Austria’s Baumgartner scores fastest-ever international goal | Football News

Baumgartner unleashed a 25-metre shot past the goalkeeper after six seconds to break the record for the fastest goal.

Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner has broken the record for the fastest-ever international goal by slotting home against Slovakia inside seven seconds.

Baumgartner, 24, went into the record books during a friendly match in Bratislava on Saturday.

The Leipzig attacker drove through the home defence from kickoff before unleashing a 25-metre (82-feet) shot past Martin Dubravka in goal.

“We’ve done this variation before, sprinting from kickoff at full risk. The sequence of steps somehow worked out so that I made the run,” Baumgartner told Austrian public broadcaster ORF after the game which his team won 2-0.

“Of course it’s really cool, I’m very happy. The fact that I hit it like that… it’s of course sensational.”

The Austrian FA described Baumgartner’s effort as the fastest goal in the history of international football.

Baumgartner’s strike broke the record of the seven seconds it took Lukas Podolski to score for Germany against Ecuador in 2013.

“Of course we got off to a really good start, that goal by itself was probably worth the price of admission,” said Austria coach Ralf Rangnick.

Meanwhile, later Saturday, Germany’s Florian Wirtz scored a goal inside seven seconds fast against France in a friendly in Lyon which Germany won 2-0.

The Leverkusen player beat goalkeeper Brice Samba with a superb shot under the crossbar.

“I don’t think anyone understood or realised what was happening. We were all quite surprised, but there was obviously a lot of joy,” Wirtz told German broadcaster ZDF after his first international goal.

“You can’t start a match any better.”

The fastest goal scored in a World Cup was by Turkey’s Hakan Sukur against South Korea in 2002 after 11 seconds.



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Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz wins F1 Australian GP after Verstappen retires | Motorsports News

Sainz finished ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc after Red Bull’s Verstappen retired on the fourth lap with engine fire.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has ended Red Bull’s Formula 1 winning streak by winning the Australian Grand Prix in a triumphant return to the circuit two weeks after appendicitis surgery, which kept him out of the previous race in Saudi Arabia.

The Spaniard took advantage of Verstappen’s early retirement – his first in two years – due to a fiery mechanical failure.

Sainz, who started on the front row alongside Verstappen, kept his place into turn one but passed the Dutchman on lap two at turn nine for the lead and took control once his rival retired two laps later with a fiery mechanical failure.

Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last season.

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz of Spain steers his car into pit lane as his teammates celebrate after winning the Australian Grand Prix [Scott Barbour/AP]

In Melbourne, he held off teammate Charles Leclerc before a final-lap crash by Mercedes driver George Russell triggered a virtual safety car and eased the Spaniard’s path to victory.

“It was a really good race. I felt really good out there,” said a thrilled Sainz.

“Of course a bit stiff and especially physically it wasn’t the easiest but I was lucky that I was more or less on my own and I could manage my pace, manage the tyres, manage everything, and it wasn’t the toughest race of all.

“But very happy, very proud of the team, and happy to be in a one-two with Charles here.”

Lando Norris was third for McLaren, thwarting fourth-placed teammate Oscar Piastri’s hopes of a first podium by an Australian driver at the F1 race.

Verstappen, the winner in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, started on pole for the third time this season but retired on the fourth lap with a brake problem as flames leapt out of the right rear of his car. He was on a nine-race winning streak.

It was Verstappen’s first Did Not Finish (DNF) since retiring from Albert Park in the 2022 race and ended his run of nine successive race wins.

Verstappen said he was basically driving with the handbrake on from the start.

“That’s why already it felt the car was really weird to drive in some corners. It was just very snappy,” said the Dutchman.

Red Bull have now suffered two defeats in 26 races dating back to the last round of 2022.

Mechanics work to extinguish a fire in Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s car [Scott Barbour/AP]

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was also forced to retire early with a power unit problem after starting 11th on the grid following his worst Melbourne qualifying since 2010.

His teammate Russell completed a dismal day for the Silver Arrows by skidding into gravel at turn six and crashing into the barrier to wreck his car and bring out the virtual safety car.

Sergio Perez finished fifth for Red Bull, one ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who started 10th on the grid and edged seventh-placed teammate Lance Stroll.

Alonso was later summoned to the stewards over Russell’s crash.



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Senegal’s women voters could make a miracle happen in presidential election | Elections News

Popenguine-Ndayane is home to me.

This small fishing village on the Atlantic coast some 100km (62 miles) from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, is a site of pilgrimage for the country’s Christian minority.

For the past 135 years, pilgrims – including the pope – have travelled here to pray at a site where they say the Black Madonna appeared.

Some believe miracles happen in this village.

It is a place where the sick come to be cured.

Politicians also come here to get elected.

Their campaigns arrive with blaring mbalax music – the popular dance tunes of Senegal – free T-shirts, and sometimes handfuls of cash and a promise that if you “vote for us, your despair will turn to hope”.

“Politicians think they can make miracles,” one of my neighbours tells me with a hint of irony.

Senegalese voters are not duped though.

Voters gather in Popenguine-Ndayane in the days leading up to Senegal’s election [Nicolas Haque/Al Jazeera]

Macky Sall’s announcement

Voting is a tradition that precedes French colonial rule in Senegal: From the poet-President Leopold Sedar Senghor down to the current presidency of Macky Sall, there have only ever been peaceful transitions of power.

That is a source of pride for Senegal, which is surrounded by countries ruled by military governments. Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali – one after the other – the former French colonies in West Africa that became democracies are falling; a domino effect that has spared this small coastal nation of approximately 17 million.

Situated on the most westerly tip of Africa, Senegal remains standing as a bastion of democracy.

But then came that Saturday afternoon in early February when, just hours before the presidential election campaign was scheduled to kick off, journalists were told the president would address the nation.

Sensing trouble, colleagues called me. We were incredulous as we waited. We watched an old man play a traditional instrument until the president was ready to make his address.

Hours had passed. It seemed like a bad omen, or perhaps a distraction.

Then the national anthem played and President Sall appeared.

A colleague, her husband, and an entire nation – including the family dog – stood still in silence, ears alert and listening as the president made history for all the wrong reasons.

He was cancelling the presidential elections, and by doing so, he was also throwing Senegal into uncertainty.

‘Orchestrating a constitutional coup’

The president claimed that the process by which the list of election candidates was drawn up by the country’s constitutional council was flawed. Judges from the council, he continued, were suspected of taking bribes to eliminate candidates from running in the election, thus putting into doubt the outcome of the vote.

Some sighed in resignation. Others burst into fits of anger. Our family dog barked with rage.

Nicolas Haque in Popenguine-Ndayane [Courtesy of Nicolas Haque]

We had seen it coming, though.

Months before the polls, Sall – always a shrewd politician – had left his intention ambiguous as to whether he would run for a third mandate as president.

Julie Sagna watched Sall’s speech at home.

At the age of 32, she had never taken the time to vote. But when members of Senegal’s security forces stormed the National Assembly, throwing members of the opposition out, she knew that she was being robbed of a fundamental right that she had long taken for granted.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

“The president is orchestrating a constitutional coup to extend his time in power!”

Sagna took to TikTok to fight back. Others clashed with security forces.

After political manoeuvres and street protests, the Constitutional Council stepped in, announcing a new election date of March 24.

That shortened the campaigning period to two weeks, but scheduled the vote to be held before Sall’s mandate as president ended on April 2.

Campaigning

Meanwhile, Sall, seeing his reputation crumble on the international scene, signed an amnesty bill to free what human rights groups describe as political prisoners. Thousands were released, including opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his deputy Bassirou Diomaye Faye – the election candidate representing the banned political party PASTEF.

But the campaign had started without him.

Getting a head start in canvassing voters was the governing party’s candidate and former prime minister, Amadou Ba.

Ba crisscrossed the nation with a throng of bodyguards and with the well-oiled machine of the state apparatus to support him. Several reputable PR firms from the West were also tasked with making him appear a man of the people, ready to deliver stability.

A former tax inspector who became prime minister, Ba is an experienced civil servant. But he has never been elected to office. During the 2022 parliamentary elections, he lost to the banned PASTEF party’s candidate in his home district of Parcelles Assainies. Yet, despite that defeat, he is the candidate of choice of President Sall.

Described by his critics as the “billionaire civil servant” – billions in local West African CFA franc currency, that is – the opposition accuse Ba of being another corrupt politician trying to make a buck by becoming president.

Ba’s former employee – and also a tax inspector –  Bassirou Diomaye Faye is running against him after his recent release from prison.

During a weeklong campaign supported by opposition figure Ousmane Sonko, Faye has gone from unknown contender to political stardom. He was seen on top of a car, waving a traditional broom – symbolising his intent to sweep the country clean of corruption and also sweep to victory. As the anti-establishment candidate, Faye is calling for an overhaul of the political system.

For many young people, including Julie Sagna, Faye is a break with the past that young people feel they need to move the country forward.

Supporters cheer as Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko holds a joint news conference with the presidential candidate he is backing in the March 24 election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a day after they were released from prison, in Dakar, Senegal on March 15, 2024 [Zohra Bensemra/Reuters]

Where elections are won

In Mbour – located not far from the pilgrimage village of Popenguine-Ndayane ­– Faye held his final campaign rally in front of a raucous crowd.

Among those who attended, many were young men. It is uncertain whether they will come out to vote in the election on Sunday. Many do not have voter registration cards.

Missing from Faye’s rallies was a key demographic: Senegalese women from the countryside.

Their vote can tip the outcome.

“It is away from the bustle of the capital or the blaring caravans of candidates, deep in the countryside beneath the village tree that elections are won in Senegal,” a traditional village healer tells me.

In Popenguine-Ndayane there is talk among the local women of a country they feel is no longer their own. A record number of mostly young Senegalese men travelled to Europe illegally in 2023. They went in search of work despite a booming economy at home. The mothers and sisters of Popenguine-Ndayane do not want to see their sons and brothers leave.

Like the Black Madonna that pilgrims come to venerate here, Senegal’s women can also make miracles happen at election time.

But, more than the free T-shirts and cash given to win their votes, what they want to see most of all is certainty in times of uncertainty.

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Watch: Famous landmarks around the world power down for Earth Hour.

Famous landmarks around the world switched off their lights for an hour on Saturday night as part of an environmental awareness campaign, Earth Hour.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, Rome’s Colosseum and the Parthenon in Athens were all used in the switch-off.

New Delhi’s Akshardham temple, the Sydney Opera House and the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona also joined in.

Earth Hour is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature and it encourages people to turn off their lights for 60 minutes to raise awareness of environmental issues.

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Moscow attack: Putin says all four suspects arrested after 133 killed at concert hall

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Mr Putin of seeking to “blame” Ukraine for the attack. “This worthless Putin, instead of dealing with his citizens of Russia, addressing them, remained silent for a day – thinking how to bring this to Ukraine,” he said in his nightly address.

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K-pop: How jealous ‘super fans’ try to dictate their idols’ private lives

Agencies have also begun creating social apps for their artists which appear to offer fans a glimpse of their idols’ everyday lives. SM, the K-pop-producing powerhouse behind groups like aespa, introduced an app in 2020 designed to look like a one-on-one messenger app, but is in fact a group chat where the idol drops messages for thousands of fans at once.

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At least 19 reported killed as Israeli forces fire on Gaza aid seekers | Israel War on Gaza News

Authorities in Gaza said 23 people were also injured while waiting for bags of flour and aid near Kuwait Roundabout.

At least 19 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack targeting civilians who were waiting for aid southeast of Gaza City, Gaza’s Ministry of Health and its Media Office said.

“The Israeli occupation commits a massacre, killing 19 and injuring 23 civilians while thousands of citizens were waiting for flour and aid near Al-Kuwait roundabout,” Gaza’s media office said in a statement on Saturday.

It said that the Israeli army and tanks opened fire with machine guns “towards the hungry people who were waiting for bags of flour and aid in a place far from posing any danger to the occupation”.

Mahmud Basal, the spokesman for the Civil Defence Department in Gaza, said there had been “heavy shooting at civilians” and victims had been transported to a nearby Ahli Arab Hospital.

But with Gaza’s healthcare system at near collapse, many were treated outside in the open air.

“There were very serious injuries, some of whom were injured by shrapnel. The reality is tragic, difficult and challenging,” he said.

Alaa al-Khudary, a witness at the scene, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli forces shot at the crowd, leaving “many dead” and leaving others injured while they tried to get “a bite to eat” for their children.

Palestinians wounded in the attack were taken to Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City [Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency]

Looming famine

Half of Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing “catastrophic” hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory by May unless there is urgent intervention, a United Nations-backed food assessment warned on Monday.

But aid distribution has become increasingly dangerous and sometimes lethal.

Last Tuesday, 23 Palestinians were killed, and several others were injured by Israeli bombing that targeted Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid in the northern Gaza Strip.

On February 29, Israeli forces opened fire on hundreds of Palestinians as they gathered south of Gaza City waiting to receive humanitarian aid in what is known as the “flour massacre”, leaving 118 dead and 760 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday during a visit to the Rafah crossing that the line of blocked aid trucks stuck on Egypt’s side of the border with the Gaza Strip while Palestinians face starvation on the other side is a “moral outrage”.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, said the latest shooting is part of a “clear, systematic policy that Israel has been using in the course of the past few months”.

He said the Israeli forces have been imposing restrictions on aid deliveries to the north of the enclave while also attacking people who attempt to reach humanitarian aid convoys.

He said that people in Gaza, despite the risks, continue to wait for the convoys as they are “hungry, dehydrated, and they want to return back to their families with something to break the fast“.

Volunteers distribute rations of red lentil soup to displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 18, 2024 [Said Khatib/AFP]

Reports of shooting ‘are incorrect’: Israel

The Israeli army denied it had fired on the crowd.

“The reports claiming that the [Israeli military] attacked dozens of Gazans at an aid convoy are incorrect,” an army statement said.

“Preliminary findings have determined that there was no aerial strike against the convoy, nor were there incidents found of [Israeli] forces firing at the people at the aid convoy.”

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Can the UN Security Council agree on a ceasefire resolution for Gaza? | Israel War on Gaza News

Members reject text drafted by the US in advance of another vote.

The United Nations Security Council has failed to pass a United States-drafted resolution recognising the need for a ceasefire in Gaza.

It was the first time the Americans had used such strong language, but it was not enough for Russia, China and Algeria.

They rejected the text because it did not demand an immediate ceasefire and because it tied any pause in hostilities to the release of all Israeli captives.

Another draft is due to be tabled on Monday, this time with stronger language.

But can Council members overcome their entrenched positions and internal politics to reach an agreement?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Francis J Riccardione – Former US ambassador to Egypt and Turkey.

Hussein Haridi – Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister and a former ambassador.

Hanan Ashrawi – Member of the Palestine Legislative Council.

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