MADRID (AP) — It's good to be an Atletico Madrid fan right now.
One of the most fanatic fan bases in Europe is also one of the most long-suffering ones, with the team perennially in the shadows of powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Atletico is on top, though, having eliminated Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Champions League and seeing city rival Real Madrid in need of overcoming a one-goal deficit against Bayern Munich in Wednesday's second leg of their quarterfinal in Germany.
Atletico can cap its good week by winning the Copa del Rey for the first time in more than a decade on Saturday, when it will face Real Sociedad in Seville.
Fans are feeling good about themselves, and the club is capitalizing on the moment.
Atletico on Wednesday posted a series of posts on X provoking Barcelona and celebrating its triumph. The team lost Tuesday's match 2-1 at its Metropolitano stadium, but it had won 2-0 in Barcelona last week.
“How's it going?” said one of the first posts on Atletico's X account not long after the game.
“We love the smell of freshly cut grass in the morning,” the team said on a post Wednesday, in an apparent reference to the complaints by Barcelona coach Hansi Flick on Tuesday saying that the grass at the Metropolitano was too high and would hurt his team.
Another post showed a video of players celebrating on the field in front of Atletico fans after the match, along with the phrase, “More than a club,” alluding to the same words that Barcelona uses to describe itself.
One post showed Atletico players wearing sun glasses and using earphones, referencing a similar photo of Barcelona star Lamine Yamal doing what appeared to be a LeBron James impression ahead of the 2016 NBA Finals in which James' Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the series to win the title.
Yamal had said ahead of Tuesday's match that James was an inspiration for him. He also used on Instagram a photo of James holding the NBA trophy after winning the 2016 title.
Another post showed a video of a lion — with the image of the Barcelona shield on it — transforming into a dog after trying to attack a man who had the Atletico shield on him.
“We are proud of the work that we have being doing all season,” Atletico captain Koke Resurrección said. “We played against one of the most difficult opponents that we could face, with young players who are among the best in the world, and we deservedly won. This is something historic for the club. We know that it's not easy to be among the last four in the Champions League.”
Atletico, seeking its first Champions League title, had not reached the semifinals since 2017, when it was eliminated by Real Madrid. It also lost to Madrid in finals in 2014 and 2016.
Atletico eliminated Barcelona on its way to those two finals. The club made it to the European Cup final one other time, in 1974, when it lost to Bayern Munich.
“It's great to be able to give our fans a Champions League semifinal and a Copa final,” said Atletico forward Antoine Griezmann, who was with Atletico when it lost the 2016 European final and who will leave the club at the end of the season for Major League Soccer.
Atletico has been the perennial third-best club in Spain. It has rarely broken through the dominance of Real Madrid — a record 15-time European champion — and Barcelona, a five-time Champions League winner. The powerhouses have combined to win all but one Spanish league title since 2015 — Atletico did it in 2021.
The team can bring home its first Copa title since 2013 on Saturday, that's if it can recover from the celebrations from Tuesday. Defender Marcos Llorente said he only got about three hours of sleep after the match against Barcelona.
“Hopefully they can get some rest and on Saturday we will try to play a good final,” coach Diego Simeone said.
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Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong, center, reacts at the end of the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Atletico Madrid's players celebrate at the end of the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
U.S. President Donald Trump said the war in Iran was “very close to over” in clips of an interview set to air Wednesday, while the U.S. military said its blockade on Iranian ports had been “fully implemented.”
Pakistan said Tuesday it was pursuing efforts to help the U.S. and Iran negotiate an end to the war, after Trump told the New York Post earlier that a second round of talks with Iran “could be happening over the next two days.”
Mediators’ efforts to extend a ceasefire between the United States and Iran have made progress as the warring sides are expected to return soon to the table for another round of negotiations, regional officials said. Mediators aim to extend the ceasefire, which is due to expire on April 22, for at least another two weeks to allow diplomacy another chance.
Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad said talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington were “constructive,” and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter praised his Lebanese counterparts after the two-hour meeting, saying “we’re on the same side of the equation.”
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah opposes the direct talks and has said it won’t abide by any agreements made as a result.
The fighting in the Middle East has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.
Here is the latest:
Iranian state media reported that the commander of Iran’s joint military command warned that Iran would completely block exports and imports across the Persian Gulf region, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea if the United States does not lift its blockade on Iranian ports.
“Iran will act with strength to defend its national sovereignty and its interests,” said Ali Abdollahi.
He added that the U.S. blockade is “a prelude to violating the ceasefire.”
Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz when Israel and the United States launched strikes against it more than a month ago. The United States on Monday began blockading ships trying to enter or leave Iranian ports and said it would not impede the freedom of navigation of other vessels in the Persian Gulf.
Trump said in the Fox News interview that Xi Jinping issued the denial in a written response letter to Trump, after the U.S. president wrote him following reports that surfaced about China supplying Iran with weapons for the war.
“I wrote him a letter asking him not to do that. And he wrote me a letter saying that, essentially, he’s not doing that,” Trump said.
Trump is scheduled to meet Xi in Beijing in early May.
In an interview Sunday with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News, Trump had said fuel prices could be the same or “maybe a little bit higher” by the November congressional elections.
But in a separate interview with Bartiromo, which was taped on Tuesday at the White House and broadcast on Wednesday, Trump claimed he’d been misquoted and tried to overcome the blowback from his previous comments.
He said he’s happy with oil costing about $92 per barrel. “It’s going to come dropping down very big as soon as this is over,” he said, referring to the war. “And I think it can be over very soon.”
Later in the interview, he predicted that gas prices, now averaging slightly above $4 a gallon, will be “much lower” by the elections.
Speaking again about the war, Trump said, “When that’s settled, gas prices are going to go down tremendously.”
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that it had struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon as it presses ahead with its aerial and ground war there despite the U.S.-Iran ceasefire.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported airstrikes and artillery shelling in multiple southern Lebanese locations on Wednesday, including near Bint Jbeil, where Israeli forces have encircled Hezbollah fighters.
The fighting in the south has continued after Israeli and Lebanese officials concluded their first direct talks in decades. Lebanese officials want a ceasefire to halt fighting that has displaced more than 1 million people in their country, while Israel wants the Lebanese government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah has harshly criticized the Lebanese government’s rare direct talks in Washington with Israel as “disgraceful” and urged Lebanon to hold a public referendum to determine the future of Hezbollah’s arsenal.
Fadlallah said that if the Lebanese government “truly wants to prove it reflects the aspirations of the Lebanese people, then it should accept a popular referendum” rather than negotiating with Israel on Hezbollah’s disarmament. He accused Lebanon of giving Israel a political platform with the talks “at a time when it is killing Lebanese people and committing massacres.”
“The enemy is the one benefiting,” he said.
He said he would expect a popular referendum on Hezbollah to show that “a majority of the Lebanese people” support the militant group’s campaign against Israel.
In the streets of northern Israel, in the border town of Kiryat Shmona near Lebanon, some Israelis feel wary that the ongoing talks with Lebanon may not bring about a decisive victory against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
“Hezbollah is much stronger than the Lebanese army, nothing will come out of it,” said Eli Mizrahi, as residents believe that Israel should not retreat until a decisive victory is realized in Lebanon.
Resident of Kiryat Shmona Bruria Danino said she will only “feel calm” when Hezbollah is eliminated, while the majority voiced their inconvenience from the constant sounds of sirens, warning them of incoming fire from Lebanon.
Fighting renewed between Hezbollah and Israel on Mar. 2, when the militant group fired rockets into northern Israel. At least 2,124 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, the country’s Health Ministry said.
The Turkish leader acknowledged that talks between the United States and Iran have hit obstacles, especially on the nuclear issue, but insisted that the dialogue must continue.
“Negotiations cannot be conducted with clenched fists. Weapons must not be allowed to speak again instead of words,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday in an address to his ruling party’s legislators.
Erdogan renewed his warning that Israel should not be allowed to undermine the ceasefire.
“The Israeli government, which is known to be displeased with the ceasefire, must not be allowed to sabotage the process,” Erdogan said.
His comments came as Turkish and Israeli officials traded accusations this week in a new verbal spat that further strained the two countries’ already tense relations.
Russia’s top diplomat on Wednesday reiterated that Moscow was ready “to play a role in solving the problem of enriched uranium” in Iran.
“This role can take on many forms, including reprocessing highly enriched uranium into fuel-grade uranium, transferring a certain amount to Russia for storage. Anything that is acceptable to Iran without, I repeat, violating its inalienable right, like the right of any other state, to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes,” Lavrov told reporters in Beijing, where he was on a two-day visit.
Russia was part of the 2015 deal between Iran and six nuclear powers offering sanctions relief for Tehran in exchange for curbing its atomic program and opening it to broader international scrutiny. As part of the deal, Moscow removed large amounts of enriched uranium from Iran.
The Kremlin offered political support to Iran when the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the agreement during Trump’s first term.
Responding to reports that there may be a second round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, China said it “welcomes all efforts conducive to a ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities,” at a regular press briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing Wednesday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun also praised Pakistan for its “role in facilitating a temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran and playing a fair and balanced mediating role.”
Beijing has been working behind the scenes to bring Iran to the negotiation table. Trump also said that he believed China helped to encourage Iran to agree to the ceasefire.
Mediators’ efforts to extend a ceasefire between the United States and Iran have made progress as the warring sides are expected to return soon to the table for another round of negotiations, regional officials said.
The officials said mediators aim to extend the ceasefire, which is due to expire on April 22, for at least another two weeks to allow diplomacy another chance. They said that both sides gave an “in principle agreement” to extend the ceasefire.
One of the officials, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said mediators were working on a compromise to the three main disputed points, including the nuclear program, the Strait of Hormuz and war compensation.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, after holding a video conference with leaders from Southeast Asia, told reporters that the assistance, dubbed as “Power Asia,” is aimed at providing loans needed to secure crude oil, petroleum products and to maintain the supply chain in an emergency response to help hard-hit nations.
The fund also aims to expand an oil reserve system within Asia, diversify energy, and to promote energy conservation and industrial advancement, Takaichi said.
Japan, which imports petroleum-related products such as medical supplies from Southeast Asia, is increasingly worried that the region’s oil supply shortages would affect the Japanese economy.
The fund is one year’s worth of oil imports for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries, or about 1.2 billion barrels, Takaichi said. The assistance is not meant to just provide oil, but for Asian nations to support each other.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that “the right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes is an inalienable right of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Whether Iran, in its negotiations with the United States, decides to “pause” or “insists on preserving this right,” Russia will accept “any approach based on this principle, the principle of the universality of the right to enrichment,” Lavrov told reporters in Beijing, where he was on a two-day visit this week.
Lavrov emphasized that Russia and China “firmly support” the talks to end the Mideast war, “so that the parties can advance realistic and fair goals, fully respecting the legitimate rights of each party, in accordance with international law.”
Iran is a signatory to the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gives countries the right to peaceful nuclear energy programs with safeguards, but does not explicitly mention enrichment.
The official Mizan news agency reported that Taj said, “We really do not know and cannot predict what will happen with the war over the next one to two months. Our serious plan was to hold the league until May 10.”
He added, “For this, we wrote to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and also informed Amir Ghalenoei, the head coach of Iran’s national team. But we then saw that no one can tell us what the future plan will be.”
“We will wait and see what happens, but in any case, we will make a decision this week. We are also looking to see what political officials and the Foreign Ministry say.”
He warned, “It would be very bad if we start the league for a few days and then, God forbid, a military attack occurs, which would make things much more difficult to manage.”
The oil-and gas-rich Nordic country is reporting record-high revenues from crude oil exports as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of the Iran war drove up prices.
Government agency Statistics Norway says export revenues in March soared to nearly 200 billion kroner ($21 billion) last month, up more than 28% from the same month last year.
Exports of natural gas shot up 19% in March from the level a year earlier to over 69 billion kroner, marking the highest level since February 2023.
“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a significant supply shock in the oil market, which contributed to the high oil prices in March, and thus the highest export value ever,” said Jan Olav Rørhus, a senior adviser for the agency.
The “geopolitical unrest in the Middle East … effectively led to a halt in deliveries of liquefied natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz” in March, which affected prices, he said.
South Korea says it secured 273 million barrels of crude oil and 2.1 million tons of naphtha in agreements with Gulf states and Kazakhstan as it looks to mitigate an energy crunch caused by the war.
Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff to President Lee Jae Myung, said Wednesday the agreements were reached during his visits last week to Kazakhstan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Most of the crude secured for delivery later this year will come from Saudi Arabia, with some shipments routed through the Red Sea to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, Kang said.
Oman will supply about 1.6 million tons of naphtha, a key petrochemical feedstock used in plastics manufacturing that South Korea has largely sourced via the strait.
War-related shortfalls of naphtha have raised concerns about industrial disruption and shortages of medical supplies such as IV bags and syringes.
Two remotely operated, improvised explosive devices detonated in Tehran early Wednesday, Iran’s state media reported.
A Revolutionary Guard security source said the explosions slightly injured three people including a member of the paramilitary Basij, an all-volunteer force loyal to the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.
The state media agency reported a third device was defused.
Mohammad Balideh, a Revolutionary Guard commander for Tehran region 10, told the Hamshahri newspaper “the situation is normal and under control.”
“Nothing extraordinary happened here, just a limited explosion on the street at the hands of traitorous and unpatriotic elements, with no fatalities or serious damages,” Balideh said.
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog says “very detailed” measures to verify Iran’s nuclear activities must be included in a potential U.S.-Iran agreement to end their war in the Middle East.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in Seoul on Wednesday that “Iran has a very ambitious, wide nuclear program so all of that will require the presence of IAEA inspectors.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a second round of talks with Iran could happen over the next two days.
The Trump administration has said preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon is a key war aim.
Iran has said it isn’t developing such weapons, but rejected limits on its nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia will deposit $3 billion into Pakistan’s central bank, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Wednesday.
The funds will provide a much-needed financial boost to Pakistan, where the economy has come under strain during regional tensions linked to the conflict between the United States and Iran.
Aurangzeb is in Washington to attend meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Aurangzeb said an existing $5 billion Saudi deposit will no longer be subject to an annual rollover arrangement and will instead be extended for a longer period, a government statement said.
Pakistani authorities said earlier this month that the country would return $2 billion deposited by the United Arab Emirates in Pakistan’s central bank in 2019.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah signed a joint statement committing to avoid unjustified energy and food trade restrictions stemming from the Iran war.
They signed the agreement Wednesday while Albanese visited the tiny Southeast Asian nation.
Australia is the biggest trade partner of Brunei, which provides Australia with diesel and fertilizer-grade urea. Albanese said he discussed Brunei potentially increasing the supply of urea.
“What’s guaranteed is that they are not looking at export restrictions on Australia,” he said.
Albanese plans to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday to shore up Australian supplies of gasoline and diesel.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey this week during a diplomatic push to secure a new round of talks between the United States and Iran.
The trip comes days after Islamabad hosted rare negotiations that ended without a formal agreement.
Sharif is attempting to facilitate a second round before a temporary ceasefire expires on April 22.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the visits starting Wednesday and ending Saturday will focus on bilateral relations.
Sharif is expected to discuss ongoing cooperation and regional peace and security with leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
In Turkey, Sharif is expected to participate in the fifth Antalya Diplomacy Forum and hold meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other world leaders.
South Korea says it provided information to Iran, the United States and Gulf nations concerning 26 vessels from South Korea that are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz.
South Korea is attempting to secure their safe passage out the strait.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said in a legislative hearing Wednesday that officials consider the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran as a window to ensure the safe exit of the ships from the region.
Residents sit on a sofa in front of charred cars at the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike last Wednesday in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A volunteer talks on his phone while walking amid the debris of a residential building that, according to the authorities, was damaged on March 4 during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, in southeastern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A young girl carries a portrait of a killed Hezbollah fighter at a mass grave where civilians and Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli airstrikes are temporarily buried in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
From left, Michael Needham, counselor for the U.S. Dept. of State, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter pose for a photo before a meeting at the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Damage is visible on a residential building that, according to Iranian authorities, was hit by a strike on March 4 during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, in southeastern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
