Lionel Messi gave a dazzling final performance for Argentina before bidding farewell to the national team in tears after a friendly against Benin in Buenos Aires.

Lionel MessiArgentinainternational farewellfootball

Lionel Messi made his final appearance for Argentina in Buenos Aires, scoring the last of his 126 international goals as the team beat Benin 3-0 in a friendly. The 39-year-old also set up two goals before converting a penalty in the 71st minute. In an emotional farewell, he said leaving the shirt would be deeply painful, as fans honoured him with a drone display.

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Lionel Messi made his final international appearance on Tuesday, scoring as Argentina defeated Benin 3-0 at Buenos Aires’ Monumental Stadium. Some 85,000 supporters marked the farewell to a career that delivered Argentina its long-awaited 2022 World Cup triumph.

Lionel MessiArgentinainternational footballfarewell match

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has scheduled a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible plague case at a research institute in Siberia.

Donald TrumpVladimir PutinRussiaplague

Explosions were seen near Aden International Airport after Yemen’s Saudi-backed government said Houthi forces had fired two missiles. No casualties were reported.

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Two missiles fired by Iran-aligned Houthi forces targeted the international airport in Aden, Yemen’s southern port city, early Wednesday, according to the Aden security department’s media office. No casualties were reported.

HouthisYemenAdenmissile attack

French pro-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan removed the Israeli and EU flags from an exhibition commemorating victims of Hamas’s 7 October terrorist attack, provoking outrage among fellow lawmakers. She could be suspended from receiving her daily allowance.

European ParliamentRima HassanIsraeli flag

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would speak “very soon” with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the reported plague death of a laboratory technician. Washington and the World Health Organization are pressing Moscow for greater transparency and clarification of conflicting accounts surrounding the incident in Siberia.

Donald TrumpVladimir PutinRussiaplague

President Donald Trump said he plans to speak with Vladimir Putin about a possible pneumonic plague case in Russia. The death of a staffer at an anti-plague laboratory has raised global public health concerns, while the U.S. has said it was willing to help.

Donald TrumpVladimir PutinRussiapneumonic plague

US President Donald Trump said he expects to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon. Asked at the White House whether he had already spoken with Putin, Trump said a call was scheduled and would take place “very soon.”

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Venezuela’s second-largest refinery, Cardon, has been halted after a fire broke out at one of its units, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

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Australia’s High Court has rejected MACH Energy’s appeal and upheld the decision overturning the proposed expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine in Muswellbrook. A majority ruled that planners had to consider greenhouse gas emissions from coal exported and burned overseas, a decision advocates say creates a national precedent for fossil fuel projects in New South Wales.

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US soldiers stationed in Japan’s Okinawa have been placed under a month-long curfew and barred from drinking alcohol while undergoing discipline training after a Marine was alleged to have murdered and robbed a local woman.

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Protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in Tokyo after a US Marine was arrested over the killing of a 39-year-old woman in Okinawa. The angry demonstrations have renewed calls to reduce the US military footprint on the island.

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An American Marine was taken into custody this week amid allegations that a woman in Okinawa was robbed and killed. The case has spread anger across the island and sharpened long-running friction over U.S. military bases; residents say the installations bring noise, pollution and violent crime targeting women.

OkinawaU.S. Marinealleged murdermilitary bases

Nearly 20 commercial vessels, most of them tankers, have been attacked over the past month while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf or waters off Oman. The attacks by Iran threaten a fragile rebound in oil exports.

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Iran has stepped up attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, as oil shipments through the world’s most important energy chokepoint near prewar levels.

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Oman’s Defense Ministry said its Royal Air Force evacuated 10 crew members from the Panama-flagged commercial vessel On Peace after it was attacked northeast of Lima off Musandam. The attack started a fire, and the injured seafarers were taken to a hospital in Khasab. India said a projectile struck the ship in the Strait of Hormuz, injuring 12 of its 19 crew members, 11 of them Indian nationals.

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Nearly 20 commercial vessels, most of them tankers, have been attacked over the past month while passing through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint. The recovery in oil exports through the route remains vulnerable to intensified Iranian attacks on tankers.

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President Trump signed an executive order intended to lower diesel prices by easing restrictions on red-dye diesel. NBC News’ Brian Cheung explains the order’s provisions and what they could mean for Americans.

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Donald Trump’s remark that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego has drawn fierce criticism from California leaders. Gavin Newsom called it “deranged and dangerous”, while the White House said Trump was warning that the cities would have faced a nuclear threat if Iran had not been stopped.

Donald TrumpCaliforniaIrannational security

US President Donald Trump told supporters in Nebraska that Iran could “take out” a major US city such as Los Angeles or San Diego, prompting swift condemnation from California Democratic leaders and some Republicans. Governor Gavin Newsom called the remarks “deranged and dangerous,” while both mayors rejected the idea that their cities could be treated as collateral damage.

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NBC News has obtained a first look at 298 gold bars seized from CIA officer David Rush’s home, along with stacks of cash and luxury watches. Rush has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

David RushCIAwire fraud

Former CIA officer David Rush has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme that prosecutors say defrauded the US government of about $200m through fake contracts and luxury real estate deals. He also admitted giving top-secret information to an unauthorised foreign official and revealing details of a clandestine human source. Investigators found 298 gold bars, $2m in cash and 35 luxury watches at his home.

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SpaceX plans to raise $40 billion in financing led by asset manager Apollo Global Management to purchase Nvidia AI chips, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

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Yemeni forces claim they have strengthened their control over the highest peak in Taiz’s Jabal Habashi district.

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Two days after Yemen’s internationally recognised government announced its counter-offensive, its forces have retaken territory from the Houthis near the Bab al-Mandeb strait. But the analysis says territorial gains alone will not alter the war’s course: success depends on cohesion among government forces and sustained pressure across the western coast, Taiz and Marib to keep the Houthis overstretched.

Yemen warHouthismilitary offensiveBab al-Mandeb