Liverpool vs Arsenal: Premier League; start time, team news, lineups

Who: Liverpool vs Arsenal
What: English Premier League
Where: Anfield, Liverpool, United Kingdom
When: Sunday at 4:30pm local time (15:30 GMT)

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Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions in front of their fans two weeks ago when Arne Slot’s side thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 5-1.

Now they face an Arsenal side wounded by not only their third consecutive second-place finish in the English top-flight but also their elimination from the Champions League on Tuesday.

Manager Mikel Arteta has come out fighting with regards to what the Gunners need to do to take the next step in their hunt for silverware – and that starts with their visit to face the Reds.

What has Arteta said ahead of the game?

Arteta has urged Arsenal to use the frustration of having to give champions Liverpool a guard of honour on Sunday as fuel to win the Premier League title next season after admitting they have gone “backwards” this term.

“Something has to drive you, motivate you, and pain for this is a good one to use when you really want to do something. It’s the right thing to do, usually as a motivation for next season,” Arteta said of Arsenal’s guard of honour for the champions.

“They’ve been the best team, they’ve been the most consistent, and what Slot and the coaching staff have done has been fascinating, it’s been really good.

“They fully deserve it, and that’s the sport. If somebody is better, you have to accept it and try to reach that level.”

What happened to Arsenal’s Champions League hopes?

The Gunners were beaten 2-1 by Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday to end their bid to win the tournament for the first time.

It was a painful loss for Arsenal, who created a host of chances in the early stages of the second leg but could not find a way past inspired PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

When did Arsenal last win the Premier League?

After finishing as runners-up to Manchester City for the previous two seasons, the north Londoners remain without a title since 2004.

What is Liverpool’s take on the game?

Liverpool are in cruise control in the Premier League with a 15-point gap to Arsenal in second.

The Gunners themselves are only six points from slipping out of the Champions League qualification positions.

Mathematically, the Gunners could finish as low as seventh, which would also mean they finish outside the Europa League qualification spots.

“Both teams look forward to playing this game. Difficult to predict,” Reds boss Slot said when asked what kind of game he expects.

“There is a little bit at stake for Arsenal, as I presume they would rather finish second than third or fourth. Difficult to predict if it will be edgy, but it is a game to look forward to.”

What was the result in the reverse fixture?

The sides shared a 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium in October.

Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino twice gave the Gunners the lead, with Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah coming up with the equalisers.

How can Arsenal bridge the gap?

Arsenal’s failure to sign a striker in the January transfer window was a big blow in a season marred by long injury absences for Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka at various stages.

“In January, it was clear or not? I made a very clear statement, and the statement continues the same. I want the best team, the best players. If we have three goal scorers over 25, bring them in, we’re going to be a much better team, yes,” Arteta said.

“We are there, we are providing the numbers that win you titles. We have to be a little bit luckier, but still do better to make sure that nobody has a season better than you.”

Head-to-head

Arsenal have not won at Anfield since 2012 – a match that Arteta played in for the Gunners.

The north Londoners are, however, on a five-match unbeaten run against the Reds, winning two of those.

Liverpool team news

Right-back Conor Bradley will start the match, as revealed by Slot in his pre-match news conference. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has announced he will leave the club this summer, is set to be named among the subs as a result.

Joe Gomez is the only other major absentee for the Reds.

Arsenal team news

Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kai Havertz all remain sidelined for the Gunners.

China, US hold talks on tariffs in first bid to de-escalate trade war

China’s trade envoy He Lifeng has met United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Switzerland for talks aimed at easing a trade war between the superpowers that is roiling global markets.

The first official engagement, since the US slapped a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods, prompting a retaliatory 125 percent duty from China, began on Saturday at an undisclosed location in Geneva, Switzerland, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

A motorcade of black cars and vans was seen leaving the home of the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations in the suburb of Cologny, The Associated Press news agency reported.

A diplomatic source, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the meeting, said the sides met for about two hours before departing for a previously arranged luncheon.

The trade dispute, which effectively amounts to a mutual boycott of products, was prompted by US President Donald Trump last month when he announced sweeping duties on almost every country in the world, which are now subject to a 90-day reprieve while negotiations take place.

Experts believe China may be looking for the same 90-day waiver as well as a reduction of the 145 percent tariff – Trump suggested that it could be reduced to 80 percent, saying in a Truth Social post on Friday that the amount “seems right”.

Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Friday that the US would not lower tariffs unilaterally, adding that China would need to make concessions as well.

Bessent has said the meetings in Switzerland would focus on “de-escalation”.

“The best scenario is for the two sides to agree to de-escalate on the … tariffs at the same time,” said Sun Yun, director of the China programme at the Washington, DC-based Stimson Center, adding even a small reduction would send a positive signal.

“It cannot just be words,” she said.

Distrust running high

Trump has justified the punitive tariff by citing unfair trade practices and accusing Beijing of failing to curb the export of chemicals used to produce fentanyl, a lethal synthetic opioid.

China, for its part, says it will not bow to “imperialists” and bullies.

With distrust running high, both sides have been keen not to appear weak, and economic analysts have low expectations of a breakthrough.

Trump has suggested the discussions were initiated by China. Beijing said the US requested the discussions and that China’s policy of opposing US tariffs had not changed.

Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin met both parties in Geneva on Friday and said the fact that the talks were taking place was already a success.

My nephew asks if he will eat meat only in heaven. I struggle to answer

When on March 2, we heard all crossings into Gaza were closed, we thought it would not last more than two weeks. We really wanted a normal Ramadan where we could invite our surviving relatives for iftar and not worry about what food we could find to break our fast.

But it did not turn out this way. We spent the holy month breaking our fast with canned food.

My family, like most families in Gaza, had not stocked up on food or essentials, as no one expected the crossings to close again, or the famine – or even the war – to return.

In the days after the closure, food and other basic goods disappeared from the markets, and prices skyrocketed. A kilogramme of any vegetable jumped to $8 or more, sugar $22 and baby formula $11. A sack of flour previously costing $8, went up to $50; within two months, it reached $300.

Most people in Gaza could not afford these prices. As a result, families, including my own, began reducing the number of meals they eat, limiting themselves to just breakfast and dinner, and shrinking each person’s portion – half a loaf of bread for breakfast a whole one for dinner. Men, women, elderly people and children would stand in front of bakeries and charity kitchens for hours, in shame and sorrow, just to get a few loaves of bread or a small plate of food. For some families, this would be their only food for the day.

All the residents of central Gaza, where I live, relied on only three bakeries: two in Nuseirat and one in Deir el-Balah.

The crowds at these bakeries were overwhelming, blocking roads and halting movement in the area. Every day, there were cases of fainting and suffocation due to the pushing and shoving. In the end, only a small number of those who waited since morning would get bread.

My father would go to the bakery before sunrise to line up, instead of using what’s left of our flour, because we did not know how long this situation would last. But he would find the line already long, dozens having slept outside the bakery. He would stay until noon, then send my brother to take his place in the line. In the end, they would return with nothing.

On March 31, the World Food Programme announced the closure of all of its bakeries, including the three we could access, due to the depletion of flour and the lack of gas needed to run the ovens. This marked the start of true famine.

Soon, charity kitchens started closing as well because they ran out of food stock. Dozens of them shuttered in the past week alone. People grew even more desperate, many taking to local groups on Facebook or Telegram to beg for anyone to sell them a bag of flour at a reasonable price.

We live in a “lucky” neighbourhood where the kitchen still functions.

My niece Dana, who is eight years old, lines up in front of it every day with her friends, waiting for her turn as if it were a game. If she receives a single scoop of food, she comes back running, feeling very proud of herself. And if her turn doesn’t come before the food runs out, she returns in tears, complaining about how unfair this world is.

One day during Ramadan, a boy, displaced with his family to the al-Mufti School near our home, was so desperately trying to get food that he fell into the pot of hot food the charity kitchen was cooking. He suffered severe burns and later died from them.

The signs of famine began becoming apparent everywhere about a month and a half after the closure of the crossings. We see them in every aspect of our lives – sleeping on an empty stomach, rapid weight loss within, pale faces, weak bodies. Climbing stairs now takes us twice the effort.

It has become easier to get sick and more difficult to recover. My nephews, 18-month-old Musab and two-year-old Mohammed, developed high fever and flu-like symptoms during Ramadan. It took them a whole month to get better because of the lack of food and medicine.

My mother has been suffering from severe vision loss due to complications after eye surgery she had in late February. The malnutrition and the lack of eye drops she needed to recover have made her condition much worse.

I myself have been unwell. I donated blood to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat just days before the border was closed and this seriously affected my physical health. Now, I suffer from extreme weakness in my body, weight loss and difficulty focusing. When I went to the doctor, he told me to stop eating canned food and to eat more fruit and meat. He knew that what he was saying was impossible to do, but what else could he say?

Perhaps the most difficult part about this situation is having to explain famine to little children. My nieces and nephews cannot stop asking for things to eat that we simply cannot provide. We struggle to convince them that we are not punishing them by hiding food, but that we simply do not have it.

Five-year-old Khaled keeps asking for meat every day while looking at food pictures on his mother’s phone. He stares at the images and asks whether his martyred father gets to eat all this in heaven. Then he asks when his own turn will come, to join his father and eat with him.

We struggle to answer. We tell him to be patient and that his patience will be rewarded.

I feel helpless seeing daily scenes of famine and desperation. I ask myself, how can the world stay silent while seeing children’s bodies go thin and fragile and the sick and injured die slowly?

The occupation uses every method to kill us – by bombing, starvation, or disease. We have been reduced to begging for a piece of bread. The entire world watches and pretends that it cannot even give us that.

US to fast-track investments from Middle East before Trump trip: Report

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly discussed the possibility of expediting investments by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar before his trip to the region next week.

The early-stage talks were reported first by Bloomberg News. Any such development would require the US government to reform the Committee for Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), an interagency organisation led by the US Department of the Treasury, and which also includes representatives from the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security and State that review foreign real-estate investments to evaluate if any prose a national security risk.

While it is not clear what a reform would entail, the goal would be to fast-track investments from these countries, with whom Trump had fostered a close working relationship during his first term, and bring in billions of dollars into the US economy.

The president might announce more information about the status of the changes and what it entails during his visit, which begins May 13.

Investment surge

Five of the top 10 most active wealth funds come from these three countries. Three of those five funds are in the UAE. In March, UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed met the president and later committed $1.4 trillion in investments to the US over a 10-year period.

The commitment includes investments in sectors such as artificial intelligence, energy, and aluminium manufacturing, including the first new aluminium smelter in the US in 35 years. It also includes a $1.2bn mining partnership with Abu Dhabi-based ADQ, a sovereign wealth fund, and the New York City-based investment firm Orion Resource Partners to mine for “critical minerals” in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The largest segment of the proposed investment is in artificial intelligence. An Abu Dhabi-based investment fund called MGX has promised to invest $100bn in a data centre and energy infrastructure to support AI development in the United States.

In January, in less than a week of Trump taking office, Saudi Arabia pledged to spend $600bn in the US over the next four years. Trump later said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in Switzerland, that he pushed the country to invest $1 trillion in the economy. Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have a close relationship, which the two developed during Trump’s first term in office.

Qatar already had a strong investment relationship with the US. In 2015, the Qatar Investment Authority pledged a $35bn investment and opened offices in New York and Washington to facilitate the investments. QIA later committed $45bn in 2019.

Some of QIA’s most notable investments include $200m in EatJust, an alternative meat and egg brand, and major real-estate investments in New York City, including a 10 percent stake in the Empire State Building.

Conflict of interest concerns

Despite no direct involvement of the Trump Organization — the private company housing the Trump family-owned brands, including Trump Hotels and Golf Resorts – Trump’s upcoming trip and the proposed fast-tracking of investments have raised concerns of conflict of interest.

A month after winning the US election, the Trump Organization announced it had leased its brand to two new real estate projects in Saudi Arabia.

The president’s company also has projects and developments in all three of the countries he is set to visit, and that might receive fast-track status for investments.

“This trip, where Trump will meet with foreign officials who have the ability to make decisions affecting his company and business partners, poses enormous conflicts of interest for Trump, whose company is engaged in significantly more foreign business than during his first term”, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wrote in a note published on Thursday.

On April 30, the Trump Organization, whose real-estate development arm is led by his son Eric, announced a new luxury golf resort in Qatar. Unlike in the first Trump administration, the Trump Organization said in advance of Trump’s inauguration in January that it would not shy away from foreign property investments.

Children among several killed in Israel’s attacks on Gaza amid aid blockade

Seven people, including three children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip amid a months-long Israeli blockade that has deepened the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn coastal enclave.

Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli warplanes bombed a tent in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City on Saturday morning, killing five members of the Tlaib family.

“Three children, their mother and her husband were sleeping inside a tent and were bombed by an [Israeli] occupation aircraft,” family member Omar Abu al-Kass told the AFP news agency.

The strikes came “without warning and without having done anything wrong”, added Abu al-Kass, who said he was the children’s maternal grandfather.

In parallel, a drone attack on Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood left one person dead.

Further south, Wafa said Israeli gunboats opened “heavy fire” on the shores of Rafah, killing a man identified as Mohammed Saeed al-Bardawil. Two more civilians were injured in an attack on the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, west of Rafah.

In the past 24 hours, at least 23 Palestinians have been killed and 124 others injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Israeli blockade

The attacks came amid Israel’s continuing refusal to allow vital supplies into Gaza since March 2, leaving the enclave’s 2.3 million residents dependent on a dwindling number of charity kitchens, which have been shutting down in recent days as food runs out.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said: “There’s barely food … We’re talking about bakeries not operating, we’re talking about zero distribution points and we’re talking about only a few hot meal kitchens still operating.”

Khoudary said people queueing for hours would often leave empty-handed, with remaining kitchens stretching out food that would previously have fed 100 to serve up to 2,000 people.

“We’re seeing more people dying, we’re seeing more children dying due to malnutrition and the lack of food. But it’s not only the lack of food, it’s also the lack of medical supplies, it’s the lack of fuel, cooking gas and it’s the lack of everything,” she said.

Among the charities shuttering operations, the United States-based World Central Kitchen said on Wednesday that it had been forced to close down because it no longer had supplies to bake bread or cook meals.

The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs appealed for the blockade to be lifted.

“Children are starving, and dying. Community kitchens are shutting down. Clean water is running out,” it said on Friday in a post on X.

‘Failure of humanity’

The blockade is also having a devastating effect on people with chronic illnesses, depriving Palestinians who suffer from diabetes, cancer and rare conditions, of life-saving medication.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said: “Doctors here say the tragedy is not in what’s happening, but in what is preventable.”

“These diseases have a treatment, but people of Gaza no longer have access to them, and they say that this is not just a failure of logistics, but of humanity,” he added.

Mahmoud spoke to the father of a 10-year-old boy suffering from diabetes, who said insulin was not available across northern Gaza.

“I spend entire days searching pharmacies, hoping to find it. Sometimes we hear that individuals might have it, so I go to their homes to barter,” he said.

Said al-Soudy, head of emergency in the oncology department of Gaza City’s Al Helou International Hospital, told Al Jazeera: “A large part of patients are struggling to find their essential medications. Without them, their health conditions deteriorate and may become life-threatening.”

Pharmacist Rana Alsamak told Al Jazeera that Palestinians were unable to obtain medication for “multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, chronic illnesses and … immune-related diseases”.

“These conditions now go largely untreated,” she said.

On Friday, the United States said it was establishing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to coordinate aid deliveries into Gaza, with Israel providing military security for operations. The United Nations rejected the move, saying it would weaponise aid, violate principles of neutrality and cause mass displacement.

Qatar leads Syria search for bodies of US hostages killed by ISIL: Report

A Qatari mission has begun searching for the remains of United States hostages killed by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in Syria about 10 years ago, according to the Reuters news agency, citing two sources briefed on the mission.

Qatar’s International Search and Rescue Group began the search on Wednesday, with the help of several US nationals who wished to remain anonymous, the news agency reported.

So far, three unidentified bodies have been found by the group, according to the sources. The mission’s focus was on locating the body of aid worker Peter Kassig, who was beheaded by ISIL in 2014 in Dabiq, northern Syria, a Syrian security source told Reuters.

US aid worker Kayla Mueller as well as US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were among other Western hostages killed by ISIL. Foley and Sotloff were confirmed killed in 2014. Mueller’s killing was confirmed in 2015.

“We’re grateful for anyone taking on this task and risking their lives in some circumstances to try and find the bodies of Jim and the other hostages,” said Diane Foley, James Foley’s mother. “We thank all those involved in this effort.”

The Qatari mission is getting under way as US President Donald Trump prepares to visit Doha and other Gulf Arab capitals next week and as Syria’s new government seeks relief from sanctions imposed by the US.

Washington, along with some other Western governments, has said it will wait to see how the new authorities exercise their power and ensure human rights before lifting any sanctions.

The United Kingdom last month removed its sanctions on 12 Syrian government entities, including the Ministries of Defence and Interior and the General Intelligence Directorate.

Longstanding commitment

ISIL once controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, ruling over millions of people. At the peak of its power from 2014-2017, it beheaded numerous people in captivity, including Western hostages, and released videos of the killings.

A coalition of more than 80 countries, led by the US, was formed to fight ISIL in September 2014.

The war against the group officially ended in March 2019, when US-backed and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, the last sliver of land ISIL controlled.

Plans for the Qatari mission were discussed during a visit to Washington in April by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and State Minister Mohammed Al Khulaifi – a trip also designed to prepare for Trump’s visit to Qatar, one of the sources told Reuters.

Another person familiar with the issue said there had been a longstanding commitment by successive US administrations to find the remains of the murdered US nationals, and that there had been multiple previous “efforts with US government officials on the ground in Syria to search very specific areas”.

The person did not elaborate, the report said. But the US has had hundreds of soldiers deployed in northeastern Syria that have continued pursuing ISIL’s remnants.

The person said the remains of Kassig, Sotloff and Foley were most likely located in this part of the country. Mueller’s case was different as she was in the custody of ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the person added.