RIYADH: Al-Nassr were mere seconds from securing the Saudi Pro League title for the first time since 2019 when their moment of glory was snatched away in dramatic fashion. With his team protecting a 1-0 lead in a tense and chaotic Capital Derby, and the home crowd at Al-Awwal Park poised to erupt into celebration, goalkeeper Bento failed to claim a long Al-Hilal throw into the area in the ninth minute of stoppage time and fumbled the ball into his own net, thereby ensuring any celebrations would have to be delayed until the final day of the season.

OAKLAND, United States: Elon Musk was obsessed with trying to control OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company’s CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday at a blockbuster trial that saw him spar with lawyers representing the world’s wealthiest man. Altman is the latest in a parade of Silicon Valley megastars to take the stand in the case in which Musk is suing over OpenAI’s pivot away from scrappy non-profit into the $850 billion juggernaut behind ChatGPT.

BEIJING: China’s top diplomat urged Pakistan to step up mediation efforts between Iran and the United States, and to help “properly” address the reopening of the Hormuz strait, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in a call on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported. US President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening for talks with leader Xi Jinping, whose country is a key strategic and economic partner of Iran.

BEIJING: It’s a verbal tightrope American presidents have had to walk for nearly 50 years, where even small slip-ups when stating official US policy toward Taiwan and China can trigger geopolitical alarm bells. The way the US views Taiwan under the “One China” policy recognizes the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of China, while still allowing for informal US relations with the self-governing island.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump ‌said on Tuesday that Americans’ financial struggles are not a factor in his decision-making as he seeks to negotiate an end to the Iran war, saying that preventing Tehran ​from acquiring a nuclear weapon is his top priority. Asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ financial situations were motivating him to strike a deal, Trump said: “Not even a little bit.”

ORVAULT, France: At night, silence fell over the Louisiana immigration detention facility where 85-year-old Marie-Thérèse Ross was held. Then the wailing began. ’’Children crying, and even babies,” said Ross, the French widow of a US military veteran, whose arrest last month as part of the Trump administration’s i mmigration crackdown made international headlines.

ABUJA: Nigeria and Morocco expect to sign an intergovernmental agreement in the fourth quarter of 2026 ​to advance a major Atlantic coast gas pipeline project, Nigeria’s foreign ministry said. The planned agreement, to be signed by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, follows preliminary technical studies on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas ‌Pipeline, also known ‌as the African ​Atlantic ‌Gas ⁠Pipeline.

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President  Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan held a phone conversation, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The pair discussed the situation in the region and areas of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.  

Russian forces launched attacks in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday, killing at ​least six people, regional officials said, after the expiry of a US-mediated ceasefire. Ukrainian officials said Russia launched more than 200 drones overnight, putting an end to hopes that the three-day ceasefire that ended Monday would be extended.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s plan to put weapons in space — pitched as a “Golden Dome for America” missile defense program — is estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a 20-year period, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, a far heftier sum than the initial $175 billion price tag he gave last year. The nonpartisan CBO report, published Tuesday, is described as an analysis that reflects “one illustrative approach rather than an estimate of a specific Administration proposal.”