Today

Zhao, who battled through four qualifying matches and then five more at the Crucible to become the first Asian player to win the world title in May, became the third Chinese player to make it into this year’s Masters quarter-finals.

A break of 76 gave Wilson the opening frame as the Englishman looked to win a Masters match for the first time after losing in the opening round in 2021 and 2024 against Kyren Wilson and Shaun Murphy respectively.

But Zhao ruthlessly punished loose safety shots from Wilson to win four frames in a row, thanks to breaks of 50, 51, 54 and 72, while Wilson only collected 10 points in that time.

However, Wilson battled to win the sixth frame to reduce the deficit to 2-4, only to then let a 51-0 advantage slip in frame seven.

Zhao made his fifth half-century break of the match, a 67 in frame eight, to seal a 6-2 victory – bizarrely the same score that has now been seen in all four completed matches.

Zhao, who had lost to John Higgins in round one in 2022 in his only other Masters appearance, said: “I enjoyed the night. This is my second time at Alexandra Palace so I really enjoyed it.

“I know he [Wilson] is a very good player so I just wanted to have big breaks and didn’t want him to come back so I just try to get better.

“Hopefully in the final we have two Chinese players. Tonight I could see a lot of fans supporting me so I feel very confident and I didn’t want to lose. This is my first win at Alexandra Palace.”

Zhao will now play either four-time world champion Higgins or two-time world runner-up Barry Hawkins in the next round.

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will meet President Donald Trump on Thursday, the White House has confirmed.

The visit comes just weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was seized in Caracas by US forces. But Trump declined to endorse Machado, whose movement claimed victory in 2024’s widely contested elections, as its new leader.

The US instead backed Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice-president.

Machado said last week she hoped to thank Trump personally for the action against Maduro and would like to give the Nobel Prize to him. Trump called it “a great honour”, but the Nobel Committee later clarified that it was not transferable.

Earlier, Trump had expressed displeasure over Machado’s decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour the president has long coveted.

Asked on Friday whether receiving Machado’s prize might change his view of her role in Venezuela, the president said: “She might be involved in some aspect of it.”

“I will have to speak to her. I think it’s very nice that she wants to come in. And that’s what I understand the reason is,” he said.

Earlier this month, after Maduro’s ouster, Trump had said Machado “doesn’t have the support within, or the respect within, the country”. “She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect,” he said.

The US has so far backed Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s interim president.

Trump describes Rodríguez as an “ally”, and she has not been charged by US officials with any crimes.

“Delcy Rodríguez and her team have been very cooperative with the United States,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

But Machado has maintained that her coalition should “absolutely” be in charge of the country.

Machado has said nobody trusted Rodríguez, telling CBS that the interim leader was “one of the main architects… of repression for innocent people” in the South American country.

“Everybody in Venezuela and abroad knows perfectly who she is and the role she has played,” Machado said.

The former legislator, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, described US military action in Venezuela as “a major step towards restoring prosperity and rule of law and democracy in Venezuela”.

Rodríguez has rebuffed claims by Trump that the US was in charge of Venezuela.

“The Venezuelan government rules our country, and no-one else does,” she said in a televised speech. “There is no external agent governing Venezuela.”

Former Federal Reserve chairs called the indictment an ‘unprecedented attempt’ to undermine the independence of the US central bank in a joint letter.

United States Senator Lisa Murkowski threw her support behind fellow Republican Thom Tillis’s plan to block President Donald Trump’s Fed nominees after the Justice Department over the weekend threatened to indict Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

“The stakes are too high to look the other way: if the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer,” Murkowski wrote on X on Monday.

Murkowski is one of a small handful of Trump’s fellow Republicans who have shown themselves willing to vote against his wishes at times in the US Senate, where his party holds a 53-47 majority.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has been increasingly publicly pressuring the Fed to cut interest rates, breaking with longstanding practice meant to insulate the central bank from political pressure and allowing it to focus on economic data.

Alaska lawmaker Murkowski said she had spoken earlier on Monday with Powell, who on Sunday said the US central bank had received subpoenas last week that he called “pretexts” aimed at the Fed’s basing interest rates on policy and not on Trump’s preferences.

Murkowski called the Justice Department threat “nothing more than an attempt at coercion”, adding that Congress should investigate the department if it believes probing the Fed was warranted over renovation cost overruns, which she called “not unusual”.

Hassett weighs in

Powell’s term is up in May, and White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has largely been seen as a potential pick to succeed him.

Hassett questioned Powell’s congressional testimony about the Fed’s new building construction, which is at the centre of the Justice Department’s probe.

“Right now, we’ve got a building that’s got like, dramatic cost overruns and plans for the buildings that look inconsistent with the testimony, but again, I’m not a Justice Department person. I hope everything turns out OK for Jay,” Hassett told the CNBC news programme Squawk Box.

Later, Hassett said he would support the investigation if he were in charge of the Fed, telling reporters that it “seems like the Justice Department has decided that they want to see what’s going on over there with this building that’s massively more expensive than any building in the history of Washington”.

Trump, who has long pushed for more aggressive interest rate cuts, said in a post on his Truth Social platform in December, “The United States should be rewarded for SUCCESS, not brought down by it. Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!”

Former officials condemn probe

The past three heads of the US Federal Reserve on Monday joined with other former federal government economic policy leaders in condemning the Trump administration’s criminal probe of the Fed chair, likening it to the interference with central bank independence more often seen in emerging market countries with “weak institutions”.

“The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine that independence,” a statement signed by former Fed chairs Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan said.

“This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success.”

The three were joined by 10 other former top economic policymakers appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents.

He didn’t change as a manager. Always polite and friendly but not generating headlines for the sake of it.

His exuberant celebration after a 3-1 win at Sheffield United in February 2023, triggered by some pre-match needle between the sides, is remembered because it was so out of keeping with Carrick’s normal behaviour.

One pre-match dressing room chat was recalled in gathering background on Carrick for this article. With players on the pitch completing their warm-up, many managers want to be left alone in silence. Others obsess with their tactics board. On this particular day, Carrick engaged in a chat about the old TV remotes.

“Never too up, never too down,” says the source. “That is Michael.

“He doesn’t waste 10 words when one will do. At Middlesbrough, everyone loved him.”

Everyone apart from the fans in the end.

When Carrick arrived on Teesside in October 2022, he resurrected a club flirting with relegation and did so by delivering exciting, winning, possession-based football.

After losing his first game against Preston, Boro won 16 out of their next 22 league matches. Carrick deployed a number of different formations, including three at the back at times, and scored three goals or more on 11 occasions.

When they beat Preston in the return game at the Riverside on 18 March, they were three points off automatic promotion. Striker Chuba Akpom was on his way to 29 goals for the season and a return to the Premier League after a six-year absence was on the cards.

But Boro’s form deserted them at the wrong moment. They won two out of their last eight games, missed out on automatic promotion by 16 points and were beaten by Coventry in an attritional play-off semi-final that produced one goal in two games.

It never got better than that for Carrick at Boro, even though he lasted two more seasons.

The first of those never recovered from a rotten start, when they collected two points from their opening seven games. The second lacked consistency and five straight defeats from January into February ensured there was no late run to the play-offs.

On the plus side, there was a run to the EFL Cup semi-final in 23-24, where Boro were eventually beaten by Chelsea.

Carrick could also point to the sale of Akpom to Ajax in the summer of 2023, five key loan players not returning and Morgan Rogers’ £15m exit to Aston Villa in February 2024 as mitigation for not hitting the same heights, as Boro profited from the work he had done developing players.

Supporters didn’t see the situation in quite the same terms.

In the end, they felt he was too wedded to a 4-2-3-1 formation they did not believe was working. ‘No Plan B’ was a familiar criticism.

Carrick’s response of ‘I’m not going to change the style of play, it is what I know and what I believe in. We wouldn’t be good coaches if we suddenly went down a totally different route’ has echoes of Ruben Amorim.

Yet it is clear Carrick can see the benefit of tactical switches.

On Match of the Day 2 in October, summing up United’s win over Brighton, Carrick explained how his old club had achieved their success by forward players dropping and Luke Shaw pushing forward, condensing the space midfield pair Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes were being asked to cover.

“In the end, it’s a numbers game and a space game,” Carrick explained.

“You can see there is something building with the connections.”

The latest iteration of Russia’s Geran long-range one-way attack drone features a jet engine and is apparently being considered for launch from aircraft to boost its range. The new drone, apparently first used at the beginning of this year, underlines Russia’s continued development of these drones, which bear the brunt of its relentless strikes on Ukraine, which ramp up during the winter months. It further points to Russia seeking to field drones that are better able to evade Ukraine’s air defenses, which are increasingly tailored to these kinds of threats.

In addition to the new powerplant, photos showing the wreckage of the Geran-5 reveal a significant change in the design. The previous Geran versions were based on the propeller-driven Iranian Shahed-136, with its cropped delta planform, blended wing/body configuration, and prominent stabilizing fins at the tips. In contrast, the Geran-5 has a more conventional aerodynamic configuration, with a tube-like fuselage with a centrally mounted straight wing, and a straight horizontal tail with finlets on each end. In this sense, the Geran-5 is actually a closer match to the Iranian Karrar drone, rather than the Shahed series.

A video showing the Iranian Karrar drone:

New Iranian long range combat drone “Karrar” HQ video

As for the engine, Ukrainian accounts state that this is a JT80 turbojet from the Chinese Telefly company. This is said to provide greater thrust than the jet engine used in the Geran-3. This earlier jet-powered drone was essentially a Russian analog of the Shahed-238, which shares its configuration with the prop-driven Shahed-136. Using a jet engine means the Geran-5 will be faster than the propeller-driven versions, making it harder to intercept.

According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), the Geran-5 has a length of around 20 feet and a wingspan of approximately 18 feet. Overall, the drone weighs around 200 pounds, and it is thought to have a range of around 620 miles.

Despite its very different appearance, the GUR says that, apart from the engine, most of the components found in the Geran-5 are common to those used in previous Geran-series drones.

Key components include a 12-channel Kometa satellite navigation system, a feature widely used in Russian drones and other guided weapons. It also has a tracker based on a Raspberry Pi microcomputer and 3G/4G modems, according to the GUR.

Based on the mix of Iranian design heritage and Russian-introduced improvements, the GUR says that “it is difficult to consider this UAV an in-house development of the Russian Federation.” However, it’s unclear to what degree, if any, Iran provided direct support for the development of the new drone.

The GUR says that Russia is considering adding the option of one or more air-to-air missiles to the Geran-5 for self-defense. The Soviet-era, infrared-guided R-73 (AA-11 Archer) is mentioned specifically, which would presumably be mounted below the wings, in a similar configuration to what has been seen in the past on the Iranian-operated Karrar drone.

This would continue a line of development that Russia is already working on.

Last week, we reported on how Russia has begun arming its propeller-driven Shahed/Geran with a man-portable air defense system (MANPADS), the Verba. This development followed a previous version of the drone carrying a single R-60 air-to-air missile, which you can read more about here.

Perhaps most intriguing is the claim from the GUR that Russia is also looking at the possibility of adapting the Geran-5 for launch from crewed aircraft. Ukraine has published diagrams, the source of which is unknown, showing the Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack aircraft carrying one of the drones under each wing.

At the very least, having an air-launched Geran-5 would provide an immediate boost in range for the one-way attack drone.

With internal fuel only, the Su-25 has a range, at low altitude, of around 320 miles. This increases when flying at higher altitudes for at least a part of the mission. The ferry range of the Frogfoot, with external drop tanks, is around 1,450 miles.

As well as increased range, launching the Geran-5 from Su-25s would allow the drones to approach their targets from less-predictable vectors, putting a greater burden on Ukrainian air defenses. This would be especially effective when the drones were launched as part of larger barrages containing conventionally (ground) launched Gerans, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and decoys.

Potentially, the air-launched Geran-5 could be used to attack targets of opportunity, although it’s unclear if the drone would be interfaced with the Su-25 in such a way that the pilot would be able to input target coordinates into it while the plane is in flight. However, Russia is certainly working to expand the ability to use the Geran with direct line-of-sight control, at least close to the front lines.

Recently, Shahed/Geran drones have been noted flying with direct line-of-sight antennas, which allow them to hit targets dynamically, much like a first-person-view (FPV) drone, but with a much greater destructive effect and with the ability to loiter for long periods of time. You can read all about this development here. Furthermore, the datalink range for the drone is being extended using airborne signal relays, possibly creating a mesh network with multiple line-of-sight links. Russian drones are also starting to feature Starlink terminals, which could provide a vastly superior beyond-line-of-sight capability.

These developments are increasingly blurring the classification of the Shahed/Geran from its original long-range one-way attack drone to a loitering munition, with an onboard imaging capability.

Taken together, there exists the potential at least to have the Geran-5 launched from a Su-25 relatively close to the front lines, then loiter over the battlefield for significant lengths of time, with at least some degree of control maintained over the drone either by ground troops on or near the battlefield, or even from the Su-25 itself, although this is more questionable.

Shahed/Geran one-way attack drones have been at the forefront of Russia’s ongoing campaign against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, with a particular focus on the country’s energy supply as the winter continues to bite hard.

In an illustration of the scale of the current Russian campaign, in the past week, its forces launched almost 1,100 strike drones against Ukraine, as well as 890 guided aerial bombs and 50 missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.

In the wake of extensive attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid last week, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said it was “the most difficult situation with electricity this winter.”

On the other hand, the fact that Russia continues to adapt and enhance its long-range one-way attack drone fleet points to the success of new Ukrainian weapons and tactics introduced to counter these threats.

While relatively small in number, Ukraine has been successful in using Western-supplied air defense systems, including specific counter-drone equipment, to tackle the Shahed/Geran menace. At the same time, Ukraine has ramped up the production of locally developed interceptor drones, some of which are specifically designed to counter the Shahed/Geran series.

Russia is testing newly developed Geran type drones and other drones at this test site in Totsky District, Orenburg region.

Google images from 2022 and 2025.

Note: Drone storage and ramp launchers

Location: 52.594543, 52.728405 pic.twitter.com/ecqrN68IWN

— kim høvik (@kimhvik2) January 11, 2026

Whether or not the Geran-5 is introduced in an air-launched capacity, the emergence of a new type of long-range one-way attack drone is another problem for Ukraine, provided that Russia can produce it in large volumes.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot.

The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told the Commons the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.

Israeli municipal authorities are discussing plans to advance an illegal settlement in occupied East Jerusalem. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports from Kufr Aqab, near the site where Israel may demolish more Palestinian homes to make space for settlers.

Los Angeles police say they are looking into “assault with a deadly weapon” charges after someone drove a truck through a crowd of people demonstrating in support of protesters in Iran. A banner on the side of the vehicle said “No Shah” and “Don’t repeat 1953” in apparent reference to that year’s US-backed coup.

Residents start returning to areas previously controlled by SDF fighters after their withdrawal from the city.

Syrian government forces have been carrying out security sweeps in the city of Aleppo after days of battles with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

As some residents displaced by the fighting began returning to their areas, army forces on Monday were working to remove explosive devices and weapons in other parts.

The operation comes after the last SDF fighters left Aleppo on Sunday following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods to parts of northeastern Syria, where the Kurdish-led forces run a semi-autonomous zone.

The intense fighting that erupted last week was linked to stalled negotiations over the integration of Kurdish-run institutions and SDF fighters into the Syrian state following an agreement reached between both sides in March last year.

Residents of Ashrafieh, the first of the two neighbourhoods to fall to the Syrian army, began returning to their homes to inspect the damage, finding shrapnel and broken glass littering the streets on Sunday.

“Most people are returning to Ashrafieh, and they have begun to rebuild as there has been a lot of destruction,” said Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from Aleppo.

He added that this was not the case for Sheikh Maqsoud, where government forces were still searching for explosives.

Smith added that Syrian forces were also looking for opposition prisoners arrested by the SDF during the rule of former leader Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown in December 2024 by forces led by the incumbent, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Deadly clashes

SDF leader Mazlum Abdi said on X the fighters were evacuated “through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo”.

Abdi, in his statement, called on “the mediators to abide by their promises to stop the violations”.

US envoy Tom Barrack met al-Sharaa on Saturday and afterwards issued a call for a “return to dialogue” in accordance with the integration agreement.

The departure of the fighters marks the removal of SDF from pockets of Aleppo, which it has held since Syria’s war began in 2011.

“Even though the SDF has been bussed to its stronghold in northeastern Syria, this has still played out well for the government in Damascus,” said Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna, reporting from the capital, calling it a “strategic victory” for Syria’s new leadership.

Still, he added, the government has been eager to promote a message of national unity. “They call the events in Aleppo a limited law enforcement operation, instead of open war with the SDF, so they’re really pushing for the integration and unity for Syria.”

Syrian health authorities said on Sunday at least 24 civilians have been killed and 129 wounded in SDF attacks since Tuesday.

Munir al-Mohammad, media director at Aleppo’s health directorate, said the casualties were caused by repeated attacks targeting civilian areas, according to Syria’s official SANA news agency.

The United Kingdom-based monitor, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which follows the developments in Syria through a network of sources on the ground, reported 45 civilians were killed along with 60 soldiers and fighters from both sides.

The Sudanese army is renewing efforts for an operation to retake the Kordofan and Darfur regions from the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the civil war rages deep into its third year.

The army has been assessing the RSF’s capabilities and resources in readiness for launching the military operation with a large number of military formations fully prepared to launch an attack, it said.

Any full-scale operation to liberate Kordofan in central Sudan and Darfur in the west would surpass the Sudanese Armed Forces’ (SAF) recapture of the capital, Khartoum, in March in terms of the planning that has taken place before the mission, it added.

Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said the Sudanese army had reorganised and redeployed troops in various parts of Kordofan.

“We have also seen the Sudanese army retake control of territories in the Kordofan region as well as launch air strikes and drone strikes on several RSF positions in Darfur and Kordofan,” she said.

“And it looks like these are the preparations or the first steps of that offensive that the army has been speaking about in efforts to regain control of territories in Kordofan and Darfur,” Morgan added.

The SAF on Friday said it inflicted heavy losses on the RSF during a series of air and ground operations carried out in Darfur and Kordofan.

In a statement, the military said its forces conducted strikes against RSF positions, destroying about 240 combat vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.

It added that its ground forces had succeeded in pushing RSF fighters out of wide areas in Darfur and Kordofan, and operations were ongoing to pursue remaining elements.

Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi said the recent military action by the SAF in Kordofan has prevented the RSF from laying siege on North Kordofan’s capital, el-Obeid.

But Morgan said people on the ground in the Kordofan region were not reassured by these words and want to see more definitive action from the SAF.

“They want to be able to return to their homes with the RSF withdrawing or retreating from the areas that they have taken over. So far, that is not happening,” she said.

In the meantime, attacks continue. A drone attack carried out by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, an RSF ally, on Monday reportedly killed five people in Habila in South Kordofan state.

The RSF’s recent resurgence in the vast regions of Darfur and Kordofan has displaced millions more people.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, while the RSF has been implicated in atrocities in Darfur that the United Nations said may amount to genocide.

Recently, the UN described el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, as a “crime scene” after gaining access to the largely deserted city for the first time since its takeover by the RSF in October, which was marked by mass atrocities.

International aid staff visited el-Fasher after weeks of negotiations, finding few people remaining in what was once a densely populated city with a large displaced population.

More than 100,000 residents fled el-Fasher after the RSF seized control on October 26 following an 18-month siege. Survivors reported ethnically motivated mass killings and widespread detentions.

Fierce fighting and global funding cuts have pushed more than 33 million people towards starvation in what has become one of the world’s severest humanitarian crises, nongovernmental organisations said on Friday as the war passed its 1,000th day.

The conflict has displaced 11 million people internally and abroad and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.

Prime Minister Kamil Idris announced on Sunday the government’s return to Khartoum, after nearly three years of operating from its wartime capital of Port Sudan.

In the early days of the civil war, which began in April 2023, the army-aligned government fled the capital, which was quickly overrun by the RSF.

The government has pursued a gradual return to Khartoum since the army recaptured the city.

“Today, we return, and the government of hope returns to the national capital,” Idris told reporters on Sunday in Khartoum.

Residents of a Kurdish neighbourhood in Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, have passed through government checkpoints to find blackened walls, burned-out vehicles and debris-strewn streets.

They returned home on Sunday after days of deadly clashes.

The fighting, which erupted in Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods on Tuesday after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on plans to integrate the SDF into the national army, killed dozens of people and displaced some 155,000, according to Syrian authorities.

The battles were the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

By Sunday, the government had taken full control of the two areas, having agreed to transfer SDF fighters from the districts to Kurdish autonomous regions in the country’s northeast.

The United Nations said it was trying to send more convoys to the neighbourhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgently needed supplies.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his ambition to bring Greenland under US control. Trump said if the US didn’t control Greenland – China or Russia would. But Trump’s desire for Greenland goes beyond security ambitions. Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands explains.

A British man has died in an avalanche in the French Alps.

The man, believed to be in his 50s, was skiing with a group off-piste at La Plagne, a statement from the resort said.

Rescuers were alerted to the avalanche at 13:57 (12:57 GMT) on Sunday and went immediately to the area, it added.

The man was discovered under 2.5 metres (8ft) of snow after a 50-minute search.

He had been skiing without an avalanche transceiver or a professional instructor, the resort said.

La Plagne said its thoughts were with the man’s family.

BBC News has asked the Foreign Office for comment.

The rescue team was made up of more than 50 people including medics, ski instructors and a helicopter-deployed dog.

La Plagne’s official website prompts visitors wanting to ski off-piste, also known as backcountry skiing, to make sure they have read the Avalanche Risk Bulletin and to use an avalanche victim detector.

December through to February is peak season for avalanches in the northern hemisphere.

Only last month, five German climbers, including a 17-year-old girl and her father, died in an avalanche in Italy’s Dolomite mountains.

For decades, Reza Pahlavi was the polite face of the Iranian opposition in exile – a former fighter pilot who spoke of nonviolent resistance and secular democracy from his home in the United States.

But this weekend, the tone of the 65-year-old heir to the Peacock Throne and son of Iran’s last shah changed dramatically.

In a direct challenge to the Iranian government, Pahlavi called on Iranians to “seize city centres” and prepare for his imminent return, prompting what Iranian state media described as “armed terrorist attacks” across the country.

“Our goal is no longer merely to come into the streets,” Pahlavi declared in a statement released on his X account. “The goal is to prepare to seize city centres and hold them.”

From heir to exile

Pahlavi was born in Tehran on October 31, 1960, seven years after the US and the UK engineered a coup against Iran’s then-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had nationalised the assets of the Anglo-Persian oil company, now known as BP, in 1951.

Pahlavi was officially named crown prince at the age of seven. His path seemed destined for the throne until the 1979 revolution upended the region.

At 17, he left Iran for fighter pilot training in the US at Reese Air Force Base in Texas. While he was away, the repressive monarchy collapsed, and the current political system was established, barring his return.

Pahlavi completed his training and later earned a degree in political science from the University of Southern California. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, he famously volunteered to serve as a fighter pilot for his country but was rejected by the authorities in Tehran.

He has lived in exile ever since, residing in the US with his wife, Yasmine Pahlavi, and their three daughters.

‘Preparing to return’

For more than 40 years, Pahlavi advocated for a referendum and nonviolent change. However, his rhetoric has sharpened significantly in recent days.

On Saturday, he urged workers in key sectors — transport, oil, and gas — to launch nationwide strikes to “cut off the financial lifelines” of the state. He specifically called on the “youth of the Immortal Guard” — the erstwhile imperial forces — and security forces to defect.

“I, too, am preparing to return to the homeland so that at the time of our national revolution’s victory, I can be beside you,” he stated.

His call to action comes amid reports of the largest antigovernment protests in years. Pahlavi asked supporters to hoist the pre-1979 “Lion and Sun” flag, a symbol of his father’s rule, and to occupy public spaces starting from 6pm local time (14:30 GMT).

‘Terrorist’ accusations

The response from Tehran has been furious. On Sunday, state-affiliated media outlets labelled the protests as a “new phase of insecurity” and an “internal armed war”.

A report by the conservative Vatan-e Emrooz newspaper, cited by the Tasnim news agency, described Pahlavi’s call as cover for “terrorist nuclei” to attack police and Basij forces.

“Do not be mistaken; this is not merely a riot … these were armed terrorist attacks,” the report stated, claiming that dozens of security personnel had been killed.

Officials have linked Pahlavi’s escalation to foreign interference, specifically accusing the US and Israel. They claimed the unrest is a “Plan B” by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the conclusion of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in May last year.

‘Opposition against the opposition’?

While Pahlavi has found renewed popularity on the streets, he faces sharp criticism from within the fractured Iranian opposition.

Alireza Nader, an Iran expert, argued in a recent article that Pahlavi’s political activities have become divisive. Critics accuse his circle of attacking other prominent dissidents, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, labelling them “leftists” or “terrorists”.

“Pahlavi has doubled down on his advisors despite others’ unease about them,” Nader wrote, questioning whether the prince has become “the opposition against the opposition”.

There are also concerns about manipulation. Nader noted that Pahlavi’s online support is partly driven by cyber-armies linked to the Iranian government, designed to sow discord, raising questions about “who is co-opting whom”.

Despite these internal rifts, Pahlavi remains the most visible figurehead for the current wave of unrest. With the Trump administration maintaining a hands-off approach — asserting it is “up to Iranians to choose their own leaders” — and the streets of Tehran burning, the exiled prince appears to be making his final gamble for the throne he lost 47 years ago.

Indian batting great surpasses Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara with 28,068 runs across all formats but trails compatriot Sachin Tendulkar.

India’s Virat Kohli has become the second-highest scorer across all formats of international cricket after his match-winning knock of 93 in the first one-day international (ODI) against New Zealand.

Kohli went past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara (28,016 runs) on Sunday to move into second in the list of leading run-scorers in the international game, behind fellow Indian Sachin Tendulkar (34,357).

The top-order batter now has 28,068 runs in Test, ODI and T20 cricket since making his debut for India in an ODI in Sri Lanka in 2008.

“If I look back at my whole journey, then it is nothing short of a dream-come-true for me,” Kohli said after being named Player of the Match in Vadodara.

“I have always known my abilities, but I also knew I had to work extremely hard to get where I am today. God has blessed me with far more than I could ever ask for. I look back at my journey with a lot of grace and gratitude, and I feel really proud of it.”

His 91-ball knock in the ODI opener helped India chase down a victory target of 301 with four wickets and six balls to spare to lead the three-match series 1-0.

But the in-form Kohli missed out on his 54th ODI century after he registered his fifth 50-plus score in as many ODI innings, including two hundreds.

“If I am being brutally honest, the way I’m playing right now, I’m not thinking about milestones at all,” the former captain said.

In his 17th year in international cricket, he continues to reinvent himself. Kohli said he now aims to make the most of the first 20 deliveries ‌after coming in at first drop.

He said he has tweaked his approach of late to counterattack early in his innings and ‍put bowlers under ‍pressure.

After opener Rohit Sharma fell for ‍26 in the ninth over, Kohli refused to retreat into a defensive shell and instead took the initiative to ‍force New Zealand’s ⁠attack onto the back foot.

“If the situation is a bit tricky, I back myself to counterattack now rather than just trying to play the situation in because some ball has your name on it,” he said.

“There’s no point waiting around for too long. But at the same time, you ‌don’t play outrageous shots. You still stick to ⁠your strengths, but you back yourself enough to put the opposition on the back foot,” he said.

The swashbuckling batter believed his approach would have been more aggressive had India not been chasing.

“If we were batting first, I probably would’ve gone harder. But in a chase, with a total on the board, I had to play the situation. I felt like hitting more boundaries, but experience kicks in. The only thing on my mind was getting the team into a position where we could win comfortably.”

“That actually ended up being the ‍difference in the game.”

Called King Kohli for his prolific run-scoring, the 37-year-old now only plays the ODI format after he and fellow stalwart Sharma, 38, retired from T20 and Test cricket.

The future of the two cricketers has been widely debated, with both likely targeting the ODI World Cup in 2027.

International Crisis Group analyst Ali Vaez says some protesters believe Iran needs structural changes to resolve the economic crisis in the sanctions-hit country. Authorities, meanwhile, say they are defending the ‘national interest’.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Chalamet picks up best actor award for his role in sport comedy-drama Marty Supreme.

Hollywood actor Timothée Chalamet has nabbed his first Golden Globe at the 83rd edition of the annual awards ceremony.

Chalamet, 30, picked up the award for best actor in a musical or comedy on Sunday in recognition of his role in the sport comedy-drama Marty Supreme.

“My dad instilled in me a spirit of gratitude growing up: Always be grateful for what you have,” Chalamet said in his acceptance speech at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

“It’s allowed me to leave this ceremony in the past empty-handed, my head held high, grateful just to be here. I’d be lying if I didn’t say those moments didn’t make this moment that much sweeter.”

More to follow…

These are the key developments from day 1,418 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, January 12:

Fighting

• Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv overnight on Monday, sparking a fire in one of the city’s districts, according to the Ukrainian military. Ukrainian air defence units were trying to repel the attack, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration.

• More than 1,000 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, are still without heating three days after a devastating Russian attack, according to Ukrainian authorities.
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a statement on Telegram that not a single day passed this week without Russian attacks on energy facilities and critical infrastructure, which have totalled at least 44.
• A Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian city of Voronezh killed a woman and wounded three other people on Sunday, the region’s governor, Alexander Gusev, said.
• The governor said that more than 10 apartment buildings, about 10 private houses, a secondary school and several administrative buildings were also damaged in the attack on Voronezh.

• Ukraine’s military said it had made “direct hits” on three drilling platforms in the Caspian Sea belonging to Russia’s Lukoil oil firm. The military said it hit the V Filanovsky, Yuri Korchagin and Valery Grayfer platforms.

• Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed control of the village of Bilohirya in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region, according to the TASS state news agency.
• The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence’s main intelligence directorate said that Russia deployed the new jet-powered “Geran-5” strike drone against Ukraine this month, for the first time. The Geran is a Russian variant of the Iranian-designed Shahed. The drone can carry a 90kg (200-pound) warhead and has a range of nearly 1,000km (620 miles).

Military aid

• The United Kingdom announced that it will develop a new deep-strike ballistic missile for Ukraine to support the country’s war efforts against invading Russian forces. Under the project, named Nightfall, the UK seeks to develop missiles that could carry a 200kg (440 lbs) warhead over a range of more than 500km (310 miles).

• Sweden said it will spend 15 billion Swedish crowns ($1.6bn) on air defence, aimed at primarily protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure, as the country continues to ramp up its forces in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• The European Union’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilus, said the bloc should consider setting up a combined military force that could eventually replace US troops in Europe. Kubilus, a former Lithuanian prime minister, said such a force, numbering up to 100,000, would be a possible option to better protect Europe.

Politics and diplomacy

• The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said it was now up to Russia to show it is interested in peace, after Kyiv and its allies agreed to implement a 20-point peace plan and security guarantees, which would take effect following a ceasefire.
• Von der Leyen said that, under the plan, Ukraine would rely first on its own armed forces, which she said were well-trained and battle-experienced. It would be the task of the Europeans to make sure the Ukrainian army is also well equipped, she said.
• Von der Leyen added that the second line of defence would be the so-called Coalition of the Willing – 35 states, including most EU countries as well as Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Turkiye.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

US president says Washington is closely monitoring protests in Iran and considering possible military intervention.

United States President Donald Trump has said that Washington is considering “strong options” in response to the protests in Iran, including possible military intervention.

“We’re looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options. We’ll make a determination,” he told reporters on board Air Force One late on Sunday.

He said Iran’s leadership had called, seeking “to negotiate” after his threats of military action, and that a “meeting is being set up”.

But he added that “we may have to act before a meeting”.

More soon… 

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Central bank chair condemns ‘intimidation’ following grand jury subpoenas.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a development set to heighten concerns about the independence of US monetary policy.

Powell said on Sunday that the central bank had been served with grand jury subpoenas related to his testimony about renovations to the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” Powell said in a rare video message.

“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions – or whether instead, monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”

More to follow…