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Year: 2025

US PGA Championship 2025: Scottie Scheffler wins third major title

US PGA Championship 2025: Scottie Scheffler wins third major title

World number one Scottie Scheffler outlasts a final round challenge from Jon Rahm to record a five-stroke victory in golf’s second major of the year. Scottie Scheffler held off a spirited effort by Spain’s Jon Rahm to secure a five-shot PGA Championship victory at Quail Hollow Club for his third career major title. The top-ranked Scheffler, who was three shots clear of Swede Alex Noren at the start of the day, struggled off the tee early on Sunday but righted the ship in time for the back nine to card an even-par 71 that left him at 11 under for the week. “I knew it was going to be a challenging day, finishing off a major championship is always challenging,” Scheffler said on the 18th green after being presented with the Wanamaker Trophy. “I didn’t have my best stuff … but stepped it up on the back nine.” Ryder Cup hopeful Harris English, who began his day 11 shots adrift, shot a 65 that was the low round of the day and finished in a distant share of second place alongside fellow Americans Bryson DeChambeau (70) and Davis Riley (72). Twice major champion Rahm (73) gave Scheffler a scare early on the back nine but came apart in stunning fashion with five dropped shots over his final three holes to slide back into a share of eighth place. Advertisement Rahm, who began the day five shots back of the lead and playing two groups ahead of Scheffler, took a while to get going in the final round but found his groove right in time to set up some back-nine drama at Quail Hollow Club. The Spaniard joined Scheffler atop the leaderboard when, at the par-four 11th, he made his third birdie over a four-hole stretch, but Scheffler reclaimed the outright lead with a 9-foot birdie at the 10th moments later. Rahm nearly answered right back, but his perfectly paced 19-foot birdie attempt at the par-three 13th curled around and out of the cup before going on to misread birdie putts at the next two holes, followed by his brutal closing stretch. Jon Rahm, of Spain, reacts after missing a putt on the 16th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship [George Walker IV/AP] Scheffler added birdies at 14 and 15 and then saw his lead suddenly grow to five over JT Poston after Rahm made double-bogey at the par-three 17th, where he blasted his tee shot into the water. “It’s a tough pill to swallow right now,” said Rahm. “Pretty fresh wound right now. But there’s been a lot of good happening this week and a lot of positive feelings to take for the rest of the year.” US Open champion DeChambeau, who finished runner-up at last year’s PGA Championship, was driving the ball and giving himself chances, but struggled on the greens. “I felt like I had the game to win this week, and the golf course suited me pretty well, missed a few putts coming down the stretch and got a little unlucky in this great game of golf,” said DeChambeau. Advertisement “It was a good fight, good battle, take a lot from it. It’s just burning a bigger fire in my belly.” Noren, playing alongside Scheffler and alone in second place to start the day, stayed in the mix until his round unravelled with a trio of bogeys early on the back nine. Scheffler took home a $3.42m top prize from a record $19m purse. Scheffler plays a shot from the bunker on the 14th hole during the final round of the PGA Championship [Andrew Redington/Getty Images via AFP] Adblock test (Why?)

Israel to allow limited food into Gaza amid intensified military offensive

Israel to allow limited food into Gaza amid intensified military offensive

Israel has said it will allow limited supplies of food into Gaza as it announced the launch of an intensified ground offensive into the battered Palestinian enclave. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that pressure from allies was behind the move. Late the previous evening, his office had said Israel would open the way for some food to enter the Gaza Strip following a “recommendation” from the army. The announcement came shortly after the Israeli military launched “extensive ground operations” that are reported to have killed more than 150 people in the last 24 hours. “Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement late on Sunday. Pressure from allies The announcement comes amid mounting international pressure on Israel to lift a two-month-long siege that threatens widespread famine in the besieged territory. Netanyahu said in a video address on Monday that the move came after “allies” had voiced concern about “images of hunger”. Advertisement Israel’s “greatest friends in the world”, he said without mentioning specific countries, had said there is “one thing we cannot stand. We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you.” “Therefore, to achieve victory, we need to somehow solve the problem,” Netanyahu said. The aid that would be let into Gaza would be “minimal”, he said, without specifying precisely when supplies would resume. A spokesperson for the United Nations aid chief, Tom Fletcher, confirmed the agency had been approached by Israel to “resume limited aid delivery”, adding that discussions are ongoing about the logistics, “given the conditions on the ground”. Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said Palestinian authorities had not been informed when the border would be opened, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. Netanyahu’s far-right allies remain opposed to allowing any supplies into Gaza, insisting that military might and hunger will secure victory over Hamas. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir described the decision to allow limited food into the enclave as a “grave mistake”. Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, from Ben-Gvir’s party, denounced the plan as a “tragedy”, saying it directly harms the “war effort to achieve victory” in Gaza. Israel has been accused of weaponising hunger and using the blockade to try to ethnically cleanse the enclave. Despite the blockade and intensified military offensive, sources on both sides told the Reuters news agency there has been no progress in a new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar. Advertisement Netanyahu said the talks included discussions on a truce and a deal on the captives, as well as a proposal to end the war, in return for the exile of Hamas and the demilitarisation of the enclave – terms Hamas has previously rejected. The Israeli military suggested in a later statement that it could still scale down operations to help reach a deal in Doha, Qatar. However, Netanyahu stressed in his video address that the aim of the intensified offensive is for Israel’s forces to “take control of all” of Gaza. “The fighting is intense and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the Strip,” he said. “We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped.” Over the past week, Israel’s military said it had conducted a preliminary wave of strikes on more than 670 Hamas targets in Gaza. It said it killed dozens of Hamas fighters. Gaza’s Health Ministry said in the week to Sunday, at least 464 Palestinians were killed, many of them women and children. On Monday morning, sources told Al Jazeera that at least 23 Palestinians had been killed across Gaza since dawn, including five near al-Faluja market in Jabalia and six in Khan Younis. There have also been reports of Israeli attacks in and around Nasser Medical Complex, and the targeting of the intensive care unit at the Indonesian Hospital, where at least 55 people are trapped, including four doctors and eight nurses. Adblock test (Why?)

Trump-Putin call: What’s holding up a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire?

Trump-Putin call: What’s holding up a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire?

United States President Donald Trump has said he will speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. His announcement came a day after direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, hosted by Turkiye, ended inconclusively. Before Trump’s call with Putin, European leaders spoke to the US president and voiced their hopes that Putin would accept a ceasefire. Trump said he also plans to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after talking to Putin. Here is where talks on a potential ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow stand, more than three years after Russia launched a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. What did Trump say? In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that he would speak to Putin on a call at 10am (14:00 GMT). “THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE ‘BLOODBATH’ THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,” Trump said in the post. He added that, after speaking to Putin, he would also speak to Zelenskyy and various NATO members. Advertisement “A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END. GOD BLESS US ALL!!!” What happened during the Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul? On Friday, Turkiye hosted direct talks between Russia and Ukraine for the first time since the early days of the war in 2022 in Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace. Proposed by Putin, the talks were originally scheduled for May 15 but were deferred by a day. In advance of the talks, Zelenskyy had announced that he would personally attend the talks if Putin also joined the meeting. However, on May 14, the Kremlin announced that Putin would not attend, and instead announced a negotiating team led by a former culture minister who had also headed previous Russian delegations in unsuccessful talks on the war in Ukraine. In response, Zelenskyy, who was in Ankara, where he met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appointed his defence minister to lead the Ukrainian delegation. The talks were ultimately held on Friday, but failed to yield any breakthrough on a ceasefire. However, the two sides reached a prisoner exchange deal. Representatives from both sides confirmed that each country had agreed to release 1,000 prisoners of war. The leader of the Russian delegation and adviser to Putin, Vladimir Medinsky, said the swap would take place “in the coming days”. The two teams also discussed a potential meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, whose legitimacy as Ukraine’s leader has frequently been questioned by the Russian president. Advertisement What is holding up a ceasefire? Zelenskyy said Putin’s empty seat at the negotiating table kept a ceasefire agreement from taking shape since Russia was represented by a low-level delegation of officials who could not make decisions. But while the Ukrainian leader was critical of Putin, Trump appeared empathetic. At a news conference in Doha, Qatar, on the second leg of his Middle East trip last week, Trump suggested it was unrealistic to have expected Putin to attend the talks unless the US president attended too. He doubled down on that view hours later. “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters on Thursday on board Air Force One flight to the United Arab Emirates, where the US president visited after Qatar. “Everyone could see that the Russian delegation in Istanbul was of a very low level. None of them were people who actually make decisions in Russia. Still, I sent our team,” Zelenskyy wrote in an X post on Friday after the talks in Turkiye concluded. What is each side saying? Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that Putin would speak with Trump on Monday. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome on Sunday, on the margins of Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass. “We discussed negotiations in Istanbul to where the Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers,” Zelenskyy wrote in another X post. “I reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible.” Advertisement On Friday, after the talks, Zelenskyy wrote on X: “President Trump wants to end this war. We need to keep working closely with him and stay as coordinated as possible.” He also said long-term US support is essential. Ukraine is calling for an unconditional, 30-day ceasefire. Russia, however, has raised concerns that Ukraine might use such a truce to rearm and mobilise more troops. What is Europe saying? In advance of Trump’s call with Putin, leaders of the United Kingdom, the US, Italy, France and Germany discussed the war in Ukraine, a spokesperson representing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said on Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in an X post that the conversation, which took place on Sunday, was between him, Trump, Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “Tomorrow, President Putin must show he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe,” Macron wrote. In an X post, Merz echoed Macron’s sentiments that Putin must accept the ceasefire proposal. “We want to continue this exchange today,” he wrote. In an X post, Meloni said Moscow ought to “seriously engage” through direct contact. What is the state of the war? On Sunday, Russia launched its largest drone attack since the beginning of the war, Ukraine said, killing at least one woman. The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 273 drones on Sunday morning. Later on Sunday, Kyiv’s intelligence service claimed that it believed Russia planned to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile to intimidate the West. It was not clear if it actually happened. Moscow has not yet responded to these allegations. Advertisement Trump had pledged to bring a swift end to the war. And starting in February this year, representatives

Obama reacts to Biden diagnosis: ‘Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer…than Joe’

Obama reacts to Biden diagnosis: ‘Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer…than Joe’

Former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton, and President Donald Trump have each commented on the grim news of President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis. “Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery,” Obama noted in posts on social media. Biden served as vice president during Obama’s White House tenure from early 2009 through early 2017. JOE BIDEN DIAGNOSED WITH ‘AGGRESSIVE FORM’ OF PROSTATE CANCER WITH METASTASIS TO THE BONE He was diagnosed with prostate cancer last week, according to a statement his personal office released on Sunday. “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone. While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” the statement noted. President Donald Trump also commented on the news. POLITICAL WORLD REACTS TO FORMER PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ‘AGGRESSIVE’ CANCER DIAGNOSIS: ‘INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT’ “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” he noted in a post on Truth Social.  The Clintons both commented as well. “My friend Joe Biden’s always been a fighter. Hillary and I are rooting for him and are keeping him, Jill, and the entire family in our thoughts,” former President Bill Clinton noted. “I’m thinking of the Bidens as they take on cancer, a disease they’ve done so much to try to spare other families from. Wishing you a speedy, full recovery,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, said in social media posts. BIDEN BATTLING ‘MOST AGGRESSIVE TYPE’ OF PROSTATE CANCER WITH BONE METASTASIS, MEDICAL EXPERT SAYS Biden, who left office earlier this year on Jan. 20, is 82 years old.  Fox News’ Peter Doocy contributed to this report