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  Barcelona move 11 points clear of Real Madrid in the La Liga title race with five games to play. Fermin Lopez and Marcus Rashford’s goals took Barcelona to the brink of the La Liga title with a 2-0 win at Getafe. The defending champions moved 11 points clear of second-place Real Madrid, who  drew at Real Betis  on Friday to dent their hopes of finishing the season with a trophy. Hansi Flick’s side can win their second consecutive Spanish title if they overcome Osasuna next weekend and Real Madrid fail to beat Espanyol. “It’s not done, we have five more games, and we’re only focused on the next one,” Flick told reporters. “We will celebrate when it’s time, but not now.” Barcelona were without vital injured wingers Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, but still did enough to see off Jose Bordalas’s tricky side, sixth, in the Madrid suburbs. “We were aware of what was going to happen here, we were going to have few chances, and I think we played well, competing well defensively and ...

  Two British fighter jets were scrambled and 200 people were evacuated on Saturday after a drone crashed in Romania during a barrage of Russian strikes on its neighbour Ukraine. Romanian authorities said 200 people were evacuated while two British fighters jets scrambled after a drone landed in the southeastern city of Galati, near the country's border with Ukraine. It is not the first time that Romania, which is a NATO as well as EU member, has seen it airspace violated and drone fragments fall on its territory after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Romanian President Nicușor Dan said that this, however, "is the first incident where Romanian property has actually been damaged, a threshold we take very seriously." The country's foreign minster summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident. No casualties were reported as a result of the incident, which the country's defence ministry said occured in "a populated area"....

  Nervy Arsenal beat Newcastle 1-0 in the EPL to move three points clear of Manchester City, who hold a game in hand. Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League as Eberechi Eze’s thunderbolt sealed a tense 1-0 win against Newcastle. For the first time since October, Arsenal had started a league game out of pole position after Manchester City’s 1-0 win at Burnley on Wednesday sent them to the summit. But Eze lifted the Gunners back into first place on Saturday with his sublime strike in the first half at the Emirates Stadium. Eze’s 10th goal this season opened up a three-point lead over second-placed City, who were booking their place in the FA Cup final with a 2-1 win against Southampton while Arsenal were in league action. It was an essential victory for Arsenal, whose 2-1 defeat at City last weekend was a huge blow to their title hopes. After losing just three of their first 49 matches in all competitions this season, Arsenal had been beaten in four of the previous six, su...

  Most of those killed and injured in Russian overnight attacks were in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where an attack killed at least five and injured more than 30. At least seven people have been killed in one of Russia's largest overnight attacks on Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022, targeting its neighbour with more than 600 drones and 47 missiles, according to Ukraine's Armed Forces. 30 locations across Ukraine were struck from either direct hits or from falling debris, while 610 of the aerial attacks were neutralised, Ukraine's military said. The eastern city of Dnipro was the hardest-hit area, while the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Kyiv were also hit. Dnipro's military administration said the city was subjected to a more than 10-hour Russian attack, "The Russians have been hitting Dnipro and other cities and communities practically all night,” Dnipropetrovsk governor Oleksandr Hanzha said. At least five peopl...

  Trump later suggests that next talks will be over phone, saying ‘If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!’ United States President Donald Trump has announced that his envoys would not be travelling to Pakistan for talks with Iranian officials after Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left the country. The US president told news outlet Fox News that he had ordered Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to ditch plans to visit the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for the possible  talks , despite his earlier claims that Iran was “making an offer” aimed at resolving the two-month conflict. “I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing,” Trump said. In any case, Araghchi had already departed Islamabad, the first destination of a three-leg tour including Oman and Russia. Iran’s state-run Press TV confirmed he le...

  The war may have benefitted Iran’s regime politically, at least for the moment, despite the assassinations of senior figures and heavy U.S.-Israeli bombing. President Donald Trump has pushed to bring the war with Iran to a speedy end: He stepped up bombing raids.  He threatened to wipe out infrastructure.  He has attempted diplomacy and ordered a naval blockade. But Tehran is in no rush to cut a deal. Despite the assassinations of its leaders and the damage to an array of military sites, Iran’s regime seems to have benefitted politically from the attacks started by the U.S. and Israel, according to a Western diplomat with knowledge of the conflict and five Western officials, all with knowledge of intelligence assessments on Iran. The regime is, improbably, more stable now than before the war and slightly more hard line, five of the officials said. The mass anti-government protests that rocked the country  in the weeks before the war have, at this time, receded. The...