Rashford wakes up Man United; Man City held by Everton in EPL

Marcus Rashford came on to score United’s winner. (AP)
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Updated 01 January 2023
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Rashford wakes up Man United; Man City held by Everton in EPL

  • Arsenal beat Brighton 4-2 away from home
  • Crystal Palace and Fulham registered wins

LONDON: After sleeping in late, Marcus Rashford helped Manchester United come awake in the Premier League. Manchester City couldn’t find a similar spark as its title defense took another stumble despite Erling Haaland scoring yet again.
Rashford was dropped to the bench for disciplinary reasons after being late for a team meeting but responded by coming off the bench to give a sluggish United side the spark it needed, scoring the only goal in United’s 1-0 win at Wolverhampton on Saturday.
It was enough to lift United into the top four for the first time this season, with Erik ten Hag’s side ending the year on a high after three straight wins.
Another goal from Haaland wasn’t enough to prevent second-place Man City from dropping more points, however, as the defending champions were held to a 1-1 draw by Everton thanks to a stunning equalizer from Demarai Gray. That gives Arsenal a chance to stretch its lead to seven points when it plays at Brighton in the game, having also seen third-place Newcastle held to a 0-0 draw by Leeds.
Ten Hag’s decision to drop Rashford looked to have backfired as United struggled in attack, but the England forward came on after halftime and scored a well-taken goal in the 76th minute. And, unlike Cristiano Ronaldo earlier in the season, he had no problems with the manager’s decision.
“I was a little bit late for a meeting. I slept in, overslept, but it can happen,” Rashford said. “I’m obviously disappointed not to play but I understand the decision and I’m happy we managed to win the game anyway. I think we can draw a line under it and move on.”
Ten Hag also seemed ready to move on, having seen once again how important Rashford is to his team’s attack.
“Everyone has to match the standards and rules. We have to have consequences and it is what I expect on the pitch. He gave the right answer,” Ten Hag said of Rashford. “I was not satisfied with the performance in the first half. We have to be more clinical and we know Rashy can score the goals and that’s what he did.”
Rashford netted his 11th goal of the season after he collected the ball on the left before cutting inside and swapping passes with Bruno Fernandes, then dribbled his way past two defenders to sweep it past goalkeeper Jose Sa.
It was a rare bit of quality for United, with striker Anthony Martial and winger Antony both struggling to make an impact. But after a terrible start to the season, United has now lost just one of its last 15 games since a humiliating 6-3 derby loss to Manchester City in October. And with the Ronaldo saga finally concluded — the Portugal star joined Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr on Friday after being released by United in November — Ten Hag’s team looks ready to challenge for a Champions League place again.
“It’s the first time we are in the top four,” Ten Hag said. “But it means nothing because it’s a long way to go.”
Fulham climbed to seventh place with a 2-1 win over Southampton, while Crystal Palace earned a 2-0 victory at Bournemouth.

Manchester City held
Haaland seemed to have made the difference for City once again when Riyad Mahrez slalomed his way through the area and pulled back for the Norway striker, who finished clinically on the turn for his 21st league goal.
But Gray responded for Everton when he burst into the area, held the ball up — and nearly slipped in the process — before curling a sublime effort inside the far post just after the hour.
“Dropping points at home is always tough but I’m always trying to make our game good and we have continued to do it,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “They made a fantastic goal and when that happens you say congratulations but in general we did really well.”

Results

Wolves 0 - 1 Man Utd

Bournemouth 0 - 2 Crystal Palace

Fulham 2 - 1 Southampton

Man City 1 - 1 Everton

Newcastle 0 - 0 Leeds

Brighton 2 - 4 Arsenal


Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from immigration detention

Updated 3 min 2 sec ago
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Columbia protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from immigration detention

  • Khalil, a Columbia University student, who became a leader of pro-Palestinian campus protests has been in custody since March facing deportation
  • District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil’s release on bail allowing him to return to New York while his case proceeds

JENA, Louisiana: Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was released Friday from federal immigration detention, freed after three months by a judge’s ruling after becoming a symbol of President Donald Trump ‘s clampdown on campus protests.
The former Columbia University graduate student left a federal facility in Louisiana on Friday. He is expected to head to New York to reunite with his US citizen wife and newborn son.
The Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests
“Justice prevailed, but it’s very long overdue,” he said outside the facility in a remote part of Louisiana. “This shouldn’t have taken three months.”
Khalil was released after US District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue detaining a legal US resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn’t been accused of any violence.
“Petitioner is not a flight risk and the evidence presented is that he is not a danger to the community,” he said. “Period, full stop.”
Later in the hourlong hearing, which took place by phone, the judge said the government had “clearly not met” the standards for detention.
The government filed notice Friday evening that it’s appealing Khalil’s release.
Khalil had to surrender his passport and can’t travel internationally, but he will get his green card back and be given official documents permitting limited travel within the country, including New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances and Washington to lobby Congress.
Khalil was the first person arrested under President Donald Trump ‘s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against Israel’s devastating war in Gaza. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Khalil must be expelled from the country because his continued presence could harm American foreign policy.
Farbiarz had ruled earlier that the government couldn’t deport Khalil on those grounds, but gave it leeway to continue pursuing a potential deportation based on allegations that he lied on his green card application. Trump administration lawyers repeated that accusation at Friday’s court hearing. It’s an accusation Khalil disputes.
In issuing his ruling Friday, the judge agreed with Khalil’s lawyers that the protest leader was being prevented from exercising his free speech and due process rights despite no obvious reason for his continued detention. The judge noted that Khalil is now clearly a public figure.
Khalil’s lawyers had asked that he either be freed on bail or, at the very least, moved from Louisiana to New Jersey so he can be closer to his wife and newborn son, who are both US citizens.
Khalil’s wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said she can finally “breathe a sigh of relief” after her husband’s three months in detention.
“We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family, and so many others,” she said in a statement provided by Khalil’s lawyers. “But today we are celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family.”
The judge’s decision comes after several other scholars targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another former Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri.
Khalil was detained on March 8 at his apartment building in Manhattan over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The international affairs graduate student isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. He served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists and wasn’t among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics.
The Trump administration has argued that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country as it considers their views antisemitic.

 


Morocco says 2024 ‘hottest year’ on record

Updated 47 min 59 sec ago
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Morocco says 2024 ‘hottest year’ on record

  • Moroccan climatologist Mohammed-Said Karrouk, who also heads Morocco’s National Future Planet Committee, warned that the kingdom’s geography and climate make it more vulnerable to temperature extremes

RABAT: The year 2024 was Morocco’s hottest on record, the North African country’s meteorological agency said on Friday, mirroring the record surface temperatures measured globally.
In an annual report, the agency said it recorded an average temperature anomaly of +1.49 degrees Celsius (+2.7 Fahrenheit) last year compared to the 1991-2020 period.
“The year 2024 stands out as the hottest ever recorded in Morocco,” it said, adding that every month in 2024, excluding June and September, had been hotter than the average for the 1991-2020 reference period.
Several cities broke daily heat records, with 47.6 degrees Celsius (117.7 Fahrenheit) in Marrakech and 47.7 degrees Celsius (117.8 Fahrenheit) in Beni Mellal in July last year, the agency said.
It also noted “an increase in thermal anomalies, particularly during the autumn and winter seasons.”
Morocco’s all-time heat record was set in August 2023, when temperatures hit 50.4 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in Agadir.
The country, which is enduring a seventh straight year of drought, registered an average rainfall deficit of -24.7 percent last year, the report said.
The agency said last year’s data reflected “an amplification of climate contrasts in Morocco, where prolonged droughts alternate with episodes of extreme precipitation.”
Torrential rains in September 2024 — causing floods and killing 18 people — “did not reverse the overall rainfall deficit,” it added.
Moroccan climatologist Mohammed-Said Karrouk, who also heads Morocco’s National Future Planet Committee, warned that the kingdom’s geography and climate make it more vulnerable to temperature extremes.
He said warming was now observed in all seasons.
“In autumn, lingering summer heat combined with gradually cooling temperatures favors violent downpours, which have become more dangerous due to excess humidity in the atmosphere,” he said.
“In winter, the heat originating mostly from warming tropical oceans now influences North Africa as well.”
A former member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Karrouk also warned of a recent intensification of the West African monsoon — a seasonal wind system that brings moist air from the Atlantic Ocean — which he linked to the deadly September floods.
He called for the construction of shelters to protect vulnerable populations and dams to capture water — a valuable resource with Morocco’s unrelenting drought.
Weather extremes have taken a toll on farming, a vital sector for Morocco which employs nearly a third of its active population and accounts for 12 percent of GDP.
Scientists say that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming and that they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
Fuelled by human-driven climate change, 2024 was the warmest year on record globally — and 2025 is projected to rank among the top three.

 


Hundreds of US citizens left Iran in last week, State Dept cable says

Updated 54 min 49 sec ago
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Hundreds of US citizens left Iran in last week, State Dept cable says

  • Washington is looking at ways to potentially evacuate its citizens from Israel, but it has almost no way of assisting Americans inside Iran

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of American citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week since an aerial war between the Islamic Republic and Israel broke out, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday.
While many left without problem, “numerous” citizens had faced “delays and harassment” while trying to exit, the cable said. It said, without giving further details, that one unidentified family had reported that two US citizens attempting to leave Iran had been detained.
The internal cable dated June 20 underscores the challenge Washington is facing in trying to protect and assist its citizens in a country with which it has no diplomatic relations and in a war in which the United States may soon get involved.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The cable was first reported by The Washington Post.

HIGHLIGHTS

• US advises land exits via Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkey

• Some US citizens departing Iran faced problems, cable says

• Over 6,400 US citizens filled possible evacuation form in Israel

President Donald Trump and the White House said on Thursday he will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war. Trump has kept the world guessing on his plans, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting Washington might join the fighting on Israel’s side.
The air war began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran and has alarmed a region that has been on edge since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons, and said it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with its own strikes on Israel. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.

POTENTIAL EVACUATION
The US State Department in a travel alert earlier on Friday urged its citizens wishing to depart Iran to use land routes via Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkiye. Iranian airspace is closed.
The US Embassy in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat has requested entry for over 100 American citizens, but the Turkmenistan government has yet to give its approval, the cable said.
The Islamic Republic treats Iranian-US dual citizens solely as nationals of Iran, the State Department emphasized.
“US nationals are at significant risk of questioning, arrest and detention in Iran,” the alert said.
Washington is looking at ways to potentially evacuate its citizens from Israel, but it has almost no way of assisting Americans inside Iran. The two countries have had no diplomatic ties since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Thursday said the administration was looking at different ways to get US citizens out.
“We’re working to get military, commercial, charter flights and cruise ships for evac,” he said in an X post, urging US citizens and green card holders to complete an online form.
As of Friday, more than 6,400 US citizens filled out that form for Israel, a separate internal department email seen by Reuters said. The form allows the agency to predict an approximate figure for potential evacuations.
“Approximately 300-500 US citizens per day would potentially require departure assistance,” said the internal email, also dated June 20 and marked “sensitive.”
The State Department does not have official figures but thousands of US citizens are thought to be residing in Iran and hundreds of thousands in Israel.
Israel’s strikes over the last week have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel says Iranian attacks have killed 24 civilians in Israel.
“The US Department of State received no reports of US citizen casualties in Israel or Iran,” the second email said.

 


A woman tried to call her mom in Iran. A robotic voice answered the phone

This picture shows a general view of Iran's capital Tehran on June 16, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 21 June 2025
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A woman tried to call her mom in Iran. A robotic voice answered the phone

  • “Calling your mom and expecting to hear her voice and hearing an AI voice is one of the most scary things I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “I can feel it in my body”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: When Ellie, a British-Iranian living in the United Kingdom, tried to call her mother in Tehran, a robotic female voice answered instead.
“Alo? Alo?” the voice said, then asked in English: “Who is calling?” A few seconds passed.
“I can’t heard you,” the voice continued, its English imperfect. “Who you want to speak with? I’m Alyssia. Do you remember me? I think I don’t know who are you.”
Ellie, 44, is one of nine Iranians living abroad — including in the U.K and US — who said they have gotten strange, robotic voices when they attempted to call their loved ones in Iran since Israel launched airstrikes on the country a week ago.
They told their stories to The Associated Press on the condition they remain anonymous or that only their first names or initials be used out of fear of endangering their families.
Five experts with whom the AP shared recordings said it could be low-tech artificial intelligence, a chatbot or a pre-recorded message to which calls from abroad were diverted.
It remains unclear who is behind the operation, though four of the experts believed it was likely to be the Iranian government while the fifth saw Israel as more likely.
The messages are deeply eerie and disconcerting for Iranians in the diaspora struggling to contact their families as Israel’s offensive targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites pounds Tehran and other cities. Iran has retaliated with hundreds of missiles and drones, and the government has imposed a widespread Internet blackout it says is to protect the country.
That has blocked average Iranians from getting information from the outside world, and their relatives from being able to reach them.
“I don’t know why they’re doing this,” said Ellie, whose mother is diabetic, low on insulin and trapped on the outskirts of Tehran. She wants her mother to evacuate the city but cannot communicate that to her.
A request for comment sent to the Iranian mission to the UN was not immediately answered.
Some of the messages are bizarre
Most of the voices speak in English, though at least one spoke Farsi. If the caller tries to talk to it, the voice just continues with its message.
A 30-year-old women living in New York, who heard the same message Ellie did, called it “psychological warfare.”
“Calling your mom and expecting to hear her voice and hearing an AI voice is one of the most scary things I’ve ever experienced,” she said. “I can feel it in my body.”
And the messages can be bizarre. One woman living in the UK desperately called her mom and instead got a voice offering platitudes.
“Thank you for taking the time to listen,” it said, in a recording that she shared with the AP. “Today, I’d like to share some thoughts with you and share a few things that might resonate in our daily lives. Life is full of unexpected surprises, and these surprises can sometimes bring joy while at other times they challenge us.”
Not all Iranians abroad encounter the robotic voice. Some said when they try to call family, the phone just rings and rings.
It’s not clear who is behind this — or what the goal is
Colin Crowell, a former vice president for Twitter’s global policy, said it appeared that Iranian phone companies were diverting the calls to a default message system that does not allow calls to be completed.
Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity expert based in the US, agreed and said the recordings appeared to be a government measure to thwart hackers, though there was no hard evidence.
He said that in the first two days of Israel’s campaign, mass voice and text messages were sent to Iranian phones urging the public to gear up for “emergency conditions.” They aimed to spread panic — similar to mass calls that government opponents made into Iran during the war with Iraq in the 1980s.
The voice messages trying to calm people “fit the pattern of the Iranian government and how in the past it handled emergency situations,” said Rashidi, the director of Texas-based Miaan, a group that reports on digital rights in the Middle East.
Mobile phones and landlines ultimately are overseen by Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. But the country’s intelligence services have long been believed to be monitoring conversations.
“It would be hard for anybody else to hack. Of course, it is possible it is Israeli. But I don’t think they have an incentive to do this,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, a tech entrepreneur and Internet freedom activist.
Marwa Fatafta, Berlin-based policy and advocacy director for digital rights group Access Now, suggested it could be “a form of psychological warfare by the Israelis.” She said it fits a past pattern by Israel of using extensive direct messaging to Lebanese and Palestinians during campaigns in Gaza and against Hezbollah.
The messages, she said, appear aimed at “tormenting” already anxious Iranians abroad.
When contacted with requests for comment, the Israeli military declined and the prime minister’s office did not respond.
Trying new ways to contact relatives
Ellie is one of a lucky few who found a way to reach relatives since the blackout. She knows someone who lives on the Iran-Turkiye border and has two phones — one with a Turkish SIM card and one with an Iranian SIM.
He calls Ellie’s mother with the Iranian phone — since people inside the country are still able to call one another — and presses it to the Turkish phone, where Ellie’s on the line. The two are able to speak.
“The last time we spoke to her, we told her about the AI voice that is answering all her calls,” said Ellie. “She was shocked. She said her phone hasn’t rung at all.”
Elon Musk said he has activated his satellite Internet provider Starlink in Iran, where a small number of people are believed to have the system, even though it is illegal. Authorities are urging the public to turn in neighbors with the devices as part of an ongoing spy hunt. Others have illegal satellite dishes, granting them access to international news.
The messages are making relatives feel helpless
M., a woman in the UK, has been trying to reach her mother-in-law, who is immobile and lives in Tehran’s northeast, which has been pummeled by Israeli bombardment throughout the week.
When she last spoke to her family in Iran, they were mulling whether she should evacuate from the city. Then the blackout was imposed, and they lost contact. Since then she has heard through a relative that the woman was in the ICU with respiratory problems.
When she calls, she gets the same bizarre message as the woman in the UK, a lengthy mantra.
“Close your eyes and picture yourself in a place that brings you peace and happiness,” it says. “Maybe you are walking through a serene forest, listening to the rustle of leaves and birds chirping. Or you’re by the seashore, hearing the calming sound of waves crashing on the sand.”
The only feeling the message does instill in her, she said, is “helplessness.”

 


Promotional tour for Alvarez and Crawford’s ‘Fight of the Century’ gets underway in Riyadh

Updated 21 June 2025
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Promotional tour for Alvarez and Crawford’s ‘Fight of the Century’ gets underway in Riyadh

  • The boxers will face off in Las Vegas in September for the unified super-middleweight title and a specially crafted Ring Magazine belt worth $188,000

RIYADH: Boxing superstars Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford shared the stage in Riyadh on Friday at the start of a promotional tour ahead of their highly anticipated bout in Las Vegas on Sept. 13.

The two champions, who will face off for the unified super-middleweight title and a specially crafted Ring Magazine belt valued at $188,000, appeared at a press conference in Boulevard City as part of Riyadh Season.

“My goal is always being in these kinds of fights: big fights,” Alvarez, the reigning undisputed champion with a record of 62 wins, 39 of them by knockout, told Arab News. “And I’m here again. So I feel grateful and excited.”

He added that the sport has developed and progressed in the Kingdom in recent years, adding: “Turki Alalshikh (chairperson of the General Entertainment Authority) has helped a lot. Right now we have boxing gyms here and they’re helping a lot of kids. So that’s very nice.”

Looking ahead to his showdown with Crawford, the Mexican fighter said: “I think this fight is going to be one of my best fights in my history, in my record. I’m very excited and motivated. This is what it’s all about. I want to make history.”

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Asked for his thoughts on his opponent, Alvarez said: “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great fighter — but like I said, he’s not Canelo. He’s one of the top fighters I’m going to face in my career, for sure.”

Crawford, an American fighter who holds a record of 41 wins, with 31 knockouts, and is a four-division world champion, said: “This is my moment and I’m not letting Canelo take it away from me. It’s going to be an exciting day for boxing; history will be made.”

Alalshikh said the fight marks the beginning of a long-term partnership with Netflix, which will stream the bout to more than 300 million subscribers worldwide.

“We will do big things together and this is the beginning of a great relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the GEA and Netflix,” he added.

Asked what he hopes to see from the fighters during their bout, Alalshikh said: “I’m sure they will deliver for me smashing face and blood.”

As for the decision to stage the fight in Las Vegas, he described the city as “the capital of boxing.”

The promotional tour will continue in New York City on June 22 and Las Vegas on June 27.