News Desk

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland – the annual Alpine gathering of the global elite – to declare that now is “not a time for new imperialism or new colonialism”.

This, of course, was a reference to the current ambitions of Macron’s counterpart in the United States, Donald Trump, who, in addition to recently kidnapping the president of Venezuela and repeatedly threatening to seize the Panama Canal, has made a great deal of noise about taking over the self-governing Danish territory of Greenland.

Trump himself took to the podium in Davos on Wednesday for a typically rambling speech, during which he alternately babbled about windmills, snidely complimented Macron on his “beautiful” reflective sunglasses, and declared that he would not “use force” in the acquisition of Greenland – which he also accidentally referred to as Iceland.

Indeed, Trump’s designs on the island have got Europe’s panties in a bunch, and the European Parliament has announced its unequivocal condemnation of “the statements made by the Trump administration regarding Greenland, which constitute a blatant challenge to international law, to the principles of the United Nations Charter and to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a NATO ally”.

Following Macron’s intervention at Davos, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that European leaders had “lined up” in opposition to the “new colonialism” denounced by the French leader.

Now, it goes without saying that the categorically demented Trump should by no means be encouraged in his predatory international endeavours. But it bears pointing out that, when it comes to colonialism and imperialism, Europe is hardly one to talk.

Let’s start with France, which continues to rule a dozen territories scattered across the globe – many of them marketed as exotic holiday destinations – including the Guadeloupe islands in the Caribbean Sea and the archipelago of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.

While these territories have officially moved beyond lowly colonial status to bona fide departments of the French Republic and thereby part of the European Union, France can’t seem to shake the old patronising imperial mindset and attendant superiority complex.

When in December 2024, residents of cyclone-ravaged Mayotte – France’s poorest overseas territory – criticised the ineffective government response to the disaster, Macron charmingly snapped: “If it wasn’t for France, you would be in way deeper s***, 10,000 times more.”

How’s that for some “new colonialism”?

As for the tried-and-true “old” colonialism, France has a particularly appalling track record on that front, as well. Recall the case of Algeria, where some 1.5 million Algerians were killed during the 1954-62 war for independence from French rule.

Although Macron previously acknowledged that French colonisation of the North African country was a “crime against humanity” that was characterised by rampant torture and other brutality, he has consistently refused to offer a formal French apology.

But it’s not just France. Plenty of other European powers who are suddenly against colonialism also possess impressively savage legacies worldwide.

Indeed, from Africa to Asia to the Middle East and beyond, it’s difficult to find so much as a speck of land that has not been affected in some way or other by past centuries of European plunder, enslavement, mass killing, and similar atrocities.

The Spaniards decimated Indigenous populations across the Americas, Britain wreaked imperial havoc wherever it possibly could, and King Leopold II of Belgium presided over the deaths of 10 million or so Congolese starting in 1885, when he established the “Congo Free State” as his own personal property.

In 2022, Belgian King Philippe offered his “deepest regrets” for the abuses that transpired during the colonial era but withheld an official apology. As one article on the occasion of the non-apology noted, life in the Congo Free State was such that “villages that missed rubber collection quotas were notoriously made to provide severed hands instead”.

Over in Ethiopia, meanwhile, British historian Ian Campbell estimates that 19-20 percent of the Ethiopian population of Addis Ababa was wiped out over a mere three days during the Italian military occupation of East Africa in 1937.

The list of European atrocities goes on.

This is not, of course, meant as a suggestion that Trump should therefore have free rein to commit whatever crimes or plunder he pleases. It is simply a friendly reminder that you can’t be selectively opposed to colonialism. (Greenland, by the way, was a full-out colony of Denmark until not so long ago.)

Speaking of colonial atrocities, Europe has not, over the course of more than two years of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, managed to be sufficiently up in arms over the mass slaughter, preferring to go the route of superficial criticism and de facto complicity.

As the killing continues under the guise of a US-brokered ceasefire, Gaza is now, per the Trumpian vision, set to be administered by a so-called “Board of Peace” chaired by – who else? – Trump himself.

Also participating on the board will be Israeli prime minister and genocidaire extraordinaire Benjamin Netanyahu, which no doubt heralds a “new colonialism” of the most sinister variety.

Unfortunately for the world, however, blood-soaked hypocrisy is nothing new.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley delivered breaking news on Thursday

A Good Morning Britain star announced “very difficult” breaking news on Thursday (January 22). This morning’s instalment of the popular ITV show was fronted by Susanna and Richard, delivering viewers the latest developments from throughout the UK and internationally.

They were accompanied in the studio by Laura Tobin, providing regular weather updates, whilst Ranvir Singh covered the remainder of the day’s headlines.

Within moments of going on air, Richard and Susanna disclosed that multiple individuals are missing following a landslide at a campsite in the New Zealand tourism destination of Mount Maunganui.

Emergency services have reported no indications of life at the location – Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell has stated “at least one young girl” is amongst those missing.

“Breaking news overnight, several people, including a child, are missing after a landslide hits a New Zealand campsite,” Richard declared, with Ranvir describing the occurrence as a “dramatic weather event on the other side of the world“, reports Wales Online.

Ranvir continued: “Rescuers and sniffer dogs are desperately digging through the debris at the popular tourist area of Mount Maunganui in the country’s North Island, which has been hit by record-breaking rainfall in recent days.”

During a pre-recorded package, featuring images of the landslides, correspondent Lorna Shaddick stated: “A sunny holiday spot obliterated in seconds. Caravans crushed, tents flattened, and lives upended.”

Australian holidaymaker Sonny Worrall described the moment: “I heard this huge tree crack and all this dirt come off behind me, there was a caravan coming right behind me. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

Lorna added: “Eye-witnesses say they did hear some voices from the rubble at first, but the emergency services had to withdraw because of the risk of another landslip. No signs of life have been detected since.”

Superintendent Tim Anderson explained: “Whilst the land’s still moving, they’re in a risky mission to rescue those people, so I can’t be drawn on numbers, but what I can say is that it’s single figures.”

Mount Maunganui is a dormant volcano on the north island, with a holiday park situated beneath it. The region has experienced its wettest day on record, receiving more than two months’ worth of rainfall within twelve hours, resulting in power cuts and hazardous flooding.

Concluding her report, Lorna stated: “Forecasters are calling it a once-in-a-hundred-year event.”

The Emergency Management Minister has subsequently confirmed that two bodies were retrieved from a separate landslide at Welcome Bay in Papamoa, according to the ABC. The Papamoa landslide had previously left two individuals missing and one person seriously injured.

“It’s a fluid and sensitive issue at the moment,” Mr Mitchell told Radio New Zealand when speaking about the Maunganui landslide. “Everyone is working as hard as they can to get the best possible resolution, but it is a very difficult and challenging situation.”

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am

The board was initially aimed at rebuilding Gaza due to the ongoing Israeli genocide, but was later pitched as a global conflict body.

From Zaria to Lagos, Yakubu spent three days. Along the way, he hoped, ate, and even stepped aside to relieve himself. 

Home had become a stronghold of terrorists who rustled cattle, kidnapped residents, and cut farmers off from their harvests. Even children, Yakubu recalled, openly carried weapons in Funtua, the area where he grew up in Katsina State, northwestern Nigeria.

He fled first to Zaria in neighbouring Kaduna State, where he negotiated with a truck driver transporting cattle to Lagos, in the country’s South West. With ₦3,000, he secured a small space and spent what remained of the ₦5,000 his father gave him on food along the journey. Whenever the need arose, the driver pulled over so he and others could relieve themselves in the bushes.

Yakubu’s journey shows the vulnerability of travellers in Nigeria, including migrants, where sanitation infrastructure fails to meet evolving needs. 

In 2020, REACH found that many people in some parts of northeastern Nigeria were not using latrines because facilities had been destroyed by conflict. In some internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) camps in Borno State, up to 30 per cent of residents practised open defecation. And of the 254 sites assessed across the state between 2021 and 2022, 57 per cent showed evidence of the practice.

By the end of 2024, Nigeria had over three million displaced persons, driven largely by insecurity in the northern region, as well as climate-related displacement linked to flooding and environmental degradation. 

Many displaced people move south, travelling along highways without public toilets and settling in urban centres where informal settlements lack basic sanitation. Studies have linked cholera outbreaks in such settings to open defecation.

In Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city and a major destination for migrants, including IDPs, recent cholera outbreaks killed more than 20 people and left many others hospitalised. 

The impact of the absence of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities continues to play out daily. 

Sixteen-year-old Shamsu arrived in the city from Kurfi Local Government Area of Katsina State. For five years, he has lived in a small shanty along Yaba, a residential community in Lagos Mainland, with other young people who earn a living collecting used plastic bottles.

The shanty offers little protection from either rain or heat. When it rains, water seeps through the torn tarpaulins that serve as walls and roof. And with no toilet, occupants defecate in a small patch of bush a few steps away.

“When I need to defecate, I buy sachets of water for ₦50,” Shamsu said, explaining that he uses the water to clean up afterwards. He came to Lagos in search of economic opportunity.

At the spot where Shamsu and others defecate, HumAngle encountered a man crouched on a highway barrier. His back curved inward, the rest of his body leaning forward as vehicles raced past. The man, known to sell suya in the area, appeared shy in the face of the urgency of the moment and the exposure it demanded. No water for cleaning was visible. 

Yusuf said he pays ₦200 to use a public toilet in Akogun, some distance away from Makoko, where he lives in an informal settlement with other migrants. He had come to Lagos on the back of a truck after fleeing terrorism in the Makoda area of Kano State. 

The cost and distance, however, raise questions about how accessible such facilities are in practice, particularly at night, and what options remain when toilets are out of reach.

In 2019, the federal government launched Clean Nigeria, a national hygiene campaign aimed at ending open defecation across all 774 local government areas by 2025. By the end of the target year, however, nearly 48 million Nigerians were still engaged in the act. 

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources’ 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping projected multiple target misses due to slow progress. And in November 2024, the federal government launched a revised Clean Nigeria Campaign (CNC) Strategic Plan, extending the goal to 2030 and proposing measures such as media outreach, fines, and increased access to toilets in schools, homes, and public spaces.

According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria would need “a fourfold increase in the current rate of progress,” including the construction of millions of toilets, to achieve the ambitious goal of eradicating open defecation.

Who’s to blame?

The problem, said environmental specialist Adesehinwa Adegbulugbe, cannot be blamed on a single actor.

“Local governments struggle to provide services at the pace of population growth, while national policy and planning frameworks have not fully anticipated such urban influxes,” he said.

“Poor urban planning, insufficient investment in decentralised sanitation, weak enforcement of building codes, and fragmented municipal coordination all hinder effective sanitation provision. In other words, even where infrastructure exists, mismanagement or inequitable access often perpetuates open defecation practices.”

HumAngle found that many migrants, like other residents, are willing to use sanitation facilities when available. At Railway, the shanty where Yakubu resides, among other scrap collectors, showed no evidence of open defecation.

Public toilets, Yakubu said, stood a short distance from where he sat, dismantling discarded electric switches and separating metal from plastic.

Built by the local development council, one of the toilet facilities in the area was in use at the time of HumAngle’s visit. Water flowed, users moved in and out, and the surroundings appeared orderly and maintained.

“I’m enjoying my peace in Lagos,” said Yakubu, who was a carpenter back home. “If not because of my parents, I won’t travel home at all.”

In Gengere, another informal settlement largely occupied by northern migrants and traders working in Lagos’s Mile 12 Market, residents said they use available public toilets, including at night. HumAngle observed one of the facilities. We also did not find evidence of open defecation in the community.

Even Shamsu said he dislikes the routine of crouching and defecating in the open, even though Makoko, a large slum near his shanty, boasts of a few public toilets.

“If there’s a decent toilet, I’ll use it,” he said. 

The Lagos State Government has acknowledged deficits in toilet access, particularly in public spaces and informal settlements. In March 2025, it announced plans to build 350 additional public toilets across the state in partnership with WaterAid and private operators. Earlier in November 2024, the state government had approved the construction of 100 public toilets as part of efforts to curb open defecation in the state.

Even as Lagos moves to expand public toilet access, sanitation pressures linked to rapid urban growth extend beyond the state.

The populations are growing at a rate that housing, employment, sanitation services, and enforcement are yet to catch up with. In Ado, the Ekiti State capital in South West Nigeria, the road leading to Mary Immaculate Grammar School smells like an overflowing latrine. Residents blame open defecation.

“Different people come to dump waste or defecate here,” said Taye Adelaju, a resident. 

Meanwhile, public toilets in the area charge only a token fee for use. 

Taye said only strict sanitation enforcement can prevent the area from becoming a public health hazard. 

Adesehinwa said that it’s critical to view open defecation as a systems failure, and not just a behavioural or cultural issue. “This framing,” he said, “enables multi-sectoral interventions, mobilises public and private investment, and promotes accountability across institutions rather than targeting individuals.”

As insecurity pushes more Nigerians onto the road and into unplanned settlements, urban centres like Lagos either expand sanitation systems or allow open defecation and the diseases it fuels to become a permanent feature of their growing population.

*Only first names have been used to protect the identities of some of the sources.

This is the second of a ‘Down South’ series exploring migration from areas of Northern Nigeria to Lagos. Read the first here.

AN ECOLOGIST has insisted otters must be given a 650ft protection zone if work on Stella McCartney’s £5m Highland mansion is given the green light.

McCartney, 54, and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, hope to build a secluded mansion at Commando Rock in Glenuig on the Moidart peninsula.

Dozens of objections have been lodged with Highland Council over the application in her husband’s name.

An otter survey requested by the couple has been submitted to officials and it confirms the presence of holts near the site.

Dr Leon Durbin, an otter expert, has said an exclusion zone must be enforced to prevent harm being done to animals.

An objection letter to Highland Council said: “As an experienced otter ecologist I am going to argue that the nature of the works here requires a 200m exclusion.

“The reason that a 200m exclusion zone around natal holts is usually recommended by NatureScot is that these natal resting sites tend to be well away from human activity, especially noisy, vibrational activity.

“In my opinion, noise and vibration from ground works, site traffic, voices etc at 100m would likely cause disturbance to breeding otters, even with the proviso of vegetative cover and sloping topography.”

He added: “As an ecologist who has chalked up many hundreds of hours of radio-tracking and direct observations of otters in freshwater
and marine environments, including radio-tracking a female before and after breeding, I would urgently recommend a 200m exclusion zone in this case.

“If there is any doubt, the legislation compels us to add a good margin as a precautionary principle.”

Otters are a protected species and it is an offence to damage a holt.

A licence will be needed from official body NatureScot before any work commences.

Mr Willis had earlier confirmed the otter report had been completed.

He added: “The ecologist went through all the appropriate measures, setting up cameras and monitoring activity.

“We’re not denying there is wildlife activity.

“But we’ve come back with a clear mitigation plan to minimise any environmental impact, not just for otters but all wildlife.”

Ms McCartney has strong connections to Scotland after spending childhood holidays at High Park Farm on Mull of Kintyre, a hideaway that became the inspiration for the 1977 hit that her father wrote with Denny Laine for Wings.

She married at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute in 2003.

Highland Council said their planning committee hope to consider the project in the near future.

Rights groups condemn trial of three activists accused of ‘inciting subversion of state power.’

A landmark trial of three activists who organised vigils marking China’s Tiananmen Square massacre has opened in Hong Kong.

Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan, former leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, are charged with “inciting subversion of state power” in the case before the Chinese territory’s High Court.

As they entered the courtroom on Thursday, Lee waved at his supporters, who waved back and said “good morning” to him.

Ho sat calmly, and Chow thanked her supporters for enduring the winds during the night and bowed to them.

Minutes later, Lee and Chow pleaded not guilty, while Ho entered a guilty plea.

About 70 people queued in the cold on Thursday morning for the public gallery, while dozens of police were deployed around the court.

Hong Kong used to host yearly candlelight vigils to mark Beijing’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, but those events have been banned since 2020.

That year, Beijing imposed a national security law on the former British colony in the wake of huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

Rights groups and some foreign governments have criticised cases brought against prominent pro-democracy figures under the law as a weaponisation of the rule of law to silence dissent.

“This case is not about national security – it is about rewriting history and punishing those who refuse to forget the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Asia.

Angeli Datt, research and advocacy coordinator at the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, condemned the trial as a “sham”.

“If Hong Kong authorities actually follow the law, their only recourse is to drop all charges and immediately release the three organisers,” Datt said in a statement.

Beijing has said the security law restored stability to the city following the 2019 protests, which sent hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.

Three government-vetted judges will preside over the trial, which is expected to last 75 days. Videos related to the alliance’s years of work will be part of the prosecution’s evidence.

The three-judge panel earlier dismissed an application by Chow to throw out the case.

“The court will not allow the trial to become, as [Chow] said, a tool for political suppression,” the judges wrote in a preliminary ruling.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China was founded in May 1989 to support protesters holding democracy and anticorruption rallies in Beijing.

The following month, China’s government sent tanks and soldiers to crush the movement on and around Tiananmen Square, a decision it has since heavily censored domestically.

The Alliance spent the next three decades calling on Beijing to accept responsibility, free dissidents, and embrace democratic reform.

Its candlelight vigils in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park every June 4 routinely drew thousands.

The trial of Chow, Lee and Ho follows last month’s conviction of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, which drew international condemnation.

Lai was found guilty of conspiring to commit foreign collusion.

The city’s chief justice responded to the criticisms of Lai’s conviction on Monday, saying the judges deal “only with the law and the evidence, not with any underlying matters of politics”.

Ras Ein al-Auja, occupied West Bank – When the music stops, Naif Ghawanmeh, 45, takes a seat in front of the fire. The night is chilly, and for the first time in weeks, everything is still for a moment – the Israeli settlers’ celebrations have finished for the day.

But the village of Ras Ein al-Auja, situated in the eastern West Bank’s Jericho governorate, has been all but wiped out.

The village was one of the last Palestinian herding communities in this part of the Jordan Valley, but now, the herders’ sheep have gone – most of them stolen or poisoned by settlers or sold off by villagers under pressure. Their water has been cut off – the Ras Ein spring declared off-limits by the neighbouring settlers for the past year.

And for the past two weeks, most of the community’s homes have been dismantled. Many of the families forced out have burned their furniture before they have left, not wanting to leave it for the invading settlers to use.

“By God, it’s a difficult feeling,” Ghawanmeh says. He is at a loss for words, fidgeting by the fire and at times rubbing his face in misery and exhaustion. ”Everyone left. Not one of them [remains]. They all left.”

Since the start of this year, about 450 of the 650 Palestinian inhabitants of Ras Ein al-Auja have fled their homes – for many the only place they have ever lived – because of violence by Israeli settlers.

Other than the 14 Ghawanmeh families, including a large number of children, who say they have nowhere else to go, the rest are packing up and leaving in the coming days.

This rapid displacement of hundreds of people marks the largest expulsion from a single Bedouin community as a result of Israeli settler violence in modern times – a feat that has elicited taunting celebrations by the encroaching settlers and left lives in ruins for Bedouin families now deprived of shelter, livelihoods and community.

No land, no sheep, no water, no safety

Until the New Year, the people of Ras Ein al-Auja had held out on their lands despite an onslaught of physical attacks, thefts, threats, movement restrictions and destruction of property by settlers – a state of being that is now all too common for rural Palestinian communities across the West Bank.

Settlers have been enabled by rapid growth in the number of settlement outposts springing up across the West Bank. Settlements and these outposts are illegal under international law. They are also built without the legal permission of Israeli authorities but in practice are largely tolerated and offered protection by Israeli forces, especially in recent years under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

International law stipulates that occupying powers like Israel must not move their own civilian populations into occupied territories, such as the West Bank, where about 700,000 settlers now reside.

In December, another 19 settler outposts built without government approval were retroactively approved by Israel’s government as official settlements. In all, the number of settlements and outposts in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem has risen by nearly 50 percent since 2022 – from 141 to 210 now.

This recent explosion of settler outposts has given way to a more recent yet even more dangerous phenomenon: shepherding outposts.

Each of these outposts mimics the Bedouins’ way of life but with settlers’ own grazing flocks. They are typically run by a single armed Israeli settler supported by several armed teenagers often funnelled in by government-funded programmes intended to support “at-risk” troubled youth.

Using animal grazing as a means to overrun Palestinian shepherds and seize their lands, such settlers had managed by April 2024 to take over about 14 percent of the West Bank, according to the Israeli NGO Kerem Navot. That figure has increased since then by at least tens of thousands of dunums (1 dunum equals 0.1 hectares and a quarter of an acre), according to Kerem Navot’s founder, Dror Etkes.

The outposts serve as a launching pad for attacks, controls on Palestinian movement and army-coordinated arrests, which have unfolded in places like Ras Ein al-Auja.

Routinely, settlers steal and poison the livestock that Palestinian shepherds, who largely inhabit these remote areas, rely on for their livelihoods. On top of this, settlers are preventing Palestinian shepherds who still have flocks from accessing the grazing lands they’ve always used. Settlers have built fences and engage in intimidation and violence, forcing Palestinians to buy expensive animal fodder to sustain their flocks instead.

Settlers also target the basic resources that Bedouin Palestinians rely on for themselves. Like most other Palestinian communities in the West Bank’s Area C, which Israel fully controls, the people of Ras Ein al-Auja are denied access to electricity by Israeli authorities. The Israeli Civil Administration, which controls zoning and planning in Area C, rarely grants permits for Palestinians to build infrastructure, including connecting to the grid or installing solar energy systems. The solar panels the villagers have put up have frequently been destroyed by settlers.

In addition, these Palestinian shepherding communities, often located in dry regions, are now denied sufficient access to water, including from the lush springs found in Ras Ein al-Auja which once made this village one of the most prosperous of the shepherding communities.

“They prevented us from getting water,” Ghawanmeh says. “They prevented us from bringing the sheep to the water and getting water from the spring.”

Near-total impunity

Israeli settlers have also been emboldened by a wide-scale armament programme spearheaded at the start of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the near-total impunity they enjoy when they carry out attacks. While court rulings in favour of Palestinians and against settlers have occurred, they are rare.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 1,800 settler attacks – about five per day – were documented in 2025, resulting in casualties or property damage in about 280 communities across the West Bank, and besting the previous year’s record of settler attacks by more than 350. A total of 240 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 55 children, were killed by Israeli forces or settlers in 2025.

These unprecedented levels of settler and soldier violence alongside the wholesale deprivation of basic resources that rural Palestinians need to survive have led to the erasure of dozens of rural Palestinian communities.

In January and February 2025, the Israeli military forcibly displaced about 40,000 people from refugee camps in Tulkarem and Jenin, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, settler violence has forced out 44 Palestinian communities in the West Bank consisting of 2,701 people, nearly half of whom are minors. Thirteen more communities comprising 452 people have been partially transferred. These people end up wherever they can find a place to stay, resulting in fractured communities and families.

Such figures of displacement have not been seen in the West Bank in decades.

‘Two years of psychological pressure’

For 27 months, Ras Ein al-Auja has been subjected to all of these types of attacks and restrictions. In the past year, multiple Israeli shepherding outposts have sprung up at different corners of the village, which extends for 20,000 dunums (20sq km or 7.7sq miles), and have come increasingly closer to Palestinian homes.

“Two years of psychological pressure at night,” remarks an exhausted Ghawanmeh, who explains the haphazard shifts the men of his village have been taking to keep watch. “If you sleep, the settlers will burn your house.”

Under the pressure of settler attacks, poisonings and thefts, the number of sheep belonging to the community has dwindled from 24,000 to fewer than 3,000. Settler attacks and invasions have become so constant that nine solidarity activists – some progressives from Israel and others from other countries – were required to keep an around-the-clock protective presence.

Without anywhere else to go – and knowing from both settler threats and accounts from displaced relatives elsewhere that settlers would likely follow them anyway – the people of Ras Ein al-Auja had hung on by a thread.

That is, until the latest settler outpost.

Following a pattern seen in other now-displaced Bedouin communities like nearby Mu’arrajat, some of whose inhabitants fled to Ras Ein al-Auja, settlers began erecting outposts directly next to people’s homes at the beginning of the year – right in the middle of the community.

“Life has completely stopped ever since,” Ghawanmeh says. Families have barricaded themselves inside their houses, terrified of the settlers who now routinely graze their flocks just outside Palestinian homes.

Then, the spate of attacks this month compelled far more families to flee and take their remaining sheep with them. Almost three-quarters of the community has now gone. These families are now scattered across the West Bank although most are now in the cramped towns and cities of Area A, which makes up 18 percent of the West Bank and is administered by the Palestinian Authority.

As a result, these communities’ centuries-old traditions as Bedouins are coming to an end.

“There’s a saying among the Bedouins: ‘Upbringing outweighs origins,’” Ghawanmeh says. “It means you were raised here, you eat from the land, you drink from the land, you sleep on the land. You are from it, and it is from you.”

“To leave your house and leave your village”, he adds, “it is very, very, very difficult. But we are forced to.”

The children who remain have been left rudderless and afraid at night as they look at empty, scarred patches of land where once their friends and family lived. “Children are scared, scared that the settlers, the [settler security guards], will come,” Ghawanmeh says.

Al Jazeera requested comment from the Israeli military about the accusations made in this article and to ask for details about what action is being taken to prevent settler attacks on Palestinian communities, including Ras Ein al-Auja. We received no response.

‘Even if you sing for me until tomorrow, I won’t be happy’

As the swell of violence and land thefts gives way to a steady exodus of the last remaining villagers, a couple of musicians come to provide some relief from another day of traumatic separation and displacement.

“I hope they’ll feel seen, and I hope they’ll feel happy for at least a few moments and that they can feel like children, even if it’s just for a few minutes,” says Kai Jack, a Norwegian solidarity activist and professional contrabass player.

About a dozen children huddle in plastic chairs in a tin shack that once served as the meeting place for the community’s many families to hear this rare performance. As they listen to a handful of Palestinian folk songs, the children, at first timid, relax and begin to clap and sing to staples like Wein a Ramallah (Where? To Ramallah).

For the first time in weeks, the children even manage to crack a few smiles.

And then, Jack and the accompanying violinist, Amalia Kelter Zeitlin, settle into playing the Palestinian lullaby Yamma Mawil al-Hawa (Mother, What’s with the Wind?). The children’s mothers, looking on from the sidelines, begin to softly sing along:

“My life will continue through sacrifice – for freedom.”

As the song ends, the mothers join the children in rounds of applause. “Beautiful?” Jack asks.

“Very,” replies one of the mothers who explains how she helps her child fall to sleep with this very song. “And it has been so long since they were able to [sleep well].”

As the performance ends and the children crowd around Jack’s enormous bass, a few of the remaining Ghawanmeh brothers retreat outside, their minds unable to rest as they contemplate their inevitable expulsion.

“These songs are for the children,” Naif Ghawanmeh says. “We are tired inside. Very tired.”

One of his small nephews, Ahmed, just 2 years old, begins to sing the chorus of Wein a Ramallah. For one brief moment, the atmosphere is almost festive. But while he is happy the children are relaxing, Ghawanmeh shrugs it off himself.

“By God, look at me,” he says over the fire, which is burning whatever supplies they didn’t want to leave for the settlers to take. “Even if you sing for me until tomorrow, I won’t be happy. You see, I’m tired inside. For two years, I’ve been suffering from oppression, hardship and problems day and night from the settlers.

“I’m tired inside.”

Meghan Trainor and Daryl Sabara are now the happy parents to a baby girl.

The “Made You Look” singer, 32, and “Spy Kids” actor, 33, welcomed their third child via surrogacy on Sunday, the pop star announced on Wednesday. Trainor shared several photos on Instagram of herself tearfully holding her newborn and her two young sons, with Sabara meeting their baby sister.

“Our baby girl Mikey Moon Trainor has finally made it to the world thanks to our incredible, superwoman surrogate,” she captioned her post. “We are forever grateful to all the doctors, nurses, teams who made this dream possible.”

The third-time parents married in 2018 and are the parents to 4-year-old Riley and 2-year-old Barry. The pop star, who opened up about her motherhood journey for her 2023 pregnancy book “Dear Future Mama: A TMI Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Motherhood from Your Bestie,” welcomed both her sons via C-section. In 2021, the Grammy winner recalled baby Riley’s breathing complications and said she suffered with gestational diabetes before his arrival. Two years later, she gave birth to baby Barry, a “big boy” who she said arrived sideways.

In Wednesday’s post, Trainor said she and Sabara had “endless conversations” with doctors regarding the surrogacy route for their third child. She wrote, “This was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family.”

“We are over the moon in love with this precious girl,” Trainor said, adding that their sons also had a hand in picking their sister’s middle name. “We are going to enjoy our family time now, love you all.”

In an interview with People published Wednesday, Trainor further explained her and Sabara’s decision to have a surrogate carry their child. Though she told the outlet “it wasn’t our first choice,” she repeated that “this was the safest way.”

She praised her surrogate as selfless, loving and strong and said surrogacy is a different and beautiful way to grow a family.

“Every family’s journey looks different, and all of them are extremely valid,” Trainor said.

Former Times staff writer Nardine Saad contributed to this report.

Several people were missing after heavy rains caused flooding and landslides across New Zealand’s North Island.

Rescue workers are searching for several people, including children, missing after landslides in New Zealand, where homes have been evacuated and roads closed as heavy rains hit almost the entire eastern seaboard of the country’s North Island.

Several people were missing on Thursday afternoon following a landslide which hit Mount Maunganui holiday park on North Island, at approximately 9:30am local time (20:30 GMT, Wednesday).

According to Radio New Zealand, the landslide hit campervans and a shower block at the popular tourist spot during the last week of summer school holidays.

Two people were also missing after a landslide struck a house in neighbouring Papamoa, police said. A 47-year-old man was missing after he tried to cross the Mahurangi River north of Auckland, and his car was caught in floodwaters, according to Radio New Zealand.

Officials briefing reporters about the ongoing rescue efforts at Mount Maunganui said they still hoped to find survivors but that the potential for further landslides was hampering operations.

Police District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson said that “it is possible that we could find someone alive”, adding that he would not comment on the number of people missing, only to say that “it is in the single figures”.

Fire and Emergency Commander William Park said first responders had detected signs of life in the rubble but withdrew after concerns of further ground movement.

“My understanding was members of the public … tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices. Our initial fire crew arrived and were able to hear the same. Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to the possible movement of the slip,” Park said.

Local media cited Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell as saying children were among those missing.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on X that he was “actively monitoring situations across the country”, including in Mount Maunganui.

Climate change, caused by fossil fuels and other pollutants, is making extreme rainfall and other disasters more frequent, leading to unprecedented flooding in places around the world.

Scientists have warned that similar extreme weather will continue to worsen without significant steps taken to reduce pollution.

Caracas, January 21, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Four Venezuelan private banks received a reported US $300 million from an initial US-administered sale of Venezuelan crude.

According to Ecoanalítica, Banesco, BBVA Provincial, Banco Mercantil, and Banco Nacional de Crédito offered a combined $150 million to customers on Tuesday via foreign exchange auctions, with the rest of the funds expected to be made available by the end of the week.

Unofficial reports suggested that private sector importers in the food and healthcare sectors would be given priority. Analyst Alejandro Grisanti stated that the dollars were purchased slightly below 400 bolívars (BsD) per USD. Unlike in prior exchange tables, the banks were not obliged to use the official exchange rate set by the Central Bank, which stands currently at 347 BsD per USD.

The $300 million comprises a portion of the recently announced $500 million sale of Venezuelan crude that had been in storage due to a US naval blockade since early December, with proceeds reportedly deposited in US government-run accounts in Qatar.

Since the January 3 bombings and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, US President Donald Trump and senior officials have vowed to take control of the Venezuelan oil industry and defend the interests of Western energy conglomerates.

The initial agreement involved around 50 million barrels of Venezuelan crude with an estimated return of over $2 billion. Tankers from commodity traders Vitol and Trafigura began moving oil cargoes to Caribbean storage hubs last week.

The allocation of the remaining $200 million from the already executed sales is presently unknown. US officials previously claimed that Venezuela would only be allowed to import from US manufacturers while also floating the possibility of swap deals involving diluents and spare parts for the oil sector and electric grid.

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed the $300 million received by private banks and identified protecting workers’ incomes as the government’s priority at this moment.

“$300 million has entered the country, to cover the incomes of our workers, protecting their purchasing power from inflation and from foreign exchange instability,” she said during a televised broadcast on Tuesday.

Rodríguez likewise stressed the importance of stabilizing the forex market, with constant devaluations eroding the Venezuelans’ purchasing power. The highly speculative parallel market exchange rate skyrocketed to 900 BsD/USD in early January before expectations of foreign currency injections brought it down under 500.

Amid the initial US-enforced oil deals, the interim Rodríguez administration and National Assembly are moving forward with a reform of the country’s Hydrocarbon Law to expand conditions for foreign investment.

Former President Hugo Chávez overhauled energy legislation in 2001 to establish state control over the oil industry. The Hydrocarbon Law, which was later amended in 2006, mandated that state oil company PDVSA hold majority stakes in all joint ventures and raised royalties and income tax to 33 and 50 percent, respectively.

On Thursday, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez argued that the oil reform is aimed at adapting to the country’s “economic reality” and should not be “a cause for fear or concern.” A first debate on the bill is scheduled for Thursday.

“It is essential to find optimal conditions for investments in so-called green oilfields that are yet to be explored,” he said during a meeting with deputies. “As such, we have to ensure that this foreign investment is protected and profitable.”

The parliamentary leader, who also discussed other upcoming legislative projects, highlighted the so-called Productive Participation Contracts (CPP) as key instruments for oil sector growth that will be included in the reformed legislation.

The CPP models were introduced under the 2020 Anti-Blockade Law. According to industry sources, they are concession-type deals that grant private partners increased control over operations and sales and faster returns on investment through lower taxes and royalty exemptions.

Since 2017, Venezuela’s oil industry has been hard hitby US unilateral coercive measures, including financial sanctions, an export embargo, and secondary sanctions, which aimed at strangling the Caribbean nation’s most important revenue source. US officials have announced a selective flexibilization of sanctions in the immediate future to facilitate oil deals.

The recent naval blockade had an immediate impact on crude output, forcing PDVSA to shut down wells as it ran out of storage. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to the blockade as “leverage” to impose conditions on the Venezuelan government. 

US forces reportedly seized a seventh oil tanker on Tuesday. According to the US Southern Command, the Liberia-flagged Sagitta had loaded crude in Venezuela and is on the US Treasury’s blacklist. US authorities did not disclose whether they took control of the vessel or if it will turn over its cargo.

HOLLY Ramsay and Adam Peaty have shared happy snaps from their Maldives honeymoon after the epic family drama over their wedding.

The couple had a dramatic build up to their December 27 wedding day after Olympian Adam uninvited his parents and wider family from the nuptials.

The situation made headline news for weeks, but Holly and Adam couldn’t have looked more relaxed as they enjoyed their honeymoon in the Maldives.

Holly, 26, looked sensational in a green bikini and wrap skirt while donning a Miu Miu hat in one snap.

Meanwhile Adam, 31, showed off his swimmer’s physique as he posed on the beach.

The newlyweds were also seen posing by a swimming pool, Adam with his arm around his wife’s waist.

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He then snapped a picture of Holly heading for dinner in a long cream dress as she made her way across an ornamental pond.

Adam captured the snaps on Instagram: “Honeymoon so far featuring palm trees.”

The couple are already back from their trip, as over the weekend, Holly shared snaps of her three designer handbags while in Romania supporting Adam at a swimming event.

While they are busy getting on with married life, Adam’s family have given up of reconciling with their son.

It came after Holly’s dad Gordon Ramsay’s latest dig, when he called himself “dad” as he commented on a clip of Adam’s wedding speech, in which he declared he would “always choose” Holly.

The subtle snub after Adam reportedly uninvited his parents – Caroline and Mark – has sparked fears “he’s made his choice”.

An insider close to Adam’s parents said: “It’s been a really emotional time for them as a family.

“They’re coming to terms with what has happened and that Adam has picked his side.

“It’s dashed any hope of reconciliation in the near future.

“They’re keeping their heads down and trying to move on quietly. It’s clear Adam’s made his choice.”

Jan. 21 (UPI) — A Texas jury on Wednesday found former school police officer Adrian Gonzales not guilty of felony charges accusing him of endangering children during the 2022 mass shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School that killed 19 students and two teachers.

Following seven hours of deliberations that capped off a two-week trial, the jury returned to the courtroom in Corpus Christi, Texas, Wednesday evening, when presiding Judge Sid Harle read its unanimous verdict that Gonzales was found not guilty on all charges.

Gonzales, 52, was facing 29 felony charges, one for each of the 19 fourth-grade students killed and 10 students wounded in the May 24, 2022, shooting.

Wearing a blue suit, Gonzales received the verdict while standing between two members of his defense counsel, one of whom placed a hand on the right shoulder of Gonzales, who bowed his head upon receiving the judge’s words.

Some members of the victims’ families who were in the courtroom cried, wiping eyes and noses with tissues, but remained silent on hearing the verdict.

On the morning of May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos entered his former Robb Elementary School with an AR-15-style rifle and opened fire.

Ramos was in the school for 77 minutes before the nearly 400 officers who responded engaged Ramos, who was shot dead at the scene.

The prosecution during the trial argued that Gonzales failed to protect the students and failed to confront the gunman despite a witness having alerted him to Ramos’ location before he entered two connected classrooms.

The defense, however, successfully countered that Gonzales did what he could under the circumstances and with the information he had, arguing that he had rushed into the building after arriving on the scene, but retreated with other officers once the bullets rang out.

Nico LaHood, the primary defense attorney for Gonzales, told reporters following the verdict that the jury found gaps in the prosecution’s evidence.

“We felt Adrian was innocent from the beginning when we analyzed the situation,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a challenging case because of the emotions, the sheer emotions behind it and those precious babies being taken from those families.”

During closing arguments, special prosecutor Bill Turner told the jury that Gonzales did not follow his training, failing to engage Ramos until after children were being shot.

“If you have a duty to act, you can’t stand by while the child is in imminent danger,” he said. “If you have a duty to protect the child, you can’t stand by and allow it to happen.”

He then compared Gonzales to teachers who tried to protect students, saying they put the children first and students who tried to protect one another.

“Adrian Gonzales had a duty to put the kids first,” he said.

LaHood, in his closing arguments, told jurors that Gonzales “drove into danger” and did more than other Uvalde police officers to protect the children.

Convicting Gonzales, he argued, would inform police officers whether and ho to react to future similar situations.

“What you tell police officers is, ‘Don’t go in. Don’t react. Don’t respond,'” he said.

Gonzales is one of two former Uvalde police officers facing charges in connection to the mass shooting.

Pete Arredondo, the former Uvalde School District police chief, is facing 10 counts of child endangerment. His trial has yet to be scheduled.

President Donald Trump climbed into a heavily armored Cadillac Escalade presidential limo after arriving in Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum this morning. This may be the first time Trump has ridden in one of these SUVs, at least at such a high-profile event. The Escalade configuration limos also look to be a new addition to the U.S. Secret Service’s fleet of highly specialized cars and other vehicles.

Trump had initially left Washington, D.C., for Davos last night on board a VC-25A Air Force One jet, which had to turn around “out of an abundance of caution” due to a “minor electrical issue,” according to the White House. The President, as well as other officials and members of the press, ultimately flew to Zurich aboard a smaller C-32A aircraft. A U.S. Marine Corps VH-60N Marine One helicopter then took Trump from Zurich to Davos, where a motorcade, which included at least two Escalades, as well as several Chevy Suburban SUVs, was waiting.

From what can be seen in pictures from Davos, the Escalades have very heavy armoring, especially around the front windshield and doors. They also have an array of antennas at the rear of the roof, as well as one at the front right above the driver’s seat. This is not surprising given that Secret Service vehicles used in the presidential motorcade typically have extensive secure communications suites that can connect with the White House communications vehicle, better known as the Roadrunner.

Details about the Secret Service Escalade are otherwise limited, though it is safe to assume it has a host of additional defensive and other features we cannot readily see. It is also unclear whether Trump has made use of a Secret Service Escalade before elsewhere. Based on the limited motorcade imagery we have reviewed taken over the last few months, we have not seen it. TWZ has reached out to the Secret Service and the White House for more information.

The Secret Service has certainly shuttled Trump (and other Presidents and Vice Presidents) around in the past in up-armored Chevy Suburbans, including during previous trips to Davos. Since the early 2000s, Suburbans have been used increasingly interchangeably with more eye-catching custom-built presidential limousines for presidential movements. The latter vehicles, nicknamed “Beasts,” externally resemble stretched Cadillac sedans, but are actually now built on a modified truck chassis. The Secret Service has disclosed in the past that the newest version incorporates internal design elements taken directly from the Escalade line. You can read more about the Beasts here.

The video below shows President Trump’s motorcade, full of Chevy Suburbans, in Davos in 2018.

25.01.2018 – Donald Trump arriva al WEF di Davos

There is a question of how new the Escalades may actually be. Though elements of their bodies are outwardly different, underneath, Suburbans and Escalades have shared the same core platform for decades. The Secret Service has already been using armored Suburbans of the same generation as the Escalades seen in Davos to move Trump for some time.

So are the Escalades really just the Secret Service’s existing armored Suburban base configuration that we have seen in the past, but given an Escalade facelift, including a new front fascia and chrome accents, among other features? They could also be Escalades of this generation customized identically to their Suburban counterparts for the role. It’s unclear at this time, but adapting the already custom-armored Suburban configuration that currently carries the President with a more grand look certainly would make sense, especially for Trump. Also, the latest Escalade model based on the newest generation of Suburban is now itself over half a decade old, making use of an even older generation of Escalade like this to develop an entirely new limo configuration questionable.

The Chevy Suburban family has been the SUV of choice for the Secret Service, as well as many other U.S. government agencies, for decades now. GM has separately developed a factory-standard up-armored Suburban configuration for the U.S. State Department in recent years.

However, last March, the Secret Service shared that Director Sean Curran had “met with GM executives to discuss advancements that could benefit the next generation of armored SUVs” in a post on X.

An accompanying picture from Curran’s visit with GM, seen below, showed an image on display at the GM site featuring a newer generation Escalade flanked by seals of the office of the President of the United States. The presence of the seals pointed to a configuration intended for use as a presidential limo role.

Reuters also reported last March that GM had received a new contract from the Homeland Security Department and the Secret Service for the development of a next-generation presidential limousine. Though that story mentioned Director Curran’s trip to GM, it did not explicitly say what vehicle the new limo might be based on or when it might enter service.

“We are too far out to speak to any specific costs or dates,” a Secret Service spokesperson had told Reuters last year. “Our engineering, protective operations and technical security teams work for years to develop the state-of-the-art framework that is used to produce these highly advanced vehicles.”

It is also worth noting that the most recent version of the Beast made its public debut in 2018 during President Trump’s first term when he visited New York City for that year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, as seen below. The Secret Service has said in the past that the custom vehicles have a typical life span of around eight years. With this timeline in mind, a new version could be on the cusp of entering service, if it hasn’t already.

(READ FULL DESCRIPTION) – PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP & MOTORCADE, USING BRAND NEW BEAST LIMOUSINES.

Regardless, the Secret Service has a clear imperative to keep its fleets as capable and otherwise up-to-date as possible to help in protecting the president, as well as other senior U.S. officials and foreign dignitaries. In the past, TWZ has highlighted the ever-growing threats posed by drones, including weaponized commercial types, as something the Secret Service also now has to factor into its vehicle requirements.

“Countering evolving threats require [sic] us to constantly explore new innovations and improvements to our armored fleet of protective vehicles,” the Secret Service wrote in the post on X last year regarding Director Curran’s meeting with GM.

If President Trump begins making more use of Secret Service Escalades, more details about those vehicles may begin to emerge.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

MICHELLE KEEGAN and Mark Wright have shared rare pictures of their baby girl Palma from a sun-soaked holiday in Abu Dhabi.

The trio have been enjoying some time away at the stunning Rixos Premium Saadiyat Island in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Both doting parents have taken to Instagram to share peeks into their beautiful holiday, with sweet snaps of their little girl.

Mark, 39, shared a series of pictures on his feed, including one of Palma crawling in the sand as the pair look down at her in pride.

In another photo, Michelle, 38, holding Palma in her arms while standing on the beach with the sun in full view in the background.

A third snap showed Mark holding Palma by the swimming pool as the tot wears a cute yellow sun hat on her head.

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He captioned the post: “Special memories spent with my 2 girls, my world. What a beautiful resort @rixospremiumsaddiyat thank you for having us.”

Meanwhile, Michelle took to her own page to post some similar pictures, with the first one being of her wearing a brown beach hat and white maxi dress while posing for a selfie.

She also shared pictures of the incredible resort as well as one of Palma wearing a yellow dress and standing by a fountain.

The former Coronation Street actress captioned hers: “Magic in the Middle East.”

Her followers flocked to the comments section, especially after seeing a rare glimpse of Palma.

One person gushed: “Bless her Palma crawling and standing already. That time has flown. Growing up so fast.”

Another social media user commented: “Awwwww look at Palma in her cute outfit.”

Somebody else enthused: “Awwwww beautiful. Holidays are the best with your baby xx.”

The Netflix star previously took to her stories to share some behind the scenes action from the holiday.

Covered in raspberries and an iPad, Michelle highlighted the tactical use of kids’ TV to get through a meal.

“The actual reality of coming out for a meal with a baby. Thank you Ms. Rachel for adding to the ambiance.”

She added: “Messy, messy girl.”

Michelle and Mark welcomed Palma into the world on March 6 last year.

They announced the happy news with a black and white photo of their baby swaddled in a crochet blanket.

The couple shared: “Together we have a new love to share. Our little girl. Palma Elizabeth Wright, 06.03.25.”

The first-time parents have kept their firstborn largely out of the spotlight, hiding her face from social media snaps to maintain her privacy.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun blasts Israel’s ‘policy of systematic aggression’ that directly targets civilians in Lebanon.

Israel said it attacked four crossing points on the Syria-Lebanon border, saying they were used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, following earlier attacks on southern Lebanon that killed at least two people and injured almost 20.

The latest Israeli violence on Wednesday comes despite a US-brokered ceasefire, which ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon in 2024 and which Israel has repeatedly violated.

“Once again, Israel is pursuing a policy of systematic aggression by carrying out air strikes on inhabited Lebanese villages, in a dangerous escalation that directly targets civilians,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“This repeated aggressive behaviour reaffirms Israel’s refusal to abide by its obligations arising from the cessation of hostilities agreement,” President Aoun said.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said at least 19 people were wounded in Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese town of Qanarit.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes bombed buildings in several south Lebanon villages and towns, including al-Kharayeb, al-Ansar, Qanarit, Kfour and Jarjouh, after the Israeli army issued warnings that it would carry out attacks on targets inside the country.

Earlier in the day, the Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani, in the Sidon district, killed one person. The ministry also said that an Israeli strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed another person.

The AFP news agency said its correspondent reported seeing a charred car on a main road in Sidon with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance. A photographer with the agency was also slightly wounded along with two other journalists who were working near the site of a heavy Israeli strike in Qanarit, where 19 people were injured.

The Israeli military said on social media that it targeted four border crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border used for “weapons transfer” and that it had also “eliminated” a “key Hezbollah weapons smuggler” in the Sidon area of southern Lebanon.

A Lebanese army statement decried the Israeli attacks that targeted “civilian buildings and homes” in a “blatant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty” and the ceasefire deal.

The Lebanese military also said such attacks “hinder the army’s efforts” to complete the disarmament plan for Hezbollah, which was part of the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons amid the ongoing Israeli attacks, which have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon despite the ceasefire signed in November 2024, according to a tally of casualties from AFP.

Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says it will launch more than 5,400 satellites to create a new communications network.

Named TeraWave, it will offer continuous internet access around the world, with the ability to move large amounts of data much more quickly than rival services.

But even after launching thousands of satellites, Blue Origin would still have far fewer in orbit than Elon Musk’s Starlink, which currently dominates the satellite internet market.

Starlink – part of Musk’s rocket firm SpaceX – also offers internet and phone services to individual customers, while Blue Origin says TeraWave will be focused on data centres, businesses and governments.

Blue Origin said its network, at its fastest, would allow upload and download speeds of as much as 6 terabits per second, much faster than rival commercial satellite services currently offer.

Another competitor to TeraWave is Amazon, the technology giant that made Bezos a multi-billionaire. He is still Amazon’s executive chairman after stepping down in 2021 as its chief executive.

Amazon’s satellite venture is called Leo. While it currently has only 80 satellites in orbit, having launched dozens more just last week, it plans to have more than 3,000 in orbit.

Like Starlink, Amazon is also more focused on the general public than businesses and governments, pitching Leo as a way to offer high-speed internet access globally. It has not said when all of the Leo satellites will be in orbit.

Blue Origin said it will start launching its TeraWave satellites by the end of 2027.

In November, the company successfully landed a rocket booster on a floating platform for the first time.

Only SpaceX had previously accomplished this feat.

In April, Blue Origin launched an 11-minute space flight with an all-female crew, including Bezos’ now-wife Lauren Sánchez, singer Katie Perry and CBS presenter Gayle King.

But some commentators said it was “tone deaf” for celebrities to be taking part in such a fleeting and expensive trip at a time of economic struggle.

Former National Basketball League (NBL) player AJ Ogilvy has publicly come out as gay.

The Australian basketball star, who played for the Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings, shared the news during a recent interview with out gay player Isaac Humphries.

At the start of their sit-down, which was in support of the NBL’s Pride Round event, Ogilvy reflected on his expansive career that ran from 2010 to 2022.  

“I was very lucky with my career. I got to travel the world and get paid to play basketball, which is, you know, such a privilege. [But] I probably didn’t live my life as authentically as I probably could have during my time in the NBL,” he explained.

Ogilvy went on to reveal that he’s been married to his husband for 18 months, adding that they met while he was playing in Sydney, Australia.

When Humphries asked Ogilvy if he kept his husband away from the team and his life as a basketball star, the latter revealed: ” While I was in Sydney, I probably kept it separate, but I also wasn’t, I guess, super discreet about it.

“Some of the guys probably knew. Nothing was, I guess, ever explicitly said, especially at your level of, you know, openness. While I was in Wongong, definitely more of the guys got to know him. A couple of the guys, my old teammates, were at the wedding.”

While discussing his coming-out journey, the 37-year-old athlete revealed that he initially planned to keep his sexuality private.

“I think part of it was I viewed it as just my business, but the world shifted probably in between our generations. Like when the marriage equality vote rolled around, I was very vocal about that while still not publicly saying, I’m a gay man,” he continued.

Despite initially planning to keep his sexuality away from the public, Ogilvy went on to say that Humphries’ historic coming-out announcement inspired him to embrace his identity. 

“A bunch of my friends started me the video, and were like, ‘Hey, did you see this about Isaac. It was just such a huge moment, not just in the MBL, but basketball and across really the world,” Ogilvy explained.

“[It] was hugely beneficial to have someone of your stature and attitude be able to step forward and proudly say, ‘This is who you are.’”

Elsewhere in the interview, the Sydney-born athlete opened up about the difficult moments he faced while trying to maintain a double life.

“I think for a long time it was, ‘I want to be a basketballer and to be a basketballer I had to be this, I have to present as straight. I have to not show this side of my personality,’” he continued.

“So I had two social media accounts. One that I’d use for basketball stuff, and one that I just had friends on where I could be more open. Growing up, it wasn’t just in basketball; it was like a media as a whole, it just wasn’t positive portrayals of gay relationships. It was more, ‘It’s going to be a sad life, a lonely life.’ [It] definitely weighed on me pretty heavily.”

Towards the end of their sit-down, Ogilvy praised the NBL’s Pride Round as another driving force behind his decision to publicly come out, adding: ” There’s now a place for us to have this conversation, for us to be able to talk as openly as this.”

Check out the pair’s full interview here or below.

Barcelona come from behind to beat Slavia Prague 4-2 to maintain their hopes of a top eight finish in the league phase.

Barcelona came from behind to defeat Slavia Prague 4-2 on a freezing night in the Champions League, with Fermin Lopez scoring twice and Dani Olmo and Robert Lewandowski adding second-half goals to secure the victory.

The win on Wednesday lifts Barcelona to ninth place in the standings with one game ⁠remaining on 13 points, level with seven other teams vying for a top-eight finish and direct qualification for the round ​of 16. Slavia languish third from bottom with just three points.

On a bitterly cold evening in ‍Prague, with temperatures dropping to -8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit), Slavia stunned the visitors with an early lead.

A cleverly worked corner in the 10th minute saw Tomas Holes flick a delivery from the near to the far post, where Vasil Kusej bundled the ball across the line ‍under pressure from ⁠Frenkie de Jong.

Barcelona levelled in the 34th minute through Lopez, who unleashed a sharp, angled strike from inside the box, squeezing the ball past keeper Jindrich Stanek at the near post after a faint deflection off the Slovak’s shoulder.

Lopez doubled his tally and gave Barcelona the lead in the 42nd minute with a fine effort from the edge of the box. The attacking midfielder found the bottom right corner with precision, leaving Stanek no chance.

Barca’s advantage lasted just two minutes as an unfortunate defensive mishap saw Slavia equalise. ​Under pressure defending a corner, Lewandowski inadvertently deflected the ball off his shoulder and into ‌his own net to send the teams into half-time level at 2-2.

After regrouping at the break, Barcelona took control of the game in the second half, relentlessly attacking Slavia’s defence.

Raphinha, Pedri and Lopez all squandered good opportunities before substitute Olmo produced a moment of magic. In ‌the 64th minute, he hammered an unstoppable strike from the edge of the box into the top corner, restoring Barcelona’s lead in emphatic style.

Lewandowski atoned for his earlier own ‌goal by sealing the victory in the 70th minute.

Marcus Rashford – another second-half ⁠substitute – went on a blistering run down the left flank and delivered a cross into the box. Although Lewandowski initially struggled to control the pass, he reacted quickly to poke the ball past Stanek and give Barcelona a two-goal cushion.

“We knew it would be a difficult match with ‌the cold weather, they’ve put a lot of pressure on us, it was tough … My feet and hands hurt, can barely feel them … It was tough, but we managed to come back and win,” Lopez told Movistar Plus.

“We were aware ‍that goal difference was something important. Looking to secure a top-eight finish, we wanted to keep a clean sheet, but it was difficult. Good thing we managed to play well and got the win.”

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced its latest immigration enforcement operation, this time in the northeastern state of Maine.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that immigration raids had begun a day earlier, under the name “Operation Catch of the Day”.

In a statement, a Trump administration spokesperson appeared to signal that targeting Maine was a political response to the ongoing feud between the president and the state’s governor, Democrat Janet Mills.

“Governor Mills and her fellow sanctuary politicians in Maine have made it abundantly clear that they would rather stand with criminal illegal aliens than protect law-abiding American citizens,” said spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

But rumours have swirled that Maine was singled out for its significant Somali American population in the cities of Portland and Lewiston. Estimates put the total number of Somali Americans in the state at about 3,000.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the Somali community over the past several months, comparing its members to “garbage” at a December cabinet meeting. As recently as Tuesday, he used his White House podium to call Somalis and Somali Americans “ a lot of very low IQ people”.

Racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric has been a trademark of Trump’s campaigns for public office, and he has repeatedly singled out specific groups – including Haitians and Mexicans – to falsely tie their immigrant identity to pervasive criminal activity.

Parallels with Minnesota

Trump’s focus on the Somali community comes after a handful of members were implicated in a fraud scandal in Minnesota, a midwestern state where immigration enforcement operations were launched in December.

Those efforts have been marked by violent clashes between federal agents and protesters, and one woman, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was shot dead in her car after an interaction with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Fears that those tensions could spill into Maine dominated a Wednesday news conference with city officials in Portland.

Mayor Mark Dion told reporters that immigrant communities in the region felt “anxious and fearful” as ICE agents began their crackdown.

“They see this action as unpredictable and a threat to their families,” he explained.

He also questioned whether a heavy-handed operation was necessary to address immigration infractions in the area, and he called on ICE to adopt different tactics than it had in Minnesota.

“I want to underscore one important point: While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach to the enforcement of federal statutes,” Dion said.

“Federal immigration law is lawful. Its administration and enforcement is lawful,” he added. “What we’ve been concerned with, as a council, is the enforcement tactics that ICE has undertaken in other communities, which to our mind appear to threaten and intimidate populations.”

Nevertheless, Dion expressed optimism that ICE would adopt a more tailored approach to apprehending local suspects.

While the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has seen nearly 2,000 immigration officers flood its streets, the mayor predicted that Maine would not see the same “massing of federal agents”.

“We’re seeing very individualised activity by ICE. A person here, a neighbourhood there,” he said. “Their conduct, at least as it is current in Maine, seems to be focused, which would indicate to me – and this is the speculation – that they’re functioning on the basis of an actual court warrant.”

That, he said, marked a departure from the “random, show-me-your-papers kind of experience” that residents had experienced in Minnesota.

Outrage at ICE operations

Still, while Dion advocated for a wait-and-see approach to the ICE operation, other city officials took a harder stance.

One Portland city councillor,  Wesley Pelletier, described the unfolding raids as part of “an agenda of white nationalism and might makes right”.

“This is a war of terror that’s being waged on our city by the federal government,” Pelletier said. “We’ve seen people of all ages getting thrown on the ground and getting thrown into trucks.”

So far, Fox News quoted ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde as saying the agency had made 50 arrests so far as part of operation “Catch of the Day”. Hyde added that ICE had identified nearly 1,400 individuals to detain in Maine.

Wednesday’s statement from the Department of Homeland Security highlighted four arrests as examples, showing people from Sudan, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Angola.

It described the four individuals as “the worst of the worst” and accused them of crimes ranging from aggravated assault to endangering the welfare of a child, though it was unclear in one case if the accusation had resulted in a conviction.

“We are no longer allowing criminal illegal aliens to terrorize American citizens,” McLaughlin said in the statement.

But Democratic officials in the state suggested that the Trump administration had refused to coordinate in the lead-up to “Catch of the Day”, heightening anxiety on the local level.

On January 14, nearly a week before the operation was launched, Governor Mills posted on social media that she had “attempted, unsuccessfully thus far, to confirm” the upcoming surge in federal immigration enforcement.

In a video statement, she said the state had reached out to local governments in Portland and Lewiston to prepare. She added that she too felt “angry” about the expected surge.

“Our goal, as always, will be to protect the safety and the rights of the people of Maine,” Mills said.

“To the federal government, I say this: If your plan is to come here to be provocative and to undermine the civil rights of Maine residents, do not be confused. Those tactics are not welcome here to the people of Maine.”

She also took a jab at the trend of federal agents using masks and other facial coverings to conceal their identities.

“Look, Maine knows what good law enforcement looks like because our law enforcement are held to high professional standards,” Mills said. “They are accountable to the law. And I’ll tell you this: They don’t wear a mask to shield their identities, and they don’t arrest people in order to fill a quota.”

A political rivalry

Mills and Trump have long been political adversaries, with their feud erupting in a public forum. In February last year, shortly after Trump returned to office for a second term, he hosted a White House gathering for governors, where he called out Mills personally.

“Is Maine here? The governor of Maine?” Trump said while outlining policies barring transgender athletes from sporting events. “Are you not going to comply with it?”

“I’m complying with state and federal law,” Mills responded. The tension escalated from there.

“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any, any federal funding,” Trump shot back.

“See you in court,” Mills replied.

“Good. I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a really easy one. And enjoy your life after, governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics,” he said.

The interaction made national news and cemented the frosty relationship between the two leaders, with Trump demanding an apology and slamming the Democratic governor for months afterwards.

His administration also took a series of escalating actions designed to target Mills, including launching an education probe in her state, suspending a marine research grant and freezing other federal funds to Maine.

In response to this week’s ICE deployment, Mills issued a short statement acknowledging the Trump administration’s latest efforts.

“Together, we will continue to place the safety and civil rights of Maine people above all else, and remain vigilant in our defense of due process and the rule of law,” she wrote.

Maine is set to hold its next gubernatorial race in 2026, as part of the year’s midterm election cycle.

Having served two terms as governor, Mills is not eligible for re-election and will instead be making a run for the US Senate, challenging Republican incumbent Susan Collins.

A “brujo,” a “magician,” “a social arsonist” and the “father of Chicano Theater” — these are just a few of the monikers that have been bestowed upon Luis Valdez over the course of his decades-long career. The 85-year-old filmmaker and playwright is responsible for “La Bamba” and “Zoot Suit,” films that raised a generation of Latinos and are now upheld as classics — both were inducted to the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Valdez awakened a movement, bringing Chicanos from the California fields he grew up working in to stages and screens all over the world. His stories shifted the frame, placing us at the forefront of the American story, allowing us to see our dreams, anxieties and struggles reflected back at us. In David Alvarado’s upcoming documentary, “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” it’s the celebrated storyteller’s turn to be on the other side of the lens.

The film traces Valdez’s beginnings as the son of migrant farmworkers in Delano, Calif., to his early days in theater helming El Teatro Campesino — a traveling performance troupe who worked alongside Cesar Chavez to mobilize farmworking communities, raising awareness about strikes and unions through skits and plays. Incorporating folk humor, satire and Mexican history, their work later evolved to include commentary on the Vietnam War, racism, inequality and Chicano culture more broadly.

Narrated by Edward James Olmos, who broke out as the enigmatic pachuco with killer style and a silver tongue in 1981’s “Zoot Suit,” the documentary was awarded the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film last year.

De Los spoke with Olmos and Alvarado ahead of the film’s world premiere on Thursday at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

David, what was your introduction to Luis’ work? And how did it influence you as a filmmaker?

David Alvarado: I grew up watching things like “La Bamba” with my dad, and it made a huge impression on me, but at the time, as a kid, I didn’t really know the name Luis Valdez. Then in 2006, I was an undergrad at the University of North Texas, and I got a Hispanic Scholarship Award. At the celebration, Luis gave a speech and I was just blown away. I was a young wannabe filmmaker trying to learn how to make movies, and somebody like me was up there onstage telling a story about how he got there. I felt really inspired and I always carried that with me. Then in 2021, I was at a juncture in my career where I had told these science and technology stories, and I loved it, but I wanted to do something more personal. I thought back to Luis Valdez. Where was his story? So I reached out to him and that’s where this all started.

Mr. Olmos, your breakthrough came from playing El Pachuco in “Zoot Suit,” first in the play and then the film. What was your first impression of the story?

Edward James Olmos: I remember I had been doing theater for years, and I was walking out of an audition for another play at the Mark Taper Forum when I heard someone say, “Hey, do you want to try out for a play?” And I said, “Excuse me?” And she said, “Well, do you or don’t you?” And I said, “OK, what do you want me to do?” I didn’t know who she was, or what the play was about, but the next day, I was standing there with 300 other guys getting handed a little piece of paper with the opening monologue [for “Zoot Suit.”] I knew from reading it that this was serious, really serious, so I just became the character immediately.

I remember when they called me and asked me to do the role, it was on a Friday night, around 8 o’clock, and they were going to start rehearsals on Monday morning. I hadn’t gotten any phone calls, so I thought [the part] was gone. Then all of a sudden, the phone rang and they asked me if I wanted the role of El Pachuco. I said it would be my honor, my privilege. I hung up the phone and I slid down the side of the wall crying. I just completely lost it.

DA: Eddie really stole the show. I mean, it’s just undeniable. What he brought [to the production] was exactly what Luis was looking for, and I think it’s what Chicanos wanted to see and hear at the time. He really struck a nerve, and that was a huge part of the success of “Zoot Suit.” What Luis tapped into with this collaboration with Eddie, with the Teatro Campesino, or later with “La Bamba,” that was his gift: finding people who could represent the true nature of what it means to be Chicano.

(Elizabeth Sunflower / Retro Photo Archive / Sundance Institute )

There’s so much incredible archival footage here from the Teatro Campesino. What was your reaction to seeing some of that early work?

EJO: That footage is priceless, and that’s one of the reasons this movie is really important, because Luis is truly someone that has given our culture a voice. He gave me my voice. When you want to learn about a culture, you try to study what’s been written about them, any documentation or books, but nothing compares to their art. Right now, I’m working on a piece with Luis called “Valley of the Heart,” a play that he wrote over the last 12 years. It’s a never-been-told love story between a Mexican American and a Japanese American in an internment camp during World War II. It’s been difficult to make, but once people see it, they’re going to be thankful because it doesn’t matter what culture you are, the humanity of it comes through. That’s how people will feel after seeing David’s documentary, too. It’s inspiring.

DA: I think people are ready for the real story of America. I mean, the documentary and “Valley of the Heart” are part of American history, they talk about a real American experience, and it’s not the kind that people hear anymore. People are thirsty for that kind of authenticity, and to re-evaluate what the American story really is.

One of the core themes within the documentary is how we as Chicanos view the American Dream: Can we achieve it by being ourselves, or do we have to assimilate? We see that identity struggle play out as Luis and his brother, Frank, take different approaches in their lives, and it’s later paralleled in the story of “La Bamba.”

DA: That’s such a core pillar of the film. We all want the American Dream, but what that dream is confusing to a lot of people. The quest to get there through assimilation is something that Chicanos, Latinos and other immigrants have tried at the expense of their own heritage and identity. They give it all up and lay it at the altar of the American Dream. They try to fit in, and be this other thing, and so often, that doesn’t work. In his own life, Luis’ answer to that was if America is supposed to be this multicultural beacon of democracy, then let’s have a space for Chicanos to play a role there. I’ll retain my culture and be an American.

He and his brother tried to make it together, but they weren’t taking the same approach. In Frank’s story, that caused him a lot of pain, and he never quite made it that way. Luis, in very important ways, did make it. The fact that his work speaks to those themes, and was part of his personal life, I couldn’t leave that on the editing room floor.

In the documentary, we see the triumph of “Zoot Suit” being the first Chicano production on Broadway, and then the crush of it being panned by critics who didn’t seem to get it. Mr. Olmos, you say that the reaction wasn’t a loss for you all, it was a loss for America. What did you mean by that?

EJO: Well, because it wasn’t going to be spread around the country and understood. To me, the theater is magic. When it really works, it’s amazing. But [those negative reviews] stopped us from that growth process. There was one critic from the New York Times, Richard Eder, who said it was street theater on the wrong street.

I have to tell you, though, the people who were given the opportunity to see that play in New York, even after the critics panned it, always gave us a cheering standing ovation at the end. They burned the house down every single night. Even in L.A., that play was monumental. But that criticism hurt Luis badly, it hurt us all. I think if we’d gone through Arizona, Texas, Chicago, Miami before hitting New York, we would’ve been a powerhouse that would still be running today. It’s one of those stories that deserves to be revived over and over again.

The story of “Zoot Suit” is set in the 1940s, during a time of intense scrutiny and discrimination for Mexican Americans. How did the story resonate in the 1980s, and what do you think it has to tell us now?

EJO: People came from all over the world to watch the play, but Latinos kept coming back. Some of them had never been to a theater before in their lives, and they were bringing in family, friends to come and see it every weekend. It was a beautiful experience, one that was like giving a glass of water to somebody in the middle of the desert. They cherished us for giving them the opportunity. Now, we’re needed more today than we were even then. Today’s time is uglier than almost any time.

DA: It’s ugly, and it’s crass. We’ve had so long to try to figure out racism and get the American experiment back on track, and yet it just feels so depressing. Like when is the cycle going to end? At the same time, I hope that there’s a little bit of optimism in the film that the community can come together, and that we can find a way through this.

The documentary does a great job of showcasing the power of art. The performances from the Teatro de Campesinos allowed the farmworkers to really see themselves in a way that helped build a movement and made for a successful collective action. What do you hope this documentary can teach a new generation of Latinos today?

DA: For me, it’s to understand who you are, and to do what it takes to make it work here in America. When Luis spoke to me from that lectern, the thing that really got me going was that he said, “Whatever it is that you’re trying to do, whatever your project is, just stop doubting yourself and do it.” I remember thinking, “Oh my God. Maybe I can be a filmmaker. Maybe I could tell stories for a living.” So I hope that that’s clear in the film: that if you believe in yourself, you can fit into America, you can make a place for yourself.

But also, know that creation is an act of joy, and that the whole point of life is to find happiness and share it with other people. Despite all the heavy things we’ve talked about so far, I do want to point out the film is a joyful one of exploration. Luis has his moments when the world pushes back on him so hard, and it’s painful, but he just has so much love to give, and that’s the point of making art. I want people to walk away thinking that they can do it too.

EJO: David nailed it. That’s it exactly.

United States President Donald Trump has said he would not take over Greenland by ​force, but he stuck firmly to his demand for control over the Danish territory during a speech in Davos, Switzerland. He also hinted at consequences if his ambitions were thwarted.

“People thought I ‌would use force, but I don’t have to use force,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum annual meeting.

He announced afterwards on his Truth Social platform that he had arrived at a “framework of a future deal” with respect to claiming Greenland, after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

The details of that framework remain unknown, but Trump agreed to lift the tariffs he had threatened to slap on European allies starting February 1.

Here are the key takeaways from his Davos speech:

‘Would you like me to say a few words on Greenland?’

Trump opened his remarks about Greenland with an attempt at humour.

“I was going to leave it out of the speech, but I think I would have been reviewed very negatively,” he quipped.

After a lengthy critique of Denmark, which he claimed was too weak to protect Greenland, Trump repeated his key position on the territory.

“We need it for strategic national security and international security. This enormous, unsecured island is actually part of North America. That’s our territory,” he said.

Trump proceeded to assert that no nation other than the US can secure Greenland, and that it was therefore essential for European leaders to turn the self-governing island over to US control.

“I’m seeking immediate negotiations to once again to discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States,” Trump said.

He proceeded to describe the NATO alliance as a money sink for the US, one that failed to offer the country any benefits.

“We never asked for anything, and we never got anything,” Trump said.

The president’s remarks failed to acknowledge NATO’s assistance after the attacks on September 11, 2001, when the US invoked the alliance’s collective defence clause and member states sent military air defence in response.

Still, Trump continued to portray NATO as a moot investment, one that would not yield benefits unless forced.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force, where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” he said.

“That’s probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”

Earlier this month, White House officials said Trump was considering “a range of options” for acquiring Greenland, including military action. At Davos, Trump again issued a warning to Denmark, setting an ultimatum to hand over Greenland.

“We’ve never asked for anything else. And we could have kept that piece of land, and we didn’t. So they have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no, and we will remember,” he said.

Hours later, the US president announced the “framework” for a Greenland deal, though it is unclear to what extent Denmark or Greenland had input or what the deal might look like.

Rutte later told Fox News that the issue of Greenland’s sovereignty did not come up in their conversation.

‘You follow us down, and you follow us up’

Speaking about the US economy and its global influence, Trump described the US as the driving force of global growth.

“The USA is the economic engine on the planet. And when America booms, the entire world booms. It’s been the history,” Trump said.

“When it goes bad, it goes bad,” he added. “You all follow us down, and you follow us up. And we’re at a point that we’ve never – I don’t believe we’ve ever been. I never thought we could do it this quickly.”

Trump, who returned to the White House for a second term in 2025, said he had expected economic improvements to take longer.

“My biggest surprise is I thought it would take more than a year, maybe like a year and one month. But it’s happened very quickly.”

He then turned his attention to Europe, offering a bleak assessment of the continent’s trajectory. Trump blamed the continent’s challenges on policies related to green energy and migration, without providing evidence to support the claim.

“Certain places in Europe are not recognisable, frankly, any more. They’re not recognisable,” Trump said, echoing anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“I want to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction.”

Tariffs and the trade deficit

Defending his prolific use of tariffs and other protectionist trade policies, Trump credited the measures with chipping away at the US’s trade deficit and boosting domestic production.

“With tariffs, we’ve radically reduced our ballooning trade deficit, which was the largest in world history. We were losing more than $1 trillion every single year, and it was just wasted. It was going to waste,” Trump said.

“But in one year, I slashed our monthly trade deficit by a staggering 77 percent. And all of this with no inflation, something everyone said could not be done,” he added.

Trump also pointed to what he described as gains in exports, manufacturing and industrial capacity as evidence of the policy’s success.

“During the process, we’ve made historic trade deals with partners covering 40 percent of all US trade, some of the greatest companies and countries in the world. We have countries as our partners, too. The European nations, Japan, South Korea, they’re our partners,” he said.

Trump on Venezuela: ‘Going to do fantastically well’

Speaking about Venezuela’s economy and oil sector, Trump said the country had suffered a sharp decline because of past policies under socialist leaders like Nicolas Maduro and the late Hugo Chavez.

But he forecast that the South American country is now poised for a rapid turnaround, driven in part by cooperation with the US and international energy companies.

Trump has taken an active interest in Venezuela’s governance since a January 3 military operation to abduct Maduro and transport him to the US to face criminal charges. He has since confirmed that the US has extracted 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela following Maduro’s ouster.

“Venezuela has been an amazing place for so many years, but then they went bad with their policies,” Trump said.

“Twenty years ago, it was a great country, and now it’s got problems. But we’re helping them. And those 50 million barrels, we’re going to be splitting up with them, and they’ll be making more money than they’ve made in a long time.”

Trump proceeded to praise the interim government of President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president, for cooperating with his ambitions in Venezuela.

“Venezuela is going to do fantastically well,” Trump said.

“We appreciate all of the cooperation we’ve been given. We’ve been given great cooperation. Once the attack ended, the attack ended, and they said, ‘Let’s make a deal.’ More people should do that.”

He went on to predict a dramatic economic recovery for the oil-rich nation, citing renewed foreign investment and support from major energy firms.

“Venezuela is going to make more money in the next six months than they’ve made in the last 20 years,” he said.

“Every major oil company is coming in with us. It’s amazing. It’s a beautiful thing to see. The leadership of the country has been very good. They’ve been very, very smart.”

Onto the topic of energy

Trump then turned to energy policy, highlighting a shift in his stance on nuclear power and reiterating his longstanding criticism of renewable energy.

“We’re going heavy into nuclear. I was not a big fan because I didn’t like the risk, the danger, but the progress they’ve made with nuclear is unbelievable, and the safety progress they’ve made is incredible,” Trump said.

“We’re very much into the world of nuclear energy, and we can have it now at good prices and very, very safe.”

His statements follow a news release from the US Department of Energy on Tuesday that announced Trump would be “unleashing America’s next nuclear renaissance” by expanding infrastructure to create such energy.

Trump has also grown his personal business ties with private nuclear power firms. In December, the Trump Media and Technology Group, of which Trump is the majority owner, announced a $6bn merger with TAE Technologies, a fusion energy company.

While Trump has warmed to nuclear power, he doubled down on his opposition to green energy initiatives designed to combat climate change. Calling such efforts the “Green New Scam” – his spin on the “Green New Deal” – he blamed Europe’s economic wobbles on efforts to embrace renewable technology.

“There are windmills all over Europe. There are windmills all over the place, and they are losers. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing,” he told his audience at Davos.

‘Canada should be grateful’

From his podium, Trump also responded to Tuesday’s remarks from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, Carney had encouraged world leaders to prepare for a future without US leadership and warned that the “great powers” of the world appeared to be abandoning “even the pretence of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power”.

While Carney did not explicitly mention Trump, it was clear his remarks were aimed at the US leader. Trump replied more directly during his turn at the Davos podium.

“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us,” Trump said.

“They should be grateful. But they’re not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Trump says he is meeting Zelenskyy

Trump also spoke about the war in Ukraine, and his efforts to mediate between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I’m dealing with President Putin, and he wants to make a deal,” Trump said.

“I believe I’m dealing with President Zelenskyy, and I think he wants to make a deal. I’m meeting him today. He might be in the audience right now.”

A post on Zelenskyy’s social media account, however, showed the Ukrainian leader at his presidential office in Kyiv on Wednesday, holding a meeting on the energy situation following Russian strikes. His office confirmed he is in Ukraine, not at Davos.

Still, Trump insisted that he would help navigate Ukraine and Russia to an end to their war, which began nearly four years ago in February 2022.

“They’ve got to get that war stopped. Because too many people are dying, needlessly dying. Too many souls are being lost. It’s the only reason I’m interested in doing it. But in doing it, I’m helping Europe. I’m helping NATO,” he said.

‘Those beautiful sunglasses’

At one point in his meandering speech, Trump stopped to poke fun at French President Emmanuel Macron, mocking the aviator sunglasses he wore to Davos.

“I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?” Trump asked.

Macron’s office said the choice to wear sunglasses during his speech, which took place indoors, was to protect his eyes because of a burst blood vessel.