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The Connecticut Sun have reached an agreement to sell the team to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for $300 million and will move to Houston in 2027, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press on Friday because the deal hasn’t been announced publicly.

The WNBA Board of Governors still needs to approve the sale and the move. The team will play in Connecticut for the upcoming season before moving to Houston and becoming the Comets again.

This will end a 23-year run by the team in New England after the team moved to Connecticut from Orlando in 2003.

Houston was one of the groups that expressed interest in buying the team last year, eventually raising its bid to $250 million — the amount that Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia paid for expansion fees. Now with the $300 million sale price that’s the highest a team has been sold for in WNBA history.

The Sun had an offer for $325 million from a group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca that would have moved the franchise to Boston. The WNBA basically blocked that deal from happening by saying that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams.”

The league also went on to say that other teams had gone through the expansion process and had priority over Boston.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said during a news conference to announce the three new expansion teams that Houston was up next.

Ever since Mark Davis bought the Las Vegas Aces in 2021, the league has added new owners that have some sort of NBA tie. Golden State, which came into the league last season, is owned by the Warriors. Portland and Toronto are coming into the WNBA this season and the ownership groups are connected to NBA teams.

The next three expansion teams — Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia — are all owned by NBA groups in those cities.

The WNBA just agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement last week where teams need to have top notch facilities similar to those of NBA franchises.

With the news of the deal on Friday, it allows the franchise to have clarity for potential free agents who could sign with the Sun next month.

The Houston Comets were one of the original franchises in the league that won the first four WNBA championships from 1997-2000. The franchise disbanded after the 2008 season.

The last WNBA team to move cities was the Las Vegas Aces, who relocated from San Antonio in 2017.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.

Zheng beat American 15th seed Madison Keys to claim her first win over a top-20 player since having elbow surgery in July.

Sabelenka has won seven of her eight meetings with Olympic champion Zheng.

Third seed Elena Rybakina cruised into the last 16 with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.

Kazakhstan’s Rybakina will play Australian qualifier Talia Gibson, who knocked out another seeded player courtesy of a 6-2 6-2 win over 18th seed Iva Jovic.

Gibson, who reached the Indian Wells quarter-finals, beat former world number one Naomi Osaka in the second round in Miami.

Fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula, runner-up to Sabalenka last year, needed only an hour and six minutes to beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-2 6-2.

Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, runner-up in Miami in 2018, fought back to claim a 5-7 6-2 7-5 win over seventh seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy.

Ostapenko will next play American world number 45 Hailey Baptiste, who beat Ukrainian ninth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3 7-5.

ANT McPartlin has reportedly reached an agreement with his ex-wife Lisa Armstrong over the heartbreaking loss of their dog.

The former couple shared pup Hurley during their 11-year marriage, with Ant sharing that the beloved chocolate Labrador had passed away earlier this year.

In an emotional update, 50-year-old Ant, who is now married to Anne-Marie Corbett, confirmed last month that Hurley had died in his arms.

Now, it has been alleged that he and Lisa, who split in 2023, reached an agreement over Hurley.

“Ant and Lisa agreed to share Hurley’s ashes 50/50,” a source told MailOnline.

“It’s a decision they felt was fair and it means they’ll both be able to hold their own farewells.”

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They continued to the publication: “Ant has already collected his ashes, while Lisa intends to do likewise when she returns from her trip.

“It’s likely the ashes will be buried in their own respective gardens so they’ll both be able to regularly pay their respects to Hurley.”

Ant was with make-up artist Lisa for over two decades, with the pair going through a divorce in 2018 which saw them reach a massive £31million deal.

Hurley became Britain’s best known celebrity dog during Ant and Lisa’s highly-publicised custody battle following their divorce.

They eventually agreed to share custody and Hurley spent his time between their homes.

The pair recently came together to say goodbye to Hurley, who they got in 2013.

The Sun revealed how they had to make the decision to put Hurley down at the vet due to him being too ill to recover.

And confirming the situation, Ant explained on his and Dec Donnelly’s podcast: “He passed away in my arms.

“We were at the vet’s and we were all there to see him, all the family, everyone that he loved was there, and it was a very sad, but it was a very lovely moment when we all got to say goodbye to him.”

The presenter, who has two other dogs, went on to share how the grief has been “awful” and has seen him often break down in tears.

Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike (3), president of the WNBA players’ union, said for the first time, player salaries will be tied to a meaningful share of league revenue.

(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

The league and players association have not made the terms public yet, but the salary cap will start at $7 million, up from $1.5 million in 2025, and the supermax will start at $1.4 million, up from $249,244 in 2025, a person with knowledge of negotiations not authorized to discuss them publicly told The Times. ESPN was the first to report the figures.

The total salary cap will jump by around 4.64 times the previous amount. The super maximum salary will be elevated by 5.61 times the previous amount. It means the top players will be eligible for larger raises than the league’s middle class.

The average salary will be $600,000, a bump from the previous average of $120,000, and the minimum salary will be more than $300,000, up from $66,079.

“For the first time, player salaries are tied to a truly meaningful share of league revenue, driving exponential growth in the salary cap, increasing average compensation beyond half a million dollars and raising the standard across facilities, staffing and support,” union president Nneka Ogwumike told reporters.

The main sticking point during negotiations was revenue sharing, and that number will be around 20% for the entirety of the multi-year deal. The league had previously offered 15.5%, a source told The Times, and players went down from their 40% ask to around 26% at the end of February, and then reached the agreement around 20% on Wednesday morning. The Athletic first reported the shift in revenue sharing figures.

Players had been negotiating for a percentage of overall revenue without factoring in expenses while the WNBA was seeking sharing tied to net revenue, mirroring the NBA’s structure that deducts expenses before sharing 50% of profits. The players secured a gross revenue deal, which gives them a cut of WNBA revenue without factoring in expenses, a person with knowledge of the deal not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times.

“This deal is going to be transformational, and you’ll see all the details hopefully soon,” WNBPA vice president Breanna Stewart told reporters on Wednesday. “But it’s gonna build and help create a system where everybody is getting exactly what they deserve and more from on the court and off the court aspects.”

Liverpool shrugged off their Premier League malaise to storm into the Champions League quarterfinals by thrashing Galatasaray 4-0 at Anfield.

Goals from Dominik Szoboszlai, Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah on Tuesday overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit for Arne Slot’s men to set up a reunion with defending champions Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight.

Slot needed a reaction from the English champions after they were booed off at Anfield on Sunday for the latest in a series of lacklustre displays in a 1-1 draw against struggling Tottenham.

Languishing fifth in the Premier League, the Champions League could save Liverpool’s season and Slot’s job.

The Dutchman had given a rest to some of his stars at the weekend and was rewarded with a dominant display that could have resulted in an even more comprehensive scoreline.

Galatasaray’s hopes of causing an upset were dealt a massive blow inside the first few minutes when star striker Victor Osimhen injured his forearm in a clash with Ibrahima Konate.

The Nigerian international was clearly hobbled as he continued on until half-time, when he was replaced by Leroy Sane.

By that point, the Turkish champions’ advantage had already been erased.

Szoboszlai has been Liverpool’s outstanding performer in a troubled season and levelled the tie with a cushioned finish from a well-worked corner on 25 minutes.

Galatasaray somehow escaped further punishment before the break.

Salah missed a glorious chance to immediately double the Reds’ lead when he failed to chip Ugurcan Cakir.

Florian Wirtz’s deflected effort flew just over, and Cakir repelled another sweet Szoboszlai strike.

The Turkiye goalkeeper then saved Salah’s poor penalty after Szoboszlai was upended inside the box.

But the floodgates opened on the visitors in the second half. Salah atoned for the penalty miss with an inch-perfect pass for Ekitike to slot home.

Two minutes later, Gravenberch fired in the rebound off a Salah shot that had been saved.

Salah has been a shadow of his former self this season, either side of a public bust-up with Slot after being dropped in December.

He could and should have had many more on the night, but did register his 50th Champions League goal in some style with a spectacular strike from Wirtz’s backheel.

Salah also hit the bar before asking to be replaced due to an injury concern, as Galatasaray offered little resistance to the waves of Liverpool attacks.

The Reds face a very different challenge against PSG, who crushed Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate to reach the last eight.

Slot has repeatedly spoken in glowing terms of the French champions.

Liverpool came as close as anyone to stopping PSG last season as Luis Enrique’s men emerged victorious on penalties in the last 16 after a titanic tussle.

Szoboszlai said he was delighted to get the win in such emphatic style, but warned that PSG would pose a formidable task.

“Today, we showed the right direction where we want to go and what we want to show everybody,” he told TNT Sports.

“I watched [PSG] play against Chelsea yesterday, they didn’t become a worse team than last season. But we showed today that we are able to do everything.”

Elsewhere, Harry Kane scored a brace in Bayern’s 4-1 over Atalanta to complete a 10-2 aggregate win.

Barcelona were not far off when they thrashed Newcastle United 7-2 for an overall 8-3 score, with captain Raphina getting two goals and assists apiece, and Robert Lewandowski also claiming a brace.

Tottenham Hotspur put up a fight against Atletico and won 3-2 from Xavi Simons’s late penalty for a personal brace, but the damage was done last week in Spain, where they lost 5-2.

The results mean that Liverpool and Arsenal are the only two of six Premier League teams to progress, as Chelsea and Manchester City went out on Tuesday against title-holders Paris Saint-Germain and record winners Real Madrid, respectively. Arsenal, for their part, ousted Bayer Leverkusen.

The quarterfinals, to be played April 7-8 and 14-15, are Real vs Bayern, Atletico vs Barcelona, PSG vs Liverpool and Sporting vs Arsenal.

This time of year – close to the spring equinox – day length increases and the Sun moves higher in the sky. You might notice the Sun feeling stronger. With largely clear skies forecast, UV levels will rise to medium across England, Wales and eastern Scotland on Wednesday. Cloudier conditions will keep UV levels low elsewhere.

It is easy to get caught out in the spring months because, although temperatures aren’t as high as later in the summer, ultraviolet (UV) levels in late March are actually just as strong as they are in September.

Whilst exposure to small amounts of UV radiation is essential to produce vitamin D, the World Health Organization warns “overexposure may result in acute and chronic health effects on the skin, eye and immune system”.

Advice from the NHS, external is to “strike a balance between protecting yourself from the Sun and getting enough vitamin D from sunlight”. This includes spending time in the shade between 11am and 3pm, and covering up with suitable clothing and sunglasses.

Keep an eye on the UV forecast on the BBC Weather app or website.

Wakefield Trinity produce a dominant second-half display as they recover from 14-12 down at half-time to beat Leeds Rhinos 24-14 and reach the Challenge Cup quarter-finals for the second season in a row.

READ MORE: Wakefield beat Leeds & Wigan cruise past Bradford

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The global energy landscape is facing its most volatile period in decades following the US-Israeli strikes against Iran on 28 February that triggered a wider and potentially prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

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What began as a targeted military operation has rapidly escalated into a direct confrontation with global economic implications.

Based on claims by Iranian state media and regional reports, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has ostensibly adopted a strategy of “energy blackmail” to leverage the international community into pressuring the US and Israel to cease its attacks.

The $200 per oil barrel threat was first articulated shortly after the conflict began.

On Sunday 1 March, a senior IRGC spokesperson warned that if “cowardly anti-human actions” continued, the world should prepare for a massive price surge, even as high as $200 per oil barrel.

This rhetoric has since become a central pillar of Tehran’s messaging.

As recently as this Wednesday, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, the spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters, told state media: “Get ready for the oil barrel to be at $200, because the oil price depends on the regional security which you have destabilised.”

Iran’s tactical disruption

The IRGC’s current strategy relies on “internationalising” the cost of the conflict.

By disrupting the flow of nearly 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran aims to drag the global economy into the fray.

This is why the IRGC has targeted vessels from neutral nations, including ships sailing under Thai, Japanese and Marshall Islands flags, among others.

According to energy analysts, this disruption is designed to create domestic political pressure within Western nations, to in turn force the US and Israel to pull back on military action in exchange for energy stability.

By striking countries that have not attacked them directly, Tehran is signaling that no maritime trade is safe as long as the strikes on its soil continue.

The main vector of this strategy is precisely the disruption of energy markets, an element Iran can influence directly through its geographical advantage.

A history of oil price shocks

While $200 per barrel sounds astronomical, oil has approached similar levels in the past when adjusted for inflation.

The highest nominal price ever recorded was around $147 in 2008, driven by peak oil fears and rampant speculation just before the global financial crisis. When adjusted for 2026 inflation, that 2008 peak represents roughly $211 per barrel.

Previous major shocks, such as the 1973-74 Arab Oil Embargo and the 1979 Iranian Revolution, saw prices quadruple and double respectively from pre-crisis levels.

In 1980, prices hit a nominal peak of about $39.50, which would be approximately $160 in today’s terms.

However, the current crisis involves a total physical blockade of one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoint, increasing the risk of a price “moonshot”.

Market response and reserves

At the time of writing, Brent crude is trading just above $100 per barrel, a sharp increase from the $60 range seen in mid-February before the Iran war began.

The International Energy Agency has attempted to stabilise the market by orchestrating the largest-ever coordinated release of strategic reserves, but the continuation of Iranian strikes agaisnt oil infrastructure and tankers has largely neutralised the effort.

With insurance providers cancelling war-risk coverage and shipping companies redirecting fleets, the market remains in a state of high anxiety.

If the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz persists, the $200 figure may shift from a political threat to an increasingly likely scenario.

In a recent report, Oxford Economics identified $140 per barrel as the threshold at which the global economy tips into mild recession, reducing world GDP by 0.7% by year-end and pushing the UK, the Eurozone and Japan into contraction.

When a freshman is wondering whether to play sports or focus on academics because of the immense time commitment, it’s usually the parents who have to give a nudge toward one or the other. Except this time, the decision was left to 15-year-old Javier Zarate, and he chose to give up club soccer to try for straight A’s last year at Garfield High.

Last spring, Garfield soccer coach Pablo Serrano, knowing he had a highly regarded goalie on his campus, began a lobbying campaign with emails and text messages inviting him to try out for the Bulldogs’ soccer team.

“He told me if I wanted to give it a shot, I could try out,” Zarate said. “They were very welcoming and nice.”

The rest is going to be part of Garfield sports lore, because Zarate saved three penalty kicks when Garfield won the City Section Division II championship game against Canoga Park and delivered more saves last week in helping the Bulldogs beat Bakersfield Taft 1-0 in the Southern California Division V regional final.

Incredibly, Garfield is headed to Sacramento this week to play in the first CIF state soccer championships, against Branford on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Natomas High.

“I’m super pumped up,” Zarate said.

Who knows how many alumni from Garfield are living in Sacramento or nearby, but they have been known to travel around the country to support their Bulldogs, especially if rival Roosevelt is the opponent. Something tells me there’s going to be a caravan from Boyle Heights headed to Sacramento to provide support.

“I know some will make the drive,” Serrano said.

It’s been a strange season in City Section soccer, with six schools removed from the playoffs for using ineligible players, most of whom played for club teams while also playing tor their high school team, in violation of CIF bylaw 600.

Serrano said there’s always a reminder making sure his players know the rule.

“There’s a lot of soccer going on in this community,” he said. “It’s always a challenge because kids play outside with club. It’s something I do from the beginning of tryouts. We talk to the kids that if they play in a club outside of school, they are not allowed to play high school or vice versa. There’s no excuse,”

In the case of the 5-foot-6 Zarate, he didn’t play any soccer last year while focusing on academics and being part of the school’s ROTC program. His weighted grade-point average is at 4.4. He wants to study to become a firefighter.

“My family motivated me to be academically focused and I found a balance to do both,” he said of his return to soccer.

Goalies are usually much taller than Zarate, but he received lots of lessons on how to overcome the size disadvantage.

“I get that a lot that I’m very short for a goalie,” he said. “As a kid I, got training by a good trainer. He told me, ‘You’re pretty short for a goalie. As long as you can master being able to dive and jump high, you should be as good as them.’”

Garfield finished fourth in the Eastern League behind City Section soccer powers South East and Marquez, both of whom were eliminated after making the semifinals because of ineligible players.

Given the opportunity to get hot in the playoffs, the Bulldogs have done just that. Junior Noe Marmolejo has been the leading goal scorer.

The team is scheduled to take a bus to Sacramento on Friday, stay at a hotel Friday night, rise early for its game on Saturday, then immediately return home. Considering how loyal the Boyle Heights community is, look for lots of fans supporting the team in Sacramento and when that bus returns home.

“It’s an honor,” Serrano said of being the first City team to play for a state soccer title.

Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points, Bennedict Mathurin added 28 points, and the Clippers beat the New York Knicks 126-118 at Intuit Dome on Monday night to climb back to .500 for the first time since early November.

The Clippers are 32-32 and have won five of their first six games in March as they try to improve their potential position in the NBA play-in tournament. They began the season in a 6-21 tailspin.

It was Leonard’s 42nd straight game with 20-plus points, the second-longest active streak in the NBA and third-longest in team history.

Mathurin scored 22 in the second half off the bench as one of five Clippers in double figures. Darius Garland had 23 points and seven assists in his second start.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the Knicks with 35 points on 13-of-17 shooting, 12 rebounds and seven assists before fouling out in the final seconds. Jalen Brunson added 28 points and OG Anunoby had 22 points.

Buoyed by chants of “Let’s go Knicks!” at Intuit Dome, New York cut its deficit from 15 points with a 17-9 run, including six in a row from Brunson, to go into the fourth trailing 88-81.

The Knicks three times closed within five over the final four minutes. But the Clippers controlled the final two minutes, helped by Mathurin’s three-point play and a three-pointer by Derrick Jones Jr.

Clippers star Kawhi Leonard celebrates a basket during a win over the Knicks on Monday at Intuit Dome.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Standing third in the Eastern Conference race, the Knicks split the season series with the Clippers, and have not beaten them in Los Angeles since 2022. New York has dropped three of four.

The Clippers opened the game by making four consecutive three-pointers and led most of the first half, which ended in a scoring duel between Leonard and Towns. Leonard scored 10 in a row for the Clippers and Towns had eight straight for the Knicks, who trailed 64-55 at the break.

Up next for the Clippers: vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves at Intuit Dome on Wednesday.

Dozens of civilians, including children, wounded by an Iranian drone strike in Bahrain. France deploying warships to secure shipping commerce in the Strait of Hormuz. Australia taking heat from President Trump over its handling of the Iranian women’s soccer team. Markets across Asia plunging as the price of oil surged.

Lebanon reporting half a million people displaced by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The U.S. State Department telling nonessential staff to get out of Saudi Arabia after attacks there killed workers from India and Bangladesh. Ukrainian anti-drone experts turning their attention from their war with Russia to help intercept Iranian attacks. The defense minister of ever-neutral Switzerland saying his country believes the U.S.-Israeli war violates international law.

In less than two weeks, the Trump administration has instigated a truly global conflict — and with no quick and clear path to resolution, despite Trump insisting to congressional Republicans gathered at his Miami resort Monday that it would be a “short term excursion.”

“Short term! Short term!” Trump said in a bullish speech about the conflict, in which he said “the world respects us right now more than they have ever respected us before.”

“We’re counting down the minutes until they will be gone,” he said of Iran’s remaining leadership, while adding that the U.S. “will not relent” until Iran is “totally and decisively defeated.”

The war is not isolated to Iran, though it has certainly caused devastation there — with more than 1,300 deaths reported and toxic clouds from strikes on fuel depots hovering over Tehran, a city of some 10 million people.

The war’s effects also are not limited to the Middle East, though they are widespread there — as Israel has pushed into Lebanon and Iran has launched a wave of retaliatory strikes on U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf. The fighting has grounded regional air traffic, threatened desalination facilities that provide drinking water to millions and undermined the safe reputation of modern metropolises such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Unlike the recent U.S. incursion into Venezuela to capture and oust President Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. war on Iran has been met with stiff resistance militarily, drawn in a slew of allies, reignited proxy battles, drastically destabilized the oil trade and shifted dynamics between the U.S. and other major powers such as China and Russia.

China, which gets upward of 50% of its crude oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz, has largely stayed out of the conflict, though China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday that the war “should never have happened” and “benefited no one.”

Trump said Monday that the U.S. is less harmed by strait disruptions, and was “really helping China” by securing the strait.

Russia, meanwhile, has emerged the lone winner of energy disruptions in the region, said Robert David English, a UCLA international policy analyst — as the Trump administration considers reducing oil sanctions on Russia to take pressure off of Mideast sources.

Trump said he had a “good talk” with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Iran on Monday. He also said the U.S. was going to suspend sanctions against other countries in order to alleviate strain on oil markets while the Iran conflict persists, but did not provide specifics.

The scope of the war has been dictated in part by Iran, which has historically limited its responses to U.S. strikes but warned after the U.S. bombed its nuclear sites last summer that it would treat any new attacks — large or small — as an act of war, and respond in kind.

Its strikes on U.S. facilities and allies throughout the region reflect that strategy, and are aimed in part at making the war more politically costly for the U.S. by straining global markets and its regional allies, experts said.

However, “you can’t attribute the increasingly global characteristics of the conflict solely to an Iranian strategy, because wars in this region tend to spill over the longer they last, with unintended consequences” including “bringing in all kinds of actors that don’t want to be involved,” said Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology who teaches courses on Iran and Middle East politics at the UCLA International Institute.

That can serve as a deterrent to starting wars in the region, he said, but “also makes them more difficult to wind down.”

The surge in oil prices to nearly $120 a barrel Monday — before a remarkable reversal to below $90 by the time U.S. stocks closed — is one of the furthest-reaching effects of the war, and one that clearly had Trump’s attention.

“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump wrote on social media Sunday.

How long prices will remain elevated or volatile is a matter of debate, but Trump’s “short term” projections have been undercut by increasing strikes on oil and gas facilities in the region.

“If you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Sunday.

Prices at the pump have surged for average Americans, some of whom were attracted to Trump’s candidacy because of his promises to avoid foreign wars and focus on driving down the cost of living for U.S. citizens.

Now, Trump and other administration officials are facing questions about their own role in putting the world at war, and offering various different justifications. They’ve asserted without proof that the U.S. faced an imminent threat of attack from Iran. Trump has repeatedly hinted that his goal was removing the government.

President Trump speaks at the Republican Members Issues Conference on Monday at Trump National Doral Miami in Doral, Fla.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

In the meantime, Iran has shown no signs of bowing to Trump, rejecting his calls for “surrender” and for him to have a say in naming their next leader. Iran installed Mojtaba Khamenei after Trump said the hard-liner son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be “unacceptable.”

The choice was hailed by the president of Azerbaijan and the leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, among other allies.

To date, seven U.S. service members have been killed in the conflict, according to U.S. officials. Every day, U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $1 billion in war costs, according to one estimate. Democrats have slammed Trump for both.

“This war is coming from the same President that is building a $400 million ballroom in the White House. The same President that says $100 for a barrel for oil is worth it. The same President that doubled healthcare premiums for millions of Americans. But we have money for another endless war?” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) wrote Monday on X.

Other world leaders focused on the global economic impact.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which transports about 20% of the world’s oil, has nearly halted, while producers in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates ceased oil operations without open routes for export.

In response, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested French and other allied naval assets could escort oil tankers in the strait, shifting the security burden there from Washington onto Europe, leaving European vessels vulnerable to hostilities and potentially drawing the European Union deeper into the conflict.

Already, they’ve agreed to allow the U.S. to use bases in their territories, though the U.S. and Spain got into a spat after Spain rejected U.S. use of its bases and Trump threatened U.S. trade with the country.

Macron on Monday also threw additional military support behind Cyprus, following a meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a Cyprus air base.

France will dispatch an additional 11 warships to operate across the eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, Macron said, after an Iranian drone struck a British military base on Cyprus on Monday.

“When Cyprus is attacked, it is Europe that is attacked,” Macron said.

Located just 150 miles from Israel in the eastern Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus has emerged as a strategic — and exposed — nerve center in the U.S. offensive against Iran. It hosts vital British military bases and acts as an intelligence, surveillance, and logistics hub in countering Iranian influence and proxy attacks.

Britain’s Defense Secretary John Healey said Monday that the United Kingdom was conducting air defense to support the UAE, and that Typhoon jets had taken out two drones — one over Jordan and the other headed to Bahrain.

Trump suggested Monday that the U.S. was on the path toward victory, but acknowledged it had not accomplished all of its goals.

“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” he said — adding the conflict will end “pretty quickly.”

He said Iran had been “very foolish, very stupid” when it attacked its neighbors, hurting its own chances of success in resisting the U.S.

“Their neighbors were largely neutral, or at least weren’t gonna be involved, and they got attacked,” Trump said. “And it had the reverse effect. The neighbors came onto our side, and started attacking them.”

Iran may still attempt to widen the conflict’s economic and geopolitical impact to keep up pressure and push for a ceasefire in its favor, but that could also backfire, said Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations.

“Iran’s becoming increasingly like North Korea in this sense,” he said, “isolating itself further.”

Sanju Samson hit 89 for India as they posted 253-6 and beat England by 7 runs in second semifinal of cricket’s 2026 T20 World Cup.

Defending champions India edged one of the all-time great T20 World Cup matches to beat England by seven runs in their semifinal in Mumbai.

Sanju Samson appeared to put the tournament co-hosts in a near-unassailable position with a total of 253-6 on Thursday, but a century for Jacob Bethell put England on the verge of a historic run chase.

Having found themselves 64-3 inside the powerplay, England were looking down the barrel of a heavy defeat at Wankhede Stadium.

A cameo of 17 from 5 balls by Tom Banton ignited the chase, however, and Will Jacks’s 35 from 20 aided matter in a partnership of 77 in 6.3 overs with Bethell.

When the latter fell – run out in the final over – with 105 from 48 balls, the game was up and India were on their way to the final as England finished on 246-7

Suryakumar Yadav’s side will now seek a record third T20 World Cup title when they take on New Zealand on Sunday.

Earlier, England decided to field upon winning the toss, but saw Samson’s scintillating 89 off 42 balls lay the platform for India to pile up a massive total.

The in-form opener, who made 97 not out against the West Indies in the previous match, hit seven sixes and eight fours to thrill a raucous home crowd.

The hosts flayed England’s attack to all parts of the ground, hitting 19 sixes and 18 fours, meaning Harry Brook’s side needed a T20 World Cup record chase of 254 to reach the final.

Samson signalled his intent with a four and six off Jofra Archer’s first over after Brook won the toss and decided to bowl.

Jacks took the second over and struck a blow for England when Abhishek Sharma (9) lifted the off-spinner to Phil Salt at deep mid-wicket.

Samson was given a life on 15 when Brook dropped a simple chance at mid-off off Archer.

It proved a costly mistake as, helped by some ill-disciplined bowling, Samson raced to his half-century off 26 balls with another huge six as Liam Dawson’s first over was pummelled for 19 runs.

Ishan Kishan put on 97 from 48 balls with Samson for the second wicket before the left-hander holed out to Jacks off Adil Rashid in the 10th over to make it 117-2.

Samson powered on until Jacks returned to have him caught by Salt in the deep in the 14th over, at which point India were 160-3.

Shivam Dube continued the onslaught with 43 off 25 balls with four sixes before being run out by Brook’s direct hit.

Hardik Pandya hit 27 off 12 balls late on and Tilak Varma 21 off seven balls to take India past the 250 mark.

Jacks was the pick of the England bowlers with 2-40 but the wayward Archer was plundered, taking 1-61 off his four overs.

New Zealand beat South Africa in a comprehensive victory on Wednesday and await in Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad.

Finn Allen hits fastest century at a T20 World Cup as New Zealand crush South Africa by nine wickets to reach final.

New ⁠Zealand stormed into the Twenty20 World Cup final ⁠with a nine-wicket demolition of South Africa in ⁠the first semifinal at the Eden Gardens.

Put into bat, South Africa recovered ‌from a precarious 77-5 to post a competitive 169-8 after Marco Jansen led their recovery with a belligerent 55 not ⁠out.

Finn Allen smashed an ⁠unbeaten 100 off 33 balls, however, and shared a 117-run ⁠opening stand with Tim Seifert (58) as ⁠New Zealand romped ⁠to their target in only 12.5 overs.

Allen’s achievement was the fastest century scored at a T20 World Cup.

“We wanted to start well and put them on the back foot early,” Allen said. “It is easy for me when Tim [Seifert] is going like that. The way he batted got us off to an absolute flyer.

“It is easy in semifinals to stay up for the fight and with Tim [Seifert] we keep each other in it, and we enjoy it out there together.”

Earlier Jansen’s fifty came in response to Kiwis spinners Rachin Ravindra and Cole McConchie took two wickets each before Tristan Stubbs and Jansen put on 73 to rescue the innings at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.

Stubbs (29) and Jansen, who hit two fours and five sixes in his 30-ball knock, helped set New Zealand a target of 170 to reach the final.

India successfully chased 196 against the West Indies on Sunday on the same ground.

South Africa were the only unbeaten team in the tournament, while New Zealand had edged into the semifinals on net run-rate.

McConchie struck first in the second over with his off-spin to send back Quinton De Kock for 10 and Ryan Rickelton next ball, but Dewald Brevis avoided the hat-trick.

Aiden Markram was reprieved on three when Ravindra dropped him at midwicket off pace bowler Lockie Ferguson.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra made amends when he had the South Africa captain caught in the deep by Daryl Mitchell for 18.

David Miller was dropped on three by Glenn Phillips but fell for six to Ravindra five balls later, with Mitchell again taking the catch at long-on.

South Africa had lost half their side in 10.2 overs when Jimmy Neesham cut short Brevis’s knock on 34.

Ferguson bowled Stubbs but Jansen hit him for six to reach his fifty.

Pace bowler Matt Henry, who arrived back only on Tuesday night after going home for the birth of his child, took 2-34.

The bowling figures for South Africa will be ones to quickly forget, as the figures to focus on – and the moment to remember – belonged to Allen.

“You take the positives from this game, celebrate little moments of success,” Allen added “Then we have a final to play on Sunday and we look forward to that.”

Defending champions India take on ‌twice champions England in the second semi-final in Mumbai ‌on ‌Thursday, ahead of Sunday’s final.

‌Diego Simeone’s side reach ⁠Copa ⁠del Rey final for the first time since 2013 with 4-3 aggregate semifinal victory.

Atletico Madrid struggled through a 3-0 Copa del Rey semifinal second leg defeat at Barcelona, but scraped into the final 4-3 on aggregate.

The Spanish champions almost produced a comeback for the ages on Tuesday after their 4-0 first-leg defeat in early February, but fell just short at Camp Nou.

Eighteen-year-old Marc Bernal netted twice for the record 32-time winners, and Raphinha scored a penalty, as Barcelona tried in vain to claw back the lead for Diego Simeone’s side.

Atletico, who clung on desperately in the final stages, returned to the final for the first time since 2013.

They will face Real Sociedad or Athletic Bilbao, who meet on Wednesday in the second semifinal leg.

Barcelona came out flying, and Fermin Lopez’s long-range effort just over the bar set the tone, as Hansi Flick’s side threw everything they had at a potential comeback.

They were dealt an early setback when Jules Kounde went off injured in the opening stages. Antoine Griezmann came close against his former side, as Atletico threatened on the counterattack.

Ferran Torres fired wide and had a shot saved low at the near post by Atletico goalkeeper Juan Musso before Barcelona took the lead.

Teenage player Lamine Yamal drilled across the face of the goal for Bernal to finish from close range, with one 18-year-old setting up another.

Ademola Lookman headed narrowly off-target for Atletico and came to rue the miss as Barca doubled their advantage before the interval.

Spain midfielder Pedri was tripped in the box by Marc Pubill, and Raphinha sent Musso the wrong way from the spot.

Joao Cancelo almost grabbed the third, but his shot was beaten away by Musso at full stretch, with Diego Simeone’s team on the ropes.

Bernal set up a frantic finale when he volleyed home Cancelo’s swirling cross to take Barca within one goal of the crumbling Rojiblancos.

Flick put centre-back Ronald Araujo up front for the final stages, in search of a fourth goal to “make the impossible possible”, as he called on his team to do before the game.

Gerard Martin hammered narrowly over the bar as Barca turned the screw, with fans roaring the team on through six minutes of stoppage time.

The Rojiblancos fended off Barca and booked their place in the Seville final on April 18.

Musso said getting through to the final was the most important thing.

“Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world, but we got through,” he said after the game.

“We are going to the final; we will give our everything, and get the Copa del Rey.”

Meanwhile, Raphinha said he was proud of his teammates, even if they just fell short.

“The fans could see we gave everything we had. You have to understand, we were up against a side who were defending [well] and doing what they needed to do… We did everything possible, but lacked a little bit,” he said.

“What happened today is in the past. We wanted to get in the final, but it happens … For now, we will go for the La Liga and Champions League [titles].”

India beat West Indies by five wickets to qualify for the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, where the hosts will meet England at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

MATCH REPORT: ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Super 8s – India v West Indies

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Oman’s Foreign Minister says most recent indirect talks between US, Iran ‘really advanced, substantially’ and diplomacy must be allowed do its work.

Iran agreed during indirect talks with the United States never to stockpile enriched uranium, said Oman’s top diplomat, who described the development as a major breakthrough.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi also said on Friday that he believed all issues in a deal between Iran and the US could be resolved “amicably and comprehensively” within a few months.

“A peace deal is within our reach … if we just allow diplomacy the space it needs to get there,” Al Busaidi said in an interview with CBS News in Washington, DC, after Oman brokered the third round of indirect talks between the US and Iran in Geneva on Thursday.

“If the ultimate objective is to ensure forever that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, I think we have cracked that problem through these negotiations by agreeing [on] a very important breakthrough that has never been achieved any time before,” Al Busaidi said.

“The single most important achievement, I believe, is the agreement that Iran will never ever have nuclear material that will create a bomb,” he said.

“Now we are talking about zero stockpiling, and that is very, very important because if you cannot stockpile material that is enriched, then there is no way that you can actually create a bomb,” he added.

There would also be “full and comprehensive verification by the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]”, he said, referring to the UN’s nuclear watchdog.

Oman’s top diplomat also said Iran would degrade its current stockpiles of nuclear material to “the lowest level possible” so that it is “converted into fuel, and that fuel will be irreversible”.

“This is something completely new. It really makes the enrichment argument less relevant, because now we are talking about zero stockpiling,” Al Busaidi said.

Regarding recent US demands regarding Iran’s missile programme, Al Busaidi said: “I believe Iran is open to discuss everything”.

Asked if he thought enough ground was covered in the most recent talks in Geneva to hold off a US attack on Iran, the minister said, “I hope so.”

“We have really advanced substantially, and I think, obviously, there remains various details to be ironed out, and this is why we need a little bit more time to really try and accomplish the ultimate goal of having a comprehensive package of the deal,” he said.

“But the big picture is that a deal is in our hands,” he added.

The foreign minister’s comment followed after he met earlier on Friday with US Vice President JD Vance and as US President Donald Trump continued to sabre-rattle while at the same time declaring he favoured a diplomatic solution with Tehran.

Trump said on Friday that he was not happy with the recent talks that concluded in Geneva.

“We’re not exactly happy with the way they’re negotiating,” Trump told reporters in Washington, adding that Iran “should make a deal”.

“They’d be smart if they made a deal,” he said.

Trump later said that he would prefer it if the US did not have to use military force, “but sometimes you have to do it”.

The US and Iranian sides are expected to meet again on Monday in Vienna, Austria, for more indirect negotiations.