From Ryan Kartje: At the bitter end of a brutal January, Kennedy Smith put her head down, determined to will her way to the hoop. All month long, USC faded in the most unfortunate moments, letting games get away from them. There was the 16-point lead lost in Ann Arbor. The frustrating final five minutes against Oregon. The seven fourth-quarter turnovers at Minnesota. And so on.
The Trojans had lost six of their last seven entering Thursday, not far from the worst stretch of Lindsay Gottlieb’s tenure as coach. But as No. 8 Iowa climbed back in the third quarter, threatening to add another defeat to that list, Smith, the Trojans’ emotional leader, took matters into her hands.
She drove once, then again, then again. Four times in a matter of two minutes, the relentless Smith attacked the hoop, carrying the weight of USC’s weeks-long slump on her shoulders as she did. When she finally let up, the Trojans were well out in front again, rolling from there to an 81-69 victory.
The Hawkeyes (18-3 overall, 9-1 Big Ten) had not lost in Big Ten play coming into Thursday, while Gottlieb’s Trojans had struggled to find a foothold in the conference. But it all finally came together at Galen Center in what was arguably USC’s best game to date, an upset that could turn the tide of the Trojans’ season.
Gottlieb said after the game that she felt a single win like Thursday’s could spark a turnaround.
Nevertheless, she said, “right now, this was really, really needed.”
From Broderick Turner: The Lakers have upgraded guard Austin Reaves (left calf strain) to questionable from out and listed guard Luka Doncic (left ankle soreness) as questionable for Friday night’s game against the Washington Wizards.
Reaves has been out since getting injured on Christmas Day against the Houston Rockets, a span of 17 games.
In 23 games this season, Reaves is averaging career highs in points (26.6), assists (6.3) and rebounds (5.2). Reaves is shooting 50.7% from the field and 36.5% from three-point range.
Alex Tuch had his fourth career hat trick to push his season goals total to 22, leading the surging Buffalo Sabres to a 4-1 victory over the Kings on Thursday night.
Alex Lyon made a season-high 37 saves for his 10th consecutive victory to break the franchise record set by Gerry Desjardins in December 1976.
Tuch reached the 20-goal mark for the fourth straight season and fifth overall. Mattias Samuelsson also scored to help the Sabres win for the 20 time in 24 games.
Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings, and Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves. The Kings had won three straight games and earned points in six in a row.
Nikita Tolopilo made 32 saves, Drew O’Connor opened the scoring with 9:42 left and the Vancouver Canucks beat the Ducks 2-0 on Thursday night.
Tolopilo was denied his first NHL shutout after missing the first 2:11 of the second period because of concussion protocol after he was run over by Ryan Poehling late in the first period.
Lukas Dostal made 24 saves for the Ducks (28-23-3).
On Jan. 23, Swiss Federal Supreme Court sent the U.S. gymnast’s case back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to re-examine the matter “on the basis of an audio-visual recording” that could provide evidence in Chiles’ favor, the court said Thursday in a news release.
“The Federal Supreme Court acknowledged that this new evidence may justify a modification of the contested award,” Switzerland’s highest court stated. “It referred the case back to the CAS for it to re-examine the situation, taking this new evidence into account.”
From Gary Klein: Sean McVay did not waste any time attempting to address the Rams’ problematic special teams going into next season.
The Rams hired Raymond “Bubba” Ventrone as their special teams coordinator, a person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. The person requested anonymity because the hiring has not been announced.
Ventrone, a former NFL player, was the Cleveland Browns special teams coordinator the last three seasons. He also has been a coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts, and coached for the New England Patriots.
Sunday, Feb. 8 at Santa Clara Seattle vs. New England 3:30 p.m. PT, NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, KLAC AM 570 Halftime show: Bad Bunny National anthem: Charlie Puth Odds: Seahawks favored by 4.5 points Over/Under: 45.5 points
This day in sports history
1926 — The major league rules committee mandates that pitchers must have access to a rosin bag.
1971 — UCLA starts its 88-game winning streak with a 74-61 win over UC Santa Barbara.
1983 — John Riggins rushes for a Super Bowl-record 166 yards in 38 carries to spark the Washington Redskins to a comeback 27-17 victory over the Miami Dolphins. For Riggins, the game’s MVP, it’s his fourth consecutive 100-yard rushing game during the playoffs, also a record.
1992 — Jockey Mike Smith wins six races in one day at Aqueduct for the second time in the month. His first six-winner day at Aqueduct was on Jan. 13.
1993 — Monica Seles beats Steffi Graf 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to capture her third straight Australian Open.
1994 — The Dallas Cowboys, behind MVP Emmitt Smith and safety James Washington, beat Buffalo 30-13 for their second straight NFL title while giving the Bills four straight Super Bowl losses.
1996 — Magic Johnson finishes with 19 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the Lakers’ 128-118 victory over Golden State. It is Johnson’s first regular-season game back from a 4 1/2-season retirement.
1999 — Martina Hingis wins her fifth Grand Slam title and third straight Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over France’s Amelie Mauresmo.
2001 — Daron Rahlves wins the super giant slalom, the first American to capture the event at the world championships.
2002 — Utah’s Karl Malone becomes second player in NBA history to register 34,000 points by scoring 18 in a 90-78 win over Chicago at the Delta Center; trails only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points).
2006 — Teemu Selanne scores two goals for his 1,000th point in the Ducks’ 4-3 overtime victory over the Kings.
2010 — Serena Williams ends Justine Henin’s hopes of a Grand Slam title in her return from retirement with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory in the Australian Open final.
2011 — MVP DeAngelo Hall has one of his team’s five interceptions and returns a fumble 34 yards for a touchdown to help the NFC match a Pro Bowl scoring record in a 55-41 victory over the AFC. AFC quarterbacks Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning and Matt Cassel each throw first-half interceptions to help the NFC open a 42-0 lead.
2011 — Loui Eriksson’s second goal, an empty-netter at 18:49 of the third period, helps seal an 11-10 victory for Team Lidstrom against Team Staal in the NHL All-Star Game.
2015 — The Phoenix Open continues without Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The biggest shock is Woods, who bogeys on his last hole for an 82, the worst score in his two decades as a pro. Mickelson shoots 76 and misses the cut by two shots.
2016 — Angelique Kerber upsets Serena Williams 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open title, ending the six-time champion’s unbeaten streak in finals at Melbourne Park.
2018 — Houston guard James Harden puts up highest scoring triple-double in NBA history (60 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) as the Rockets beat Orlando Magic, 114-107 in Houston.
2022 — Australian Open Men’s Tennis: Rafael Nadal wins record 21st Grand Slam singles title with an epic 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 win over Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
South Korea’s KOSPI index closed at a record high on Friday, as seen on a board at the dealing room of Woori Bank in Seoul. Photo by Yonhap
South Korean stocks closed a tad higher Friday to extend their winning streak to a fourth session to a new record high as investors scooped of artificial intelligence (AI) shares despite concerns over a bubble. The local currency fell against the greenback.
The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) inched up 3.11 points, or 0.06 percent, to close at 5,224.3, after rising as high as to 5,321.68.
Trade volume was heavy at 852 million shares worth 34.7 trillion won (US$24.1 billion). Losers outnumbered winners 602 to 278.
Individuals bought a net 2.2 trillion won, while foreigners sold a net 1.9 trillion won. Institutions sold a net 425 billion won.
Investors continued to purchase tech shares despite concerns over a bubble, as their performance has already been proven for robust earnings amid the AI cycle.
“For the time being, AI hardware and software companies need to overcome concerns over their profitability,” Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said.
“During the period, the market’s preference for chipmakers that sell memory products to such companies will remain strong,” Han added.
The market advance was limited after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to raise “reciprocal” tariffs and auto duties on South Korea back to 25 percent this week.
Top-cap Samsung Electronics edged down 0.12 percent to 160,500 won, while SK hynix set a fresh high at 909,000 won, up 5.57 percent.
Brokerage houses closed bullish amid the market rally, with Mirae Asset Securities rising 4.65 percent to 42,750 won and Kiwoom Securities increasing 4.11 percent to 443,500 won.
Top mobile carrier SK Telecom rose 4.32 percent to 72,500 won on the back of improved business outlook, and its rival KT added 1.43 percent to 56,900 won.
Samsung SDI rose 0.52 percent as the company said it has won a battery supply contract without disclosing details, with the deal widely believed to be related to Tesla Inc.’s energy storage system business.
The Korean won was quoted at 1,439.5 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 13.2 won from the previous session’s close.
Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed lower. The yield on three-year Treasurys rose 3.2 basis points to 3.138 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds added 4.1 basis points to 3.436 percent.
Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.
Regulator launches investigation into US gaming platform over potential risks to underage users in the EU.
Published On 30 Jan 202630 Jan 2026
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The Dutch consumer watchdog has launched an investigation into Roblox to see if the popular online gaming system is doing enough to protect children from exposure to violent and sexual imagery.
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) said on Friday its probe would examine “potential risks to underage users in the EU” and would likely last about one year.
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“The platform regularly makes the news, for example, due to concerns about violent or sexually explicit games that minors are exposed to,” the ACM said in a statement.
Other concerns include reports of “ill-intentioned” adults targeting children on the platform and the use of misleading techniques to encourage purchases.
The ACM said that, having received reports of such allegations, it “considers this sufficient reason to launch a formal investigation into possible violations of the rules by Roblox”.
New measures
Under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), platforms must take “appropriate and proportionate measures” to ensure a high level of safety and privacy for minors.
The ACM said it could impose a “binding instruction, fine, or penalty” on Roblox if it concludes the rules have been broken.
In 2024, the ACM slapped a 1.1-million-euro ($1.2m) fine on Fortnite maker Epic Games, judging that vulnerable children were exploited and pressured into making purchases in the game’s Item Shop.
A Roblox spokesperson said the company is “strongly committed to complying with the EU Digital Services Act” and referred to the gaming platform’s announcement last November that it would require age verification via facial recognition to limit communication between children and adults.
“We look forward to providing the ACM with further clarity on the many policies and safeguards we have in place to protect minors,” the spokesperson said.
The Night Manager season 2 star Indira Varma has shared some devastating news on social media
BBC The Night Manager star shares devastating news as co-stars send support(Image: BBC)
A Night Manager star has shared some devastating news, with her co-stars sending their support. 52-year-old actress Indira Varma is currently portraying villain Mayra Cavendish in the popular BBC spy thriller’s second series.
Just days before the eagerly awaited finale broadcasts, the star revealed some heartbreaking news following the death of her mother. Taking to Instagram on Wednesday (January 28), Indira shared multiple photographs of her beloved mum throughout the years, accompanied by a moving tribute.
She wrote: “My dear eccentric Mama has gone at the age of 93. Everything she lived for was Art and adventure. She created for the love of doing not for recognition just for joy. My parents met in the 60s when mixed relationships were frowned upon.
“They didn’t care what other people thought. Life is to be lived with love and joy. Fear is the only thing that makes us hate. That’s it. I’m now an orphan. I miss their tempestuous interactions in a shared 3rd language and how they communicated through music, art, food, travel and Nature,” reports the Express.
Citing Nobel Peace Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, Indira concluded: “I came to your shore as a stranger, I lived in your house as a guest, I leave your door as a friend, my earth.”
Several of Indira’s famous friends and co-stars flooded the comments with messages of support, including Grey’s Anatomy star Kevin McKidd, who wrote: “I’m so sorry for your loss Indira. Sending much love to you today.”
Ex-Coronation Street actress Millie Gibson commented: “So much love. Thinking of you,” whilst Ariana DeBose and Aimee Lou Wood posted multiple heart and dove emojis.
Countryfile presenter Anita Rani also wrote: “Sending you all my love darling. What a beautiful photo,” with Richard Armitage responding: “Sending my love and condolences to you and your family Indy. What an incredible life your mama had.”
Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies expressed similar sentiments, posting: “I’m so sorry, lots of love darling,” whilst Celebrity Traitors star Mark Bonnar said: “Oh Indira I’m so sorry – what an amazing photo.”
This news comes just days before The Night Manager’s highly anticipated second series finale. The continuation of the acclaimed spy drama sees undercover operative Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) infiltrate the criminal enterprise of Colombian tycoon Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva).
Viewers subsequently discovered that Teddy was actually the son of series one antagonist Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Furthermore, the illegal weapons trafficker was shown to have staged his own death, aided by Indira’s character Mayra – head of the Secret Intelligence Service.
Jonathan and Richard, aka Gilberto Hanson, were at last reunited last week, with the MI6 operative hell-bent on dismantling Richard’s criminal enterprise. He subsequently won Teddy’s allegiance after exposing Richard’s intention to cast aside his illegitimate son upon achieving his objectives.
The official synopsis for the finale states: “Pine works with Teddy to bring down Gilberto Hanson’s Colombia coup from the inside. But Hanson has found a new ally of his own. It’s winner takes all.”
Can Jonathan finally defeat Richard for good? That remains to be seen. What we do know is that the drama will return for another series, following lead actor Tom’s confirmation of the show’s renewal earlier this week.
The final episode of The Night Manager season two will air on Sunday (February 1) at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
Bobb has fallen down the pecking order at City after the January arrival of Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth.
“I know there are rumours, I know there are talks,” manager Pep Guardiola said on Saturday after City’s win over Wolves.
Asked if Bobb wants to leave the club, Guardiola replied: “I think so.”
Bobb, who has also had interest from Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, has featured 15 times for City this season without scoring.
He last played on 17 December against Brentford in the Carabao Cup, when he hobbled off injured inside the opening 20 minutes.
Fulham have lost only one of their last seven Premier League games under Silva and sit seventh in the table following their 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday.
Bobb has featured six times for Norway this year, helping them qualify for this summer’s World Cup, and would unite with compatriot Sander Berge at Craven Cottage.
He missed almost the whole of last season after fracturing a bone in his leg during training in August 2024.
What ranks as a safety concern in cricket? As the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup gets under way, Samantha Johnson looks at how the IPL exclusion of one Bangladeshi player led to an entire country exiting the tournament, and whether there are signs of a double standard.
Two people are reported killed in a drone strike at Maghazi camp in central Gaza while three others die in Rafah.
Published On 30 Jan 202630 Jan 2026
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Israeli shelling and drone strikes across Gaza have killed at least five people and injured 11 others, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials.
The deadly strikes on Friday in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp and the southern city of Rafah came as Israel carried out continued targeted operations in the besieged territory, despite the ongoing ceasefire.
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Two Palestinian men were killed in Maghazi after they were targeted in a drone strike, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
In Rafah, Israeli forces said in a statement that the air force had killed three “terrorists” as a group of eight had emerged from an underground location.
They said that further strikes were launched and that “soldiers continue to conduct searches in the area in order to locate and eliminate” the remaining people
Also in Rafah, Israeli naval gunboats pursued fishing boats and opened heavy machinegun fire on fishermen off the coast, according to Wafa. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The al-Mawasi refugee camp in Khan Younis, designated a ‘humanitarian zone’ by Israel, was hit by an Israeli strike on Friday [Bashar Taleb/AFP]
Rafah is the location of a strategic border crossing to Egypt. It is the only passage between the Gaza Strip and the outside world that does not lead to Israel, and is a vital conduit for humanitarian aid.
Palestinian authorities have demanded the immediate reopening of the Rafah crossing, a stipulation of the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, saying the continued blockade has prevented the entry of necessary supplies for the tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the area.
Elsewhere in southern Gaza, six Palestinians were injured after Israeli forces shelled a tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, just west of Khan Younis, sources from al-Helal field hospital and Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Hani al-Shaer.
Anadolu news agency reported that a pregnant woman was among those injured in the attack.
Israeli strikes and operations have killed at least 492 Palestinians and injured 1,356 since the ceasefire came into force in October, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza.
The US-brokered ceasefire, which sought to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas since October 7, 2023, has been in place for more than three months. Both sides accuse each other of repeated violations.
Earlier in January, Washington announced that the ceasefire had progressed to its second phase, intended to bring a definitive end to the war. However, signs of progress on the ground remain scant.
On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the need to fully implement the ceasefire agreement, including the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
However, the Israeli military has said its forces “remain deployed in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat”.
1 of 4 | Scientists from the University of California at Berkeley are using the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope in China to check out a final batch of 100 candidate “ET” radio signals detected through the “SETI@home” program. File Photo by STR/EPA
ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 30 (UPI) — One of the longest-running searches for extraterrestrial life is coming to end this year as U.S. scientists wrap up a popular program that enlisted millions of home computer users to analyze radio signals received from space.
After years poring through immense amounts of generated data, the program’s co-founders at the University of California at Berkeley told UPI this week they are probing 100 detected signals deemed to be the best candidates for messages from “ET” before the effort is wrapped up for good, 27 years after it was launched.
But even though the “SETI@home” project has so far failed to record a “first contact” from an alien civilization, its leaders say valuable lessons have been learned that can be applied to the continuing hunt for beyond Earth.
SETI@home, short for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, was launched in 1999 by scientists at UC Berkeley who over the course of two-plus decades enlisted more than 5 million “crowdsourced” volunteers willing to donate their home computers’ processing capacity to analyze data generated by momentary energy blips picked up by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
It was one of the pioneering efforts at distributed computing in an era before supercomputers and high-speed Internet connections. Under the project, home users downloaded and installed free software that could pick out signals deemed to be “ET” candidates from raw data supplied by the 1,000-foot radio telescope at Arecibo, which collapsed in 2020
The observatory was damaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and rebuilt, but it met its end a little more than three years later because filled spelter sockets that anchored the massive support cables had been undergoing long-term chemical and mechanical degradation.
The data was collected over a period of 14 years and covered almost the entire sky visible to the telescope as its operators performed other tasks, such as mapping solar system bodies and discovering pulsars.
From its data, the home computer users ultimately produced 12 billion detections. The vast majority turned out to be radio frequency interference from man-made sources, such as satellites and earthbound radio and television broadcasts, but researchers for years continued to doggedly plow through the possibilities.
Billions of “candidate” radio signals narrowed to final 100
Project co-founder David Anderson of UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory said he and his team spent a decade narrowing down that massive list to 1 million candidates and then to a final 100, which are now being investigated using China’s 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, also known as FAST, in hopes of finding them again.
And after that’s completed, the long-running program will officially be a wrap, in part because it has now reached point of diminishing scientific returns.
“The output of the first two phases of SETI@home were millions of what we call signal candidates, which are basically collections of momentary bursts of energy from the same place in the sky at about the same frequency, but possibly spread over many years,” Anderson told UPI.
“And of course, there was a lot of work involved in removing the man-made interference from from these things and ranking them, because at some point we had to go through them and manually inspect the signal candidates to get rid of the ones that are obviously interference.
“A lot of that we could do by using computer algorithms we developed, but in the end, we had to look at these signals ourselves.”
To guide the development of those algorithms, Anderson and his team used artificial candidates, or “birdies,” that modeled persistent ET signals within a range of power and bandwidth parameters. The birdies were introduced blindly, allowing the team to gauge how sensitive their detection system was.
The only reason they were able to generate the initial billions of candidate signals was due to the small processors provided the home-based volunteers, whose response at the start of effort in the late ’90s was overwhelming, Anderson said.
“Whether there is extraterrestrial life is kind of the most important unanswered scientific question at this point, and so I think we knew that we’d get some users,” he said. “We banked on, I think, 50,000 people initially, which we thought we’d need to keep up with the stream of data from Arecibo.
“We got a lot of national media coverage at right at the beginning, and within the first year we had close to 1 million participants. We actually had to scramble to figure out ways to use that surplus of computing power effectively.”
UC Berkeley research astronomer Eric Korpela, another co-founder of the program, said he felt a keen “sense of accomplishment” with SETI@home, both in the sense of technical achievements — such as in vastly increasing the sensitivity of signal detection over existing spectroscopic methods — and in how it demonstrated the intensity of worldwide public interest in the search for ET.
“We encountered a lot of resistance from the SETI community when we first started started this,” he told UPI. “Whenever you start a project with a large public-facing component, there’s always the fear in a lot of peoples’ minds that you are going to do something wrong and you’re going to turn people off the entire field.
“But, of course, I think that wasn’t the case. Instead, this really engaged the public imagination, and I don’t think that we’re necessarily done with that. Someone could again tap into that sense of fascination that people have about the search for extraterrestrial life.”
Many people still want to have a connection to this sort of science, Korpela said, adding, “I think that is really a large part of our legacy.”
Others praise, assess impact of SETI@home
Other researchers and organizations deeply involved in the search for extraterrestrial life also praised the accomplishments and legacy of SETI@home as it wraps up its mission.
One of them is the National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, trailblazers in radio astronomy and operators of Breakthrough Listen, described as the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of civilizations beyond Earth.
Observatory public information officer Jill Malusky noted that her organization and UC Berkeley’s SETI Research Center worked together on SETI@home, and that its winding down won’t sever that relationship.
“The NSF NRAO/GBO are big supporters of citizen science projects, and we’re excited about the impact of SETI@home’s legacy through the tireless work of its volunteers, and for the public recognition SETI can bring to efforts like these,” she told UPI.
“The search for techno-signatures and extraterrestrial life is a very exciting part of the scientific research that the NSF NRAO’s telescopes can do — and it’s one of the accessible areas for the public to understand.”
Most staffers who work at the West Virginia observatories were drawn there “by the same curiosity we all have when we look up at the universe — are we the only ones here? Is anyone else out there?” she said.
“While what we find with our telescopes may not be as dramatic as we hope, like a sci-fi movie, it’s still exciting to have our work overlap with the search.”
Similarly, prominent astrobiologist and SETI researcher Douglas Vakoch said SETI@home revolutionized the search for life in the universe by solving one of the greatest challenges of looking for intelligence in space, and that by doing so “directly inspired a new generation of researchers who are attempting first contact by sending powerful radio messages to the stars.”
Vakoch is president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to messaging extraterrestrial intelligence, and editor of many academic works in several fields.
He told UPI that SETI@home was a breakthrough in that it was able to combine “mainstream astronomy” with the search for extraterrestrials, which researchers must “constantly struggle to justify” as they seek precious telescope time.
“With SETI@home, scientists did both,” Vakoch said. “As astronomers pointed the Arecibo radio telescope at targets of their choice, SETI@home also analyzed the incoming data, but this time for signals that can’t be created by nature. SETI@home was designed so scientists could conduct mainstream astronomy and simultaneously determine whether we’re alone in the universe.”
in that way, instead of becoming an obstacle to astronomers seeking time on the world’s largest radio telescope, SETI@home “helped foster public support and recognition for space science.”
Its greatest legacy, he said, is that it is now “guiding the next generation of interstellar communication,” including Vakoch’s own METI project, which rather than listening for radio signals from space as SETI does, reverses the process by sending powerful radio signals to nearby stars in the hope of eliciting a response from an advanced civilization.
Despite thus far coming away empty-handed in the search for ET, the SETI@home project nonetheless provided many valuable insights, Anderson said.
“It was a ‘whole sky’ project that covered the everything visible from Arecibo, and there’s there’s a lot of technical things that we did, some of which were right and others we would do differently if we had to go back,” he said.
“So we learned a lot of lessons about how to do radio astronomy, and we published two papers last year describing them.”
He added that the powerful distributed computing system established for SETI@home can be used in the future for research in related areas such as cosmology and pulsars, or even for medical research.
Carlos Alcaraz becomes the youngest man to reach all four slam finals and can now become youngest to win all four.
Carlos Alcaraz overcame cramps and injury to fend off Alexander Zverev in an epic, momentum-swinging five-setter to become the youngest man in the Open era to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam events.
At 22, he’s aiming to be the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam.
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He reached his first Australian Open final the hard way, winning 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5 in 5 hours, 27 minutes on Friday.
That’s despite being two points away in the third set from a semifinal victory in a tournament where he hadn’t dropped a set through five rounds.
He was behind in the fifth set after dropping the first game and didn’t break back until Zverev was serving for the match in the 10th.
Alcaraz will next face either two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner or 10-time Australian Open titlist Novak Djokovic, who is bidding for an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam singles title. The long afternoon match delayed the start of the night’s semifinal.
The top-ranked Alcaraz was leading by two sets and appeared to be in the kind of form that won him the US Open last year and has helped him evenly split the last eight majors with Sinner.
But in the ninth game of the third, he started limping and appeared to be struggling with an upper right leg problem. After holding for 5-4, he took a medical timeout in the changeover. It may have been cramp, but he rubbed the inside of his right thigh and called for the trainer, who also massaged the same area.
Zverev was demonstrably upset, talking with a tournament official, when his rival was given the three-minute break for treatment.
Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz receives medical attention during his semifinal match against Germany’s Alexander Zverev [Jaimi Joy/Reuters]
Even with his limited footwork, Alcaraz was able to hit winners and get to 6-5 before the trainer returned in the changeover to massage the area again.
When he went back out, the crowd gave him rousing support. Zverev served a double-fault to open the next game, and Alcaraz lobbed and then slapped a forehand winner down the line to get to 0-30. But Zverev won four straight points to force the tiebreaker and then win it.
No 3 Zverev, the 2025 runner-up, retained his composure despite Alcaraz’s obvious discomfort on the other side of the net, and the crowd on Rod Laver Arena firmly behind the Spaniard.
He was in front for the entire fourth set, but Alcaraz stayed with him, until Zverev again took charge in the tiebreaker. More than four hours had elapsed when the match went to a fifth set, the first five-setter on the centre court in the 2026 tournament.
Alcaraz dropped serve in the opening game of the fifth set but hung with Zverev, getting five breakpoint chances without being able to convert.
The drama lifted in the sixth game, when Alcaraz sprinted across court to track down a drop shot and slid at full pace for an angled forehand winner. The crowd went crazy.
Alcaraz finally converted the break when Zverev was serving for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set.
He held for 6-5 and converted his first match point when Zverev was serving to stay in the match.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that he expects the United States to respect the country’s sovereignty after reports that Alberta separatists have met several times with officials of the Donald Trump administration.
The Financial Times reported that US State Department officials held meetings with the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a group calling for a referendum on whether the energy-rich western province should leave Canada.
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Speaking in Ottawa on Thursday, Carney said he has been clear with US President Donald Trump on the issue.
“I expect the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,” he said, adding that after raising the issue, he wanted the two sides to focus on areas where they can work together.
Carney is himself an Albertan, raised in Edmonton, the provincial capital. The province has had an independence movement for decades.
Leaders of the APP have reportedly met with US State Department officials in Washington at least three times since last April. Trump entered office for a second time in January.
These meetings have prompted concern in Ottawa regarding potential US interference in Canadian domestic politics.
This follows comments by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week, who described Alberta as “a natural partner for the US” and praised the province’s resource wealth and “independent” character during an interview with the right-wing broadcaster Real America’s Voice.
“Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they [the Canadian government] won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific,” he said. “I think we should let them come down into the US,” Bessent said during an interview with the right-wing broadcaster.
“There’s a rumour they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.”
Asked if he knew something about the separation effort, Bessent said, “People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got.”
After Bessent’s comments, Jeffrey Rath, a leader of the APP, said that the group was seeking another meeting with US officials next month, where they are expected to ask about a possible $500bn credit line to support Alberta if a future independence referendum – which has not yet been called – were to be held.
The developments come at a sensitive moment in US-Canada relations, with trade tensions still simmering and after a recent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos where Carney warned that Washington was contributing to a “rupture” in the global order.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada part of the American Union. His expansionist ambitions have been further underscored by his recent push to acquire Greenland from Denmark, which, like Canada, is a NATO ally. At the start of the year, the US military also abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and has since attempted to take control of the South American nation’s massive oil industry.
How have Canadian leaders reacted to the reports?
Speaking on Thursday, British Columbia Premier David Eby described the reported behind-the-scenes meetings as “treason”.
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that – and that word is treason,” Eby told reporters.
“It is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken Canada, to go and ask for assistance, to break up this country from a foreign power and – with respect – a president who has not been particularly respectful of Canada’s sovereignty.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford appealed for Canadian unity on Thursday morning.
“You know, we have a referendum going on out in Alberta. The separatists in Quebec say they’re gonna call a referendum if they get elected. Like, folks, we need to stick together. It’s Team Canada. It’s nothing else,” he said.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, however, said she won’t demonise the Albertans who are open to separation because of “legitimate grievances” with Ottawa and said she did not want to “demonise or marginalise a million of my fellow citizens”.
Smith has long been pro-Trump and visited the US president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in January 2025, at a time when most other Canadian leaders were joining hands to criticise his demand that the country become a part of the United States.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith [FILE: Todd Korol/Reuters]
What do we know about a potential referendum in Alberta?
Anger towards Ottawa has been building in Alberta for decades, rooted largely in disputes over how the federal government manages the province’s vast oil and gas resources.
Many Albertans feel federal policies – particularly environmental regulations, carbon pricing and pipeline approvals – limit Alberta’s ability to develop and export its energy.
As a landlocked province, Alberta depends on pipelines and cooperation with other provinces to access global markets, making those federal decisions especially contentious.
Many Albertans believe the province generates significant wealth while having limited influence over national decision-making. In 2024-25, for instance, it contributed 15 percent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP), despite being home to only 12 percent of the population.
Alberta consistently produces more than 80 percent of Canada’s oil and 60 percent of the country’s natural gas.
Yet, many Albertans say that the federal government does not give the province its fair share from taxes collected. Canada has a system of equalisation payments, under which the federal government pays poorer provinces extra funds to ensure that they can maintain social services. While Quebec and Manitoba receive the highest payments, Alberta – as well as British Columbia and Saskatchewan – at the moment receive no equalisation payments.
A woman crosses an empty downtown street in Calgary, Alberta [FILE: Andy Clark/Reuters]
Carney recently signed an agreement with Alberta, opening the door for an oil pipeline to the Pacific, though it is opposed by Eby and faces significant hurdles.
Recent Ipsos polling suggests that about three in 10 Albertans would support starting the process of leaving Canada.
But the survey also found that roughly one in five of those supporters viewed a vote to leave as largely symbolic – a way to signal political dissatisfaction rather than a firm desire for independence.
A referendum on Alberta independence could happen later this year if a group of residents can collect the nearly 178,000 signatures required to force a vote on the issue. But even if the referendum passes, Alberta would not be immediately independent.
Under the Clarity Act, the federal government would first have to determine whether the referendum question was clear and whether the result represented a clear majority. Only then would negotiations begin, covering issues such as the division of assets and debt, borders and Indigenous rights.
What is the Alberta Prosperity Project and what does it want?
The APP is a pro-independence group that is campaigning for a referendum on Alberta leaving Canada.
It argues that the province would be better off controlling its own resources, taxes and policies, and has been working to gather signatures under Alberta’s citizen-initiative rules to trigger a vote.
While it describes itself as an educational, non-partisan project, the group has drawn controversy over its claims about the economic viability of an independent Alberta.
On its website, the APP says, “Alberta sovereignty, in the context of its relationship with Canada, refers to the aspiration for Alberta to gain greater autonomy and control over provincial areas of responsibility.”
“However, a combination of economic, political, cultural and human rights factors … has resulted in many Albertans defining ‘Alberta sovereignty’ to mean Alberta becoming an independent country and taking control of all matters that fall within the jurisdiction of an independent nation,” it adds.
What else has Washington said?
White House and State Department officials told the FT that administration officials regularly meet with civil society groups and that no support or commitments were conveyed.
A report published by Canada’s public broadcaster CBC earlier this year quoted US national security analyst Brandon Weichert as saying that Trump’s talk of Canada becoming the “51st state” was, in reality, aimed at Alberta.
Appearing on a show hosted by former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, Weichert suggested that a vote for independence in Alberta would prompt the US to recognise the province and guide it towards becoming a US state.
Has the Trump administration tried this elsewhere?
Yes, in Greenland.
As with Canada, Trump has repeatedly called for Greenland to be incorporated into the US. His threats to annex Greenland have prompted strong opposition from the government of the Arctic island, Denmark — which governs Greenland — and Europe.
But as with Alberta, Trump’s administration has also attempted to test separatist sentiment. In August 2025, the Danish government summoned the top US diplomat in Copenhagen after Denmark’s national broadcaster reported that three Trump allies had begun pulling together a list of Greenlanders supportive of the US president’s efforts to get it to join the United States.
Kurmin Wali, Nigeria – Like most Sundays in Kurmin Wali, the morning of January 18 began with early preparations for church and, later on, shopping at the weekly market.
But by 9:30am, it became clear to residents of the village in the Kajuru local government area of Nigeria’s Kaduna State that this Sunday would not be a normal one.
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Gunmen known locally as bandits arrived in the village in numbers, armed with AK47 rifles.
They broke down doors and ordered people out of their homes and the village’s three churches.
They blocked the village exits before taking people and marching dozens into the forest at gunpoint.
Some captives were taken from church, while others were forcibly kidnapped as gunmen moved from house to house.
In one house, more than 30 members of an extended family were abducted.
Jummai Idris, a relative of the family that was taken, remains inconsolable.
She was home the day of the attack and did not go out.
“When I heard shouting, I took two children and we hid behind a house. That was how they [the bandits] missed us,” she told Al Jazeera.
“But I heard every shout, every cry and footstep as they picked up people from our house and surrounding houses,” she added, between sobs.
With tears streaming down her face, Idris recounts how she kept calling out the names of her missing family members – men, women and children.
Her house sits on the edge of the village, close to a bandits’ crossing point.
“I don’t know what they are doing to them now. I don’t know if they’ve eaten or not,” she said.
A total of 177 people were abducted that day. Eleven escaped their captors, but about a quarter of Kurmin Wali’s population remains captive.
Initially, state officials denied the attack had taken place.
In the immediate aftermath, Kaduna’s police commissioner called reports a “falsehood peddled by conflict entrepreneurs”.
Finally, two days later, Nigeria’s national police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, admitted an “abduction” had indeed occurred on Sunday. He said police had launched security operations with the aim of “locating and safely rescuing the victims and restoring calm to the area”.
Uba Sani, Kaduna state’s governor, added that more than just rescuing the abductees, the government was committed to ensuring “that we establish permanent protection for them”.
There has been a police presence in Kurmin Wali since then. But it is not enough to reassure villagers.
Locals say the police are not there to protect the village, but merely to compile the names of victims they for days denied existed.
At the premises of Haske Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, the largest church in the village, days after the attack, a rust-coloured door lay on the floor, pulled off its hinges. Inside the mud-brick building, the site was chaotic.
Plastic chairs overturned in panic were strewn around the room – just as the kidnappers had left them.
An exterior view of the Haske Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, after an attack by gunmen in which worshippers were kidnapped, in Kurmin Wali, Kaduna, Nigeria, January 20, 2026 [Nuhu Gwamna/Reuters]
‘Only the recklessly bold can stay’
The church building was where the captors brought everyone before marching them into the forest surrounding the village.
Residents said the gunmen divided themselves into different groups, targeting homes and churches in the village.
Maigirma Shekarau was among those taken before he managed to escape.
“They tied us, beat us up, before arriving us into the bush. We trekked a long distance before taking a break,” he said of his journey with his captors.
Shekarau, a father of five, was holding his three-year-old daughter when he and others were taken.
“When we reached an abandoned village, I ducked inside a room with my little daughter when the attackers weren’t looking. I closed the door and waited. After what seemed like eternity, and sure they were gone, I opened the door and walked back home, avoiding the bush path,” he said, now back in the village.
But on returning home, his heart sank. He and his three-year-old were the only ones who made it home. The rest of the family is still held by the kidnappers.
Standing in a parched field of long dried grass, Shekarau says the village no longer feels like home.
The village chief was also taken, but managed to escape. He now presides over a community hopeful for the return of the missing – but too scared to stay.
“Everyone is on edge. People are confused and don’t know what to do. Some haven’t eaten. There are entire families that are missing,” said Ishaku Danazumi, the village chief.
Danazumi says the kidnappers regularly visit and loot the village grain stores and the villagers’ possessions, including mobile phones.
Two days after the attack, residents said the bandits rode through their village again.
On that day, the community also received a ransom demand.
“They accused us of taking 10 motorcycles they hid in the bush to evade soldiers who operated here the week before,” Danazumi said. “But we didn’t see those bikes.”
The chief said the captors told him the return of the 10 bikes was a precondition for the return of his people.
But deep inside, he knows, more demands will follow.
In the village, residents wait in their thatch and mud-brick houses, hoping for their loved ones to return.
But because of fear and the tense situation, many are leaving the farming community.
“Anyone thinking about remaining in this village needs to reconsider,” said Panchan Madami, a resident who also survived the attack.
“Only the recklessly bold can stay with the current state of security here.”
Villagers said that before the January 18 attack, 21 people kidnapped by the bandits were returned to them after a ransom was paid. But just two days later, a quarter of the village was taken.
“It will be stupid to stay here, hoping things will be OK,” added Madami.
The government says it will establish a military post to protect the community from further attacks. But that is not comforting enough for Idris, who has also made up her mind to leave.
“I’m not coming back here,” she said, gathering her belongings to leave the village where she grew up and married. “I just hope the rest of my family gets back.”
A drone view of Kurmin Wali, where churches were attacked by gunmen and people were kidnapped [Nuhu Gwamna/Reuters]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he plans to increase his armed forces’ lethality as part of a strategy to disarm Moscow and turn a deadlocked negotiating table.
“The task of Ukrainian units is to ensure a level of destruction of the occupier at which Russian losses exceed the number of reinforcements they can send to their forces each month,” he told military personnel on Monday.
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“We are talking about 50,000 Russian losses per month, this is the optimal level,” he said.
Video analysis, Zelenskyy recently said, showed 35,000 confirmed kills in December 2025, up from 30,000 in November and 26,000 in October. But on Monday, he clarified that the 35,000 were “killed and badly wounded occupiers”, who would not be returning to the battlefield.
His commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, conservatively estimated “more than 33,000” confirmed kills in December.
Ukraine believes it has killed or maimed 1.2 million Russians since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently estimated that Russia had suffered 1.2mn casualties, including at least 325,000 deaths, and Ukraine up to 600,000 casualties, with as many as 140,000 deaths.
Al Jazeera cannot confirm casualty estimates from either side.
The war is currently stalemated, with Russia struggling to make meaningful territorial gains.
Russia held just more than a quarter of Ukraine a month into its full-scale war, in March 2022, according to geolocated footage.
The following month, Ukraine pushed Russian forces back from a string of northern cities – Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv – leaving Russia in possession of one-fifth of the country.
In August and September 2022, then-ground forces commander Syrskii masterminded a campaign to push Russian forces east of the Oskil River in the northern Kharkiv region, and Russia itself withdrew east of the Dnipro River in the southern region of Kherson, leaving it with 17.8 percent of the country.
In the last three years, Russia increased that number to 19.3 percent.
For almost six months, Russia has struggled to seize two towns it has almost surrounded with 150,000 troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
“In Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, the Ukrainian Defence Forces continue to contain the enemy, which is trying to infiltrate the northern districts of both cities in small groups,” Syrskii said last week.
Russia claimed it had captured the northern city of Kupiansk last month, but Russian military reporters say Ukrainian forces have retaken control of the town and surrounded the Russian assault force within it.
The engine of war
Zelenskyy’s strategy involves increasing domestic drone production and honing the skills of drone operators, because drones now hit 80 percent of targets on the battlefield.
“In just the past year alone, 819,737 targets were hit – hit by drones. And we clearly record every single hit,” he said on Monday.
The military has instituted a point system, rewarding drone operators for the number and precision of their hits.
That reflects a system put in place in April 2024, offering financial rewards to ground troops for destroying Russian battlefield equipment, culminating in $23,000 for capturing a battle tank.
Zelenskyy appointed Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister this month, who previously served as digital transformation minister and deputy prime minister for innovation, education, science and technology.
Last week, Fedorov began to appoint his advisers. They include Serhiy Sternenko, who last year created Ukraine’s largest non-state supplier of military drones, to step up drone production. Fedorov’s former deputy at the digital transformation ministry, Valeriya Ionan, was put in charge of international collaborations, thanks to her experience with Silicon Valley giants like Google and Cisco. Fedorov also appointed Serhiy Beskrestnov as technological adviser. Beskrestnov is an expert on Russian drone and electronic warfare innovation.
Russian assaults pound Ukraine
Zelenskyy’s war aims stem in part from the fact that Russia refuses to give up its campaign to seize more of Ukraine.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire, talks remain deadlocked over the future of Donetsk.
Russia’s worst attack against Ukrainian cities and energy facilities last week came on Saturday, involving 375 drones and 21 missiles, as Russian, US and Ukrainian delegations were negotiating a ceasefire in Abu Dhabi.
The strike left 1.2 million homes without power nationwide, including 6,000 in Kyiv.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said 800,000 homes in Kyiv were still without power following three previous strikes this month. “Constant enemy attacks unfortunately keep the situation from being stabilised,” he wrote on social media.
Zelenskyy told Ukrainians in an evening video address that electricity supply problems were still widespread in Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions.
“We are scaling up assistance points and warming centers,” he said, adding that 174 [crews] were working to fix the damage in Kyiv alone. Shmyal said 710,000 people were still without power in Kyiv.
A Czech grassroots initiative fundraised $6m to buy hundreds of electric generators for Ukrainian households. On Friday, the European Commission said it was sending 447 generators to Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Russian drones killed three people. Two of them were a young couple in Kyiv killed when a drone struck their apartment building. Rescuers found only their four-year-old daughter alive.
“When I carried her out, the girl started crying very hard, and then she began to shake violently,” said Marian Kushnir, a journalist who was a neighbour of the couple.
At least five more people died when a drone struck a passenger train in the northern Kharkiv region, and two children and a pregnant woman were wounded when 50 drones rained down on the southern port of Odesa.
Talks in Abu Dhabi ended without a ceasefire. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said before they began that Russia was not willing to compromise on any of its territorial demands.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said talks were focusing on the nub of disagreement between the two sides, which is Ukraine’s refusal to hand over the remaining one-fifth of Donetsk that Moscow does not control.
Talks are scheduled to continue in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, officials said.
Unvarnished truth from Zelenskyy
In a scathing speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelenskyy accused his European allies of “wait-hoping” the Russian threat would disappear after almost four years of war in Ukraine.
“Europe relies only on the belief that if danger comes, NATO will act. But no one has really seen the Alliance in action. If Putin decides to take Lithuania or strike Poland, who will respond?” Zelenskyy asked.
US President Donald Trump’s threat to take Greenland by force on January 17, he said, revealed Europe’s lack of readiness when seven Nordic countries sent 40 soldiers to the island.
“If you send 30 or 40 soldiers to Greenland – what is that for? What message does it send? What’s the message to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin? To China? And even more importantly, what message does it send to Denmark – the most important – your close ally?”
In contrast, said Zelenskyy, Trump was willing to seize Russian tankers selling sanctioned oil, and put Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on drug charges, while Putin, an indicted war criminal, remained free. “No security guarantees work without the US,” he said.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte echoed those sentiments in a speech to the European Parliament on Monday [January 26].
“If anyone thinks here . . . that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming,” he said. “You can’t.”
President Donald Trump says he is speaking to Iran’s leadership amid a significant US military build-up in the Middle East, as regional leaders push for diplomacy to avoid a new conflict.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres appears to point at Trump as critics say his ‘Board of Peace’ aims to replace UN.
Published On 30 Jan 202630 Jan 2026
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that international “cooperation is eroding” in the world, during a media briefing where he took aim at one – maybe two – powerful countries undermining efforts to solve global problems collectively.
In his annual address as secretary-general, where he outlined priorities for the UN, Guterres said on Thursday that the world body stood ready to help members do more to address their most pressing issues, including the climate catastrophe, inequality, conflict and the rising influence of technology companies.
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But he warned that “global problems will not be solved by one power calling the shots,” in apparent reference to United States President Donald Trump’s administration and his moves to abandon much of the UN system, while also impelling countries to join his newly-created “Board of Peace”.
Guterres went on to say that “two powers” would also not solve key problems by “carving the world into rival spheres of influence”, in what appeared to be a reference to China and its growing role in global affairs.
Guterres, who will step down from his position at the end of the year, underscored the UN’s ongoing commitment to international law amid concerns that treaties, which countries have abided by for decades, are coming undone.
But, he added, the UN was still “pushing for peace – just and sustainable peace rooted in international law”.
Beginning in his first term as US President, Trump sought to end his country’s formal participation in many aspects of the UN system, while also eager to wield influence over key decision-making bodies, including through the use of the US veto in the UN’s powerful Security Council.
Trump’s current administration has also imposed sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese and threatened to sanction negotiators involved in UN talks on shipping pollution at the International Maritime Organization.
The US leader’s actions have drawn criticism.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva earlier this month accused Trump of wanting to create “a new UN”.
Lula made his comment just days after Trump launched his “Board of Peace” initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
While more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe have signed up as founding members of the peace board, several major nations, including France, have turned down invitations to join, and Canada has been excluded.
France said the Trump-led peace board “goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, in particular with respect to the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be called into question”.
A bowl of leftover pap saved Audu Gimba* from being abducted, but his wife, children, and relatives were not as fortunate.
On Jan. 18, Audu’s family found their way to the Cherubim & Seraphim (C&S) Movement Church, Number 2, Kurmin Wali, Kaduna State, northwestern Nigeria, like they do every Sunday morning. Around 10:30 a.m., warning cries interrupted their service.
Terrorists had surrounded Kurmin Wali from all angles, unleashing their horrors on the worshippers of C & S 1 and 2 and the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) Church in the same community. They would later make away with 177 people in total, according to Audu and some media reports.
“We tried to run out but discovered we were surrounded. Even if you run, they chase you down,” he recalled the horrors of that morning. He said the terrorists were also collecting phones and cash from the victims. Before they got to him, he threw his phone into the bushes, planning to retrieve it after he escaped.
The terrorists divided the captives into batches, with Audu and four others placed at the front.
“As we were walking, I saw one of my brothers being beaten by the terrorists. They demanded that he get them food from his house. He told them he only had leftover pap, and when he brought it to them, their attention shifted to it, including the terrorists holding us hostage. When I noticed that, I used that opportunity to run and hide, but the rest were taken into the forest,” he told HumAngle.
From his hiding spot, Audu watched as the terrorists brought out the remaining church members who had been hiding, made them lie on the ground, and then herded them into the forest.
“The terrorists were holding guns, which were similar to the ones soldiers use,” he told HumAngle. “All of them had weapons. They came out through three angles; even if you run, you will run into them from all angles.” Although no one was shot, the presence of the firearms and the terrorists’ known ruthlessness were enough to force the villagers into submission. They wore no masks, and the survivors who spoke to HumAngle said they did not recognise them as familiar faces.
They came in through the forest and returned through the same path, this time with unwilling villagers, leaving behind a trail of fear and heartbreak.
Illustration: Akila Jibrin/HumAngle
“My in-laws and two other women were heavily pregnant. My second wife and another in-law had daughters under two years old. My daughter was one year and two months old, and my three sons and their wives were all taken away into the forest. The children are not even old enough to walk on their own,” his voice cracked as he named his losses.
He admitted that revisiting the events of that day makes him want to break down and cry.
It wasn’t just his losses, he said, but also the reaction of the military, those meant to protect them, that further pushed him into despair.
“The day the soldiers arrived, we told them the path they followed. When one of my brothers insisted on showing them the way, one of the soldiers even threatened to slap him. I don’t think any soldiers walked for 10 minutes between the village and the forest. They just stood there watching us,” he lamented.
Security officials first dismissed the attack as a falsehood spread to cause chaos, only to later confirm it. The Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, said the reason for the denial was “to confirm details first before making any statements”.
“We need help,” Audu cried. “We don’t have anything to do unless the government helps us. What can I possibly do to help them come out? It’s just my wife and me; they have taken everyone else away.”
A recurring problem
For the people of Kurmin Wali, this is not the first of such attacks. Eight days earlier, on Jan. 11, another mass abduction of about 21 people occurred. The people were released four days later, only after a ransom of ₦2.6 million was paid, according to another villager, Moses Noma*.
Attacks on the village remain largely underreported. Online searches for Kurmin Wali mostly return reports of the most recent abduction, belatedly drawing attention to yet another community Nigeria has failed to protect.
Moses escaped the latest attack, but his family had been directly affected by the previous one. The incident occurred at night.
“They entered my house and my brother’s house,” he recounted. “Twelve people from my family were kidnapped. I barely escaped with my wife. When I returned, I heard my mum crying. She had been badly beaten with metal and was injured. I picked her up along with my injured uncle and took them to the hospital.”
When Moses arrived, his mother was in a pool of her blood. He thinks the kidnappers must have assumed she died due to how badly she was bleeding. Even when he heard her cries, he hid until he was sure the terrorists had gone before he went to her side. Fortunately, her injuries were treatable, and she was able to return to her family.
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Usually, when attacks like this occur, residents say they report them to military personnel stationed along nearby roads. However, soldiers often arrive late, if at all, and little is done until kidnappers demand ransom and eventually release victims on their own. In some cases, soldiers show up a day after the attack, claiming they did not receive permission to respond earlier, residents said.
“Even as we speak, we are currently patrolling the streets because no security forces have been dispatched,” the 30-year-old man explained a week after the attack, despite the governor’s visit four days earlier.
According to Moses, the village has been under constant threats and attacks for about three years. “Even in February last year, they came and kidnapped people,” he noted.
After such attacks, some residents flee to other parts of Kaduna, such as Marraraban Kajuru, Kasuwan Magani, and neighbouring towns, and return after some time. Moses, like others, usually finds his way back home, but the terror never stops.
Government intervention?
James Kura* says it was the stars that guided him home that night.
“We were in church. We stationed some people outside to ensure security. When they saw them coming, they raised an alarm. We ran out, but soon discovered they had circled us. They put us together and collected all our money and phones in front of the church. Then they started to march us into the forest,” he narrated.
Illustration: Akila Jibrin/HumAngle
At one point, the terrorists stopped and started to beat them heavily with sticks before continuing with the march. James was injured during the assault.
They later arrived at Sabon Gida, a nearby village that has been deserted due to the constant terror attacks, one of the many ghost communities in Kaduna State. Some captives managed to escape there. But it was much later that James found the chance.
“I noticed I was lagging behind and the kidnappers were distracted, so I used that opportunity to hide somewhere in the bushes until they left. I started to walk into the forest and eventually found my way home by following the stars,” he recalled. James got home around 9 p.m. that night.
Despite his escape, many of his relatives and friends remain in captivity.
James and ten other escapees were taken to Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital in Kaduna town on Jan. 23, following the governor’s visit. Before then, James had tried to treat his injuries at a chemist’s shop in the village.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Abdulqadir Musa, said the victims would receive maximum care and attention and would “leave the hospital smiling”.
Even so, this was not the first time James had been kidnapped. In 2021, he was abducted from his home and held captive for days, and the horrors of that experience fueled his determination to escape repeating it.
“They demanded a ransom of ₦1 million then, and they demanded other items like phones, which amounted to almost ₦200,000 extra,” he recalled.
Although the current ransom demand has not been formally communicated, James told HumAngle that the kidnappers are demanding 17 motorcycles, which they claimed were left behind after the attack. Residents say only three were found, some of them already stripped of parts such as headlights.
A separate report corroborates James’ account, adding that ₦250 million and three more motorcycles, bringing the total to 20, have been demanded by the terrorists.
For a community already struggling to survive, residents say such demands are difficult to meet. The Kaduna State government has said it will work with security operatives to ensure the victims are rescued unhurt.
“We have been collaborating with the relevant security agencies, both the military, the DSS, the police, and the Office of National Security Adviser, to ensure the quick return and recovery of our people that were abducted in this very important community,’’ Uba Sani said during his visit to Kurmin Wali.
The fear of the future
Survivors like James are worried and concerned about their future security, the fate of their loved ones who are still in captivity, and the ransoms they may be forced to pay.
Nigeria has criminalised ransom payments, with violators facing at least 15 years in prison. Yet kidnapping continues to surge nationwide, with few successful rescue operations, leaving families with little choice.
On social media, people, including former top government officials, have crowdfunded for ransom. About ₦2.23 trillion in ransom payments was made between May 2023 and April 2024 in Nigeria, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“When the governor visited, he promised he would bring us security. The government is taking care of our hospital bills and feeding. But in addition to that, the most important thing we need now is financial support because we know we would have to pay ransom,” he added.
As for tightened security in the village, Audu said some military officials were stationed in front of their church during their morning service on Jan. 25. However, they are unaware of any action or movement to retrieve their loved ones, whose situation remains unknown.
*Names marked with an asterisk are pseudonyms we’ve used to protect the identities of those interviewed.
Jan. 30 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Thursday night said he was decertifying all Canada-made aircraft and threatened a 50% tariff on all planes sold to the United States, further deepening the fissure in U.S.-Canada relations created under Trump’s second term in office.
Trump made the threat in a post on his Truth Social platform, stating the threat was in response to Canada’s alleged refusal to certify several Gulfstream jet series.
“We are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses and all Aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified, as it should have been many years ago,” Trump said.
“Further, Canada is effectively prohibiting the sale of Gulfstream products in Canada through this very same certification process. If, for any reason, this situation is not immediately corrected, I am going to charge Canada a 50% Tariff on any and all Aircraft sold in the United States of America.”
By law, aircraft certification, which includes safety and airworthiness determinations, is governed by the Federal Aviation Administration, and it was not clear if the president has the power to decertify already approved aircraft by presidential action.
UPI contacted the FAA for clarification and was directed to speak with the White House, which has yet to respond to questions about decertification and its process.
Bombardier, the Montreal-based aerospace company, said it has “taken note” of Trump’s social media post and is in contact with the Canadian government.
“Our aircraft, facilities and technicians are fully certified to FAA standards and renowned around the world,” Bombardier said in a statement.
Bombardier said it employs more than 3,000 people across nine facilities in the United States and creates “thousands of jobs” there through its 2,800 suppliers. It said it is also “actively investing” in expanding its U.S. operations.
Relations between the United States and Canada have precipitously dropped since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
Trump’s threats to annex Canada, impose unilateral tariffs and take Greenland — territory of a NATO ally — by force if needed has prompted Ottawa to pivot toward Europe and Asia.
The announcement comes on the heels of reports stating that the Trump administration has been in talks with the Alberta Prosperity Project separatist organization.
According to The Financial Times, the first to report on the development Thursday, separatist leaders in the western Canadian province met with U.S. officials in Washington three times since spring.
The APP has said that its leadership has taken “several strategic trips” to Washington, D.C., to foster discussions on Alberta’s potential as an independent nation.
Jeffry Rath, a separatist supporter who participated in the talks, said U.S. officials are “very enthusiastic about Alberta becoming an independent country,” according to the APP.
The meetings were swiftly and widely condemned in Canada.
“I expect the U.S. administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada told reporters on Thursday.
“I’m always clear in my conversations with President Trump to that effect, and then move on to what we can do together.”
Premier David Eby of British Columbia called the meetings “treasonous activity.”
“I’m not talking about debates that we have inside the country among Canadians, about how we order ourselves, our relationships between the federal government, the provinces, referenda that might be held. I’m talking about crossing the border, soliciting the assistance of a foreign government to break up this country,” Eby said during the same press conference.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy welcomed possible one-week pause after Russian attacks left homes with no heat in plummeting temperatures.
Published On 30 Jan 202630 Jan 2026
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed United States President Donald Trump’s announcement that Russia will not attack Kyiv and “various” Ukrainian towns for seven days as civilians struggle with a lack of heating amid freezing winter temperatures.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Zelenskyy said that Trump’s comments earlier in the day were an “important statement” about “the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”.
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Zelenskyy said that the pause in bombing had been discussed by negotiators during recent ceasefire talks in the United Arab Emirates, and that they “expect the agreements to be implemented”.
“De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Trump said earlier on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to his request not to fire on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv for a week due to severely low temperatures.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting, citing the “extraordinary cold” in the region.
The announcements came as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday that 454 residential buildings remain without heating in the city, as the Ukrainian capital struggles to restore power to homes following repeated Russian bombings targeting power and heating infrastructure in recent weeks.
Temperatures are forecast to drop to -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight in the Ukrainian capital this week.
Russia’s capital Moscow has experienced its heaviest snowfall in 200 years during the month of January, the meteorological observatory of Lomonosov Moscow State University said on Thursday, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.
Russia and Ukraine also exchanged the bodies of soldiers killed in the war on Thursday, officials from both countries confirmed.
Similar exchanges have been agreed to during previous rounds of ceasefire talks. However, a breakthrough on ending Russia’s nearly four-year war on Ukraine has remained elusive.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov continued to pour cold water on ceasefire prospects on Thursday, saying that Moscow had yet to see a 20-point ceasefire plan that he said had been “reworked” by Ukraine and its allies.
Russia’s top diplomat also claimed that Ukraine had used brief pauses in fighting to “push” people to the front lines, according to TASS.
Koo Yun-cheol, South Korean finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs, speaks during a meeting of economic ministers at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, 28 January 2026. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
Jan. 29 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance on Wednesday designated 11 new public institutions, bringing the total to 342, while postponing a decision on whether to classify the Financial Supervisory Service as a public institution until next year.
The decision was made at a meeting of the Public Institution Management Committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Koo Yoon-cheol at the Government Complex Seoul.
The newly designated institutions met statutory criteria, including receiving government support exceeding 50% of total revenue, the ministry said.
They include the Korea Customs Information Service, Gadeokdo New Airport Construction Corporation, Child Support Enforcement Agency, National Incheon Maritime Museum, Korea Sports & Leisure, Korea Statistics Promotion Agency, Spatial Information Industry Promotion Agency, Korea Water Technology Certification Agency, National Agricultural Museum, Central Social Service Agency and the National Disaster Relief Association.
The ministry said designation of the Financial Supervisory Service was deferred to prioritize substantive operational reforms over formal classification. Officials cited concerns that adding public institution oversight could overlap with existing supervisory structures and undermine the watchdog’s autonomy and expertise.
As conditions for reconsideration, the government ordered the Financial Supervisory Service to strengthen democratic oversight by its supervising ministry, including mandatory consultation on personnel and organizational changes, expanded management disclosure through ALIO, and full implementation of the Financial Consumer Protection Improvement Roadmap announced last year.
The Public Institution Management Committee plans to review progress on those measures and reassess the watchdog’s designation status in 2027.
Koo said that while public institution designation could enhance transparency and public accountability, it could also create inefficiencies if layered on top of the existing supervision system.
“There is concern that overlapping management structures could weaken autonomy and professional expertise,” Koo said.
Separately, the ministry said it will disclose, for the first time since enactment of the Public Institutions Act in 2007, a list of entities that met designation criteria but were not classified as public institutions, along with the reasons.
The committee also approved changes to designation categories for the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation and the Korea Legal Protection and Welfare Foundation.
Koo said the expanded disclosures are intended to make public institution management more transparent and easier for citizens to understand, while strengthening trust in the public sector.
