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Last-Gasp Goal Hands Israel Stunning 1-0 Victory Over Belgium, First Win of Nations League Campaign
Soccer Football – UEFA Nations League – Group Stage – Israel v Belgium – Bozsik Arena, Budapest, Hungary – Nov. 17, 2024, Belgium’s Zeno Debast in action with Israel’s Dean David. Photo: REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
Israel debutant Yarden Shua scored an 86th-minute winner as his team upset favored Belgium 1-0 in Budapest on Sunday, but it was not enough for them to avoid relegation from the Nations League‘s top tier.
Shua, who had come on as a second-half substitute, took advantage of a defensive mistake from Matte Smets to earn Israel their first win in Group A2, moving them level on four points with third-placed Belgium in the final standings.
Belgium, however, avoided finishing bottom due to a better head-to-head record after beating Israel 3-1 in September.
The result will heap more pressure onto beleaguered Belgian coach Domenico Tedesco while Israel will be delighted with four points from their last two matches after holding France to a goalless draw in Paris on Thursday.
Shua’s goal came after Smets, who was also on as a substitute for his first cap, fluffed a pass across the face of his own penalty area that was pounced upon by Dia Saba. While his effort was blocked, the 25-year-old Shua snapped up the loose ball to fire home.
Israel struck the woodwork twice in the first half and will feel they merited the win for their dogged showing, even if Belgium dominated possession at a fog-filled Bozsik Arena in the Hungarian capital, where Israel has hosted all its Nations League matches because of the security situation in the country.
Belgium finished the group with a single victory and has won twice in its last 10 outings. It is a sequence of results that has seen Tedesco’s future as Belgium coach come under scrutiny.
Belgium fielded a team on Sunday stripped of many of its top players, with injury ruling out top scorer Romelu Lukaku and Premier League midfielders Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans while Kevin De Bruyne was given time off from the team.
The injury woes continued when Leandro Trossard hobbled out of Sunday’s match in the first half.
Belgium dominated the early exchanges but were afforded little room to maneuver by a strong Israeli defense.
Israel did not get its first chance until midway through the first half but when it did arrive, the team was unlucky not to take the lead.
Captain Eli Dasa hit Manor Solomon’s pass on the half volley and saw his rasping effort rebound back into play off the post.
A minute before the break Din David hit the crossbar from a tight angle with a powerful shot as Israel served notice of their potential to grab the win.
The post Last-Gasp Goal Hands Israel Stunning 1-0 Victory Over Belgium, First Win of Nations League Campaign first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.