An intense fire tore through the five-star Les Grandes Alpes hotel in Courchevel in the French Alps, forcing the evacuation of nearly 300 people. Over 100 firefighters battled flames spreading under the roof.
Former heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury will face Arslanbek Makhmudov in his comeback fight in April, weeks after saying he would come out of retirement.
The bout between Fury and Canada-based Russian Makhmudov will take place in the United Kingdom on April 11, with no venue yet announced, and will be broadcast on Netflix.
list of 4 itemsend of list
Fury, who was born in the UK and identifies as an Irish Traveller, quit boxing in January last year after suffering a second straight defeat to Oleksandr Usyk – the latest in a string of retirements.
The 37-year-old “Gypsy King” said earlier this month that he would return to the sport in 2026 and has been training in Thailand.
“Well it’s official, I’m back doing what I love to do,” Fury posted on Instagram.
“I’ve brought the biggest network along with me @netflix @netflixuk this is going to be astronomical. Blessed by God.”
Fury has a record of 34 wins, two defeats and one draw. He is a two-time world champion.
“I am thrilled about the opportunity,” said 36-year-old Makhmudov, who has won 21 of his 23 fights. “I’m coming to deliver a war.
“Tyson Fury has been a big champion. I will be more ready than ever to leave with a massive W.”
Fury had been expected to build towards a long-awaited fight against fellow British former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. But Joshua’s future is uncertain after a car crash in December in Nigeria, in which two of his close friends were killed.
Thousands of Cubans marched in a procession to honour national hero, Jose Marti, who helped liberate the country from Spain. Some protesters disavowed any interference in Cuba from US President Donald Trump, saying Latin America will not become ‘his backyard’.
As the US moves to launch phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, a closer look at how Israel has fallen short on phase one.
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”.
list of 3 itemsend of list
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.
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.
Authorities in India say they’re investigating the cause of a plane crash that killed Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of India’s Maharashtra state, and four others on board. Here’s what we know so far.