A US federal judge on Tuesday set a trial date of June 23 in the Justice Department’s criminal case against aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing over two deadly 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.In two court filings in Texas, Judge Reed O’Connor said he was vacating an April 11 deadline for Boeing and prosecutors to announce …
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Iran became the second Asian side to secure their place at the 2026 World Cup after twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 with Uzbekistan in Tehran on Tuesday, handing organisers a likely diplomatic headache.Iran, the second-highest ranked AFC side in the FIFA standings, needed only a point to join Japan in qualifying for the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.Iran will, however, head to North America with relations strained as US President Donald Trump takes a hard line over opening new nuclear talks with Tehran.The Group A leaders were made to work hard at the Azadi Stadium by upward-trending Uzbekistan, with Mehdi Taremi scoring seven minutes from time – his second of the match – to seal the point.”We have to thank the fans who filled the stadium today, and thank God they did not leave empty-handed,” said Iran captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh.Seeking to qualify for a first World Cup, Uzbekistan opened the scoring on 16 minutes through Khojimat Erkinov, before Inter Milan striker Taremi scored his first of the night shortly after half time.Parity lasted only one minute, with Abbosbek Fayzullaev restoring Uzbekistan’s lead. Again, Taremi was the man to pull his team back into the game and ultimately book a spot in North America, when he finished past goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov late on. Iran will be appearing at a fourth successive World Cup and seventh in all.Taremi expressed his “happiness” with the result but admitted his team had “tactical problems” after conceding twice.Uzbekistan remain on course for an inaugural appearance at the finals. Sitting second on 17 points, they require a win from the concluding double-header in June either away to third-placed UAE or at home to Qatar, in fourth.The UAE climbed to four points behind Uzbekistan following their 2-1 victory in injury time against North Korea in Riyadh, with Qatar three points further back after their 3-1 defeat to Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek.The top two go straight to the World Cup, with teams finishing third and fourth in the three Asian groups entering a further round of qualifying.- Knife edge race -Earlier on Tuesday, Australia beat China 2-0 to boost their chances of automatic qualification, but Saudi Arabia stayed in touch in Group C with a goalless draw in Japan.Australia’s victory, courtesy of first-half goals from Jackson Irvine and Nishan Velupillay, left the Socceroos second in Group C on 13 points with two to play, three points ahead of Saudi Arabia with a much better goal difference. Japan are already sure to finish top.Australia host Japan and travel to Saudi Arabia for their final qualifiers in June, leaving the race for the second direct qualification place on a knife edge. China stay bottom on six points, but they can progress to a further qualifying stage by finishing third or fourth. Indonesia moved into fourth on nine points thanks to a 1-0 win over Bahrain.Oxford United forward Ole Romeny scored his second goal in as many games to give Netherlands and Barcelona great Patrick Kluivert his first victory since becoming manager.In Group B, Son Heung-min’s South Korea remain top and favourites to progress, but they put in another toothless performance as they were held at home for the second match in a row – this time 1-1 by Jordan.Iraq could have gained ground but conceded late twice to lose 2-1 to Palestine in Amman.One-nil down from the 34th minute, Palestine equalised two minutes from time before grabbing a winner in the 97th minute, for their first victory of the third round.Iraq stay third and one point behind second-placed Jordan, who are three off the summit.Leaders South Korea face a tricky trip to Basra in June before a final home clash against Kuwait. Oman are fourth on 10 points following their 1-0 win against Kuwait in Ardhiyah, with Palestine fifth and Kuwait rooted to the bottom.
Global equities eked out some gains Tuesday with Wall Street largely advancing while European stocks made modest progress as concerns eased over upcoming tariffs from US President Donald Trump.The Dow closed little-changed while the broad-based S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the day slightly higher following a rally fueled by technology stocks the previous day.Europe …
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President Donald Trump and top US intelligence officials raced Tuesday to stem a growing scandal after a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat about air strikes on Yemen’s Huthi rebels in a stunning security breach.Trump brushed off the leak as a “glitch,” while the CIA director and the White House intelligence chief both claimed during a Senate hearing that no classified information was divulged in the conversation on the Signal messaging app.The president also defended his National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who added Atlantic’s magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat by mistake ahead of the airstrikes.Trump told broadcaster NBC that the breach was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.” Waltz “has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” he added.Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe — who were both reported to be in the chat — both endured a stormy Senate Intelligence Committee hearing over the leak.”There was no classified material that was shared,” Gabbard, who has previously caused controversy with comments sympathetic to Russia and Syria, told the committee.She refused however to comment on whether Signal had been installed on her personal phone.Ratcliffe confirmed he was involved in the Signal group and had the app installed on his work computer, but said the communications were “entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”- ‘Sloppy, careless, incompetent’ -Democrats on the committee called on Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign.Senator Mark Warner blasted what he called “sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior.”Journalist Goldberg said that Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about the Yemen strikes including targets, weapons and timing ahead of the strikes on March 15.He said he was added to the group chat two days before the Yemen strikes but did not publish sensitive information on the attacks.Hegseth, a former Fox News host with no experience running a huge organization like the Pentagon, launched the fightback by saying that “nobody was texting war plans.”The White House then went into full damage control mode on Tuesday, attacking Goldberg and describing the story as a “coordinated effort” to distract from Trump’s achievements.”Don’t let enemies of America get away with these lies,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X, describing the row as a “witch hunt.”Trump and his aides have repeatedly used the same term to dismiss an investigation into whether the Republican’s 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Tuesday that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent to the thread.”She also attacked Goldberg as being “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”- ‘European free-loading’ -But the report has sparked concerns over the use of a commercial app instead of secure government communications — and about whether US adversaries may have been able to hack in.Trump’s special Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was included in the group, CBS News reported.The report also revealed potentially embarrassing details of what top White House officials think about key allies.A person identified as Vance expressed doubts about carrying out the strikes, saying he hated “bailing Europe out again,” as countries there were more affected by Huthi attacks on shipping than the United States.Contributors identified as Hegseth and Waltz both sent messages arguing that only Washington had the capability to carry out the strikes, with the Pentagon chief saying he shared Vance’s “loathing of European free-loading” and calling the Europeans “pathetic.”The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.They have launched scores of drone and missile attacks at ships passing Yemen in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden during the Gaza war, saying they were carried out in solidarity with Palestinians.
A Sudanese monitor accused the army Tuesday of carrying out one of the deadliest air strikes in the country’s nearly two-year war on a rebel-held town in the western region of Darfur.The Emergency Lawyers, a group of volunteer legal professionals, said “hundreds of civilians” were killed in an “indiscriminate air strike on Tora market in North Darfur”, while two residents who took part in burial operations said they had counted 270 bodies.AFP could not independently verify a toll or reach local medics due to a telecommunications blackout in Darfur.The army, which has been battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, did not explicitly confirm the air strike to AFP, but denied targeting civilians.”We have counted 270 bodies buried and 380 people injured,” one of the residents told AFP via the Starlink satellite network, with another confirming the figures. Both requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.They said security concerns meant transporting the wounded to the nearby town of Melit was difficult, while the local health facility in the small town lacked the capacity to treat mass casualties.The strike comes days after the army reclaimed the presidential palace in Khartoum — a major victory against the RSF.The paramilitary, which controls nearly all of Darfur where the United States has accused it of committing genocide, said the “massacre” on Monday “killed and wounded hundreds”.In a statement to AFP, military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said “false claims such as this arise whenever our forces exercise their constitutional and legitimate right to engage hostile targets”.”We abide in our air strikes by the rules of targeting in accordance with international law, and we absolutely cannot target innocent civilians,” he continued, adding that “hardly a day goes by” without the RSF attacking densely-populated areas.A local advocacy group, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, said the army’s “deliberate bombing” of the market was “a crime against humanity”.”It is deeply regrettable that some would justify the killing of innocents under the pretext of the presence of one of the parties to the conflict,” they said in a statement.- Civilian toll -Footage shared on social media, which AFP was unable to verify, purportedly showed charred bodies and smoking debris at the Monday market, where residents of nearby towns gather weekly.In nearly two years, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.Amid the near-total breakdown of Sudan’s healthcare system, exact tolls have been difficult to confirm since the war began.The United States’ former Sudan envoy Tom Perriello in May last year said some estimates were as high as 150,000 killed.Across the country, attacks on markets, villages and displacement camps have regularly left over 100 dead at a time.In December, the lawyers’ group reported a similar army air strike on a market in North Darfur’s Kabkabiya, which killed over 100, with the United Nations confirming a toll of “at least 80”.Last month, a three-day RSF assault on central Sudan villages claimed hundreds of lives, with the army-backed government giving a toll of 433, while the monitor said over 200 were killed.Darfur, a vast region the size of France, has faced some of the war’s worst violence.Though the paramilitary has deployed highly equipped drones in Darfur, the army retains the advantage in the skies with its warplanes, regularly striking RSF positions across the region.North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, 40 kilometres south of Tora, is the only regional state capital the RSF has not conquered, despite besieging the city for ten months and regularly attacking the displacement camps that surround it.According to analysts, the RSF is likely to intensify its campaign to consolidate its hold on the region, following its defeats in Khartoum.Since the war began, both sides have been accused of targeting civilians, including indiscriminately shelling markets and residential neighbourhoods.The RSF has specifically been accused of ethnically motivated mass killing, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.
