Senegal avoided a shock elimination from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, after they came from behind to beat Sudan 3-1 in their Round of 16 fixture on Saturday evening.
The Teranga Lions were behind as early as the sixth minute after Aamir Abdallah Yunis curled in the opening goal.
But they went into the break in front, thanks to two goals from Papa Gueye in the 29th and 45th minutes of play.
In the second half, Ibrahim Mbaye added a third as Senegal progressed into the next round.
They will now take on the winner of the Tunisia vs Mali last-16 clash for a place in the semi-final. (DailyPost)
Arsenal fought back from a goal down to beat Bournemouth 3-2 on Saturday, stretching their lead at the top of the Premier League as Aston Villa extended their winning run at home.
A goal from Gabriel Magalhaes and two from the returning Declan Rice sent the Gunners six points clear of second-placed Villa and seven ahead of Manchester City.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta praised the character of his team, singling out Rice and Gabriel, whose sloppy pass set up Bournemouth for the opening goal.
“I love the character of Gabriel, the way he overcome that situation — it’s just unbelievable, it says a lot about how much we’ve grown,” he told Sky Sports. “The team found a way to beat them and it’s a massive win.”
The Spaniard said that Rice had worked hard to be available after missing Tuesday’s 4-1 home win against Villa with a knee problem.
“He has stretched himself to the very limit and the team were awarded with two great goals,” he added.
Evanilson gave impressive Bournemouth an early lead, stroking home after Gabriel’s error but the Brazil defender made up for his mistake just minutes later, converting after Noni Madueke’s drive to the byline.
England midfielder Rice side-footed the Gunners ahead in the 54th minute from the edge of the area and gave them breathing space with about 20 minutes to go, producing a low finish from substitute Bukayo Saka’s cutback.
Junior Kroupi brought Bournemouth back into the game with a thunderous right-footed finish but Arsenal held on for a fifth straight Premier League win — keeping them firmly on course for a first English title since 2004.
Earlier, Unai Emery’s Villa bounced back from their chastening defeat at Arsenal to beat Nottingham Forest 3-1, recording their 11th consecutive home win in all competitions.
England forward Ollie Watkins gave Villa a deserved lead on the cusp of half-time with a powerful strike from just outside the area and John McGinn scored twice in the second half, either side of a Morgan Gibbs-White goal.
Villa boss Emery said his players and coaching staff had held a meeting after their drubbing at the Emirates Stadium.
“I am so happy,” he said. “We had to recover our energy and our confidence. Here, at Villa Park, the energy we create was really important.
“Forest are competitive. After the Arsenal match we met — the players and staff — (and discussed) how we are doing this season, how we are feeling, how we needed to keep the same consistency as before, how we needed to be together and strong.”
Sean Dyche’s Forest, who have now suffered four straight league defeats, remain one place above the relegation zone, four points clear of West Ham, who slumped to a damaging 3-0 loss at Molineux. (JapanToday)
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to come to the aid of protesters in Iran if security forces fired on them, days into unrest that has left several dead and posed the biggest internal threat to Iranian authorities in years.
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he said in a social media post. The United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June, joining an Israeli air campaign that targeted Tehran’s atomic programme and military leadership.
Responding to Trump’s comments, top Iranian official Ali Larijani warned that U.S. interference in domestic Iranian issues would amount to a destabilization of the entire Middle East. Iran backs proxy forces in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The comments came as a local official in western Iran, where several deaths were reported, was cited by state media as warning that any unrest or illegal gatherings would be met “decisively and without leniency”.
This week’s protests over soaring inflation are so far smaller than some previous bouts of unrest in Iran, but have spread across the country, with deadly confrontations between demonstrators and security forces focused in western provinces.
State-affiliated media and rights groups have reported at least 10 deaths since Wednesday, including one man who authorities said was a member of the Basij paramilitary force affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards.
The Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership has seen off repeated eruptions of unrest in recent decades, often quelling protests with heavy security measures and mass arrests. But economic problems may leave authorities more vulnerable now.
This week’s protests are the biggest since nationwide demonstrations triggered by the death of a young woman in custody in 2022 paralyzed Iran for weeks, with rights groups reporting hundreds killed.
Trump did not specify what sort of action the U.S. could take in support of the protests.
Washington has long imposed broad financial sanctions on Tehran, in particular since Trump’s first term when, in 2018, he pulled the U.S. out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and declared a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Video verified by Reuters showed dozens of people gathered in front of a burning police station overnight, as gunshots sporadically rang out and people shouted “shameless, shameless” at the authorities.
In the southern city of Zahedan, where Iran’s Baluch minority predominates, the human rights news group Hengaw reported that protesters had chanted slogans including “Death to the dictator”.
Hengaw has reported at least 80 arrests so far over the unrest, mostly in the west, and including 14 members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.
State television also reported the arrest of an unspecified number of people in another western city, Kermanshah, accused of manufacturing petrol bombs and homemade pistols. Iranian media also said two heavily armed individuals were arrested in central and western Iran before they could carry out attacks.
The deaths acknowledged by official or semi-official Iranian media have been in the small western cities of Lordegan and Kuhdasht. Hengaw also reported that a man was killed in Fars province in central Iran, though state news sites denied this.
Rights groups and social media posts reported protests in a number of cities late on Friday.
Reuters could not verify all the reports of unrest, arrests or deaths.
Trump spoke a few days after he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime advocate of military action against Iran, and warned of fresh strikes if Tehran resumed nuclear or ballistic work.
The Israeli and U.S. strikes in June last year have cranked up the pressure on Iranian authorities, as have the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, a close Tehran ally, and the Israeli pounding of its main regional partner, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Iran continues to support groups in Iraq that have previously fired rockets at U.S. forces in the country, as well as the Houthi group that controls much of northern Yemen.
“American people should know that Trump started the adventurism. They ought to watch over their soldiers,” said Larijani, the head of Iran’s National Security Council and a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
During the latest unrest, Iran’s elected President Masoud Pezeshkian has struck a conciliatory tone, pledging dialogue with protest leaders over the cost-of-living crisis, even as rights groups said security forces had fired on demonstrators.
Speaking on Thursday, before Trump threatened U.S. action, Pezeshkian acknowledged that failings by the authorities were behind the crisis.
“We are to blame… Do not look for America or anyone else to blame. We must serve properly so that people are satisfied with us…. It is us who have to find a solution to these problems,” he said.
Pezeshkian’s government is trying a program of economic liberalization, but one of its measures, deregulating some currency exchange, has contributed to a sharp decline in the value of Iran’s rial on the unofficial market.
The sliding currency has compounded inflation, which has hovered above 36% since March even by official estimates, in an economy battered by Western sanctions. (JapanToday)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday lashed out at Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for “openly challenging” Chinese territorial sovereignty after the Japanese leader’s remark on a Taiwan emergency heightened bilateral tensions.
Wang, speaking at a symposium in Beijing, also said that Japan has failed to “deeply reflect” on its wartime past, including its invasion of China.
Japan’s current leadership has been “openly challenging China’s territorial sovereignty, the historical conclusions of World War II, and the postwar international order,” Wang said.
Japan invaded a vast swath of China before World War II. The Asian neighbors have been at odds over wartime history among other issues.
Sino-Japanese relations have worsened since Takaichi, seen as a security hawk, said in early November that a Taiwan emergency could be a “survival-threatening” situation for Japan and prompt a response by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
China sees Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Wang’s remarks came as China conducted military drills in five areas encircling self-ruled Taiwan in a warning against separatism and external interference. (JapanToday)
Moments before flames and smoke engulfed the bar in Switzerland where 40 people died, staff were seen holding aloft sparklers stuck in Champagne bottles, videos posted online showed.
The mini-fireworks were being waved near the basement bar’s low wooden ceiling, covered in thin soundproofing fabric, according to the images on social media.
One video showed the ceiling catching alight and the flames spreading quickly — but revelers initially continuing to dance, unaware of the death trap they were in.
A young man is seen attempting to extinguish the flames with a large white cloth.
Authorities investigating the deadly blaze said they suspected that “sparklers or Bengal candles” sparked the fire.
Witness accounts later relayed to various media said the sparkler parade was a regular “show” for patrons in the bar, which typically drew a young crowd.
The flames spread with terrifying speed in the bar, in the Swiss luxury ski resort town Crans-Montana, which was packed with New Year’s Eve partygoers.
The video which showed the ceiling catching fire went to on capture a scene of panic: people scrambling and screaming in the dark as smoke and flames around them grew bigger.
Elliot Alvarez, a local who had been at a next-door bar with friends, told AFP: “We received a call from a friend who was clearly panicked on the phone and explained that there had apparently been an explosion.”
When he and his friends arrived at the scene, they found the place crawling with emergency responders and “people on the ground being treated, people coming out, burned”.
Police commander Frederic Gisler told reporters that “the red alarm, which mobilizes the fire department, was triggered” immediately when authorities were alerted to the situation.
Passers-by shortly, before 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, had seen smoke coming out of the centrally located bar and called the emergency services.
Less than a minute later, at 1:32 a.m., the first police patrols arrived on the scene. Firefighters and other emergency workers also rushing in.
At that time, inside the bar, flames had engulfed the basement. Smoke was everywhere, also filling the first floor, according to videos.
Outside, bystanders could see flames, later describing scenes of chaos as people tried to break the windows to escape and others, covered in burns, poured into the street.
Young patrons in the bar, disoriented by the smoke and panic, tried to escape through the front door, causing a crush at the exit.
Nathan, who had been in the bar before the blaze, saw burned people streaming out of the site.
“They were asking for help, crying out for help,” he said.
Adrien, a young vacationer from Dijon, France, described on TikTok how he “saw people breaking windows with chairs”.
“They were in a terrible state, covered in blood, their clothes melted … It was a catastrophe.”
Leandre, who was outside, told the Blick newspaper of the “very sad” scene, with “people burned beyond recognition”.
“We tried to rescue them as best we could … tried to cover them, because they had no clothes left,” he said.
“It was really difficult. We tried to pull people out who were conscious, people who were unconscious, and get them to a warm place.”
He said that even the rescue workers “were overwhelmed”, because everything happened so quickly, with “people who were burned alive”.
Edmond Cocquyt, a Belgian tourist, told AFP he saw bodies “covered with a white sheet” and “young people, totally burned, who were still alive … screaming in pain”.
After emergency units at local hospitals filled, many of the injured were transported across Switzerland, and beyond.
Outside a Milan hospital, Umberto Marcucci told reporters he was “thanking the heavens” that his son Manfredi — one of four Italians being treated at the hospital — made it out alive.
“My son is sick but he’s fine, he’s alive,” he said. Manfredi, he said, had been at Le Constellation with many friends and escaped with “burns on 30 to 40 percent of his body”.
“He told me that at a certain point, someone yelled ‘fire’ in the bar area… and from there the fire spread incredibly quickly.” (JapanToday)
The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said its president, Nicolás Maduro, had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington — an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.
Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas, the capital, as Maduro’s government immediately accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations. The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.
It was not immediately clear who was running the country, and Maduro’s whereabouts were not immediately known. Trump announced the developments on Truth Social shortly after 4:30 a.m. Under Venezuelan law the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, would take power. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike.
“We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said. “We demand proof of life.”
Maduro, Trump said, “has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow.” He set a news conference for later Saturday morning.
The legal implications of the strike under U.S. law were not immediately clear. Sen Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on X that he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who briefed him on the strike. Rubio told Lee that Maduro “has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.”
The White House did not immediately respond to queries on where Maduro and his wife were being flown to. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges in the Southern District of New York.
Maduro last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.
The explosions in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, early on the third day of 2026 — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report hearing and seeing the explosions. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties on either side. The attack itself lasted less than 30 minutes and it was unclear if more actions lay ahead, though Trump said in his post that the strikes were carried out “successfully.”
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ban on U.S. commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace because of “ongoing military activity” ahead of the explosions.
The strike came after the Trump administration spent months escalating pressure on Maduro. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.
For months, Trump had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land following months of attacks on boats accused of carrying drugs. Maduro has decried the U.S. military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Some streets in Caracas fill up
Armed individuals and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party. But in other areas of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack. Parts of the city remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape sky as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed an urban landscape with cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. Unintelligible conversation could be heard in the background. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.
Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.
“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”
Venezuela’s government responded to the attack with a call to action. “People to the streets!” it said in a statement. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”
The statement added that Maduro had “ordered all national defense plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.” That state of emergency gives him the power to suspend people’s rights and expand the role of the armed forces.
The website of the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela, a post that has been closed since 2019, issued a warning to American citizens in the country, saying it was “aware of reports of explosions in and around Caracas.”
“U.S. citizens in Venezuela should shelter in place,” the warning said. (JapanToday)
The funeral for Brigitte Bardot will be held next week in Saint-Tropez, the glamorous French Riviera resort she helped make famous and where she lived for more than a half-century, local authorities said.
The cinema star and animal rights activist died last Sunday at the age of 91 at her home in southern France.
A ceremony is scheduled on Jan 7 at the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Catholic Church and will be broadcast on two large screens set up at the port and on the Place des Lices central square, Saint-Tropez town hall said in a statement Monday.
The burial will then take place “in the strictest privacy” at a cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, according to the statement. The ceremony will be followed by a public homage for fans at a nearby site.
“Brigitte Bardot will forever be associated with Saint-Tropez, of which she was the most dazzling ambassador,” the statement said. “Through her presence, personality and aura, she marked the history of our town.”
The movie star settled in her Riviera villa, La Madrague, in Saint-Tropez and retired from the film industry in 1973 at age 39.
The so-called marine cemetery, where Bardot’s parents are buried, is also the final resting place of other celebrities, including filmmaker Roger Vadim, Bardot’s first husband.
Bardot’s younger sister, Marie-Jeanne Bardot, known as Mijanou, posted on Facebook a photo of Brigitte at age 12, accompanied by a message honoring “the one I adored more than anything.”
She wrote that Bardot now “knows whether our beloved pets are waiting for us on the other side.
“Let her not be afraid, and let her instead be in the love and joy of reuniting with them all.” (JapanToday)
The Ogun State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of Kayode Adeniyi, the 47-year-old driver of the ill-fated Lexus SUV that crashed on Monday, killing two of Anthony Joshua’s closest friends, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The spokesperson for the state police command, Oluseyi Babaseyi, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Thursday, adding that investigations are ongoing.
Adeniyi, a long-standing member of Joshua’s Nigerian logistics team, was discharged from the hospital in Lagos late on New Year’s Eve and driven two hours north to Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, where the fatal crash occurred.
Police sources revealed that Adeniyi is expected to be charged with reckless driving within 48 hours, though the bank holiday may delay proceedings.
“The driver was released after treatment for minor injuries and was then taken to the state police headquarters for questioning. He is in a stable condition and was able to provide us with his version of events that led up to the crash,” a police source told Daily Mail.
Adeniyi was allegedly driving way over the 65mph speed limit for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when he lost control after a tyre burst during an overtaking manoeuvre near Danco.
The Lexus, carrying Joshua and two of his training staff, Sina Ghami and Kevin Latif Ayodele, smashed into an illegally parked truck, which was carrying soya beans.
The force of the impact tore the nearside section of the car away. Ghami, 36, a British citizen, and Ayodele, 36, a Nigerian/British citizen, were killed instantly, while Joshua and Adeniyi suffered only minor injuries.
Joshua was sitting behind the driver and escaped death by inches, with local first responders describing his survival as a “miracle”.
The Lagos and Ogun state governments on Wednesday announced the discharge of Anthony Joshua from Lagoon Hospital, Ikoyi, after doctors confirmed he was clinically fit to continue his recuperation from home.
According to a joint statement signed by Mr Kayode Akinmade, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, and Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr Gbenga Omotosho, Joshua and his mother visited a funeral home in Lagos on Wednesday to pay their final respects to the two late friends.
The bodies were flown out of Lagos on a Turkish Airlines cargo flight that landed in Istanbul early on New Year’s Day and are expected to fly on to London.
Governors Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State expressed deep appreciation to members of the public for the overwhelming concern, prayers and show of love following the sad incident.
They also conveyed their gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for what they described as his fatherly support throughout the period and commended the doctors and medical personnel at Lagoon Hospital for their professionalism. (Punch)
They’re going to light up 2026 like dynamite: K-pop group BTS’ comeback has an official date.
According to a note shared to social media by the entertainment company BigHit Music, the mega popular group will return on March 20.
That’s after a nearly four-year hiatus, as all seven members of BTS — RM, Jin, Jimin, V, Suga, Jung Kook and j-hope — completed South Korea’s mandatory military service.
“March 20th comeback confirmed,” BigHit Music wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Rapper Suga was the last group member to be released — from his duties as a social service agent, an alternative to serving in the military that he reportedly chose due to a shoulder injury. That was in June 2025.
The six others, RM, V, Jimin, Jung Kook, Jin and j-hope, served in the army.
BTS tiered their enlistments, giving ample time for its members to focus on solo projects while the group was on a break.
Last summer, the group teased a world tour and announced that a new album would be released in the spring of 2026. At the time, they said they would begin working on the project in July 2025.
“Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas,” they said in a statement. “We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”
The 2026 album will mark their first since 2022’s anthology, “Proof,” their 2021 Japanese compilation album “BTS, the Best,” and their last studio album, “Be,” released in 2020. (JapanToday)
U.S. singer Beyonce is now a billionaire, Forbes magazine said, becoming only the fifth musician to achieve such a milestone.
The 44-year-old entertainer joins a select club that includes her husband, rapper Jay-Z, as well as Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and Rihanna, according to the publication, known for its rankings of the world’s richest people.
Beyonce reached the landmark after several very lucrative years.
In 2023, her Renaissance World Tour grossed nearly $600 million.
She then reinvented her musical profile in 2024 with the Grammy-winning country album “Cowboy Carter” before staging the world’s highest-grossing tour of 2025.
Combining these earnings with income from her music catalog and other deals, Forbes estimated that Beyonce brought in $148 million in 2025 before taxes, making her the third highest-paid musician in the world.
The publication did not provide a more specific estimate of the former Destiny’s Child member’s net worth, who founded Parkwood Entertainment to manage her career and productions.
Forbes said that while Beyonce has expanded her business empire with ventures such as a hair care brand, a whiskey label and a clothing line, most of her personal wealth derives from her music, along with her global tours and controlling the rights to her back catalog. (JapanToday)
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