Ospreys are currently playing out of Bridgend this season where a crowd of 4,052 turned out to watch in wet and windy conditions.

Fans were asked to light their phone torches on 11 minutes as a message to say “they will not ignore the disgraceful treatment of Ospreys players, staff, and supporters”.

The crowd obliged and there were resounding boos directed towards rugby bosses.

Ospreys staff had been in tears this week not knowing what the future holds and that frustration was shared by the fans.

Lynne Jones, of Ospreys Supporters Club said she feels let down by the WRU and Y11.

“I’m emotional, angry and upset, it’s devastating,” she told BBC Wales Today.

“The silence from the WRU – it’s not on.”

Sarah Collins-Davies, chair of the Ospreys Supporters Club added: “It’s been an emotional week for the supporters, but I can’t imagine how difficult it has been for the players and coaches.

Ospreys supporter Annette Davies says she is fearful for the future with so many unanswered questions.

“There has to be clarity,” said Davies.

“We’re told there will be an Ospreys side next season – what does that mean? Are we ending next season? Are we even going to have the players to have a season, because we have a lot of players out of contract.

“Who’s going to want to sign for us? Knowing they might not be here at the end of that following season.”

The Ospreys have produced Wales and British and Irish Lions internationals like Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Biggar, Adam Jones, Shane Williams and Justin Tipuric and attracted star names like Justin Marshall, Tommy Bowe, Jerry Collins, Marty Holah and Ryan Jones.

They are the most successful Welsh team in terms of silverware since the inception of regional rugby in 2003, although their last trophy was in 2012.

An illustrious past. But what an uncertain future looks like, remains to be seen.

Bangkok, Thailand – For Thai national Khaochat Mankong, 2026 was meant to be the biggest year of her life.

After filing the necessary paperwork with the United States embassy in Bangkok, Khaochat, 27, was poised to start a new life with her American husband in California.

Last week, Khaochat watched those plans evaporate in an instant as US President Donald Trump’s administration announced an indefinite pause on the processing of immigrant visa applications from 75 countries, including Thailand.

The US Department of State said it had suspended applications for the targetted countries because their migrants claimed welfare benefits at “unacceptable rates”.

“I’m shocked; I never thought they would interfere with permanent visas or marriage visas,” Khaochat, an English tutor in Bangkok, told Al Jazeera.

“But now everything has to be paused for who knows how many years.”

Khaochat said she had hoped to raise a family in the US and had no intention of claiming any welfare benefits.

“If they want to screen people, then test language ability, check financial accounts,” she said. “I have the language skills, I have money. Why should I be blocked from living with the person I love?”

Similar stories of punctured dreams have flooded Thai social media in recent days.

Married couples have expressed fears of being separated for the long term or having their children denied the right to stay.

Prospective migrant workers have also voiced their dismay at the changes, which have put a freeze on EB-class employment visas as well as the K-class spousal and dependent visas.

Songtham Artsomjit, 26, said he could no longer see a pathway to the US after paying a Thai agency $800 to start the paperwork for an EB-3 unskilled work visa.

“I was going to work on an assembly line making flat-bed trailers in Wisconsin,” Artsomjit told Al Jazeera, describing his plan as a hoped-for “turning point in life” that would lead to permanent residency.

“Instead, I’ve taken a job in a supermarket in Israel,” he said, adding that he was more afraid of poverty than “the risks of war there”.

While some would-be migrants are holding on to hopes that the suspension will be lifted, Trump’s pause appears to be part of a long-term strategy to severely restrict legal migration to the US.

Thailand, one of only two US treaty allies in Southeast Asia with a formal diplomatic relationship dating back to 1833, has expressed disappointment at being included on a list that includes many much poorer, conflict-afflicted countries such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and Myanmar.

Last week, Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, a candidate for prime minister in Thailand’s general elections next month, said he had met with US Charge D’Affairs Elizabeth J Konick to seek clarification on the suspension.

Phuangketkeow said he had queried the logic of including Thais in the freeze, given their contributions to the US economy and closeness of Washington and Bangkok’s ties, saying “these questions are not good for the relationship.”

For many Thais, the sense of injustice has been shaped by the relative success of the Thai diaspora in the US, many of whom built lucrative businesses after migrating to take up low-paid jobs in restaurants, warehouses and factories.

The median annual income of Thai-headed households in 2023 was $82,000, higher than the national average of $75,000, according to the Pew Research Center.

Once a key base in the US fight against communism and, more recently, an ally against China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea, Thailand has had an increasingly strained relationship with its oldest treaty ally since Trump’s return to office.

Like other export-reliant countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand has weathered significant economic upheaval due to Trump’s tariffs.

Thai exports to the US have been subject to a 19 percent tariff since August, while talks on a comprehensive trade deal have faltered over US demands for opening the local market to its giant food producers.

“The Trump administration is not respectful of the relationship; it has a transactional worldview,” Phil Robertson, a US citizen based in Thailand and the director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, told Al Jazeera.

Robertson called Trump’s policy “crass and cruel” and predicted that the administration would “create so many hurdles and so much red tape” that it would become impossible to migrate to the US.

Not all Thais take issue with the changes.

Noi, who lives with her American husband in Niceville, Florida, said she supported the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict welfare claims by migrants.

“Ever since the Trump administration, there have been efforts to stop using our tax dollars to support immigrants from various countries,” Noi, who holds a green card entitling her to live in the US permanently, told Al Jazeera.

“Of course, this impacts the various countries that are being banned. But people are waking up and seeing what’s been happening.”

For Khaochat, the collapse of her dreams is loaded with a bitter irony.

“My partner voted for Trump,” she said.

These are the key developments from day 1,430 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 24:

Fighting

• Four people were killed and five were injured in Russian attacks on Cherkasy, in an area of Ukraine’s Donetsk region that is still controlled by Ukraine, Governor Vadym Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging app.
• Filashkin said that Russian forces shelled settlements in the Donetsk region 10 times over the past day, and that 109 people, including 17 children, were evacuated.
• Russian forces attacked the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region with glide bombs and other weapons, killing one person, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
• Russian forces launched drones at Kherson city and several villages in the Kherson region over the past day, killing one person and injuring two others, the regional military administration said.
• Russian forces killed a 72-year-old man and injured two others, including a child, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Hanzha, said.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 76 Russian drones of 101 launched towards Ukraine over the past day.
• Several people were injured in Ukrainian attacks across front-line Russian areas and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including five people injured on a bus in Russia’s Belgorod region, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
• The General Staff of Ukraine’s military claimed that Ukrainian forces hit a fuel depot and radar facilities, causing a fire, at the Penzanefteproduct fuel depot in Russia’s Penza region.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said that its forces captured the village of Symynivka, situated about 47km (29 miles) northeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Ukraine-Russia-US talks

• The first day of trilateral talks involving negotiators from the United States, Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi concluded late on Friday night, the Ukrainian presidency said in a post on X, adding that talks would continue on Saturday.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a statement after Friday’s talks, saying “it is still too early to draw conclusions” about the substance of the negotiations.

• “By now, our team should already have at least some answers from Russia,” said Zelenskyy. “We will see how the conversation develops tomorrow and what results it produces,” he added.
• Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said on X that the meeting had “focused on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process aimed at advancing towards a dignified and lasting peace”.
• The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that the talks were scheduled to last for two days “as part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis”.
• Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters that talks between US and Russian officials on the eve of the Abu Dhabi meeting were “substantive, constructive and very frank”.

• Ushakov said that Russian Admiral Igor Kostyukov would be leading Moscow’s team in Abu Dhabi, and investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev would meet separately on economic issues with Steve Witkoff, the envoy of US President Donald Trump.

Energy Crisis

• Maxim Timchenko, the head of Ukraine’s top private power producer DTEK, told the Reuters news agency that the energy situation in Ukraine was nearing a “humanitarian catastrophe” following repeated Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
• Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state grid operator, says there are emergency power outages in most regions of the country following Russia’s latest aerial attacks.

Regional Security

• The Swedish Air Force said on Friday that it “intercepted two Su-35S escorting a Tu-22M [Russian military aircraft] over the Baltic Sea” on Thursday.
• France’s navy redirected the oil tanker “Grinch” to the port of Marseille-Fos for inspection, suspecting it is part of a “shadow fleet” of vessels Russia uses to export sanctioned oil, according to Reuters.

Finally.

DC Studios co-chief James Gunn shared a new teaser for “Supergirl” on Friday featuring the first proper look at Jason Momoa as the villain Lobo — and it appears the actor is as thrilled as fans are at the long anticipated unveiling.

In a clip shared on Gunn’s Instagram, Momoa is seen exiting his trailer smoking a cigar when he is asked whether he has any comments about playing the character. The actor responds with a grin that shows off his fangs. The video then cuts to footage from “Supergirl” that shows Momoa’s Lobo laughing astride a motorcycle. (Momoa shared the same clip.)

“It’s called making an entrance,” Gunn wrote in his post sharing an extended version of the teaser on social media platform X. The 30-second clip includes footage featured in the first “Supergirl” teaser with “House of the Dragon” alum Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El facing various space thugs before Lobo makes his grand entrance. Like the previous trailer, the new one is set to Blondie’s “Call Me.”

Directed by Craig Gillespie, “Supergirl” will follow the eponymous Kryptonian celebrating her 23rd birthday before meeting Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley). The reluctant superhero then sets off on a quest to face “an unexpected and ruthless adversary,” according to the movie’s logline. The film will also feature Matthias Schoenaerts, David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham. The movie, written by by Ana Nogueira, is based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s acclaimed comic book miniseries “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.”

Momoa, of course, is no stranger to the world of DC superheroes. The actor previously portrayed Arthur Curry — a.k.a. Aquaman, the reluctant, half-Atlantean ruler of Atlantis — in films including “Aquaman” (2018) and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (2023).

Lobo is a dream role for Momoa, who previously described the intergalactic bounty hunter as his “favorite.”

“I always wanted to play Lobo,” the actor told Fandango in 2023. “If they call and ask me to play him, it’s a [definite yes]. … [I]f they ever call me and ask me to play, or ask me to audition, I’m there.” His casting was announced in 2024.

“Supergirl” will hit theaters June 26.

This year’s midterm election already was going to be frustrating for many voters in a vast, rural swath of Northern California whose staunchly conservative district has been redrawn to favor Democrats after the passage of Proposition 50 last fall.

Their longtime Republican congressman, Doug LaMalfa, a rice farmer from rural Butte County who had represented the region for 13 years, had vowed to run again in his newly configured district, despite the long odds.

But LaMalfa died during emergency surgery on Jan. 5.

Now, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — a vociferous critic of President Trump who is weighing a 2028 presidential run — has chosen the latest day possible under state law for a special election to fill LaMalfa’s seat for the last few months of his term.

In a Jan. 16 proclamation, Newsom set the special election for Aug. 4.

The victor will represent California’s 1st Congressional District with its current boundaries, which stretch from the northern outskirts of Sacramento, through Redding to the Oregon border and to Alturas in the state’s northeast corner.

On June 2, voters will simultaneously cast ballots in the primary for the special election in the current district — and in the statewide primary for the November election for the new districts.

If the winner of the special election primary gets more than 50% of the vote in the primary, he or she will win outright, serving the rest of LaMalfa’s term, which ends Jan. 3, 2027.

“Voters will certainly be confused about the shifting district lines in two elections so close together in time,” Kim Nalder, director of the Project for an Informed Electorate at Sacramento State, said in an email.

She added that the special election is likely to get “fairly low turnout,” with those who do cast ballots being “better informed and more partisan.”

LaMalfa’s death put the razor-thin Republican majority in Congress in further jeopardy, with a margin of just two votes to secure passage of any bill along party lines after the resignation of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene this month.

In California, several Republican-held seats, including LaMalfa’s, were imperiled in the fall when voters passed Proposition 50, which temporarily redraws the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats. The proposition was a response to partisan redistricting in Republican states including Texas.

State law required Newsom to announce a special election for the remainder of LaMalfa’s term within 14 days of his death. The election had to be conducted within 140 days — or up to 200 days if consolidated with another election.

The governor’s office said that consolidating the special and state primaries was meant to reduce the risk of voter confusion since there are multiple elections with different boundaries.

But Newsom’s decision to leave LaMalfa’s seat vacant as long as possible has infuriated California Republicans. They say Proposition 50 has already disenfranchised voters in a region that has, for nearly a century, talked seriously about seceding to form their own state called Jefferson.

In a Jan. 16 letter to Newsom, the California Assembly Republican Caucus said the state’s rural residents “already suffer from a severe lack of meaningful representation in both Sacramento and Washington D.C.”

They added: “When a congressional seat representing one of the largest and most rural districts in the state is left vacant, it sends a clear message: OUR VOICES ARE NOT A PRIORITY.”

The lawmakers said the unfilled seat has “real consequences for communities that depend on federal advocacy for wildfire recovery, water access, agriculture, healthcare, and basic infrastructure.”

Nadler, at Sacramento State, said it appears Newsom is “continuing to use every tool at his disposal to enable his party to gain advantages in the House” and that the governor “understands the assignment in this new political era.”

Matt Rexroad, a California Republican political consultant and redistricting expert, said of Newsom’s choice to set the special election for August: “There’s no doubt at all that it’s politically driven.”

“He did Prop. 50 to stick it to President Trump and is attempting to deny House Speaker [Mike] Johnson another Republican vote for the rest of the year,” Rexroad said. “All of this is about Governor Newsom positioning himself to run for president.”

Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Yuba City Republican who is running to complete LaMalfa’s term, has said the governor could have called the special election for June 2, with a primary on March 31. Instead, he wrote in a statement last week, the governor “chose to play national political games” and will deny Northern California voters representation “for at least two months longer than what was needed.”

Gallagher announced his candidacy last week with an endorsement from LaMalfa’s widow, Jill, who wrote that “in the midst of our sadness and navigation of such a profound loss, I find myself very concerned about who may replace Doug as our Representative in Washington, D.C.”

“The kids and I believe this is what Doug would have wanted,” she wrote of Gallagher’s candidacy, adding: “James has our full support.”

In an interview Friday, Gallagher, the former Assembly Republican leader, said he was still reeling from the death of LaMalfa, whom he considered a mentor and close friend.

Gallagher said his motto for this election is: Unite the North State.

Because of Proposition 50, the current, deep-red district will be cleaved into three pieces. The northern half will be joined to a coastal district that will stretch all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, while the southern half will be chopped into two districts that will draw in voters from the Bay Area and wine country.

“Prop. 50 was a big gut punch for us,” Gallagher said. “A lot of people felt like their representation was getting ripped away from them for political reasons — then you lose the guy who’s been your rock for many years. … It is a very difficult time.”

Gallagher will compete in the special election against Democrat Audrey Denney, an education director who unsuccessfully challenged LaMalfa in 2018 and 2020.

Denney will run in both the special election and in the election for the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District. State Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat who represents the state’s northwest coast, is among her competitors vying to represent the new district.

Gallagher told The Times on Friday that he had not decided whether he would run for a full term in a new district, “but I would say I’m considering it.”

A funeral service for LaMalfa is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico.

LaMalfa’s staff said attendees will include Johnson, numerous members of Congress and Newsom.

Edinburgh: Paterson, Graham, Goosen, Lang, Van der Merwe, Thompson, Vellacott; Schoeman, Ashman, D’arcy Rae, Young, Gilchrist, McConnell, Douglas, Bradbury.

Replacements: Morris, Venter, Hill, Hunter-Hill, Muncaster, Shiel, Scott, O’Conor.

Bulls: Le Roux, Jooste, De Klerk, Kriel, Arendse, Pollard, Burger; Wessels, Grobbelaar, Louw, Vermaak, Nortje, Coetzee, Gumede, Rudolph.

Replacements: Van Staden, Tshakweni, Smith, Ludwig, Carr, Papier, Vorster, Jacobs.

Firefighters check the platform at Jongno 3-ga Station on Seoul Subway Line 1 on Jan. 23 after smoke was reported from beneath an uptown-bound train, prompting passengers to evacuate. Fire officials said the smoke was suspected to have been caused by overheating brakes. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed a military radar in the Somali region of Puntland as part of a secret deal, amid Abu Dhabi’s ongoing entrenchment of its influence over the region’s security affairs.

According to the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye, sources familiar with the matter told it that the UAE had installed a military radar near Bosaso airport in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region earlier this year, with one unnamed source saying that the “radar’s purpose is to detect and provide early warning against drone or missile threats, particularly those potentially launched by the Houthis, targeting Bosaso from outside”.

The radar’s presence was reportedly confirmed by satellite imagery from early March, which found that an Israeli-made ELM-2084 3D Active Electronically Scanned Array Multi-Mission Radar had indeed been installed near Bosaso airport.

READ: UAE: The scramble for the Horn of Africa

Not only does the radar have the purpose of defending Puntland and its airport from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, but air traffic data reportedly indicates it also serves to facilitate the transport of weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), further fuelling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The UAE installed the radar shortly after the RSF lost control of most of Khartoum in early March”, one source said. Another source was cited as claiming that the radar was deployed at the airport late last year and that Abu Dhabi has used it on a daily basis to supply the RSF, particularly through large cargo planes that frequently carry weapons and ammunition, and which sometimes amount to up to five major shipments at a time.

According to two other Somali sources cited by the report, Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni did not seek approval from Somalia’s federal government nor even the Puntland parliament for the installation of the radar, with one of those sources stressing that it was “a secret deal, and even the highest levels of Puntland’s government, including the cabinet, are unaware of it”.

READ: UAE under scrutiny over alleged arms shipments to Sudan

AHEAD of taking to the small screen in search of love, Professor Green has shown off his impressive body transformation.

The singer, real name Stephen Manderson, 42, was announced as part of the 2026 line-up for Celebs Go Dating earlier this week.

And it appears he’s been getting both mentally and physically ready for the reality appearance.

Sharing shirtless before and after shots of his three week transformation, Stephen looks visibly more toned and revealed that his fat percentage has dropped to 11%, as well as his weight falling down.

In the snaps, Stephen’s tattoo tribute to his ex-fiancée Karima McAdams could be seen – with ‘Karima’ simply inked on his chest.

The pair are thought to have split in 2024 and share son Slimane.

AFTERMATH

Jesy Nelson’s ex opens up on ‘traumatic moments and immense stress’ after split

WHAT THE BUTLER SAW

Brooklyn’s ‘brattish’ wife ‘flounced out of wedding after DJ comment’

While they kept their split fairly private, the singer – who was also previously married to Made In Chelsea’s Millie Mackintosh – is now seemingly open to find love again.

As well as a physical transformation, Stephen – who has discussed his journey with sobriety in the past – says his health kick has been game-changing mentally, too.

Writing a lengthy caption alongside the post, the musician explained that he was suffering from burnout before locking into the programme.

He wrote: “A flu at the end of summer wiped me, tastebuds changed and i lost some good weight, it took about 8 weeks before i started to feel human again. even longer before i felt i could train.

“This is where things began motoring towards what i now recognise to be periodic but cyclical burnout and shutdown.

“It all begins to get a bit much, i can’t stop my brain being hijacked and obligation and urgency are applied everywhere without any ability to prioritise. i become forgetful. quick.

“i’ve been managing to parent and work and not much else. within the not much else has been therapy, sleep and training.”

Continuing that this cycle left him “overwhelmed”, “stuck with anxiety” and “very sad”, Stephen made a candid admission about his personal life.

He continued: “I’ve been letting emails mount, allowed lapses in communication and withdrawn somewhat. I’ve been honest with a few nearest and dearest – and periodically on here too.

“I necessary part of me moving forwards is building safety into my life and relationships, and finding that inside myself to.

“Its not something I’ve ever truly felt bar via the safety i now provide for my son.”

Assuring that things are looking up, with this transformation the beginning, he wrote: “I’ve looked rough, but as you’ll see in these photos on the right, I’ve got a different look on my face today.”

He concluded that following therapy sessions and focusing on “showing up”, the star has now “turned a corner”.

Stephen will likely be seen getting into another form of therapy during his appearance on Celebs Go Dating – with experts Paul Brunson, Anna Williamson and Dr. Tara known for diving deep with their celeb clients.

PHILADELPHIA — Outraged critics accused President Trump of “whitewashing history” on Friday after the National Park Service removed an exhibit on slavery at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park in response to his executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks.

Empty bolt holes and shadows are all that remains on the brick walls where explanatory panels were displayed at the President’s House Site, where George and Martha Washington lived with the people they owned as property when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. One woman cried silently at their absence. Someone left a bouquet of flowers. A hand-lettered sign said “Slavery was real.”

Workers on Thursday removed the exhibit, which included biographical details about the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the presidential mansion. Just their names — Austin, Paris, Hercules, Christopher Sheels, Richmond, Giles, Oney Judge, Moll and Joe — remain engraved into a cement wall.

Seeking to stop the display’s permanent removal, the city of Philadelphia on Thursday sued Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron.

“Let me affirm, for the residents of the city of Philadelphia, that there is a cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government that dates back to 2006,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a press conference Friday. “That agreement requires parties to meet and confer if there are to be any changes made to an exhibit.”

Slavery is central to the site’s story, Philadelphia’s lawsuit argues: The people enslaved at the mansion included Oney Judge, who famously ran away and remained free despite Washington’s attempts to return her to bondage.

The panels came down because Trump’s order requires federal agencies to review interpretive materials to “ensure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values,” an Interior Department statement said. It called the city’s lawsuit frivolous, aimed at “demeaning our brave Founding Fathers who set the brilliant road map for the greatest country in the world.”

The department did not answer questions about what will replace the exhibits that were removed.

Critics condemned the removals as confirmation the Trump administration seeks to erase unflattering aspects of American history.

“Their shameful desecration of this exhibit raises broader, disturbing questions about this administration’s continued abuse of power and commitment to whitewashing history,” said Rep. Dwight Evans, a Democrat whose district includes the city.

“America’s history, as painful as some chapters are, isn’t disparaged by telling the whole truth. Trying to whitewash American history, however, disparages who we are. This is yet another egregious example of revisionist history that will be reviled for generations,” said Philadelphia state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

Taking pride in American independence shouldn’t mean hiding its mistakes, said Ed Stierli, a regional director for the National Parks Conservation Assn. Historic sites should help Americans grapple with our difficult truths and historical contradictions, he said. Removing the exhibit insults the memory of the enslaved people who lived there, reverses years of collaborative work and “sets a dangerous precedent of prioritizing nostalgia over the truth,” Stierli said.

“It shows that the United States is still unwilling to reckon with the horrors of its past and would rather prefer to sanitize the history that it has and try to present a convenient lie,” said Timothy Welbeck, director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University.

As the Trump administration prepares to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, it has focused on a more positive telling of the American story and put pressure on federal institutions including the Smithsonian to tell a version of history less focused on race.

The executive order Trump signed in March accused the Biden administration of advancing a “corrosive ideology.”

“At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — where our Nation declared that all men are created equal — the prior administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling ‘Western foundations’ and ‘interrogating institutional racism’ and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist,” the order states.

Vejpongsa and Brewer write for the Associated Press. Brewer reported from Norman, Okla. AP writer Dorany Pineda contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

A stunning 12-under 60 gave teenager Blades Brown a share of the lead with world number one Scottie Scheffler after the second round of the American Express in California.

The 18-year-old’s eye-catching 10 birdies and an eagle put him on 17 under alongside his fellow American.

On his first PGA Tour appearance of the season, Scheffler followed up his opening round of 63 with an eight-under 64.

The 29-year-old made three birdies on the front nine at in La Quinta, before another five followed for a second consecutive bogey-free round.

Scheffler has yet to win the American Express tournament, which boasts a prize of £1,236,000 ($1.656m) for the champion.

South Korea’s Si-Woo Kim is a shot behind the leaders after a round of 65 left him at 16 under, while compatriot Seong-Hyeon Kim and American Matt McCarty are a further shot back.

United States President Donald Trump launched the Board of Peace on Thursday, saying it’s one of the most consequential bodies ever created in the history of the world.

This is all part of the agreement to reach a ceasefire in Gaza – after more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians in the territory.

Trump said the board will work in partnership with the United Nations to address crises far beyond Gaza.

Now, all eyes will be on what the board achieves in Gaza before dealing with other conflicts

So, will it deliver?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Faisal Al-Mudahka – Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Times

Christian Josi – Republican political strategist

Jawad Anani – Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Jordan

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deployed a military radar in the Somali region of Puntland as part of a secret deal, amid Abu Dhabi’s ongoing entrenchment of its influence over the region’s security affairs.

According to the London-based news outlet Middle East Eye, sources familiar with the matter told it that the UAE had installed a military radar near Bosaso airport in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region earlier this year, with one unnamed source saying that the “radar’s purpose is to detect and provide early warning against drone or missile threats, particularly those potentially launched by the Houthis, targeting Bosaso from outside”.

The radar’s presence was reportedly confirmed by satellite imagery from early March, which found that an Israeli-made ELM-2084 3D Active Electronically Scanned Array Multi-Mission Radar had indeed been installed near Bosaso airport.

READ: UAE: The scramble for the Horn of Africa

Not only does the radar have the purpose of defending Puntland and its airport from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, but air traffic data reportedly indicates it also serves to facilitate the transport of weapons, ammunition, and supplies to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), further fuelling the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The UAE installed the radar shortly after the RSF lost control of most of Khartoum in early March”, one source said. Another source was cited as claiming that the radar was deployed at the airport late last year and that Abu Dhabi has used it on a daily basis to supply the RSF, particularly through large cargo planes that frequently carry weapons and ammunition, and which sometimes amount to up to five major shipments at a time.

According to two other Somali sources cited by the report, Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni did not seek approval from Somalia’s federal government nor even the Puntland parliament for the installation of the radar, with one of those sources stressing that it was “a secret deal, and even the highest levels of Puntland’s government, including the cabinet, are unaware of it”.

READ: UAE under scrutiny over alleged arms shipments to Sudan

The title of Michael Greene’s coming-of-age music film “Clika” refers to the slang word for “clique” in the terminology of the corridos tumbados musical genre — or trap corridos, a distinctly American evolution of the Mexican storytelling ballads. This blending of musical cultures takes the narrative quality of traditional corridos and incorporates rap and hip-hop stylings, as well as uniquely modern Mexican American stories, as pioneered in large part by groups like Herencia de Patrones, a band out of Yuba City, Calif. Frontman Jay Dee makes his acting debut in “Clika,” a film based in part on his own life story.

The film’s producer is musica Mexicana record exec Jimmy Humilde, CEO of Rancho Humilde, and his intent with the project is to prove Mexican American stories worthy of the big-screen treatment. It’s a noble endeavor, and an important one in this moment, in which Latino Americans are being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration. If Humilde and Greene get anything right with “Clika,” it’s asserting the importance of these stories in film, as Latino representation in cinema is often woefully lacking.

It also introduces Jay Dee and his music to a wider and more mainstream audience. With a unique sound all his own, he will be a true discovery for some viewers, and an exciting screen debut for his already established fans.

That’s the good news about “Clika.” The bad news is that they probably should have made a documentary or a concert film to tell Jay Dee’s story instead. Toward the end of “Clika” we get a few clips of real concert footage, as Jay Dee’s character, Chito, finally finds the musical success he’s dreamed of, and it’s so much more compelling than the hackneyed gangster tale they’ve reverse-engineered into Jay Dee’s life story.

The problems with “Clika” fundamentally come down to script issues. Written by Greene, Humilde and Sean Sullivan McBride (cinematographer and producer Ski-ter Jones also has a “story by” credit), the film is a grab bag of clichés we’ve seen before, with an overreliance on dialogue and voice-over narration that exposes the inexperienced actors. The film tells without showing, its emotional stakes aren’t legible and the characters explain to the audience what to think and how to feel without setting up the foundation or allowing us to get there ourselves. Some plot points make very little sense.

It’s a standard hardscrabble coming-of-age story — kid from a small town with big dreams wants to escape a life of farm work (Jay Dee did pick peaches in Yuba City like Chito does) and pursue his goals. When his Tío Alfredo (Cristian E. Gutierrez) learns Chito’s mom (Nana Ponceleon) has fallen behind on the mortgage, he enlists his nephew for interstate marijuana deliveries to make the money to pay off the bank, and the young man gets too caught up in the fast life, rising to a point that will always be followed by a fall. The message that he ultimately takes away is that there are no shortcuts to success.

The script is filled with tired tropes and doesn’t set up Jay Dee in a way that showcases his natural presence or way with words. Comedian and podcaster DoKnow, who plays his friend and producer, is the only performer whose natural ease and charisma in front of the camera translate, and he’s only given fairly corny and dated material, like ogling a sexy fellow peach-picker (Paola Villalobos) who is presented with her hair blowing in slow-mo like it’s an ‘80s college sex comedy, not a gritty rags-to-riches tale.

There is a way that this could have been done better, utilizing visual storytelling, establishing atmosphere and a sense of place that could have given a sense of the music, its large appeal and the circumstances that shaped it, while also allowing Jay Dee to shine in his own way. As it stands, he seems out of his depth here.

Corridos are about storytelling, and the innovation of trap corridos is incorporating new stories and sounds into traditional music. It’s a shame, then, that “Clika” feels so stale, not matching the skill or style of its subject. Representationally, “Clika” is an important and worthy film. Cinematically, it can’t find the beat.

The U.S. Department of Justice has agreed to stop demanding medical records that identify young patients who received gender-affirming care from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, ending a legal standoff with families who sued to block a subpoena that some feared would be used to criminally prosecute the parents of transgender kids.

The agreement, filed in federal court Thursday, allows the hospital to withhold certain records and redact personal information from others who underwent gender-affirming treatments, which Trump administration officials have compared to child mutilation despite support for such care by the nation’s major medical associations.

Several parents of CHLA patients expressed profound relief Friday, while also acknowledging that other threats to their families remain.

Jesse Thorn, the father of two transgender children who had been patients at Children’s Hospital, said hospital officials have ignored his requests for information as to whether they had already shared his kids’ data with the Trump administration, which had been scary. Hearing they had not, and now won’t, provided “two-fold” relief, he said.

“The escalations have been so relentless in the threats to our family, and one of the things that compounded that was the uncertainty about what the federal government knew about our kids’ medical care and what they were going to do about that,” he said.

Less clear is whether the agreement provides any new protections for doctors and other hospital personnel who provided care at the clinic and have also been targeted by the Trump administration.

The agreement follows similar victories for families seeking to block such disclosures by gender-affirming care clinics elsewhere in the country, including a ruling Thursday for the families of transgender kids who received treatment at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

“What’s unique here is this was a class action,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and legal instructor at Harvard, who was not involved in the Los Angeles case. “I can’t undersell what a major win that is to protect the records of all these patients.”

Some litigation remains ongoing, with families fearful appeals to higher courts could end with different results. There is also Republican-backed legislation moving through Congress to restrict gender-affirming care for youths.

Another father of a transgender patient at Children’s Hospital, who requested anonymity because he fears for his child’s safety, said he was grateful for the agreement, but doesn’t see it as the end of the road. He fears the Trump administration could renew its subpoena if it wins on appeal in cases elsewhere.

“There’s some comfort, but it doesn’t close the book on it,” he said.

In a statement to The Times, the Justice Department said it “has not withdrawn its subpoena. Rather, it withdrew three requests for patient records based on the subpoenaed entity’s representation that it did not have custody of any such records.”

“This settlement avoids needless litigation based on that fact and further instructs Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to redact patient information in documents responsive to other subpoena requests,” the DOJ statement said. “As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, we will continue to use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care.’”

Children’s Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.

“This is a massive victory for every family that refused to be intimidated into backing down,” Khadijah Silver, director of Gender Justice & Health Equity at Lawyers for Good Government, which helped bring the lawsuit, said in a statement Friday. “The government’s attempt to rifle through children’s medical records was unconstitutional from the start. Today’s settlement affirms what we’ve said all along: these families have done nothing wrong, and their children’s privacy deserves protection.”

Until last summer, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles was among the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the United States — and one of few providing puberty blockers, hormones and surgical procedures for trans youth on public insurance.

It was also among the first programs to shutter under coordinated, multi-agency pressure exerted from the White House. Ending treatment for transgender children has been a central policy goal for the Trump administration since the president resumed office last year.

“These threats are no longer theoretical,” Children’s Hospital executives wrote to staff in an internal email announcing the closure of the clinic in June. “[They are] threatening our ability to serve the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on CHLA for lifesaving care.”

In July, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department was subpoenaing patient records from gender-affirming care providers, specifically stating that medical professionals were a target of a probe into “organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology.”

California law explicitly protects gender-affirming care, and the state and others led by Democrats have fought back in court, but most providers nationwide have shuttered under the White House push, stirring fear of a de facto ban.

Parents feared the subpoenas could lead to child abuse charges, which the government could then use to strip them of custody of their children. Doctors feared they could be arrested and imprisoned for providing medical care that is broadly backed by the medical establishment and is legal in the states where they performed it.

The Justice Department’s subpoena to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles had initially requested a vast array of personally identifying documents, specially calling for records “sufficient to identify each patient [by name, date of birth, social security number, address, and parent/guardian information] who was prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.”

It also called for records “relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses, or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy,” and for records “relating to informed consent, patient intake, and parent or guardian authorization for minor patients” to receive gender-affirming care.

According to the new agreement, the Justice Department withdrew its requests for those specific records — which had yet to be produced by the hospital — on Dec. 8, and told Children’s Hospital to redact the personally identifying information of patients in other records it was still demanding.

Thursday’s agreement formalizes that position, and requires the Justice Department to return or destroy any records that provide personally identifying information moving forward.

“The Government will not use this patient identifying information to support any investigation or prosecution,” the agreement states.

According to the attorneys for the families who sued, the settlement protects the records of their clients but also all of the clinic’s other gender-affirming care patients. “To date, they assured us, no identifiable patient information has been received, and now it cannot be,” said Amy Powell, with Lawyers for Good Government.

Cori Racela, executive director for Western Center on Law & Poverty, called it a “crucial affirmation that healthcare decisions belong in exam rooms, not government subpoenas.”

“Youth, families, and medical providers have constitutional rights to privacy and dignity,” she said in a statement. “No one’s private health records should be turned into political ammunition — especially children.”

The agreement was also welcomed by families of transgender kids beyond Southern California.

“This has been hanging over those families specifically in L.A., of course, but for all families,” said Arne Johnson, a Bay Area father of a transgender child who helps run a group of similar families called Rainbow Families Action. “Every time one of these subpoenas goes out, it’s terrifying.”

Johnson said each victory pushing back against the government’s demands for family medical records feels “like somebody is pointing a gun at your kid and a hero comes along and knocks it out of their hand — it’s literally that visceral of a feeling.”

Johnson said he hopes recent court wins will push hospitals to resist canceling care for transgender children.

“Parents are the ones that are fighting back and they’re the ones that are winning, and the hospitals should take their lead,” he said. “Hospitals should be fighting in the same way the parents are, so that their doctors and other providers can be protected.”

Jan. 23 (UPI) — President Donald Trump insulted NATO member states by suggesting they can’t be counted on to contribute to military actions when needed, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday.

Starmer called the president’s comments “insulting and, frankly, appalling” and suggested Trump should apologize, while the prime minister addressed media on Friday.

“If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize,” Starmer said.

Starmer said Britain lost 457 military personnel in Afghanistan, while Canada lost 165 and Denmark 44, during the war that started Oct. 7, 2001, and ended Aug. 30, 2021.

The prime minister said Britain has a close relationship with the United States to ensure the island nation’s national security.

“It is because of that relationship that we fought alongside the Americans for our values in Afghanistan,” Starmer said.

“And it was in that context that people lost their lives or suffered terrible injuries [while] fighting for freedom, fighting with our allies for what we believe in,” he added.

Trump on Thursday accused NATO allies of shying away from fighting in Afghanistan by avoiding areas in which fighting was underway and said the United States could not count of NATO allies to help protect the United States and its territories if necessary.

He made the comments during an interview with Fox News, according to Politico.

“They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” Trump said, adding that European nations did send troops.

“They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” he said, while suggesting they shied away from fighting.

British Defense Minister John Healey also took exception to the president’s comments.

“The UK and NATO allies answered the U.S. call,” Healy said on social media, “and more than 450 British personnel lost their lives in Afghanistan.

“Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”

Healy said NATO only issued an Article 5 call to action once, and the United Kingdom responded.

NATO’s Article 5 is a commonly included military treaty agreement in which an attack on one member nation is considered an attack on all.

Such treaty provisions led to military escalation that caused World War I after the assassination of Austro-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.

Trump also criticized British officials’ decision to cede control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius.

The US has completed its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, ending its membership for the first time since 1948. Officials blamed WHO’s COVID-19 response, halted funding and limited future engagement, prompting warnings about global health risks.

SMILING Jennifer Lopez goes for a vintage look on a shopping trip round the block.

The singer and actress, 56, wore a low-cut leather jacket and shades in LA.

She was spotted browsing the racks at luxury secondhand clothes store What Goes Around Comes Around in Beverly Hills.

J-Lo launched her Vegas residency in bold fashion and nearly bared it all with risque outfit choices, including a see-through lace bodysuit last month.

She made a stunning return to Las Vegas with her Up All Night Live residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Captivating the audience with her bold fashion choices, the former Mrs. Affleck showcased her dance moves in a number of sexy costumes.

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She shocked fans by appearing nude underneath a black lace corset and fullbody suit.

But the songstress was actually wearing custom Victoria’s Secret lingerie.

She also danced the night away in a fringe thong leotard, adding to the high-energy atmosphere of the show.

She also brought Fyre Festival executive, Ja Rule, on stage for a duet.

The beloved duo performed their hit songs I’m Real and Ain’t It Funny.

At one point, the Bronx native turned around to shake her famous backside’s fringe as Ja Rule looked on.

In an Instagram post that same night, Ja Rule’s wife of 24 years, Aisha Atkins, said, “I’m looking too.”

Jennifer Lopez’s stunning costumes for her Las Vegas residency were a collaborative effort led by her longtime stylists, Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn.

Politics can move too fast for few and too slow for many at the same time. Today is a perfect example of that. The brand-new Rodríguez regime seems quick at aligning with the Trump agenda, executing the sort of authoritarian due diligence needed to attract foreign investment and make things favorable for looming corporations. Yesterday they used a completely dominated National Assembly (one that neither admitted anything close to a debate nor disclosed the texts through official channels) to advance three legal initiatives related to doing business in the country. The non-chavista, systemic opposition group there led by Henrique Capriles and Stalin González decided not to take a stance. The parliamentary agenda included amending a massive energy-sector statute that could change the game for those aiming to become main oil-industry players.

But now it’s January 23^rd. The most significant date for the country’s democracy legacy tastes bittersweet, carrying hints of frustration and even despair, but also of opportunity. The collapse of the Marcos Pérez Jiménez regime exactly 68 years ago represents the complete opposite of the type of political shifts we’ve witnessed since January 3, 2026. In 1958, after some turbulent weeks marked by protests and a failed military uprising, mid-level Army officers rose to topple the Pérez Jiménez regime and dismantle its entire repressive structure. The dictator and his infamous repressor-in-chief managed to escape the country unharmed (though the story doesn’t end there for the former). And in stark contrast to what many of our neighbors were enduring, the armed forces became a key actor in promoting a civilian-led democratic order that began to take shape in the following months. Wolfgang Larrazábal, the military figure who oversaw that process, became an icon of Venezuela’s democratic transition.

What we have after January 3rd, however, is the exact opposite. An external force removed the dictator and his wife, not a group of generals acting in the people’s interest. The shambolic state of the military was laid bare before the eyes of the world, a defenseless, even invisible, force that couldn’t even scratch a group of American helicopters. Crucial difference: the rest of the regime remains in place, including the entire repressive apparatus. Notwithstanding, the ruling Rodríguez faction announced the start of a “significant” release process of detainees days after that “Deus ex machina” moment that raised hopes of a Caribbean-style glasnost. Two weeks later, about 15% of political prisoners have walked out. The regime has conducted this in a way that prevents celebration: dropping prisoners in specific spots of the city rather than right in front of the gates, sending them straight to airports (which happened to Rocío San Miguel), and gaslighting the public about the actual figure. Regime officials including Jorge Rodríguez and Tarek William Saab repeat they’ve released 400 political prisoners. Rights watchdog Foro Penal has so far verified 155.

In Caracas, they were careful not to disturb traffic or make chants that would upset the police or chavismo itself, such as calling for presidential elections, Delcy’s removal, or explicitly invoking the July 28 mandate.

In defiance, families of political prisoners have been camping outside prisons and torture centers for two consecutive weeks. Two leading Catholic priests have stood alongside them, which is particularly meaningful following a recent accusation against the Archbishop of Caracas of being too close to the regime. Two veteran anti-chavista politicians, Andrés Velásquez and Alfredo Ramos, have shown their faces after going into hiding since August 2024, when Maduro & Co. went after every real and made-up opponent following the July 28 presidential election. Today, campuses in at least seven universities across the country (ULA, LUZ, and USB, to name a few) woke up with banners calling for the freedom of all dissidents and the closure of prisons for regime opponents. 

Universidad Central student leaders organized a protest next to the capital’s main highway to honor today’s anniversary. Akin demonstrations took place in other parts of the country, such as Zulia, Mérida and Barinas. In Caracas, they were careful not to disturb traffic or make chants that would upset the police or chavismo itself, such as calling for presidential elections, Delcy’s removal, or explicitly invoking the July 28 mandate. Activists from PROVEA, trade union representatives and other human rights groups joined the students (who, by the way, have been quite active supporting families of detainees outside El Helicoide and the National Police jail in Boleíta). They released a joint statement. This is the core message:

We affirm that the “new political moment,” based on “reconciliation and reunion,” announced by the administration now headed by Delcy Rodríguez, will not be viable as long as urgent public demands remain unaddressed.

We believe that the most urgent demand, one that unites society as a whole, is the full, unconditional, and immediate release of all those who have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty or subjected to judicial proceedings for political reasons, and who remain unjustly held in prisons and police stations across the country.

This won’t be enough to shake the nascent Rodríguez-led dictablanda and force comprehensive concessions. Sustaining such pressure requires time and careful coordination with party structures and the wider Venezuelan population. But it is, without a doubt, a more than decent way to push for political freedoms on this weird, confusing anniversary. The sort of freedoms that other foreign stakeholders have been, and will continue to be, slower to demand.

Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. envoys met in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington’s push for progress to end Moscow’s nearly 4-year-old invasion.

The talks follow a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between both sides.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was “nearly ready,” certain sensitive sticking points — most notably those related to territorial issues — remain unresolved.

Here’s what’s known and not known about the meeting:

What’s different about these talks

They are taking place in the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi. Representatives from Russia and Ukraine have already met several times on separate occasions, but this is believed to be the first time U.S. envoys will be there too — a significant step in that President Trump has been pressing for a halt to the war.

The talks are an outgrowth of recent diplomatic activity, even though Russia has kept up its attacks on Ukraine and its energy infrastructure, leaving parts of the country without power amid a bitterly cold winter.

Zelensky met with Trump on Thursday behind closed doors for about an hour at the World Economic Forum in Davos, describing it as a “productive and meaningful” session. Trump said later that it had gone well and that Russia and Ukraine were “making concessions” to try to end the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in overnight talks at the Kremlin that lasted nearly four hours.

A spokesman for Zelensky said there are “many different formats in these talks — sometimes participants step aside for separate discussions, sometimes everyone meets together, sometimes several groups break off by topic.”

Who is participating

The U.S. has confirmed Witkoff and Kushner are attending. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll also is part of the team, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic process. NATO’s top general, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, also is attending.

The Ukrainian team includes Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s national security and defense council; Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff; and Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office.

Putin’s foreign affairs advisor Yuri Ushakov said Russia’s delegation is led by the chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov. The Kremlin later said the rest of the delegation are from the Defense Ministry as well, but did not elaborate. Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev also is attending.

The talks are scheduled to conclude Saturday.

Questions of territory and security

Little is known about the specific issues to be discussed. Zelensky said the fraught issue of territorial concessions is a likely topic, while the Kremlin offered few details beyond calling the meeting a “working group on security issues.” Separate economic discussions will take place between Witkoff and Dmitriev, Kremlin officials said.

The sides have indicated that a possible peace deal hinges on the apparently still unresolved issue of territory. Speaking in a WhatsApp chat with journalists Friday, Zelensky described the issue of who would control the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as “key.”

Russia’s bigger army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains along the roughly 600-mile front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions.

In his briefing on Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Ushakov stressed that “reaching a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue,” a reference to Moscow’s demand that Kyiv withdraw its troops from areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured.

Peskov also said Friday that Moscow had already made its position clear and that Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the Donbas region.

Ukraine has been pressing for security guarantees from the West to prevent Russia from invading its territory again.

Davies writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.