Ukraine and Russia will cease fire for Orthodox Easter

"Beliebers" were celebrating the return of pop superstar Justin Bieber on Saturday, ahead of his return to major stages with a headlining appearance on the second day of the Coachella music festival.

The Canadian singer of "Sorry" will appear at the event in Indio, California as festival season kicks off in the United States. 

"This is what I've been looking forward to for months," 28-year-old Alexis Sierra said as she entered the venue just after gates opened. 

Held in the scorching California desert, where the beating sun pushed the thermometer to 86 F (30 C) early Saturday, thousands of the "Baby" singer's fans -- known as Beliebers -- took over the festival grounds sporting clothing, hats and banners paying tribute to their idol.

Bieber hasn't performed at a venue of Coachella's size since 2022, when he appeared at Rock in Rio in Brazil before canceling the remainder of his international tour due to health issues.

The singer announced he was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a shingles outbreak that can cause facial paralysis.

Over the past year, he's made a gradual return to the scene. 

In 2025, Bieber released the album "Swag." The rollout saw the star perform the single "Yukon" while stripped down to his boxers at the Grammys in February. 

The release was quickly followed by "Swag II," his eighth studio album.

While Bieber has recently played smaller shows, Coachella is expected to mark his full-scale comeback.

"We WILL be singing at the top of our lungs on Saturday," Bieber promised in an Instagram post this week.

- Eclectic offerings -

Other acts in the spotlight Saturday include Nine Inch Noize, the collaboration between legendary industrial band Nine Inch Nails and German producer Boys Noize, who also have an album on the way.

Nate Martin, 24, said they were his main draw to Saturday's show. 

"Industrial, electro combined? Gonna be mental," he told AFP.

With nine stages, the festival will host a wide range of genres, including Brazil's Luisa Sonza, influencer-turned-singer Addison Rae, Britain's PinkPantheress, K-pop star Taemin and David Byrne, the legendary co-founder of the band Talking Heads. 

New York City rockers The Strokes will also be back on stage after a years-long hiatus.

Coachella kicked off Friday with performances from headliner Sabrina Carpenter, Moby, Devo, and surprise appearances from Lizzo, David Lee Roth and HUNTR/X, who performed their Oscar-winning "Golden" alongside KATSEYE.

Carpenter's performance of hits like "Manchild," "Espresso" and "Please, Please, Please" was helped by big-screen stars Sam Elliott, Susan Sarandon and Will Ferrell, who rounded out her 90-minute set.

A hotly anticipated performance from Italian DJ Anyma was canceled, with organizers blaming strong winds that threatened the safety of stage structures.

The festival runs this weekend and next weekend, with a nearly identical lineup, and can be viewed on YouTube.

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Rory McIlroy headed for the Augusta National practice range after a disappointing second round erased a six-stroke edge on Saturday and left him tied for the lead at the Masters.

McIlroy fired a one-over-par 73 to stand alongside third-ranked Cameron Young on 11-under 205 entering Sunday's final round, which figures to be a shootout with 11 players five shots back or nearer.

"I have to look at the positives even though there isn't that many," McIlroy said. "I did bounce back. I hit some good shots coming in. I'm in a great position.

"I wish I was a few shots better off, but I'm comfortable.

"I just know I need to be better tomorrow to have a chance."

McIlroy, who had a Masters record six-stroke lead through 36 holes, found himself among the trees off the tee and out of position most of the day, needing wedges and putts to salvage pars tested by swing issues.

"If I can just get my lower body moving through impact, that should sort of fix it," McIlroy said. "But I am going to go and hit a few balls on the range to neutralize the ball flight a bit."

McIlroy wasn't as committed as he should be on every shot.

"It's just having trust in yourself and commitment that you're going to make the swing you want to make," McIlroy said. "I didn't always do that today, but I still felt like I stayed committed to what I was doing, which is a good thing."

McIlroy hopes to become only the fourth player to win back-to-back green jackets after Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo.

"I'd like to think that I'll play a little bit freer and play like I've already got a green jacket, which I do," McIlroy said. "Sometimes I maybe just have to remind myself of that."

McIlroy, playing alongside Young as he did the first two days, felt he answered the challenge posted by firm and fast Augusta National.

"This golf course has a way of, when you're not quite feeling it, you struggle," he said. "You have to dig deep and I felt like I did that on the front nine and made a lot of good par saves."

His approach sailed left at 11 for a double bogey and a missed green at the par-three 12th set up a bogey that briefly handed Young the solo lead.

"When I made the double at 11, I probably got a little bit uneasy on 12 and 13, which I think is understandable," he said. "I bounced back well with birdies on 14 and 15.

"The course was obviously gettable. There was a lot of good scores out there and the quality of the chasing pack is obvious.

"There's a lot of guys in with a chance tomorrow. I'm still tied for the best score, so I can't forget that, but I do know I'm going to have to be better if I want to have a chance to win."

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Cameron Young will try to cement his hard-won status among golf's elite with a first major title on Sunday, when he'll start the final round of the Masters tied for the lead with Rory McIlroy.

Young carded an impressive seven-under par 65 on Saturday, his best score in 15 career Masters rounds giving him a 54-hole total of 11-under par and a solid shot at the biggest title of his career.

"It's something I've dreamed of doing for a long time," said Young, who started the day eight shots off defending champion McIlroy's lead and birdied four of the first eight holes.

He rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt at the 10th and produced back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14.

A weak wedge found the water at the 15th, but he followed that bogey with a 27-foot birdie putt at the 16 and briefly held the solo lead as McIlroy faltered behind him.

It's not where he expected to find himself when he bogeyed four of the first seven holes on Thursday.

"If you had said on Thursday at about noon that I was going to be within a couple of the lead going into Sunday, I would have taken it in a heartbeat, especially given the fact that I was watching Rory play," he said.

"We saw today a slow start and a hot start can erase a lot. It's just a matter of keeping myself in it tomorrow and doing the best I can to stay around the lead for as long as possible."

But Young is not surprised to be contending after a "slow buildup" that started with his first PGA Tour title at the Wyndham Championship last August and continued through a strong Ryder Cup showing and a triumph in the Players Championship last month.

"I feel that I've gotten a lot better at just being present in what I'm doing," Young said. "Out here that's so much of the battle.

"You're going to get good breaks, you're going to get bad ones. You're going to hit a bad shot or two. The ability to just swallow it and move on and go hit your next shot, the emotions of it, the frustration, whatever it may be, I think this place really punishes you if you play angry or impatient."

Young has contended in majors before. He has two top-10 Masters showings in the past three years and finished second at the Open Championship in 2022.

He knows that momentum can shift in a heartbeat on Augusta's fiery greens.

He said he'll draw on those experiences, as well has his recent Players victory, but will go out with the mindset that he has to take the title.

"My past results don't dictate what I do tomorrow," Young said. "While I do feel that there's a lot of positive things to take from those events, I've got to go earn whatever I get out of tomorrow, and the best way that I know to do that is kind of try to attack the day like I have the last three."

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Rose Lavelle celebrated her 100th international cap with a goal and set up another as the United States beat Japan 2-1 in the first of two friendlies between the two women’s international football powerhouses on Saturday.

Gotham FC midfielder Lavelle,  the reigning US Female Player of the Year, opened the scoring after just nine minutes at PayPal Park in San Jose, California, after hooking in a lobbed cross from Trinity Rodman.

The 30-year-old attacker, one of the stars of the USA’s last FIFA Women’s World Cup victory in 2019, also played a key  role in the home side’s second goal just after half-time.

A sweeping counter-attack ended with Lavelle steering a pass into the path of midfielder Lindsey Heaps who duly tucked away a low finish into the corner past Japan goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita.

Japan, who clinched their third Women’s Asian Cup title last month with a victory over Australia, rallied later in the half and pulled a goal back through substitute striker Riko Ueki in the 61st minute.

But despite a flurry of chances from the Japanese, the US defence held firm to clinch victory -- the 2024 Olympic gold medallists' 10th consecutive win under English manager Emma Hayes as they build towards next year's World Cup in Brazil.

The two teams will meet again in a second friendly in Seattle on Tuesday.

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Artemis II astronauts expressed awe on Saturday over their record-setting lunar flyby mission, urging unity on Earth after witnessing the planet's isolation like a "lifeboat" in space.

The crew spoke at a news conference as NASA took a victory lap following the success of the mission. 

The astronauts did the first slingshot around the Moon in more than 50 years and traveled deeper into space than any humans before -- culminating in a smooth splashdown Friday off the coast of California. 

Flanked on stage by mission commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, astronaut Christina Koch called for people on Earth to embrace their shared humanity.

"What struck me wasn't necessarily just Earth, it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe," said Koch.

"There's one new thing I know and that is: Planet Earth -- you are a crew."

Hansen called on fans of the Artemis mission to see themselves in the crew of four, who marked a series of milestones: Glover was the first person of color to fly around the Moon, Koch was the first woman, and Canadian Hansen the first non-American.

"I would suggest to you that when you look up here, you're not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you," Hansen said.

"And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper. This is you."

While hurtling through deep space and zipping around the Moon, the Artemis astronauts took thousands of photographs, amassing a stunning portfolio of images.

They also witnessed a solar eclipse along with extraordinary meteorite strikes on the lunar surface.

"Artemis II will always be remembered. It was the moment we all saw the moon again, where childhood dreams became missions. You helped the world start believing again, and this is something no one's ever going to forget," NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said.

Artemis II was the inaugural crewed mission of NASA's program aiming to install a sustained presence on the Moon, including the eventual construction of a base that could be used for further exploration including to Mars.

NASA is hoping it can put boots on the lunar surface as soon as 2028.

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Mizzou baseball had a home run issue Saturday.

The long balls given up by the Tigers' pitching staff were the deciding factor in Missouri’s 6-4 loss to South Carolina. With a 5-1 loss in Game 1 and a 1-0 loss in Game 2, Mizzou was swept for the third straight time at home since the SEC schedule began.

With the sweep, South Carolina (5-10 in the SEC) slipped out of last place in the conference and Mizzou (3-12 in SEC) moved in.

“We’ve just got to figure out how we can get to the point of being consistent,” Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson said. “We have these ups and downs, and they're really drastic highs and lows. So it's our job as a coaching staff to figure out how we can get them consistent.”

The Gamecocks smashed four solo shots off of the bullpen, the shortest of those being Dawson Harman’s 375-foot homer to right field in the fourth inning. Harman tagged another home run in the sixth to push the score to 5-2.

In his second career start, freshman right-hander Sam Rosand tossed just 2⅔ innings and gave up two runs on four hits. Both runs crossed on one play in the top of the second. Two Gamecocks singled to lead off the inning and then Harman followed with a single of his own two batters later to drive in both runners.

Ian Lohse and Luke Sullivan combined for the next four innings and allowed the three runs to score on the three homers. Southpaw Juan Villarreal followed them on the mound and tossed 1⅓ scoreless innings before Mizzou handed the ball to Eli Skidmore for the final inning.

Skidmore gave up the final home run of the game in the ninth. It was a 436-foot shot from South Carolina first baseman Will Craddock to make it 6-2.

With two outs in the fourth inning and the Tigers down 1-2 in the count, Jase Woita broke a 17-inning scoreless streak against his former team. It was a two-run homer that barely eclipsed the right field wall that broke the skid that dated back to the fourth inning of Game 1.

Woita’s home run was the Tigers lone hit until the ninth.

After a lead-off walk from Woita, third baseman Keegan Knutson hit a two-out double that skirted around third base to put two runners in scoring position. Jamal George, who came in as a defensive replacement in the top of the ninth, singled to score Woita. Donovan Jordan, who pinch hit for Leo Humburt in the eighth, doubled to bring in Knutson.

“Coach (Bryson) LeBlanc said, ‘Hey, let's give these guys a chance’ there at the end, and so we wanted to put it in some guys in there to maybe just give it a fresh look, which they did," Jackson said.

Blaize Ward came up to the plate as the go-ahead run but flew out to the right fielder for the final out.

Mizzou will travel for the second game of a home-and-home against Missouri State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Springfield. The Tigers took a 5-2 win over the Bears last Tuesday at Taylor Stadium.

Scottie Scheffler made Moving Day count at the Masters on Saturday, firing his lowest round ever at Augusta National to climb into contention for a third green jacket.

The world number one fired an eagle and five birdies in a seven-under par 65 for a seven-under total of 209.

After starting the day 12 adrift he was just five off the pace when he walked off the 18th green after scrambling for a par to keep his card clean.

Scheffler, who had insisted his two-over second round didn't reflect the quality of his game, came out firing and eagled the par-five second, landing his second shot six feet from the pin.

He rolled in a seven-foot birdie at the seventh, chipped to three feet and made that for a birdie at the par-five eighth and stuck his approach at the par-four ninth four feet from the pin for a third straight birdie.

"I did what I needed to do," said Scheffler, who added an eight-foot birdie at the 11th and a 10-foot birdie at the par-three 16th. "(I) went out and executed to give myself some opportunities and more of that tomorrow and I think I'll be in a good spot."

Scheffler, who won the Masters in 2022 and 2024 for his first two major titles before winning the PGA Championship and the Open Championship last year, said Augusta National forces players to rise to another level.

"I think that's what great players and great competitors do is they're able to rise to the occasion," Scheffler said. "I think that's why it's such a great test too, because not only do you have to conquer this golf course ... but you also have to conquer your nerves as well to get it done around here."

Scheffler had recorded his second-worst score at Augusta on Friday, finding the water twice.

"I didn't fix anything," Scheffler said. "I felt like yesterday I played a lot better than my score. Then today, early in the round I felt like I got a lot out of it.

"The back nine I did a lot of really good things and I didn't really feel like I got the reward for it," added the American, who said he hit "three really good shots" at 17 and settled for par.

He was also unable to capitalize on the two back-nine par-fives. After bogeys at both on Friday he parred both.

"Well, yesterday I had the two water balls, that's gonna kill you," Scheffler said. "Today in the fairway at 13 I get a mudball and so there's not much I can do there other than try and get up there somewhere on the green.

"Going into 15 I hit a really nice shot, caught a little gust downwind. It landed pretty close to pin-high but just took a big bounce and went over."

Scheffler bettered his previous best Masters round of 66 in the first round in 2024, and with the course firming up in the Saturday afternoon sunshine he was confident he'd be in the hunt on Sunday.

"I don't feel like I'm out of the tournament," he said.

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Missouri softball took Game 2 against No. 16/14 Georgia 4-3 to tie up the series 1-1 on Saturday. Mizzou went from making just one hit yesterday to a total of nine hits today as it rallied against three of the Bulldogs' pitchers.

The strike zone made a big difference during the afternoon, especially for the Tigers. Both pitchers put a nice spin on the ball to throw multiple pop-ups, making for a prolonged pitchers duel.

Marissa McCann made her 250th career strike out, along with six hits and two earned runs. She took the win and is now 7-8 on the season. Abby Carr relieved McCann in the fifth, allowing three hits with one run and six strikeouts.

Pinch hitter Saniya Hill snuck a single past second to give the Tigers their first run in the fourth inning. Carr then earned a pair of runs in the fifth, followed by a single from Sidney Forrester to plate three runners for the Tigers to earn a 4-0 lead.

Freshman Linny Ramsey made a crucial dive catch in left field in the seventh as Georgia looked to make a comeback, preventing a runner from making it on base and helping the Tigers close out the win.

Mizzou will play the Bulldogs one more time to see who takes the series at 1 p.m. Sunday at Jack Turner Softball Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

Two US Navy warships have transited the Strait of Hormuz to begin clearing the strategic waterway of mines laid by Iran, US Central Command said Saturday -- a claim denied by Tehran.

The announcement of the first such transit since the US-Israeli war with Iran began came shortly after President Donald Trump said Washington had started "clearing out" the strait, through which a fifth of the world's crude oil passes.

"Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce," said CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper.

The USS Frank E. Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy are the guided-missile destroyers involved in the operation, but CENTCOM said that "additional US forces including underwater drones" could join the effort in coming days.

Iran "strongly rejected" Washington's claims that US vessels entered the strait, military spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari told state TV.

"The initiative for the passage of any vessel lies with the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he was quoted as saying.

Earlier Saturday, Trump said in a social media post that the United States was "starting the process of clearing out the Strait of Hormuz."

He called it "a favor" to countries such as China, Japan and France that "don't have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves."

Trump insisted that Iran is "LOSING BIG!" in the conflict, while acknowledging that Iranian mines in the strategic strait still pose a threat.

"The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship may 'bunk' into one of their sea mines," Trump wrote.

The key shipping lane off the coast of Iran has been virtually blocked by Tehran since the United States and Israel started bombing Iran on February 28, though reopening the strait was ostensibly a condition of the shaky ceasefire put in place earlier this week. 

Senior Iranian and American officials held face-to-face negotiations in Pakistan on Saturday in a bid to bring an end to a conflict that has plunged the Middle East into violence and sent shockwaves through the world economy.

In an earlier post, Trump said that empty tankers were headed to the United States from around the world to purchase oil, without providing details.

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The NBA regular season concludes on Sunday with 10 post-season seedings still to be determined and the Denver Nuggets facing a big decision regarding three-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic.

The Eastern Conference fifth through 10th seeds are still to be determined with three teams -- Toronto, Orlando and Philadelphia -- still in with a chance to claim the sixth seed and avoid the play-in.

The Western Conference third and fourth seeds are still in play with the Nuggets one game up on the Los Angeles Lakers.

With home court advantage in the first round assured for both the Nuggets and Lakers, Denver coach David Adelman must decide whether to rest banged-up star Jokic for a second straight game -- even though the Serbian needs to play at least 15 minutes against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday to meet the minimum 65-game requirement to be eligible for end-of-season awards.

"We're going to have that conversation (Saturday)," Adelman said. "Obviously, his opinion matters."

Adelman sat all of his starters on Friday and the Nuggets still got a win over the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who with the West top seed and best record in the league locked up rested most of their starters, too.

Adelman said having key players healthy after a physically and mentally draining 82-game regular-season was his top priority.

But the 65-game threshold for season honors is a factor when it comes to Jokic, who missed 16 games in January with a knee injury but is averaging a triple-double and is set to become the first player in history to lead the league in assists and rebounds per game.

"We've got to make a proper decision, and we need to go in there with a real plan," Adelman said.

The dozens of players who sat out Friday's games across the league didn't include San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, who scored 40 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as he played his 65th game to ensure his eligibility for Defensive Player of the Year and MVP honors.

"If I had 65 (games) before, I for sure wouldn't have played," said Wembanyama, who missed the previous game with a bruised rib and could well sit out Sunday's clash with Denver.

The 65-game rule has left a number of stand-out players out in the cold because of injury absences, including Detroit's Cade Cunningham, Minnesota's Anthony Edwards and the Los Angeles Lakers' Luka Doncic.

Cunningham is back for East top seeds Detroit after missing 11 games with a collapsed lung. Edwards missed significant time with a knee injury.

- Impact on season -

Doncic, the league's leading scorer, is currently nursing a hamstring strain that cost him the last five games of the regular season and could sideline him to start the playoffs.

His agent has indicated Doncic will seek an "Extraordinary Circumstances" waiver to the 65-game rule.

"It's an interesting question," Wembanyama said. "If those three, especially Cade and Luka, aren't in the end-of-season awards (race) it's not going to reflect their impact on the season."

The 65-game rule was implemented in 2023 to discourage teams from resting uninjured players.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr says the league needs something even more radical to keep players healthy: a shorter season.

"We need fewer games," Kerr said in March, with a month left in the grueling campaign that started on October 21 and will now segue to a post-season capped by the best-of-seven NBA Finals that could finish as late as June 19.

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