Category World News

MVP A’ja Wilson scores 31 as Aces beat Mercury for third WNBA title

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League Most Valuable Player (MVP) A’ja Wilson scored 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Las Vegas Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury 97-86 in Game 4 to sweep the WNBA Finals and win their third title in four seasons.

Four-time league MVP Wilson made 17 of 19 free throws while grabbing her second Finals MVP honour on Friday.

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She won her first in 2023, the second of the Aces’ two straight titles. Only the Houston Comets, who won the first four league titles (1997-2000), have had a better run.

Jackie Young contributed 18 points and eight assists, Chelsea Gray also had 18 points, Jewell Loyd put up 12 points, and Dana Evans chipped in with 10 for the Aces, who made 12 3-pointers and committed only seven turnovers.

Mercury guard Kahleah Copper had a career playoff-high 30 points before fouling out in the final minutes. Alyssa Thomas had her 10th triple-double of the year, her second in the postseason, but Phoenix could not overcome the loss of leading scorer Satou Sabally.

Sabally, averaging 19 points a game in the postseason, missed the game after being diagnosed with a concussion when she collided with the Aces’ Kierstan Bell late in the Mercury’s 90-88 loss in Game 3 on Wednesday.

Thomas registered 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. DeWanna Bonner, who started in place of Sabally, logged 10 points and 10 rebounds, but the Mercury committed 18 turnovers that led to 26 Las Vegas points.

A’ja Wilson lifts the championship trophy after winning Game Four of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs finals [Chris Coduto/Getty Images via AFP]

Wilson ‘alone on Everest’

Wilson averaged 28.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in the series, finishing one rebound short of her fourth consecutive double-double. She had 30 points in four of her last six playoff games.

At the postgame media conference, Wilson celebrated with aquamarine goggles, a pink tambourine, a white 2025 WNBA championship towel, and a tiny little burp.

“I’m a Southern girl, and in the Baptist church,” Wilson said, shaking the tambourine, “you knew the word was powerful. The word was powerful for us today.”

Wilson was a huge reason why the Aces were champions again after falling in the semifinals last season. She became the first player to win the regular-season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP in the same season. The 29-year-old forward was the best player on the court and is already in the conversation for the greatest in league history.

“You have your Mount Rushmore, she’s alone on Everest,” Hammon said. “There’s no one around.”

WNBA dynasty

The Aces finished with 25 wins in their final 28 games.

And while LA coach Becky Hammon did not call her Aces team a dynasty, she came close.

“These ladies are at the top of the game, and it is the best basketball that the WNBA has ever seen, from top to bottom,” Hammon said.

“These players are bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled than [the league] was 10 years ago,” Hammon said. “The skill set, the level these guys are at, is not comparable.”

Aces guard Chelsea Gray was more direct. A dynasty?

“Yes,” she said. “Yes.”

“This one hits different because it was different,” said Hammon, who is 10-2 in the WNBA Finals. “There was a lot more adversity than any of us anticipated. At the end of the day we’re all humans. We wanted to get it right and get it right together.”

The Aces won seven of the eight games played against the Mercury this season, including all four in Phoenix. Wilson did not play in the only match-up that the Aces lost, a 76-70 defeat in Las Vegas on June 15 .

“We ran into a really good team, right?” Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said. “We ran into a team that has been through it together. We ran into a team that had the ultimate belief and trust that they could get it done. I love what we have started to build here.”

Whether Las Vegas can keep their run going depends a lot on how negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement go. Most of the Aces, like a majority of players in the league, are free agents. The team could look very different next season if players decide to go elsewhere.

If Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd decide to stay, the Aces could keep this run going for a while. With a fourth title, Las Vegas would match Houston, Seattle and Minnesota for the most in league history.

Six million people in Haiti face acute hunger as gang violence spreads

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More than half of Haiti’s population is experiencing critical levels of hunger as armed groups tighten their grip across the Caribbean nation and the ravaged economy continues its downward spiral.

A report released on Friday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that some 5.7 million Haitians – of a population of roughly 11 million – are facing severe food shortages. The crisis threatens to worsen as gang violence displaces families, destroys agricultural production, and prevents aid from reaching those desperately in need.

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The assessment shows 1.9 million people are already at emergency hunger levels, marked by severe food gaps and dangerous rates of malnutrition. Another 3.8 million face crisis-level food insecurity.

The situation is expected to deteriorate further, with nearly six million people projected to face acute hunger by mid-2026 as Haiti enters its lean agricultural season.

Haiti’s government announced plans on Friday to establish a Food and Nutrition Security Office to coordinate relief efforts. Louis Gerald Gilles, a member of the transitional presidential council, said authorities would mobilise resources quickly to reach those most affected.

But the response faces enormous obstacles. Armed groups now control an estimated 90 percent of Port-au-Prince, the capital, and have expanded into agricultural regions in recent months.

Violence has forced 1.3 million people from their homes – a 24 percent increase since December – with many sheltering in overcrowded temporary sites lacking basic services.

Farmers who remain on their land must negotiate with gangs for access and surrender portions of their harvests. Small businesses have shuttered, eliminating income sources for countless families. Even when crops reach normal yields, produce cannot reach Port-au-Prince because gangs block the main roads.

The economic devastation compounds the crisis. Haiti has recorded six consecutive years of recession, while food prices jumped 33 percent last July compared with the previous year.

The deepening emergency affects children with particular severity. A separate report this week found 680,000 children displaced by violence – nearly double previous figures – with more than 1,000 schools forced to close and hundreds of minors recruited by armed groups.

The international community authorised a new 5,550-member “gang suppression force” at the United Nations earlier this month, replacing a smaller mission that struggled with funding shortages.

But the security situation remains volatile. On Thursday, heavy gunfire erupted when government officials attempted to meet at the National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, forcing a hasty evacuation from an area long controlled by gangs.

At least 28 killed in heavy flooding caused by tropical storms in Mexico

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Flooding set off by heavy rainfall in Mexico has left at least 28 people dead and more missing, and has caused landslides, damaged homes and highways, according to local authorities.

Downpours in the affected areas in the central and southeastern parts of the country led to overflowing rivers and road collapses that cut off power in some municipalities, the national coordinator for civil defence, Laura Velazquez, said on Friday.

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Civil defence authorities reported intense rainfall in 31 of 32 states, with the worst-affected areas being Veracruz in the east, Queretaro and Hidalgo in the centre, and the north-central state of San Luis Potosi.

One of the hardest hit areas was the central state of Hidalgo, where 16 deaths have been reported, according to state Interior Secretary Guillermo Olivares Reyna.

At least 1,000 homes, 59 hospitals and clinics, and 308 schools have suffered damage in the state because of landslides and overflooding rivers.

In neighbouring Puebla state, nine people died and 13 were missing. According to the state governor, some 80,000 people were affected by the heavy rains, while a gas pipeline was ruptured by a landslide.

In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, two people died, including a police officer, according to its state governor. Some 5,000 homes were damaged and the navy evacuated nearly 900 people to shelters.

Earlier, authorities in the central state of Queretaro confirmed that the child had died after being caught in a landslide.

The heavy rainfall also caused power outages affecting more than 320,000 users and damage to almost 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) of roads in six states, authorities said.

Translation: Following the heavy rains, the Secretariat of the Navy (@SEMAR_mx ) deployed 300 personnel in Puebla, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí. It also made available 18 vessels, six helicopters, three water purification plants, three aircraft, three mobile kitchens, and 4,000 food baskets ready to be distributed.

“We are working to support the population, open roads and restore electrical services,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said after a meeting with local officials and cabinet members. She shared photos of emergency responders carrying supplies as they waded knee-deep in flooded streets.

The country has deployed more than 8,700 military personnel to help monitor, evacuate and clean up affected areas.

Mexico has been hit by particularly heavy rains throughout 2025, with a rainfall record set in the capital Mexico City.

Tropical Storm Raymond is currently off the country’s Pacific coast, dumping heavy rains as it moves northward. It is projected to make landfall on Mexican territory until Sunday. Raymond was announced midday on Thursday by the United States National Hurricane Center, making it the third system this week off the western coast of Mexico. It joined Tropical Storm Priscilla and post-tropical cyclone Octave, which threatened heavy rain and flooding in their paths.

Meteorologists have warned that the Pacific Ocean cooling pattern called La Nina, which can warp weather worldwide and turbocharge hurricanes, has returned.

North Korea unveils ‘most powerful’ missile at 80th anniversary parade

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North Korea unveiled its latest and “most powerful” intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a military parade presided over by the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reports.

The parade on Friday in the capital Pyongyang featured some of North Korea’s most advanced weapons, including long-range strategic cruise missiles and drone launch vehicles, but special prominence was given to the Hwasong-20 ICBM, which KCNA described as the military’s “most powerful nuclear strategic weapon system”.

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Mounted on an 11-axle launcher truck for its debut at the parade on Friday, the very existence of the massive Hwasong-20 was only revealed in recent weeks as North Korea tested a new solid-fuel rocket engine that it said was intended for a future generation of ICBMs.

State media said the engine, built with carbon fibre, is capable of producing 1,971 kilonewtons of thrust – a measure of propulsive force which is more powerful than earlier North Korean rocket engines.

“The Hwasong-20 represents, for the moment, the apotheosis of North Korea’s ambitions for long-range nuclear delivery capabilities. We should expect to see the system tested before the end of this year,” said Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Hwasong-20 at the military parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), in Pyongyang, North Korea [KCNA via Reuters]

The Hwasong series of ICBMs has given North Korea the capacity to strike long-range targets, but questions remain over the sophistication of its guidance system and the ability of the missile’s warhead payload to withstand atmospheric re-entry.

Experts believe the Hwasong-20 could be designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads, a capability that Kim has called on his military to develop in order to give his arsenal of missiles a better chance at penetrating enemy defences.

“The system is likely designed for the delivery of multiple warheads,” Panda said.

“Multiple warheads will increase stresses on existing US missile defence systems and augment what Kim sees as necessary to achieve meaningful deterrence effects against Washington,” he said.

Following the parade marking the 80th anniversary of the foundation of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, Kim delivered a speech in which he called North Korea a “faithful member of socialist forces” and “a bulwark for independence” against the threat of the West’s global hegemony, according to KCNA.

“Today, we stand before the world as a mighty people with no obstacles we cannot overcome and no great achievement we cannot accomplish,” Kim said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (2nd R) inspects the missile production process at a military manufacturing facility.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, inspects the missile production process at a newly opened military manufacturing facility at an undisclosed location in North Korea [File: AFP]

Among foreign dignitaries in Pyongyang to attend the event was Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and a key ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Meeting with Kim, Medvedev expressed gratitude for North Korea’s support for the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, Russian state news agencies reported on Friday.

“The nature of relations between people and between countries is revealed during times of trial,” Medvedev said on the Russian social media platform Max.

“This fully applies to the alliance between our countries”, he said.

“We are grateful to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for its steadfast support of the special military operation. Our soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder to liberate the Kursk region. This feat will forever remain in our hearts,” he added.

Kim Jong Un unveils North Korea’s ‘strongest nuclear weapon’ at parade

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has presided over a major military parade featuring the nation’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile as international dignitaries looked on, state media KCNA reported.

The Friday night parade commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea’s founding, following Thursday’s celebrations. Among the foreign guests in Pyongyang were Chinese Premier Li Qiang, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Vietnam’s Communist Party leader To Lam.

During the parade, North Korea showcased its advanced Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, which KCNA characterised as the nation’s “strongest nuclear strategic weapon system”.

While the Hwasong ICBM series provides North Korea with the theoretical capability to strike anywhere in the United States, experts remain uncertain about its guidance precision and whether its warhead could survive atmospheric re-entry.

“The Hwasong-20 represents, for the moment, the apotheosis of North Korea’s ambitions for long-range nuclear delivery capabilities. We should expect to see the system tested before the end of this year,” said Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“The system is likely designed for the delivery of multiple warheads … Multiple warheads will increase stresses on existing US missile defence systems and augment what Kim sees as necessary to achieve meaningful deterrence effects against Washington.”

In his address during the parade, Kim offered “warm encouragement” to North Korean troops serving abroad, notably in Russia’s Ukraine war, noting their heroism would extend beyond national defence to “outposts of socialist construction,” according to KCNA.

“Our army should continue to grow into an invincible entity that destroys all threats,” Kim declared.