4-0 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain.
Simeone’s side are always based on a solid defence, and the permanent capture of Clement Lenglet following his loan from Barcelona last season ensures that is likely to continue.
An already formidable forward line is boosted by the arrival of Thiago Almada from Botafogo, for an undisclosed fee, following a season-long loan at Lyon last season.
The 24-year-old helped Argentina to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Copa America last year and was part of his country’s side at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Alongside fellow countryman Julian Alvarez, France and Atletico legend Antoine Griezmann, and Giuliano Simeone, the son of the manager, Almada could well sprinkle the magic needed to elevate Atletico to the top of the pile.
