deal

World number one Luke Littler has signed a record sponsorship deal for a darts player worth a reported £20m.

The 18-year-old, who claimed the £1m prize for winning the World Championship earlier this month, has signed a 10-year agreement with Target Darts.

Target has described the deal as “the largest agreement in darts history between a brand and a player” and PA Media reports that it is worth up to £20m with potential bonuses and add-ons.

BBC Sport has contacted Littler’s representatives and Target Darts for comment.

Littler has won two world titles and already has 10 major titles to his name.

“Target has believed in me from day one,” said Littler, who is also managed by the company.

“From my playing career to my product range, we’ve built everything together and I’m really excited to commit to our partnership long-term and see where we can take this next.”

Scotland’s resident doctors have called off a planned four-day strike over pay.

They had been set to go on the first national walkout staged by NHS workers on Tuesday, having accused ministers of going back on promises over pay.

But after further negotiations, the British Medical Association union is to suspend the strike and put a fresh pay offer to members – and is recommending that it is accepted.

Health secretary Neil Gray said it was “great news” which would avoid disruption to patient care.

Resident doctors – who used to be called junior doctors – make up about 42% of all Scotland’s doctors and range from newly qualified doctors to those with 10 years or more experience.

Members will now consider an offer of a 4.25% pay rise in 2025-26, followed by a 3.75% increase in 2026-27.

The pay deal offered by the Scottish government matches one already accepted by nurses and other healthcare staff, and was previously rejected by the BMA last year.

However it now comes alongside a separate package of contractual reform.

Gray said the deal had been struck following “days of intensive and constructive talks” between the government and the union.

He added that total investment in the offer – covering both pay and contract reform over the two-year period – will be £133m.

Dr Chris Smith, who chairs BMA Scotland’s resident doctors committee, said just before Christmas that discussions between the union and the government had been “useful” and welcomed a “constructive approach”.

Scotland has been the only part of the UK to have avoided strike action by NHS workers.

A previous proposed strike in Scotland in the summer of 2023 was called off at the last minute after a deal was agreed.

In a new partnership with chipmaker Nvidia, Universal Music Group plans to introduce what it calls “responsible AI” that could change music discovery and creation.

The companies will begin research on how to advance human music creation and compensation for rights holders in the age of AI, as revealed in the deal announced Tuesday. With this technology, the new partners say they hope to leverage AI-powered tools to aid and protect artists’ work, instead of using hands-off generative AI.

“We look forward to working closely with NVIDIA to direct AI’s unprecedented transformational potential towards the service of artists and their fans as we work together to set new standards for innovation within the industry, while protecting and respecting copyright and human creativity,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, Universal Music Group’s chief executive, in a press release.

Universal Music Group will use Nvidia’s Music Flamingo program, a large audio-language model designed to understand music in-depth. It was launched in November and can understand musical elements like structure, harmony, instrumentation and lyrics. The program can process songs up to 15 minutes long and will also be able to capture the historical and cultural context, as well as various emotional arcs.

With the program’s ability to process songs thoroughly, Universal Music Group aims to use this tool to help connect artists and fans. Instead of relying on typical genres or tags, Music Flamingo allows listeners to discover new music in a more automated fashion.

There are also plans for Nvidia and Universal Music Group to begin developing an incubator in which artists, songwriters and producers will help design and experiment with new AI tools. The company said it hopes this process will help AI tools fit into creative processes with greater ease.

Universal Music Group, with its corporate headquarters in the Netherlands and another office in Santa Monica, was founded in 1996. The music giant behind artists like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish is valued at roughly $40 billion on the U.S. stock market, with shares selling around $25.35 each. The deal with Nvidia follows several other AI agreements that Universal has inked with companies like Klay and Stability AI.

Nvidia was founded in 1993, with the original goal of bringing 3D graphics to video games and multimedia projects. As the tech industry has continued to evolve, Nvidia has emerged as the leader in computer chips designed to power AI tools and applications.

“By extending NVIDIA’s Music Flamingo with UMG’s unmatched catalog and creative ecosystem, we’re going to change how fans discover, understand, and engage with music on a global scale,” said Richard Kerris, the general manager for media and entertainment at Nvidia, in a statement.

“And we’ll do it the right way: responsibly, with safeguards that protect artists’ work, ensure attribution, and respect copyright.”

The decision by Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. to enter the transfer portal shocked and angered the Huskies because only days earlier the sophomore breakout star had signed a lucrative name, image and likeness deal to remain in Seattle.

Legal action by Washington would be no surprise two weeks after similar events prompted an exchange of lawsuits involving Damon Wilson II, an edge rusher who transferred from Georgia to Missouri in January 2025, days after signing an NIL contract.

With recruiting strategy reduced to shoveling stacks of NIL dollars at players who jump through the transfer portal seemingly at will, it’s no wonder loyalty and etiquette have given way to opportunity and greed.

And it should surprise no one that the implementation of rules might be done by judges, not NCAA officials or conference commissioners.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Washington is “prepared to pursue all legal avenues to enforce Williams’ signed contract,” and the quarterback’s situation has also “drawn the attention of the Big Ten.” Already, Washington has declined to enter Williams’ name into the portal, citing language in the NIL contract that states the school is not obligated to do so.

It appears Washington wants to play hardball, much the way Georgia is attempting to do with Wilson, whose countersuit against the Bulldogs claims he was one of several players pressured into signing his NIL contract on Dec. 21, 2024. Georgia is seeking $390,000 in damages, pointing to a liquidated damage fee clause in the NIL contract that may or may not hold up in court.

Washington officials suspect that another school contacted Williams after he had signed his Huskies deal, and submitted evidence of tampering to the Big Ten. Tony Petitti, the conference commissioner, happened to be in Seattle on Tuesday for a Celebration of Life service for Washington goalkeeper Mia Hamant, who died on Nov. 6 from an rare form of kidney cancer.

Many Huskies football players and coaches also were in attendance when Williams posted his official announcement about entering the transfer portal on Instagram.

“To post his decision to enter the portal during the service was, at best, the result of horrible advice from his PR team, and at worst, a stunning lack of self-awareness,” wrote Matt Calkins in the Seattle Times.

Williams’ NIL deal with Washington for 2026 was estimated at $4 million, a reasonable number for a quarterback who was among the top 15 nationally in passing efficiency, passing yards and yards per attempt. He attempted to enter the portal with a “do not contact” tag, an indication he has a destination in mind.

A chronology of top quarterback movement in recent days provides circumstantial evidence that Louisiana State and Williams have mutual interest. LSU, of course, has a new coach in Lane Kiffin, and a need at quarterback. Turns out Williams and Kiffin aren’t strangers.

Kiffin’s first target was Brendan Sorsby, who had left Cincinnati, but he committed to Texas Tech. Sam Leavitt of Arizona State is considered the best quarterback left in the portal, and he visited Baton Rouge this week before heading to Tennessee for another visit.

However, Kiffin easily could shift his attention to Williams, a dual-threat signal-caller who while in high school committed to Ole Miss when Kiffin was coach. He eventually signed with Arizona, and when coach Jedd Fisch took the job at Washington, Williams followed him.

Williams blossomed as a sophomore in 2025, passing for 3,065 yards and 25 touchdowns with eight interceptions while adding 611 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.

In his lengthy Instagram post, Williams thanked everyone associated with Washington before revealing the news: “I have to do what is best for me and my future. After much thought and prayer, I will be entering the transfer portal.”

He’s not there yet.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Reliever Kirby Yates finalized a $5-million, one-year deal with the Angels on Tuesday.

A 38-year-old right-hander, Yates flopped last season with the Dodgers. He did not pitch after Sept. 20 after straining his right hamstring, an injury that also sidelined him between May 17 and June 8.

Yates is technically making a return the Angels, who employed him for one major league appearance in 2017 after claiming him off waivers from the Yankees. Yates subsequently joined the San Diego Padres and enjoyed the longest sustained success of his career before bouncing to Atlanta, Texas and the Dodgers over the past three seasons.

The veteran is rejoining Mike Maddux, the pitching coach who oversaw Yates’ All-Star performance in 2024 while both were with the Rangers. Yates went 7-2 with a 1.17 ERA, an 0.83 WHIP and 85 strikeouts in 61 innings for Texas.

Yates still earned a World Series ring last season after agreeing to a $13-million, one-year deal with the Dodgers, but he spent three stints on the injured list and had a 5.23 ERA before failing to get on the postseason roster as part of the Dodgers’ struggling bullpen.

Yates is 30-24 with a 3.36 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and 98 saves in 472 relief appearances over 11 major league seasons with Tampa Bay (2014-15), the Yankees (2016), the Angels, San Diego (2017-20), Atlanta (2022-23), Texas (2024) and the Dodgers. He led the major leagues with 41 saves in 2019.

He had Tommy John surgery twice, in 2006 while in college and after getting hurt during spring training in 2021 with Toronto.

He is the latest addition to the Angels’ overhauled pitching staff, joining new relievers Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz. The Angels also took low-cost fliers on Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah, two once-promising starters whose careers were derailed in recent years.

Italy called on Wednesday in a letter to EU’s Agriculture Commissioner ChristopheHansen to lift the bloc’s carbon border tax in order to ease pressure on fertilizer prices for European farmers. The date for the Mercosur signature is still not clear.

Expectations for Rome to greenlight the trade deal had risen in Brussels after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged on Tuesday to unlock additional funding for farmers to the tune of €45 billion as soon as 2028 in a designed to sway the pivotal support of the Italian government in favour of the deal.

“If in today’s meeting these conditions are certified by the Commission, Italy will support the deal (Mercosur),” Meloni’s agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida told reporters in Brussels.

Italy’s request comes as the Commission convened EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on Wednesday for talks on the future Common Agricultural Policy funding -a key piece of the common budget and highly sensitive to domestic politics – and reciprocity in production standards between Latin America and Europe, a key French demand.

France still opposes the Mercosur deal.

Farmers furious as Mercosur enters final stretch

The Mercosur agreement would create a free-trade area between Latin America, including heavyweight economy Brazil and the EU, cutting tariffs across sectors the board for European companies but also opening market access to Latin America.

Italian farmers, alongside France, Poland and Ireland, fear the deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay will expose them to unfair competition.

Italy’s backing of the deal is essential to reach a qualified majority of member states needed to support it, or a blocking minority as a tiebreaker.

This is a developing story.

Syria and Israel have agreed to set up a joint mechanism after US-mediated talks in Paris on Tuesday, in what they are calling a “dedicated communication cell” aimed at sharing intelligence and coordinating military de-escalation.

The two countries have had a US-backed security agreement in place since 1974. However, when the Assad regime fell on December 8, 2024, Israel began attacking Syrian military infrastructure and pushed their troops into the demilitarised zone that is Syrian territory.

Syria and Israel have been engaging in intermittent negotiations over the last year to find a security agreement that would stop Israel’s repeat aggression against Syrians and Syrian territory.

Here’s everything you need to know about these talks.

What is the mechanism?

“The mechanism will serve as a platform to address any disputes promptly and work to prevent misunderstandings,” a joint statement released by the two countries said after the agreement on Tuesday.

The idea is to have a body that will deal with grievances and resolve disputes between Israel and Syria, ideally in a way that brings Israeli attacks on Syrian land and people to an end. Both sides may also hope it can pave the way to a renewed security agreement.

What does Syria want?

A government source told state media SANA, that the focus for Syria is to reactivate “the 1974 Disengagement Agreement, with the aim of ensuring the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the lines in place prior to Dec. 8, 2024 within a reciprocal security agreement that prioritizes full Syrian sovereignty and guarantees the prevention of any form of interference in Syria’s internal affairs.”

The Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, will want Israel to respect Syrian sovereignty by pulling back its forces and stopping attacks but also to stop meddling in domestic affairs.

The Washington Post reported that Israel has supported figures opposed to Syria’s new government, including Suwayda’s Hikmat al Hijri. Israel has previously said they want to protect Syria’s minority Druze community.

What does Israel want?

Three things mainly, according to Al Jazeera’s senior correspondent Resul Serdar.

“For Israel, it’s about more land, patronage of minorities, and long term leverage,” he said.

Israel has tried to paint the new government in Syria as extremist and a threat to its security. It has called for the area south of Damascus to be demilitarised, while also trying to build relations with Syrian minorities, particularly the Druze in Suwayda.

Analysts believe this could be part of a strategy by Israel to keep its neighbours weak.

Israel has come to the table at least partially due to US leverage and influence. US President Donald Trump and his Special Envoy Tom Barrack have both built warm relations with al-Sharaa.

But Israel may also want to counter Turkish influence in Syria. Israel has previously accused Turkiye of turning Syria into its protectorate.

What does the US want?

“For Washington the priority is containment,” Serdar said.

The US also sees Damascus as a crucial partner in the fight against ISIL. Stability in Syria, particularly under a central government in Damascus, could mean pulling US troops out of eastern Syria.

But the US also wants a strong Syria to avoid the return of Iranian influence in the country and to avoid any wider regional violence.

For his part, Trump is eager to expand the Abraham Accords that sees Arab and Muslim countries sign normalisation agreements with Israel and has said he hopes Syria will do so. Syria, however, has said they do not intend to sign the Abraham Accords.

Will the mechanism work?

There are doubts.

A Syrian official told Reuters news agency that his country isn’t willing to move forward on “strategic files” without an enforced timeline over Israel’s withdrawal from Syrian territory taken after December 2024.

In addition to moving into Syrian territory, Israel has conducted numerous attacks on Damascus, including on the Syrian Ministry of Defense building.

A similar mechanism between Israel and Lebanon was created after the November 2024 ceasefire there, with France and the United States involved to enforce the deal. However, the mechanism has not stopped near-daily attacks by Israel on Lebanese territory, nor has it led to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from five occupied points in Lebanon.

For the mechanism to work, the United States will have to do something it has rarely done in recent years: hold Israel accountable.

What about the Golan Heights?

Israel has illegally occupied areas of the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967.

Israeli officials have indicated they are not willing to return the Golan Heights to the new Syrian government.

After the fall of the Assad regime, Israel expanded into Syrian territory and seized the strategic outlook of Jabal al-Sheikh, a mountain that lies between Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

For now, Syria appears to be focused on getting Israel out of the areas it occupied since December 2024.

Jan. 6 (UPI) — The leaders of the Britain, France and Ukraine signed a trilateral agreement Tuesday to pave the way for French and British forces to deploy to Ukraine after it signs a peace agreement to end the war with Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted about two dozen leaders from the “Coalition of the Willing” at a summit that aimed to secure Ukraine’s ongoing security once there is a cease-fire.

Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the agreement Tuesday evening.

“Following a cease-fire, the U.K. and France will establish military hubs across Ukraine,” Starmer said.

“The ‘Multinational Force for Ukraine’ will act as a reassurance force to bolster security guarantees and Ukraine’s ability to return to peace and stability by supporting the regeneration of Ukraine’s own forces,” Starmer said in a statement.

“The signing of the declaration paves the way for the legal framework to be established for French and U.K. forces to operate on Ukrainian soil, securing Ukraine’s skies and seas and building an armed forces fit for the future.”

Zelensky posted on X about the meeting.

“Military officials from France, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine worked in detail on force deployment, numbers, specific types of weapons, and the components of the Armed Forces required and able to operate effectively. We already have these necessary details. We understand which country is ready for what among all members of the Coalition of the Willing. I would like to thank every leader and every state that truly wishes to be part of a peaceful solution,” Zelensky said.

He also discussed the role of the United States in the post-war coalition.

“We had very substantive discussions with the American side on monitoring — to ensure there are no violations of peace. The United States is ready to work on this. One of the most critical elements is deterrence — the tools that will prevent any new Russian aggression. We see all of this,” he said.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said the talks led to “significant progress on several critical workstreams.”

“We agree with the Coalition that durable security guarantees and robust prosperity commitments are essential to a lasting peace in the Ukraine and we will continue to work together on this effort.”

He said talks will continue Tuesday night and Wednesday, and “we are hopeful to achieve additional positive momentum in the near future.”

The leaders of about 35 countries calling themselves the “Coalition of the Willing” met Tuesday afternoon in Paris to continue work on the joint statement released by European leaders after a summit in Berlin in December.

In his New Year’s speech, Macron said he expects “firm commitments” to be made in protecting Ukraine against Russian aggression after any cease-fire.

Zelensky recently met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida and said that the peace plan is about 90% agreed. But Russia hasn’t agreed to the plan since revisions were made.

Trump suggested there would be a security agreement for Ukraine and said “European nations are very much involved.”

“I feel that European nations have been really great, and they’re very much in line with this meeting and with getting a deal done. They are all terrific people,” Trump said.

The 10% that’s left in the plan is about territorial disputes. Kyiv hasn’t agreed to cede land.

Russia controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and 99% of Luhansk. Together, they are the industrial region of Donbas. Ukraine doesn’t want to let them go.

Causing anxiety in Europe is the recent invasion of Venezuela by the United States, as well as Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, which is part of NATO through Denmark.

Liam Rosenior says he could not turn down Chelsea but admits unusual situation as a deal has not yet been signed.

Racing Strasbourg coach Liam Rosenior says he has reached an agreement with Chelsea to become their next manager but has yet to sign a contract with the Premier League club.

“I ‍haven’t signed yet. I have agreed verbally with Chelsea. It’s really important – this is different to anything anyone has ever done. Nobody has made a statement before they have signed a contract,” ‍Rosenior said at a ⁠news conference on Tuesday.

“Everything is agreed, and it will probably go through in the next few hours,” he said in Strasbourg, France. “I’m here because I care about this club and I felt it was right to answer your questions physically here today before I move on.”

Rosenior added that he would take his ⁠assistants Kalifa Cisse and Justin Walker with him to the Premier League club.

The 41-year-old, who joined Ligue 1 side Racing Strasbourg in 2024, said his time at the club had been the most rewarding period of ​his career after spells at Derby County and Hull City.

“The ‌last 18 months have been a joy and the best of my professional career,” Rosenior said. “I have met some incredible people, created incredible memories and made history.”

He said he had been transparent with Strasbourg’s ‌ownership about outside interest.

“I have had interest from many clubs, including Champions League clubs, which I have always been open ‌with to our president, Marc Keller, and our ownership,” ⁠Rosenior said. “I will love this club for the rest of my life, but I cannot turn down Chelsea.”

Little-known Rosenior had been widely touted as the front runner to succeed Enzo Maresca since the Italian was sacked on Thursday, not least because Strasbourg and Chelsea are owned by the same consortium, BlueCo.

Rosenior, who has no Premier League coaching experience, will become Chelsea’s fourth permanent boss since BlueCo took control of the Londoners in 2022.

Chelsea has yet to confirm the appointment but held talks with Rosenior in London on Monday.

Published on
05/01/2026 – 17:33 GMT+1

It’s another crucial week for the contentious Mercosur deal. European Union agriculture ministers will meet on Wednesday for key political talks that could lead to a vote on the agreement on Friday.

An EU diplomat told Euronews that the meeting, which is being organised by the European Commission, will be attended by EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen, and Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi.

Together, they are expected to give “clarifications” on the continued support for farmers’ income in the next budget of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The deal, which aims to create a free-trade area with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, was at the centre of heated discussions at December’s EU summit.

Its supporters – lead by Germany and Spain – have been pushing for a quick endorsement in order to access new markets at a time of geoeconomic tensions, while Italy and France succeeded in postponing a crucial vote in order to protect their farmers, who fear they will be unable to compete with imports coming from Latin America.

Depending on the outcome of this week’s talks, the EU farm ministers’ meeting could open the door to a vote on the Mercosur agreement on Friday. To be implemented, the deal needs the backing of a qualified majority of EU member states.

Decision day looms again

Among the items on Wednesday’s agenda will be limits on pesticides that can be contained in products imported into the EU, with France demanding that the deal include reciprocity in production standards.

France has been facing an agricultural crisis for several weeks, with farmers protesting against both the Mercosur agreement and the government’s handling of lumpy skin disease, a contagious virus affecting cattle.

In a letter sent on Sunday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called on the EU to tighten border controls on products that do not respect EU sanitary and phytosanitary standards.

The French government also announced it would issue an order to suspend imports from Latin America containing residues of pesticides banned in the EU.

That measure, however, would require clearance from the European Commission. Pressure from Paris has already led the Commission to propose a safeguard to strengthen the monitoring of the European market to avoid unexpected disruptions.

That legislation was the subject of a deal between the European Parliament and the EU Council, and is expected to be endorsed by the 27 member states on Friday during a meeting of EU ambassadors.

The BBC are now recruiting for a new head of a team dedicated to complaints and whistleblowing after the corporation has faced a string of scandals, including Huw Edwards and Gregg Wallace’s departures

The BBC is hiring a dedicated head of a whistleblowing and investigations team. The jobs currently advertised with the licence fee-payer-funded corporation come with hefty salaries of up to £120,000.

Currently, three roles are being advertised for the network: Head of Investigations (Corporate Investigations and Whistleblowing), Head of Investigations (HR), and Director of Investigations and Whistleblowing. The jobs, part of a company-wide restructure, come after the BBC faced a string of scandals in recent years.

The individual who secures any of the jobs will be responsible for assisting staff moving out of one part of the company and will form a breakout unit. On the job descriptions, it states that those who apply and are successful will play a “critical role in fostering a culture of transparency, accountability and trust.”

It adds that the successful candidate will “oversee the process and governance of whistleblowing or corporate investigations, including serious criminal behaviour, violent and sexual offences, elevated personal risk, harassment and cases posing reputational risk to BBC.”

The new roles come after former BBC News anchor Huw Edwards was suspended in 2023 and received his full salary of £435,000 per year after it emerged that he had paid a young man for explicit images. Convicted sex offender Edwards, who was spared jail in 2024, left the company in the same year. However, an anonymous whistleblower told BBC News that they believed the complaints against him hadn’t been investigated thoroughly, saying: “Things have been swept under the carpet.”

The investigation into Mr Edwards was carried out by Simon Adair, the BBC’s director of safety, security and resilience. Elsewhere, former MasterChef star Gregg Wallace was sacked by the network following an investigation into his behaviour.

45 of 83 complaints, relating to sexually inappropriate language and humour, as well as culturally insensitive or racist comments, were upheld against Wallace. He later apologised and said he “never set out to harm or humiliate” anybody.

The allegations against Mr Wallace had been spread over a 19-year period. 10 stand-alone allegations were made against other people, and two were substantiated. Those allegations, which didn’t involve Gregg, related to inappropriate language – one including swearing and the other including racist language.

Elsewhere, the BBC had apologised over “missed opportunities” to deal with allegations of “bullying and misogynistic behaviour” from former radio DJ, Tim Westwood. Lisa Nandy, Culture Secretary, met with the BBC’s former Director General in February last year and discussed Westwood’s alleged behaviour.

At the time, she said: “The allegations against Tim Westwood are very serious. It is essential that staff and the wider public can have confidence in the BBC as our national broadcaster.

“There have been far too many instances of appalling behaviour in the media industry, and there has been a culture of silence around inappropriate behaviour for too long. This cannot continue. In my discussion with the BBC Director General, I was clear that the BBC Board and Executive must grip the issue of workplace culture and respond at pace to the independent review they have commissioned as soon as it has concluded.”

Westwood stepped down from his show on Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra in 2013, having been at the corporation for almost two decades. Westwood, of Westminster, was charged in October last year with four counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault. The alleged incidents are believed to have taken place between 1993 and 2016. Westwood denies all allegations made against him. He previously said: “It’s all false allegations.” He is due to stand trial this month.

A BBC spokesperson said: “These roles are simply part of a wider restructure. When it comes to pay, we strike a balance to ensure we remain competitive and can attract and retain the best people, and over 95% of our spending goes on content and its delivery.”

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Jan. 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order stopping a semiconductor chips deal between U.S. and Chinese companies citing national security concerns.

The $2.92 million deal would have seen HieFo Corp., a Delaware-based company operated out of China, acquire the semiconductor chips and wafer fabrication businesses of New Jersey’s EMCORE Corp. The two companies announced plans for the deal in 2024.

“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that HieFo Corporation, a company organized under the laws of Delaware (HieFo) and controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump’s order reads.

The executive order, issued under the Defense Production Act, prevents HieFo from having any interest or rights in Encore assets and orders HieFo to divest from Encore within 180 days. The divestment is expected to be overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

In an exclusive interview, Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera that the breakaway region of Somaliland has agreed to accept displaced Palestinians being relocated there in exchange for recognition. Somaliland officials have rejected the allegations.

Anthony Rendon has agreed to restructure the final year of his $245-million, seven-year contract with the Angels, a person with knowledge of the decision told the Associated Press on Tuesday night.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Angels hadn’t announced any developments with Rendon, who didn’t play last season following hip surgery.

The team and Rendon have amended the deal to restructure the remaining $38 million owed to the third baseman in 2026, presumably spreading the money over time.

Rendon is still on the roster and continuing to rehab at home in Houston, but his horrendous tenure with the Angels could be over.

Rendon’s massive free-agent contract has paid almost no dividends for the Angels. The former Washington Nationals standout has been injured for the majority of the past five seasons and has played just 257 games in an Angels uniform, batting .242 with 22 homers, 125 RBIs and a .717 OPS.

If Rendon doesn’t play in 2026, he will have appeared in only about a quarter of the Angels’ total games during his seven seasons with the team.

Rendon led the majors in RBIs, earned an All-Star selection and won a World Series ring in 2019 to cap an outstanding four-year stretch for Washington. After playing fairly well for the Angels during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he was nowhere close to that player in the ensuing four years with the Angels, who haven’t made the playoffs or had a winning record during his tenure.

Rendon dealt with injuries to his groin, his left knee, his left hamstring, his left shin, his oblique muscles, his lower back, both wrists and both hips during the past five years.

Rendon also alienated Angels fans with public comments in which he appeared to say he doesn’t like baseball, although he attempted to clarify his connection to the game as a business relationship that isn’t as important as his family or his religion. Rendon had previously criticized the length of games and excitement level of baseball, saying he doesn’t watch the sport.

Luis Rengifo and Yoán Moncada largely played third base last season for the Angels. Both are currently free agents.

Rendon’s deal might top the long list of high-priced player acquisitions that have worked out terribly for the Angels during owner Arte Moreno’s tenure, including the signings of Gary Matthews Jr., Josh Hamilton and Zack Cozart and unsuccessful trades for Vernon Wells and Justin Upton.

Beacham writes for the Associated Press.

Brennan Johnson is set decide whether he wants to join Crystal Palace after the south London club agreed a £35m deal to sign the Tottenham attacker.

BBC Sport revealed on 18 December that the Eagles were advanced in their efforts to land the Wales international but decided not to make a formal move until after the two clubs faced each other in the Premier League on Sunday.

There is now an agreement between the clubs for Johnson to move across London.

However, the 24-year-old is yet to agree to join the Selhurst Park club.

Johnson is set for talks over his future in the next 48 hours, amid interest from other Premier League sides.

Tottenham are in the market for a new attacker this January which would limit Johnson’s opportunities even more.

It is understood that they have an interest in Red Bull Leipzig’s winger Yan Diomande, 19, and Manchester City attacker Savinho, 21.

All UAE forces must leave Yemen within 24 hours, the presidential council says.

WASHINGTON — Standing alongside President Trump at his Palm Beach estate, Volodymyr Zelensky could only smirk and grimace without overtly offending his host. “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump told reporters, shocking the Ukrainian president before claiming that Vladimir Putin is genuine in his desire for peace.

It was just the latest example of the American president sympathizing with Moscow in its war of conquest in Europe. Yet Zelensky emerged from the meeting Sunday ensuring once again that Ukraine may fight another day, maintaining critical if uneasy support from Washington.

Few signs of progress toward a peace agreement materialized from the meeting at Mar-a-Lago, where Zelensky traveled with significant compromises — including a plan to put territorial concessions to Russia before the Ukrainian people for a vote — in order to appease the U.S. president.

But Zelensky won concessions of his own from Trump, who had for weeks been pushing for a ceasefire by Christmas, or else threatening to cut off Ukraine from U.S. intelligence that would leave Kyiv blind on the battlefield. “I don’t have deadlines,” Trump said Sunday.

Over the course of Trump’s first year in office, Zelensky and other European leaders have repeatedly worked to convince Trump that Russia’s President Putin is, in fact, an aggressor opposed to peace, responsible for an unprovoked invasion that launched the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Each time, Trump has come around, even going as far over the summer as to question whether Ukraine could win back the territories it has lost on the battlefield to Russia — and vowing to North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, “we’re with them all they way.”

Yet, each time, Trump has changed course within a matter of days or weeks, reverting to an embrace of Putin and Russia’s worldview, including a proposal that Ukraine preemptively cede sovereign territories that Russia has sought but failed to occupy by force.

Zelensky’s willingness to offer concessions in his latest meeting with Trump has, at least temporarily, “managed to keep President Trump from tilting further towards the Russian position,” said Kyle Balzer, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “But Trump’s position — his repeated insistence that a deal is necessary now because time is not on Ukraine’s side — continues to favor Putin’s line and negotiating tactics.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Putin’s revanchist war aims — to conquer all of Ukraine and, beyond, to reclaim parts of Europe that once were part of the Soviet empire — remain unchanged.

Yet Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, whose own sympathies toward Russia have been scrutinized for years, recently dismissed the assessments as products of “deep state” “warmongers” within the intelligence community.

On Monday, hours after speaking with Trump, Putin ordered the Russian military to push toward Zaporizhzhia, a city of 700,000 before the war began. The city lies far outside the Donbas region that Moscow claims would satisfy its war aims in a negotiated settlement.

“Trump’s instincts are to favor Putin and Russia,” said Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at Syracuse University. “Ukraine and its European partners still hope to convince Trump of the obvious fact that Putin is not interested in a deal that doesn’t amount to a Ukrainian surrender.

“If Trump was convinced of Putin’s intransigence, he might further tighten sanctions on Russia and provide more assistance to Ukraine to try to pressure Putin into a deal,” Taylor added. “It’s an uphill battle, one might even say Sisyphean, but Zelensky and European leaders have to keep trying. So far, nearly a year into Trump’s second term, it’s been worth it.”

On Monday, Moscow claims that Ukraine orchestrated a massive drone attack targeting Putin’s residence that would force it to reconsider its stance in negotiations. Kyiv denied an attack took place.

“Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister since 2004, said in a Telegram post.

Another senior Russian official said the reported attack shocked and infuriated Trump. But Zelensky, responding on social media, said that Russia was “at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team.”

“We keep working together to bring peace closer,” Zelensky said. “This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war.”

“Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy. To the contrary, Russia always takes such steps,” he added. “It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”

Frederick Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Project, which collaborates with the Institute for the Study of War to produce daily battlefield assessments on the conflict, said that the meeting did not appear to fundamentally shift Trump’s position on the conflict — a potential win for Kyiv in and of itself, he said.

“U.S.-Ukraine negotiations appear to be continuing as before, which is positive, since those negotiations seem to be getting into the real details of what would be required for a meaningful set of security guarantees and long-term agreements to ensure that any peace settlement will be enduring,” Kagan said.

Gaps still remain between Kyiv and the Trump administration in negotiations over security guarantees. While Trump has offered a 15-year agreement, Ukraine is seeking guarantees for 50 years, Zelensky said Monday.

“As Trump continues to say, there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Kagan added. “We’ll have to see how things go.”

Untold riches awaited Adrian Kempe as one of the NHL’s top unrestricted free agents next summer.

Mitch Marner, among last summer’s top targets, got $12 million a season from Vegas in a sign-and-trade deal with Toronto hours before he would have hit the open market. With more goals than Marner over the last four full seasons, how much could Kempe — in his prime at 29 — have demanded?

We’ll never know. Because whatever amount it might have been, Kempe decided it wasn’t worth more than his happiness. So last month he signed an eight-year contract extension worth a reported $85 million with the Kings that figures to keep him with the only organization he’s ever known for the rest of his career.

“There’s probably some teams that would have given me offers. But I never really got to the part where that was something that I wanted,” he said. “I’m really happy here. Always have been. Family-wise, the same.

“So there was never anything else in my mind.”

That’s a mind that is apparently at ease now that Kempe’s hockey future has been determined. With 13 goals and a team-high 17 assists, he leads the offensively challenged Kings with 30 points and seven of those goals have come in the 17 games since he signed his extension.

But that’s done little to lift the team, which has lost six of their last seven heading into Saturday’s game with the Ducks. The last time the Kings had a seven-game stretch this bad it cost coach Todd McLellan his job.

“I’m not happy, but I really believe in this group,” said winger Kevin Fiala, who shares the team goal-scoring lead with Kempe. “I really believe this is a great team, great players. We just have to kind of find the game. And not just for some minutes, not even for one game, 60 minutes.

“We have to go for a stretch here, get some wins in a row. Start feeling good, start playing good.”

That might be tough given how the Kings will finish 2025. After Saturday’s home game with the resurgent Ducks, the team travels to Colorado to face the Avalanche, who lead the NHL in points.

If the Kings are to turn things around, they will have to jump start an offense which is second-to-last in the NHL, averaging 2.52 goals a game, and a power play that has converted on less than 14% of its chances, also 31st in the 32-team league. And the responsibility for making that happen probably will fall to Kempe, who has scored as many goals over the past four full seasons as Sidney Crosby and has just six fewer assists than Alex Ovechkin, keeping the Swedish Olympian in heady company.

Kings forward Adrian Kempe shoots during a win over the Winnipeg Jets on Nov. 4.

(Harry How / Getty Images)

“Adrian is a bit of a streaky scorer,” coach Jim Hiller said. “A lot of his recent goals are goals that we’ve seen him score before, where he’s either beating someone with speed, a nice deke.

“So to me it’s the type of goals he’s scoring right now that’s got me encouraged.”

That’s not all that’s encouraging. Kempe, a quick and physical two-way forward, is averaging a career-high 19:18 of ice time per game and is on pace to score 30 goals and top 68 points for a second straight season.

With captain Anze Kopitar retiring at the end of the season and defenseman Drew Doughty in the penultimate year of his contract, re-signing Kempe, the team’s future leader on and off the ice, was at the top of Ken Holland’s to-do list when he took over as general manager last spring. And while the length of the contract he offered Kempe never wavered, the price did.

In the end, media reports said Kempe blinked first, telling agent J.P. Berry to lower his salary demands to get a deal done, eventually accepting an average annual value of $10.625 million beginning next season. That nearly doubles the $5.5 million he’ll earn this season and makes him the fifth-best-paid Swede in the NHL, according to the Sweden Herald. But it’s less than he would have gotten on the open market.

“I think it says two things,” Hiller said of the deal. “What it says about the franchise is that the player was known, was drafted here, was developed here.”

What it says about Kempe, he continued, is that he values that loyalty more than money.

Kings forward Adrian Kempe against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 18.

(Chris O’Meara / Associated Press)

“I think he probably appreciates the time and energy spent on his career, getting him to where he was,” Hiller said. “Now it’s his choice and he says, ‘You know what? I want to stay in place.’”

He’s not alone. A number of the Kings’ recent cornerstone players — among them Dustin Brown, Kopitar and Doughty — spent their entire NHL careers with the team. If he avoids serious injury and a major dropoff in play, Kempe will almost certainly rank among the top five in franchise history in games, goals and points when his contract runs out.

That’s the long-term return on investment Holland and the Kings are hoping for. For the time being, however, they’re counting on Kempe to save a season that seems in danger of spiraling.

Like Fiala, Kempe believes in the Kings.

“If I weren’t happy here, obviously I would consider not playing here,” Kempe said. “We have a good core. We have a good group of younger guys coming up. I think we’re in a good spot.

“Obviously you have to take that in consideration, too, when you sign a new deal. You want to play on a good team, you want to win cups.”

And it’s hard to put a price tag on that.

Gaza’s Christians reflected on the loss they’ve experienced after two years of Israel’s devastating war, as Palestinians marked the first Christmas since the fragile ceasefire deal.

Four years ago, California startup Theta Labs’ cryptocurrency was soaring, and its future appeared bright when it landed a partnership with pop star Katy Perry.

The Bay Area company had built a marketplace for digital collectibles known as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and had teamed up with Perry to launch NFTs tied to her Las Vegas concert residency. Its THETA token jumped by more than 500% in early 2021, reaching a peak of more than $15, making it one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies. Later in the year, the spotlight shone on the company when it announced the Perry partnership.

“I can’t wait to dive in with the Theta team on all the exciting and memorable creative pieces, so my fans can own a special moment of my residency,” Perry said in a June 2021 news release.

Today, like many cryptocurrencies, THETA is 95% off its 2021 peak. It took a hit this week after former executives accused it of manipulating markets to dupe consumers into buying its products. On Tuesday, it was trading at less than 30 cents.

Two former executives from Theta Labs sued the startup, alleging in separate lawsuits that the company and its chief executive, Mitch Liu, engaged in fraud and manipulated the cryptocurrency market for his benefit. Liu retaliated against them after the employees refused to engage in deceptive business practices and raised concerns, the lawsuits say.

Some of the alleged misconduct involved placing fake bids on Perry’s NFTs, engaging in token “pump and dump” schemes and using celebrity endorsements and “misleading” partnerships with high-profile companies such as Google to deceive the public, according to the December lawsuits filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Perry is not accused of any wrongdoing in the suit, and Theta denies the charges.

The lawsuits against Theta Labs are the latest controversy to rattle an industry beset by scandals.

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed, and its founder, Samuel Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 after being found guilty of multiple fraud charges. Binance founder and former Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao also got prison time after he pleaded guilty to violating money laundering laws, but President Trump pardoned him this year.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission previously charged celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul and Ne-Yo for promoting crypto without disclosing they were paid to do so.

Theta Labs created a network that rewarded people with cryptocurrency for contributing spare bandwidth and computing power to enhance video streaming and lower content delivery costs. The company describes Theta Network as a “blockchain-powered decentralized cloud for AI, media and entertainment.” The network has two tokens: THETA, used to secure the network, and TFUEL, used to pay users for services and power operations.

The whistleblowers suing Theta Labs are Jerry Kowal, its former head of content, and Andrea Berry, previously the company’s head of business development.

“Liu used Theta Labs as his personal trading vehicle, perpetrating fraud, self-dealing, and market manipulation,” said Mark Mermelstein, Kowal’s attorney, in a statement. “His calculated ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes repeatedly wiped out employee and investor value. This suit is about demanding accountability and proving no one is above the law.”

Theta, Liu and its parent company, Sliver VR Technologies, deny the allegations and “intend to prove with evidence the fallacy of the stories being told in the lawsuits,” according to Kronenberger Rosenfeld, the law firm representing the defendants. The lawsuits are an attempt to paint the company in a negative light in hopes of securing a settlement, a lawyer for the firm said.

Kowal has sued his former employers before. In 2014, he accused Netflix of spreading false claims that he stole confidential information and Amazon of wrongful termination.

The latest lawsuits allege that Liu profited from buying and selling THETA tokens using insider knowledge about partnerships with celebrities, studios and others in the entertainment industry.

“Liu’s true motive in pursuing such partnerships was not to develop a sustainable content business but to generate publicity that could be used to artificially inflate token prices for Liu’s personal gain,” Kowal’s lawsuit says.

Kowal worked for Theta from 2020 to 2025.

In 2020, Liu traded and sold tokens knowing that the company would close a content licensing deal with MGM Studios, according to the lawsuit. After the deal’s announcement, THETA token’s market capitalization increased by more than $50 million in just 24 hours, the lawsuit says.

When NFTs started to take off in 2021, Kowal closed deals with high-profile partners such as Perry, Fremantle Media and Resorts World Las Vegas for the startup’s NFT marketplace.

As part of the deal with Perry, the singer received $8.5 million and additional warrants for the right to license her image and likeness for the NFTs.

To inflate the price and demand for these digital collectibles, Liu allegedly made bids on NFTs and directed employees to do the same. This led to people overpaying for the Perry NFTs.

Representatives for Perry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Multiple examples of alleged manipulation are outlined in the lawsuits. In one instance from 2022, the startup launched a new token called TDROP that employees also received as part of a bonus.

Liu gained control of 43% of the supply of the cryptocurrency, according to Kowal’s lawsuit. When the TDROP token reached a high, he then sold the token, and its price collapsed by more than 90% within months.

Berry’s lawsuit also alleges that Theta Labs announced “misleading” or fake partnerships with high-profile companies such as Google and entities including NASA to pump up the value of the THETA token. Theta paid for Google Cloud products but claimed it was a partner when it was a Google customer, according to the lawsuit.

As the year comes to an end, a deal between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces was expected to come into force.

Instead, fighting has erupted between the two sides in the northern city of Aleppo.

They later agreed to stop the fighting, while blaming each other for the violence.

That deal was supposed to lead to the SDF integrating with the army, but it is stalling on how that should be implemented.

This renewed tension comes as Damascus faces other threats, ranging from ISIL (ISIS) to recurrent conflicts with the Druze community and continuing attacks by Israel.

So what does this complex security situation mean for Syria, a year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests

Haid Haid – Researcher at Chatham House

Steven Heydemann – Professor and Middle East Studies programme director at Smith College

Omer Ozkizilcik – Nonresident fellow for the Syria project in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programme

Netflix and Paramount are locked in an epic tug-of-war for HBO and Warner Bros. — the historic film factory behind Batman, Harry Potter, Scooby-Doo, “Casablanca” and “The Matrix.”

Warner Bros. Discovery awarded the prize to Netflix, prompting Paramount to mount a hostile takeover bid valued at $108 billion for all of the Warner assets, which also include CNN, TBS, HGTV and TLC. The Larry Ellison-backed media company, run by his son David Ellison, has asked Warner shareholders to sell their shares to Paramount.

Warner Bros.’ sale has become the industry’s game of thrones.

The streaming king, Netflix, hopes to buy a chunk of the company — HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios and the 110-acre lot in Burbank — through its $82.7-billion deal. Not included are Warner’s basic cable channels, which are set to be spun off into a separate, publicly-traded company called Discovery Global.

Both deals would fundamentally reorder Hollywood and raise antitrust concerns. Netflix would boast more than 400 million subscribers worldwide, furthering its market dominance. And Paramount’s takeover would combine two major film studios and two leading news organizations, CNN and CBS News, under Ellison family control.

Here’s a look at how we got here: