Category World News

Bolivia shocked Brazil 1-0 to secure a spot in the intercontinental playoffs for next year’s World Cup, while Argentina suffered a 1-0 defeat by Ecuador in the final round of South America’s 2026 qualifiers on Tuesday night.

Bolivia’s Miguel Terceros converted a penalty in first-half stoppage time to secure the home win over five-time World Cup winners Brazil in La Paz, a result which saw Carlo Ancelotti’s side drop to fifth in the standings.

Bolivia will be joined in the playoffs by two teams from CONCACAF as well as one each from the African, Asian and Oceania confederations, in the hunt for two places at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The playoffs will take place in Monterrey and Guadalajara in March.

Messi-less Argentina stunned by Ecuador

While Ecuador and reigning champions Argentina had already qualified for the World Cup, there was no shortage of intensity in their match in Guayaquil.

Argentina’s Nicolas Otamendi was sent off in the 31st minute, and the hosts capitalised on their numerical advantage when Enner Valencia scored a penalty in first-half stoppage time.

Ecuador were also reduced to 10 men when Moises Caicedo was dismissed in the 50th minute, but they held firm to claim the 1-0 victory and go second in the table.

Argentina star Lionel Messi, who played his last official match at home last Thursday, did not suit up.

Despite the loss, Argentina retained top spot in the standings with 39 points, nine ahead of Ecuador.

Colombia secured third place with a 6-3 victory over Venezuela in Maturin, with Luis Suarez stealing the show by scoring four goals to extinguish Venezuelan hopes of clinching the playoff place.

Uruguay finished qualifying in fourth place following a 0-0 draw with Chile in Santiago, while Matias Galarza’s strike gave Paraguay a 1-0 win over Peru in Lima, leaving them in sixth place.

Australia will spend 1.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.1bn) on a fleet of extra-large underwater “Ghost Shark” attack drones, in a move that officials said would supplement the country’s plans to acquire sophisticated nuclear-powered submarines.

Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said on Wednesday that the Ghost Shark autonomous underwater vehicles will complement Australia’s naval surface fleet and submarines to provide “a more capable and more lethal navy”.

“This is a profoundly important capability for the Royal Australian Navy,” Marles said.

“We have consistently articulated that Australia faces the most complex, in some ways, the most threatening, strategic landscape that we have had since the end of the second world war,” Marles said.

The government said it signed the $1.1bn, five-year contract with Anduril Australia to build, maintain and develop the uncrewed undersea vehicles in Australia.

“This is the highest tech capability in the world,” Marles said, adding that the drones would have a “very long range” as well as stealth capabilities.

Australia is in the midst of a major military restructuring, focused on bolstering its long-range strike capabilities in an effort to balance China’s expanding military might in the Asia Pacific region.

Marles also said that Australia was now a leading player in “the world in terms of autonomous underwater military capabilities, and Ghost Shark is capable of engaging in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike”.

Dozens of Ghost Sharks will be built in Australia, with opportunities to export to the country’s allies, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said, adding that the first Ghost Sharks will be in service at the beginning of 2026.

Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group has said it wants to incorporate autonomous technology into the country’s defence forces because Australia has a vast coastline and up to 3 million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles) of northern ocean that needs to be defended, but only a relatively sparse population.

Separately, Australia plans to build stealth, nuclear-powered submarines with the United Kingdom and the United States under the AUKUS programme over three decades.

But critics of the AUKUS deal in the US have questioned why Washington would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.

US businesses in China are less optimistic about conditions in the country than at any point in the last quarter-century, a survey has revealed.

Just 41 percent of US businesses are optimistic about the five-year business outlook in China, according to the survey released on Wednesday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

The figure, down from 47 percent in 2024, is the lowest since AmCham Shanghai began releasing its annual business report in 1999.

Only 45 percent of respondents said they expected revenues to increase in 2025, AmCham Shanghai said, which would be a record low if realised.

Just 12 percent ranked China as their headquarters’ top investment destination, also the lowest in the survey’s history, according to the business chamber.

Businesses cited US-China tensions and broader geopolitical pressures as the biggest challenges to operating.

Nearly half of respondents called for the removal of all US tariffs on Chinese goods, with 42 percent supporting the scrapping of Chinese tariffs on US products, according to AmCham Shanghai.

Despite the worsening sentiment, businesses also reported positive developments over the past year.

More than 70 percent of respondents said they were profitable in 2024, up from a record low of 66 percent in 2023.

And nearly half of respondents said the regulatory environment in China was transparent, a 13-percentage point jump from the previous year.

“Government efforts to improve the regulatory environment have been noticed by members, but they are overshadowed by US-China trade tensions,” AmCham Shanghai chair Jeffrey Lehman said in a statement.

“We urge both governments to create a stable and transparent framework that is conducive to cross-border trade and investment.”

The latest gauge of business sentiment comes as China’s slowing economy is facing a raft of challenges ranging from US President Donald Trump’s trade war to weak consumption and a years-long property downturn.

On Wednesday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said that consumer prices fell in August at their fastest rate in six months, the latest sign of anaemic demand in the world’s second-largest economy.

Carsten Holz, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the AmCham survey’s results showed that the uncoupling of the US and Chinese economies was “well under way.”

“The results mirror the findings of a May 2025 European Chamber of Commerce in China report that business optimism of European firms in China has never been as low as it currently is,” Holz told Al Jazeera.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Poland has shot down drones over its territory after repeated violations of its airspace during a Russian aerial attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said.

“During today’s attack by the Russian Federation targeting targets in Ukraine, our airspace was repeatedly violated by drones,” the Polish command said in a statement early on Wednesday.

“At the request of the Operational Commander of the Armed Forces, weapons have been used, and operations are under way to locate the downed targets,” the military said.

The army said that Polish and NATO military aircraft had been mobilised to ensure airspace safety.

“Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness,” the operational command said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that an “operation is under way related to multiple violations of Polish airspace”.

Trwa operacja związana z wielokrotnym naruszeniem polskiej przestrzeni powietrznej. Przeciwko obiektom wojsko użyło uzbrojenia. Jestem w stałym kontakcie z Prezydentem i Ministrem Obrony. Odebrałem bezpośredni meldunek od dowódcy operacyjnego.

Translation: An operation is under way related to multiple violations of Polish airspace. The military used armaments against the objects. I am in constant contact with the President and the Minister of Defence. I received a direct report from the operational commander.

Earlier, it was reported that four airports in Poland, including its main Chopin airport in Warsaw, were closed due to military activity.

According to notices posted to the US Federal Aviation Administration’s website, the three other airports closed were Rzeszow–Jasionka airport, the Warsaw Modlin airport, and the Lublin airport. Poland’s military did not mention the airport closures.

The military mobilisation in Poland came after Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russian drones had entered Polish airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but the air force later removed the statement from its Telegram messaging app.

Most of Ukraine, including the western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Force data.

Poland said earlier that it planned to close its border with Belarus at midnight local time on Thursday (22:00 GMT, Wednesday) due to Russian-led military exercises scheduled to take place in Belarus.

Russia and Belarus’s large-scale military exercises, known as the “Zapad” drills, have raised security concerns in neighbouring NATO member states: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The “Zapad-2025” (West-2025) drills will be held in western Russia and Belarus from Friday.

Asked about the duration of the border closure, Polish Minister of Interior Marcin Kierwinski said it would only be reopened when the government was sure “there was no more threat to Polish citizens”.

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned the Polish charge d’affaires to complain about the border closure, which it said “caused significant difficulties”.

It described Poland’s move as “an abuse of its geographical position”.

“The temporary suspension of passage indicates rather an intention to conceal one’s own actions than the existence of any threat from Belarus,” the Foreign Ministry said.

US President Donald Trump has repeated his denial that he penned a lascivious birthday message to Jeffrey Epstein amid sustained scrutiny of his links to the convicted sex offender.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Trump said the signature on the note to Epstein was not his.

“It’s not my signature, and it’s not the way I speak. And anybody that has covered me for a long time knows that’s not my language,” Trump said.

“It’s nonsense.”

Trump’s denial came after the White House said earlier that it would support a forensic analysis of the signature to prove it did not belong to the US president.

“The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The release of the note, contained in a 238-page scrapbook compiled to commemorate Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, has reignited long-simmering controversy over Trump’s connections to the late financier, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

Democrats in the US House of Representatives published the suggestive letter on Monday after the scrapbook was turned over to lawmakers by Epstein’s estate.

The so-called “birthday book” also contains purported greetings from high-profile figures including former US President Bill Clinton, Apollo Global Management cofounder Leon Black, and former Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Trump previously denied writing the letter, which features the sketched outline of a naked woman with the president’s purported signature in place of her pubic hair, after its existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in July.

Trump has sued the newspaper over the report, seeking at least $20bn in damages.

Trump has for months been dogged by questions about Epstein, including from some of his most ardent supporters.

Many members of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement reacted with outrage in July when a law enforcement review concluded that Epstein died by suicide and there was no credible evidence that he had kept a “client list” or blackmailed powerful figures.

Epstein, who had ties to some of the most prominent names in politics and business, has been the source of unproven theories for years, including that he was murdered to protect the existence of a sexual blackmail ring operated by US or foreign intelligence.

Many MAGA supporters had backed Trump’s re-election in the belief he would reveal Epstein’s involvement in a vast conspiracy implicating figures at the very highest levels of power.

Like many elite figures, Trump associated with Epstein during the 1990s and 2000s, once describing him as a “terrific guy” who liked women “on the younger side”.