Leeds United manager Daniel Farke says it felt like it was “written in the stars” that his side would lose against Sunderland, after Leeds were beaten 1-0 at Elland Road in the Premier League.
MATCH REPORT: Leeds United 0-1 Sunderland
Northern Ireland captain Jackie Burns says interim manager Kris Lindsay has given the players “something to build on” despite a 2-0 defeat in Switzerland in World Cup qualifying.
Riola Xhemaili opened the scoring in the 22nd minute from a corner and Northern Ireland, despite creating limited opportunities, frustrated the hosts.
However, their resolve was broken in injury time as Svenja Folmli scored from 20 yards to make sure the Swiss, who reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2025, started with an opening three points.
Lindsay will be in charge for at least the opening set of qualifiers after being named as interim manager to replace Tanya Oxtoby, who left her role in November.
Northern Ireland will look to bounce back at home to Turkey, who beat Malta 3-0 in their opener, on Saturday.
“It’s something to build on and Kris has given us free rein. It’s the belief and the bravery to go out and just play,” Burns said.
“We’re still in the building process and hopefully, come Saturday, it will be a better performance.”
Burns was handed the armband in the absence of regular skipper Simone Magill, who announced her pregnancy in November.
The goalkeeper, who joined Bristol City in January, said it was “tough” to lose the game but “it was full of positives”.
“We’re disappointed that we’ve conceded two goals, but we put in a really solid performance from start to finish,” Burns added.
Spain has said the US should be mindful of international law and bilateral trade agreements with the European Union, after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade with the country for refusing to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.
“We have the necessary resources to contain the possible impact of the trade embargo by the US,” the Spanish government said in a statement on Tuesday.
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“The US must comply with international law and bilateral EU-US trade agreements,” it added.
After the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the attacks as a breach of international law. He called for dialogue to end the war on Iran, saying that “one can oppose a hateful regime and, at the same time, oppose an unjustified and dangerous military intervention”.
On Monday, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares said Madrid would not allow the country’s military bases, which are jointly operated by the US and Spain but are under Spanish sovereignty, to be used for attacks on Iran.
“Spanish bases are not being used for this operation, and they will not be used for anything not included in the agreement with the United States, or for anything that is not in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,” Albares said, speaking to Spanish broadcaster Telecinco.
Subsequently, the US relocated 15 aircraft, including refuelling tankers, from the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain.
On Tuesday, before a meeting with German Chancellor Frederich Merz, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in Washington, DC, that “Spain has been terrible” for not allowing the US to use its bases.
He said that he had told his secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, to “cut off all dealings” with Spain.
“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” the US president said.
This is not the first time Spain has angered Trump.
In 2024, Sanchez, one of a dwindling number of left-leaning voices in Europe, refused to let vessels transporting weapons to Israel dock in Spain.
Spain has also refused to heed US calls for all NATO members to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence by 2035.
Spain is the world’s top exporter of olive oil, and also sells auto parts, steel and chemicals to the US. But it is less vulnerable to Trump’s threats of economic punishment than other European nations.
The airline and tourism industries are scrambling to deal with the fallout from the escalating US and Israeli air war against Iran, while governments have rushed to bring stranded travellers home from the Middle East following the cancellation of more than 20,000 flights over a handful of days.
Major Gulf hubs, including Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, remained closed or severely restricted for a fourth day on Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded. According to Flightradar24, some 21,300 flights have been cancelled at seven major airports, including Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, since the strikes started.
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The attacks have upended travel across a growing region that hosts several thriving business hubs and is trying to diversify away from oil-dominated economies. The turmoil also narrows an already slim flight corridor for long-haul flights between Europe and Asia, complicating operations for global air carriers.
Gulf airlines Emirates, flydubai and Etihad have been operating a limited number of flights since Monday, mostly to repatriate stranded passengers, who have rushed to secure seats.
“It’s pretty well the biggest shutdown we’ve seen certainly since the COVID pandemic,” said Paul Charles, CEO of luxury travel consultancy PC Agency, adding that beyond passenger disruption, the cargo impact would run to “billions of dollars”.
The United Arab Emirates said 60 flights had taken off, operating in dedicated emergency air corridors. The next phase will be operating more than 80 flights.
The US Department of State, meanwhile, has urged all Americans to leave more than a dozen countries in the region, while other nations have scrambled to arrange repatriation flights for their citizens even as explosions tore through Tehran and Beirut.
But with airspaces closed or restricted across the Gulf, many were not sure what to do.
“They say, ‘Get out’, but how do you expect us to get out when airspaces are closed?” said Odies Turner, a 32-year-old chef from Dallas stuck in Doha, Qatar. “They just have been cancelling every flight. I want to go home.”
US Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar posted on X on Monday that Americans in Iran and Israel – as well as Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the Palestinian territory, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen – should “DEPART NOW”, using any available commercial transportation.
The US is securing military and charter flights to evacuate Americans from the Middle East, a State Department official said on X on Tuesday, adding that it was in contact with nearly 3,000 US citizens. The department was under fire from US lawmakers who said the Trump administration should have advised people to leave before the attacks started.
Demand for alternatives to Gulf airlines has surged, with bookings and ticket prices jumping on routes like Hong Kong-London, Reuters checks showed on Tuesday. Should the conflict linger, it could cost the Middle East billions in tourism dollars, analysts estimate.
“We can’t get home, we can’t go back to work, we can’t get the kids back to school,” said Tatiana Leclerc, a French tourist stuck in Thailand, whose flight had been set to go via the Middle East hubs that are a key link between Asia and Europe.
Anita Mendiratta, an international aviation and tourism consultant stuck in Bangkok, said the location of the war would inevitably upend travel and trade.
“Effectively, within the Middle East, an eight-hour flying distance covers two-thirds of the world population,” she said. “When that corridor is blocked, it forces aviation to either move far north, which is going into potentially other conflict airspace, such as Russia, such as Pakistan, or fly south. That puts huge pressure on the airlines.”
In an early sign of thaw, Virgin Atlantic said on Tuesday that it would resume services as scheduled between London’s Heathrow airport and Dubai or Riyadh.
Shares of air carriers worldwide fell on Tuesday, though US shares pared losses in afternoon trading. The operational and financial effect varies significantly among airlines, said Karen Li, JP Morgan’s head of Asia infrastructure, industrials and transport research.
“There are important differences across carriers, in terms of hedging strategy, air cargo exposure, and network rerouting capabilities, that will shape the actual impact from the Middle East situation,” Li said.
Oil prices have surged amid the widening conflict. Benchmark crude is up roughly 30 percent so far this year, threatening to lift jet fuel costs and squeeze airline profits, as most airlines long ago gave up on hedging their fuel purchase, their second‑largest operating cost behind labour.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised what it described as selective enforcement of the law in the handling of legal cases involving two of its prominent members, insisting that justice must be applied evenly and without political bias.
In a statement posted on X on Tuesday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the ADC had been monitoring the ongoing cases involving former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
“The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has been monitoring the ongoing legal cases involving two of our leaders, Mr Abubakar Malami… and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai,” the statement read.
The party stressed that no citizen is above the law but raised concerns about what it termed inconsistencies in the manner and speed of enforcement actions.
“As a law-abiding party, it is important to state for the record that the ADC believes no citizen, regardless of stature or past office, is above the law,” Abdullahi said.
“However, in a constitutional democracy where the law is seen to operate selectively, it becomes imperative to insist… that justice must be applied evenly, transparently, and without political calculation,” he added.
READ ALSO: [Alleged Phone-Tapping] El-Rufai’s Family Accuses ICPC Of Smear, Challenges Search Warrant
The ADC referenced what it described as a recent high-profile case involving allegations of passport forgery, international conspiracy and impersonation, noting that the accused persons in that matter were granted bail and are standing trial.
According to the party, it contrasted this with what it called “prolonged custodial movements, inter-agency transfers, and processes that appear to precede, rather than follow, fully crystallised prosecution” in the cases of Malami and El-Rufai.
The party added, “Abubakar Malami and Nasir El-Rufai are first citizens of Nigeria before they are opposition leaders… They are therefore presumed innocent under the Constitution until proven otherwise in a fair and competent court of law.”
“We will continue to stand by our members as they assert their legal rights. We will ensure that they are not isolated, intimidated, or denied the protections that every Nigerian citizen is entitled to under the law. We will never abandon our people in moments of trial.”
Malami is currently in custody over allegations of money laundering and financial impropriety during his tenure.
On February 27, 2026, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court ordered that he and his son, Abdulaziz, be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre, while his wife, Asabe, was remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre.
They pleaded not guilty to charges including the alleged improper use of approximately ₦800 billion in recovered funds.
The matter has been adjourned to March 6, 2026 for the hearing of their bail applications.
El-Rufai, on his part, is under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and the Department of State Services.
His legal troubles escalated following a February interview in which he admitted to phone-tapping National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
The ICPC is also probing alleged financial improprieties during his time in office between 2015 and 2023.
The former governor has filed a ₦1 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit against the ICPC, challenging what he described as an unlawful invasion of his Abuja residence on February 19.
Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, the Fars news agency said Tuesday.
Khamenei, who led the country for 36 years, was killed at 86 during a wave of US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.
He was originally from Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine.
Before the burial, a “large farewell ceremony” will be held in Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards said on their Telegram account.
No date for the burial was disclosed.
READ ALSO: Iran Strikes Israel, US Bases After Khamenei’s Death
After Khamenei’s death, power was entrusted to a three-man interim council until the Assembly of Experts elects his successor.
It includes the president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council, the body that oversees legislation and vets electoral candidates.
Fars, citing an official familiar with the process, reported that “for security reasons”, the assembly’s final meeting could be postponed until after Khamenei’s burial.
Iranian media said the building housing the 88-member body in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, was hit Tuesday by US-Israeli strikes.
Its main headquarters in the Iranian capital was also struck the day before.
