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These are the key developments from day 1,438 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Sunday, February 1:

Fighting

• Russian attacks on Ukraine killed one person and wounded seven others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the country’s emergency service. High-rise buildings, homes, shops and cafes were also damaged.
• Another person was wounded by shelling in the Zaporizhia region, the service said, with a blast also destroying three residential buildings and 12 homes.
• In the Donetsk region, at least two people were killed, and five more were wounded, in 13 separate Russian attacks across multiple districts, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
• A total of 172 people, including 35 children, were evacuated from the front line, Filashkin said.
• Russian strikes hit state railway infrastructure in the Zaporizhia and Dnipro regions, a tactic Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was intended to “cut our cities off from one another”.
• In total, 303 combat clashes took place throughout Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff wrote on Telegram, tallying 38 air strikes, 119 guided bombs, 2,510 kamikaze drones and 2,437 attacks on settlements and troops.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that its troops captured ⁠the villages ​of Petrivka, ‍in Ukraine’s southeastern ‍Zaporizhzhia region, and ⁠Toretske, in the eastern ​Donetsk ‌region. Al Jazeera could not verify the claim.
• Russia’s TASS state news agency also claimed that Russian forces had taken control of at least 24 Ukrainian settlements since the start of the year, the majority of which were in the Zaporizhia region.
• Two people were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia’s Belgorod region, TASS reported.

Energy

• Parts of Ukraine, including at least 3,500 buildings in Kyiv, faced a blackout throughout Saturday after a failure on interconnection lines with Moldova, officials reported.
• The Kyiv metro closed down, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people, along with the capital’s water and electricity supplies, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
• Although the capital’s water supplies had returned by around 10:30pm local time (20:30 GMT), energy workers were continuing to restore heat to roughly 2,600 houses, Klitschko said.
• Ukraine is investigating the stoppage, but “as of now, there is no confirmation of external interference or a cyberattack”, the president said. “Most indications point to weather: ice buildup on the lines and automatic shutdowns.”
• At the request of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, SpaceX has temporarily restricted operations of its Starlink systems in Ukraine to prevent Russian drone attacks, Serhii Beskrestnov, technology adviser to the defence minister, announced on Facebook.
• “I apologise once again to those who have been temporarily affected by the measures taken, but for the security of the country, these are now very important and necessary actions,” Beskrestnov wrote.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States special envoy Steve Witkoff said that he had “productive and constructive meetings” with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida.
• “We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said, adding that he was “grateful” for US President Donald Trump’s “critical leadership in seeking a durable and lasting peace”.
• US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks.
• In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “in regular contact with the US side” and is “waiting for them to provide specifics on further meetings”, expected to take place next week.
• “Ukraine is ready to work in all effective formats,” he added. “What matters is the results, and that meetings happen.”
• Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha spoke with Deputy Prime Minister of Liechtenstein Sabine Monauni, discussing “developments in the peace negotiations and urgent needs of Ukraine’s energy system”, Sybiha wrote on X.
• “We also paid special attention to further sanctions pressure on Russia and joint international efforts to hold it to account,” Sybiha said.

A federal judge in the United States has ordered the release of a five-year-old boy and his father from a facility in Texas amid an outcry over their detention during an immigration raid in Minnesota.

In a decision on Saturday, US District Judge Fred Biery ruled Liam Conejo Ramos’s detention as illegal, while also condemning “the perfidious lust for unbridled power” and “the imposition of cruelty” by “some among us”.

The scathing opinion came as photos of the boy – clad in a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers took him away in a suburb of the city of Minneapolis – became a symbol of the immigration crackdown launched by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children,” Biery wrote in his ruling.

“Ultimately, Petitioners may, because of ‌the arcane United States immigration system, return to their home country, involuntarily or by self-deportation. But that result should occur through a more orderly ‌and humane policy than currently in place.”

The judge did not specify the deportation quota he was referring to, but Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy, has previously said there was a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day.

The ongoing crackdown in the state of Minnesota is the largest federal immigration enforcement operation ever carried out, according to federal officials, with some 3,000 agents deployed. The surge has prompted daily clashes between activists and immigration officers, and led to the killings of two American citizens by federal agents.

The deadly operation has sparked nationwide protests as well as mass mobilisation efforts and demonstrations in Minnesota.

According to the Columbia Heights Public School District in Minneapolis, Liam was one of at least four students detained by immigration officials in the suburb this month.

Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said ICE agents took the child from a running car in the family’s driveway on January 20, and told him to knock on the door of his home, a tactic that she said amounted to using him as “bait” for other family members.

The government has denied that account, with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claiming that an ICE officer remained with Liam “for the child’s safety” while other officers apprehended his father.

Vice President JD Vance, who has vigorously defended ICE’s tactics in Minnesota, told a news conference that although such arrests were “traumatic” for children, “just because you’re a parent, doesn’t mean that you get complete immunity from law enforcement”.

The Trump administration has said that Conejo Arias arrived in the US illegally in December 2024 from Ecuador, but the family’s lawyer says they have an active asylum claim that allows them to remain in the country legally.

Following their detention, the boy and his father were sent to a facility in Dilley in Texas, where advocacy groups and politicians have reported deplorable conditions, including illnesses, malnourishment and a fast-growing number of detained children.

Texas Representatives Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett visited the site earlier this week. Liam slept throughout the 30-minute visit, Castro said, and his father reported that he was “depressed and sad”.

Biery’s ruling on Saturday included a photo of the boy, as well as several Bible quotes: “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’,” and “Jesus wept”.

The episode, Biery wrote, made apparent “the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence”. Biery drew a comparison between Trump’s administration and the wrongdoings that then-author, future President Thomas Jefferson, mounted against England’s King George, including sending “Swarms of Officers to harass our People” and creating “domestic Insurrection”.

There was no immediate comment from the Department of Justice and DHS.

The Law Firm of Jennifer Scarborough, which is representing Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, said in a statement that the pair will soon be able to reunite with the rest of their family.

“We are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal,” the statement said.

Minnesota officials have been calling on the Trump administration to end its immigration ‍crackdown in the state. But a federal judge on Saturday denied a request from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other officials to issue a preliminary injunction that would have halted the federal operation.

Trump, meanwhile, has ordered DHS to, “under no circumstances”, get involved with protests in Democratic-led cities unless they ask for federal help, or federal property is threatened.

Jan. 31 (UPI) — Danish military veterans and others staged a protest march against U.S. President Donald Trump‘s recent comments regarding NATO members and Greenland.

Trump criticized the amount of support the United States received from NATO allies during recent conflicts, and many veterans and others in Denmark took to the streets on Saturday to show their displeasure.

One protester, Danish Lance Cpl. Soren Teigen, said only the president is responsible for the comments.

“I don’t blame American soldiers in any way — we’ve fought side by side, and we still do,” Teigen told The New York Times. “But when the president says something like this, of course it hurts.”

Trump earlier accused NATO allies of shying away from fighting after sending their troops to Afghanistan but allegedly keeping them away from the front lines.

Officials with Danish Veterans & Veteran Support took exception to the president’s comments.

“Denmark has always stood side by side with the USA, and we have shown up in the world’s crisis zones when the USA has asked us to,” the group said in a prepared statement.

“We feel let down and ridiculed by the Trump administration, which is deliberately disregarding Denmark’s combat side by side with the USA,” it added.

Many veterans and other Danes also are unhappy with the president’s efforts to annex or otherwise control Greenland.

Hundreds of Danish military veterans on Saturday quietly marched to outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, where some placed 44 small Danish flags in planters located nearby.

The flags are to commemorate the 44 Danish military personnel who died in Afghanistan.

U.S. Embassy staff members were unaware of the flags’ meaning and initially removed them, which further upset many Danes.

Upon learning what the flags represented, the embassy staff left alone any that remained or were replaced.

Jan. 31 (UPI) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials must release Adrian Arias and his 5-year-old son, Liam, from detention, a federal district court judge ruled on Saturday.

U.S. District Court of Western Texas Judge Fred Biery Jr. on Saturday granted a writ of habeas corpus petition naming the father and son.

Biery likened his strongly worded ruling to placing a “judicial finger in the constitutional dike.”

The petitioners “seek nothing more than some modicum of due process and the rule of law,” Biery wrote.

“The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently, even if it requires traumatizing children,” he said.

“This court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported but do so by proper legal procedures,” Biery added.

He accused the federal officers of violating the Fourth Amendment via an unlawful search-and-seizure and said only judicial warrants enable them to arrest or detain people when there is no probable cause to do so.

“Civics lesson to the government: Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster,” he said.

“That is called the fox guarding the henhouse,” Biery said. “The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.”

He ordered the federal government to release both from custody no later than Tuesday.

Former President Bill Clinton appointed Biery to the federal bench in 1993.

Federal officers arrested Adrian Arias and detained Liam while enforcing an administrative warrant for the father on Jan. 20 in the Greater Minneapolis area.

The two were transferred to a detention center in Texas, while awaiting deportation.

Liam’s mother, Erika Ramos, told media that she watched from a window as ICE officers detained her son and partner.

She said they led her son to the door and knocked while her son asked her to open the door, but she wouldn’t because she feared she would be arrested.

“When I didn’t open the door, they took Liam to the ICE van,” Ramos said, adding that she thought the officers were using her son as “bait.”

Ramos said she is pregnant and has another child, whom she feared leaving alone if she had opened the door and was arrested.

Homeland Security officials on Jan. 22 said the ICE officers wanted Ramos to open the door so that they could leave her son with her.

“Our officers made multiple attempts to get the mother inside the house to take custody of her child. Officers even assured her that they would NOT take her into custody.

“She refused to accept custody of the child. The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.”

They said the officers’ primary concern was the child’s safety and welfare and that the father is from Ecuador and subject to deportation.

It was early in the morning, and Yakubu Buba stood in front of his house in Gamboru, northeastern Nigeria, looking towards the horizon. He was not waiting for a vehicle. He was waiting for cattle.

From across the Cameroon border, they came in low, patient herds, hooves lifting dust into the air. Yakubu breathed in deeply and smiled.  He enjoys the smell of fresh animal droppings, he says. “It replenishes the soul.”

The herds come daily. “About ten of them,” the 57-year-old estimates. “They are guided into Kasuwan Shanu, where they are loaded onto trucks bound for Maiduguri.”

That same morning, he, too, was headed to Maiduguri. A bean merchant since he was 17, Yakubu began travelling the Maiduguri-Dikwa-Gamboru road in 1986, importing beans from Cameroon and selling them onward to traders at the Muna Market who supplied to markets across Nigeria.

Gamboru sits on the Nigerian-Cameroon border in the northeast. A few kilometres away is Ngala, which links Nigeria and Chad. Through these borders, traders export processed goods like flour into Cameroon and Chad, Yakubu says. And when crossing back, they would import beans, sesame, and groundnuts. Animals, in whole or in parts, like hides, are the most imported from these countries, he says.

At the Muna Motor Park in Maiduguri, where I met Yakubu, this pattern was once predictable. Vehicles arrived full and left fuller. Mustapha Hauwami, a 47-year-old driver who began plying the route in 1980, remembers when the park felt like a tide. “We transport traders and passengers to Gamboru and Dikwa daily,” he says. “Most of those coming from Gamboru are Chadian traders.” He drove twice a day, sometimes more.

The pattern got interrupted, slowly. Conflict came, and fear crept in. “It became too risky to travel,” Mustapha says. Checkpoints began to pop up, and movement became impossible without military escorts. “There are at least 20 checkpoints on the road,” Mustapha says. “Importing goods became difficult,” Yakubu adds.

Movements became restricted

The effects were uneven. While Maiduguri’s economy tightened under restricted access, border towns like Gamboru adapted in unexpected ways. Cut off from Maiduguri at the height of the Boko Haram conflict, traders there turned outward. “We relied entirely on Chad and Cameroon,” Yakubu recalls.

Over time, goods from Maiduguri began arriving again, but now as just one stream among many. “They became cheaper in Gamboru,” he said. “Goods were coming from both Maiduguri and the neighbouring countries.”

The movement did not stop. It rerouted. The road’s restriction reshaped the advantage, redistributing it. What Maiduguri lost in centrality, border towns gained in flexibility.

Elsewhere, the pattern repeated with variations. On the Maiduguri-Bama-Gwoza road, Muhammad Haruna remembers when nights were just nights. He began driving in 1981, commuting passengers to Bama, Gwoza, Pulka, Yola, and Mubi. “Driving to Bama took at least 40 minutes,” he recalls. “For Banki, Gwoza, and Kirawa, it was one hour and 30 minutes.” There were few checkpoints, he says. And these existed because of criminals. “And travelling to Mubi was three hours, while Yola was not more than five hours.” The roads were free, even at night. “On market days, as many as 200 fully loaded Gulf cars carried traders into these towns,” says Bamai Mustapha, Chairman of the Bama Park National Union of Road Transport Workers.

Here, too, the Boko Haram conflict affected the flow. Most of the roads became inaccessible, forcing drivers to take a long route passing through the forest into Dikwa, before reaching Bama, until it became totally impossible to travel. “After escaping abduction in 2015, I stopped driving,” Muhammad says. “I sold the car and went into trading.”

Some traders shifted focus to Yola, Muhammad says. They would import from Cameroon into Yola instead. “Others import to Jalingo.”

When calm slowly returned, the routes reopened, but with limited access. “In some of the towns, curfew starts early,” says Muhammad. “They close Bama and Konduga by 5 p.m.” “If you leave Maiduguri by 2 p.m. with Gwoza passengers, you must spend the night in Bama.”

Still, it is not totally safe. “There was a time we got stuck for about a week in Konduga, while going to Gwoza, waiting for military escorts,” Muhammad recalls.

There have been recurring attacks and abductions on these routes for about a decade. The Boko Haram terror group has turned to the kidnapping economy as one of its revenue windows. “The most dangerous route is between Gwoza and Limankara,” Muhammad reveals. “The terrorists would plant mines on the roads. You cannot follow the route without a military escort.”

Despite that, they must travel the route. “It leads into Cameroon. We often transport traders and goods imported from Cameroon through Banki, Kirawa, and Pulka into Maiduguri.” At least seven trucks filled with grains enter Maiduguri from Pulka daily, he says. “It used to be around 30.” “This is the same for Gwoza, Madagali, and other towns.” 

The goods coming in, especially grains and animals, are transported onwards to Lagos in southwestern Nigeria and other cities, Bamai says. “They pass the Maiduguri-Damaturu road.”

The fish stopped coming

The story is the same on the Maiduguri-Baga-Monguno road. This is the backbone of Maiduguri’s fish trade. Audu Gambo began plying this route in 1990, transporting passengers, including traders and farmers, to Baga daily. “Driving to Baga used to take only two hours and 30 minutes,” the 54-year-old recalls. “There were few customs and immigration checkpoints, and the roads were good,” he adds. This enabled him to make a full trip twice, he says, until the conflict interrupted this frequency.

“Travelling has become difficult and restricted,” Audu says. “The entrance to Baga closes at 2 p.m.” So, they must leave Maiduguri as early as 8 a.m. “There are at least 30 checkpoints before reaching Baga,” he says. “Most of the drivers here are from Baga. Those of us from Maiduguri rarely travel the route.”

This affected the city’s source of protein. “I stopped going to Baga in 2017,” Abubakar Mustapha, a fish trader, recalls. It was 10 a.m. when I met him at his stall at the Baga Road Fish Market. “If it were before [the insurgency], we would have finished trading by this time,” he says. The influx of fish into the market has reduced. “They were cheaper and in abundance in the past. We used to offload at least five trucks of fish daily in the market.”

When the insurgency peaked, Abubakar recalls, it became one truck in days, until it became too risky to travel. The road became totally inaccessible.

Then the focus shifted to neighbouring countries. “We began importing from Cameroon, Chad, and Niger,” Abubakar recalls. “Fish from Cameroon and Chad are imported through the Maiduguri-Gamboru road. Those from Niger are brought in through Geidam in Yobe State,” and are transported through the Maiduguri-Damaturu road. “At least four trucks from these countries are offloaded daily,” he estimates. However, transporting to Maiduguri became costly. “Each cartoon costs 4,000 to import,” he says. So, traders relocated to Hadejia and Yola. “More than 50 per cent left.”

In the past two years, however, there has been cautious improvement. The market’s population has increased as previously closed roads are now accessible, Abubakar says. “Some traders have returned and they can now directly import from Baga and Monguno. Yesterday, we offloaded four vans. And the day before, it was three. It doesn’t go below or beyond this number.”

Yet, consignments from neighbouring countries make up the majority. “Fishers cannot freely access the water from the shores of Baga and Monguno,” he says. The shore there is one of the strongholds of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terror group. To fish in the water, fishers must pay.

That afternoon, Yakubu Buba boarded a vehicle at the Muna Park back to Gamboru. His beans had been delivered. He has learned to accept delays as the new rules of the road. Still, he remembers it used to be free.

Jan. 31 (UPI) — A northeasterly storm has created blizzard conditions in the Carolinas and triggered state of emergency declarations in North and South Carolina and Georgia on Saturday.

The intensifying storm system is centered over the Atlantic Ocean and near the Carolinas and Georgia coastline after its central pressure dropped by up to 40 millibars over the past 24 hours.

Hurricane-force wind gusts of between 60 mph and 80 mph are contributing to blizzard conditions along the Outer Banks coastal plains areas, and more than 10,000 flights have been canceled through the weekend.

The Hampton Roads area of Virginia also is getting pummeled with wintry weather from the storm system, and the National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning through 7 p.m. EST on Sunday for the commonwealth’s coastal areas and parts of North Carolina.

The winter storm is delivering the most snow in two decades to areas that rarely see significant amounts of snowfall.

Icy road conditions caused hundreds of collisions as of Saturday afternoon, and wave action from the storm’s strong winds and a high tide is threatening to damage or destroy homes along the coast.

The National Weather Service is forecasting between 5 and 9 inches of snowfall and sustained winds of between 33 and 41 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph, along the coastal areas of the Carolinas and into neighboring areas in Virginia and northern Georgia.

The snowfall likely will end during the overnight hours, but northwest winds will remain strong, with sustained wind speeds of between 28 and 33 mph and gusts of up to 50 mph into Sunday afternoon.

Although windy, the clouds are predicted to clear during the afternoon hours.

Tributes have poured in for beloved Canadian actress Catherine O’Hara, the Home Alone and Schitt’s Creek star who died this week at age 71.

US media outlets reported on Friday that O’Hara died at her Los Angeles home after a brief illness.

Born and raised in Toronto, O’Hara began her acting career in the 1970s at The Second City improvisational theatre and later performed on iconic Canadian comedy show SCTV.

Her break into movies came in 1980 with Double Negative, alongside her longtime collaborator Eugene Levy, as well as John Candy.

But she became widely known to a global audience when she played Macaulay Culkin’s mother in 1990’s Home Alone.

“It’s a perfect movie, isn’t it?” she told People magazine in 2024. “You want to be part of something good, and that’s how you go.”

More recently, younger audiences embraced O’Hara for her role as the matriarch of a rich family that loses its wealth in Schitt’s Creek, where she again starred alongside Levy, as well as his son, Dan.

Her turn as Moira Rose won her an Emmy award for best actress in a comedy series in 2020.

Here’s a look at how actors, politicians and others are remembering O’Hara:

Macaulay Culkin

“Mama. I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you. I heard you. But I had so much more to say. I love you. I’ll see you later,” Culkin wrote on Instagram.

Eugene Levy

Levy got his start alongside O’Hara at Second City and on SCTV, and he later starred with her in several projects, including Christopher Guest’s Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman.

In a statement, Levy said “words seem inadequate to express the loss” he felt after her death. “I had the honor of knowing and working with the great Catherine O’Hara for over fifty years,” he said.

“From our beginnings on the Second City stage, to SCTV, to the movies we did with Chris Guest, to our six glorious years on Schitt’s Creek, I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship. And I will miss her.

“My heart goes out to Bo, Matthew, Luke, and the entire O’Hara family.”

Dan Levy

“What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years,” Levy, who played O’Hara’s character’s son David Rose on Schitt’s Creek, wrote on Instagram.

“Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

“Over 5 decades of work, Catherine earned her place in the canon of Canadian comedy — from SCTV to Schitt’s Creek,” Carney wrote on X.

“Canada has lost a legend. My thoughts are with her family, friends, and all those who loved her work on screen. She will be dearly missed.”

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Trudeau hailed O’Hara as “a beloved Canadian icon with a rare gift for comedy and heart”.

“She made people laugh across generations and helped bring Canadian storytelling to the world in a way only she could. My thoughts are with her family, friends, and everyone who found joy in her work,” Trudeau wrote on X.

Seth Rogen

Rogen, who starred alongside O’Hara in the series The Studio, said he told O’Hara when he first met her that he thought “she was the funniest person [he’d] ever had the pleasure of watching on screen”.

“Home Alone was the movie that made me want to make movies. Getting to work with her was a true honour,” Rogen wrote in an Instagram post.

“She was hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous … she made me want to make our show good enough to be worthy of her presence in it. This is just devastating. We’re all lucky we got to live in a world with her in it.”

Ali Larijani says efforts to get a framework for negotiations are advancing, as a US naval deployment in the Gulf fuels concerns.

Iran’s top security official has said progress is being made towards negotiations with the United States, even as the Iranian foreign minister again accused Washington of raising tensions between the two countries.

Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in a social media post on Saturday that, “unlike the artificial media war atmosphere, the formation of a structure for negotiations is progressing”.

Larijani’s post did not provide further details about the purported framework for talks.

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

The Trump administration has also deployed a naval “armada” to Iran, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, escalating fears of a possible military confrontation.

Senior Iranian leaders have said they are open to negotiations with Washington, but only once Trump stops threatening to attack the country.

Earlier this week, Trump said the US vessels being sent to Iran were ready to use “violence, if necessary” if Iran refused to sit down for talks on its nuclear programme.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) also warned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Friday over its plans to hold a two-day naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz, a Gulf maritime passage that is critical to global trade.

“Any unsafe and unprofessional behavior near US forces, regional partners or commercial vessels increases risks of collision, escalation, and destabilization,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi hit back on Saturday, saying in a social media post that the US military, operating off Iran’s shores, “is now attempting to dictate how our Powerful Armed Forces should conduct target practice on their own turf”.

“CENTCOM is also requesting ‘professionalism’ from a national military the U.S. Government has listed as a ‘terrorist organization’, all while recognizing the right of that same ‘terrorist organization’ to conduct military drills!” Araghchi wrote.

The US designated the IRGC, an elite branch of the Iranian military, as a “terrorist” organisation in 2019, during Trump’s first term in office.

Araghchi added, “The presence of outside forces in our region has always caused the exact opposite of what is declared: promoting escalation instead of de-escalation”.

Reporting from the Iranian capital, Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said the situation remains “quite fragile and delicate” amid the US military buildup in the region.

Still, he said that Saturday’s statement by Larijani, the Iranian security official, about progress being made on efforts to hold negotiations was a “positive” sign.

“Diplomatic [efforts] are [on]going,” Asadi said, noting that senior Iranian officials have held talks with allies in recent days amid a push to prevent a confrontation between Washington and Tehran.

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met with Larajani in Tehran on Saturday to discuss “efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region”.

Sheikh Mohammed reiterated Qatar’s “support for all efforts aimed at reducing tensions and achieving peaceful solutions that enhance security and stability in the region”, the ministry said of the talks in a statement.

“He also stressed the need for concerted efforts to spare the peoples of the region the consequences of escalation and to continue coordination with brotherly and friendly countries to address differences through diplomatic means,” the statement added.

It all started with a direct US attack on Venezuela earlier this month.

Back then, US President Donald Trump made it clear that he was only interested in the country’s substantial oil reserves.

On Thursday, the government in Caracas announced a massive overhaul of the petroleum sector.

Venezuela’s interim president has signed a law easing state control and opening the door for private firms to invest in the country.

For many, it paves the way for US oil giants to return to Venezuela with significant investments.

But who will stand to gain from the changes, Venezuela or the United States? Or both?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests

Elias Ferrer – founder and director of Orinoco Research

Andrew Lipow – president of Lipow Oil Associates

Phil Gunson – senior analyst at the International Crisis Group

The Coordination Framework said that selecting a PM is an internal constitutional matter and should take place without foreign interference.

Iraq’s main Shia alliance, which holds a parliamentary majority, has reiterated its support for reinstating Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister, despite United States President Donald Trump threatening to end US support to the country.

The Coordination Framework said in a statement on Saturday that it “reiterates its support for its nominee, Nouri Kamel al-Maliki, for the premiership.”

“Choosing the prime minister is an exclusively Iraqi constitutional matter … free from foreign interference.”

Earlier this week, Trump warned Iraq that if al-Maliki were chosen as Iraq’s next prime minister, then Washington would withdraw support, the latest in a growing list of interventions in the politics of other nations made by Trump or members of his administration.

Al-Maliki rejected Trump’s threat on Wednesday in a post on X, condemning the “blatant American interference in Iraq’s internal affairs” and insisting that he would not withdraw his candidacy for the top job.

Trump has been running a campaign to curb the influence of Iran-linked groups in Iraq, which has long walked a tightrope between its two closest allies, Washington and Tehran.

Al-Maliki, 75, is a senior figure in the Shia Islamic Dawa Party. His tenure as prime minister from 2006 to 2014 was a period marked by a power struggle with Sunni and Kurdish rivals, accusations of corruption and growing tension with the US.

He stepped down after ISIL (ISIS) seized large parts of the country in 2014, but has remained an influential political player, leading the State of Law coalition and maintaining close ties with Iran-backed factions.

The US wields key leverage over Iraq, as the country’s oil export revenue is largely held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York in an arrangement reached after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The sight of Noni Madueke flying past defenders and putting dangerous crosses into the penalty area will have been a welcome sight for Mikel Arteta.

And Madueke’s performance in Arsenal‘s 4-0 hammering of Leeds will have been even more well received, given that he was drafted into the starting line-up minutes before kick-off after Bukayo Saka picked up a hip injury in the warm-up.

The 23-year-old created Martin Zubimendi’s opener, before seeing his corner punched into the Leeds net by goalkeeper Karl Darlow for the Gunners’ second, as Arteta’s men moved seven points clear at the Premier League summit.

Madueke was signed by Arsenal from Chelsea this summer – with some fans questioning the move – in a bid to strengthen their squad depth and provide cover should key man Saka pick up injuries.

And the England winger showed in his 60 minutes on the pitch just why the club made that decision.

Arteta said: “He was ready. Because you cannot do that in two minutes. The way he prepares, the way he’s waiting for opportunity, I think paid off today because he really impacted the team.”

While Arsenal are waiting for a diagnosis on the extent of Saka’s injury, Madueke will be hopeful he has earned another start for Tuesday’s EFL Cup semi-final second leg against former club Chelsea.

Saka and Madueke are also competing for a place for England as the summer’s World Cup approaches. So will the latter now get the chance to start staking his own claim?

“Noni Madueke was really good, especially when you come so late into the game,” former England midfielder Fara Williams told the BBC’s Final Score.

“It is an opportunity for him and he has performed well. When he went in at Arsenal and Saka got injured, he had an opportunity to get some games, then he got injured himself.

“When he has been playing for England, he has shown what he can do. He will be a headache for both managers, Mikel Arteta and Thomas Tuchel, in the summer.”

Ex-Manchester United striker Dion Dublin added on Final Score: “Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke are both internationals, and both doing an incredible job.

“Saka will likely start [for Arsenal and England] because he is the better of the two, and he is more consistent. But it is a great headache to have.”

Following United States forces’ abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a new set of questions is emerging as to how far Donald Trump is prepared to go in pushing US power abroad through direct intervention.

But is this a real break with past policy – or the latest iteration of the US’s longstanding interventionist power play in Latin America?

And with Cuba back in the administration’s sights, will Trump push for further action in the region?

This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive, Peter Kornbluh.

A judge in the United States has declined to order President Donald Trump’s administration to halt its immigration crackdown in Minnesota, amid mass protests over deadly shootings by federal agents in the US state.

US District Judge Kate Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed this month by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

She said state authorities made a strong showing that immigration agents’ tactics, including shootings and evidence of racial profiling, were having “profound and even heartbreaking consequences on the State of Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minnesotans”.

But Menendez wrote in her ruling that, “ultimately, the Court finds that the balance of harms does not decisively favor an injunction”.

The lawsuit seeks to block or rein in a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operation that sent thousands of immigration agents to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, sparking mass protests and leading to the killings of two US citizens by federal agents.

Tensions have soared since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good in her car on January 7.

Federal border agents also killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in the city on January 24, stoking more public anger and calls for accountability.

Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called “border czar”, told reporters earlier this week that the administration was working to make the immigration operation “safer, more efficient [and] by the book”.

But that has not stopped the demonstrations, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets of Minneapolis on Friday amid a nationwide strike to denounce the Trump administration’s crackdown.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from a memorial rally in Saint Paul on Saturday, city councillor Cheniqua Johnson said, “It feels more like the federal government is here to [lay] siege [to] Minnesota than to protect us.”

She said residents have said they are afraid to leave their homes to get groceries. “I’m receiving calls … from community members are struggling just to be able to do [everyday] things,” Johnson said.

“That’s why you’re seeing folks being willing to stand in Minnesota, in negative-degree weather, thousands of folks marching … in opposition to the injustice that we are seeing when law and order is not being upheld.”

Racial profiling accusations

In their lawsuit, Minnesota state and local officials have argued that the immigration crackdown amounts to retaliation after Washington’s initial attempts to withhold federal funding to try to force immigration cooperation failed.

They maintain that the surge has amounted to an unconstitutional drain on state and local resources, noting that schools and businesses have been shuttered in the wake of what local officials say are aggressive, poorly trained and armed federal officers.

Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, also has accused federal agents of racially profiling citizens, unlawfully detaining lawful residents for hours, and stoking fear with their heavy-handed tactics.

The Trump administration has said its operation is aimed at enforcing federal immigration laws as part of the president’s push to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history.

On Saturday, Menendez, the district court judge, said she was not making a final judgement on the state’s overall case in her decision not to issue a temporary restraining order, something that would follow arguments in court.

She also made no determination on whether the immigration crackdown in Minnesota had broken the law.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi called the judge’s decision a “HUGE” win for the Department of Justice.

“Neither sanctuary policies nor meritless litigation will stop the Trump Administration from enforcing federal law in Minnesota,” she wrote on X.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he was disappointed by the ruling.

“This decision doesn’t change what people here have lived through — fear, disruption, and harm caused by a federal operation that never belonged in Minneapolis in the first place,” Frey said in a statement.

“This operation has not brought public safety. It’s brought the opposite and has detracted from the order we need for a working city. It’s an invasion, and it needs to stop.”

Jan. 30 (UPI) — Frigid temperatures have delayed NASA’s preparations for its wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis II launch, the space agency announced Friday.

NASA was expected to begin the tanking operation Saturday night in preparation for a possible Feb. 6 or Feb. 7 launch date, but those “are no longer viable opportunities,” a release said.

The agency now expects to set Monday as the tanking day with an earliest possible launch set for Feb. 8 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Tanking operations involve loading propellants into a fuel tank near the launch pad. The outdoor temperature plays a crucial role in that process — it can’t be below 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 30 consecutive minutes. The overall average temperature must be above 41 degrees for the rehearsal and launch, WESH-TV in Orlando, Fla., reported.

AccuWeather forecasters said temperatures were expected to plummet this weekend to levels not seen since 1966 in some areas. Temperatures between 20 degrees to 30 degrees were expected Sunday morning in Cape Canaveral.

“Adjusting the timeline for the rest will position NASA for success during the rehearsal, as the expected weather this weekend would violate launch conditions,” a release from NASA said.

In the meantime, the Artemis II crew members are expected to stay in quarantine in Houston. The crew includes Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist.

Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed mission aboard its deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion spacecraft. It’s the second flight of the SLS and the first crewed mission near the moon since 1972.

Over 10 days, Artemis II will travel around the moon and back to Earth as the crew tests whether the spacecraft operates as it should in deep space. The long-term goal of the Artemis program is reestablish a human presence on the moon in preparation for the ultimate aim of putting a human on Mars.

NASA has shared a live stream of the launch pad on YouTube as it prepares for the wet dress rehearsal launch.

BUENO AIRES, Jan. 30 (UPI) — The Argentine government authorized private companies to import and sell liquefied natural gas — a move that removes the state from those operations and accelerates the privatization of Enarsa, the country’s public energy company.

The decision was formalized through a decree signed by President Javier Milei and published in the Official Gazette this week. The decree also extends through December 2027 a state of emergency in natural gas transportation and distribution, underscoring continued strain on the system.

Enarsa has historically handled production, transportation and marketing of oil, natural gas and electricity in Argentina. With the new policy, the government begins dismantling that role and shifting functions long overseen by the state to the private sector.

The decision addresses a long-standing structural problem. According to the Secretariat of Energy, Argentina lacks sufficient pipeline capacity to move all gas from producing areas to major urban centers.

That limitation becomes acute in winter. As heating demand rises, domestic supply falls short and the country must import liquefied natural gas by ship.

Until now, the state managed that process. Enarsa bought LNG on the international market at high prices and sold it domestically at well below cost, with the gap covered by taxpayer-funded subsidies.

“This change is part of the decision to move forward with privatizing Enarsa’s assets and activities and to remove the state from its role as an entrepreneur and intermediary in the energy market,” the Energy Secretariat said.

Officials said the state should focus on regulating the market, ensuring clear rules, promoting competition and guaranteeing supply rather than directly buying and selling gas.

Under the new framework, Enarsa will stop importing and marketing LNG, and private operators will take over under a competitive scheme.

The system eliminates the implicit subsidy that existed until now and transfers the entire operation to the private sector, subject to competition rules and state oversight.

To implement the plan, the government will sell access to the Escobar terminal on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It is the country’s only operational facility where imported LNG is regasified for distribution.

The Secretariat of Energy will set the tender conditions. If no bids are received or the process fails, Enarsa may intervene temporarily to avoid supply disruptions.

Because only one terminal is operating, the government also said it will set a maximum gas price for the upcoming winter to prevent abuse of a dominant position.

Juan José Carbajales, a former undersecretary of hydrocarbons, told UPI that privatization basically means giving a private company the job of buying LNG shipments and then selling that gas inside Argentina.

He said the operation is purely commercial and does not include physical management of the Escobar terminal.

“The scheme will be based on requests the awardee receives from power generators and gas distributors, and sales will be capped by a maximum price set by the Energy Secretariat at least for the next two periods,” Carbajales said.

He said the decision reflects the government’s view that the function failed under state management — a stance rooted in broader distrust of public-sector economic activity, in this case Enarsa.

He said the position is ideological and supported by the so-called Bases Law, which prioritizes private initiative in the economy.

The former official added that large budget allocations to Enarsa did not prove a system failure, but rather a political decision by successive administrations to channel residential gas subsidies by buying fuel at international prices and selling it domestically at far lower levels.

He said the measure also aligns with reforms in the electricity market aimed at gradually returning to a system of free contracting between supply and demand.

Carbajales warned gas prices in Argentina could rise if international conditions push LNG costs higher.

“Although the government will cap that value for two years, uncertainty will remain about what happens once the ceiling is lifted,” he said.

The authorization for private companies to import natural gas is part of a broader privatization agenda promoted by Milei. Since taking office in December 2023, his administration has moved to sell or prepare for sale several state-owned companies.

Ever since the crackdown on protests in Iran between January 8 and 10, there has been contention on what the true death toll of those bloody events is. According to figures provided by the Iranian government, 3,117 people were killed, including civilians and security forces. Yet estimates from outside the country have put the number at anywhere between 5,000 and a staggering 36,500.

This wide range not only reflects the fact that it has been extremely difficult to verify these reports, but also that there has been a concerted effort to use the death count to manufacture global consent for an attack on Iran and, in a deceitful rhetoric, downplay the official death toll of the genocide in Gaza.

Since the outbreak of the protests, there has been a race to estimate and report on the casualties – something I call a “Death Toll Olympics”.

Iran-focused human rights organisations led by dissident activists have been going through all sorts of evidence and testimonies to verify the number of the dead. As of writing this piece, the US-based organisation HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency) has cited more than 6,000 deaths and a further 17,000-plus cases under examination.

However, there are valid doubts about the speed of the activist-led verification process.

For every reported death, multiple accounts have to be examined, possible duplications must be identified and eliminated; and dates, locations and specific circumstances must be cross-checked against the timeline of events.

Furthermore, any visual evidence has to be localised and authenticated based on open-source data or corroborated by the accounts of multiple witnesses. From an investigative standpoint, the reliability and quality of activist-led counts that increase rapidly on a daily basis, therefore warrants caution.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, has cited a conservative estimate of around 5,000 deaths. At the same time, she has mentioned that unverified numbers of up to 20,000 have been reported to her by medical sources.

The described obstacles, and difficulties of verification over the past weeks, have been further exacerbated by Iran’s severely restricted internet access. Despite this, major media outlets have begun distributing much higher figures, solely based on vague anonymous sources who claim privileged access within Iran’s government or health sector.

On January 25, for example, UK-based TV network Iran International published a report claiming 36,500 were killed, citing “extensive reports” allegedly obtained from the Iranian security apparatus – reports it has neither published nor otherwise made transparent.

The same day, United States news magazine Time published an article titled “Iran Protest Death Toll Could Top 30,000, According to Local Health Officials”. It claimed that “as many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone” based on the accounts of two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health, whose identities were not revealed for security reasons. Notably, the magazine admitted in the text that it did not possess any means to independently confirm that number.

Two days later, British newspaper The Guardian followed the same trend with an article titled “Disappeared bodies, mass burials and ‘30,000 dead’: what is the truth of Iran’s death toll?” The piece introduced the figure of 30,000 based on estimates of an anonymous doctor, who spoke to the newspaper. He and his colleagues in Iran, the outlet admitted, were actually hesitant to provide a concrete figure.

Other media – from the Sunday Times to the Pierce Morgan Uncensored show – have cited papers circulated by Germany-based ophthalmologist Amir Parasta claiming death toll numbers between 16,500 and 33,000. However, the latest available version of the paper, dating back to January 23 uses disputable extrapolation methods to reach its figures. Strikingly, Parasta does not make any secret of his affiliation with Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s ousted Shah

The exiled crown prince and his team, whose extensive social media manipulation and disinformation efforts have been exposed by recent investigations by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and University of Toronto’s The Citizen Lab, have been key actors in inciting and escalating the recent protests towards confrontation. Accordingly, the fatality numbers disseminated by Mr Parasta cannot be perceived as neutral and constitute partisan estimates at best.

Despite acknowledging their own inability to verify these estimates, the media in question nevertheless put these extreme figures in titles and subheadings. It didn’t take long for other outlets to report on these inflated numbers, referring to these major publications as primary sources. Activists and Western politicians have also used them to push their respective agendas, thereby further fuelling a spiral of disinformation campaigns on social media. – In other words, a “death toll olympics” was born.

All of this has served two ends.

First, it has supported efforts to manufacture consent for foreign military intervention and malicious political action. While the protests were still ongoing, US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Iran in the event of a deadly crackdown. As of writing these lines, there has been a significant US military build-up around Iran, effectively thickening the war cloud.

Second, the speculation about the Iranian death toll has helped pro-Israel politicians and commentators in the West to downplay the casualties of the Israeli war on Gaza. In this way, it has become a utilitarian tool for relativising the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Confronted with mounting pressure regarding the death toll, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered the authorities to “publicly publish the names and personal data of those deceased during the recent bitter incidents”. His director of communication has even promised that a procedure has been set up to examine and verify any conflicting claims.

It remains to be seen how effective and transparent the promised procedure will turn out. It is undeniable that thousands have been killed in Iran, mostly by Iranian security forces, amid a multi-day brutal crowd and riot control effort.

Structural obscurity and the restricted access to Iran for independent experts will likely mean that the exact death toll will never be determined. However, the more transparency can be established regarding the scale of the killings, the more likely it is that the perpetrators can be held accountable.

An arduous verification process of the recent deaths is crucial not only for the sake of accountability, but also to expose the media manipulation that is once again preparing the ground for a unilateral US-led act of aggression in the Middle East. In light of this, the “Death Toll Olympics” remains an ignominious disservice to the wretched of the Earth from Palestine to Iran.

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

Jan. 30 (UPI) — Six British ministers of Parliament, including two peers, no longer are sanctioned by China, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Friday.

Starmer confirmed the sanctions — imposed over criticisms of China’s treatment of its Muslim-minority Uyghur population — immediately were lifted amid warming relations between China and Britain. He made the announcement during a diplomatic trip to Beijing.

“I raised that issue whilst I was here,” Starmer said while interviewed in China. “The Chinese are absolutely clear in their response: The restrictions no longer apply.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping said all British members of Parliament were welcome in China, Starmer told the BBC.

The sanctions included a now-lifted travel ban. Starmer said their removal affirms the effectiveness of his diplomatic approach to the matter.

The prime minister also said he hopes Xi will attend the 2027 G20 summit scheduled to take place in Britain.

China imposed the sanctions on nine Britons, including five Conservative Party ministers and two members of the House of Lords, in 2021 after they raised concerns about human rights violations by China against Uyghurs, a Muslim population in northwest China.

China’s population is more than 90% Han, while Uyghurs account for less than 1% of its people.

The affected MPs and peers said they find “no comfort” in the lifting of sanctions.

Sanctions remain in place for others, and the ministers said they “will not be silenced” on the matter.

China has pressured foreign governments to forcibly return Uyghurs and others to China, “where they are subject to torture and enforced disappearances,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March.

Local fire official says gas leak likely caused blast that ripped through residential building in Iranian port city.

An explosion that rocked a residential building in the Iranian port city Bandar Abbas was likely caused by a gas leak, the local head of the fire department told Iranian media.

The Bandar Abbas fire chief said residents were evacuated from the building in the city’s Moallem Boulevard area, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

“The initial cause of the building accident in Bandar Abbas was a gas leak and buildup, leading to an explosion. This is the initial theory,” fire chief Mohammad Amin Lyaghat said in comments broadcast on state television later.

The exact number of casualties was also not immediately clear.

Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the head of crisis management in Hormozgan province, where Bandar Abbas is located, was quoted by the IRNA news agency as saying wounded people were being transferred to hospital, without reporting any deaths.

The Reuters news agency reported that a local official told Iranian news agencies that at least one person was killed and 14 others wounded. Al Jazeera could not independently verify that information.

State television said the explosion occurred at an eight-storey building, “destroying two floors, several vehicles, and shops” in the area.

Images carried by Press TV showed the building’s facade blown out, exposing parts of its interior, with debris scattered around.

The explosion took place amid soaring tensions between Iran and the United States and fears of a military confrontation between the two countries.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over a recent crackdown on antigovernment protests and Washington’s push to curtail the Iranian nuclear programme.

After rumours circulated online about the Bandar Abbas explosion, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any of the buildings belonging to its naval forces in the province had been targeted, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

Bandar Abbas, home to Iran’s most important container port, lies on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between Iran and Oman that handles about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil.

The port suffered a major explosion in April of last year that killed dozens of people and injured more than 1,000 others.

Separately on Saturday, four people were killed in a gas explosion in the city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border, according to the state-run Tehran Times.

Crews had begun clearing the debris from that blast to rescue those trapped under the rubble, Press TV reported.

Crans-Montana event was cancelled after Linsey Vonn was third of first six skiers to crash, but race was deemed safe.

Lindsey Vonn crashed out of a World Cup downhill on Friday that was hazardous to her Olympic medal hopes, though judged safe by race officials and team coaches.

Safe, it was agreed, at the place and exact time that Vonn lost control when landing a jump and spun into an awkward slide into the safety nets, injuring her left knee.

“It was probably good light in the spot where she completely missed the line and did the mistake,” World Cup race director Peter Gerdol said.

Gerdol spoke after the late-afternoon meeting of race and team leaders to debrief the day and detail the next morning’s schedule.

At the meeting in Crans-Montana – starting minutes after Vonn posted on social media her Olympic downhill dream next weekend was alive – a broad agreement was that the race had been safe. Some objected to it being cancelled at all.

About 25 minutes after Vonn crashed as the No 6 starter, with the race still paused, Gerdol and the race jury called it off for safety reasons.

“I feel for those guys, they have a tough job,” United States head coach Paul Kristofic said.

By 10:50am local time on an overcast day in the Swiss Alps, the light had dimmed since the 10am start and was forecast to get worse. It did.

The race may have seemed unsafe because three of the six starters failed to finish, and even leader Jacqueline Wiles barely made a tight final turn that caused one crash.

Still, the Austria coach said his racer Nina Ortlieb’s exit as the first starter, at the same spot as Vonn, was caused by a poor racing line, not poor light.

Roland Assinger later said racing had been much safer than two weeks ago at Tarvisio, Italy, where the women went “110 kilometres an hour (70 miles per hour) through the fog where you can see nothing”.

Assinger’s view echoed the view of Vonn’s teammate, Breezy Johnson, who was caught swearing on a television hot mic while chatting with racers in the warmup area when the cancellation news came.

World champion Johnson recalled the “(expletive) rain in Tarvisio” and added: “Then they are like ‘This is too bad a visibility.’ Like, what the …” Johnson later apologised for her choice of words in a social media post.

Swiss TV commentator Patrice Morisod, who had chuckled on air hearing Johnson’s words live, later said: “If we cancel such a race then we don’t have ski sport.”

What Gerdol and Morisod agreed on was disliking the tight turns into the finish line that sent Norwegian racer Marte Monsen into the fences and almost tricked Wiles.

“It’s not downhill,” Morisod said. “For me, that’s a big mistake for the FIS.”

Gerdol told the coaches’ meeting that the course design will be reviewed before the two-week world championships Crans-Montana will stage in one year.

“In view of the championships next year, we will definitely work on this,” the race director acknowledged.

The 2027 world seems far away when the Milan Cortina Olympics open next Friday, and the marquee women’s downhill is scheduled two days later.

Vonn faces a race to be fully fit for the Olympics she targeted in her remarkable comeback as the fastest 40-something in women’s ski race history.

She might even return on Saturday to start in a super-G on the same hill. “The coach just said he left her on the start list,” Gerdol said, “because he thinks that it could be (possible). Some of the athletes always want to race; this is clear, it is their job.”

New York venue Madison Square Gardens issues warning before Teofimo Lopez vs Shakur Stevenson and Knicks vs Lakers bill.

Madison Square Garden says anyone fighting at the arena threatens to be “banned for life” after there were multiple altercations at one of its events.

Video on TMZ.com showed two fights breaking out on Friday, when fighters weighed in for the boxing card Saturday night headlined by Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson. One of the videos showed a brawl starting as Bill Haney, father of boxer Devin Haney, was conducting an interview near the stage.

“Violence will not be condoned at MSG across any type of event including, hockey, basketball, boxing, concerts, or special events,” Madison Square Garden said in a statement. “If any individual is found to participate in violent activity, whether you are part of the event, or a patron, you will be banned for life and unable to attend or participate in any event across all our venues.”

The news conference Thursday for the title fight between Lopez and Stevenson became heated as the fighters on stage traded insults about family members, with people in the audience also shouting.

There was also an altercation near the cage on November 15, when MSG hosted UFC 322.

The warning comes before a busy weekend at the arena. Organisers said the boxing event is sold out, and on Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers visit the Knicks for a nationally televised game that could be LeBron James’s final one at the arena.