Multiple media reports claim that Liverpool, the English Premier League champion, has agreed to pay a record-breaking transfer fee for Alexander Isak from Newcastle United.
According to reports from The Athletic and The Telegraph on Monday, the Swedish forward is expected to sign with the Reds in a deal worth about 130 million pounds ($176m).
Before signing a six-year deal with the Merseyside club, Isak will go through a medical, according to The Athletic, which will take place on Monday.
The 25-year-old striker helped Newcastle qualify for the Champions League last season by scoring 23 goals in the Premier League, behind only Mohamed Salah at Liverpool.
However, after making clear that he wanted to move to Liverpool, he has been the subject of a drawn-out and occasionally agonizing transfer saga this summer. He has been training separately from the rest of the Newcastle squad.
In a move seen as opening the door for Isak’s departure, Newcastle signed German international striker Nick Woltemade for a record club fee reported to be worth up to 69 million pounds ($93m).
When Liverpool play second-from-right Alexander Isak and Mohamed Salah, not-pictured, [Getty Images: Ian MacNicol] they will have the two top goalscorers from the previous season.
After a powerful earthquake struck Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, killing over 800 people and injuring over 2,500 others.
Afghanistan is prone to tremors because of its mountainous surroundings, which are highly active seismically near the intersection of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The country has experienced one of the most deadly earthquakes in the last ten years:
August 31, 2025
Around midnight on Sunday (23:30 GMT on Sunday), a magnitude 6 earthquake struck Kunar and Nangarhar, the nation’s eastern provinces.
According to Interior Ministry spokesman Mufti Abdul Mateen, at least 600 people died in Kunar and 12 in Nangarhar.
According to Sharafat Zaman, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, rescue operations are still being conducted because the earthquake destroyed a number of villages.
October, 2023
In one of the country’s most deadly natural disasters in a long time, three earthquakes erupted in Herat province in October 2023.
Western Afghanistan’s Herat province was struck by a magnitude 6. 3 earthquake on October 7.
On October 11, another magnitude 6. 3 earthquake struck the province, and a magnitude 6. 4 earthquake was recorded on October 15.
At least 2,445 people died in these earthquakes, according to the British Red Cross Society.
March 21, 2023
Near the border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Badakhshan, was struck by a magnitude 6. 6.5 earthquake.
At least 13 people died.
September 2022
The neighboring provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar in northeastern Afghanistan experienced two earthquakes of magnitudes of 5. 1 and 4. 6.
At least eight people have been reported dead.
June 22, 2022
Eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika, Paktia, Khost, and Nangarhar provinces were struck by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake.
More than 1, 000 people were killed when several homes collapsed as a result of the disaster.
January 17, 2022
A shallow earthquake of magnitude 5.3 was reported by the US Geological Survey (USGS) in the western Afghan province of Badghis.
At least 26 people died.
October 26, 2015
Northeastern Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region was the site of a magnitude 7.500 earthquake.
117 people were killed, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the West for igniting the war in Ukraine, insisting Moscow’s assault was provoked by years of Western provocations.
Speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin on Monday, Putin accused NATO of destabilising the region and dismissed claims that Russia triggered the war.
“This crisis was not triggered by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, but was a result of a coup in Ukraine, which was supported and provoked by the West”, Putin told the gathering of regional leaders. He was referring to the 2013-14 pro-European uprising that toppled Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Russia responded to the revolution by annexing Crimea and backing separatists in eastern Ukraine, leading to a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead and devastated large parts of the country.
Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 escalated the fighting, prompting sweeping sanctions from the United States and the European Union and deepening Russia’s isolation from the West, though not from the rest of the international community.
Putin said Western efforts to draw Ukraine into NATO were a key driver of the war, reiterating that Russia’s security concerns must be addressed before any peace deal can be reached.
“For the Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis must be addressed”, he said.
The Russian president highlighted talks he held with US President Donald Trump in August, describing the discussions as “opening a way to peace”. He praised diplomatic efforts from Beijing and New Delhi, saying their proposals could “facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis”.
Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday to discuss Ukraine and said he would expand on those talks in bilateral meetings with leaders on the sidelines of the summit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are also attending.
Moscow and Beijing have promoted the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led alliances, with Putin arguing the world needs a “system that would replace outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models”.
Despite repeated calls from Trump for Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate, peace efforts have faltered. Russia has rejected ceasefire proposals and demanded that Ukraine cede more territory, conditions Kyiv has dismissed as unacceptable.
“For the Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis must be addressed”, said Putin.
Part of the source of the conflict “lies in the ongoing attempts by the West to bring Ukraine into NATO”, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that a suspect has been arrested in the murder of former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy, who was killed in an attack over the weekend.
In a post on Telegram early on Monday, Zelenskyy wrote that the suspect had given an “initial testimony” and “urgent investigative actions are currently underway to establish all the circumstances of this murder”.
“I thank law enforcement for their swift and coordinated work. All the circumstances of this horrific murder must be uncovered”, he said.
On Saturday, Parubiy, 54, who served as speaker from April 2016 to August 2019, was shot dead in the western city of Lviv. He was one of the protest leaders in 2013-14, calling for closer ties with the European Union.
A police officer guards the spot where Andriy Parubiy was killed in Lviv, Ukraine, August 30, 2025]Roman Baluk/Reuters]
Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram on Sunday night that dozens of police officers and security officers had been involved in the operation to arrest the suspect in the Khmelnytsky region of western Ukraine.
According to Klymenko, the crime was “carefully prepared: the schedule of the deceased’s movements was studied, the route was laid, and an escape plan was thought out”.
Some tributes from Ukrainian officials to Parubiy hinted at suspicions of Russian involvement in the killing. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, both sides have accused each other of assassinations of key political and military leaders.
According to the Russian state media, Parubiy had been wanted by Russian authorities since 2023.
As a young man, he had campaigned for Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union. He was also a key supporter of promoting the use of Ukrainian over the Russian language – a highly politicised issue.
During the 2014 Maidan protests, following then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to cancel a planned association agreement with the EU due to intense pressure from Moscow, Parubiy was the “commander” of the opposition’s self-defence forces.
A magnitude 6 earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan just before midnight, near Pakistan, claimed the lives of more than 600 people and injured over 1,500 others. As rescue efforts are in progress, several villages have reportedly been completely destroyed.
At the age of 38, Novak Djokovic defeated Jan-Lennard Struff in a dominant 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 match despite having lost on his daughter’s birthday.
“Yes, she was disappointed that I was unable to attend the birthday party.” Please don’t remind me of that, Djokovic, who became the oldest man to reach all four Grand Slam quarterfinals in a single season, on Sunday.
Djokovic’s record-extending victory kept his pursuit of a record-breaking 25th major title alive, and it also led to his entry into his 64th Grand Slam quarterfinal.
However, the Serbian’s focus was on family issues when he discussed the sacrifices that were necessary at this point in his career.
“If I’m here, I’ll try to win.” At least I’m going to try to win and give her that kind of present,” Djokovic said.
For her birthday party, I’m going to send some lovely presents as well as some lovely surprises.
Djokovic and Struff in action in the fourth-round [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
Djokovic is the dominant player.
During the 109-minute contest at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the experience over power was unmatched.
Djokovic, a 35-year-old German, broke the German’s serve six times in the fourth round, asserting control of the fourth-round match from the opening contest. His own serve proved crucial in the face of a player who had the tournament’s second-highest ace count of 66 at the start of the contest.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion completely neutralized Struff’s biggest weapon by firing 12 aces while winning 79 percent of first-serve points.
“Serving well is undoubtedly helpful. Djokovic said, “I think I had a great serving performance tonight as well as in the final round.”
“I just saw the statistics, and I outstripped one of the guys this year who had the most aces,” I thought. That, of course, makes my life easier on the court.
In order to advance to his first US Open fourth round, Struff, who is ranked 144th overall, defeated two seeded players, Frances Tiafoe (17th), Holger Rune (11th), and Frances Tiafoe (17th), but he was unable to put any real pressure on the seventh seed.
The German made only 19 winners and committed 32 unforced errors.
This US Open men’s singles match in the fourth round or later in the professional era was the oldest due to their combined 73 years and 60 days.
Djokovic, who is currently 36-0 against Grand Slam qualifiers, had to have his right shoulder and forearm treated by a physio during the match, but he did not appear to be overly constrained by the issues.
Djokovic said he was not looking beyond Taylor Fritz, who finished second in the 2024 US Open, when he was preparing for a potential semifinal against world number two Carlos Alcaraz.
One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is to take really one match at a time, he said.
Struff and Djokovic, left, shake hands after their fourth-round encounter [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters].
