BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The Pumas broke out of a 13-13 halftime deadlock to score 16 second half points and to beat the All Blacks 29-23 in the second Rugby Championship test Saturday, for its first win over New Zealand in Argentina.
Santiago Carreras kicked three second penalties, including a long-range effort which gave Argentina a nine-point margin with seven minutes to play. Scrumhalf Gonzalo Garcia scored his first test try in the 59th minute as the Pumas took the match away from New Zealand for an historic home victory.
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Argentina's Los Pumas Santiago Carreras kicks a penalty against New Zealand's All Blacks during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Los Pumas Pablo Matera falls during a rugby championship match against New Zealand's All Blacks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
New Zealand's All Blacks Fletcher Newell scores a try as he is tackled by Argentina's Los Pumas Pablo Matera during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Los Pumas Gonzalo Garcia, left, celebrates after scoring a try against New Zealand's All Blacks during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Los Pumas Pablo Matera is tackled by New Zealand's All Blacks Fletcher Newell during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
The All Blacks scored a try through hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho to cut Argentina's lead to six points at 26-20 before Carreras made their lead secure with his third penalty of the match. Damian McKenzie kicked a late goal to allow the All Blacks to claim a bonus point and retain top spot on the Rugby Championship standings after two rounds.
New Zealand won the first test last weekend 41-24 and now all four teams in the Rugby Championship have one win and one loss after South Africa's win over Australia earlier Saturday.
Argentina dominated the All Blacks both in territory and possession, kept the ball in hand for long periods and conclusively won the aerial battle.
The All Blacks' back play was disorganized and their discipline poor. They had three yellow cards, finishing the first half with 13 men and the match with 14.
“First of all we believe that we can win. We've believed that for a few years now,” Argentina captain Julian Montoya said in a television interview. "We came back from a tough loss last game and I think that we kept in the fight and we threw a few punches.
“We took a few punches as well but it's how that you come back from those errors. We're a good team and we do the things we say we're going to do.”
The All Blacks only got on top of the Pumas in a five minute period in the first half when they scored tries through Billy Pollard and Fletcher Newell to lead 13-6. Otherwise they were outplayed and questions must now be raised over coaching and selections.
Argentina scored a first half try through Juan Martin Gonzalez. Center Santiago Chocobares was outstanding for the Pumas for his ball carrying in midfield.
Beauden Barrett at flyhalf had another poor performance and his kicking game was ill-judged. The captain Scott Barrett again was ineffective in his leadership.
For the first 15 minutes, the All Blacks had little usable ball in Argentina territory while the Pumas, camped in the All Blacks half, carried strongly and used accurate recoverable kicks.
In the 20th minute, the All Blacks kicked to touch from a penalty. From the lineout, they first probed the blindside through Tupou Vaa'i and Codie Taylor, then the middle of the field through Ardie Savea and Ethan de Groot.
The ball went wide to Rieko Ioane who was tackled in the corner and replacement scrumhalf Finlay Christie popped the ball up to Proctor who scored his third test try.
In the 25th minute, tighthead prop Newell got up from a scrum and managed to join on the end of a wide attack to take Ardie Savea's pass from scrumhalf and score. The All Blacks led 13-6.
The Pumas came back strongly, backing their scrum which became a launch pad for attacks. In the 30th minute, replacement flyhalf Santiago Carreras cross-kicked to his brother Mateo Carreras on the left wing.
When Mateo Carreras kicked ahead, he was impeded by All Blacks fullback Will Jordan who received a yellow card for what was deemed a cynical action by referee Nic Berry.
Argentina took a scrum from the penalty and center Santiago Chocobares took the ball up strongly. The Pumas forwards wrestled the ball to the line and backrower Gonzalez scored. Juan Cruz Mallia's conversion leveled the scores.
The All Blacks finished the first half under pressure with two players in the sin-bin. Tupou Vaa'i joined Jordan after deliberately knocking the ball down near the goalline.
Winger Bautista Delguy came close to scoring after stepping past All Blacks defenders near halftime but lost the ball in Beauden Barrett's tackle with the line open.
Santiago Carreras kicked two penalties one from 50 meters to put Argentina ahead 19-13, then Garcia scored his first test try.
Taukei'aho overthrew the lineout, directly to his opposite Julian Montoya. The Pumas won a scrum feed in front of the All Blacks' posts, Pablo Matera took the ball to the line and Garcia only needed to pick the ball up and dot down for a 26-13 lead.
The All Blacks had looked rattled but the bench made an impact and Taukei'aho's try from a lineout drive narrowed Argentina's lead to six points.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Argentina's Los Pumas Santiago Carreras kicks a penalty against New Zealand's All Blacks during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Los Pumas Pablo Matera falls during a rugby championship match against New Zealand's All Blacks in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
New Zealand's All Blacks Fletcher Newell scores a try as he is tackled by Argentina's Los Pumas Pablo Matera during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Los Pumas Gonzalo Garcia, left, celebrates after scoring a try against New Zealand's All Blacks during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Argentina's Los Pumas Pablo Matera is tackled by New Zealand's All Blacks Fletcher Newell during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
The U.N. Security Council in an emergency meeting Thursday discussed Iran's deadly protests at the request of the United States, even as President Donald Trump left unclear what actions he would take against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran appeared to make conciliatory statements in the lead up to the meeting in an effort to defuse the situation after Trump threatened to take action to stop further killing of protesters, including the execution of anyone detained in Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said before the meeting, “All options remain on the table for the president.”
Iran’s crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,615, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The sound of gunfire faded Thursday in the capital, Tehran. The country closed its airspace to commercial flights for hours without explanation early Thursday and some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate. The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait also ordered its personnel to “temporary halt” travel to the multiple military bases in the small Gulf Arab country.
Here is the latest:
Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the Islamic Republic is behaving like the Islamic State militant group, “and deserves to be treated like" the group.
She said: “That is how you save innocent lives.”
She warned that “brutal slaughter” in Iran will get much worse if the world doesn’t take “serious action.”
Alinejad said all Iranians are united in seeking freedom and in the face of Iranian military weapons they want action, not “empty words and empty condemnations.”
The U.N. warns possible military strikes on Iran would add “volatility to an already combustible situation” in an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Thursday.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres “urges maximum restraint at this sensitive moment and calls on all actors to refrain from any actions that could lead to further loss of life or ignite a wider regional escalation,” Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee said at the meeting.
Guterres urges maximum restraint and remains convinced that all issues regarding Iran, including its nuclear program, should be addressed through diplomacy and dialogue, she said.
The U.N. chief reaffirms the U.N. Charter’s principles that disputes must be settled peacefully and prohibit the threat or use of force, Pobee said.
Masih Alinejad, one of the most vocal Iranian dissidents in the U.S., accused the United Nations and the Security Council of failing “to respond with the urgency this moment demands” at the emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday.
In October, two purported Russian mobsters were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars for hiring a hitman to kill Alinejad at her Brooklyn home on behalf of the Iranian government.
Sitting across the table from the Iranian ambassador to the U.N., Alinejad, who came after an invitation from the U.S., said that “the members of this body have forgotten the privilege and responsibility of sitting in this room.”
In a stunning moment, even for Security Council standards, Alinejad addressed the Islamic Republic’s representative seated at the council directly.
“You have tried to kill me three times. I have seen my would-be assassin with my own eyes in front of my garden, in my home in Brooklyn,” she said while the Iranian official looked directly ahead, without acknowledging her.
Ahead of the emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Secretary-General António Guterres
spoke by phone to discuss the recent deadly protests and Iran’s request for the world body to do more to condemn what they call foreign influence in the Islamic Republic, according to a readout of the call posted on Iranian state TV.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Araghchi implored the top U.N. official to live up to the “serious expectation” that Iran’s government and its people have of the U.N.s’ role in condemning what the officials called “illegal U.S. interventions against Iran.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that U.S. President Donald Trump and his team had communicated to Iranian officials that there would be “grave consequences” if killing continues against protesters in Iran.
“The president understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday, were halted,” she said.
But Trump continues closely watching the situation, she said.
“All options remain on the table for the president,” Leavitt said.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group, said on Thursday that “criminal gangs” were responsible for the situation in Iran, accusing them of carrying out an “American-Israeli” scheme.
“Criminal gangs in Iran killed Iranian citizens, security forces and burned mosques,” he said without providing evidence. “What’s being committed by criminal gangs in Iran is horrific, bearing an American stamp as it includes slaughter and burning some people alive.”
He also said that the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Iran to create a crisis leading to the current issues in the country with the end goal of controlling Iran.
Yet he said the U.S. has “failed in Iran” and that Iranians “will not yield to America.”
The president of the European Union’s executive arm says the 27-member bloc is looking to strengthen sanctions against Iran as ordinary Iranians continue their protests against Iran’s theocratic government.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday following a meeting of the EU’s commissioners in Limassol, Cyprus that current sanctions against Iran are “weakening the regime.”
Von der Leyen said that the EU is looking to sanction individual Iranians —apart from those who belong to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard — who “are responsible for the atrocities.”
She added that the people of Iran who are “bravely fighting for a change” have the EU’s “full political support.”
Canada’s foreign minister says a Canadian citizen has died in Iran “at the hands of the Iranian authorities.”
“Peaceful protests by the Iranian people — asking that their voices be heard in the face of the Iranian regime’s repression and ongoing human rights violations — has led the regime to flagrantly disregard human life,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand posted on social media Thursday.
“This violence must end. Canada condemns and calls for an immediate end to the Iranian regime’s violence,” she added.
Anand said consular officials are in contact with the victim’s family in Canada. She did not provide details.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced Thursday that a local staff member was killed and several others were wounded during the deadly protests in Iran over the weekend.
Amir Ali Latifi, an Iranian Red Crescent Society worker, was working in the country’s Gillan province on Jan. 10 when he was killed “in the line of duty,” the organization said in a statement.
“The IFRC is deeply concerned about the consequences of the ongoing unrest on the people of Iran and is closely monitoring the situation in coordination with the Iranian Red Crescent Society,” the statement continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed as “good news” reports that the death sentence has been lifted for an Iranian shopkeeper arrested in a violent crackdown on protests.
Relatives of 26-year-old Erfan Soltani had said he faced imminent execution.
Trump posed Thursday on his Truth Social site: “FoxNews: ‘Iranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump’s warnings. Likewise others.’ This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”
Iranian state media denied Soltani had been condemned to death. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.
Trump sent tensions soaring this week by pledging that “help is on its way” to Iranian protesters and urging them to continue demonstrating against authorities in the Islamic Republic.
On Wednesday Trump signaled a possible de-escalation, saying he had been told that “the killing in Iran is stopping.”
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union’s main foreign policy chief said the G7 members were “gravely concerned” by the developments surrounding the protests, and that they “strongly oppose the intensification of the Iranian authorities’ brutal repression of the Iranian people.”
The statement, published on the EU’s website Thursday, said the G7 were “deeply alarmed at the high level of reported deaths and injuries” and condemned “the deliberate use of violence” by Iranian security forces against protesters.
The G7 members “remain prepared to impose additional restrictive measures if Iran continues to crack down on protests and dissent in violation of international human rights obligations,” the statement said.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has spoken with his counterpart in Iran, who said the situation was “now stable,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Abbas Araghchi said “he hoped China will play a greater role in regional peace and stability” during the talks, according to the statement from the ministry.
“China opposes imposing its will on other countries, and opposes a return to the ‘law of the jungle’,” Wang said.
“China believes that the Iranian government and people will unite, overcome difficulties, maintain national stability, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests,” he added. “China hopes all parties will cherish peace, exercise restraint, and resolve differences through dialogue. China is willing to play a constructive role in this regard.”
“We are against military intervention in Iran,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told journalists in Istanbul on Thursday. “Iran must address its own internal problems… They must address their problems with the region and in global terms through diplomacy so that certain structural problems that cause economic problems can be addressed.”
Ankara and Tehran enjoy warm relations despite often holding divergent interests in the region.
Fidan said the unrest in Iran was rooted in economic conditions caused by sanctions, rather than ideological opposition to the government.
Iranians have been largely absent from an annual pilgrimage to Baghdad, Iraq, to commemorate the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, one of the twelve Shiite imams.
Many Iranian pilgrims typically make the journey every year for the annual religious rituals.
Streets across Baghdad were crowded with pilgrims Thursday. Most had arrived on foot from central and southern provinces of Iraq, heading toward the shrine of Imam al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district in northern Baghdad,
Adel Zaidan, who owns a hotel near the shrine, said the number of Iranian visitors this year compared to previous years was very small. Other residents agreed.
“This visit is different from previous ones. It lacks the large numbers of Iranian pilgrims, especially in terms of providing food and accommodation,” said Haider Al-Obaidi.
Europe’s largest airline group said Thursday it would halt night flights to and from Tel Aviv and Jordan's capital Amman for five days, citing security concerns as fears grow that unrest in Iran could spiral into wider regional violence.
Lufthansa — which operates Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings — said flights would run only during daytime hours from Thursday through Monday “due to the current situation in the Middle East.” It said the change would ensure its staff — which includes unionized cabin crews and pilots -- would not be required to stay overnight in the region.
The airline group also said its planes would bypass Iranian and Iraqi airspace, key corridors for air travel between the Middle East and Asia.
Iran closed its airspace to commercial flights for several hours early Thursday without explanation.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Airport Authority, which oversees Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, said the airport was operating as usual.
Iranian state media has denied claims that a young man arrested during Iran’s recent protests was condemned to death. The statement from Iran’s judicial authorities on Thursday contradicted what it said were “opposition media abroad” which claimed the young man had been quickly sentenced to death during a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in the country.
State television didn’t immediately give any details beyond his name, Erfan Soltani. Iranian judicial authorities said Soltani was being held in a detention facility outside of the capital. Alongside other protesters, he has been accused of “propaganda activities against the regime,” state media said.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said Thursday that his government was “appalled by the escalation of violence and repression” in Iran.
“We condemn the brutal crackdown being carried out by Iran’s security forces, including the killing of protesters,” Peters posted on X.
“Iranians have the right to peaceful protest, freedom of expression, and access to information – and that right is currently being brutally repressed,” he said.
Peters said his government had expressed serious concerns to the Iranian Embassy in Wellington.
Women cross an intersection in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A demonstrator lights a cigarette with a burning poster depicting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Iran's anti-government protests, in Holon, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
