Category World News

Champions League runner-ups Inter Milan became the latest scalp claimed by Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League, as the Italian giants lost 3-1 away in the first leg of their playoff.

The Norwegian outsiders have been the surprise story of this season’s competition after beating Manchester City at home and Atletico Madrid away to make the playoffs.

The club is located north of the Arctic Circle – which is farther north than any team in Champions League history.

Serie A leaders Inter were seeking a seventh straight win in all competitions but fell behind in the 20th minute on Wednesday when midfielder Sondre Brunstad Fet netted with a neat finish.

Although burly striker Pio Esposito equalised with an opportunist finish 10 minutes later, the home side picked off Inter with two goals in quick succession in the second half.

Both were similar, with quick passing and unselfish assists.

For the second goal, forward Kasper Hogh rolled the ball for Jens Petter Hauge to launch a powerful shot into the top corner in the 61st.

The winger, who once had a brief spell in Serie A with AC Milan, jumped and kicked the corner flag in celebration.

The fans at the 8,000-capacity Aspmyra Stadion were cheering again three minutes later when Hogh scored the third goal after being teed up by Ole Didrik Blomberg.

The return leg will be next Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Club Brugge’s Christos ⁠Tzolis ⁠tucked away a late equaliser to secure a dramatic 3-3 ⁠draw with Atletico Madrid in their Champions League playoff ⁠first leg on Wednesday as the Belgian side avoided defeat after an agonising own goal appeared to ‌have cost them.

Tzolis slammed home an angled shot in the 89th minute to level the tie, although the goal was initially ruled out for ⁠offside, but was confirmed ⁠after a VAR check.

Brugge fought back from a 2-0 half-time deficit to level ⁠the score, but then looked to have ⁠thrown it away ⁠when Joel Ordonez turned the ball into his own net in the 79th minute.

Yet ‌they head into next Tuesday’s return leg in Madrid with ‌the ‌scores level.

Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik ⁠Schick ⁠struck twice in three minutes to steer his team to ⁠a 2-0 victory at Olympiacos in their Champions League last-16 ⁠playoff first leg on Wednesday.

The Czech forward slipped past his marker and slotted in on the hour ‌mark before quickly bagging a second goal with a downward header from Alex Grimaldo’s corner.

In the early game on Wednesday, Anthony Gordon struck four ⁠times in ⁠the first half as Newcastle United thrashed Qarabag 6-1 away ⁠in their Champions League playoff first leg to ⁠all but book their place in the last 16.

Newcastle was 5-0 up by halftime against Qarabag as Gordon completed his hat-trick in 33 minutes at the Tofik Bakhramov Stadium in Baku and got a fourth in first-half added time.

Malick Thiaw was also on target for the Premier League team, which had 16 shots in a rampant first half.

Donald Trump has criticised the United Kingdom’s plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a day after the United States Department of State gave its official approval of the deal.

The US president said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” in the agreement to return sovereignty of the archipelago to Mauritius, and lease back the island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a UK-US military base.

He warned in a Truth Social post that Starmer was “losing control of this important Island by claims of entities never known of before”, adding: “In our opinion, they are fictitious in nature.”

The Indian Ocean archipelago became part of British territory in 1814, with the UK detaching it from Mauritius before it gained independence in the 1960s. It then worked with the US to force the islands’ residents to leave, in order to build a military base on Diego Garcia, which it had leased to the US.

Mauritius won its legal battle for sovereignty over the islands in 2019, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) urged the UK to cede control. This was followed by a UN resolution giving the UK six months to hand the islands back.

The UK will maintain a 99-year lease of Diego Garcia with an option to extend, which will cost around 100 million pounds ($135m) a year.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Wednesday that the deal was “crucial to the security of the UK and our key allies, and to keeping the British people safe.”

“The agreement we have reached is the only way to guarantee the long-term future of this vital military base,” the spokesperson said.

Trump had criticised the agreement in January, but after speaking with Starmer earlier in February, the US leader said the British prime minister had made “the best deal he could”.

In his Truth Social post on Wednesday, the president went on to warn that “it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford in order to eradicate a potential attack” from Iran, should it decide against making a deal with the US. He added that this attack “would potentially be made” on the UK and other friendly countries.

Describing the lease as tenuous, he said that the UK must “remain strong in the face of Wokeism, and other problems put before them”.

When US President Donald Trump, during his first term in office, declared that ISIL (ISIS) had been defeated, many of the group’s fighters and their families were locked up in northeastern Syria.

They stayed there, in prisons and camps, until dramatic changes unfolded on the ground in recent weeks.

Fearing the detainees may escape, the US has moved more than 5,700 suspected ISIL fighters from Syria to Iraq.

That has led to grave concern from human rights groups, which warn that the detainees are now at risk of torture and unfair trials.

So, why did Washington decide to transfer those prisoners? And is the move motivated by a lack of trust in the new Syrian government?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Zeidon Alkinani – Independent researcher on identity politics in Iraq and the Middle East

Colin Clarke – Executive director of The Soufan Center, a global intelligence and security consultancy

International diplomats have condemned Israel’s push to deepen control over the occupied West Bank and its continued restrictions on supplies of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip during a special United Nations Security Council meeting on Israel-Palestine.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar told the Security Council on Wednesday that “intensified diplomatic efforts are under way to consolidate the ceasefire, alleviate the suffering of Palestinians and advance implementation of the comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict”.

“On the other hand, Israel’s continued ceasefire violations, annexation attempts and illegal actions across the occupied Palestinian territories continue to undermine these efforts and threaten the prospect for a just and lasting peace,” he said.

Dar added that recent steps taken by the Israeli government to deepen control over large swathes of land in the West Bank were “gravely disturbing”.

His remarks come as dozens of countries as well as UN experts have condemned Israel’s West Bank push as a violation of international law and an effort to unlawfully annex the occupied territory.

Wednesday’s session at UN headquarters in New York was rescheduled from Thursday to avoid coinciding with a planned meeting of United States President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” in Washington, DC.

The UN Security Council changed the timing of its meeting to accommodate diplomats who planned to attend both events, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The overlap is a sign of potential conflicting agendas between the UN’s most powerful body and the board, of which Trump has named himself the indefinite chairman.

The US president has said he envisions the board having influence “far beyond Gaza”, fuelling concerns that Trump is trying to sideline the UN and enshrine his own “imperial agenda”.

Annexation fears

Many Arab and Muslim-majority countries had requested that the Security Council address the Gaza “ceasefire” and Israel’s new illegal settlement project, ahead of Trump’s Board of Peace meeting.

Asked what he hoped to see from the back-to-back events, Palestine’s Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said he expected “the international community to stop Israel and end their illegal effort against annexation, whether in Washington or in New York”.

Earlier this week, Mansour was joined by dozens of other UN diplomats as he read out a statement on behalf of 80 countries that called on Israel to reverse its latest actions in the West Bank and outlined their “strong opposition to any form of annexation”.

On February 8, Israel’s security cabinet greenlit measures making it easier for Israelis to seize Palestinian land and directly buy property in the West Bank, while expanding Israel’s military control in the area, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said the measures amount to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state while Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed to also “encourage” Palestinian “emigration” out of the territory.

The push comes as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have faced a wave of intensified attacks by Israeli troops and settlers in the shadow of the country’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, four Palestinians were wounded – two of them with live ammunition – during a settler attack in the village of Mukhmas, near occupied East Jerusalem.

Trump’s Gaza plan

Several diplomats addressed the Security Council on Wednesday, stressing the need for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza, who continue to face Israeli attacks.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since a US-brokered “ceasefire” came into effect in the enclave in October, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, said during the Security Council meeting that the “ceasefire” has reduced hostilities while “the scope and the scale of humanitarian assistance” is growing daily.

While aspects of the Trump-backed plan for Gaza have moved forward, including Hamas releasing all the Israeli captives it was holding and increased amounts of humanitarian supplies getting into the territory, the UN says the level of aid remains insufficient.

A new technocratic committee also has been appointed to administer Gaza’s daily affairs.

But the most challenging steps lie ahead, including the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas, and rebuilding Gaza.

Trump said this week that the “Board of Peace” members have pledged $5bn toward Gaza reconstruction and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilisation and police forces for the territory.

Indonesia’s military says up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission.

Local authorities say that at least eight people have been found dead following an avalanche in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, the deadliest incident of its kind in more than 40 years.

Nevada County Sheriff Shannon Moon said on Wednesday that rescue crews have been hindered by difficult conditions during a powerful winter storm.

One person remains missing. Six of the 15 skiers buried by the avalanche were found alive.

“We are still looking for one of the members at this time,” Moon confirmed to reporters, adding that family members have been informed that the search has moved from rescue to recovery.

The deadly incident comes as California experiences a winter storm that has deluged the mountains near the popular winter destination of Lake Tahoe with heavy snow.

The Sierra Avalanche Center warned on Wednesday that the risk of further avalanches remains high in the area as several feet of additional snow contribute to unstable conditions.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services announced in a statement that it was “leading whole of government efforts to aid Nevada County”, which is located in eastern California, on the border with the neighbouring US state of Nevada.

“We are actively coordinating additional resources statewide to support avalanche search and rescue efforts to locate missing skiers near Castle Peak,” the office added.

Search-and-rescue teams were dispatched to the Castle Peak area after a call to emergency services reported that 15 people on a three-day trek had been buried by an avalanche on Tuesday morning.