AI-generated 'Fruit Love Island' takes TikTok by storm

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, hours after reporting an "unidentified projectile" launched from the North's capital area the previous day.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has sought to repair ties with North Korea since taking office last year, criticising his predecessor for allegedly sending drones to scatter propaganda over Pyongyang.

The launches follow Seoul's expression of regret on Monday over civilian drone incursions into the North in January, with President Lee calling it "irresponsible" and noting that government officials had been involved in the operation. 

They are seen as North Korea's latest rebuff of South Korea's peace overtures, according to analysts.

Seoul's military said early Wednesday it had detected "an unidentified projectile" launched from the Pyongyang area a day earlier.

About an hour later, the military said it also detected "multiple unidentified ballistic missiles" fired from North Korea's Wonsan area toward the East Sea on Wednesday morning, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

Later the South Korean military clarified they were short-range ballistic missiles, fired at around 8:50 am (23:50 GMT) and flew around 240 kilometres (149 miles).

The launch marked North Korea's fourth known ballistic missile test this year, including a salvo of around 10 fired from the Sunan area in March.

The Office of National Security at the presidential Blue House held an emergency meeting over the launch, asking Pyongyang to immediately stop provocations.

"Given the ongoing war in the Middle East, (the office) instructed relevant agencies to exercise even greater vigilance in maintaining a state of readiness," it said in a statement.

The office also "urged North Korea to immediately cease its ballistic missile launch, deeming it a provocative act that violates UN Security Council resolutions", it added.

Following president Lee's expression of regret over the drones on Monday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Lee's regret was "wise behaviour". 

"Our government appreciated it as very fortunate and wise behaviour for its own sake," Kim Yo Jong said on Monday.

-'World-startling fools'-

But on Tuesday, a senior North Korean foreign ministry official described the South as "the enemy state most hostile" to North Korea, reiterating a label used by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un previously.

Referring to South Korean media reports that cast a positive light on Kim Yo Jong's comments about Lee, the official said such a stance was "nonsense".

"Regarding the rapid response from our government as an 'exceptional friendly response'... this will also be recorded as 'world-startling fools', Jang Kum-chol, first vice-minister of Pyongyang's foreign ministry, said in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

The launches are Pyongyang's message to Seoul that its anti‑South stance remains firm despite Seoul's repeated overtures, said Lim Eul‑chul, an expert on North Korea at Kyungnam University.

"The consecutive firings and recent statements underscore the North's determination to ignore attempts by the South at improving inter‑Korean ties," he said.

US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticised Seoul's level of support for his war in Iran, has recently boasted of his ties with North Korea's leader Kim.

"You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us," Trump said earlier this week.

"We've got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect (them) from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person."

The United States has around 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Trump met Kim three times in his first term and there has been speculation of a re-run when the US president makes his delayed upcoming visit to China.

Perhaps emboldened by Pyongyang's new closeness to Russia, Trump's comment in October that he was "100 percent" open to meeting Kim again went unanswered.

kjk/cdl/fox

President Donald Trump told AFP on Tuesday that the United States had won a "total and complete victory" after agreeing a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran.

"Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it," Trump said in a brief telephone interview shortly after the announcement of the truce.

The US leader would not say whether he would go back to his original threats to lay waste to Iran's civilian power plants and bridges if the deal fell apart.

"You're going to have to see," Trump told AFP.

But Trump said that Iran's enriched uranium would be "perfectly taken care of" under the deal.

The fate of the uranium is a key issue in a war that the US president said was aimed at ensuring the Islamic republic could never get a nuclear weapon.

"That will be perfectly taken care of or I wouldn't have settled," Trump said, without giving any specifics about what would happen to the uranium.

Trump added that he believed China had helped get Iran to the negotiating table to agree a two-week ceasefire deal.

The US president is due to travel to Beijing in May to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

"I hear yes," Trump said when asked if Beijing was involved in getting key ally Tehran to negotiate on a truce.

dk/bgs

Pakistan's solar power push has cushioned the full impact of the war in the Middle East, analysts said, despite lingering concerns over fuel supplies and rising prices.

A study published last month assessed that the uptake of solar around 2018 helped the country avoid more than $12 billion in oil and gas imports up to February this year.

At projected market prices, it could save a further $6.3 billion by the end of 2026, said Renewables First and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

In the bustling side streets of Lahore, in northeast Pakistan, shopkeeper Aftab Ahmed, 49, was out shopping for solar panels to install at home to help him cut costs.

"The current fuel situation in our country is such that fuel has gone beyond the reach of the common person," he told AFP last Friday.

"It has become so expensive that an average person can no longer afford fuel for a motorcycle or a car. Fuel prices are also affecting electricity bills, leading to further increases.

"If we shift towards solar energy, at least some savings can be achieved from one side."

Hours earlier, the government in Islamabad announced an eye-watering 42.7-percent hike in the price of petrol and 54.9 percent on diesel.

That brought protesters onto the streets, sparked queues at fuel stations, and led the government to announce free state-run public transport for a month.

- Boom -

Rooftop solar panels are everywhere in Pakistan, helping to provide uninterrupted power and avoid often lengthy cuts in grid supply, particularly when temperatures soar.

Nabiya Imran, an energy analyst with Renewables First in the capital Islamabad, said they have also helped ease the burden caused by the disruption to shipping in the Gulf.

"Because people in Pakistan have adopted solar over the past several years, this... is providing a cushioning effect against the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, particularly in the power sector," she said.

"Had we not adopted solar in the first place to the extent that we have, the impacts in the power sector would be much worse."

Pakistan's solar surge does not mean it is immune to the supply shortages that have hit countries across Asia.

Last month, the government introduced austerity measures. The working week for public sector employees was cut to four days and schools were shut.

The Pakistan Super League cricket tournament was also cut from six venues to two, and crowds were banned, to save fuel.

But solar has made working from home more viable and affordable for Pakistanis because it cuts reliance on the grid and imported gas.

Market forces have largely driven the uptake, which the study called "one of the fastest consumer-led energy transitions on record".

Unlike western economies, Pakistan did not impose tariffs on Chinese solar technology from 2013 until last year. As a result, imports jumped from 1 gigawatt in 2018 to 51 gigawatts early this year.

Oil and gas price rises after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 also forced consumers to look for alternatives, as did hefty increases in domestic energy tariffs.

Between 2022 and 2024, Pakistan saw a 40-percent drop in oil and gas imports, the study said.

- Security -

The International Energy Agency has estimated that more than 40 million of Pakistan's more than 240 million people do not have access to electricity.

Manzoor Ishtiaq, whose shop in Lahore sells and installs solar panels, believes making the technology affordable for everyone could help.

"There should be a plan that encourages every household to adopt solar energy. This way, both the government and the public will get relief and long-term benefits," he said.

For Renewables First's Nabiya Imran, the Gulf crisis has shown the need for less reliance on fossil fuels and energy security using renewable sources.

She noted that Pakistan spent around 11 percent of its GDP on fossil fuel imports including oil, coal and liquefied natural gas in the 2024 fiscal year.

"That is a big chunk of money to be spending for a country like Pakistan, which could be going towards other aspects of development."

The key now, she added, would be to push take-up of solar battery storage to prevent the use of fossil fuel-powered thermal plants to keep the lights on at peak times. 

Policymakers should also look at the transportation sector to reduce its exposure to global fuel and price shocks and cut emissions through initiatives such as electric vehicles, she added. 

video-phz/mjw/lga

Oil prices plunged Wednesday while stocks rallied after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that will see Tehran temporarily reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.

With Donald Trump's deadline approaching for the Islamic republic to reopen the waterway or face obliteration, he announced a halt to attacks for two weeks and said he had received a "workable" 10-point proposal.

Iran later said it had agreed to safe passage in the Strait, through which a fifth of global oil and gas passes.

The news pushed down crude prices, with West Texas Intermediate losing almost 20 percent and Brent as much as 16 percent as investors heaved a huge sigh of relief after more than five weeks of war that has hammered supplies.

The euphoria sent equities rocketing on hopes the crisis that has shocked the global economy for more than a month will come to an end.

Seoul and Tokyo soared more than five percent, Taipei added nearly four percent, Sydney and Hong Kong more than two percent. Shanghai, Singapore and Wellington were also sharply higher.

Trump had threatened Tuesday that if Hormuz was not reopened, "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again". That came after he vowed to bomb bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure in Iran.

Iran warned it would deprive the United States and its allies of oil and gas "for years" if Washington crossed Tehran's "red lines".

However, as the world counted down to the cutoff, the president took to social media to say: "Subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks."

He added that it "will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!" and that "we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East".

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, which has played a key mediator role, said that the ceasefire would start immediately.

He said that the United States "along with their allies" had agreed to a ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon, implying that Israel had agreed to halt its invasion of its northern neighbour.

The decision also led to a sharp drop in the dollar, which had become the safe-haven while the war raged, with the yen, euro and pound all strengthening.

Gold also rallied around five percent, having been hit by concerns of a sharp rise in inflation that will keep interest rates elevated. Bitcoin rose.

"Unsurprisingly, the initial market reaction has been a positive one, albeit perhaps not as sizeable as one might've expected, largely owing to the grind higher in risk assets seen since the tail end of Tuesday’s cash session," said Michael Brown at Pepperstone. 

"Participants have been desperate for anything resembling good news for some weeks now, and even more desperate to see concrete steps being taken towards de-escalation. 

"Now that we seem able to put a tick in both of those boxes, participants are unsurprisingly willing to significantly take up risk levels once more.

Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management added that the deal "matters enormously for Asia", where several governments have been forced to introduce measures to combat rising energy costs.

"Lower oil prices remove the chokehold that has weighed on regional risk sentiment, especially in markets that feel imported energy shocks first and hardest," he said. 

"With crude backing off, the pressure on inflation expectations and front-end yields eases at the margin, and that is enough to let capital rotate back toward risk, at least for now."

- Key figures at around 0230 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 14.0 percent at $97.12 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 13.2 percent at $94.86 a barrel

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 5.3 percent at 56,270.90

Shanghai - Composite: UP UP 2.9 percent at 25,843.29

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.5 percent at 3,946.47

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1685 from $1.1585 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3413 from $1.3274

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 158.36 yen from 159.70 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.11 pence from 87.28 pence

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 46,584.46 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 10,348.79 (close)

dan/hmn

Donovan Jordan has been as hot as the birthday candles he likely blew out for his 20th birthday on Tuesday. The 349-foot three-run homer he blasted in the third certainly had enough power to blow them out if he didn’t.

Mizzou baseball earned bragging rights over in-state rival Missouri State with a 5-2 win on Tuesday in Columbia. The Tigers have improved to 20-14 on the season.

After not seeing much action to start the season, Jordan got an opportunity in left field and has taken advantage of the chance. He has hit .333 since the first game against Texas A&M, and has had nine hits in the last eight games.

The three-run homer in the third was just his second of his collegiate career. He was trying for this one.

“It was like ‘a birthday bomb wouldn’t be bad,’” Jordan said. “I hit it in the biggest situation of the game.”

It came off of former Mizzou pitcher Brock Lucas, who tossed five innings in the game. Despite walking four, Jordan’s home run was the only hit given up by Lucas.

“I hate playing against people I care about,” Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson said. “Me and him have a very special relationship and, as much as I want to see him do well, I don’t want to see him do well against us. I was torn.”

Two innings before the Tigers took the lead 5-2, they briefly took the lead 2-1 in the first with some two-out hitting. After Kam Durnin started the game with a lead-off walk, the next two batters struck out.

Blaize Ward, coming off of SEC Freshman of the Week honors, blazed a single up the middle to score Durnin and then advanced to second on a throwing error. This put Ward in position to score off of Jase Woita’s single up the middle for a two-run first.

Armed with a lack of control and a strong defense behind him, Jackson Sobel battled his way through his first collegiate start. He walked four, hit two and had two wild pitches. One of the hit-by-pitches in the first and one of the wild pitches in the second brought in runs for the Bears, the latter of which briefly tied the game.

With nine batters reaching in the 2⅔ innings that Sobel was on the mound, it is impressive that only two Bears made it home. The Tigers’ defense fielded four pop ups and a ground out in the first three innings to strand seven on base.

Keyler Gonzalez had all the answers on the mound against the Bears. He came in for the final out of the third inning, stranded two left on by Sobel, then allowed just three runners in the rest of his outing.

“When we recruited him, we knew he was a strike-thrower,” Jackson said. “He knew he was a competitor.”

In by far his best outing at Mizzou this season, Gonzalez tossed a season-high six innings, holding Missouri State scoreless while striking out nine. His stellar performance kept Mizzou in a position to win when the offense went quiet.

Despite protests from Gonzalez, Jackson opted to hand the ball to fellow righty Trey Lawrence for the final out. He thought the adrenaline was getting to him and his pitch count was high.

“I obviously wanted to finish with that guy,” Gonzalez said. “I couldn’t because I already had 90 pitches, but I think (my performance) was great.”

Mizzou next takes the field at 7 p.m. Thursday against South Carolina at Taylor Stadium. The game can be streamed on ESPNU.

In the early 2000s, television viewers first discovered "Malcolm in the Middle," the hilarious tale of a teenager trying to survive the antics of his dysfunctional family.

Twenty-five years later, the "Malcolm" gang is back on Disney+, with nearly all of the original cast including Emmy winner Bryan Cranston -- part of a wave of revivals tapping into a public craving for cozy nostalgia.

The strategy is also a moneymaker for networks and streaming services, as tried-and-true content comes with minimal financial risk -- and often huge fan interest.

From the Trojan War to Superman, "we've been continuing to take characters, universes, dramatic spaces, and repurpose them for a long, long time," says Robert Thompson, a professor of media and pop culture at Syracuse University.

But the trend has soared in the streaming era, because "going back to properties that are already established is one way of avoiding a lot of potential risks in that," Thompson told AFP.

"All of the millions of dollars that were spent marketing, promoting, establishing the brand of those things way back when they were on in the first place -- those bills have already been paid."

Beyond the rebooted "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair," medical sitcom "Scrubs" -- which originally ran from 2001 to 2010 -- returned to ABC and Hulu early this year, with most of the original cast including Zach Braff and Donald Faison.

In July, Amazon's Prime Video will debut "Elle," a prequel series focused on the high school years of Elle Woods, the pink-obsessed heroine played by Reese Witherspoon in the "Legally Blonde" films that debuted in 2001.

Not all of these projects come to fruition.

Hulu opted not to move forward with a much-anticipated reboot of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003), despite having a filmed pilot ready to go.

But Fox is relaunching "Baywatch," the sun-kissed 1989-2001 series focused on California lifeguards that made Pamela Anderson a household name.

And some series that debuted in the 2000s, like "Grey's Anatomy," "NCIS" and "Law and Order: SVU," are still going strong -- with both new episodes airing on networks and older episodes figuring among the most streamed content each year.

- 'Comfort' -

So why are viewers, who are bombarded with content choices, going back to shows made a quarter-century ago?

For Sohni Kaur, who researched the subject while pursuing psychology and media studies at Scripps College, it comes down to good old nostalgia.

"I think this is a pretty common coping mechanism for a lot of people" to return to shows they enjoyed in their youth, Kaur said.

During the coronavirus pandemic, she rewatched all of the "Twilight" vampire romance films, which were released from 2008 to 2012, and Bollywood flicks from the 1990s. 

"It does really provide a lot of comfort to me" to watch older films and TV shows, said the practicing psychologist.

"Looking back and revisiting something that we already know about kind of relieves that anxiety, or it kind of just distracts us from all of the current changes that are happening."

Some television series -- such as "Friends" (1994-2004) or "Gilmore Girls" (2000-2007) -- naturally generate more nostalgia because they feature families or close-knit friend groups, Kaur said.

But even the "Scream" horror movies, which debuted in 1996, are still going strong, with "Scream 7" taking in more than $200 million worldwide so far this year, according to Box Office Mojo.

For Thompson, "some of this nostalgic stuff goes on a cycle, usually somewhere around 20 years."

In that span, children and teens who loved the original series have become adults, and return to things that defined their younger years.

Now, those adults have purchasing power to buy tickets or subscribe to streaming platforms. And they can introduce their children to the content as well.

Kaur also says the phenomenon recalls a "moment right before it switched over into that really rapidly increasing technological growth."

"I think going back to that, again, feels safe," she said.

In the late 90s and the 2000s, television programs still generated pop culture watershed moments that everyone experienced at once.

Rebooting those series represents the "cultural centrality to television that was made before the turn of the century and even into the new century," Thompson said.

Another throwback is that streamers are increasingly rolling back the years to adopt the weekly airing of an episode at a time, in order to reinvent the era of appointment television.

HBO Max's medical drama "The Pitt," which stars Emmy winner Noah Wyle, is being released that way, and certainly recalls the heyday of the show that first made Wyle a star: NBC's "ER," which debuted in 1994 and helped George Clooney shoot to fame.

pel/sst/mlm

(The Center Square) - Judge Chris Taylor won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race over conservative candidate Maria Lazar on Tuesday, increasing the amount of liberal justices on the court to a 5-2 advantage compared to conservatives with another conservative seat up for election next year.

Multiple media outlets called the race less than an hour after polls closed with Taylor holding a 61% to 38% advantage.

Taylor will serve a 10-year term.

The candidates were vying to replace conservative justice Rebecca Bradley for a 10-year term on the court. Both candidates are currently appellate court judges.

Conservative Annette Ziegler has announced that she will not run again in 2027.

Taylor is a former Democratic Party state representative who has also represented Planned Parenthood as a lawyer.

Iraq's powerful armed group Kataeb Hezbollah on Tuesday released US journalist Shelly Kittleson, a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad, the Iranian-backed group and the United States said.

Her release was announced hours before the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in more than one month of war, which spread into a regionwide conflict.

"In recognition of the national stances of the outgoing prime minister, we have decided to release the American defendant Shelly Kittleson, on the condition that she leave the country immediately," Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official in the Iran-backed group, said in a brief statement.

He added that this was an exceptional gesture that would "not be repeated again in the coming days, as we are in a state of war launched by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam, and in such cases many considerations are discarded".

Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said that she had been freed.

"We are relieved that this American is now free and are working to support her safe departure from Iraq," Rubio said in a statement.

A senior Iraqi security official had earlier told AFP that authorities arrested a member of a pro-Iran group believed to be connected to the abduction.

Rubio said that Kittleson was abducted by Kataeb Hezbollah, which is blacklisted by the United States.

Kittleson, who is based in Rome but has reported extensively from the Middle East, worked for publications including Al-Monitor.

President Donald Trump's administration had earlier defended itself over her kidnapping, with US officials saying that the government had warned her of threats.

Baghdad was once notorious for kidnappings and attempted abductions, but they have decreased as the security situation in Iraq improved in recent years.

Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 and was held for two years until her release last year.

cbg/jsa-sct/md

Here are the latest economic events in the Middle East war:

- Asia stocks soar, oil plummets -

Stock markets in Japan and Korea soared early Wednesday after US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran, with talks during the interim period mediated by Pakistan.

Oil prices meanwhile plummeted, with both the WTI and Brent crude benchmarks falling below $100 a barrel.

- Iran agrees to safe Hormuz passage -

Iran's foreign minister said that under the two-week ceasefire agreement, maritime traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz would be guaranteed.

The transits "will be possible via coordination with Iran's Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.

- Madagascar declares energy emergency -

Madagascar declared a two-week national energy emergency, saying disruptions in supply because of the war in the Middle East were causing a crisis.

The Indian Ocean island is a net importer of fuel, most of which comes from Oman, just south of the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

- Saudi petrochemical complex hit -

Overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia hit a petrochemical complex in a sprawling industrial area in the eastern city of Jubail, a witness who requested anonymity told AFP on Tuesday, hours after similar installations in Iran were struck.

Jubail is home to one of the world's largest industrial cities, where steel, gasoline, petrochemicals, lubricating oil and chemical fertilisers are produced. 

- Bahrain's main port to pause operations -

Bahrain's main port will suspend operations starting early Wednesday, around the time of a US deadline for Iran to agree to a deal or face attacks on civilian infrastructure.

"Operations in Khalifa Bin Salman Port will be temporarily suspended from early April 8," APM Terminals Bahrain, which operates the port, told AFP.

- Russia, China veto UN resolution on Strait of Hormuz -

Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Tuesday on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a text already diluted from the green light Gulf states had sought to use force to protect the key shipping lane.

The draft resolution prepared by Bahrain and supported by the United States received 11 votes in favor, two against and two abstentions. Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said Gulf states "regret" the rejection of the measure.

- Iran reports strikes on bridges, key highway, railways -

Iranian officials reported damage to bridges, railway systems and highways on Tuesday as part of a wave of deadly airstrikes on infrastructure.

A bridge near the holy city of Qom and another carrying a railway line in the central city of Kashan were struck, according to regional officials quoted by state media.

A key highway in northern Iran connecting the main northern city of Tabriz with Tehran via Zanjan was also temporarily closed after a hit around 90 kilometres (55 miles) outside of Tabriz, IRNA and Fars agencies reported.

- US-Israeli strikes hit Kharg island -

US-Israeli strikes have hit the key Iranian oil export terminal of Kharg island, media reported Tuesday.

"The American-Zionist enemy has carried out several attacks on Kharg island, and several explosions have been heard there," Iran's Mehr news agency reported.

According to an X post by journalist Barak Ravid of the news site Axios, citing a US official, the US carried out "strikes on military targets" on the island located off Iran's western coast.

burs-des/jgc

Nottingham Forest may be fighting for Premier League survival this term but Thursday's trip to Porto for their Europa League quarter-final first leg offers top goalscorer Igor Jesus and his team-mates the chance to put relegation woes to one side as they chase a first continental title in 46 years.

If manager Vitor Pereira seems to be prioritising Forest's top-flight status over their first season in European competition since 1995/96 -- resting several regular starters for their last 16 shoot-out win over Midtjylland -- the Europa League has been the stage Forest have performed best on this season.

This is no more true of any Red than Igor Jesus, who arrived at the City Ground from Brazilian side Botafogo in the close-season.

The 25-year-old forward has found the net on just three occasions in 30 Premier League matches this campaign, but he has lit up the Europa League on Thursday nights, sitting level as the competition's top scorer with seven goals.

"Getting to the final and winning the Europa League would be a dream come true, especially as the top scorer," Igor Jesus told UEFA's website on Tuesday.

However, the 2024 Copa Libertadores winner is keenly aware that their last-eight opponents, Porto, will be a stern test of their credentials.

"Porto have got a great team," he said. "They've got a lot of quality. We've also got quality. We know it won't be an easy game -– in fact, it'll be really tough. However, we're willing to fight."

Igor Jesus added Forest will go into Thursday's first leg at the Estadio do Dragao "really focused and looking for a positive result" to take home and defend for next week's second leg.

If Forest are struggling in 16th place in the Premier League, three points above the drop zone, Porto, on the other hand, are sitting pretty at the top of the Portuguese Primeira Liga.

The English side can nonetheless comfort themselves with the fact that they have been the only team to beat Porto in Europe this term -- winning 2-0 at home on matchday three of the league phase courtesy of Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus spot-kicks.

- 'Want more now' -

Fellow Premier League outfit Aston Villa face a difficult trip to Coppa Italia winners Bologna in their quarter-final first leg.

With Unai Emery's charges having fallen off the title race domestically, the Europa League is now their only realistic chance of tasting silverware this season.

If there is a man to guide Villa to a first trophy since 2001, it is Emery and that competition would be the Europa League.

The Basque has won the tournament four times in his coaching career and has now guided Villa to three consecutive quarter-final appearances in the Europa League and Champions League.

Villa captain John McGinn said after his team booked their last-eight spot this time around, with a 3-0 aggregate victory over Lille, that "they want more now".

"We need to take it one game at a time and keep pushing on, all the way," the Scot added.

But Bologna, on the back of downing more-fancied opponents in Roma in the last round, have their eyes fixed on engineering another upset.

"We face Aston Villa again, a team we've faced twice (both losses) in the last two seasons. We will be the underdogs again but we will try to surprise again," Bologna boss Vincenzo Italiano said after the 5-4 aggregate win, which booked their spot in the last eight.

In the other quarter-final first legs, La Liga's Real Betis travel up the Iberian Peninsula to take on Portuguese side Braga on Wednesday, while Bundesliga club Freiburg welcome Spaniards Celta Vigo the following day.

Crystal Palace's home clash with Fiorentina is the most eye-catching of the UEFA Conference League last eight first legs, which will also take place on Thursday.

Rayo Vallecano welcome AEK Athens, Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk host Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the Polish city of Krakow and Strasbourg travel to Mainz in the first legs of the other quarter-final ties.

nf/dmc