TOP NEWS

FIFA boss turns up at event after CONCACAF chief Montagliani asked him to reconsider amid the global football body’s governance crisis.

Gianni Infantino has defied a request by one of his FIFA vice presidents to stay away from an Under-14 football event in the Caribbean and instead made a rare public appearance during the global furore over his failed plan to sell future World Cup profits to private investors.

The FIFA president posted photos on his Instagram account on Saturday, showing his meeting with political and football officials from the Dominican Republic on the sidelines of a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) youth tournament in the Punta Cana resort.

On Friday, Infantino had been asked not to go by Victor Montagliani, the Canadian president of the Miami-based Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), to avoid being a distraction from the football games.

“I believe that considering the governance crisis surrounding FIFA as a result of your controversial FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, the media will focus on this situation,” Montagliani wrote in an emailed letter seen by The Associated Press news agency, “which will unfortunately significantly take away from the technical nature of the CFU youth competition.”

“As such, I respectfully ask you in the name of football to reconsider your attendance as it will unfortunately undermine the technical nature of this important youth development activity,” Montagliani wrote.

FIFA declined to comment on Montagliani’s request, though it noted that it directly funds regional bodies like the CFU with up to $5m from each four-year World Cup cycle.

Montagliani has aligned with fellow FIFA vice presidents Aleksander Ceferin from European body UEFA and Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa in seeking to end Infantino’s increasingly executive presidency, now in its 11th year.

They accused Infantino two weeks ago of “deception” in secretly planning over the past year to spin off FIFA’s multibillion-dollar commercial activities to a subsidiary 20 percent owned by investors led by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Infantino withdrew the project on August 1 amid a global backlash by football leaders and fans, and hours after his own chief operating officer published stinging criticism of the proposal and his leadership style in a statement to the AP. The Zurich-based COO, Kevin Lamour, was fired last week.

Caribbean member federations are seen as potential supporters for Infantino to peel away from their CONCACAF leadership. South American body CONMEBOL has backed Infantino as its best path to hosting more games at the 2030 World Cup it wants expanded from 48 teams to 64.

The FIFA leader has not taken questions publicly since the $20bn FFE project was revealed on July 28 by British daily The Times, and on Friday in Punta Cana he evaded a reporter from British broadcaster Sky News.

Asked by Sky reporter James Matthews whether he had betrayed the sport and should resign, Infantino said, “Thank you so much”, and made quips about both men being bald.

Infantino is aiming to be re-elected for a fourth and final term in office through 2031 at the FIFA election congress next March in Rabat, Morocco. FIFA has set a November 18 deadline for would-be candidates to enter the race.

The women’s all-American final will be followedby a men’s title clash between Frances Tiafoe and Arthur Fils of France.

Jessica Pegula rallied in the third set to topple defending champion Iga Swiatek and book a title showdown with Coco Gauff at the Cincinnati Masters tennis tournament.

World number three Pegula won a “crazy” match against Swiatek 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 on Saturday in the US city.

Gauff powered past giant-killer Sara Bejlek 6-4, 6-1, ending the unseeded Czech’s dream run that included a fourth-round victory over world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

Their all-American Sunday night final will be followed by a men’s title clash between American Frances Tiafoe and Arthur Fils of France.

Fils charged into his first Masters 1000 final with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli in a match delayed for 45 minutes by rain and lightning.

Swiatek and Pegula then waited out another rain delay before their match, which was also briefly interrupted two games in.

“Crazy match today,” Pegula said after needing nearly three hours to subdue Swiatek, who was coming off her first title of 2026 in Toronto last week.

“A lot of back and forth, a lot of breaks,” she said. “Really windy, kind of odd conditions. I felt like we were playing well and then not playing well.

“It was really tough to kind of get a gauge on the match.”

The pair rode a rollercoaster of breaks and re-breaks before Pegula took a 5-4 lead in the final set, Swiatek saving three break points before double-faulting on a fourth.

Pegula quickly closed it out, firing a service winner on match point.

“I was just really happy with the way I was able to kind of handle just a lot that was going on today,” the 31-year-old American said. “I did a good job no matter what was happening.”

The first five games of what evolved into an epic went against the server as Pegula and Swiatek struggled to adjust to the conditions.

Swiatek blinked first as Pegula held at love for a 4-2 lead, but Swiatek won the next three games before Pegula broke again, finally taking the set when Swiatek smacked a volley into the net on set point.

They had exchanged two breaks in the second when Swiatek broke in the final game to square the match.

Tiafoe feeling ‘damn good’ on return to final

Tiafoe, runner-up to Jannik Sinner in Cincinnati in 2024, returned to the final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over fellow American Brandon Nakashima.

Tiafoe saved three set points in the opening set, breaking Nakashima five times in all to earn the win in less than two hours.

“It feels d*** good,” Tiafoe said.

The American predicted a “h*** of a show” against Fils, whose 68-minute win over seventh-seeded Cobolli made him the youngest French Masters finalist since a 20-year-old Richard Gasquet in Toronto two decades ago.

Fils admitted he had been unsettled by the weather delay.

“You come on court more nervous because it’s a semi-final. The rain arrives, you wait and when you come back conditions are completely different,” he said.

“It was tough, but I’m happy with how I dealt with it.”

Aug. 22 (UPI) — A Chinese humanoid robot on Saturday ran a 100-meter sprint in 9.32 seconds, surpassing the world record set by Jamaican legend Usain Bolt.

The robot, named Lightning and produced by robotics company Honor, reached a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second during a test run.

Lightning is one of 2,000 robots participating in the second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.

The robot’s sprint on Saturday was .26 seconds faster than Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds, set 17 years ago at Berlin’s World Athletics Championships.

Another robot cleared 2.88 meters at the standing high jump, higher than the 2.45-meter world record set by Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor in 1993.

The Beijing games also include competitions in tablet tennis, long jump and weightlifting.

China remains the world’s largest producer of humanoid robots.

The Trump administration in July banned imports of humanoid robots into the United States, citing “unacceptable risks” to national security.

“China firmly opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and going after Chinese companies,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters.

“Protectionism does not make the U.S. more competitive and will only hurt the interests of U.S. companies and consumers,”

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced retaliatory tariffs on the United States after Washington imposed a 50 percent levy on $20bn worth of Canadian goods.

Carney, speaking in Ottawa on Saturday, said the new Canadian tariffs would target US steel, dairy and electronics industries among others and take effect on September 8.

“Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses,” Carney told reporters.

The announcement came after days of intense negotiations broke down late on Friday, worsening a delicate relationship between the longtime trade partners and allies.

US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, and cover some $20bn worth of goods, or 5.5 percent of Canadian exports to the US.

Carney said Trump set conditions that were ultimately unacceptable even though earlier talks had been positive.

“In recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair and undermined the net benefits for Canada, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Carney said, adding these demands included curtailing Canada’s ability to forge new trade deals.

“We cannot accept what they’ve offered, and we will not give what they’ve asked.”

He added that US negotiators also made unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebec culture”, referring to the French-speaking province in eastern Canada.

No new talks planned

Carney is one of the few global leaders to retaliate against US tariffs and has pledged to forge new trade and military alliances, despite Canada’s dependence on the ‌US for nearly 70 percent of its exports.

Canada will impose tariffs on US steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, along with some products the US previously targeted in Canada, Carney said from Ottawa’s Parliament building. The government will release details on its response in the coming days, he said.

Carney said Canada would announce support measures next week for industries hit ⁠by the new US duties, adding these measures could last years.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox News on Saturday that no new ⁠talks are planned with Canada.

“We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” Greer said. “They’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.”

The new US tariffs are expected to have a major impact on Canada’s economy.

“Costs are going to go up, prices are going to go up, unemployment is going to go up as well,” said Al Jazeera’s David Mercer, reporting from the Canadian city of Calgary. “And it’s been warned that business owners – small [and] medium-sized businesses – some of those will have to declare bankruptcy,” he said.

At the same time, Mercer said, Carney is selling the trade war as an opportunity for Canada to strengthen its trade relations with other countries.

“He’s been around the world, he’s been talking to countries in Asia, in Europe, shoring up new trade relationships, wanting to diversify Canada’s economy and Canada’s trade relationships with other countries around the world just to get away from that dependency that Canada has traditionally had on the United States,” he said.

Public opinion surveys in Canada show most Canadians back a “tougher approach” to the US in the trade talks. A poll by Leger last week said 56 percent of Canadians favoured a hard line and making no more concessions.

‘Bad deal’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the most vocal ⁠opponents of US tariffs, supported Carney’s decision to retaliate.

“I’m glad he didn’t sign that deal because it was a bad deal. It was a bad deal for Ontario. It was a bad deal for the auto sector, the steel sector, and manufacturing sector,” Ford told reporters on Saturday.

In Port Colborne, Ontario, resident Stuart Edwards said the trade war was going to “hurt everybody” and “it’s just sad”.

“We have a bully in Washington, and he’s just hitting us all with the big stick all the time,” he said. “And we’re not going to put up with it; Canada isn’t. We’ll fight back.”

But Pamela Coulis, from Fort Erie in Canada, was worried about rising prices.

“I think probably the gas will go up even more, and all products, from food to, I don’t know, wood, everything else,” she said.

Diamond Isinger, who served as a special adviser to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said both countries will suffer from the trade war.

“It’s going to cause pain and challenge for Canadians and Americans alike, in terms of the actions that, unfortunately, the US has taken as well as Canada’s retaliation. But ultimately this was the way forward; this was the only realistic next step,” she said.

“Because the US administration responds best, of all the responses that they could have, to all the actions that a government like Canada could take, to strength,” Isinger added.

“So, we could not simply accept 50 percent tariffs going forward. We had to move forward with our own retaliatory package.”

In the US, the escalating trade war was met with anger by Democratic lawmakers and governors from border states including Minnesota, New York and Washington, who blamed Trump for triggering chaos that would raise costs for US businesses and families.

“Needlessly picking fights with our allies and raising prices here at home. That’s Trump’s economic policy in a nutshell,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on X.

The Business Roundtable, a group of 200 chief executives of leading US corporations, also warned the new tariffs “risk raising costs for American businesses and families”, and urged both governments to resume negotiations.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — The casting of Meghan Markle to play a role in the Netflix series The Gentlemen has been withdrawn amid intense backlash in Britain, it was reported Saturday.

The Duchess of Sussex had been in talks to return to acting when she and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, return to Britain after living in California for the past six years.

She had been hoping to join the third season of the Guy Ritchie show The Gentlemen on Netflix.

But the casting was reportedly withdrawn.

“The backlash in the UK was so intense, it became untenable to go forward,” wrote Tina Brown, the former editor in chief of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, in her Substack.

Markle, who starred in seven seasons of the legal drama Suits, stepped back from acting in 2018 after marrying Prince Harry.

It was reported this week that the couple is planning on returning to Britain within days.

They plan on living in a private residence outside London with Prince Archie, 7, and Princes Lilibet, 5, and have reportedly enrolled the children in a British school for the fall term.

The Sussexes, who stepped away from royal duties in 2020, will return as private citizens and are not expected to resume their previous roles.

For the second week in a row, Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, faces threats from an intensifying storm.

Tropical Storm Moke is grinding towards Hawaii, bringing gusts of wind and heavy rain only a week after the islands faced similar conditions from Hurricane Lala.

On Saturday, Hawaii residents prepared for the latest storm, which is expected to pass south of Hawaii Island, the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, overnight and into the following morning.

As of 11am Hawaii Standard Time (21:00 GMT), Moke was located about 684 kilometres, or 425 miles, south of Hilo, a city on the eastern coast of Hawaii Island. It was moving west-northwest at 19km/h (12mph).

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the United States reported that the storm’s maximum sustained winds were about 85km/h (50mph).

Moke, like Lala, is forecast to spare the Big Island a potentially disastrous direct hit. But the island is still recovering from Lala, a Category 1 storm that spurred heavy flooding and power outages.

At least one person died in last weekend’s storm.

Lala came close enough to Hawaii Island to dump more than 1,000mm (39 inches) of rain in some locations, causing rivers to burst their banks.

High winds also bent tall palm trees and downed electrical lines, forcing nearly 130,000 utility customers to lose power.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green and other state officials have urged people to prepare for Moke by restocking food, medicine and other daily essentials ahead of the storm’s passage.

“It could certainly have a big impact because we’ve already been hit hard,” Green said in a video statement. “We’re pre-positioning all kinds of additional equipment and people. I’ve also authorised 100 rooms, hotel rooms, for people to go to, in case they don’t have enough services or protection, safety.”

Green added that, while power had been restored to most of Hawaii Island after Lala, some remote areas were still experiencing outages. Power is expected to be fully restored by September 8.

After passing Hawaii Island during the night, Moke is projected to continue on a westward path near the islands through early Tuesday, according to Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the Honolulu office of the US National Weather Service.

“There will still be impacts, especially to the windward and southeast sides of the Big Island, but it will probably be a little bit more limited than what we saw with Lala,” Oswant said.

The National Hurricane Center projects that Moke will bring roughly 130mm to 250mm (5 to 10 inches) of rainfall over the next two days on the southeast and windward sides of the Big Island. Some isolated areas could see as much as 380mm (15 inches).

Eastern Maui, meanwhile, is likely to receive 76mm to 150mm (3 to 6 inches), with smaller amounts of precipitation expected across the rest of the island chain.

Governor Green warned that the heavy rain is unlikely to end with Moke.

“Everyone be very careful,” he said. “This storm will be followed by another storm front about a week later, and we continue to see the impacts of these major weather fronts that have hit Hawaii.”

Aug. 22 (UPI) — A 17-year-old girl is dead after a sword attack at a Swedish high school on Friday.

Three students were injured, two of them seriously, in the attack in Fagersta, Sweden.

The alleged attacker is an 18-year-old, male student of the school who carried out the attack while classes were in session Friday. He was arrested and the police are investigating the case as murder and attempted murder. They said they have no reason to believe there were more attackers involved.

The Brinelskolan School principal told local news Saturday that the attacker was a student there.

Vastmanland County said the two injured boys are ages 12 and 17, ABC News reported. The third person is also younger than 18 and was slightly injured. That person has been discharged from the hospital, Swedish News agency TT reported.

The teen girl’s body was found when police entered the school to secure the premises, authorities said.

Police said they fired shots at the attacker, but didn’t hit him. Sweden’s national police said they have carried out two searches of homes connected to the suspect and that they expect to interview many witnesses.

“That’s why we can’t give out too much information, because we don’t want to influence witnesses,” Police Chief Tommy Alriksson said.

No official information on the attacker’s motive has been released.

On Saturday morning, people gathered at a memorial site that the town created, carrying flowers and lighting candles, CBS News reported.

Fagersta city government said it created a crisis center in a sports hall near the school. Fagersta is a town of about 12,000 about 105 miles northwest of Stockholm.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition party leader Magdalena Andersson visited the memorial site to lay flowers.

“What must never happen has happened again,” Kristersson said.

Sweden’s parliamentary elections are scheduled for September, so the Swedish political parties suspended their campaigning Saturday.

School attacks have happened in Sweden several times in recent history.

In February 2025, 11 people, including the gunman, were killed in an attack on an adult education center in Orebro. It was Sweden’s worst-ever mass shooting. After the attack, the government tightened gun laws because the suspect had legally owned four rifles. He had brought three of them to the attack.

Two teachers were killed with a knife at a high school in Malmo in 2022, and an 18-year-old later confessed to the killings.

In 2015, three people were killed in a sword attack in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he now considers the Strait of Hormuz to be “an American territory.”

“We don’t even know if we won, because I view the Strait of Hormuz as an American territory right now,” he told a crowd of supporters during a campaign event in South Carolina.

Trump first floated the idea of claiming the waterway last week, saying he would wait until the conclusion of the war in Iran to declare the strait a territory of the United States.

Then on Tuesday he posted an image on Truth Social showing the strait with the label “New U.S. Territory.”

He took his threats further on Friday during a campaign rally for Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., as she attempts to fill her late brother Lindsey Graham‘s Senate seat.

“It’s an American territory,” he said.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, had previously called the president’s remarks “fanciful delusions.”

“The Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” he said.

Trump this week said he would launch “economic warfare” against Iran as efforts to end the war continue to fail.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the economic operation was “bound to fail.”

“We have seen this movie before,” Araghchi wrote in a statement on X. “Same bull. Different bullies.”

As part of his economic warfare threat, Trump said institutions or governments providing any support to Iran would face “tremendous” consequences.

Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Trump’s move “is an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.”

“The end result would be the complete erosion of sovereignty as the foundational basis of the UN-based inter-State system, and a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism,” he added in a statement on X.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — A laptop caught fire on an American Airlines flight during landing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, with one passenger getting treatment for burns after landing.

The flight, American Airlines Flight 2398, left Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Friday, People reported.

“American Airlines Flight 2398 landed safely at DFW after reports of smoke from a customer’s device during landing,” the airline said in a statement to the media. “We thank our crew for their professionalism and swift response to quickly contain the device.”

One passenger was treated on site and was later released, the airline said.

“After landing, the aircraft taxied to the gate under its own power. Per procedure, emergency personnel met the aircraft upon arrival to the gate,” the airline said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement: “Flight attendants contained the fire with a thermal containment bag.” It said the plane was an Airbus A321.

The FDA reported 58 lithium-ion battery incidents causing smoke or fire on passenger planes this year.

“All lithium-ion batteries are capable of overheating and undergoing a process called thermal runaway,” the FAA said on its website, along with safety tips for packing them on a plane. “Thermal runaway can occur without warning as a result of various factors, including if the battery is damaged, overheated, exposed to water, overcharged or improperly packed. Thermal runaway can also occur on its own due to manufacturing defects.”

Lithium-ion batteries must be stowed in carry-on baggage only, the FAA said.

Police say three villages and a mosque were attacked, and worshippers kidnapped in central Niger State.

Armed men have kidnapped dozens of people during an attack on a mosque and surrounding villages in Nigeria’s central Niger State, survivors and police officials say.

The raiders stormed Kpenya Mosque in the Dekara district of Borgu Local Government Area at around 2pm (13:00 GMT) on Friday, after first attacking the villages of Gidan-Zana and Kpenya, police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun said on Saturday.

Abiodun told the Reuters news agency that police were aware of the kidnappings but had not received reports of anyone being killed, and that a “joint security detachment has been deployed to the area for assessment and rescue operations”.

He said police could not yet confirm the number of people who were taken.

Local residents told Reuters that more than 60 worshippers were kidnapped, but the figure could not be independently verified.

Separately, residents told the AFP news agency that people were also killed, another claim that could not immediately be confirmed.

Jibril Ahmad, a survivor of the assault on Dekara, blamed members of the Lakurawa armed group.

“Soon after finishing the normal Friday prayer, the armed group of Lakurawa, in their hundreds, wielding guns, knives and machetes, began to attack us,” Ahmad told AFP, claiming that people were “slaughtered”.

During the attack, a third group, Mahmuda, intervened and clashed with the kidnappers, allowing some abductees to escape, he said.

Federal lawmaker Jafaru Mohammed told AFP that several nearby villages were also struck.

“Some members of the Mahmuda group were against the doctrine of the Lakurawa, and when they heard of what the Lakurawa were doing, they fought them,” Mohammed said.

The attack unfolded in a region near Nigeria’s western border with Benin that has seen growing activity from local armed groups and fighters from the neighbouring region, even as the country’s 17-year armed rebellion remains concentrated in the northeast.

The violence in Niger State continued into Saturday. Resident Abdullahi Ahmad said the group returned to the area to seize more people as a “bargaining chip” in advance of an expected troop deployment, and planted landmines on the road out of Dekara.

“A man and his family who were fleeing the town yesterday were killed when their car hit a landmine planted by the terrorists. Everyone is living in fear,” he said.

Mass abductions have been a hallmark tactic of the country’s armed groups and have evolved into a lucrative, multimillion-dollar industry involving networks of both ideological and nonideological gangs across Nigeria’s northwest and central regions.

The PanStar Acro, bound for Europe via the Arctic, is testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice can be commercially viable.

A South ‌Korean container ship is sailing to Europe via the Arctic, ⁠in the nation’s first commercial voyage on the route to test its viability as the war in the Middle East rattles global shipping.

The PanStar Acro set sail from Busan New Port on Saturday. “We would like to inform you that the vessel for the Arctic route trial voyage departed” at 9:30pm (12:30 GMT), Seoul’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said in a statement to the AFP news agency.

The PanStar Acro will sail north, the Reuters news agency reported, hugging eastern Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, then cross the Bering Sea, and ⁠take the Northern Sea Route, stopping in Felixstowe in the UK, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and Poland’s Gdansk before returning.

The 2,758 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ship operated by South Korea’s PanStar ‌has secured 837 TEU of cargo, including car parts, chemical products and about 100 empty containers on the government-backed voyage.

The journey is expected to take 40 to 45 days, according to the Oceans Ministry.

President Lee Jae Myung has made Arctic shipping ‌a priority for South Korea, with the hope of turning the southeastern ⁠port of Busan into a global maritime hub and position the Arctic as a regular trade route by 2030.

But this new route has been criticised for several different reasons. Environmental groups have warned the route could accelerate polar ice melt, meaning the increase in shipping could worsen global warming.

The project also risks increasing friction with Western allies hoping to keep Russia isolated in its war with Ukraine. Seoul has consulted with Moscow about the journey, Reuters reported, including whether the ship needed ⁠help to tackle any problems, such as ⁠getting stuck in ice.

Last year, 103 transits through the route were made by 88 vessels, up from ⁠97 in 2024 and 43 in 2022, chiefly from nations such as Russia and China, according ⁠to Norway’s Centre for High North Logistics.

But with the Iran war affecting global shipping, governments and shipping firms are scrambling to seek different routes, with the Arctic route increasingly viewed as a viable alternative due to technological advances and environmental degradation.

South Korea’s Vice Oceans Minister Nam Jae-hon said the Arctic route was “bound to become an alternative” to Middle Eastern shipping lanes.

The usual maritime route between Asia and Europe runs through the Suez Canal, but travelling through the Arctic can cut the journey by approximately 7,000 kilometres (4,300 miles) and about 10 days, according to the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

However, major carriers including CMA CGM, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd have pledged to avoid Arctic shipping routes due to pressure from environmental groups. The Arctic sea route is believed to be accessible only during the time of year when the ice is melted enough to allow transits without icebreakers.

“The Northern Sea Route has become increasingly viable as the Arctic warms about four times faster than the global average, leading to a sharp decline in sea ice,” South Korean environmental group Paran Ocean Citizen Science Center said in a statement last year. “But making the route commercially viable would require further warming, putting the policy at odds with efforts to combat climate change.”

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, Liz Hurley and four others who accused the Daily Mail of improper reporting tactics and privacy violations have been ordered by the court to pay the publisher $13 million in legal costs by Aug. 28.

Judge Justice Nicklin ruled on Friday that the claims made by the claimants were “unreasonable to a high degree” and they should have to pay more than what was agreed upon previously. They have until Oct. 2 to file an appeal.

Nicklin dismissed the claims against Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of the Daily Mail, last month.

The claimants were insured to cover up to $22.1 million of ANL’s legal costs. ANL says it incurred about $47 million in legal costs.

Nicklin’s ruling on Friday means that ANL does not need to show that the costs it incurred were reasonable and proportionate.

“The claims, and the manner in which they were brought, pleaded, pursued, maintained and publicly advanced, involved a combination of circumstances and conduct which took the litigation outside the ordinary and reasonable conduct of civil proceedings,” Nicklin said in his ruling.

Nicklin did not put a limit on the costs that the claimants may have to pay to ANL, though this does not mean that ANL can recover all of its costs. Nicklin did say the costs reported to the court are “excessive,” “striking” and “largely unexplained.”

He explained that he came to this ruling, in part because of the “speculative and substantially inferential character of the claims at their origin,” the “exceptional breadth” of the cases and the “public presentation of allegations of serious criminality and impropriety which were not ultimately established.”

Nicklin added that the claimants did not reassess their allegations when evidence required them to do so.

“The truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought,” ANL said in a statement. “That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession.”

Aug. 22 (UPI) — A 50% tariff on Canadian goods went into effect early Saturday after talks between the two countries collapsed.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from the negotiations and said Canada would retaliate against the tariffs.

Negotiators had been in Washington, D.C., working with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to try to come to an agreement. But just before the midnight deadline Friday, Carney released a statement on X announcing that there would be no deal.

“In recent weeks, we made important progress toward improving Canada’s position as having the best deal in the world with the U.S. However, that progress has not been enough to meet our objectives for Canadians. As a result this evening I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the U.S. and have directed Canada’s negotiators to return to Ottawa,” Carney said in the statement.

“At midnight tonight, the U.S. intends to impose a 50% tariff on roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods. Canada will match those tariffs dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses,” Carney added.

Greer posted a statement on X saying, “Despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk-backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days.”

“This is a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States, which is the fastest growing economy in the G7,” Greer said.

President Donald Trump signed orders in July to add the new tariffs on goods, including cement, hockey sticks, beer, cheese and other items that would make up about 2% of the entire trade between the two countries.

They were set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, but Trump extended the deadline to Friday night. He announced on Truth Social about 90 minutes before the deadline, saying the two countries “have a DEAL!”

Carney responded on X: “Substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done.”

Analysts have said this is bad news for the United States and Canada.

“Economically, [the new tariffs are] not that important – except that the relationship itself is extremely important,” said Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a nonpartisan research organization, The Washington Post reported.

Candace Laing, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said it will hurt both countries economically.

“This will be a body blow to North American competitiveness in this self-defeating trade saga,” Laing said in a statement. “Americans will see their costs go up, and Canadians will see customers, investment and small businesses disappear.”

Tehran, Iran – The Iranian military is looking at how to respond to the United States’s planned implementation of economic measures that are designed to “collapse” the government in Tehran.

It comes as US President Donald Trump announced this week the “most crushing economic operation” against Iran, saying Tehran would face “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale”.

Iranian commanders are reviewing new military strategies to counteract the new US threats.

“The only intelligent and effective solution to navigate difficult historical junctures and neutralise the enemy’s plots today and in the future,” Ahmad Vahdi, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), warned on Friday.

Marking National Day of Defence Industry in Iran on Saturday, Ali Abdollahi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, hailed a “deterrent defensive industrial revolution” in the domestic production of weaponry.

But as happened last year, authorities opted not to exhibit new arms.

“We have limited unveilings of weapons and equipment in order to surprise the enemy and safeguard the country’s defensive information and secrets,” Ministry of Defence spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik told state media on Saturday.

However, he claimed that in the 12 months after the 12-day war with Israel and the US in June 2025, Iran doubled its production of weapons and defensive equipment.

Since the start of the current war with the US and Israel on February 28, manufacturing of some “strategic and prioritised products” has more than tripled, he claimed.

Talaei-Nik also said more than 9,300 companies in Iran are involved in producing weapons, which means US and Israeli strikes would not be able to destroy this sector.

Acting Defence Minister Majid Ebn-e Reza said on Friday that compared to last year’s war with Israel and the US, the Iranian armed forces were able to achieve deeper penetration of enemy bases, greater strike accuracy, and more successful air defence interceptions.

In another future war, the IRGC will deploy new generations of warheads for its ballistic and cruise missiles, as production and development never stopped, IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said on Thursday.

The truce between the US and Iran, which took hold on April 8, followed nearly 40 days of intense bombing and involved thousands of flight sorties.

The White House claimed that more than 85 percent of Iran’s defence-industrial base had been destroyed, including the majority of its ballistic missiles, mobile launchers and long-range drones.

It also said that more than 150 Iranian warships were destroyed, every submarine sunk, and 97 percent of Iran’s naval-mine inventory eliminated.

But a confidential US intelligence assessment reported by media in May found that Iran retained approximately 75 percent of its mobile launchers and 70 percent of its pre-war missile inventory.

Even after an additional two weeks of intense bombardment by the US in July, the IRGC and the Iranian army continued to launch missiles and drones at US bases and international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz – although at a slower pace compared with the start of the war.

Iranian commanders have said the July strikes by the US signalled potential planning for ground operations in southern Iran, and the military was ready to counter any such efforts by Washington.

Experts have said Iran has continued to produce weapons in geographically dispersed underground bases that have stayed out of reach of US bombs, even as many overground manufacturing lines were decimated.

In addition to the more complex and costly ballistic missiles, cheaper and easier-to-make explosive drones have helped Iran consume a large number of US interceptors, reveal radar positions, force airports or energy sites to suspend operations, and create disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s air defences and ageing air force largely failed to prevent US, Israeli and Arab breaches of its airspace during bombing runs.

But smaller electro-optical, heat-seeking and man-portable systems have managed some interceptions, including the downing of an F-15 fighter jet.

At least 45 advanced MQ-9 Reaper drones of the US military, about a quarter of the entire fleet at the cost of more than $1.3bn, were either shot down by Iran or were lost through data-link or operational failures, according to US media reports.

In the Strait of Hormuz, which US President Donald Trump declared US territory this week, Washington and its allies have managed to increase discrete oil and energy transfers over recent weeks.

But despite significant damage inflicted on Iran’s naval capabilities, missile, drone and fast boat attacks mean oil flows via the Hormuz are still considerably lower than their pre-war levels.

Disruptions to sea traffic are also happening in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb strait, where Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen have intermittently clashed with Saudi Arabia and its interests.

Iran and the US are not engaged in any meaningful dialogue, so a diplomatic way out of the war is currently not in sight.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said Guatemala has received 2,284 Mexican nationals deported from the United States this year.

Arévalo confirmed the figure after international media outlets, including CBS News, reported details about the repatriation operations carried out under the U.S. administration.

“What we have done is admit them in transit so that, in coordination with Mexican immigration authorities, they can return and enter Mexican territory less than 24 hours after arriving in the country,” Arévalo said at a news conference Wednesday night.

Arévalo also rejected the suggestion that the procedure could constitute a safe third-country arrangement because the Mexican nationals remain in Guatemala only temporarily before continuing to their home country, local newspaper Prensa Libre reported.

Until recently, Mexican nationals deported from the United States mostly were sent directly back to Mexico, with only a small number routed through other countries.

The Trump administration has used third-country deportations to remove migrants from the United States, signing bilateral agreements with several countries, including Mexico, to receive migrants from other nations.

Arévalo said expenses associated with the Mexican nationals arriving in Guatemala are covered by the Mexican government or, in some cases, by the U.S. government.

The president said the procedure has been carried out more consistently in 2026, with Guatemalan authorities coordinating with the Mexican government to return the deportees to their country.

Arévalo, however, did not explain whether a specific agreement with the United States provides the basis for the arrangement, despite being asked by a journalist what agreement established the procedure and when it was negotiated. He focused his response on the migrants’ transit status and coordination with Mexican authorities.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Ministry objected Thursday to the U.S. practice and said it was coordinating with the countries involved to ensure the safe repatriation of Mexican nationals, DW reported.

“The Mexican government has expressed its opposition to this practice to U.S. authorities and has reiterated that every Mexican citizen has the right to enter the country,” the ministry said.

The ministry did not provide details on the number of cases or the costs involved.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Authorities in Germany discovered an underground weapons cache in a forest near Berlin and are seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the suspect as a “low-level agent” and added that several more agents have been detained this year. The call for extradition is part of a monthslong investigation after authorities discovered two firearms and ammunition stowed away in the forest.

The weapons cache is suspected to be linked to Russian intelligence. Investigators left the weapons in place after determining they were rendered useless in hopes of observing someone coming back for them. After months of surveillance, no one had come to the site to retrieve them, leaving investigators to believe that the operation had been abandoned.

Dobrindt said authorities are investigating whether the weapons were meant for a violent threat to national security.

“This case demonstrates that we are operating under a high threat level,” Dobrindt told reporters.

German intelligence has been on elevated alert since Director General of the German Federal Domestic Intelligence Service Sinan Selen said two months ago that Russia may be preparing to carry out assassinations on supporters of Ukraine, members of the defense industry and political opponents.

The Russian embassy in Germany has not commented on the allegations.

Germany’s Leipzig/Halle international airport was the site of an incident two weeks ago in which a drone armed with explosives was discovered. Authorities suspect that the Russian government is involved in the incident.

On the same day, a DHL cargo plane had to abort its landing at Leipzig and divert to another airport after colliding midair with an unknown object. The plane suffered minor damage to its nose.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Ecuador’s Defense Ministry said it is conducting joint military operations with the U.S. Southern Command against drug cartels near the border with Colombia.

The operations are concentrated primarily in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, which has been plagued by killings, kidnappings and extortion by drug trafficking groups that use Pacific ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

Ecuadorian Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo confirmed the arrival of three Black Hawk helicopters and two U.S. warships at the port of Manta as part of an effort to triple maritime patrol capabilities against drug-running boats.

“We are going to triple our interdiction capabilities in the maritime zone,” Loffredo said in a video posted on X with military-style music playing in the background.

The operations come after the Ecuadorian government issued a decree this week allowing U.S. military personnel to remain in Ecuador for up to 180 days without visas and granting them exemptions from immigration requirements, local broadcaster Teleamazonas reported.

The operations are part of the “Shield of the Americas” alliance, a U.S.-led coalition of about 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries aimed at combating drug trafficking.

U.S. Southern Command personnel have been operating in Esmeraldas for some time, provincial Gov. Juan Jaramillo told local reporters.

Jaramillo did not say when U.S. personnel were deployed, how many are participating in the operations or how long they will remain in the province.

The governor said U.S. military personnel have conducted intelligence operations alongside the Ecuadorian Navy and will focus primarily on San Lorenzo and Eloy Alfaro, areas affected by drug trafficking and illegal mining, La FM reported.

Jaramillo also highlighted Colombia’s participation in the security operations, saying police and armed forces from both countries are sharing intelligence, information and operational targets.

The governor linked the cooperation to Colombia’s new political landscape after Abelardo de la Espriella’s inauguration as president of the neighboring country.

Washington and Quito have conducted joint operations for months targeting criminal groups in Ecuador as the country struggles with a wave of violence.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a tough-on-crime strategy since taking office in 2023. However, the country’s homicide rate has remained high, reaching a record 52 killings per 100,000 people last year.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei slams Trump’s latest threat as a return to ‘full-scale classic colonialism’.

Iran has decried impending United States sanctions as a “complete erosion of sovereignty” following US President Donald Trump’s threat to punish any country doing business with Tehran.

In a post on X on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the US announcement was “an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty” against the United Nations’ member states.

No state can compel foreign banks, enterprises or airports to renounce commerce with Iran, he said.

“The end result would be the complete erosion of sovereignty as the foundational basis of the UN-based inter-State system, and a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism,” Baghaei said.

Trump announced on Wednesday the “most crushing economic operation” yet against Iran and said any country whose institutions interface with Tehran would face “tremendous economic consequences”.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doubled down on the president’s words on Thursday, saying the new sanctions regime would “collapse” Iran and that other countries are “either with us or against us”.

Iranian state media was quick to point out that Tehran has faced US sanctions for decades. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the new measures were “bound to fail”.

“We have seen this movie before,” Araghchi wrote on X, alongside a screenshot of a tweet from former President Barack Obama referencing earlier sanctions in 2012. “Same bull. Different bullies.”

The latest rhetorical back-and-forth comes as peace talks with Tehran have sputtered out. The US Navy has maintained its blockade against Iran’s ports, while oil shipment traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has virtually ceased.

Trump told reporters Friday that his government is “seeing what happens” in the conflict.

“They would love to make a deal, but they’re not ready to make the right deal in my opinion,” the president said.

While the US has blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.

Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.

However, Iran has granted permission for several Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA ⁠reported on Saturday.

IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher ⁠Ghalibaf’s visit to Iraq.