TOP NEWS

Jan. 19 (UPI) — A geomagnetic storm that occurred on Sunday may make the Northern Lights visible on Monday or Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

The NOAA has placed a severe geomagnetic storm watch in effect for Tuesday as the effects of Sunday’s coronal mass ejection is set to reach Earth.

A coronal mass ejection is a burst of solar material and magnetic field from the sun’s outer atmosphere. The event creates conditions that may make the Northern Lights visible as far south as Alabama and California, further south than they can usually be seen.

The solar flare may reach Earth as early as Monday night. The conditions that make the Northern Lights visible will likely weaken later in the day on Tuesday, NOAA says. Minor geomagnetic storm related effects may still be present on Wednesday.

“Forecasters have a fair measure of confidence in timing and of CME arrival at Earth,” NOAA said.

The visibility of the Northern Lights will depend on a few factors, including local cloud cover and how the solar flare interacts with Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Sunday’s geomagnetic storm was given a G4 rating, the second highest rating possible. Storms of this rating can cause satellite navigation and low-frequency radio navigation problems.

The Syrian army has taken territory long held by Kurdish-led forces, before declaring a ceasefire.

The lightning offensive changes the balance of power in the country.

Are there wider implications for Kurds beyond Syria?

Presenter: Maleen Saeed

Guests:

David Des Roches – Professor at the Thayer Marshall Institute

Mohammed Salih – Non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Elijah Magnier – Military and political analyst

Despite some reported clashes, the Syrian army and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are implementing their new ceasefire agreement. The SDF is expected to integrate its fighters into the Syrian army and place public infrastructure and services under federal government control.

Jan. 19 (UPI) — Strong winds and snow created whiteout conditions in Michigan Monday, leading to a pileup of more than 100 vehicles and shutting down a portion of Interstate 196.

The crash happened on Interstate 196 in Zeeland Township, Mich., at about 10:19 a.m. EST. The road has been closed to all traffic.

The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and Ottawa County Emergency Management say buses are transporting people who are stranded on the road away from the site of the accident. Motorists are advised to stay in their vehicles until they are able to board a bus.

The Hudsonville Public Schools and Holland, Mich., public transit services are providing transportation to the Hudsonville High School.

The Michigan State Police estimate that 30 to 40 semi-trucks were involved in the pileup. Numerous people have been injured but no fatalities have been reported.

The whiteout conditions have caused multiple crashes on Monday with several involving 15 vehicles or more. Part of U.S. Route 131 is closed in Kalamazoo, Mich., due to multiple crashes.

Semi-trucks have been involved in the Kalamazoo area crashes as well, with multiple trucks jackknifing on the road.

The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories in western Michigan due to strong winds and lake effect snow.

US President Donald Trump has unveiled a proposed “Board of Peace” initially aimed at rebuilding Gaza but now pitched as a global conflict body. Critics see a wide gap between its lofty promises and political reality. Al Jazeera’s Ruby Zaman takes a look the growing scepticism over whether it can deliver meaningful change.

Norway PM Jonas Gahr Store rebuked US President Trump after Trump texted that since Norway “decided not to” give him the Nobel Peace Prize, he’s no longer obliged to “think purely of Peace” and repeated his aim of US control of Greenland. Store said the prize is decided by an independent committee.

Jan. 19 (UPI) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday called for a snap election three months after being elected to office in pursuit of a mandate to fuel what she said is major changes to policy there.

Takaichi said she plans to dissolve the lower house country’s parliament, the Diet, on Friday ahead of a snap election on Feb. 8 aimed at gaining a mandate from voters and a majority in the 465-seat House of Representatives, The Guardian and the Financial Times reported.

The prime minister also announced that she plans to suspend sales tax on food there for two years, reduce the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio and strengthen social security, among other moves to stimulate the country’s economy.

“I am putting my future as prime minister on the line,” Takaichi told reporters at a press conference. “I want the people to decide directly whether they can entrust the management of the country to me.”

Japan’s first female prime minister had been considering dissolving the parliament for at least a couple of weeks as her advisors urged her to take advantage of high approval ratings to gain a majority for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The conservative, nationalist LDP has held rule in the parliament for decades, but has under-performed in recent elections and relied on a coalition with the populist Japan Innovation Party to hold a thin majority.

Of the lower house’s 465 seats, the LDP-JIP coalition has 233.

Since Takaichi became prime minister last October, she has pursued aggressive spending to revitalize the Japanese economy, including by abolishing the provisional gasoline tax rate and increasing the nontaxable income there.

Over the past year, United States President Donald Trump has unleashed a slew of policies that have upended businesses, supply chains and jobs.

Yet the US economy seems to be growing at a healthy clip, and the unemployment rate is in a safe zone.

The reality, experts say, is that the stock market boom has helped to mask deeper underlying problems in the economy.

Since taking office, Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on countries, including key trading partners, leading to predictions of inflation skyrocketing, manufacturing screeching to a halt and unemployment soaring.

None of those scenarios came true.

Inflation, while above the Federal Reserve’s target, was a modest 2.7 percent in December.

The unemployment rate was relatively low, at 4.4 percent, last month. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025, the fastest in two years.

“The shock and awe we anticipated just didn’t materialise,” Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera.

Yaros said the limited fallout could be attributed to the relative lack of retaliation by other countries and the stock market rally that quickly followed Trump’s dialling back of the steepest tariffs announced on “liberation day“.

Since Trump’s April 2 announcement, the stock market, which is heavily weighted towards the “magnificent seven” tech companies, has risen nearly 30 percent, boosting Americans’ paper wealth and encouraging households to loosen their purse strings.

Gains in net wealth have driven almost one-third of the rise in consumer spending since the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxford Economics said in a research briefing in October.

At the same time, the gains have not been distributed evenly.

The top 10 percent of earners are now estimated to account for roughly half of all spending, the highest proportion since officials began compiling data in 1989, according to Moody’s Analytics.

“The gains are going a lot to people in higher income brackets – they are the ones who have the stock portfolios – and are going to people in sectors and occupations tied to AI,” Marcus Noland, executive vice president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Al Jazeera.

“But, these numbers mask the unevenness in the growth in this economy.”

Net decline of workers

A careful parsing of the data reveals that unevenness. For instance, despite the impressive GDP numbers, that growth is not being accompanied by an increase in hiring.

While hospitality and healthcare added workers last year, retail, manufacturing and construction – sectors that rely heavily on migrants – all shed jobs.

As a result of the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and tightening of legal migration pathways, the US last year experienced negative net migration for the first time in at least half a century, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.

“And through this very public and brutal way of going about deportations, they have discouraged illegal immigration, but also intimidated immigrants in the US,” Noland said, adding that the US workforce is projected to see a net decline of two million workers this year.

The “bifurcation” in the US economy is also being felt across the business world, with smaller companies lacking the deep pockets to stockpile inventories or negotiate with suppliers in the face of increased tariffs.

“The surge in policy uncertainty this year has had an outsize effect on smaller firms,” Oxford Economics said in a November report.

These firms are also seeing little benefit from the boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry since revenues have been driven by capital-intensive chip manufacturing and cloud services.

While AI proponents believe the world is on the cusp of huge gains in productivity that could dramatically raise living standards, there are concerns about large numbers of people being put out of work.

“This could be the new norm – jobless growth. That’s one reason people are not feeling so great,” Yaros said.

“While a lot of hype about AI and productivity benefits from AI are still to come, we think that is a risk to the labour market if it continues to hold back hiring.”

Jan. 19 (UPI) — At least 14 people are dead following a massive fire that erupted at a shopping plaza in Karachi over the weekend, Pakistani officials said Monday, while dozens remain missing, according to reports.

The fire began Saturday night at the Gul Plaza on M.A/ Jinnah Road and was mostly put out 24 hours later, permitting a search for survivors through the remains of the building, Dawn reported.

Authorities said at least 14 people were dead, with between 54 and 59 people remaining unaccounted for, The Express Tribune reported.

Deputy Inspector General South Asad Raza told reporters that police have obtained the cell numbers of the 59 people missing and have traced the locations of 26 of them near the plaza.

“Further scrutiny is underway,” he said, according to The Tribune.

Gul Plaza is a prominent multi-story shopping center with more than 1,200 shops in Gazdarabad, which is part of the historic Saddar Town district of Karachi, Pakistan’s most populous city.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, though some officials suspect it may have erupted from an electrical short circuit.

“It is too early to determine the exact cause,” Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that he has directed federal institutions to provide “complete support” to the local government.

“In this time of grief and hardship, we stand with the affected people and the Sindh government,” he said.

“A coordinated and effective system is absolutely essential to bring fires under control in densely populated urban areas in a timely manner.”

Search operations were continuing.

Jan. 19 (UPI) — President Donald Trump told European leaders that one reason he has ramped up his push for the United States to acquire Greenland is because he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump sent a text to Norway’s prime minister and an email to several European ambassadors late Sunday saying that peace is no longer his highest priority as he pursues Greenland, Denmark’s claim to which he continues to deny, the New York Times reported.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” he wrote.

In a statement on Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stone confirmed that he received the text from Trump, which was a response to a message he’d sent the president on behalf of himself and Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland.

“In our message to Trump, we conveyed our opposition to his announced tariff increases against Norway, Finland and select other countries,” Stone and Stubb said in their initial text. “We pointed to the need to de-escalate and proposed a telephone conversation between Trump, Stubb and myself on the same day.”

In the statement, Stone also noted that the Nobel Peace Prize is given out by an independent committee — the Norwegian Nobel Committee — and not by Norway’s government.

Since the start of the year, Trump and his administration have intensified the pursuit of Greenland to become part of the United States.

The reasoning largely has been pinned on the island being “essential” to defense of the United States and, according to Trump, the world.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and has been for hundreds of years, and the United States long has operated a military base on the island. That base has become more strategically important as new shipping lanes have emerged nearby because of global climate change..

A high level meeting has been held between Vice President JD Vance and the Danish and Greenland foreign ministers, however they — and other leaders of NATO countries — have insisted that the United States will not acquire the country.

After the meeting, several European countries started to send troops to Greenland, prompting Trump to threaten tariffs on eight NATO nations starting Feb. 1 if they do not remove the troops and support his bid for the territory.

While Trump has said he would like to buy Greenland, he has also mused lately on the possibility of taking it by military force.

When asked by NBC News how far he would go to acquire the territory and whether he would use force, Trump said “no comment.”

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticised US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, saying it was ‘bad for Israel’ and should be scrapped. He called for the closure of the US-led Civil Military Coordination Centre in Kiryat Gat overseeing the Gaza ceasefire.

Aid cuts, conflict and economic collapse push millions of Yemenis towards severe hunger in 2026.

Yemen, one of the world’s most impoverished nations, is entering a perilous new phase of food shortages with more than half the population – about 18 million people – expected to face worsening hunger in early 2026, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The warning follows new projections under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system that were released on Monday and show an additional one million people at risk of life-threatening hunger. It also comes as Yemen is experiencing its latest internal conflict with external regional actors involved in fighting in the nation’s south.

The assessment also forecasts pockets of famine affecting more than 40,000 people across four districts within the next two months – the bleakest outlook for the country since 2022.

Years of war and mass displacement have shattered livelihoods and limited access to basic health and nutrition services.

Those pressures now overlap with a nationwide economic collapse that has slashed households’ purchasing power and driven up food prices. At the same time, humanitarian assistance has sharply declined.

By the end of 2025, Yemen’s required humanitarian response was less than 25 percent funded – the lowest level in a decade – while life-saving nutrition programmes received under 10 percent of the funding required, the IRC said.

“This rapid deterioration – driven by catastrophic humanitarian funding cuts, climate shocks, economic collapse, and compounded by recent insecurity – calls for urgent action to reverse the unfolding catastrophe,” the organisation said in a statement.

Caroline Sekyewa, the IRC’s country director in Yemen, said the speed of the decline is alarming.

“People of Yemen still remember when they didn’t know where their next meal would come from. I fear we are returning to this dark chapter again. What distinguishes the current deterioration is its speed and trajectory,” she said.

She described families being forced into desperate choices. “Food insecurity in Yemen is no longer a looming risk; it is a daily reality forcing parents into impossible choices,” Sekyewa said, adding that some parents have resorted to collecting wild plants to feed their children.

Despite the dire picture, Sekyewa said the crisis is preventable. “Yemen’s food security crisis is not inevitable,” she said, urging immediate donor action and pointing to cash assistance as one of the most effective tools to help families meet their basic needs with dignity.

The humanitarian warning comes amid renewed political and security tensions.

Yemen has been an acute focus of strain between Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent months.

In December, the UAE-supported southern separatist Southern Transitional Council seized swaths of southern and eastern Yemen, advancing close to the Saudi border before Saudi-backed forces regained much of the territory.

Analysts warned that unresolved rivalries alongside disputes over geopolitics and oil policy risk dragging Yemen back into wider conflict, further compounding a hunger crisis that aid agencies said is already spiralling.

Who: Inter Milan vs Arsenal
What: Matchday 7 (of 8), league phase, UEFA Champions League
Where: San Siro in Milan, Italy
When: Tuesday, January 20, at 9pm (20:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our text commentary stream.

Arsenal, now the only unbeaten team in the UEFA Champions League (UCL), travel to northern Italy to take on the might of Inter Milan on Tuesday after a 40-day break in the tournament schedule.

Riding a perfect 18 points from six matches so far, the Gunners enter this Matchday 7 contest as the UCL frontrunners, but their English Premier League (EPL) form has been far from dominant in 2026, drawing with 17th-placed Nottingham Forest in their most recent domestic fixture on Saturday.

Inter, who co-led the league phase with Arsenal after four rounds, enter this penultimate group stage contest riding a two-match UCL losing streak, including a crushing 1-0 home defeat to Liverpool in their last match on December 9, dropping the Nerazzurri to sixth in the standings.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at the high-stakes encounter, which might decide automatic qualification entry into the last 16.

Arsenal lead UCL and EPL, but it doesn’t feel like it

The Gunners lead next-best Bayern Munich in the Champions League by three points and front-run Manchester City in the Premier League by seven points, but they are playing far from their best in the new year.

Mikel Arteta’s side have sputtered out of the gate in 2026 with their last EPL victory an unconvincing 3-2 against Bournemouth on January 3, followed by two goalless draws: at home to Liverpool on January 8; and away to lowly Forest on January 17.

It is the first time since the 2012-13 season that Arsenal have recorded back-to-back 0-0 draws in the domestic league, with Arteta conceding that it was “difficult to generate momentum” during the most recent game.

“We came here to win the game, that’s clear, and we needed the opportunities that we had,” he said after the Nottingham setback.

“We haven’t managed that, so the word is disappointment.”

Arsenal remain well on course to end a 22-year wait to win the Premier League title, but they will need to quickly rediscover their offensive touch against a defensive juggernaut like Inter.

Inter hitting peak form

In contrast, Inter have recovered from a slow start to the Serie A season – where they lost two of their first three fixtures – to rapidly climb to the top of the ladder, three points clear of next-best AC Milan, and six points ahead of reigning champions Napoli.

The Nerazzurri are unbeaten in their last 11 domestic league fixtures. They were last defeated in Serie A way back on November 23, a 1-0 home loss in the derby match against Milan.

Will Arsenal qualify for the round of 16 if they beat Inter?

Yes. An Arsenal victory, or even a draw, in Tuesday’s penultimate League phase match against Inter would guarantee the North London outfit finish in the top eight clubs that automatically qualify for the last 16 of the tournament, thereby skipping the two-legged knockout playoff involving those placing ninth to 24th.

When did Inter and Liverpool last win the Champions League?

Arsenal have never won the UEFA Champions League title. They came closest in the 2005-06 season, losing the final to Barcelona 2-1.

Inter last won in 2010, overcoming Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final to complete the treble, a feat never achieved before by any team from either Italy or Germany.

What happened the last time Inter played Arsenal?

Inter defeated Arsenal 1-0 at the San Siro in a Matchday 4, league phase fixture on November 6, 2024.

Turkish midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu scored what turned out to be the match-winner from the penalty spot just before half time.

The two storied clubs have played three times in Champions League history, with Inter holding a 2-1 edge over the Gunners.

Inter Milan’s team news

In anticipation of Tuesday’s blockbuster clash against Arsenal, Inter coach Cristian Chivu rested stars Alessandro Bastoni and Marcus Thuram in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Udinese.

Thuram will re-enter the starting XI at the expense of Pio Esposito and will lead the line with regular strike partner Lautaro Martinez in Chivu’s well-tested 3-5-2 formation.

The Nerazzurri will likely be without key contributors Hakan Calhanoglu and Denzel Dumfries, both of whom are recovering from leg injuries and are close to a return to match action.

With a top-eight automatic qualification spot into the UCL round of 16 on the line, Chivu is expected to field his strongest possible side against Arsenal.

Inter Milan’s predicted starting lineup (3-5-2):

Sommer (goalkeeper); Acerbi, Akanji, Bastoni; Henrique, Barella, Mkhitaryan, Zielinski, Dimarco; Thuram, Martinez

Arsenal’s team news

In a desperate effort to find some goal scoring, Arteta is tipped to start Bukayo Saka – who was brought on as a second-half substitute in Saturday’s draw with Forest – alongside Noni Madueke and Gabriel Jesus.

Arsenal will continue to be without the injured trio of Max Dowman, Piero Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori, all of whom are not expected back until the first week of February, at the earliest.

Arsenal’s predicted starting lineup (4-3-3):

Raya (goalkeeper), Lewis-Skelly, Saliba, Magalhaes; Timber, Zubimendi, Rice; Odegaard; Madueke, Jesus, Saka

Last five matches

Inter Milan: W-W-D-W-W (most recent result last, Serie A matches only)

Arsenal: W-W-W-D-D (most recent result last, Premier League matches only)

Several ‍people ‍have been killed in a blast in ⁠Afghanistan’s Kabul, ​the Taliban Interior ‍Ministry said.

The explosion occurred on Monday in the Shahr-e-Naw area of the capital, which is home ‌to foreigners and ⁠thought to be one of the most secure areas ‌in Kabul.

“According to preliminary reports, ‍a ⁠number of people were killed and injured,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani told ​the Reuters news agency, ‌adding that details would be released later.

Blasts in Kabul, and across Afghanistan, are rarer since the Taliban returned to power following the United States withdrawal in 2021, but ISIL affiliates are still active in the country and carry out sporadic attacks.

More to come…

A Seoul court on Monday posthumously acquitted a man executed 50 years ago for allegedly attempting to rebuild an underground pro-North Korea organization in a retrial of the case.

The Seoul Eastern District Court found the late Kang Eul-seong not guilty on charges of violating the National Security Act, citing insufficient evidence.

Kang, a civilian military worker, was executed in 1976 after his arrest and torture by military counterintelligence authorities for allegedly attempting to reconstruct the Unification Revolutionary Party on alleged orders from North Korea in 1974.

The underground organization had been uncovered by South Korea’s spy agency under then President Park Chung-hee’s administration in 1968 and dismantled.

The court said it could not conclude that Kang praised or sympathized with anti-state activities for reading a paper published in North Korea.

“(Our) hearts feel heavy. Although a past wrong has been corrected, irreversible damage has already been done and the fact that it is too late leaves a sense of helplessness,” the court said. “We made the verdict in this case with a sense of contrition as the judiciary did not fulfill the expectations of the people.”

“As a member of the judiciary that made an error, I once again bow my head to apologize to the bereaved family members.”

Prosecutors had sought Kang’s acquittal in the retrial, saying that procedural truth had not been kept in the original trial. They will not seek an appeal.

The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office apologized to the defendant and his bereaved family, vowing to remain faithful to its core duties.

Kang’s family expressed their intent to receive an apology not only from the judiciary but the defense ministry as well.

“The defense ministry arbitrarily dealt with the case, and we spoke of how we should receive an apology from the defense ministry,” Jin-ok, Kang’s eldest daughter told Yonhap News Agency by phone.

“We talked about how we should try for it, if it is possible,” she said. “We have fought for the past 53 years and we don’t think it will happen instantly.”

It marked the latest case surrounding the underground organization, in which the defendant was acquitted.

Four other people accused of attempting to rebuild the pro-North Korea group have been acquitted posthumously in retrials.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

China’s domination of minerals – especially the copper needed for electrification, data centres, robots, cellphones and defence technology – is pushing the United States to ramp up its control of oil and minerals worldwide, argues Daniel Yergin, one of the world’s top experts in the economics of oil.

In this episode, Yergin explains how Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Russia and other issues are connected to the business of oil and the competition to control Earth’s minerals. And while US President Donald Trump’s motives in Venezuela and Greenland are unclear, Yergin says one thing is certain: The US is desperate to achieve supply chain independence from China.

Follow our live build-up, with team news coverage, ahead of our text commentary stream of the 2025 AFCON final in Rabat.

Agreement will see government takeover of SDF-controlled areas, and SDF integration into the Syrian military.

The Syrian government has announced a ceasefire has been agreed with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that will involve the withdrawal of the latter’s forces from areas west of the Euphrates River, according to Syrian state media.

Sunday’s deal will also see SDF forces integrate into the Syrian military.

The agreement comes after days of fighting between the Syrian government and the SDF in northeastern Syria. The army and the SDF had been clashing over strategic posts and oilfields along the Euphrates River.

Speaking in Damascus, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that the agreement will see Syrian state institutions move into three eastern and northern governorates – al-Hasakah, Deir Az Zor, and Raqqa – previously controlled by the SDF.

“We advise our Arab tribes to remain calm and allow for the implementation of the agreement’s terms,” al-Sharaa said.

The agreement stipulates that the SDF administration in charge of ISIL (ISIS) detainees and camps, and the forces guarding the facilities, will be integrated into the country’s state structure, now giving the government full legal and security responsibility.

Additionally, the SDF will propose a list of leaders to fill senior military, security, and civilian posts within the central government, ensuring national partnership.

Al-Sharaa made the announcement after he met United States Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack in Damascus. SDF chief Mazloum Abdi was supposed to be at the meeting, but al-Sharaa said that weather conditions meant that his trip would be postponed until Monday.

‘Victory’

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna, reporting from the Syrian capital, said that the agreement “can be seen as a victory” for the Syrian government.

Syrian state media says that the agreement will see the military handover of the SDF-controlled governorates and the takeover of civilian institutions.

The Syrian government will also take over “all border crossings and oil and gas fields”.

A previous agreement in March that included the integration of SDF forces into the Syrian military was not implemented, and fighting has periodically broken out between the two sides in recent months, increasing in ferocity this month.

But on Saturday, the Syrian army continued its advance into towns in the SDF-held territory.

According to state media, the army had taken the northern city of Tabqa and its adjacent dam, as well as the major Freedom dam, formerly known as the Baath, west of Raqqa.

Moreover, the army seized the Omar oilfield, the country’s largest, and the Conoco gas field in Deir Az Zor, in a major blow to the SDF. Last week, al-Sharaa said it was unacceptable for the SDF to control a quarter of the country and hold its main oil and other commodity resources.

According to Gamal Mansour, a lecturer in political science at the University of Toronto, the SDF had become isolated politically, explaining their rapid retreat.

“Sometimes you have arms, but your political situation, the lack of backing, the strategic and regional background in which you’re operating … therein lies the problem that SDF has,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Iraqi Kurdistan read the regional image and the strategic posture of the SDF in a way that had them go to the SDF and tell them ‘you need to … [cooperate] with the Americans so that you can have a peaceful relationship with the Syrian government’”, he said, adding that the US has also told the SDF as much.

Mansour explained that the success of the Syrian government’s rapid advance was also driven largely by Arab tribes in SDF-controlled areas, whose loyalty to the SDF was already fragile amid discontent with their rule, Kurdish nationalist dominance and a lack of economic investment.

The ceasefire agreement also outlined that the SDF had committed to the removal of all non-Syrian Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leaders and members from the territory to ensure sovereignty and regional stability.

Electoral commission says two parties aligned with President Patrice Talon win all 109 seats in the assembly.

President Patrice Talon’s ruling alliance has won full control of Benin’s National Assembly in legislative elections, according to provisional results.

The electoral commission said on Saturday night that of the five parties running in the January 11 vote, only the Progressive Union for Renewal and the Republican Bloc – both aligned with Talon – won seats in the assembly.

The Progressive Union for Renewal will have 60 MPs while the Republican Bloc will have 49.

According to a new electoral code, a party must obtain 20 percent of the national vote and 20 percent in each of the 24 electoral districts to be eligible for seat allocation.

The main opposition party, The Democrats, won about 16 percent of the vote and failed to reach the threshold.

The results strengthen the presidential bloc’s hand going into the presidential election in April, in which 67-year-old Talon, who has ruled the country for a decade, is barred from standing again by term limits.

His handpicked successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is expected to succeed him. The Democrats, meanwhile, are barred from standing in the presidential polls after failing to gather enough signatures to register.

The same rule sidelined them from local elections that were held alongside last week’s legislative polls.

“These results confirm the struggle that [The Democrats] party has been waging for about two years,” Guy Mitokpe, spokesperson for The Democrats, said, according to The Associated Press news agency.

“We denounced this electoral code, saying that it heavily favoured parties aligned with the president. It’s an exclusionary electoral code. As proof, we won’t have a candidate in the presidential election, and we were excluded from the municipal elections.”

Turnout in last weekend’s elections was 36.7 percent, officials said, roughly on par with the 37 percent in the last legislative polls in 2023.

The legislative vote took place weeks after a deadly military coup attempt to overthrow Talon, which lasted a few hours on December 7 before authorities announced it had been foiled.

Under a November constitutional reform, the presidential term was extended to seven years with a two-term limit.

Jan. 16 (UPI) — Virginia voters will have the final say on a proposed congressional redistricting in the commonwealth after the state Senate passed a redistricting amendment Friday.

A majority of Virginia voters must approve of the amendment to the commonwealth’s constitution during an election to be held in the spring.

Virginia Democrats say the change is needed to counter redistricting efforts initiated by Republicans in Texas and Democrats in California, the Virginia Mercury reported.

Republicans call the move an effort to seize power and bypass the will of Virginia voters, who voted to establish the commonwealth’s independent redistricting commission in 2020.

The resolution’s sponsor, Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico, said the amendment creates a “narrow, temporary exception” for congressional redistricting.

That exception would occur while the Democratic Party holds 21 Virginia Senate seats to 19 for Republicans, and 64 House of Delegates seats to the GOP’s 36.

If voters approve the measure, it would allow Virginia to redraw its congressional districts, but not its commonwealth districts, whenever another state engages in redistricting beyond the traditional 10-year cycle or in response to a court order.

The proposed change would enable commonwealth lawmakers to revise Virginia’s congressional districts instead of its bipartisan redistricting commission.

Democrats hold six of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts and want to gain three or four more via redistricting.

If approved by voters, the measure, House Joint Resolution 4, would expire in 2030, thereby requiring a similar action if future legislatures want to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts in response to redistricting efforts elsewhere.

The Virginia Department of Elections shows several special local elections, but no statewide elections are scheduled ahead of the commonwealth’s June 16 primary for U.S. Senate, House and local offices.

Jan. 16 (UPI) — The Trump administration, backed by a group of eastern-states’ governors, are planning to ask the PJM Interconnection electric grid operator to hold an auction to help boost the power supply strained by data centers and lower prices for consumers.

The emergency power auction would offer 15-year contracts for electricity generation from newly built power plants. Normally, auctions offer one-year contracts to energy companies. The proposed auction would be open to tech companies to help pay for their extra power use.

Trump also wants regulators to put a cap on the amount that existing power plants can charge.

The auction would be let the tech giants pay to fuel their energy-gobbling data centers that process data for artificial intelligence. The cost of electricity generation for data centers is driving up the price of power to consumers. The White House can’t mandate the auction.

PJM Interconnection is the power grid that serves 13 states and Washington, D.C. It serves 65 million people and includes northern Virginia, which is the largest data center market in the world. The money raised would help finance construction of new power plants.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and governors from the mid-Atlantic region are scheduled to announce an agreement Friday to lobby PJM to take these actions, a White House official told CNBC.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the administration is leading an unprecedented bi-partisan effort urging PJM to fix the energy subtraction failures of the past, prevent price increases and reduce the risk of blackouts,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.

In its most recent auction, PJM was 6 gigawatts short of its reliability requirement for 2027, CNBC said. Six gigawatts is equal to six large nuclear plants.

“Instead of a blackout happening every one in 10 years, we’re looking at something more often,” said Abe Silverman, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who served as general counsel for New Jersey’s public utility board.

Consumer rates are determined by state regulators, but also by the costs that utilities pay for energy from their plants or at auctions. Rates have risen because of the higher demand from AI and data centers.