King Charles III has hailed US-UK ties at a state dinner in the White House after speaking at a joint session of Congress in a rare appearance by a British monarch. The visit marks 250 years since American independence, and comes amid strains over the war on Iran.
Published On 29 Apr 202629 Apr 2026
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Published On 28 Apr 202628 Apr 2026
Britain’s King Charles III has used a speech in front of the United States Congress to pledge NATO unity and call for support for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
The address on Tuesday came during the royal’s four-day visit to the US, with the US-Israel war with Iran, US President Donald Trump’s criticism of NATO, and trade tensions between the longtime allies looming large.
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But Charles avoided any reference to specific frictions during his speech at the US Capitol, instead striking a light tone in his joke-heavy opening.
He praised what he called the shared history and values of the two countries, quipping at one point that Washington, DC was “a tale of two Georges”, the first US President George Washington and his ancestor, the UK’s King George.
He assured lawmakers, to laughs, he was not in the US “as part of some cunning rearguard action” in a delayed continuation of the Revolutionary War.
“I am here on this great occasion in the life of our nations to express the highest regard and friendship of the British people to the people of the United States,” the sovereign said to repeated standing ovations.
But amid broad themes of unity, more pointed messages lurked.
Charles did not directly address the US-Israel war with Iran or Trump’s outspoken criticism of NATO allies who have rejected joining Washington’s war efforts.
Instead, he praised support for NATO and the alliance’s invocation of its Article 5 collective defence treaty in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“We answered the call together, as our people have done so for more than a century, shoulder to shoulder through two world wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan and moments that have defined our shared security,” he said.
He then turned to funding for Ukraine, an increasingly pointed issue in the Republican-controlled US Congress.
“Today, Mr Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defence of Ukraine and her most courageous people,” he said, referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
In one instance, Charles hailed the “$430 billion in annual trade that continues to grow, the $1.7 trillion in mutual investment that fuels that innovation”.
Last week, Trump threatened to impose a “big tariff” on the UK if it did not drop a digital services tax on US tech companies.
At another point, Charles pointed to global environmental concerns.
“We ignore, at our peril, the fact that these natural systems, in other words, nature’s own economy, provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security,” he said.
Trump has called climate change a “con job” and withdrew from the landmark Paris Agreement climate accords during his first and second terms. His administration has since pursued deregulation of fossil fuels and pivoted away from green energy, an approach embraced by many members of the president’s Republican party.
Other messages appeared to gently reference political trends in the US, where critics have accused Trump of using the Department of Justice for political retribution and of overturning long-standing norms of presidential authority.
Charles described the “common ideals” of the US and UK: “The rule of law, the certainty of stable and accessible rules, an independent judiciary, resolving disputes and delivering impartial justice”.
He also drew a throughline between the Magna Carta, the 13th-century document that established that the British king was subject to law, and constitutional and legal precedent in the US, calling it “the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances”.
The address came shortly before Trump was set to host Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, for an official state dinner.
The pair were then set to visit New York and Virginia, before an official farewell ceremony at the White House on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump hailed the “cherished bond” between the United States and the United Kingdom as he welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the White House, seeking to mend a rift over issues including the war on Iran.
Published On 28 Apr 202628 Apr 2026
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Who: Atletico Madrid vs Arsenal
What: Champions League semifinal, first leg
Where: Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid, Spain
When: Wednesday, April 29 at 9pm (19:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 16:00 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.
Arsenal’s record as the only unbeaten football team in this season’s Champions League will be tested in the intense atmosphere of the Metropolitano Stadium.
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The Gunners have conceded just five goals in 12 games so far, the kind of record associated with Atletico during coach Diego Simeone’s long reign of feisty football.
But this is a more expansive Atletico side, with a surprising 26 goals conceded in 14 Champions League games this season, while Julian Alvarez has scored nine of the 34 scored at the other end.
The two teams have already faced off this season, but Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Atletico in October in the league stage feels a long time ago. A four-goal burst in 15 second-half minutes, including two from Viktor Gyokeres, showed a freedom that Mikel Arteta’s team has found hard to recapture in a tense second half of the season.
Arsenal have endured a rocky patch recently – losing to Man City in the League Cup final, and in a key league game – but maintain a three-point lead at the top of the table, although City have a game in hand.
The hosts, meanwhile, are fourth in La Liga, and the Champions League represents their last hope of silverware this season after defeat in last weekend’s Copa del Rey final.
Atletico’s path to the semifinals has been taking first-leg leads – ambushing Tottenham at home then winning at Barcelona – before riding out severe pressure in the return game. That will be in London on Tuesday next week.
The winners will face either Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain in the final in Budapest on May 30.
Atleti coach Diego Simeone said, “We’re heading into the semifinals with all our enthusiasm and all our faith. We know our strengths and our weaknesses. We have great confidence in what we do. We’re ready, and we’re going to go after what we’ve been chasing for many years.”
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said, “It’s a massive moment [to reach consecutive semi-finals]. It’s the first time in our history, in 140 years – to be part of those four teams is something very special. You have to earn it. You have to go through a lot of work.”
Atleti forward Antoine Griezmann said, “It doesn’t matter who we face as long as we’re still in it. It’s been a great and tough tie [against Barcelona] against a fantastic team that plays very well. It was a struggle, but we’re still in it.”
Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli noted, “We believe in ourselves, we know the quality we have. We won against them in the league phase, but it’s going to be a completely different game.”
Atletico Madrid sent 10-man Barcelona crashing out of the Champions League and reached the final four with a 3-2 aggregate victory, despite a 2-1 quarterfinal second-leg defeat.
Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres fired visitors Barca ahead inside 24 minutes, but Ademola Lookman’s strike gave Atletico the edge in the gripping all-Spanish tie after their 2-0 win in the first leg.
Arsenal reached the Champions League semifinals after riding their luck in a nervous goalless draw against Sporting Lisbon that clinched a 1-0 aggregate victory.
Mikel Arteta’s team were well below their best in the quarterfinal second leg at the Emirates Stadium, but they held onto their slender first-leg advantage as Sporting failed to make them pay.
The two clubs have only faced each other on three occasions, with each winning one game and one match ending as a draw.
Before meeting this season, the previews encounter ended up being the last European tie for former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal thrashed Atletico Madrid 4-0 back in October thanks to a devastating second-half broadside at the Emirates Stadium in a Champions League league-stage clash.
What had been a compelling clash with little between the sides in the first half became an Arsenal rout, with goals by Gabriel, Martinelli and a brace from Gyokeres leaving Simeone’s side shell-shocked.
Neither side have ever been European champions.
Atletico reached the final in 2014 and 2016, and were beaten on both occasions by archrivals Real Madrid.
Arsenal reached the final in 2006, but were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona.
Midfielder Pablo Barrios is set to miss the game and will be out for about a month after sustaining a thigh injury against Bilbao.
Lookman was not named in the squad for the weekend game after picking up a knock in the Copa del Rey final defeat by Real Sociedad, but may return for the Arsenal game.
Defender David Hancko is also expected to remain unavailable due to an injury.
Predicted starting XI:
Oblak (goalkeeper); Molina, Le Normand, Lenglet, Ruggeri; Simeone, Koke, Cardoso, Gonzalez; Griezmann, Alvarez
Kai Havertz and Eberechi Eze were both forced off with muscles issues in the win over Newcastle – Eze subsequently said he came off as a precaution and is “fine”, but Havertz is a doubt.
Midfielder Martin Zubimendi, who was taken off at half-time against Newcastle, will also face a late assessment.
Riccardo Calafiori is still recovering from a knock and is a major doubt, while Jurrien Timber has been out with a groin issue for about a month and is likely still some way from making a full recovery.
Mikel Merino is definitely unavailable as he recovers from surgery on an ankle injury.
Predicted starting XI:
Raya (goalkeeper); White, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Odegaard, Zubimendi, Rice; Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli
More than 130 public figures express support for the proscribed group as the UK prepares for another legal fight.
Published On 24 Apr 202624 Apr 2026
More than 130 public figures have written to the UK’s Court of Appeal expressing support for Palestine Action, days before a hearing to decide on the lawfulness of the government’s ban on the direct action group.
A letter released Friday, bearing 132 signatures and addressed to the UK’s Court of Appeal, read: “We oppose genocide, we support Palestine Action.”
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The declaration came in advance of hearings scheduled for April 28 and 29, during which the court is slated to hear the government’s appeal to uphold its proscription of Palestine Action.
Internationally known figures, including the writer Sally Rooney, climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and American scholar Judith Butler are among those who signed the declaration.
Others include British musicians Nadine Shah and Brian Eno, writers China Mieville, Lina Meruane and Tariq Ali, along with dozens of professors at leading universities such as Cambridge, Oxford, Yale, Columbia and the London School of Economics.
The letter’s singular sentence has become a well-known slogan used to express support for Palestine Action, which the UK government proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” in July 2025.
That designation – which placed Palestine Action in the same category as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda – makes it illegal to be a member of or express support for the group, offences punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
In February, the UK’s High Court ruled that the government’s ban was unlawful and disproportionate, prompting London’s Metropolitan Police to say it would refrain from arresting demonstrators rallying in support of the group.
But with the government appeal pending, the Met reversed course, and officers arrested more than 500 people at a protest earlier this month.
Defend Our Juries, an activist group that has organised rallies and called for the government to drop its proscription, said in a statement accompanying Friday’s letter that the signatories were vulnerable to “terrorism charges”.
“If the police proceed to arrest these scholars on terrorism charges, the authoritarian nature of the ban will be further exposed,” the group wrote. “But if they don’t, the more than 3,000 previous arrests of people for saying precisely the same thing will be shown to be not just unlawful but arbitrary and discriminatory.”
In their own statements, several signatories expressed solidarity with Palestine Action and called on the government to halt its appeal.
The UK government is “silencing the messenger”, said Neve Gordon, an international law professor at Queen Mary University of London.
“The decision to appeal the ruling rendering the proscription unlawful is yet another sign of the government’s moral bankruptcy,” he added.
Published on •Updated
French liberal MEP Christophe Grudler told Euronews the Commission’s proposed European preference, once adopted, covering public procurement in strategic sectors such as clean tech, cars and energy-intensive industries (aluminium and steel) should be limited to a core group of non-EU countries.
The “Made in Europe” provisions of the so-called “Industrial Accelerator Act” have triggered a fierce political battle between supporters, led by Germany and Nordic countries, of a broad definition including “like-minded” partners, and those, led by France, pushing for a narrower approach.
In its proposal unveiled on 4 March, the Commission leaned towards the broader interpretation.
“The Commission’s option is very poor. It reflects a completely outdated view of trade policy,” Grudler said, adding, “When the Americans introduced the Buy American Act, they didn’t worry about whether it would strain ties with Europe. At some point, we need to stop being naive.”
The MEP is set to be one of the lead negotiators on the proposed new rulesin the European Parliament as talks begin shortly.
The European preference aims to counter foreign competition, notably from the US and China. The Commission proposes excluding non-EU countries depending on how open they are to the EU taking part in their procurement markets as well as existing trade agreements.
But Grudler argues geography should be the guiding principle, limiting “Made in Europe” to countries closest to the EU — first and foremost the European Economic Area: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
Switzerland could also be “a good candidate”, he said.
“Switzerland has had a public procurement agreement since 1989. It is a bilateral agreement stating that all European companies have access to the Swiss public procurement market, and that all Swiss companies have access to the European public procurement market. It is therefore a rather good candidate.”
The UK could also be considered to some extent, but “conditions will need to be examined” following Brexit, he added. “There is also a point where Europe has to make sure it comes out financially ahead.”
He wants the law to send “a strong signal” to investors backing key EU industries, “particularly energy-intensive sectors and clean technologies.”
“It is another step in Europe’s resilience against unfair competition from other continents.”
However China has voiced strong opposition to the Commission proposal, seen in Beijing as restricting its access to EU procurement and investment.
“This legislation is Europe standing firm for its strategic industries,” Grudler said.
“China has overcapacities in cars or in steel. They are relying on the naivety of Europeans to do business, to generate double-digit growth again, and then to invest in research and development and get ahead on everything, all the while cheating through direct subsidies to destroy our industries.”
Manchester City relegate Burnley with 1-0 win to also take top spot from Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
Published On 22 Apr 202622 Apr 2026
Manchester City completed its ominous, late-season rise to the top of the Premier League by winning 1-0 at Burnley – who are relegated as a result – thanks to Erling Haaland’s early goal, ending Arsenal’s 200-day stay in first place.
Haaland’s clinical finish after five minutes on Wednesday could have paved the way for a boost to City’s goal difference, but they lacked a cutting edge in a nervy affair as Burnley dug deep.
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Haaland hit the post and had other chances as City tried to give themselves a safety margin, but Pep Guardiola’s side had to make do with a surprisingly narrow victory.
“The chances were there. We created a lot. It was a fantastic game and we did everything after a demanding game three days ago [against Arsenal],” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
“We won and are top of the league, why be frustrated? Of course we can do more, but we won.
“We made a better performance than on Sunday because we created chance after chance.
“It is five games to win the Premier League now – that is the reality.”
The goal came as Haaland ran onto Jeremy Doku’s pass to convert a deft finish, allowing City to back up its 2-1 victory over Arsenal on Sunday that, for many, turned Guardiola’s team into the title favourite.
Winning by a one-goal margin left City and Arsenal tied on both points (70) and goal difference (+37). City only leads courtesy of more goals scored (66 to Arsenal’s 63).
City were nine points adrift of Arsenal after drawing with West Ham on March 14. Three straight wins, combined with back-to-back losses for Arsenal, have seen the title race turn on its head.
The result condemned American-owned Burnley to relegation after one season back in the top flight.
For Scott Parker’s side, the inevitable became a reality as they are stuck on 20 points, 13 points behind the safety zone with only four games remaining.
Arsenal can retake top spot in the league when they entertain Newcastle United on Saturday, while City play Southampton on the same day in the semifinal of the FA Cup, before returning to Premier League action on Monday, May 4, against Everton.
“It is a big opportunity to play four finals in a row,” Guardiola added about Saturday’s match against Southampton.
“We may have to rest players, but we are ready.”
Chelsea only appointed Liam Rosenior in January, but the FIFA Club World Cup holders have lost their last five games.
Published On 22 Apr 202622 Apr 2026
FIFA Club World Cup champions Chelsea have sacked their head coach Liam Rosenior following a run of five consecutive defeats.
The 41-year-old had only been appointed as Enzo Maresco’s permanent replacement in January.
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Rosenior, who started his managerial career at Derby County and Hull City in England, joined the west London club after two years in the French top flight with Strasbourg, where he won 51 of 63 matches.
Only 11 wins were secured in 23 games in charge of the Blues, however, and the recent run of losses also marked the first time the club had lost that number of games without scoring since 1912.
Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton saw the side slip to seventh in the league, a hammer blow in the chance of qualifying for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
“Liam has always conducted himself with the highest integrity and professionalism following his appointment midway through the season,” Chelsea said in a statement.
“This has not been a decision the club has taken lightly, however recent results and performances have fallen below the necessary standards with still so much more to play for this season.”
Rosenior described the performance of his players in his final game in charge as “indefensible” and “unacceptable”.
Arsenal and Manchester City are once again battling for the Premier League title in England and, with only weeks of the season remaining, the gap between them remains extremely small.
Whether Arsenal or City go on to win the league, one thing about Arsenal already feels clear: There has been growth, but not dominance.
Arsenal are more consistent than they were a few years ago. They are harder to beat, more confident and more composed during the “no-pressure” parts of the season.
They look so dominant when the pressure is off, but when the moments that matter arrive, they still fail to fully take control. As an Arsenal fan, that is what makes this team so frustrating to watch.
For the second time since the 2022/23 season – when they led the Premier League for much of the campaign before being pipped by Manchester City in the run-in – Arsenal have made the title race harder for themselves than it needed to be.
At the start of the campaign, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta made a number of significant and, for some, controversial changes. He dropped Myles Lewis-Skelly, who had been outstanding last season, and brought Riccardo Calafiori back into the starting lineup after injury.
Whatever people thought of those decisions, they appeared to immediately make Arsenal impossible to break down. That defensive strength was clear from the opening day, when Arsenal beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford thanks to an early Calafiori goal. In the following weeks, they conceded fewer than one goal per game.
But in their third game of the season, they lost to Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield, with a late Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick deciding the match.
The obvious question after that game was: Why did Arsenal not go for the kill?
Liverpool were not at their most dominant, yet Arsenal looked more concerned with defending a draw than winning the game. It felt like a missed opportunity and raised early questions about game management in decisive moments.
A similar feeling followed the home draw against Manchester City a month later, in September. That game once again highlighted Arsenal’s competitiveness and extensive growth, but also their reluctance to fully seize control when the game opened up. A late Gabriel Martinelli equaliser earned them a point, but doubts remained about whether they should have been more aggressive.
At that point, for me personally, and for most Arsenal fans, the signs were still overwhelmingly positive.
Martinelli’s equaliser came from an assist by Eberechi Eze, whose arrival added creativity and unpredictability in attack. We all enjoyed watching the team and were hopeful for its success.
When my cohost Stephen Howson taunted me on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast by saying, “Those dropped points against Liverpool and Man City will come back to haunt you come the end of the season,” I laughed at him. I was feeling extra confident, as Rio Ferdinand himself had said he believed Arsenal would win the Premier League. That’s what you need to keep believing, right? A six-time Premier League winner backing your club to get it over the line this season.
That belief only grew stronger on October 4, when Arsenal went top of the table after a 2-0 win over West Ham United. Goals from former West Ham midfielder Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka sent Arsenal to the summit.
For much of the season, Arsenal remained close to flawless, even if the sense around them was that they were never fully in control.
The first setback came in December, when Arsenal lost 2-1 away to Aston Villa after a late winner from Emiliano Buendia.
The defeat caused a wave of panic among Arsenal fans about a possible change of trajectory and a repeat of the 2022/23 season, particularly given that the team had looked dominant against stronger rivals such as Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.
Thankfully, those fears were eased just a few weeks later, when Aston Villa visited Arsenal’s home stadium, the Emirates, on December 30 and Arsenal battered them 4-1.
That victory was a reminder that the panic around Arsenal after a defeat is often bigger than the reality.
League results remained strong until Arsenal were faced with another opportunity to make a statement, this time against a resurgent Manchester United under Michael Carrick.
United had already beaten Manchester City in the derby and then managed to beat Arsenal as well.
Despite that defeat, Arsenal remained top of the table. But for Arsenal fans, the memories of previous collapses once again started to return.
Then came the draws against Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Confidence began to fade, and there was a growing sense that City, strengthened by the arrivals of Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo, were beginning to gather momentum. City’s victory against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final on March 2 worked to cement this feeling.
Fans had another moment of hope and relief on March 14 when 16-year-old Max Dowman scored a brilliant goal in a 2-0 win over Everton, while City could only manage a 1-1 draw away at West Ham. At that stage, it felt as if we had done it.
But then history repeated itself, and Arsenal found themselves in another losing streak – a defeat to Southampton in the FA Cup quarterfinal, and league losses against Bournemouth and, recently, City.
Arsenal are still currently top by three points. However, City have a game in hand and, if they beat Burnley by a couple of goals, they will go top on goal difference.
Is it happening again? Are we to lose it all at the last minute? I hope not, but somehow this shows us once more that Arsenal have shown growth throughout the season. However, the lack of dominance has allowed City to get back into the title race.
In the famous words of Declan Rice, “It’s not done yet,” but there is no denying we have made it very difficult for ourselves.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
First all-women cohort of winners hails from Colombia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, the UK and the US.
This year’s prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize has been awarded to six grassroots environmental activists from around the world for their efforts to fight climate change and save biodiversity.
For the first time since the prize was created in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman, all recipients of the award are women: Iroro Tanshi, from Nigeria; Borim Kim, from South Korea; Sarah Finch, from the United Kingdom; Theonila Roka Matbob, from Papua New Guinea; Alannah Acaq Hurley, from the United States; and Yuvelis Morales Blanco, from Colombia.
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Sometimes described as the “Green Nobel”, the Goldman Prize recipients are chosen from each of the world’s six primary regions. They each receive $200,000 in prize money.
“While we continue to fight uphill to protect the environment and implement lifesaving climate policies – in the US and globally – it is clear that true leaders can be found all around us,” said John Goldman, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation.
“The 2026 Prize winners are proof positive that courage, hard work, and hope go a long way toward creating meaningful progress.”
Morales Blanco, the winner for the region of South and Central America, fought some of the world’s biggest oil companies to successfully stop the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia.
The 24-year-old grew up in a family of fishermen along the banks of the Magdalena River in the Afro-Colombian community of Puerto Wilches. “We had nothing but the river – she was like a mother who took care of me,” she said.
She began organising protests after a major oil spill in 2018, which forced the relocation of dozens of local families and killed thousands of animals. Her activism, which made her a target for intimidation and forced her to temporarily relocate, helped halt projects and elevate fracking as an issue in Colombia’s 2022 election.
Two of the other five recipients of this year’s prize have also focused their efforts on fighting fossil fuels, which are causing both global climate change and more localised pollution around the world.
Borim, the winner for Asia who started the Youth 4 Climate Action organisation, won a ruling from South Korea’s Constitutional Court that the government’s climate policy violated the constitutional rights of future generations, the first successful youth-led climate litigation in the continent.
Finch, Europe’s winner, told The Times newspaper she will use her prize money to keep fighting fossil fuels.
Together with the Weald Action Group, she fought oil drilling in southeastern England for more than a decade, securing the “Finch ruling” from the Supreme Court in June 2024, stating that authorities must consider fossil fuels’ impacts on the global climate before granting permission to extract them.
Two other recipients have fought against the destructive environmental impact of mining projects.
Papua New Guinea’s Roka Matbob, winner for Islands and Island Nations, led a successful campaign that saw the world’s second-largest mining company, Rio Tinto, agree to address environmental and social devastation caused by its Panguna copper mine, 35 years after it was closed following an uprising.
And the award recipient for North America, Acaq Hurley, from the Yup’ik nation in the US, successfully fought alongside 15 tribal nations to stop a mega- copper and gold mining project that threatened ecosystems in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, including the largest wild salmon runs in the world.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Tanshi, Africa’s winner, rediscovered the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat and has been working to save its refuge, the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, from human-induced wildfires.
The latest attack at a Jewish site in the UK capital occurs at Kenton United Synagogue and causes minor damage.
Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026
The United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police are investigating whether a recent spate of arson attacks on Jewish sites in North London could be linked to Iranian proxies.
Counter Terrorism Policing is leading investigations into the incidents, the Met Police said on Sunday, after an arson attack at the Kenton United Synagogue in northwestern London occurred overnight.
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There have been no injuries in the blazes, the latest of which caused minor damage.
Vicki Evans, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said most of the attacks have been claimed by the Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia group (Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right), often shortened to Ashab al-Yamin.
She said the group has also claimed several incidents at places of worship as well as business and financial institutions in Europe in recent months.
Evans said police were aware of “public reporting that this group may have links to Iran”.
She added that she has spoken before about Iran’s “routine uses of criminal proxies” and police were considering whether this tactic of “recruiting violence as a service” was being used in London.
Ashab al-Yamin emerged online in March and has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Jewish sites in Europe. It also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Persian-language Iran International news channel in London.
Recent arson incidents in London have included a bottle containing accelerant being thrown inside the Finchley Reform Synagogue in North London on Wednesday and Jewish-owned Hatzola ambulances being set alight in the car park of a synagogue in Golders Green on March 23. On Friday night, a man tried to light a bag containing three bottles of fluid outside the former premises of the Jewish Futures charity in Hendon.
The UK’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said the Kenton fire was the third “cowardly” attack on Jewish sites in the British capital in less than a week.
“A sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum,” Mirvis said on X. “Thank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “appalled” by the recent attacks at Jewish sites and those responsible would be brought to justice.
“This is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain,” he said in a post on X.
Hundreds of far-right “Britain First” supporters marched in the streets of Manchester to celebrate Saint George, seemingly not realising the patron saint of England has a special connection to Palestine. Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler and Nida Ibrahim explain.
Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026
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Manchester United strengthen grip on third spot in Premier League with 1-0 win that leaves Chelsea relying on favours.
Published On 18 Apr 202618 Apr 2026
Manchester United took a giant step towards ending a two-year exile from the Champions League as Matheus Cunha scored the only goal in a 1-0 win against Chelsea.
United’s victory on Saturday opens up a 10-point gap between the Red Devils in third place and sixth-placed Chelsea, with only 15 points left to play for this season.
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The top five in the Premier League will qualify for the Champions League next season.
But a fourth consecutive league defeat leaves Chelsea’s chances of being back among Europe’s elite next season in tatters. It also piles pressure on manager Liam Rosenior, only three months into his reign.
Chelsea once again bemoaned the lack of a clinical striker as they failed to break down a makeshift United defence ravaged by injury and suspension.
United manager Michael Carrick was forced to name a backline featuring three full-backs and 19-year-old Ayden Heaven. But they held out to boost the former England midfielder’s case to get the job at Old Trafford beyond the end of this season.
Chelsea were missing their top scorer, Joao Pedro, through injury, and one-time United target Liam Delap failed to take his chance to shine up front.
Rosenior recalled Enzo Fernandez after the Argentinian was given a two-game suspension by the Blues for suggesting he would be open to a summer move to Real Madrid.
Fernandez started with a point to prove and came agonisingly close to the opener when he curled inches wide.
United looked rusty in a 2-1 defeat to Leeds on Monday, their first action for three and a half weeks.
But Carrick’s men repaired the damage done to their chances of returning to the Champions League next season.
Cunha provided a precise finish to open the scoring two minutes before the break from Bruno Fernandes’s 18th Premier League assist of the season.
Chelsea improved after the break but failed to prevent another damaging defeat, leaving Rosenior’s role in doubt heading into next season.
Delap crashed a header against the woodwork, and Noussair Mazraoui turned a dangerous cross onto his own bar, under pressure from Wesley Fofana.
Moises Caicedo, fresh from signing a new seven-year contract, also came close to rescuing a point for the hosts.
But the final whistle was met by a chorus of boos at full-time, with the Club World Cup winners looking resigned to Europa League football at best next term.
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A coalition of EU-based chemical producers of titanium dioxide – a strategic chemical used in green energy and aerospace – has lodged a complaint with the Commission alleging unfair foreign subsidies against leading Chinese producer LB Group, which is seeking to acquire a UK plant of British competitor Venator, Euronews has learned.
The move follows the European Commission’s decision in January 2025 to impose anti-dumping duties on LB Group, a trade defence measure targeting low-priced imports into the EU.
Acquiring a production plant in the UK would allow the Chinese group to export its products to the European market duty-free under the EU-UK trade agreement, circumventing EU anti-dumping tariffs.
The EU chemical sector is under pressure from growing competition from Chinese rivals, which are flooding the market with overcapacity.
The alliance behind the complaint against LB Group includes several companies producing in the EU — US-based Tronox and Kronos, Czech Precheza and Slovenian Cinkarna — collectively accounting for about 90% of EU titanium dioxide production.
Sources said the complaint was filed in December 2025, urging the European Commission to investigate the Chinese company over alleged unfair foreign subsidies used to finance the acquisition of Venator’s plant.
The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, adopted in 2022, allows the Commission to investigate non-EU companies to assess whether they benefit from distortive foreign subsidies to make acquisitions in the EU or take part in public procurement.
The tool was initially designed with China in mind, reflecting concerns over excessive state subsidies support for Chinese companies acquiring strategic EU assets or infrastructure. However, the regulation has not yet been applied outside the EU.
The plant targeted by LB Group is located in Greatham in northeast England, which left the EU in 2020 after Brexit. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is currently reviewing the deal and is expected to issue a decision in May.
If the European Commission opens an investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, it could set a precedent and send a strong signal globally.
The move would come as the EU chemical industry loses market share in Europe.
According to Cefic, which represents the sector in Brussels, the bloc has lost around 9% of its production capacity since 2022, resulting in the loss of 20,000 direct jobs.
Follow the live build-up, with full team news coverage, ahead of our text commentary stream of the crunch EPL clash.
Published On 18 Apr 202618 Apr 2026
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On March 25, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the United Nations General Assembly passed a landmark resolution. Proposed by Ghana, it recognised the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations. A total of 123 countries supported the resolution; three opposed it, including the United States and Israel, while 52 abstained, Britain among them, and several European Union countries.
The UN’s slavery resolution is a historic moment, but what comes next is even more important. Leading up to the resolution, the African Union urged its 55 member states to pursue slavery reparations through formal apologies, the return of stolen artefacts, financial compensation, and guarantees of non-repetition.
This raises a question the resolution does not directly ask: reparations from whom, and to whom? If the answer is simply from European governments to African governments, then the reparations movement risks ignoring the long history of European engagement with Africa, and in doing so delivering justice to the wrong people.
The contemporary framing of the reparations debate is seductive in its simplicity: Europeans arrived in Africa, Africans were enslaved, Europeans grew rich, and Africans became impoverished. Therefore, Europe owes Africa. This narrative carries moral force, but it risks flattening the complex history of European engagement with the continent.
While European actors undeniably drove the demand for enslaved labour, African political and economic elites were not passive victims. They played a significant role in capturing, transporting and selling enslaved people to European traders.
In some cases, African states, seeking to expand their treasuries and consolidate territorial power, preyed on neighbouring communities, condemning them to enslavement for profit. The Oyo Empire, a powerful Yoruba state in what is now south-western Nigeria, expanded significantly in the eighteenth century through its participation in this commerce. Across the region, African elites who had the means sustained the system by exchanging enslaved people for European goods such as alcohol, textiles and other manufactured commodities.
None of this diminishes European culpability in the slave trade. The demand was European. The ships were European. The plantation system was European. The racialised ideology constructed to justify slavery was European. But it does complicate the story.
The transatlantic slave trade was not solely a narrative of African victimhood and European perpetration. It is a story of elite collaboration, which did not end when the slave ships stopped sailing.
The historical argument: three phases, one logic
European encounter with African societies can be understood in three broad phases, each distinct in form but similar in the underlying logic of collaborative extraction.
The first phase was slavery. Europeans extracted human labour from Africa, often with the active participation of African political rulers. Britain emerged as the world’s leading slave-trading country, transporting roughly 3.4 million Africans across the Atlantic between 1640 and 1807. The abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 marked the formal end of this phase. But abolition did not disrupt the underlying logic of the elite collaboration. It reshaped it.
The second phase was colonialism. A less understood aspect of European domination in Africa is how seamlessly some African rulers transitioned from collaborators during the slave trade to intermediaries in the colonial period.
In Nigeria, for example, regional African rulers became intermediaries for British administrators. As Nigerian historian, Moses Ochonu, demonstrates in Emirs in London, a study of Northern Nigerian Muslim aristocrats who travelled to Britain between 1920 and independence in 1960, these African figures were far from passive subjects of British rule. They actively leveraged their relationship with British authorities to reinforce their own authority at home. Such sponsored travel to the imperial centre helped solidify personal ties between Nigerian elites and British administrators, reinforcing the system of indirect rule.
The third and current phase is the postcolonial era. While formal empire has ended, the structure of elite alignment endures. In countries such as Nigeria, the majority of citizens remain largely excluded from political and economic power. The institutional successors of intermediaries and collaborators during the eras of slavery and colonial rule are now running the African postcolonial states.
Rather than dismantling extractive systems, many have repurposed them. Similar patterns of exclusion and extraction that defined earlier periods have been reproduced, leaving the majority of Africans short-changed by a system that continues to serve elite interests.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to the United Kingdom last month – complete with royal ceremony, photo opportunities and symbolic gestures – reflected this relationship whose origins lie in the very history the UN resolution condemns. While the majority of Nigerians face difficult socio-economic conditions, the British government announced that Nigerian companies would create hundreds of new jobs in the UK.
This is not an anomaly but a continuation of the extractive logic that shaped the slave trade and colonialism. It endures, now recast in the language of diplomacy and partnership.
Reparations are just, and Britain’s debt is undeniable. But direction matters. If compensation flows from one set of elites to another, the oppressed majority of Africans will once again be excluded. True justice must run in two directions: from European states to formerly colonised societies, and from African elites to the citizens they continue to exploit.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
A maritime agency reported that a tanker was fired on by gunboats in the Strait of Hormuz. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency says it received a report of a tanker being fired upon by what it said were two gunboats linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The vessel and its crew were reported safe.
Published On 18 Apr 202618 Apr 2026
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