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Caracas, January 30, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, welcomed the “lifting of restrictions on the country’s commercial airspace”, which had been in place since last November, following talks with the US government.

Speaking at a rally on Thursday, Rodríguez said she received a phone call from US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address the issue as part of a “working agenda” between the two countries that includes the resumption of diplomatic relations.

“Let all the airlines that need to come, come. Let all the investors that need to come, come”, Rodríguez said. She assumed office following the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, amid the January 3 US attacks.

Earlier in the day, Trump ordered the reopening of “all Venezuelan airspace” to commercial flights, stating that US citizens would be able to travel safely and that Venezuelans wishing to return—either permanently or temporarily—would also be able to do so.

Trump ordered Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and other officials, including military commanders, to ensure the reopening was “immediate.”

Trump went on to describe the exchange with his Venezuelan counterpart as “highly positive,” emphasizing that “relations have been very solid and very good.” He further sought to reassure international travelers by stressing that they would be safe while in Venezuelan territory.

Following the announcements, the US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that it had removed four Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) in the Caribbean region, including one related to Venezuela. “They were issued as a precautionary measure and are no longer necessary”, the agency argued.

Likewise on Thursday, American Airlines announced its intention to resume daily direct flights between the United States and Venezuela, becoming the first US airline to take such a step.

The company, which began operations in Venezuela in 1987, stated that the resumption of the route would be subject to approval by both US and Venezuelan authorities, as well as the corresponding security assessments.

American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Nat Pieper said the company was eager to offer its customers the opportunity to reunite with family members and to generate new business and trade opportunities with the United States.

Direct flights between the two countries were suspended in 2019, the same year diplomatic relations between Washington and Caracas were severed after the US recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president.

Last November, Trump declared that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “completely closed.” A flurry of NOTAM warnings led international airlines to suspend their connections to the Caribbean country. Caracas withdrew licenses from several companies, including TAP, Iberia and Turkish Airlines.

On January 13, Panama’s Copa Airlines announced the resumption of flights to and from Caracas.

Embassy reopening in the works

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday during a Senate hearing that he expects the United States to reestablish a diplomatic presence in Venezuela in the near future. “We have a team there evaluating it, and I think we’ll be able to open a diplomatic presence soon,” he said.

Rubio argued that such a presence would allow Washington to “have real-time information and interact not only with government officials but also with members of civil society and the opposition.”

Laura Dogu has so far been appointed to lead the diplomatic mission from the Venezuela Affairs Unit in Bogotá, Colombia. According to CNN, the CIA is looking to establish a “foothold” in the South American country that may preced the formal arrival of US diplomats.

For her part, Rodríguez has defended her administration’s diplomatic engagement with the United States, while also urging Venezuelan political sectors to resolve their differences and internal conflicts without “orders from Washington.”

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

England’s Justin Rose shot a seven-under-par 65 to extend his lead to four shots at the Farmers Insurance Open while returning Brooks Koepka made the cut in San Diego.

The 45-year-old, who leads Ireland’s Seamus Power, sits on 17 under after breaking his own 36-hole record at the tournament.

Rose shot the round of the day on Friday at the more challenging South Course with an eagle, six birdies and just one bogey.

“I feel like in my career I’ve won on tough golf courses generally, so that’s my M.O., I would say,” said 2025 Masters runner-up Rose, who led by a shot after an opening-round 62.

“It’s the kind of a place I enjoy. It’s one of my favourite tournaments on Tour, just the whole area, the whole atmosphere, the whole vibe.”

Meanwhile, Koepka continued his return to the PGA Tour with a second-round 68 to make the cut on three under.

Five-time major winner Koepka, who agreed a release from his LIV Golf contract at the end of 2025, struggled on the South Course on Thursday, shooting a round of 73.

But on the North Course he found his form in his first PGA Tour event in four years, sinking an eagle putt on the 17th.

“I think [Thursday] I was excited to play, nervous, and kind of didn’t know what to expect, but today felt more normal, I guess,” Koepka said.

“But yeah, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I definitely still got antsy, but I guess maybe a little bit of nerves, just trying to figure it out and test – see where my game’s at too, right? I feel like I’m playing really well. It’s just been a long layoff.”

Xander Schauffele’s streak of making consecutive cuts – the longest active on tour at 72 – came to an end, while Patrick Cantlay, Gary Woodland, Will Zalatoris, JJ Spaun, Max Homa and Ludvig Aberg also all missed the cut.

Danish company will replace Hong Kong-based firm, CK Hutchison, after Trump claimed strategic waterway was controlled by China.

Danish firm Maersk will temporarily operate two ports on the Panama Canal after a court ruled that contracts given to a Hong Kong firm were unconstitutional.

The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) announced the changes on Friday, a day after the Central American country’s Supreme Court invalidated port contracts held by Hong Kong-based firm CK Hutchison.

The court ruling followed repeated threats from United States President Donald Trump that his country would seek to take over the waterway he claimed was effectively being controlled by China.

According to the court ruling that annulled the deal, CK Hutchison’s contract to operate the ports had “disproportionate bias” towards the Hong Kong-based company.

On Friday, the AMP said port operator APM Terminals, part of the Maersk Group, would take over as the “temporary administrator” of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on either end of the canal.

Maersk takes over from the Panama Ports Company (PPC) – a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings – which has managed the ports since 1997 under a concession renewed in 2021 for 25 years.

The canal, an artificial waterway, handles about 40 percent of US container shipping traffic and 5 percent of world trade. It has been controlled by Panama since 1999, when the US, which funded the building of the canal between 1904 and 1914, ceded control.

Washington on Friday welcomed the decision, but China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing “will take all measures necessary to firmly protect the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies”.

For its part, PPC said the ruling “lacks legal basis and endangers … the welfare and stability of thousands of Panamanian families” who depend on its operations.

Tens of thousands of workers dug the 82km- (51-mile-) passageway that became the Panama Canal, allowing ships to pass from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic without having to travel around the northernmost or southernmost ends of the Americas.

Panama has always denied Chinese control of the canal, which is used mainly by the US and China.

The U.S. Navy’s top officer says global proliferation of increasingly capable air defense systems underscores the vital need to move ahead with work on the F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter. He further warned that the Navy’s “ability to fly with impunity” using non-stealthy types like the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, even against smaller nation-state adversaries like Iran and non-state actors, is now “fleeting.”

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Daryl Caudle talked about F/A-XX and the threat ecosystem during a live question-and-answer session at the Apex Defense conference in Washington, D.C., yesterday. Breaking Defense was first to report on Caudle’s remarks. F/A-XX has been in purgatory since the Pentagon announced its intention to shelve it last year, primarily to prevent any competition for resources with the U.S. Air Force’s F-47 sixth-generation fighter. Congress is now pushing ahead with legislation that could jumpstart the Navy’s next-generation fighter program. Boeing and Northrop Grumman are currently in the running for F/A-XX. Lockheed Martin was reportedly eliminated from the competition last March. Boeing is also the prime contractor for the F-47.

The “next-generation airframe, F/A-XX, is so vital,” Caudle said yesterday. “This [carrier] air wing of the future design is so important for so many reasons … nothing delivers the mass of an air wing if you want to deliver mass fires.”

“I know these things are expensive, and I know the defense industrial base is compressed, but we have got to figure out how to walk and chew gum here with aircraft,” he added. It is worth noting here that both Boeing and Northrop Grumman have pushed back publicly, to different degrees, on concerns that the U.S. industrial base cannot support work on two sixth-generation fighter programs simultaneously.

You can listen to Adm. Caudle’s full opening remarks at the Apex Defense conference and the follow-on question-and-answer session in the video below.

CNO APEX REMARKS

Caudle has long been outspoken in his support for F/A-XX, which is the Navy’s planned successor to its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters and EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets. In addition to being very stealthy, the sixth-generation jets would come with increased range and other advancements, giving the Navy’s carrier air wings a major boost in kinetic capability. F/A-XX will also be able to perform electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, as well as contribute to battle space management.

The CNO highlighted many of these expected capabilities in his comments yesterday. He also called particular attention to how “vital” F/A-XX will be because of “the CCAs [Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones] that it will command and control.”

“But the bigger part is … just the ever-lowering cost of entry” when it comes to air defense threats, Caudle said. “The folks that used to be not in [the] headspace that I needed a stealth aircraft of this level to fly a mission into their country, will gain capability that the F-18 will not match against.”

“This is an ever-evolving theme, and when you’ve got partnerships … well coupled with each other across China and Russia and Iran and North Korea, and terrorist groups that are getting that kit from all of those through back-channel ways, our ability to fly with impunity with our existing airframes is fleeting,” he continued. “So, if I don’t start building that [F/A-XX] immediately, you’re not going to get it for some time.”

“I hate to say it, sounds cliche, but you know, when things heat up in Iran, guess who steamed over there? Right? It was the United States Navy and the Abraham [Lincoln Carrier] Strike Group,” the Navy’s top officer added. “So you can imagine what that looks like 10 years from now, with a different Iran, with different capability, that can go against F-18 capabilities of today.”

U.S. military operations in and around the Middle East in the past two years have provided substantial evidence to underscore Caudle’s remarks. There were multiple reported instances in which Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen were able to threaten existing fourth and fifth-generation U.S. fighters, at least to a degree, with their relatively modest air defense capabilities. Sources differ on the total number, but the Houthis were also able to successfully down 20 or so MQ-9 Reaper drones.

TWZ has previously explored in detail the scale and scope of Houthi air defenses, as well as their ability to punch above their weight, and not just against U.S. forces. Infrared sensors and seekers, including the repurposing of heat-seeking air-to-air missiles as surface-to-air weapons, have been a major factor, given that they are not impacted by radar cross-section-reducing features on stealthy targets. They are also passive, meaning that they do not pump out signals that can give opponents advanced warning that they are being tracked and targeted.

Infrared capabilities can also help in cueing traditional radars, and pairing the two together offers benefits for spotting and tracking targets, whether they have features to reduce their radar and other signatures or not. This also just allows the radars to not have to start radiating (and expose themselves as a result) until very late in the engagement cycle. The Houthis have also focused heavily on mobile systems that are hard to find and fix in advance, and that present additional complications given their ability to pop up suddenly in unexpected locations.

The air defense assets the Houthis have arrayed over the past decade or so are directly reflective of developments in Iran, which has put a similar focus on infrared capabilities and mobile systems. Though B-2 stealth bombers were the centerpiece of the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last year, stealthy F-22 and F-35 fighters were still used to help clear the way by targeting air defense sites in the country.

This all, in many ways, reflects broader air defense global trends that have been emerging in China, Russia, North Korea, and elsewhere. As Adm. Caudle noted yesterday, there has also been cooperation on various levels between America’s adversaries, well beyond Iran and the Houthis, on the development and proliferation of more capable air defense systems.

The threat picture also goes beyond individual anti-air weapons and sensors. Fully-networked integrated air defenses, which offer a multitude of benefits when it comes to operational flexibility and more efficiently utilizing available resources, are only set to become a bigger part of the equation. These networks will be able to detect, successfully track, and engage targets in ways that federated air defense systems cannot. The barrier to entry in acquiring these capabilities is likely to keep dropping as time goes on, as well.

The Navy does still, of course, see F/A-XX as critical to projecting carrier-based airpower into denser, higher-end air defense threat ecosystems, especially in any future conflicts against a major competitor like China or Russia. A year ago, the U.S. Air Force released a report projecting that American aircraft will be challenged by anti-air missiles with ranges up to 1,000 miles by 2050.

“This [F/A-XX] is, again, a global solution, not just for a pressing scenario,” Adm. Caudle said yesterday.

As an aside, it is interesting to point out that the air defense arsenal of another smaller country, Syria, has been credited with helping ensure the F-22 survived post-Cold War drawdowns in defense spending. The program was severely truncated later on as a cost-cutting measure, a decision that has been increasingly questioned in hindsight.

The F/A-XX saga still has yet to play out, but Iranian air defenses, in particular, look to have emerged as a major factor in whatever the future might hold for that program.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The pace of U.S. military aircraft movements to the Middle East is picking up. The flights, which potentially include F-35A stealth fighters, come amid a growing buildup of U.S. forces in the region. Washington and Tehran continue to trade threats ahead of a potential attack on or from Iran. Meanwhile, in anticipation of conflict, Iran claims it has distributed additional air and sea drones to its troops for potential attacks on U.S. and Israeli assets if needed.

You can catch up with our most recent coverage of tensions in the Middle East in our story here.

During President Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting on Thursday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is ready to fulfill any orders given as the American leader is increasing the pressure on Iran to end its nuclear weapons program.

“They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. We will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department,” Hegseth said.

Trump is now considering options that “include U.S. military airstrikes aimed at Iran’s leaders and the security officials believed to be responsible for the killings, as well as strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and government institutions,” CNN reported, citing sources. “Trump has not made a final decision on how to proceed, sources said, but he believes his military options have been expanded from earlier this month now that a US carrier strike group is in the region.”

As the rhetoric continues to heat up, there are strong indications that the first flight of U.S. Air Force F-35A stealth fighters may be headed to the Middle East. The jets, from the Vermont Air National Guard, were in Puerto Rico for the pressure campaign that led to the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Video from Andre Inacio, who also took the top image in this post, shows some of those jets landing in Lajes, Portugal.

The F-35As would be the latest tactical aircraft sent to the region. As we previously reported, squadrons of F-35Cs, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and E/A-18G Growlers embarked on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The aircraft carrier and three escorts are now in the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility (AOR). In addition, a dozen F-15E Strike Eagles were sent to Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

The F-35As would give the U.S. additional capability to strike targets deep inside Iran. They played a key suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) role during last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer mission, paving the way for B-2A Spirit bombers that dropped 14 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities. The F-35As, from the 388th Fighter Wing, were the first aircraft in and the last ones out.

We still don’t know for sure where the F-35As that originally deployed to the Caribbean will end up. The Vermont Air National Guard declined to comment on the deployment, citing operational security concerns and U.S. Central Command does not discuss any movements. That being said, the movement would fit the same pattern we have seen of the influx of capabilities into the Middle East.

Case in point, F/A-18G Growler electronic warfare (EW) jets have also crossed the Atlantic. Flight-tracking data shows that they have left Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia, headed toward Moron Air Base in Spain. From there, they could potentially fly to the Middle East. Yesterday, we reported that, just like the F-35As, these aircraft departed from their assignment to the Caribbean.

As we pointed out, “Growlers in the Middle East would be critical force multipliers. Such a deployment could be indicative of what one would see in the lead-up to a kinetic operation centered heavily on strikes on targets in inland areas, such as ones the U.S. and possibly Israel might carry out in Iran in the future. Growlers can provide electronic warfare support for standoff munitions and/or aircraft penetrating into enemy air defenses, among other battlefield effects.”

#USAF United States Air Force – Middle East Activity (CORONET)
29 January 2026 – 1050z

CORONET East 037 – Four KC-46 Pegasus tankers have departed Pease Air National Guard Base, to meet with TABOR 51-53 and TABOR 61-63 flights of F/A-18G Growler’s from Oceana Naval Air Station.… https://t.co/OtkcYs3yLj pic.twitter.com/Nvyvbu5W7D

— Armchair Admiral 🇬🇧 (@ArmchairAdml) January 29, 2026

Even before these recent moves, there was a small number of tactical jets in the region, including F-15Es, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and F-16 Fighting Falcons.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is one of the most iconic fighter jets that the U.S. Air Force operates. Now in operation for over 50 years, the F-16 remains one of the most widely flown fighters in the world, operated by more than 25 countries. pic.twitter.com/uY6IrWkvrB

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 14, 2026

In addition to these aircraft, an HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) plane, callsign King40, landed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan today, according to flight tracking data. That was a possibility we suggested yesterday.

A C 130J Combat King has arrived at Al Muwaffaq in Jordan.

HC 130J deployments often signal preparation for high risk operations, as these combat search and rescue aircraft are positioned to recover downed pilots or crews if airstrikes or special operations unfold over hostile… pic.twitter.com/CdgYfGWoRm

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 29, 2026

Another Combat King may be on the way, according to flight tracking data showing it left Rota, Spain. It is possibly headed to Muwaffaq Salti as well. Again, we have no independent confirmation of this. However, sending them to the Middle East at this time makes sense should Trump order a strike on Iran. Combat Kings would be needed for the rapid rescue of any aircrews lost during military operations, specifically over contested territory. They can also support special operations aircraft with aerial refueling for non-personnel recovery missions.

At the same time a HC-130J Combat King II CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) aircraft has been forward deployed to Jordan.

A second one landed in Rota yesterday and will likely join the first in Jordan later today.

— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) January 29, 2026

Also drawing a lot of interest from flight trackers online, a WC-135R Constant Phoenix “nuke sniffing” jet, callsign COBRA31, has arrived at RAF Mildenhall from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, according to flight-tracking data and the ADS-B exchange. The jets collect air samples to screen for the presence of notable nuclear materials. Beyond taking baseline readings around the globe, the Constant Phoenix jets can be deployed to monitor nuclear weapons tests and look for and track nuclear leaks and other nuclear incidents.

Constant Phoenix jets are no strangers to Europe, as we have noted in the past, so this could very well be a routine flight. While Mildenhall is a frequent jumping-off point for flights to the CENTCOM region, we don’t know for sure where this one is headed. At the same time, moving a jet like this to the Middle East, or at least closer to that region, could make sense if strikes on nuclear sites are being planned. We just don’t know at this time.

A U.S. Air Force WC-135R Constant Phoenix is now leaving CONUS for Europe and possibly onwards to the Middle East.

They are commonly referred to as “nuke sniffers” due to their role detecting and identifying nuclear material in the atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/8fwIGmwzML

— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) January 29, 2026

Meanwhile, C-17 Globemaster III and C-5M Galaxy cargo jets continue flying toward the region, delivering materiel. As we predicted, the U.S. is sending additional Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems to the Middle East for increased protection from any Iranian attack, The Wall Street Journal reported.

UPDATE: 20260129-1530Z

So many changes today I’ve had to move to an A3 layout. 6x EA-18Gs and reportedly 6x F-35As from PR on the way to Europe with supporting tankers, possibly more to come this evening. C-17 flights spiked suggesting strikes could commence tomorrow!

cc:… pic.twitter.com/WMW3NVuhbw

— DefenceGeek 🇬🇧 (@DefenceGeek) January 29, 2026

These aircraft movements appear to be the latest sign of a large surge of U.S. forces to the Middle East. As we reported yesterday, an RC-135V Rivet Joint electronic surveillance plane arrived at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, according to online flight trackers. In addition, an E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) jet was heading to Souda Air Base in Crete, a common route for deployments to the Middle East.

It should be noted, however, that CENTCOM is conducting a multi-day readiness exercise, so some of these aircraft movements could be related to that.

Beyond aircraft, the U.S. is moving warships to the region. Yesterday, we were the first to report that the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black arrived in the Red Sea, joining the Lincoln and its three escort Arleigh Burkes, two independently deployed Arleigh Burkes, and three Littoral Combat Ships in the CENTCOM region. You can read more about these moves and what they could mean for a possible attack on or from Iran in our story here.

The buildup of forces comes amid back-and-forth threats between U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian officials.

As we reported yesterday, Trump warned Iran to halt its nuclear arms ambitions or face an attack.

“Hopefully Iran will quickly “Come to the Table” and negotiate a fair and equitable deal – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS – one that is good for all parties,” Trump proclaimed on his Truth Social platform. “Time is running out, it is truly of the essence! As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was “Operation Midnight Hammer,” a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again…”

Trump was referring to the attack last June on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Today, Iranian military officials claimed they are beefing up their drone force to counter any attack.

“By the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, 1,000 strategic drones were added today to the combat organization of the four branches of the army,” according to the official Iranian IRNA News Agency. “These drones, designed according to new threats and the experiences of the 12-day war, were built by army specialists in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and are designed in strike, offensive, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare classes to destroy specific fixed and moving targets at sea, air, and land.”

Major General Hatami added that, “In line with upcoming threats, maintaining and enhancing strategic advantages for rapid combat and a crushing response to any aggression and attacker is always on the army’s agenda,” IRNA added, without offering any details.

“Due to considerations for protecting military secrets, no images of the attached drones have been released,” the news outlet explained.

While Iran’s claims must be viewed with a high degree of skepticism, it has launched a lot of drones in previous conflicts. Distributing air and sea drones to its forces that are ready for launch makes a lot of sense, especially given the proximity of U.S. bases in the region and the growing presence of Navy ships. Moving these assets out of storage also would help ensure their survival during the opening stages of a conflict. It’s worth noting that while Israel primarily targeted Iran’s longer-range missile and drone capacity, including its launchers and storage areas, the country’s short-range systems were largely left untouched. These ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, exist in far greater numbers and would be used to strike U.S. and allied assets in the region.

On a more defensive note, Tehran is preparing civil defense measures ahead of potential U.S. or Israeli attacks.

“Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani announced on Thursday the launch of a project to build shelters in underground parking facilities in the city, saying they would serve as emergency refuges in times of crisis,” the Israel Hayom news outlet reported. “He added that the capital’s metro stations could also be used as shelters if necessary, and said the program would eventually be expanded to all neighborhoods of Tehran in the coming years.”

Zakani also “detailed plans that include constructing shelters, installing warning systems and protecting civilians in the event of a possible war,” the publication further noted. “He said the initiative was conceived after what he described as the ’12-day war,’ and was designed to allow underground parking lots to function normally during the year while being converted into shelters in times of danger.”

The Mayor of Tehran, Alireza Zakani, has announced that underground parking lots and metro stations across the city will be transformed into “war shelters” in case of resumed hostilities with Israel and the United States.

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 29, 2026

Amid all the military maneuvers and harsh rhetoric, there are still ongoing negotiations to avoid conflict.

“Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty held separate calls Wednesday with his Iranian counterpart and Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff but made no progress,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “Iran strongly objected to the U.S. terms and warned targets across the region would be fair game in the event of a U.S. strike, people familiar with the conversations said.”

In addition, efforts by Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia in recent days were similarly fruitless, the Journal added.

“The Trump administration is hosting senior defense and intelligence officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia for talks on Iran this week as President Trump considers military strikes,” Axios reported, citing two U.S. officials and two other sources with knowledge. “The Saudis have been passing messages in recent days between the U.S. and Iran in an effort to de-escalate the situation.”

This follows decisions by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates not to allow the U.S. to use their bases or airspace for any attack on Iran. You can read more about the implications of that in our story here.

🇸🇦📞🇮🇷 | HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone with the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian. pic.twitter.com/sjcDjoHYCv

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) January 28, 2026

This latest round of tension between Washington and Iran was sparked by the killing of thousands of anti-regime protesters by the government of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The unrest began in Iran on Dec. 28 over rising prices and a devalued currency that saw the rial crater now to basically nothing, as well as a devastating drought. The ongoing harsh treatment from the regime fanned the flames.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com.

Caracas, January 30, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan National Assembly has approved a sweeping reform of the country’s 2001 Hydrocarbon Law that rolls back the state’s role in the energy sector in favor of private capital.

Legislators unanimously endorsed the bill at its second discussion on Thursday, with only opposition deputy Henrique Capriles abstaining. The legislative overhaul follows years of US sanctions against the Venezuelan oil industry and a naval blockade imposed in December.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez hailed the vote a “historic day” and claimed the new bill will lead oil production to “skyrocket.” 

“The reform will make the oil sector much more competitive for national and foreign corporations to extract crude,” he told reporters. “We are implementing mechanisms that have proven very successful.”

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed and enacted the law after the parliamentary session, claiming that the industry will be guided by “the best international practices” and undertake a “historic leap forward.”

Former President Hugo Chávez revamped the country’s oil legislation in 2001 and introduced further reforms in 2006 and 2007 to assert the Venezuelan state’s primacy over the industry. Policies included a mandatory stakeholding majority for state oil company PDVSA in joint ventures, PDVSA control over operations and sales, and increased royalties and income tax to 30 and 50 percent, respectively. Increased oil revenues bankrolled the Venezuelan government’s expanded social programs in the 2000s.

The text approved during Thursday’s legislative session, following meetings between Venezuelan authorities and oil executives, went further than the draft preliminarily endorsed one week earlier.

The final version of the legislation establishes 30 percent as an upper bound for royalties, with the Venezuelan government given the discretionary power to determine the rate for each project. A 33 percent extraction tax in the present law was scrapped in favor of an “integrated hydrocarbon tax” to be set by the executive with a 15 percent limit.

Similarly, the Venezuelan government can reduce income taxes for companies involved in oil activities while also granting several other fiscal exemptions. The bill cites the “need to ensure international competitiveness” as a factor to be considered when decreasing royalty and tax demands for private corporations.

The reform additionally grants operational and sales control to minority partners and private contractors. PDVSA can furthermore lease out oilfields and projects in exchange for a fixed portion of extracted crude. The new legislation likewise allows disputes to be settled by outside arbitration instances.

Thursday’s legislative reform was immediately followed by a US Treasury general license allowing US corporations to re-engage with the Venezuelan oil sector.

General License 46 (GL46) authorizes US firms to purchase and market Venezuelan crude while demanding that contracts be subjected to US jurisdiction so potential disputes are referred to US courts. The license bars transactions with companies from Russia, Iran, North Korea, or Cuba. Concerning China, it only blocks dealings with Venezuelan joint ventures with Chinese involvement.

Economist Francisco Rodríguez pointed out that the sanctions waiver does not explicitly allow for production or investment and that companies would require an additional license before signing contracts with Venezuelan authorities.

GL46 also mandates that payments to blocked agents, including PDVSA, be made to the US Foreign Government Deposit Funds or another account defined by the US Treasury Department.

Following the January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has vowed to take control of the Venezuelan oil industry by administering crude transactions. Proceeds from initial sales have been deposited in US-run bank accounts in Qatar, with a portion rerouted to Caracas for forex injections run by private banks. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed that the resources will begin to be channeled to US Treasury accounts in the near future.

In a press conference on Friday, Trump said his administration is “very happy” with the actions of Venezuelan authorities and would soon invite other countries to get involved in the Caribbean nation’s oil industry. Rubio had previously argued that Caracas “deserved credit” for the oil reform that “eradicates Chávez-era restrictions on private investments.”

Despite the White House’s calls for substantial investment, Western oil corporations have expressed reservations over major projects in the Venezuelan energy sector. Chevron, the largest US company operating in the country, stated that it is looking to fund increased production with revenues from oil sales as opposed to new capital commitments.

Since 2017, Venezuela’s oil industry has been under wide-reaching US unilateral coercive measures, including financial sanctions and an export embargo, in an effort to strangle the country’s most important revenue source. The US Treasury Department has also levied and threatened secondary sanctions against third-country companies to deter involvement in the Venezuelan petroleum sector.

The initial production representative MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone for the U.S. Navy has completed its first low-speed taxi test. The service has said it is now targeting a first flight for the uncrewed aircraft early this year, after missing a self-imposed deadline to reach that milestone before the end of 2025.

The taxi test took place at Boeing’s facility at MidAmerica Airport, situated outside of St. Louis, Missouri, according to social media posts from the company and Naval Air Systems (NAVAIR). Navy personnel from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 24 (UX-24), the latter of which is focused specifically on supporting the development of uncrewed aerial systems, participated in the event, per NAVAIR.

Taxing testing, with the drone moving under its own power, is a critical step toward a first flight. When exactly this milestone was achieved is not immediately clear, and TWZ has reached out to NAVAIR and Boeing for more information.

Boeing had previously announced the start of ground testing of the production representative MQ-25 last summer. A flying MQ-25 demonstrator, also known as T1, has been used in flight and ground testing in support of the Stingray program for years now. However, it is a test article that is not fully reflective of the production-standard aircraft.

Boeing MQ-25 Becomes First Unmanned Aircraft to Refuel Another Aircraft

Testing MQ-25 Aboard an Aircraft Carrier

The footage released today provides new views of the drone’s exotic top-mounted ‘flush’ air inlet and its engine exhaust inset inside the fuselage, as seen at the top of this story and below. TWZ has drawn particular attention to the inlet in the past, which speaks to the design’s other low observable (stealthy) features, as well as its overall design, despite this not being an explicit focus of the MQ-25 program.

Boeing has previously confirmed to us that the MQ-25’s design was influenced by the company’s submission to the Navy’s abortive Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. UCLASS envisioned a stealthy carrier-based drone capable of performing kinetic strikes and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Despite significant work toward fielding that capability, including ground-breaking flight testing using a pair of X-47B drones built by Northrop Grumman, the Navy subsequently abandoned the UCLASS plans in favor of an uncrewed tanker. That decision, in turn, led to the MQ-25.

The video also offers a new look at the production representative Stingray configuration’s retractable sensor turret under the nose. Turrets like these typically contain a mixture of electro-optical and infrared cameras, and sometimes also have laser range finders, laser spot markers, and laser designators. In addition to its primary role as a pilotless aerial refueling platform, the Navy says the MQ-25 will have a secondary ISR function. The Stingray’s overall design opens up the possibility that it could take on other missions, including kinetic strike, in the future, as TWZ has previously explored in detail.

Boeing has otherwise been working in recent years to deliver nine pre-production Stingrays, five of which will be used for fatigue and other static testing work. The Navy plans to eventually acquire a total of 76 Stingrays, and has been most recently targeting 2027 for reaching initial operational capability (IOC) with the type.

The MQ-25 program has been beset by delays and cost growth in recent years. The original goal had been for the initial batch of pre-production Stingrays to be delivered in 2022 and for the type to reach IOC in 2024. Last year, the Navy repeatedly stressed that it was working hard to finally get to first flight before 2026.

“We will fly MQ-25 in ‘25. You can quote me on that,” Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, Commander of Naval Air Forces, said in January 2025. “We will fly that platform in ‘25 and get that thing on a carrier in ‘26 and start integrating that thing.”

“There’s a lot of confidence in MQ-25 and [20]25. There is a ton of work to get MQ-25 and ’25,” now-retired Navy Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, then head of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), had also said last April. “70% of the capability that we deliver, [that] industry delivers to us, is late. So we’re pushing hard.”

Needless to say, the first flight schedule subsequently slipped into 2026.

These hurdles aside, Navy officials continue to be outspoken in their support of the MQ-25 program, which they see as offering critical range extension for current and future aircraft embarked on the service’s carriers. The Navy also wants the Stingrays so it can stop flying crewed F/A-18F Super Hornets in the tanker role, which makes up a significant number of their sorties while deployed, helping free up those aircraft for other missions and reducing the wear and tear on those airframes.

The Navy also regularly talks about the MQ-25 being a “pathfinder” for other future carrier-based uncrewed aviation capabilities. As far back as 2021, the service has been talking about a goal to eventually see 60 percent or more of the aircraft in carrier air wings become uncrewed.

Last year, the Navy announced a new surge in efforts to acquire a fleet of carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, hiring four companies (Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, and Northrop Grumman) to develop conceptual designs. Lockheed Martin is also now under contract to the Navy to develop an underlying common control architecture. NAVAIR has now also established a CCA-focused Future Advanced Capability (FAC) program office. The Navy previously entered into a formal agreement with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps to work together on CCA developments to ensure interoperability, including the ability to seamlessly exchange control of drones during future operations.

In the meantime, beyond just getting the MQ-25 flying, the Navy still has much work to do in integrating the Stingray into routine operations. As noted, critical command and control architectures, along with related tactics, techniques, and procedures, are still being developed.

The Stingrays will also have to be woven into the existing cadence of flight deck operations, including just figuring out how to move them around amid the hustle and bustle of other activity. Carrier decks are very constrained environments physically, and present very different conditions to operate in compared to bases on land. This is true even for crewed aircraft operations, where individuals onboard can provide additional situational awareness. A wearable glove-like system that personnel could use for deck handling was notably used during testing of the X-47B. A different kind of portable control device has been used in testing of the T1 MQ-25 demonstrator in the past, as well. The video released today does not appear to offer any major new insights into how the Navy plans to maneuver the Stingray around on carrier decks.

The Navy has also been developing new force structures and training pipelines to support the MQ-25 program.

With the start of taxi-testing, the MQ-25 is at least now one step closer to its first flight.

Update: 3:12 PM EST —

Boeing and the Navy have now confirmed to TWZ that the first taxi test occurred yesterday.

“The first U.S. Navy MQ-25A Stingray is in the final stages of ground testing and completed its first taxi test yesterday,” a company spokesperson told us in a statement. “Boeing and the Navy will now conduct additional taxi tests and then complete deliberate systems level testing and review and approve the final airworthiness artifacts needed for a flight clearance. Once that’s complete and we have a suitable weather window, the aircraft will fly.”

“The [MQ-25] aircraft is now in the final stages of ground testing and successfully completed its first low-speed taxi test [on] January 29,” Navy Rear Adm. Tony Rossi, Program Executive Officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons (PEO U&W), also told TWZ in a statement. “The team is finalizing systems testing and flight clearance, with the first flight planned once certification is complete and weather permits.”

“The MQ-25A Navy–Boeing team continues to make progress toward first flight,” Rossi added. “Over the last several months, the team has completed MQ-25A Stingray structural testing on a static aircraft, conducted initial engine runs, completed its flight-certified software, and commanded the vehicle from the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS).”

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Welcome to Bunker Talk. This is a weekend open discussion post for the best commenting crew on the net, in which we can chat about all the stuff that went on this week that we didn’t cover. We can also talk about the stuff we did or whatever else grabs your interest. In other words, it’s an off-topic thread.

This week’s second caption reads:

The Launch Control Center, with blast door at left, underground at the Oscar-1 Minuteman Missile Alert Facility on Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, June 18, 2020. The Oscar-01 MAF was constructed in 1963 and determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) by Missouri SHPO in 1998. The facility consists of a one-story surface structure, assembled as a Launch Control Support Building (LCSB), and two sub-surface, re-enforced concrete encapsulated steel pods- a Launch Control Center (LCC) and Launch Control Equipment Building (LCEB). These two sub-surface wings are connected by a Tunnel Junction and accessed by an elevator. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexander W. Riedel) 

Also, a reminder:

Prime Directives!

• If you want to talk politics, do so respectfully and know that there’s always somebody that isn’t going to agree with you. 
• If you have political differences, hash it out respectfully, stick to the facts, and no childish name-calling or personal attacks of any kind. If you can’t handle yourself in that manner, then please, discuss virtually anything else.
• No drive-by garbage political memes. No conspiracy theory rants. Links to crackpot sites will be axed, too. Trolling and shitposting will not be tolerated. No obsessive behavior about other users. Just don’t interact with folks you don’t like. 
• Do not be a sucker and feed trolls! That’s as much on you as on them. Use the mute button if you don’t like what you see.  
• So unless you have something of quality to say, know how to treat people with respect, understand that everyone isn’t going to subscribe to your exact same worldview, and have come to terms with the reality that there is no perfect solution when it comes to moderation of a community like this, it’s probably best to just move on. 
• Finally, as always, report offenders, please. This doesn’t mean reporting people who don’t share your political views, but we really need your help in this regard.

Iran’s foreign minister says missile programme not up for negotiation as Trump says he’s sending more ships to the region.

Iran’s foreign minister says the country is ready for “fair and equitable” talks with the United States amid soaring tensions, as US President Donald Trump refused to rule out taking military action against Tehran.

On a visit to Turkiye on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that, “Iran has no problem with negotiations, but negotiations cannot take place under the shadow of threats”.

“I should also state unequivocally that Iran’s defensive and missile capabilities – and Iran’s missiles – will never be the subject of any negotiations,” Araghchi said during a news conference alongside his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.

“The security of the Iranian people is no one else’s business, and we will preserve and expand our defensive capabilities to whatever extent is necessary to defend the country.”

Tensions have been rising for weeks between Tehran and Washington amid Trump’s repeated threats to attack Iran over a recent crackdown on antigovernment protests and his push to curtail the Iranian nuclear programme.

Earlier this week, the US president said a “massive armada” – led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier – was moving towards Iran and was ready to use “violence, if necessary” if Iranian leaders did not agree to negotiate a nuclear deal.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said his administration was sending “a larger number of ships” to Iran.

“And hopefully we’ll make a deal,” he said. “If we do make a deal, that’s good. If we don’t make a deal, we’ll see what happens.”

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett noted that Trump said he gave Iran a deadline, but “only Iran knows what that deadline is”.

“So he’s left the world in waiting, trying to determine what the next steps will be,” Halkett said.

Trump, who in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from a previous deal that saw Iran agree to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions, has been pressuring Iran to halt all uranium enrichment.

Washington has accused Tehran of seeking a nuclear weapon – a claim Iranian leaders have repeatedly denied.

Amid the latest tensions, senior officials in Tehran have repeatedly said they are open to negotiations, but only once Trump ends his military threats against the country.

They also have stressed that Iran’s armed forces are ready to respond if attacked.

Meanwhile, regional allies including Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been engaging in diplomatic efforts to try to prevent a military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier on Friday told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a call that Ankara was ready to play a “facilitator” role between the two sides.

Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, also said he had long discussions on the issue with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday and would keep lines open with Washington.

Speaking alongside Araghchi on Friday, Fidan said US-Iran nuclear negotiations must restart and would pave the way to lifting sanctions on Iran.

“We call the parties to the negotiating table” to address the issues “one by one”, he said.

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electrical substations could cut power to nuclear plants, increasing risks of meltdown.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has held a special session on Ukraine amid growing fears that Russian attacks on its energy facilities could trigger a nuclear accident.

Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said at the start of Friday’s extraordinary board meeting in Vienna that the war in Ukraine posed “the world’s biggest threat to nuclear safety”.

The meeting was held as an IAEA expert mission conducted a weeks-long inspection of 10 electrical substations that Grossi described as “crucial to nuclear safety”.

Although nuclear power plants generate power themselves, they rely on an uninterrupted supply of external power from electrical substations to maintain reactor cooling.

Ukraine has four nuclear power plants, three of them under Kyiv’s control, with the fourth and biggest in Zaporizhzhia occupied by Russian forces since the early days of their full-scale invasion in 2022.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of risking a nuclear catastrophe by attacking the Zaporizhzhia site.

The plant’s six reactors have been shut down since the occupation, but the site still needs electricity to maintain its cooling and security systems.

Earlier this month, Russia and Ukraine paused local hostilities to allow repairs on the last remaining backup power line supplying the plant, which was damaged by military activity in January.

Ukraine is also home to the former Chornobyl plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986. The site’s protective shield containing radioactive material was damaged last year in a drone strike allegedly carried out by Russia.

Status of energy ceasefire unclear

The four-hour IAEA meeting, which aimed to increase pressure on Russia, was called at the request of the Netherlands, with the support of at least 11 other countries.

Russia’s “ongoing and daily” attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks have caused significant damage, Netherlands’ Ambassador Peter Potman told the board.

“Not only does this leave millions of Ukrainians in the cold and dark during a very harsh winter, but it is also … bringing the prospect of a nuclear accident to the very precipice of becoming a reality,” he said.

Ukraine’s ambassador, Yuriy Vitrenko, said it was “high time” for the IAEA to “shine an additional spotlight on the threat to nuclear safety and security in Europe” caused by Russia’s “systematic and deliberate” attacks.

Russian Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov dismissed the board’s gathering as “absolutely politically motivated”, adding there was “no real need to hold such a meeting today”.

The status of a current weeklong moratorium on attacks targeting energy infrastructure is currently unclear.

United States President Donald Trump said Thursday that Russia had agreed to his request not to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for a week.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that neither Moscow nor Kyiv had conducted strikes ⁠on energy targets from Thursday night onwards.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later suggested the pause in attacks would end on Sunday.

The Kremlin says it’s agreed to halt attacks on Kyiv and surrounding towns until February 1, after a request from US President Donald Trump pointing to the ‘record-setting cold’ gripping the region. Many Ukrainians have no heating, after Russian attacks on power infrastructure.

Venezuelans are bracing for an uncertain future after the United States military abduction of President Nicolas Maduro. Reactions across the country have been sharply divided. Some are celebrating what they see as the end of an era while others have expressed fear and anger, accusing the US of trying to impose a government subordinate to Washington to secure access to Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Luis Ernesto Patino – activist and political commentator

Adelys Ferro – executive director, Venezuelan American Caucus

Marc Owen Jones – professor of media analytics, Northwestern University

Sam Curran took England’s second ever hat-trick in T20 internationals as they beat Sri Lanka by 11 runs (DLS) in Pallekele.

The left-arm seamer dismissed home captain Dasun Shanaka and lower-order batters Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 133.

The hosts had already lost five wickets for 22 runs after spinners Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson tore through their line-up, taking 3-19 and 2-31 respectively.

Curran had been expensive earlier in the innings, conceding 36 runs from his first two overs, but returned in force before Jamie Overton wrapped up the innings, which had been shortened to 17 overs after rain earlier in the day.

Having won the preceding ODI series 2-1, England were looking to take their form into the shortest format as they build up to the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next month.

They looked comfortable in their reply, with Phil Salt hitting 46 from 35 balls at the top of the order.

Jos Buttler was bowled by Eshan Malinga in the third over after hitting the seamer for four successive fours, and the same bowler removed Jacob Bethell for nine.

Tom Banton hit back-to-back sixes off Wanindu Hasaranga, but was caught superbly in the covers by Charith Asalanka off Parithana, while Salt chipped Shanaka to long-on with the finish in sight.

The rain returned two balls later with England needing nine from 12 deliveries and the umpires swiftly drew a conclusion to proceedings.

England go 1-0 up in the three-match series, with the next game at the same ground on Sunday.

Press freedom groups decry arrest of former CNN anchor as lawyer pledges to fight charges ‘vigorously’.

Journalist Don Lemon has been arrested in connection with his coverage of a protest against United States President Donald Trump’s deadly immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.

Lemon’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said on Friday that the journalist had been arrested in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards.

It was not immediately clear what charges Lemon was facing. In recent weeks, however, the Department of Justice indicated it would target Lemon for his attendance at a January 18 protest, in which demonstrators disrupted a church service in the city of St Paul, Minnesota.

“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement.

He pointed to the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the freedom of the press.

“The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable,” Lowell said. “Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court”.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the arrest on Friday, saying Lemon had been taken into custody with three others in connection with what she described as the “coordinated attack on Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota”.

Lemon was part of a series of arrests that morning, all related to the church demonstration. They included independent journalist Georgia Fort, as well as activists Jamael Lydell Lundy and Trahern Jeen Crews.

Federal authorities had previously arrested Minneapolis civil rights lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong and two others in connection with the protest.

Press freedom groups swiftly condemned the action, which they called a major escalation in the administration’s attacks on journalists.

“The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them,” Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement.

The National Press Club also denounced the arrests in a statement. “Arresting or detaining journalists for covering protests, public events, or government actions represents a grave threat to press freedom and risks chilling reporting nationwide,” it wrote.

Lemon had previously been an anchor for the CNN news network, but he was fired in 2023. He has since worked as an independent journalist, with a prominent presence on YouTube.

‘I’m here as a journalist’

During his online report from the church protest, Lemon repeatedly identified himself as a reporter as he interviewed both demonstrators and church attendees.

“I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist,” he told those present.

Protesters had targeted the church, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, due to its pastor, David Easterwood, who also holds a role as the head of a field office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Critics have questioned why the Justice Department swiftly opened a probe into the church protest, while it declined to open a civil rights investigation into an ICE agent’s killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7.

The department has not yet said if it will open an investigation into the January 24 killing of US citizen Alex Pretti by border patrol agents in Minneapolis.

“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lowell said in his statement.

Friday’s arrest comes after a federal judge in Minnesota took the rare move last week of refusing to sign an arrest warrant for Lemon. Justice Department officials nevertheless promised to continue pursuing charges.

After several years of suspension, political parties in Burkina Faso have been formally dissolved by the military government, which has also seized all their assets in a move analysts say is a major blow for democracy in the West African nation.

In a decree issued on Thursday, the government, led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, scrapped all laws which established and regulated political parties, accusing them of failing to comply with guidelines.

The troubled West African nation is struggling with violence from armed groups linked to ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. It is one of a growing number of West and Central African nations to have undergone coups in recent years.

Traore seized power in September 2022, eight months after an earlier military coup had already overthrown the democratically elected President Roch Marc Kabore.

Despite strong criticism by rights groups and opposition politicians of his authoritarian approach, 37-year-old Traore has successfully built up an online cult-like following among pan-Africanists, with many likening him to the late Burkinabe revolutionary leader, Thomas Sankara.

Traore’s anti-colonial and anti-imperial pronouncements are often shown in high-definition, AI-generated videos that have gained him widespread admiration across the internet.

But the decision to ban political parties does not sit well for democracy, Dakar-based analyst Beverly Ochieng of the Control Risks intelligence firm, told Al Jazeera.

“The military government will [remain] highly influential, especially after a recent decree appointing Traore in a supervisory capacity in the judiciary,” Ochieng said, referring to a December 2023 constitutional change which placed courts directly under government control.

Going forward, “there will be very limited division of powers or autonomy across the civic and political space,” Ochieng said, adding that the military government will likely keep extending its stay in power.

Why have political parties been banned?

The Burkinabe government claims the existing political parties were not following the codes which established them.

In a televised statement following a Council of Ministers meeting on Thursday, when the new decree was approved, Interior Minister Emile Zerbo said the decision was part of a broader effort to “rebuild the state” after alleged widespread abuses and dysfunction in the country’s multiparty system.

A government review, he said, had found that the multiplication of political parties had fuelled divisions and weakened social cohesion in the country.

“The government believes that the proliferation of political parties has led to excesses, fostering division among citizens and weakening the social fabric,” Zerbo said.

He did not give details of the political parties’ alleged excesses.

How did political parties operate in the past?

Before the 2022 coup, which brought the current military leadership to power, Burkina Faso had more than 100 registered political parties, with 15 represented in parliament after the 2020 general elections.

The largest was the ruling People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), which had 56 of 127 seats in parliament. It was followed by the Congress for Democracy and Progress, with 20 seats, and the New Era for Democracy with 13 seats.

But the civilian government faced months of protests as thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against growing insecurity from armed groups in large parts of the country.

In 2022, Traore took power, promising to put an end to violence by armed groups. He also promised the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc that his government would hold elections by 2024.

But political parties were banned from holding rallies after the 2022 coup and, a month before the 2024 deadline, Traore’s government postponed elections to 2029 after holding a national conference, which was boycotted by several political parties.

Burkina Faso, along with Mali and Niger, withdrew from ECOWAS to form the Alliance of Sahel States, a new economic and military alliance in January last year. They also withdrew from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In July 2025, Traore’s government dissolved the Independent National Electoral Commission, saying the agency was too expensive.

Has insecurity worsened under Traore?

Landlocked Burkina Faso is currently grappling with several armed groups which have seized control of land in the country’s north, south and west, amounting to about 60 percent of the country, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS).

The most active groups are the al-Qaeda-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which also operate in neighbouring Mali and Niger.

The groups want to rule over territory according to strict Islamic laws and are opposed to secularism.

By December 2024, all three Alliance of Sahel States countries had cut ties with former colonial power France and instead turned to Russian fighters for security support after accusing Paris of overly meddling in their countries.

Between them, they expelled more than 5,000 French soldiers who had previously provided support in the fight against armed groups. A smaller contingent of about 2,000 Russian security personnel is now stationed across the three countries.

But violence in Burkina Faso and the larger Sahel region has worsened.

Fatalities have tripled in the three years since Traore took power to reach 17,775 – mostly civilians – by last May, compared with the three years prior, when combined recorded deaths were 6,630, the ACSS recorded.

In September, Human Rights Watch accused JNIM and ISSP of massacring civilians in northern Djibo, Gorom Gorom and other towns, and of causing the displacement of tens of thousands since 2016.

HRW has also similarly accused the Burkinabe military and an allied militia group, Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, of atrocities against civilians suspected of cooperating with armed groups. In attacks on northern Nondin and Soro villages in early 2024, the military killed 223 civilians, including 56 babies and children, HRW said in an April 2024 report.

Mali and Niger have similarly recorded attacks by the armed groups. Malian capital Bamako has been sealed off from fuel supplies by JNIM fighters for months.

On Wednesday night, the Nigerien military held off heavy attacks on the airport in the capital city, Niamey. No armed group has yet claimed responsibility.

Is the civic space shrinking in Burkina Faso?

Since it took power, the government in Ouagadougou has been accused by rights groups of cracking down on dissent and restricting press and civic freedoms.

All political activities were first suspended immediately after the coup.

In April 2024, the government also took aim at the media, ordering internet service providers to suspend access to the websites and other digital platforms of the BBC, Voice of America and HRW.

Meanwhile, authorities have forced dozens of government critics into military service and sent them to fight against armed groups. Several prominent journalists and judges have been arrested after speaking out against increasingly restrictive rules on press and judiciary freedom.

Abdoul Gafarou Nacro, a deputy prosecutor at the country’s High Court, was one of at least five senior members of the judiciary to be forcibly conscripted and sent to fight armed groups in August 2024 after speaking out against the military government. Nacro’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

In April 2025, three abducted journalists resurfaced in a social media video 10 days after they went missing, in one example. All three – Guezouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem – were wearing military fatigues in an apparent forced conscription. They have all since been released.

However, several others, including some opposition politicians, are still missing.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz beat Germany’s Alexander Zverev over five hours but the latter is upset by officiating of injury.

Alexander Zverev condemned officials for allowing Carlos Alcaraz a medical timeout for a leg problem after ‍falling in an epic five-setter ‍to the Spaniard in the Australian Open’s longest semifinal.

World number one Alcaraz was struggling to move at 4-4 in the third set on Friday and was allowed treatment on his right thigh at the change of ends, leaving the German incensed.

While Alcaraz said post-match that he worried he may have ⁠strained an adductor muscle, Zverev was adamant the Spaniard’s problem was cramp, which is out of bounds for medical timeouts.

Alcaraz dropped ​the next two sets but was back running at full pelt in the fifth to close ‍out an epic 6-4 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-7(4) 7-5 win in five hours and 27 minutes.

“Yeah, I mean, he was cramping, so normally you can’t take a medical timeout for cramping,” third seed Zverev said at his post-match news conference.

“What can I do? It’s not my ‍decision. I didn’t ⁠like it, but it’s not my decision.”

On court, Zverev lashed out at a match supervisor in profanity-laden German as Alcaraz underwent treatment.

“I just said it was b******t, basically,” he said later of the exchange, noting that Alcaraz finished full of running.

“He took like an hour and a half off where he wasn’t moving almost at all.

“So again, maybe I should have used that better in a way. Maybe I should have won the games and won the sets a bit quicker. Then moving into the fifth, maybe he ​wouldn’t have had so much time to recover. But the fifth set, the way ‌he was moving, was incredible again.”

Alcaraz admits his body could be better ahead of Australian Open final

When asked whether he was injured, Alcaraz equivocated.

“Well, obviously I feel tired. You know, obviously my body could be better, to be honest, but I think that’s normal after five hours and a half.”

Runner-up to Jannik Sinner last ‌year, Zverev was serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set of Friday’s semifinal but Alcaraz won the next three games to leave the German with ‌another near-miss at the Grand Slams.

Still chasing an elusive first major title, ⁠Zverev said he had more regrets about dropping the second set than his surrender in the fifth.

“I was hanging on for dear life, to be honest. I was exhausted,” he said, rating the match as probably the toughest physically of his career.

“I think we both went to our absolute ‌limits, so somewhat I’m also proud of myself, the way I was hanging on and came back from two sets to love.

“Of course it’s disappointing but this is the start of the year, so if I continue playing that ‍way, if I continue training the way I train, if I continue working on the things that I’ve been working in the offseason, I do believe it’s going to be a good year for me.”

Regulator launches investigation into US gaming platform over potential risks to underage users in the EU.

The Dutch consumer watchdog has launched an investigation into Roblox to see if the popular online gaming system is doing enough to protect children from exposure to violent and sexual imagery.

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) said on Friday its probe would examine “potential risks to underage users in the EU” and would likely last about one year.

“The platform regularly makes the news, for example, due to concerns about violent or sexually explicit games that minors are exposed to,” the ACM said in a statement.

Other concerns include reports of “ill-intentioned” adults targeting children on the platform and the use of misleading techniques to encourage purchases.

The ACM said that, having received reports of such allegations, it “considers this sufficient reason to launch a formal investigation into possible violations of the rules by Roblox”.

New measures

Under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), platforms must take “appropriate and proportionate measures” to ensure a high level of safety and privacy for minors.

The ACM said it could impose a “binding instruction, fine, or penalty” on Roblox if it concludes the rules have been broken.

In 2024, the ACM slapped a 1.1-million-euro ($1.2m) fine on Fortnite maker Epic Games, judging that vulnerable children were exploited and pressured into making purchases in the game’s Item Shop.

A Roblox spokesperson said the company is “strongly committed to complying with the EU Digital Services Act” and referred to the gaming platform’s announcement last November that it would require age verification via facial recognition to limit communication between children and adults.

“We look forward to providing the ACM with further clarity on the many policies and safeguards we have in place to protect minors,” the spokesperson said.

Two people are reported killed in a drone strike at Maghazi camp in central Gaza while three others die in Rafah.

Israeli shelling and drone strikes across Gaza have killed at least five people and injured 11 others, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.

The deadly strikes on Friday in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp and the southern city of Rafah came as Israel carried out continued targeted operations in the besieged territory, despite the ongoing ceasefire.

Two Palestinian men were killed in Maghazi after they were targeted in a drone strike, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In Rafah, Israeli forces said in a statement that the air force had killed three “terrorists” as a group of eight had emerged from an underground location.

They said that further strikes were launched and that “soldiers continue to conduct searches in the area in order to locate and eliminate” the remaining people

Also in Rafah, Israeli naval gunboats pursued fishing boats and opened heavy machinegun fire on fishermen off the coast, according to Wafa. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Rafah is the location of a strategic border crossing to Egypt. It is the only passage between the Gaza Strip and the outside world that does not lead to Israel, and is a vital conduit for humanitarian aid.

Palestinian authorities have demanded the immediate reopening of the Rafah crossing, a stipulation of the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, saying the continued blockade has prevented the entry of necessary supplies for the tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the area.

Elsewhere in southern Gaza, six Palestinians were injured after Israeli forces shelled a tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, just west of Khan Younis, sources from al-Helal field hospital and Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Hani al-Shaer.

Anadolu news agency reported that a pregnant woman was among those injured in the attack.

Israeli strikes and operations have killed at least 492 Palestinians and injured 1,356 since the ceasefire came into force in October, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza.

The US-brokered ceasefire, which sought to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas since October 7, 2023, has been in place for more than three months. Both sides accuse each other of repeated violations.

Earlier in January, Washington announced that the ceasefire had progressed to its second phase, intended to bring a definitive end to the war. However, signs of progress on the ground remain scant.

On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the need to fully implement the ceasefire agreement, including the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

However, the Israeli military has said its forces “remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat”.