West

Alexander Isak scored his maiden goal for Liverpool as the Reds ended their two-game EPL losing streak at West Ham.

Liverpool’s record signing Alexander Isak scored his first English Premier League goal for the Reds as the under-pressure football champions snapped a woeful run of form with a much-needed 2-0 win at West Ham United on Sunday.

Liverpool had endured their worst spell in over 70 years, losing nine of their previous 12 games, and manager Arne Slot took drastic measures, leaving Mohamed Salah out of his starting lineup for the first time in the Premier League.

Salah’s replacement Florian Wirtz looked sharp, though he squandered Liverpool’s best chance of the first half with his tame effort from close range, allowing goalkeeper Alphonse Areola to save.

Isak, who had looked short of form and fitness, spurned two opportunities before the break, drawing a fine reaction stop from Areola midway through the half.

But the Sweden striker slotted home a Cody Gakpo pullback on the hour mark to give the Reds the lead they marginally deserved and rarely looked like giving up.

Liverpool’s cause was helped by Lucas Paqueta, who was bizarrely booked twice for dissent within 60 seconds with less than 10 minutes to play, before Gakpo added a second goal in the 92nd minute to seal the three points.

Liverpool’s victory, only their second in eight league games, moved them up to eighth place with 21 points from 13 matches, while West Ham are 17th with 11 points, level with 18th-placed Leeds United.

Liverpool’s losing run ended by Isak

West Ham – whose players and fans paid tribute to former captain, coach and manager Billy Bonds, who died aged 79 on Sunday – came into the match after back-to-back home victories and had seemingly turned the corner.

But Liverpool ultimately had too much quality and, crucially for Slot, managed to keep their fifth clean sheet of the season after shipping 10 goals in their last three games.

Isak could have put Liverpool in front inside four minutes, but spooned his effort well over the bar, with his protracted move from Newcastle United still seemingly affecting him.

West Ham looked sharper after the break, with Paqueta sending an audacious half-volley from 30 yards narrowly wide as the home fans believed Liverpool were there for the taking.

In the 60th minute, however, Isak was left unmarked in the box as Liverpool recycled possession from a throw-in and the striker coolly side-footed into the bottom corner.

Paqueta saw red in the 83rd minute to make West Ham’s task all the harder before Gakpo sent the home fans streaming for the exits with a clinical finish.

President Bush sidestepped two controversial environmental issues Monday as he took a brief swing along the West Coast.

In Portland, Ore., where Bush arrived Sunday night and left Monday morning, the President avoided committing himself on protection for the northern spotted owl, the bird whose fate has been bound up with the future of the Northwest’s remaining stands of “old growth” virgin forest.

Bush called for “balance” but did not define it.

Later in the day, during a brief stop in Los Angeles before flying back to Washington, Bush avoided any comment on offshore oil drilling. Last week, he said he was within “days, not weeks” of making a decision on whether to restrict drilling off the coasts of California and Florida.

Bush is widely expected to allow drilling off at least some parts of the Southern California coast. The White House has delayed for months announcing its policy, in part out of concern for the impact a politically unpopular decision to drill would have on Republican hopes of winning this fall’s election for governor.

Politics was at the center of the trip, which brought Bush from Texas to Oregon to Los Angeles and back to Washington in about 31 hours, roughly 11 hours of it on airplanes and only about 45 minutes in public.

But he will have spent several hours in political functions, mostly behind closed doors, in efforts to raise money for Republican candidates.

The chief purpose of Bush’s three-hour stop in Los Angeles, for example, was a lunch at the Bel-Air home of David Murdock, head of Castle Entertainment, where guests paying up to $25,000 apiece were expected to contribute about $700,000 to Republican coffers.

In Oregon, GOP officials estimated Bush raised more than $750,000 for Dave Frohnmayer, the Republican candidate for governor, as he spoke to several hundred people who had paid $1,000 to eat scrambled eggs and listen to political rhetoric at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning.

Because the White House added two non-political stops to the schedule–a 20-minute visit to view the model of a planned memorial to slain policemen in Portland and another 20 minutes at an anti-drug program here–the trip is considered “presidential,” rather than purely “political.” As a result, taxpayers, rather than the GOP, foot much of the bill.

In his remarks on Frohnmayer’s behalf, Bush spoke on both sides of the spotted owl issue.

“I reject those who would ignore the economic consequences of the spotted owl decision,” he said. “I also reject those who do not recognize their obligation to protect our delicate ecosystem.”

His audience, however, left no doubt about their sympathies, loudly applauding when he spoke in favor of considering economic factors and greeting his call for environmental protection with silence.

One of the GOP candidates Bush praised, Rep. Denny Smith (R-Ore.), was even more blunt. “There are millions of owls in the world,” he said. “The bottom line is people are more important than owls.”

Outside the hotel where Bush spoke, several dozen protesters demonstrated against logging. They were joined by other demonstrators protesting about a range of issues from AIDS to the policies of the Indian government in Kashmir.

One group of protesters did a dance across a downtown Portland street representing forest creatures. In keeping with the area’s reputation for civility, the group pranced into the street only when street lights said “Walk,” quickly returning to the sidewalk each time the “Don’t Walk” sign lit up.

Later, however, some demonstrators burned American flags and piles of newspaper in a street near the hotel, sparking at least 27 arrests, police said.

Environmental activists have campaigned to preserve the owl, which lives only in dense “old growth” forests of the Northwest, in large part as a way of protecting the forest ecosystem. Environmental groups argue that the remaining old-growth forests will be entirely gone within a generation if logging of them is not restricted.

Timber companies and many timber industry workers argue that logging restrictions sought by conservationists will put them out of work.

The federal Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed protecting the owl under the Endangered Species Act and is supposed to make a decision by June 23.

Bush has little role to play in that decision. But if the owl is listed as “endangered” or “threatened,” the White House could strongly influence the required writing of a plan to protect the creature. Environmentalists, in turn, could go to court if they believe the Administration does not protect the owl sufficiently.

Israeli army carried out attacks east of Rafah city, demolitions east of Khan Younis; arrests reported during Israeli raid in occupied West Bank.

Major Israeli offensive has also destroyed roads, water networks and private property.

Israeli forces have wounded more than 200 Palestinians in raids on the West Bank governorate of Tubas, as a major offensive on northern parts of the occupied territory that began on Wednesday continues to inflict widespread destruction.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told Al Jazeera that 78 of the people wounded in Israeli attacks on Tubas since Wednesday required treatment in hospital.

After withdrawing from Tammun and Far’a refugee camp on Friday, Israeli soldiers have shifted the focus of raids to the city of Tubas, as well as the nearby villages of Aqqaba and Tayaseer.

Local officials said Israeli forces have detained nearly 200 Palestinians in the past four days. Most were interrogated on site and let go, but at least eight people were arrested and taken to Israeli military jails.

At least nine Palestinians were detained in other military raids in Qalqilya, Jenin and Nablus. The Wafa news agency quoted local sources as saying on Saturday that two children and a woman were among five arrested at dawn in Qalqilya.

Violent raids by Israeli soldiers and attacks by armed settlers have escalated since October 2023, with 47 army incursions taking place on average every day across the occupied West Bank in November.

The mayor of Tammun told Al Jazeera that while the town in the Tubas governorate was subject to dozens of raids in the past couple of years, the ones this week were the worst in terms of scale, destruction and violence.

He said that more than 1.5km (one mile) of roads have been torn up, water networks destroyed, private property vandalised and people severely beaten, repeating the pattern of other major Israeli military attacks across the occupied West Bank.

In the Jenin refugee camp, where Israeli soldiers have been advancing in a major offensive launched in January, Israeli bulldozers are making way for the demolition of at least 23 more Palestinian homes.

This comes several days after they issued notices claiming that the demolitions were necessary to ensure “freedom of movement” for the Israeli forces within the camp – even though the area remains largely empty as most families have been displaced.

The condemned buildings were home to 340 Palestinians. Only 47 of them, mostly women, were allowed to retrieve their belongings on Thursday.

A member of the Jenin Refugee Camp Services Committee told Al Jazeera that residents were given two hours to collect possessions, and some could not even recognise their homes due to the level of destruction after the Israeli assault.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said on Friday its fighters carried out a series of attacks on Israeli soldiers during raids in Jenin and Tubas.

The group said its fighters in Tubas targeted an Israeli foot patrol with an antipersonnel explosive device in the Wadi al-Tayaseer area. Fighters detonated explosives against Israeli military vehicles in the al-Ziyoud and al-Bir areas of the town of Silat al-Harithiya in Jenin, it added.

Since October 2023, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 1,086 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including 223 children. At least 251 were killed in 2025.

At least 10,662 Palestinians have also been wounded since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, with more than 20,500 rounded up. As of the beginning of November, there were 9,204 Palestinians in Israeli jails, 3,368 of whom are detained without charges.

Palestinian deaths have also surged in the custody of both the Israeli army and the Israel Prison Service, with at least 94 deaths documented since October 2023.

Sudan Doctors Network says military use of hospital is ‘a blatant violation of sanctity of medical institutions’.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have converted a large part of Al-Nuhud Hospital in West Kordofan in wartorn Sudan’s south into a military command centre and barracks since their takeover of the city more than five months ago, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

The nongovernmental organisation said on Friday that the RSF, the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) bitter rival in the brutal three-year civil war, has been preventing the hospital from fulfilling its essential role in providing healthcare for the population.

“This military use of the health facility constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of medical institutions and undermines civilians’ right to access treatment,” the statement on Facebook said, adding that some of the medical personnel in the city have been accused of cooperating with the military before fleeing the city.

“As a result, the hospital is suffering from a severe shortage of healthcare workers, leaving the remaining medical services extremely limited and unable to meet patients’ needs,” it added.

Since April 2023, the SAF and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediation has failed to end.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others, causing what the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian disaster.

Fleeing the horrors of el-Fasher

Hundreds of Sudanese children have arrived in the town of Tawila in Sudan’s western Darfur region without their parents since the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the city of el-Fasher last month, a humanitarian group says.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Thursday that at least 400 unaccompanied children had arrived in Tawila but that the real number was likely much higher.

The RSF seized control of el-Fasher – the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state – on October 26 after an 18-month siege that cut residents off from food, medicine and other critical supplies.

The paramilitary group has been accused of committing mass killings, kidnappings and widespread acts of sexual violence in its takeover of the city. The Sudanese army has also been accused of committing atrocities during the war.

Washington’s truce proposal

The United States has recently presented Sudan’s warring parties with a proposal for a ceasefire, but neither side has formally accepted it.

The RSF unilaterally declared a cessation of hostilities on Monday in line with US wishes.

But on Tuesday, the SAF said it had repelled an attack on a base in Babnusa in West Kordofan state, the newest front line in the war.

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called on US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to bring peace to the country.

“The Sudanese people now look to Washington to take the next step: to build on the US president’s honesty and work with us – and those in the region who genuinely seek peace – to end this war,” Sudan’s de facto leader wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.

Attempts to broker peace between Burhan and his one-time deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, have repeatedly failed over the course of the war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.

Trump took a public interest in the war for the first time last week, promising he would end it after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman urged him to get involved.

At least 12 Syrians killed in Israeli attacks after two unarmed Palestinians murdered in occupied West Bank’s Jenin.

In defeating a measure to rescind the 310 area code overlay, telecommunications companies showed they won’t shrink from battle as the state moves to put tighter controls on area code changes, industry leaders said Friday.

The state Assembly early Friday approved a bill, AB 406, that sets additional hurdles in place before area code splits and overlays can be imposed.

But the bill, which had been approved late Thursday by the Senate, was passed only after a provision rescinding the 310 overlay on the Westside and South Bay was removed.

That change was credited to a fierce lobbying effort by telecom companies, and could serve as a preview of what’s to come as lawmakers and utilities regulators consider ways to slow the proliferation of overlays and splits statewide, including a split proposed for the San Fernando Valley.

“I was unable to get for 310 what I had my heart set on, which was the recision of the 310 overlay and 11-digit dialing,” said Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), who wrote AB 406 (which became the vehicle for the legislation formerly known as AB 818).

Knox said a sustained lobbying effort by telephone industry representatives resulted in the removal of the 310 overlay and 11-digit dialing portion from the bill.

Representatives from Pacific Bell, GTE, AT&T;, MediaOne Telecommunications of California, the California Cable Television Assn. and the Cellular Carriers Assn. of California were among the 30 lobbyists arguing that the provision would diminish competition among carriers and consumer choice.

“The intensive lobbying effort should have been anticipated by everyone because the stakes were so high for the industry,” said Dennis H. Mangers, senior vice president of the California Cable Television Assn., a group whose members are seeking a foothold in the telephone business.

Even so, the arm-twisting in Sacramento stands in contrast to the role played by phone companies at public forums on the issue.

At a recent Van Nuys town hall meeting on splits and overlays, for example, no phone company representative spoke publicly–although at least one was in attendance, observing the proceedings.

Telephone company officials said Friday that they have sent representatives to numerous public hearings on the matter, but remained silent to give residents the chance to express their concerns.

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Industry lobbyists said regulatory meetings and legislative sessions are the proper forums for them to state their positions.

In Sacramento, telecom lobbyists argued that rescinding the overlay in West Los Angeles and the South Bay would be unfair because phone companies had already spent millions to compete for local customers in the region, Mangers said. He also said numbers already had been assigned in the new 424 area code overlay.

“We reminded them that it was they who encouraged communications companies to do business in California,” Mangers said. “If they passed the bill containing that provision, they would be cutting off their own policy.”

Cable company MediaOne, for example, spent $600 million to upgrade its facilities to provide digital telephone service, high-speed Internet access and cable television to Los Angeles customers, particularly those in the 310 region, officials said.

“We have definitely been lobbying in Sacramento,” said Theresa L. Cabral, MediaOne’s senior corporate counsel. “Our concern is that we have made that investment and we can’t use it.”

Pac Bell protested the bill because rolling back the 310 area code overlay would hurt customers who need numbers, said Steve Getzug, a spokesman for the company.

Pac Bell and GTE, the two largest phone companies in Los Angeles, are pushing specifically for overlays when area code relief is needed.

With an overlay, new phone lines within a specific area code are given a new area code–even if it is in the same home or building. Additionally, all users in an overlay area must dial the area code–even to a number with the same area code.

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Phone company officials say the overlay is less disruptive than actually creating a new area code through a geographic split, but critics say such splits and overlays would not be needed if regulators did a better job of allocating and conserving phone numbers.

Knox, who has emerged as the leading consumer advocate on the issue, said Friday that he will now take his fight to the PUC, which is scheduled to take up proposals for a 310 overlay and an 818 split on Wednesday.

“It is important for folks to know that the fight is not over,” he said. “The momentum we have built in the Legislature we will now take to the PUC.”

Gov. Gray Davis has not taken a position on AB 406, aides said. But if he does sign the bill, PUC officials will analyze it to determine its role in implementing new area codes and overlays, said Kyle DeVine, a PUC spokeswoman.

“Until we get direction from the commissioners,” she said, “we can’t say what we are going to do.”

The bill, which passed the Senate on a 35-0 vote, was approved in the Assembly on a vote of 79 to 1, with Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge), dissenting. He could not be reached for comment Friday.

Israeli soldiers have been filmed shooting two Palestinians who were seen on their knees with their hands in the air. The men were shot dead during Israeli raids in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army says it’s investigating the incident. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explains.

Two HumAngle investigations were recognised at the 2025 Excellence in Journalism Awards in West Africa, winning in the health reporting category and placing as first runner-up in sexual and gender-based violence reporting. 

The awards, organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), drew 275 entries from across the region and were announced during the Media and Development Conference in Abuja, North Central Nigeria, on Wednesday, November 26. 

The top prize in health reporting went to “Amid Deforestation Scourge, Vanishing Herbal Plants Pose Health Crisis in Southwestern Nigeria”, an investigation by freelance journalist Abdulwaheed Sofiullahi published by HumAngle with support from the Pulitzer Centre. His reporting detailed how worsening deforestation threatens access to traditional medicine for rural Nigerians, deepening risks from malaria, typhoid, and other common illnesses.

Abdulwaheed, who covers environment and health issues for several local and international outlets, urged young reporters to keep pursuing impactful stories as he received his award. He has previously served as a Health Reporting Fellow at the Wits Centre for Journalism in Johannesburg and is a member of the Oxford Climate Society.

HumAngle also earned recognition in the sexual and gender-based violence category, where Managing Editor Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu’s investigation, “A Tragic Femicide Case in Northeastern Nigeria Smells Like Honour Killing”, emerged as first runner-up. 

The story exposed the killing of a young girl by her uncle in Bama, Borno State, revealing the entrenched gender-based violence and systemic failures faced by women and girls in Nigeria’s conflict-affected North East.

Following publication, the investigation generated national attention for its detailed reporting and sensitive narration, prompting authorities to declare the suspect wanted. He has yet to be arrested. 

Hauwa, a conflict reporter with bylines in multiple international publications, documents the human toll of terrorism and insurgency through long-form storytelling and documentary work. She has won several journalism fellowships, including the 2025 FASPE Journalism Fellowship and the 2024 Ochberg Fellowship at the Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma. She is also a Pulitzer Centre grantee. 

HumAngle’s multiple recognitions underscore the newsroom’s commitment to covering the human cost of conflict and humanitarian crisis, to bear witness and also hold authorities to account, especially in communities frequently missing from mainstream narratives. 

The CJID awards honour impactful journalism across West Africa, with categories spanning investigations, fact-checking, public service reporting, climate journalism, environment, politics, and gender. 

The award’s panel of judges disclosed that the entries were graded for accuracy and fairness, originality and innovativeness of the reporter, depth of research, storytelling, and public impact, as well as adherence to standards of reporting. This year’s finalists included journalists from Nigeria and Ghana.

He has opened up about his personal struggles after the horrifying incident

DJ and presenter Tyler West has revealed that, as a teenager, he witnessed a man getting stabbed to death – an incident which has had a “knock-on effect” on his mental health.

The 29-year-old from south London opened up about issues with “control” and the need to push himself out of his comfort zone while helping out with forest conservation on BBC One show Celebrity Race Across The World.

The Kiss FM DJ is appearing on this year’s show, which sees four celebrities and their loved ones look to complete a 3,670-mile race through Central America, alongside his girlfriend, EastEnders actress Molly Rainford.

Speaking to Rainford, he said: “I didn’t know this would be this much outside of my comfort zone. I always like to be in control of things, or know what I’m getting myself into.

“If I can control it, I feel like I can then look after the situation the best I possibly can.

“When I compare it to when I was a teenager, it was on another level.

“I was absolutely, like, petrified of witnessing something that was completely out of my control, and all I wanted to do was put a stop to it.

“You feel helpless, and I just don’t want to feel that ever in my life again.”

Later on in a confessional, he said: “I was coming home from school one day, and there was like these three men having an argument outside my house.

“One of the two men throw a really weak punch to the man that was on his own, and then one of the men had a 12-inch kitchen knife in his hand.

“All of a sudden, it was like me standing there at my bedroom window at 14 and just seeing this man get like stabbed to death.

“It was one of the most horrific moments of my life.

“I just remember being there at the Old Bailey, just being petrified of so many factors, like will all these people be able to see me? Will they know that I’m testifying? And I just didn’t really know how to process it, and it had such a knock on effect to my mental health. I was indoors for like two years.

“It matured me really quick, and it… it was just really hard.”

During Thursday’s episode of the reality competition programme, the celebrities were told they must fly to Liberia, Costa Rica, after permission to film in Nicaragua was not granted.

Derry Girls actor Dylan Llewellyn and his mother Jackie were the first to reach the checkpoint at Bocas del Toro in Panama, and were followed by radio presenter Roman Kemp and his sister Harley.

Third to the checkpoint was presenter Anita Rani and her father Bal, and they were followed by West and Rainford.

The UN has documented nearly 3,000 settler attacks across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, driving communities from their land in what Palestinians say is a deliberate, violent campaign to displace them.

Houthi authorities in Yemen want to publicly execute the convicted individuals, and also sentenced two others to prison.

Houthi judges working with prosecutors in Yemen have sentenced 17 people to death by firing squad over alleged espionage on behalf of Israel and its western allies.

The Specialized Criminal Court in the capital Sanaa handed down the sentences on Saturday morning in the cases of “espionage cells within a spy network affiliated with American, Israeli, and Saudi intelligence”, Houthi-run media said.

The court sentenced the 17 men to execution “to be carried out in a public place as a deterrent”, Saba and other outlets said, also publishing a list of names.

A woman and a man were sentenced to 10 years in prison, while another man was acquitted of all charges, bringing the total number of people put on trial in this case to 20.

Houthi-run media said state prosecutors had charged the defendants, who can theoretically appeal the sentences, with “espionage for foreign countries hostile to Yemen” in 2024 and 2025, which also included the United Kingdom.

Israel’s Mossad spying agency reportedly “directed” intelligence officers who were in contact with the accused Yemeni citizens, whose work allegedly “led to the targeting of several military, security, and civilian sites and resulting in the killing of dozens and the destruction of extensive infrastructure”.

The United States and the UK conducted dozens of deadly joint air strikes across Yemen after the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, as the Houthis launched attacks on Israel and international maritime transit through the Red Sea in a stated attempt to support Palestinians under fire.

The Houthis have stopped their attacks since last month’s Gaza ceasefire deal.

Israel has also unleashed huge air attacks on Yemen and its infrastructure, repeatedly hitting fuel tanks, power stations and a critical port city where desperately needed humanitarian aid flows through, killing political leaders and dozens of civilians.

In August, the Houthis confirmed that an Israeli air raid killed the prime minister of their government in Sanaa.

Ahmed al-Rahawi was killed with “several” other ministers, the Houthis said in a statement at the time.

Houthi authorities, who control Sanaa and parts of Yemen to the north after an armed takeover more than a decade ago, made no mention of any links with the United Nations or other international agencies in the cases announced Saturday.

But they have, over the past year, increasingly raided UN and NGO offices, detaining dozens of mostly local but also international staff and confiscating equipment.

Amid condemnation and calls for the release of staff by the UN and international stakeholders, the Houthis have framed the efforts as necessary to stave off Israeli operations.

In China, 87 percent of people trust AI, compared with just 32 percent in the US, according to an Edelman poll.

China’s public is far more trusting of artificial intelligence than their peers in the United States and other Western countries, a survey has found.

In China, 87 percent of people said they trusted AI, compared with 67 percent in Brazil, 32 percent in the US, 36 percent in the United Kingdom, and 39 percent in Germany, the Edelman poll released on Tuesday showed.

More than seven in 10 Chinese respondents said they expected AI to play a role in solving a range of societal issues, including climate change, mental illness, poverty and polarisation.

Only one-third of Americans said they expected AI to reduce poverty and polarisation, though half predicted a positive impact on climate-related challenges.

While 54 percent of Chinese said they embraced greater use of AI, just 17 percent of Americans answered the same, according to the survey.

Trust was highest among young people, though still much lower in Western countries.

Eighty-eight percent of Chinese aged 18-34 said they had faith in the technology, compared with 40 percent of Americans in that age group.

“For businesses and policymakers, this divergence presents a double challenge,” Edelman Senior Vice President Gray Grossman said in a report accompanying the survey.

“In high-trust markets, the task is to sustain optimism through responsible deployment and straightforward evidence of benefit. In low-trust markets, the task is to rebuild confidence in the institutions behind the technology.”

The survey results come as the US and China are locked in a battle for tech supremacy, with firms in both countries rolling out increasingly sophisticated AI models.

While the US is widely seen as still having an edge in producing the most powerful AI, Chinese firms such as Alibaba and DeepSeek have made major inroads in recent months with “open” language models that offer customers much lower costs.

Last month, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky made headlines when he revealed that the short-term rental platform preferred Alibaba’s Qwen over OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“It’s very good. It’s also fast and cheap,” Chesky told Bloomberg in an interview.

New attacks near Bethlehem and Hebron underscore intensifying Israeli violence in occupied Palestinian territory.

Israeli settlers have launched two major arson attacks on Palestinian villages near Bethlehem and Hebron amid a wave of rising violence by Israel in the occupied West Bank.

Dozens of settlers rampaged through the village of al-Jaba, located 10km (six miles) southwest of Bethlehem, on Monday, torching three Palestinian homes, one shack and three vehicles, according to Dhyab Masha‘la, the head of the local council.

Masha‘la told Palestinian news agency Wafa that the attackers caused extensive damage to the village, but that locals had managed to extinguish the flames. No casualties were reported.

Earlier on Monday, Wafa said settlers set fire to a home and two vehicles, and physically assaulted several civilians in Sa’ir town, northeast of Hebron, under the protection of Israeli forces.

The Israeli settlers beat the Palestinians with batons and sharp instruments, resulting in injuries to a number of women, with Israeli forces blocking fire engines and ambulances from reaching the scene, the agency reported.

Violence in the West Bank has broken new records this year, with settlers carrying out almost-daily attacks on Palestinians that have involved killings, beatings and the destruction of property, often under the protection of the Israeli military.

Last wek, settlers set a mosque ablaze in the village of Deir Istiya in the north of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission says that Israeli forces and settlers carried out 2,350 attacks across the West Bank last month alone in an “ongoing cycle of terror”, which has been taking place in the shadow of the war in Gaza.

The violence is rarely prosecuted.

Referring to the attack on al-Jaba, an Israeli military spokesperson said security forces were “searching for those involved” after being deployed to the village following reports of “dozens of Israeli citizens” torching and vandalising houses and vehicles.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has overseen the rapid expansion of settlements, denounced Monday’s attack, calling the assailants a “small, extremist group” and signalling that he would convene cabinet ministers to address the problem.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on X that the government would “not tolerate the attempts of a small group of violent and criminal anarchists who break the law to take the law into their own hands and tarnish the settler community”.

But his statement backed the continued expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

The government, Katz said, would “continue to develop and foster the settlement enterprise throughout Judea and Samaria”.

Last year, the International Court of Justice – the top United Nations tribunal – ruled that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is illegal and called for removing Israeli settlements from the territory.

Settler violence has spiked as members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government push to formally annex the area, which has long operated under a system of apartheid, according to leading rights groups.

The United Nations’ human rights office warned in July that the settler violence was being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.

Last week, in a rare public rebuke, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and army chief Eyal Zamir condemned the burgeoning settler attacks.

New York Jets cornerback Kris Boyd remains in critical but stable condition a day after being shot in the abdomen in midtown Manhattan.

The New York Police Department has released surveillance images of a suspect wanted in connection with the shooting, which took place at approximately 2:06 a.m. Sunday in front of 156 West 38 St. in the Midtown South precinct.

“The sought individual is described as male, medium complexion,” the NYPD said in a statement emailed to The Times. “He was last seen wearing a black cap, black sweatshirt, black pants, multi-colored sneakers, and carrying a black bookbag.”

According to the NYPD, the suspect fled on foot traveling eastbound on West 38 St. Emergency medical services responded to the incident, the police said, and transported a 29-year-old male victim to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue in critical but stable condition.

The office of New York Mayor Eric Adams was one of the first to identify Boyd as the victim.

“I am praying for New York Jets player Kris Boyd and his loved ones,” Adams wrote Sunday on social media. “Although we’ve gotten shootings to historic lows in our city, we must continue to work to end gun violence. Too many young lives have been tragically altered and cut short by this epidemic.”

The Jets, who had a bye in this week’s NFL schedule, said Sunday in a statement: “We are aware of the situation involving Kris Boyd and will have no further comment at this time.”

Boyd was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round of the 2019 draft and has also played for the Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans. Known primarily as a special teams player, Boyd signed a one-year, $1.6 million deal with the Jets this past offseason but was placed on the season-ending injured reserve list on Aug. 18 with a shoulder injury.

On Sunday, Jets linebacker Jermaine Johnson and defensive tackle Harrison Phillips offered prayers for their teammate on social media.

“Everybody please send prayers to my brother and teammate Kris Boyd and his family!!!” Johnson wrote. “Lord please hold your healing hand over Kris and guide him back to health and safety. Lord I ask that you please just get him through this safely.”

Phillips wrote: “Father God, we come to you right now, asking for your healing power over KB. You are a God of miracles. Lord, place your mighty hand on him as he fights lord God. Guide every doctor, nurse, and surgeon who touches him lord. Give his family strength! Kris is a fighter and we’re all here for him.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Midnight Mode, indeed.

On the day the Rams donned black uniforms for the first and only time this season, the offense largely went dark.

Red-hot quarterback Matthew Stafford cooled. Star receivers Davante Adams and Puka Nacua struggled to consistently make the clutch plays that they often make look routine.

But safety Kamren Kinchens and the Rams’ defense managed to keep the Seattle Seahawks at bay — just barely.

Kinchens intercepted two passes, and cornerbacks Cobie Durant and Darious Williams also picked off passes as the Rams held off the Seahawks for a 21-19 victory Sunday before 75,323 at SoFi Stadium that was not secured until Seattle’s Jason Myers missed a 61-yard field goal as time expired.

Stafford tossed touchdown passes to Adams and tight end Colby Parkinson, and Kyren Williams rushed for a touchdown as the Rams improved to 8-2, extended their winning streak to five games and assumed sole possession of first place in the NFC West.

The Rams can thank Kinchens, a second-year safety who has six career interceptions, including four against the Seahawks. His interceptions set up Williams’ touchdown in the first quarter and Parkinson’s in the fourth.

The Rams went into the game having scored at least 34 points in each of their last three games. But that production was absent against a Seahawks team that fell to 7-3 and had its four-game winning streak end.

Stafford increased his league-leading total of touchdown passes to 27 and did not have a pass intercepted for the seventh consecutive game. But the 17th-year pro was not as sharp as he had been during a stretch that put him in the conversation for NFL most valuable player. Stafford completed 15 of 28 passes for 130 yards.

Stafford enjoyed a banner day compared to Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold.

The Rams’ front pressured Darnold into multiple poor decisions, and Kinchens, Durant and Williams made him pay. Darnold completed 29 of 44 passes for 279 yards with four interceptions.

Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who was on pace to set an NFL record for yards receiving in a season, caught nine passes for 105 yards. But he did not score.

Cooper Kupp, the former Rams star making his return to SoFi Stadium, did not have a catch in the first three quarters but had three during a late scoring drive that trimmed the Rams’ lead to two points.

The Rams led 14-9 at halftime on Williams’ one-yard touchdown run and Stafford’s one-yard touchdown pass to Adams.

It was a satisfying situation for the Rams, whose first drive ended at the Seahawks’ eight-yard line when Stafford’s fourth-down pass to tight end Tyler Higbee fell incomplete.

Kinchens’ 31-yard interception return, however, set up Williams’ touchdown. And after Myers kicked the first of three first-half field goals for the Seahawks, Stafford led a long drive that ended with Adams’ 1,000th career reception and his 10th touchdown catch of the season.

The Rams had an opportunity to seize control early in the third quarter when Durant returned an interception to the Seahawks’ 35-yard line. But two plays later, Nacua lost a fumble after making a catch.

Myers’ fourth field goal pulled the Seahawks to within 14-12 midway through the third. But Kinchens intercepted another pass late in the quarter, setting up Stafford’s six-yard touchdown pass to Parkinson for a 21-12 lead.

Still, the Rams struggled to put away the Seahawks. Kenneth Walker III’s one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter pulled the Seahawks to within 21-19 with 2:23 left.

After Ethan Evans’ punt pinned them at the one-yard line, the Seahawks got the ball back with 1:40 left and drove 56 yards in nine plays.

But Myers could not match his career-best 61-yard field goal against the Rams in 2020. This time it went wide right.

The Rams play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4) next Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

Foreign minister says Iran has not been enriching uranium at any of its sites since Israel and the US bombed them.

Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities maintain that the United States and its allies are set on a forceful approach over the country’s nuclear programme, so negotiations appear far off.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has left no room for talks by repeatedly presenting “maximalist demands”, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday at a news conference in Tehran.

“The current approach of the US government in no way shows readiness for an equal and fair negotiation to secure mutual interests,” he said on the sidelines of the state-organised Tehran Dialogue Forum, which diplomats and envoys from across the region attended.

Iranian officials said they have been receiving messages from neighbouring countries that are trying to mediate and keep the peace. A letter from Araghchi was also delivered to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on Sunday that deals with Iran, the ceasefire in Gaza and other issues, according to Iranian media.

Araghchi said communication channels remain open with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well. Iran’s envoy to Vienna, where the nuclear watchdog is based, was joined on Friday by counterparts from China and Russia in a meeting with the representatives of the United Nations agency.

“There’s no enrichment right now because our nuclear enrichment facilities have been attacked,” the foreign minister said at the news conference. “Our message is clear: Iran’s right for peaceful use of nuclear energy, including enrichment, is undeniable, and we will continue to exercise it.”

Last week, the latest IAEA confidential report on Iran’s nuclear programme was leaked to Western media, which reported that the UN agency has not been able to verify Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent-enriched uranium since its facilities were bombed and severely damaged by the US and Israel in June.

The IAEA said it needed “long overdue” inspections of seven of the sites targeted during the war, including Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

Iran has granted the IAEA access to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor but has said security and safety conditions have not been met for inspections at other facilities as the high-enriched uranium stays buried.

Another resolution?

Iranian officials signalled over the weekend that three European powers – France, the United Kingdom and Germany – which were part of the country’s now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, may be mobilising to introduce another Iran-focused resolution to the IAEA’s board.

Iran responded to several previous censure resolutions with escalations in uranium enrichment, and Israel launched its June attacks on Iran a day after the IAEA passed a European-tabled resolution that found Tehran noncompliant with its nuclear safeguards commitments.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Sunday, the deputy for international and legal affairs in Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, said Iran “reserves the right to reconsider its approaches” if a new resolution moves through.

He said the three European countries’ effort was a US-backed move to reinstate UN sanctions against Iran despite strong opposition from China and Russia last month and it “eliminated them from the field of dialogue and diplomacy with Iran”.

“Another resolution will bear no additional pressure on Iran, but the message it will send shows that collaboration and coordination are not important to them,” Gharibabadi said.

Iran’s nuclear programme chief, Mohammad Eslami, also slammed the West and the IAEA, telling reporters on Sunday that the UN agency is being used for political purposes, which “enforces double standards and a law of the jungle that must be stopped”.

“The attacks on Iran’s facilities were unprecedented. It was the first time that nuclear facilities under agency supervision were attacked, which meant a violation of international law, but the IAEA did not condemn the attacks,” Eslami said.

Iran’s military commanders continue to signal defiance as well. Defence Minister Amir Hatami told a meeting of lawmakers on Sunday that armed forces have been “sparing no moment in improving defence capabilities” after the 12-day war with Israel.

Tensions remain high in the region after the war with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday confirming that it seized a Cyprus-registered tanker that transited through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli air raids have taken place in southern Gaza as well as Gaza City; one young Palestinian killed in occupied West Bank raid.

An Israeli settler arson attack on a mosque in the occupied West Bank has drawn international condemnation, as a wave of intensified violence against Palestinians continues unabated across the area.

Israeli settlers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya, near Salfit in the north of the West Bank, around dawn on Thursday, local residents told Al Jazeera.

Photographs taken at the scene showed racist, anti-Palestinian slogans sprayed on the walls of the mosque, which was damaged in the blaze. Copies of the Quran – the Islamic holy book – were also burned.

The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs condemned what it said was a “heinous crime” that highlights “the barbarity” with which Israel treats Muslim and Christian holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Separately, two Palestinian children were killed on Thursday when Israeli forces opened fire during a raid in the town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported.

The violence comes amid a record-setting number of Israeli settler and military attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank so far this year, with many of the assaults taking place in the context of the 2025 olive harvest.

At least 167 settler attacks related to the olive harvest were reported since October 1, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency (OCHA) said in its latest update this week. More than 150 Palestinians have been injured in those assaults, while more than 5,700 trees have also been damaged.

Experts say Israeli attacks in the West Bank have increased in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians in the coastal enclave since October 2023.

They also come as members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government are pushing to formally annex the area. Rights groups say Israel already maintains a system of de facto annexation and apartheid in the West Bank.

The UN human rights office warned in July that the settler violence was being carried out “with the acquiescence, support, and in some cases participation, of Israeli security forces”.

Settler and military attacks, it said, “are part of a broader and coordinated strategy of the State of Israel to expand and consolidate annexation of the occupied West Bank, while reinforcing its system of discrimination, oppression and control over Palestinians there”.

‘Completely unacceptable’

Thursday’s attack on the mosque in Deir Istiya prompted an outpouring of international condemnation.

A spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said the international body was “deeply disturbed” by the assault. “Such attacks on places of worship are completely unacceptable,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters during a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.

“We have and will continue to condemn attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank,” Dujarric said.

“Israel, as the occupying power, has a responsibility to protect the civilian population and ensure that those responsible for these attacks, including this attack on a mosque and the spray-painting of horrendous language on the mosque, be brought to account.”

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also “strongly condemned” the rise in Israeli settler attacks, according to a statement shared by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

A Jordan Foreign Ministry spokesman described the violence as “an extension of the Israeli government’s extremist policies and inflammatory rhetoric that fuel violence and extremism against the Palestinian people”.

Germany, which has faced criticism for defending Israel amid the Gaza war, also called for a halt to settler violence, saying the “incidents must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible held accountable”.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry likewise said recent Israeli arson attacks in the West Bank “are unacceptable”. “This violence and the continued expansion of illegal settlements must stop,” it said in a statement.

Palestinians have urged world leaders to go beyond words, however, and take concrete action against Israel amid the wave of violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including by ending weapons transfers to the Israeli military.

In a separate incident last week, Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian home in the village of Khirbet Abu Falah, near Ramallah, while a family was inside, the UN’s humanitarian office reported.

“As the flames spread, the family immediately evacuated while neighbours and civil defence teams rushed to the scene and managed to extinguish the fire. The mother sustained a leg fracture while running away from the settlers,” OCHA said.