McLaren’s Oscar Piastri cruised to victory in the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to move atop the driver’s championship after five races on the season.
The 24-year-old became the first driver this season to win while not starting on the pole, and he comfortably finished the race ahead of runner-up Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who was given a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in the opening lap of the race on Sunday.
Charles Leclerc finished third to give Ferrari its first podium of the season. Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris finished fourth, while Mercedes’s George Russell finished fifth and Kimi Antonelli was sixth.
With his third victory of the season, and second consecutive after winning at Bahrain last week, Piastri becomes the first driver from Australia to lead the drivers’ championship standings since Mark Webber in 2010. It is the first time Piastri has led the drivers’ standings in his F1 career.
Piastri, who began the race from second position on the starting grid, ultimately took the lead on the 6. 1km (3. 8-mile) track after Verstappen served his five-second penalty during a pit stop on Lap 22. He finished off his fifth career victory in his 51st start without much of a challenge from Verstappen, crossing the finish line 2. 84 seconds ahead of the reigning world champion.
In addition to 2025 race victories in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Piastri also won the second race of the season in China. McLaren has won four of the five races after Norris won the season-opening race in Australia.
Verstappen’s runner-up finish came after he won the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix in two of the last three years.
In the drivers’ championship, Piastri has 99 points to Norris’s 89 and Verstappen’s 87. Champions McLaren stretched their lead over Mercedes in the constructors’ standings to 77 points.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, left, and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, right, go side-by-side into the first corner on lap one at the 2025 Saudi Arabia F1 GP at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 20, 2025. Verstappen received a five-second penalty for cutting the corner [Gabriel Bouys/AFP]
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared details about planned bombing raids on Yemen in a second Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, US media has reported.
The reports come after Hegseth attracted scrutiny last month when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed that the defence chief had shared details about upcoming air strikes on Houthi rebels in a Signal group chat that the journalist had been mistakenly added to.
Hegseth’s discussions in the second group chat similarly involved planned strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, The New York Times and CNN reported on Sunday, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The information shared by Hegseth in the second chat included “flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen,” The Times reported, citing “people with knowledge of the chat”.
Hegseth set up the second group chat before his confirmation as defence secretary to coordinate with members of his personal and professional inner circle, the outlets said.
Hegseth’s brother, Phil, and his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, are both employed at the Defense Department, but his wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not.
In response to an inquiry from Al Jazeera, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell called the reports an “old story – back from the dead”.
“The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President [Donald] Trump’s agenda,” Parnell said in a statement.
“This time, the New York Times – and all other Fake News that repeat their garbage – are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article. They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda. ”
Parnell said no classified information had been shared in any Signal chat.
“What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump’s agenda. We’ve already achieved so much for the American warfighter, and will never back down,” he said.
The disclosure of military information in the first Signal group chat – which included Hegseth, US Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, among other top officials in Trump’s administration – is currently being investigated by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general.
The latest controversy involving Hegseth’s leadership follows a week of personnel upheaval at the Pentagon.
Four members of Hegseth’s inner circle, including his former press secretary John Ullyot, have been removed over the last week amid a widening probe into leaks of information.
On Sunday, Ullyot said that the Pentagon was in “disarray” and “total chaos” under the defence chief’s leadership.
“The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion piece published by Politico Magazine.
Ullyot announced his resignation on Wednesday, following the departures of Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth’s aides.
In a statement on Sunday, Carroll, Selnick and Caldwell said they had been slandered and subjected to “baseless attacks” ahead of their dismissal.
“All three of us served our country honorably in uniform – for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it,” the three men said in the statement.
Federico Valverde’s superb 93rd-minute strike kept Real Madrid on Barcelona’s tail in Spanish football’s title race, earning the champions a 1-0 win over Athletic Club.
Madrid stayed four points behind Barca after Valverde smashed into the top corner on Sunday with a sliced, swerving effort.
After Champions League elimination by Arsenal, it looked like Madrid were set for another devastating result until the Uruguay international’s stoppage-time intervention.
Athletic, who are based in Bilbao and reached the Europa League semifinals on Thursday by beating Rangers, rotated heavily.
Despite that, the Basque side proved a hard nut for Madrid to crack, especially with their top goalscorer Kylian Mbappe both suspended and recovering from an ankle problem.
The forward was whistled by some fans for his failure to help the team overcome Arsenal in the Champions League quarterfinals in midweek when he was shown watching the game on the stadium screens.
Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham shows his frustration during a difficult match in front of the club’s own support [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]
Vinicius, who was previously criticised by coach Carlo Ancelotti for a lack of defensive work ethic, was running hard on the left, which fans at the Santiago Bernabeu appreciated.
The Brazilian has struggled for form at times this season, but was Madrid’s brightest player against Athletic, giving Unai Nunez a difficult night.
Madrid played with intensity after their European elimination, trying to keep La Liga in their sights after Barcelona made a late comeback to beat Celta Vigo on Saturday.
Rodrygo Goes came close early in the second half before Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon saved from Eduardo Camavinga.
The hosts began to push Athletic deeper and started to create better chances.
Vinicius bent a delicious cross with the outside of his boot into the six-yard box for Jude Bellingham to meet, but Simon made an excellent save to tip over his header.
Federico Valverde fired narrowly wide of the near post, and Vinicius did find the net, but Endrick was offside in the build-up.
Bellingham appealed for a penalty after going down softly in the area, and then fired over from close range in the final stages.
It was the kind of chance the England international managed to turn into late match-winning goals last season as he inspired Madrid to La Liga and Champions League glory.
Instead, it was Valverde who took up that role with a sublime blast that left Simon with no chance.
The Israeli military has released details of an investigation into its own killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and aid workers in Gaza last month, saying its code of ethics was not violated and only one soldier is dismissed, in an attack that sparked outrage in the international community.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Israeli rights organisation Breaking the Silence rejected the findings of the Israeli probe on Sunday.
PRCS’s president told Al-Araby TV that the Israeli narrative on the killings in Rafah was “contradictory”.
“It is incomprehensible why the occupation soldiers buried the bodies of the paramedics in a criminal manner,” Younis al-Khatib said.
Al-Khatib added that the Israeli army communicated with the paramedics before killing them and that the evidence – including a video showing their ambulances flashing emergency lights – proved “the falsity of the occupation’s narrative regarding the limited visibility at the site”.
“An independent and impartial investigation must be conducted by a UN body,” he said.
PRCS, which had medics killed by Israel in the incident, also denounced the Israeli report as “full of lies” on Sunday. “It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the organisation, told the AFP news agency.
The PRCS said last week that it received confirmation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that one of its medics who was missing is being held by Israel.
🚨Urgent: We have been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that PRCS medic Assad Al-Nsasrah is being held by the Israeli occupation authorities. His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted along with other PRCS medics in #Rafah.
📢We call on the… pic. twitter. com/l0oOxujS8G
The Israeli army on Sunday claimed that six of the aid workers who were killed and buried in a shallow mass grave along with their ambulances were Hamas “terrorists”, without providing any evidence.
It admitted its probe detected a series of “professional failures”, including partial and inaccurate reporting by the commanding officers in the field invading southern Gaza’s Rafah.
The deputy commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion will be dismissed, while the commanding officer of the 14th Brigade is to receive a reprimand.
The examination also found “no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting”, despite the testimonies and the evidence.
The Israeli military had initially claimed that the ambulances and aid workers were not clearly marked as first responders and approached its troops “suspiciously”.
A mobile phone video recorded by one of the killed aid workers that was obtained by the New York Times showed that the crew were clearly marked and visible to Israeli forces, and were killed by Israeli fire that lasted several minutes.
United Nations and Palestinian officials later found the mass grave and the bulldozed ambulances and bodies after Israeli authorities granted access to the area of the mostly destroyed city of Rafah bordering Egypt.
‘Another day, another cover-up’
The Israeli anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence said the military investigation is “riddled with contradictions, vague phrasing, and selective details”.
“Not every lie has a video to expose it, but this report doesn’t even attempt to engage with the truth,” the group said. “Another day, another cover-up. More innocent lives taken, with no accountability. ”
But far-right voices in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believe the army is going too far in punishing the soldiers.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, said the decision to dismiss the deputy commander was a “grave mistake” that must be reversed.
“Our combat soldiers, who are sacrificing their lives in Gaza, deserve our full support,” he said.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir [File: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP]
‘Report invites many questions’
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice told Al Jazeera that the findings of the probe raise questions about the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and the thoroughness of the investigative process.
“It’s a pretty surprising document. It’s also a document that invites many questions that it will be difficult, I suspect, for the [Israeli military] to answer,” Nice said in a television interview.
“For example, [there is] the proposition that six of these people were Hamas, presumably members of Hamas on active [military] service, not people who might have been associated with Hamas in some way. No documentary evidence at all is identified [for that]. ”
Israel has a track record of denying accusations of wrongdoing and contradicting its own earlier statements.
Past investigations have exonerated the armed forces or placed the blame on a single individual without broader repercussions.
The UN accused the Israeli military of being responsible for the killing of the 15 aid workers, along with the killing of a Bulgarian UN staff member and wounding of six other foreign staff in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah last month.
The United States has carried out more air strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, after targeting Kamaran Island and Marib governorate earlier, Houthi media outlets report.
No details on casualties have been provided yet.
In Sanaa, two US airstrikes targeted the area of Attan, which has been controlled by the rebel movement since 2014. US airstrikes also reportedly targeted a sanitation project in the Asir area, as well as the Furwah neighbourhood and a popular market in the Shoub district, according to Houthi media.
The strikes on Sunday come a day after the US launched 13 strikes on Hodeidah’s port and airport, and three days after its deadliest attack to date targeted the Ras Isa port, also in Hodeidah, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 150.
Houthi-held areas in Yemen have been subjected to near-daily air strikes by Washington. Civilians have been targeted, families wiped out, military sites destroyed and soldiers killed.
More than 200 people have been killed since US President Donald Trump’s administration announced a major military offensive against the Houthis in March. It said the air strikes are aimed at forcing the group to stop threatening ships sailing on the Red Sea on a route crucial to international trade.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have reportedly launched more than 100 attacks on vessels they say are linked to Israel in response to Israel’s war on Gaza and in solidarity with Palestinians.
Houthi attacks have paralysed shipping through the Suez Canal, a vital waterway through which approximately 12 percent of global shipping traffic normally passes, forcing many companies to resort to costly alternative routes around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
The Houthis halted attacks on shipping lanes during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year. But they vowed to resume strikes after Israel renewed its assault on the besieged enclave last month.
At least two people, including a child, have died in the US state of Oklahoma after their vehicle was stranded in floodwaters, police said, as severe weather and flooding hit parts of the United States’ South and Midwest during the Easter holiday weekend.
Flood warnings, which suggest that a flood is occurring or is imminent, were in place across Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service said on Sunday that severe thunderstorms were expected from east Texas into far southeast Iowa and Illinois, while the potential for strong tornadoes and damaging winds would exist from central Arkansas into central Missouri.
“This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and caused dozens of high-water incidents,” police in Moore, Oklahoma, about 18km (11 miles) south of Oklahoma City, said in a statement on Sunday.
“One of [the vehicles] left the roadway and was swept under the bridge. At the time of the incident, all but two occupants were rescued. It is with great sadness that we report that two individuals, an adult female and a 12-year-old male, were later located deceased,” the police said.
Authorities in Moore urged people to stay at home and said late on Saturday that they responded to more than a dozen calls from residents whose vehicles were trapped in high water.
A tornado watch was issued for parts of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma, the National Weather Service added.
