Category: South Caucasus

Azerbaijan retained 26th place in the UEFA country coefficient rankings after the latest round of European club matches, Report informs.

A goalless draw between Azerbaijan’s Qarabag and Bulgaria’s CSKA in Baku in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round earned the country 0.125 points toward its 2026/27 seasonal coefficient.

Meanwhile, Zira’s 1-0 away defeat to Estonia’s Paide in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League had no impact on Azerbaijan’s overall standing.

Azerbaijan remains 26th with a five-season UEFA coefficient of 20.437. Israel, ranked 25th, has a coefficient of 21.500, while 27th-placed Slovakia stands on 19.375.

England continues to lead the UEFA country coefficient rankings with 101.852 points.

Two Chinese academics have won the world’s top prize for mathematics for the first time, the BBC reports.

Chinese mathematicians Hong Wang and Yu Deng won alongside John Pardon from the US and Jacon Tsimerman from Canada. They each won 15,000 Canadian dollars ($10,500).

Both won for solving problems that have baffled mathematicians for more than a century. And 35-year-old Wang, who teaches in the US and France, is only the third woman to receive the honor.

The Fields Medal, regarded as the Nobel prize equivalent for mathematics, was handed out on Thursday in the US as human computations are increasingly challenged by AI.

The achievement has made huge waves on Chinese social media.

The hashtags “Fields Medal” and “First Chinese mathematicians to win Fields Medals” generated millions of views across various social media platforms from Weibo to Rednote.

“Pride of all Chinese people,” a comment from a Weibo user reads.

“We are witnessing history,” another said.

The US has imposed new tariffs on 60 trading partners as a temporary global levy brought in after February’s Supreme Court ruling struck down a host of duties expires, the BBC reports.

The duties, ranging from 10% to 12.5% and accounting for the vast majority of American imports, target key economic partners over claims they have failed to properly tackle forced labour – including the UK, China, the European Union, Canada, Japan and India.

They mark the latest escalation in the global trade war reignited by US President Donald Trump when he returned to office last year.

The US Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that many of the tariffs imposed globally under emergency powers were illegally enacted.

Last month, the White House proposed 10%-12.5% duties on imports from dozens of countries over concerns they were not doing enough to tackle forced labour.

On Thursday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, acting under Trump’s direction, said those duties would now take effect.

“Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere,” his statement said.

Greer invoked Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which governs US trade enforcement of practices that burden or restrict American commerce.

A serious road accident in Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan Republic (Russia) has left six people dead, the regional prosecutor’s office announced on Telegram, Report informs.

According to preliminary data, on the night of July 24, a Chevrolet Lanos crashed on Volzhskaya Street. The driver and five passengers died at the scene from severe injuries.

Authorities are currently investigating the circumstances of the accident.