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Keys had previously insisted she would refuse to eat the delicacy, but she admitted defeat and said she would accept the terms of the wager.

“A bet is a bet, so I’ll do it. I hope it’s less gross than I think it’s going to be but we’ll find out I guess,” Keys said in her post-match news conference.

Had the ninth seed won the fourth-round match and continued her title defence, Keys’ side of the bet involved Pegula – whose billionaire parents own NFL side Buffalo Bills – wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey.

“She wanted me to wear a [Travis] Kelce slash Taylor Swift Chiefs jersey,” Pegula said. “Honestly I had a lot of motivation today not to wear that.”

The 2024 US Open finalist wrote “no Chiefs jersey today” on a courtside camera lens after her victory and the pair were seen chatting and laughing in the locker room straight after the match.

Keys, who beat Sabalenka in last year’s final at Melbourne Park, said she was “still really proud of herself” despite her exit.

“Coming back and being defending champion, and dealing with all of the extra pressure and nerves – I am really proud of myself for the way I handled it,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Sanad unit analysed satellite images, finding that Israel razed homes in the weeks since the ceasefire began.

The Israeli army is working to flatten the remains of homes in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoon, despite the ongoing ceasefire that began in October.

Al Jazeera’s digital investigations team Sanad analysed satellite images taken between October 8 – two days before the ceasefire began – and January 8, and found evidence of the operation, which some Palestinians fear may be a step towards the establishment of illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza.

Sanad found that the Israeli army has used bulldozers to clear around 408,000 square metres (4.39 million square feet) of land, including the remains of at least 329 homes, and agricultural sites, that Israel destroyed during its two-year war on Gaza.

Images from before the clearing operation show a Beit Hanoon with damaged buildings from the war, but some remained intact.

But by mid-December, many of the buildings had been totally razed, as well as former agricultural land, replaced by a flattened brown landscape.

The rubble-removal operations began directly at the edge of Beit Hanoon, facing the fence that separates the city from nearby Israeli settlements along the northern border, including Sderot, which is roughly 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from Beit Hanoon.

Israel has damaged or destroyed the majority of structures in Gaza – 81 percent by last October, according to the United Nations. Northern Gaza has borne the brunt of the damage, with many areas, such as Beit Hanoon, systematically razed to the ground.

Settlement plans

The Israeli far right has consistently openly declared its desire for Israeli Jews to settle Gaza. In December 2024, Israeli ministers and parliament members visited a location in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, overlooking the Gaza Strip. They pointed at Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya, stating that more than 800 Jewish families were willing to move there “as soon as possible”, according to a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Additionally, at an Israeli conference held on December 23, Defence Minister Israel Katz outlined plans to establish agricultural-military bases called “Nava Nahal” – Israeli military outposts that combine farming with an armed presence in an effort to consolidate control over a territory – in the north of Gaza.

Katz stressed that Israel “will never withdraw and will never leave Gaza”, calling these bases “replacements” for the Israeli settlements cleared in 2005. That was the year Israel withdrew its settlers from the Gaza Strip under a unilateral disengagement plan following the second Intifada.

The withdrawal continues to be a sore topic for the powerful Israeli far right, which considers it a mistake that must be corrected.

And even if settlements are not eventually built, Israeli leaders have made it clear that they want to control a buffer zone deep into Gaza, territory that would eventually include areas like Beit Hanoon.

One Israeli officer, quoted in the Long War Journal, said that the campaign to raze Beit Hanoon was part of an operation “to create a significant security perimeter and make it very difficult for the enemy to return to its infrastructure”.

Israel’s critics say the goal is clear. Speaking to Al Jazeera, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese said that “under the fog of war, Israel is going to destroy Gaza, displace the Palestinians, and attempt to reoccupy and conquer the land”.

Israel has violated the ceasefire at least 1,300 times since it began on October 10, which includes shooting at civilians 430 times and bombing or shelling Gaza more than 600 times.

Convoy carrying food and fuel reaches Kurdish-majority town, also known as Kobane, in Aleppo province.

A United Nations convoy carrying “life-saving” aid has arrived in the Kurdish-majority town of Ain al-Arab in northern Syria as a ceasefire agreement between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continues to hold.

The convoy’s arrival in Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobane, on Sunday came amid growing concerns about humanitarian conditions in the town, which has been surrounded by Syrian government forces.

Electricity and water in the town have also been cut off for days.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the convoy consisted of 24 trucks carrying “life-saving aid, including fuel, bread, and ready-to-eat rations, to support people affected by the recent developments”.

It said the convoy was coordinated with the Syrian government.

The Syrian army said in a statement that it was opening two corridors, one to Ain al-Arab, located in Aleppo province, and another to the nearby Hasakah province, to allow “the entry of aid”.

Ain al-Arab, which has a population of 400,000 people, is hemmed in by the Turkish border to the north and government forces on all sides. It is approximately 200km (125 miles) from the SDF’s stronghold in Syria’s far northeast.

The SDF has accused the Syrian army of imposing a siege on the town.

Clashes between the two sides erupted earlier this month amid a dispute over the integration of the SDF into the Syrian army. Under pressure from the United States, the two sides agreed to a four day ceasefire last week, with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa giving the SDF until Saturday night ‍to lay down arms and come up with a plan to integrate with the army, or to resume fighting.

The two sides extended the ceasefire by another 15 days on Saturday.

Damascus said the renewed truce was intended to support a US operation to transfer some 7,000 detainees from the ISIL (ISIS) group held in prisons previously under SDF control to facilities in Iraq.

By Sunday night, however, the two sides were trading accusations of violations.

The Syrian army told state media that the SDF had targeted its positions with drones.

The SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of attacks around Ain al-Arab, including one that killed a child.

The SD, which has lost large areas of the country to the army, have now been restricted to Kurdish-majority areas in the northeast and Ain al-Arab.

Residents of the town say it was full of people who had fled the Syrian army’s advances in the northeast in recent weeks.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Qere Qozaq in Aleppo province, said the arrival of the UN aid convoy came amid reports of worsening humanitarian conditions in Ain al-Arab.

“But these negotiated solutions, getting humanitarian aid in, remain very fragile, with both sides still primed to return to fighting as and when they feel it is needed,” he said.

“Whether the ceasefire holds or not, whether the fighting continues, these are all question marks. But there is one certainty: as long as the fighting carries on, rebuilding cannot happen,” he added.

Ain al-Arab, which the SDF liberated from a lengthy siege by ISIL in 2015, took on symbolic value as their first major victory against the armed group. It took another four years for the SDF, supported by a US-led international coalition, to defeat ISIL territorially in Syria.

Syria’s new government, which took power in 2024 after the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, has demanded that the SDF disband.

The US, meanwhile, has said the purpose of its alliance with the SDF has largely ended.

Ukrainian leader says Kyiv and Moscow continue to have ‘fundamentally different’ positions on territorial concessions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that an agreement on US security guarantees for his country is “100 percent ready” to be signed after talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking at a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was ready to send the agreement to the US Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification.

“For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100 percent ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader also emphasised Ukraine’s push for European Union membership by 2027, calling it an “economic security guarantee”.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on Friday and Saturday to discuss Washington’s framework for ending Moscow’s almost four-year-old war.

While no deal emerged from the talks, Moscow and Kyiv both said they were open to further dialogue, and more discussions were expected next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, a US official told reporters immediately after the discussions.

Zelenskyy described the talks as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides.

The Ukrainian leader acknowledged fundamental differences between the Ukrainian and Russian positions, reaffirming territorial issues as a major sticking point.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a Ukraine settlement with US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, during marathon talks late on Thursday.

The Kremlin insisted that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but has not fully captured.

Zelenskyy said that while Moscow wants Ukraine to abandon eastern regions of the country, Kyiv has not budged from its position that territorial integrity must be upheld.

“These are two fundamentally different positions – Ukraine’s and Russia’s. The Americans are trying to find a compromise,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “all sides must be ready for compromise”.

Here is where things stand on Monday, January 25:

Fighting

• More than 1,300 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, were still without heating following Russia’s missile and drone attacks on Saturday, according to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko.
• Over the past week alone, Russia launched more than 1,700 attack drones, at least 1,380 guided aerial bombs, and 69 missiles on Ukraine, mainly targeting the energy sector, critical infrastructure, and residential buildings, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• The Ukrainian leader told reporters during a visit to Lithuania that the continuing Russian attacks make it necessary for Ukraine to acquire more air defences, even while the country negotiates a ceasefire deal with Moscow.
• In Russia, the governor of the border region of Belgorod said Ukrainian forces launched a “massive” attack on its main town, damaging energy infrastructure, but causing no casualties.

Diplomacy

• Zelenskyy told reporters in Lithuania that a US document on security guarantees for Ukraine is “100 percent ready”, and that Kyiv is waiting for a time and place for it to be signed.
• He also indicated that trilateral talks with Russia and the US in Abu Dhabi over the weekend made some progress, saying: “[In Abu Dhabi] the 20-point [US] plan and ‌problematic issues are being discussed. There were many problematic issues, but now, there are fewer.”
• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, after meeting Zelenskyy, said that Russia is avoiding committing to a lasting and just peace in Ukraine and is not accepting a ceasefire in the war.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will never discuss anything with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, and so Moscow will simply wait for her to leave her post.
• Pope Leo said in his weekly Angelus prayer at the Vatican that ongoing Russian attacks against Ukraine were leaving civilians in the country exposed to the cold of winter, and called for an end to the conflict.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited an art studio to guide the creation of sculptures to be displayed at a memorial for the estimated 6,000 North Korean troops who died fighting overseas, according to state media KCNA. Pyongyang deployed some 14,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, according to Western sources.
• France has detained the Indian captain of an oil tanker suspected of belonging to Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet”, prosecutors said. Authorities said the vessel, named the Grinch, failed to fly a flag. It is now moored, under guard, near Marseille.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Coastguard says at least 215 people have been rescued, while a search for 144 missing people is ongoing.

A ferry carrying more than 350 people has capsized off the southern Philippine province of Basilan, killing at least seven people, according to officials.

The ⁠accident occurred after midnight on Monday ​as the passenger vessel, MV Trisha Kerstin ‍3, was en route to Jolo Island in southern Sulu province, having departed the port city of Zamboanga.

The Philippine coastguard said the vessel ‍had 332 ⁠passengers on record and 27 crew.

Coastguard Commander Romel Dua of Southern Mindanao District told DZBB radio that 215 people had been rescued and seven bodies recovered, while search and ​rescue operations continued for 144 ‌others who remained missing.

Dua said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the accident.

Arsina Laja Kahing-Nanoh, the town mayor in Basilan province, said in a post on Facebook that there were at least “eight confirmed casualties” from the sinking of the ferry. She posted a video of coastguard personnel rescuing several people and hauling bodies from the water into a boat.

In a separate video statement, Kahing-Nanoh added that rough seas and the darkness were hampering the search and rescue operation.

Basilan emergency responder Ronalyn Perez told the AFP news agency that “at least 138 people” had so far been rescued.

“The challenge here really is the number of patients that are coming in. We are short-staffed at the moment,” Perez said, adding that 18 people had been brought to one local hospital.

The PCG said rescue efforts were still ongoing.

Dua, the coastguard commander in Mindanao, said the cause of the ferry sinking was not immediately clear and that there would be an investigation. He added that the coastguard cleared the ferry before it left the Zamboanga port, and there was no sign of overloading.

Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained vessels, overcrowding and spotty enforcement of safety regulations, especially in remote provinces.

On Friday, at least two Filipino sailors were reported killed, and 15 others were rescued after a Singapore-flagged general cargo vessel en route to China from the southern island of Mindanao sank. Four other sailors remain missing.

In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the central Philippines, killing more than 4,300 people in the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.

As protests erupt in Minnesota following the killing of US citizens by federal agents, President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. Former US Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein argues that would be a terrible idea.

A United States aircraft carrier strike group is heading towards the Gulf as tensions build with Iran.

The US military last staged a major build-up in the Middle East in June – days before striking three Iranian nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war with Tehran.

This month, US President Donald Trump backed antigovernment protesters in Iran. “Help is on its way,” he told them as the government cracked down. But last week, he dialled down the military rhetoric. The protests have since been quashed.

So what are the US military assets moving to the Gulf? And is the US preparing to strike Iran again?

Why is the US moving warships?

Trump said on Thursday that a US “armada” is heading towards the Gulf region with Iran being its focus.

US officials said an aircraft carrier strike group and other assets are to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days.

“We’re watching Iran. We have a big force going towards Iran,” Trump said.

“And maybe we won’t have to use it. … We have a lot of ships going that direction. Just in case, we have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens,” he added.

The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln changed its path from the South China Sea more than a week ago towards the Middle East. Its carrier strike group includes Arleigh Burke-class destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking targets deep inside Iran.

The US military vessels en route to the Middle East are also equipped with the Aegis combat system, which provides air and missile defence against ballistic and cruise missiles and other aerial threats.

When Washington hit Iran’s nuclear sites, US forces reportedly launched 30 Tomahawk missiles from submarines and carried out strikes with B-2 bombers.

When asked on Thursday if he wanted Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to step down, Trump replied: “I don’t want to get into that, but they know what we want. There is a lot of killing.”

He also reiterated claims that his threats to use force stopped authorities in Iran from executing more than 800 people who had taken part in the protests, a claim denied by Iranian officials.

An unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency that additional air defence systems were being considered for the Middle East, which could be critical to guard against an Iranian strike on US bases in the region.

Iranian state media said the protests killed 3,117 people, including 2,427 civilians and members of the security forces.

How widespread is the US military presence in the Middle East?

The US has operated military bases in the Middle East for decades and has 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers stationed there.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the US operates a broad network of military sites, both permanent and temporary, at at least 19 locations in the region.

Of these, eight are permanent bases, located in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The first US deployment of soldiers in the Middle East was in July 1958 when combat troops were sent to Beirut. At its height, almost 15,000 Marines and Army soldiers were in Lebanon.

The US naval movement towards Iran was ordered despite a new National Defense Strategy being released on Friday. The document is drawn up every four years by the Department of Defense, and the latest security blueprint outlines a pullback of US forces in other parts of the world to prioritise security in the Western Hemisphere.

How has Iran responded?

Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who heads coordination between Iran’s army and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned on Thursday that any military strike on Iran would turn all US bases in the region into “legitimate targets”.

General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, said two days later that Iran is “more ready than ever, finger on the trigger”.

He warned Washington and Israel “to avoid any miscalculation”.

This month, Washington had withdrawn some personnel from its bases in the Middle East after Tehran threatened to hit them if Washington launched strikes on its territory.

In a piece in The Wall Street Journal newspaper on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said Tehran would be “firing back with everything we have” if attacked.

“An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House,” he said.

Has air traffic stopped?

Not completely, but the build-up of tensions between the US and Iran has led to the suspension of some flights.

Over the weekend, Air France cancelled two flights from Paris to Dubai. It said it “continuously monitors the geopolitical situation in the territories served and overflown by its aircraft in order to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security”. It has since resumed its flights.

Luxair postponed its flight on Saturday from Luxembourg to Dubai by 24 hours “in light of ongoing tensions and insecurity affecting the region’s airspace, and in line with measures taken by several other airlines”, the carrier said in a statement to The Associated Press news agency.

Arrivals at Dubai International Airport showed the cancellation of Saturday’s flights from Amsterdam by the Dutch carriers KLM and Transavia. Some KLM flights to Tel Aviv, Israel, were also cancelled on Friday and Saturday.

Did the US impose new sanctions on Iran?

In line with its continuing effort to ramp up pressure on Tehran, the US imposed sanctions on Friday on a fleet of nine ships and their owners whom Washington accused of transporting hundreds of millions of dollars in Iranian oil to foreign markets in violation of sanctions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sanctions were imposed because of Iran’s “shutdown of internet access to conceal its abuses” against its citizens during its crackdown on the nationwide protests.

The sanctions “target a critical component of how Iran generates the funds used to repress its own people”, Bessent said.

US officials said the nine targeted vessels – sailing under the flags of Palau, Panama and other jurisdictions – are part of a shadow fleet that smuggles sanctioned goods, notably from Russia and Iran.

Protests began in Iran on December 28, triggered by the collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial, and intensified over the next two weeks

On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution that condemned Iran for the deadly protest crackdown.

Ali Bahreini, Iran’s envoy at the meeting in Geneva, reiterated his government’s claim that 3,117 people died during the unrest, 2,427 of whom were killed by “terrorists” armed and funded by the US, Israel and their allies.

“It was ironic that states whose history was stained with genocide and war crimes now attempted to lecture Iran on social governance and human rights,” he said.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it has confirmed at least 5,137 deaths during the protests and is investigating 12,904 others.

Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, has demanded that US President Donald Trump pull “untrained” federal immigration agents out of the state after Border Patrol agents shot and killed a demonstrator in Minneapolis, the second such death in the city amid the ongoing crackdown.

As calls for an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, grow, Walz posed a question directly to Trump during a news briefing on Sunday.

“What’s the plan, Donald Trump?” he asked, adding, “What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?”

The questions came after senior Trump administration officials defended Pretti’s killing, despite graphic video evidence appearing to contradict their accounts.

Federal agents shot and killed Pretti on Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in Minneapolis, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car.

Trump’s administration claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the agents, as it did after Good’s death, pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him.

However, videos shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing about 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with a chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.

The videos further inflamed the ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal immigration agents, with about 1,000 people participating in a demonstration on Sunday.

“The victims are border patrol agents,” Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander-at-large, told CNN’s State of the Union programme.

This official line, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the Trump administration on Sunday, ⁠led to outrage among local law enforcement, many Minneapolis residents and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Democratic strategist Arshad Hasan said Pretti’s killing and its aftermath were “deeply unsettling” and accused federal agents of turning a low‑crime city into an “occupation”.

“I don’t know why a government agency should get particular exemptions from due process when somebody is murdered… Homicide is a crime for which the state and local law enforcement have jurisdiction,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the community was “grieving” and feeling “under siege”.

Holding a phone, not a gun

Videos from the scene show ​Pretti holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who had been pushed to the ground by agents.

As one video begins, Pretti ‍can be seen filming while a federal agent pushes away one woman and shoves another woman to the ground. Pretti moves between the agent and the women, then raises his left arm to shield himself as the agent pepper-sprays him.

Several agents then take hold of Pretti – who struggles with them – and force him onto his hands and knees. As the agents pin Pretti down, someone shouts what sounds like a warning about the presence of a gun.

Video footage then appears to show one of the agents removing a gun from Pretti and stepping ‍away from the group with it.

Moments ⁠later, an officer with a handgun points at Pretti’s back and fires four shots in quick succession. Several more shots can then be heard as another agent appears to fire at Pretti.

Darius Reeves, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) field office in Baltimore, told the Reuters news agency that federal agents’ apparent lack of communication was troubling. “It’s clear no one is communicating… based on my observation of how that team responded,” Reeves said.

He drew attention to signs that an officer appeared to have taken possession of Pretti’s weapon before he was killed. “The proof to me is how everyone scatters,” he said. “They are looking around, trying to figure out where the shots came from.”

After top federal officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement on Saturday, condemning the Trump administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.

US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press programme, said that an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing.

Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said, “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”

Multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing and for cooperation with local authorities. “There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.

Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants.

Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday, when he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!”

The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump’s claim. “It’s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we’d be having a different conversation. But he’s sending armed masked men,” he said.

Israeli forces are searching a Gaza cemetery for the remains of Ran Gvili, the last captive in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas says it has handed over the location of the remains of the last captive in Gaza, Israeli soldier Ran Gvili, as the second stage of the ceasefire begins in the war-ravaged enclave.

In a statement on Sunday, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said the group handed over the location of Gvili’s remains with “absolute transparency”, and that it “fulfilled all our obligations in accordance with the ceasefire agreement”.

“We are fully committed to closing this file permanently and have no interest in procrastination. This stance is rooted in our concern for the interests of our people. Working under complex and nearly impossible conditions, we have successfully recovered and handed over the remains of the enemy’s prisoners with the full knowledge of the mediators,” Abu Obeida said.

“We call upon these mediators to uphold their responsibilities and compel the [Israeli] occupation to implement what has been agreed upon.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a largescale operation was under way at a cemetery in northern Gaza to find the remains. “This effort will continue for as long as necessary,” his office added.

The Israeli military also said that search operations were under way to retrieve Gvili’s body from the so-called “yellow line” area in Gaza, which splits the area between the location of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters.

Gvili, a noncommissioned officer in the Israeli police’s elite Yassam unit, was killed in action on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack in Israel, and his body was taken to Gaza.

But as part of United States President Donald Trump’s peace proposal for Gaza, Hamas was required to return all the captives, living and dead, from the besieged enclave to Israel.

Amid widespread devastation and an Israeli refusal to allow for heavy machinery, the discovery of the last captive has been delayed.

Despite not finding the captive, US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced last week that the ceasefire was now moving to its second stage, which is likely to see the opening of the Rafah border crossing, the reconstruction of the Strip, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Witkoff on Sunday said he and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had met Netanyahu in Israel on the previous day, mainly to discuss Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks have continued across Gaza, with at least three Palestinians killed in two separate incidents, and an Israeli drone wounding four others in Gaza City, the enclave’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

Medics said Israeli forces killed at least two people east of the Tuffah neighbourhood in northern Gaza and a 41-year-old man in Khan Younis in the south.

Earlier, medical workers ​said an Israeli drone exploded on the rooftop of a multi-floor building in Gaza City, wounding four ‍civilians in the street nearby.

Since May 2024, an Israeli law has banned the news network, citing a threat to national security, an allegation Al Jazeera denies.

Israel has extended its ban on Al Jazeera Media Network’s operations and the closure of its offices in the country by another 90 days.

The order, signed by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karahi and announced on Sunday, also prohibits broadcasting and internet companies, and YouTube from providing services to the network inside Israel.

In May 2024, at the height of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet had voted to shut Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, weeks after the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the temporary closure of foreign broadcasters considered to be a “threat to national security”.

In September that year, Israeli forces also stormed Al Jazeera’s offices in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah city, confiscating equipment and documents and closing the network’s office.

In December last year, the Israeli parliament approved an extension of the 2024 law, also called the “Al Jazeera law”, for two more years.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief for Jerusalem and Ramallah, Walif al-Omari, said the latest Israeli decision came nine days after Israel’s Ministry of Communications said Israeli security services and military continued to believe the network’s broadcasts were “detrimental to the security” of Israel.

In May 2024, Al Jazeera had accused Netanyahu of making “slanderous accusations” against the network and had said Israel’s suppression of a free press stood “in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.

“Al Jazeera reiterates that such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage, and reserves the right to pursue every legal step,” the Qatar-based network had said in a statement.

Israeli PM Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Gaza.

Al Jazeera has been targeted by Israel for years. In 2017, Netanyahu threatened to shut down its Jerusalem office, and an Israeli missile destroyed the building housing its office in Gaza in 2021.

Many Al Jazeera journalists – and in several cases, their families – were among more than 200 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel during its genocidal war on Gaza.

In May 2022, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank. Israel initially denied but later admitted there was a “high possibility” that one of its soldiers had killed the journalist, known for her ground reporting from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Iran’s internet shutdown since the outbreak of anti-government protests has caused daily economic losses exceeding $20 million per day, according to the country’s leading technology industry body, Anadolu reports.

Ali Hakim-Javadi, head of Iran’s Computer Engineers Organization, told the news website Entekhab on Sunday that the most heavily affected sectors since the shutdown on Jan. 8 are digital companies and IT service providers.

Businesses that rely on continuous access to the global internet have seen a sharp decline in transactions, he said, adding that some companies have been forced to halt operations entirely.

He stressed that the economic damages, estimated at approximately $20.6 million per day, only include “direct” losses, warning that broader indirect damages, including erosion of investor confidence, declining international rankings, capital flight and brain drain, are not included in the estimate.

Last Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said that he had submitted recommendations to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council calling for the lifting of internet restrictions as soon as possible.

Protests erupted in Iran late last month over the sharp depreciation of the national currency and worsening economic conditions, beginning in Tehran before spreading to several other cities.

Pressure on Iran from the US and Israel has intensified since then, while Tehran accused Washington of using sanctions, political pressure and unrest to create a pretext for military intervention and regime change.

Two weeks ago, incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced his withdrawal from the premiership race. Amid political negotiations following the November elections, this move effectively paved the way for former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to return to power.

This development is not just an act of political recycling; it reflects the failure of Iraqi state-building after the United States invasion of 2003. Under al-Maliki, Iraq may well go back to the disastrous policies that in 2014 led to the rise of ISIL (ISIS).

Sectarian politics

In reflecting on what al-Maliki’s return could possibly mean for Iraq, it is important to examine his track record. In 2006, when he was first nominated for the prime minister’s post, the administration of US President George W Bush supported him. Washington did so in the name of stability and trust, despite the early red flags. By November 2006, just six months after al-Maliki came to power, US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was already raising concerns about his ability to rein in violence against the Sunni population.

The decision by the Bush administration to continue its support for the prime minister reflects its own record of misguided policies, driven by ignorance of the region and its history. By backing al-Maliki, Washington paved the way for the chaos and instability it sought to avert.

During his first two terms, al-Maliki established a governance template that deliberately dismantled the post-2003 settlement’s vision of inclusive politics. He pursued policies of deliberate exclusion of the Sunni population on the political and social levels under the guise of de-Baathification. While originally intended to remove Saddam Hussein’s loyalists, the process was weaponised by al-Maliki as a sectarian tool. In 2010, for example, the prime minister used a de-Baathification law to ban nine parties and more than 450 candidates — predominantly Sunnis — from the parliamentary elections.

The security apparatus under his leadership also carried out arrests of moderate Sunni politicians on trumped-up charges of “terrorism” and suppressed peaceful demonstrations.

The 2013 massacre in the town of al-Hawija, in Kirkuk province, is a case in point. In January of that year, scores of Sunnis gathered for a peaceful protest of the discriminatory policies of al-Maliki’s government that lasted weeks. Three months later, security forces attacked the protest sit-in, killing at least 44 protesters.

Under al-Maliki, Baghdad also witnessed the deliberate displacement of Sunnis from their homes and the consolidation of Shia-dominated areas. This was a form of demographic engineering with the full support and complicity of the state.

As a result of these policies, sectarian politics escalated to the point where ethnic and religious identity became the main dividers of society, undermining national unity and plunging the country into civil conflict.

The constant assault on Sunni communities generated widespread discontent, which was easily exploited by extremist organisations – first al-Qaeda and then ISIL (ISIS).

Corruption and mismanagement

The industrial-scale haemorrhaging of national wealth during the al-Maliki era was nothing short of staggering. The Iraqi parliament’s own transparency commission estimated in 2018 that by then, $320bn had been lost to corruption since the US invasion; al-Maliki was in power for eight of those 15 years.

The money was used to fund the extravagant lifestyles of those close to al-Maliki, the purchase of expensive real estate, and deposits in shell companies and secret bank accounts. All of this is not a matter of administrative dysfunction but of large-scale thievery.

Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity carried out extensive documentation of such malpractices, but to this day, no one has been held accountable. Under al-Maliki, the independence of the judiciary was destroyed, rendering any process of accountability impossible.

Mismanagement also extended to the security and military forces. For years, the army was paying salaries to “ghost soldiers”; by 2014, the bill for this corruption scheme had grown to $380m a year. The prime minister himself was found to be running his own prison and commanding a special force of 3,000 soldiers loyal to him.

Years of corruption and dysfunction within the Iraqi army amid nearly $100bn in US funding led to the disaster of 2014, when military units dispersed in the face of advancing ISIL (ISIS) forces.

Al-Maliki’s return

Al-Maliki did not spend the past 11 years in political isolation. Instead, he was at the centre of the political machinery, plotting and lining up all the necessary components for his ultimate return under the watch of successive US administrations.

A third term for him would likely deepen sectarian divisions and entrench corruption. Iraqi governance will continue to be undermined by his tendencies to create shadow power structures in which loyalists are empowered at the expense of institutions.

Al-Maliki’s return would also be significant regionally. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and the serious weakening of Hezbollah, Iraq has become Iran’s most critical regional security and financial asset.

Iran’s position in the region has not been this vulnerable in decades, but al-Maliki’s return would effectively preclude Iraq from embarking on a more independent path from Tehran in its domestic and foreign affairs.

His third term would also likely obstruct normalisation with Damascus. Al-Maliki has vocally opposed engaging Syria’s new leadership. Last year, he voiced his opposition to interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa attending the Arab League Summit in Baghdad and described him as “wanted by Iraqi courts on terrorism charges”.

In parallel, a new al-Maliki government would also pose a challenge to US interests. The appointment of Mark Savaya as a special envoy to Iraq by the administration of US President Donald Trump, the first such appointment in 20 years, demonstrated its intent on pushing through policies aimed at curbing Iranian influence.

Washington wants the pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) dismantled and fully integrated into the Iraqi army. Al-Maliki is unlikely to undertake such a move because he is the “godfather” of these parallel armed structures. Dismantling them would mean destroying his own creation and severing his ties with Iran.

The issue at stake, however, is not just what policies al-Maliki will pursue. It is also the fact that Iraq is not able to escape a political cycle that has brought it nothing but catastrophe. It shows that the Iraqi political elite has learned nothing from the 2014 crisis.

Sectarian mobilisation and kleptocratic politics are still valid political options. Iraqi youth have repeatedly taken to the streets to protest this deeply flawed and dysfunctional status quo. Without significant changes to the incentive structure, accountability system, and sectarian distribution of power, Iraq is doomed to repeat the same grave mistakes of the past.

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

City hold a nine-point lead over Chelsea with 27 left to play for. Having won 12 games in a row since an opening day defeat by Bompastor’s side, it seems unlikely they will lose three of their final nine outings.

Opponents are struggling to stop City from scoring, never mind take points off them.

City have scored in their past 27 WSL games, their longest scoring run in the competition, while this season they have scored an average of 2.7 goals per game (netting 36 in total).

Shaw has played a significant role on that front – with 13 league goals this term, the Jamaican looks a shoo-in to win the Golden Boot for a third straight season.

One criticism sometimes levelled at City is their reliance on Shaw. While there is no denying her importance in Jeglertz’s system, her team-mates are more than pulling their own weight.

Vivianne Miedema is the WSL’s all-time leading goalscorer, but this season is thriving in a withdrawn role at the tip of Shaw’s supporting cast.

It was her perfectly weighted pass that set up Kerolin to score the opener on Sunday; the Brazil winger has contributed three goals and three assists in her past five league appearances.

Now that their early-season injury spike is clearing up, City’s strength and quality in depth cannot be overstated.

Forwards Aoba Fujino and Mary Fowler are nearing returns from injury, while the bench on Sunday boasted Sydney Lohmann, Iman Beney, Grace Clinton and Sam Coffey.

The latter, a club record £600,000 signing, made her debut from the bench and took the corner that led to Shaw’s winner.

City did not play well in south-east London, but like all great champions they found a way to win.

“There’s something in their eyes, a determination that we will find ways [to win],” said Jeglertz.

“There is something in this group that even though it is not a beautiful game, we still find ways to win, to keep on going.

“I am very happy and proud of this winning mentality in the group.”

United States President Donald Trump realises “the rules-based international order” never existed, and he’s “willing to turn his back on that”, former Trump administration official Christian Whiton argues.

Whiton tells Steve Clemons that US foreign policy remained fairly consistent over the past 80 years while Trump is happy to upset “the globalists and the establishment unity party in Washington – Republican and Democrat – and all the generals”.

In Europe, the US would like to see more populist, anti-immigration governments, Whiton said, adding that Western societies should “cast aside” the idea that they are “inherently racist, a patriarchy [with] … a racist, imperialist history”.

Deadly Israeli air strikes target areas across south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley amid simmering regional tensions.

Israel has launched a wave of air strikes across Lebanon, killing two people, in another near-daily violation of the November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israeli attacks targeted areas in the eastern Bekaa Valley and several villages in south Lebanon, including Bouslaiya and Aita al-Shaab, the National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday.

A strike on a warehouse in Khirbet Selm in the Bint Jbeil district killed at least one person and injured another, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The Israeli military said the attack targeted a Hezbollah “weapons manufacturing site”, without providing evidence.

NNA reported that another person was killed in a separate strike in Derdghaya, east of the southern coastal city of Tyre. Several Lebanese news outlets identified the victim as Mohammed al-Hussayni, a school teacher.

The attacks come amid fears of a major Israeli assault to disarm Hezbollah amid simmering regional tensions and possible strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Lebanese group’s top ally.

The Lebanese government said earlier this month that it completed the stage of removing the group’s weapons south of the Litani River, 28km (17 miles) from the Israeli border.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to occupy five points within Lebanese territory.

The Israeli army has also levelled several villages along the borders and blocked their reconstruction, preventing their residents from returning.

In August of last year, the Lebanese government issued a decree tasking the army with formulating a plan to disarm Hezbollah.

But the group has refused to give up its weapons north of Litani, arguing that its military force is necessary to resist Israeli attacks, occupation and expansionism.

Lebanese officials have vowed to push on with a multi-phased plan to disarm the group across the country. The next stage of disarmament will target the region between the Litani River and the Awali River, about 40 km (25 miles) to the north.

Hezbollah has been severely weakened by Israel’s all-out assault against Lebanon in 2024, which killed most of the group’s top political and military leaders, including its chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Since the end of the war, Lebanon has been forced to accept a de facto one-sided ceasefire, where Israel attacks the country almost daily without any response from the Lebanese side.

Hezbollah has been calling on the Lebanese government to intensify its diplomacy and press the sponsors of the ceasefire – the US and France – to pressure Israel to stop its violations.

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Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing as a candidate for an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour’s ruling body.

As a directly elected mayor, Burnham had to get approval from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), after he applied to be a candidate on Saturday.

Labour sources have told the BBC lots of concerns were raised about the costs of an election to replace Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor and the “prospect of a divisive campaign”.

But allies of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer feared Burnham – a former cabinet minister – could mount a leadership challenge, should he return to Westminster.

The move is likely to infuriate Labour MPs and some ministers who said local party members should have had the option of choosing the Greater Manchester mayor as the candidate.

It is a big political gamble by allies of the prime minister and risks inflaming tensions within the party, which is consistently trailing Reform UK in national opinion polls.

One senior Labour source who had been supportive of Burnham’s candidacy said: “They’re gambling the PM’s whole premiership on winning a very hard by-election without their best candidate. It is madness.”

The decision was made by 10 members of the NEC, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, party chair Ellie Reeves and the prime minister himself on Sunday morning.

NEC sources told the BBC the vote was 8-1 in favour of blocking Burnham’s candidacy.

The prime minister was among those who voted to block Burnham from standing.

Mahmood abstained as the chair, while Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell voted to allow him to stand.

Sir Keir’s allies say Burnham is doing “a very good job” as mayor of Greater Manchester, adding a mayoral by election “would cost the party hundreds of thousands of pounds” and “cost the country millions of pounds during a cost-of-living crisis”.

The prime minister’s supporters were worried Reform UK “would outspend us ten to one” during the by-election campaign.

The argument those who blocked Burnham intend to make publicly is that during a period of geopolitics dominating the headlines and deep concerns about the cost of living at home, there would be no appetite in the country for a “return to political psychodramas of the Tory years”.

There was “overwhelming support” in the meeting “for upholding clear Labour Party rules preventing mayors and PCCs standing in by-elections”, a source said.

Earlier, Mahmood told the BBC allowing elected mayors to run as candidates in parliamentary by-elections had “organisational implications” for the party.

A mayoral election in Greater Manchester could also be costly for the taxpayer, with the last one costing about £4.7m.

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