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From Kevin Baxter: A growing number of international leaders are suggesting it’s time to reconsider the idea of playing the World Cup in the United States this summer.

Oke Gottlich, vice president of the German Football Assn., told a German newspaper last week that he wants to discuss a boycott of the tournament, much like the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

“By my reckoning,” Gottlich said, “the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion.”

Politicians in Britain and France had already raised the idea of a World Cup boycott. But now the whispers are growing into a chorus.

Nearly two dozen European football association heads held informal talks in Budapest last week to discuss their participation in the World Cup. A veteran coach of several African national teams urged a boycott, and a United Nations diplomat and international law expert has canceled his World Cup tickets, fearing for his safety in the U.S. amid violent federal immigration crackdowns in Minnesota and other cities throughout the United States.

“ICE may decide that I am a gang member and I’ll be locked in prison for a year with no charges, no hearing, no trial, no right to consult a lawyer, no phone call,” Mohamad Safa, the Lebanese-born executive director of the U.N. organization Patriotic Vision, wrote in a social media post.

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From Ryan Kartje: Entering a particularly consequential season for coach Lincoln Riley at USC, a brutal Big Ten slate won’t cut the Trojans or their coach any slack in 2026.

That much was clear long before the Big Ten officially released its schedule for next season Tuesday. USC already knew it would face the conference’s top three teams from a season ago (Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon). But the official unveiling of the slate would further solidify just how grueling the climb could be for USC next season.

Oregon will face Portland State, an FCS team, a week before coming to USC on Sept. 26. Ohio State will have a bye week before its Halloween meeting with USC at the Coliseum, and so will the defending champ, Indiana, which USC will face in Bloomington on Nov. 14.

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USC 2026 football schedule
Times TBA

Aug. 29: TBA
Sept. 5: vs. Fresno State
Sept. 12: vs. Louisiana
Sept. 19: at Rutgers
Sept. 26: vs. Oregon
Oct. 3: vs. Washington
Oct. 10: at Penn State
Oct. 17: BYE
Oct. 24: at Wisconsin
Oct. 31: vs. Ohio State
Nov. 7: BYE
Nov. 14: at Indiana
Nov. 21: vs. Maryland
Nov. 28: at UCLA

From Anthony Solorzano: The Big Ten Conference announced on Tuesday the opponents new head coach Bob Chesney and the Bruins will face during the 2026 season.

Whether the games will be played at the Rose Bowl or SoFi Stadium remains to be determined, but the Bruins will not be suiting up against Curt Cignetti and defending national champion Indiana.

UCLA will hard launch the Chesney era on the road against rival California on Sept. 5 at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

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2026 UCLA football schedule
Times TBA

Sept. 5: at California
Sept. 12: vs. San Diego State
Sept. 19: vs. Purdue
Sept. 26: at Maryland
Oct. 3: BYE
Oct. 10: at Oregon
Oct. 17: vs. Wisconsin
Oct. 24: vs. Michigan State
Oct. 31: vs. Nevada
Nov. 7: at Minnesota
Nov. 14: vs. Illinois
Nov. 21: at Michigan
Nov. 28: vs. USC

Why did Mike McDaniel choose the Chargers?

Just like his famously inventive offenses, Mike McDaniel had many options.

He interviewed for several head coaching jobs after his four-year tenure in charge of the Miami Dolphins ended this month, and he could have been an offensive coordinator pretty much anywhere he pleased.

McDaniel still wants to be a head coach again someday, but he chose to join the Chargers alongside Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert because the combination of time, place and personnel seemed perfect for this idiosyncratic coach who also happens to be one of the top offensive minds in football.

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Super Bowl Sunday

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

Clippers defeat the Jazz

Kawhi Leonard scored 21 points, James Harden had 16 points and 10 assists, and the Clippers beat the Utah Jazz 111-99 on Tuesday night for their ninth win in 10 games.

Leonard has scored at least 20 points in 25 consecutive games. He joins Bob McAdoo, World B. Free and Blake Griffin as the only players in franchise history with such a streak.

Kris Dunn added 14 points and a season-best five steals for the Clippers (22-24), who have the best record in the NBA since Christmas. They have won 16 of their last 19 games — immediately after going 3-16 in their previous 19.

The Clippers took control during a 10-2 run in the third quarter powered powered by Dunn’s two steals and layups, along with a three-pointer that made it 73-61. They led by double figures the rest of the way.

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Clippers box score

NBA standings

Kings’ win streak reaches three

Anton Forsberg made 26 saves and the Kings beat the Red Wings 3-1 on Tuesday night as Detroit winger Patrick Kane moved into a tie with Dallas’ Mike Modano as the highest-scoring American-born players in NHL history.

Kane matched Modano by recording his 1,374th point on an assist on a goal by Alex DeBrincat late in the third period. He accomplished the feat just a couple of months after turning 37, while Modano was 40 when he scored a goal to register point No. 1,374. For his career, Kane has 500 goals and 874 assists in 1,341 NHL regular-season games. Modano retired in 2011 with 561 goals and 813 assists in 1,499 games.

Samuel Helenius, Andrei Kuzmenko and Corey Perry scored for the Kings, who won their third straight game.

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Kings summary

NHL standings

This day in sports history

1901 — The American League is founded. The league plans for a 140-game schedule, set player rosters at 14 and recognizes the Players Protective Association, the players’ union.

1943 — Max Bentley of the Chicago Blackhawks has four goals and three assists in a 10-1 rout of the New York Rangers. Bentley scored all four goals and an assist in the third period. Max’s brother, Doug, has four assists in the third period.

1949 — Monte Irvin and Ford Smith are signed by the New York Giants. They are the first Black players to sign with the club.

1984 — Wayne Gretzky’s record 51-game scoring streak is halted as the Kings post a 4-2 victory. Over the 51 games, Gretzky scored 61 goals and had 92 assists.

1990 — The San Francisco 49ers beat the Denver Broncos 55-10 in the most lopsided Super Bowl. The 49ers are the first repeat NFL champion in a decade and tie the Pittsburgh Steelers with four Super Bowl wins.

1992 — Brett Hull becomes the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in 50 games more than once in a career when the St. Louis Blues tie the Kings 3-3.

2001 — Baltimore’s brazen defense backs up its bragging by beating the New York Giants 34-7 in the Super Bowl. The Ravens intercept Kerry Collins four times, the final pick returned 49 yards for a touchdown by Duane Starks.

2006 — Amelie Mauresmo wins her first Grand Slam singles title when Justine Henin-Hardenne retires in the second set of their Australian Open final because of stomach pain. Mauresmo led 6-1, 2-0.

2007 — Roger Federer captures his 10th Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set at the Australian Open, beating Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.

2012 — Towson ends its NCAA record 41-game losing streak with a 66-61 victory over North Carolina Wilmington. The victory is the first career win at Towson for coach Pat Skerry and the Tigers’ first win since a win at La Salle on Dec. 29, 2010.

2014 — Calling the NCAA a dictatorship, Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter and the United Steelworkers announce plans to form the first labor union for college athletes. Colter details the College Athletes Players Assn. at a news conference in Chicago, flanked by leaders of Steelworkers union that agree to pay legal bills for the effort.

2017 — Serena Williams wins her record 23rd Grand Slam singles title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over her older sister Venus in the Australian Open final.

2017 — Arrogate beats California Chrome again, winning the $12 million Pegasus World Cup in his rival’s last race before retirement.

2018 — Australian Open Men’s Tennis: Roger Federer beats Marin Čilic 6-2, 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to win his record 20th Grand Slam title.

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.

Authorities in India say they’re investigating the cause of a plane crash that killed Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of India’s Maharashtra state, and four others on board. Here’s what we know so far.

China is showcasing itself as a solid business and trading partner to traditional allies of the United States and others who have been alienated by President Donald Trump’s politics, and some of them appear ready for a reset.

Since the start of 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping has received South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and Irish leader Micheal Martin.

This week, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer is on a three-day visit to Beijing, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to visit China for the first time in late February.

Among these visitors, five are treaty allies of the US, but all have been hit over the past year by the Trump administration’s “reciprocal” trade tariffs, as well as additional duties on key exports like steel, aluminium, autos and auto parts.

Canada, Finland, Germany and the UK found themselves in a NATO standoff with Trump this month over his desire to annex Greenland and threats that he would impose additional tariffs on eight European countries he said were standing in his way, including the UK and Finland. Trump has since backed down from this threat.

China’s renewed sales pitch

While China has long sought to present itself as a viable alternative to the post-war US-led international order, its sales pitch took on renewed energy at the World Economic Forum‘s (WEF) annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month.

As Trump told world leaders that the US had become “the hottest country, anywhere in the world” thanks to surging investment and tariff revenues, and Europe would “do much better” to follow the US lead, Chinese Vice Premier Li Hefeng’s speech emphasised China’s ongoing support for multilateralism and free trade.

“While economic globalisation is not perfect and may cause some problems, we cannot completely reject it and retreat to self-imposed isolation,” Li said.

“The right approach should be, and can only be, to find solutions together through dialogue.”

Li also criticised the “unilateral acts and trade deals of certain countries” – a reference to Trump’s trade war – that “clearly violate the fundamental principles and principles of the [World Trade Organization] and severely impact the global economic and trade order”.

Li also told the WEF that “every country is entitled to defend its legitimate rights and interests”, a point that could be understood to apply as much to China’s claims over places like Taiwan as to Denmark’s dominion over Greenland.

“In many ways, China has chosen to cast itself in the role of a stable and responsible global actor in the midst of the disruption that we are seeing from the US. Reiterating its support for the United Nations system and global rules has often been quite enough to bolster China’s standing, especially among countries of the Global South,” Bjorn Cappelin, an analyst at the Swedish National China Centre, told Al Jazeera.

The West is listening

John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that the recent series of trips by European leaders to China shows that the Global North is listening, too. Other notable signs include the UK’s approval of a Chinese “mega embassy” in London, Gong said, and progress in a years-long trade dispute over Chinese exports of electric vehicles (EVs) to Europe.

Starmer is also expected to pursue more trade and investment deals with Beijing this week, according to UK media.

“A series of events happening in Europe seems to suggest an adjustment of Europe’s China policy – for the better, of course – against the backdrop of what is emanating from Washington against Europe,” Gong told Al Jazeera.

The shifting diplomatic calculations are also clear in Canada, which has shown a renewed willingness to deepen economic ties with China after several spats with Trump over the past year.

Carney’s is the first visit to Beijing by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau went in 2017, and he came away with a deal that saw Beijing agree to ease tariffs on Canadian agricultural exports and Ottawa to ease tariffs on Chinese EVs.

Trump lashed out at news of the deal, threatening 100 percent trade tariffs on Canada if the deal goes ahead.

In a statement last weekend on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that Carney was “sorely mistaken” if he thought Canada could become a “‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States”.

The meeting between Carney and Xi this month also thawed years of frosty relations after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in late 2018 at the behest of the US. Beijing subsequently arrested two Canadians in a move that was widely seen as retaliation. They were released in 2021 after Meng reached a deferred agreement with prosecutors in New York.

In Davos, Carney told world leaders that there had been a “rupture in the world order” in a clear reference to Trump, followed by remarks this week to the Canadian House of Commons that “almost nothing was normal now” in the US, according to the CBC.

Carney also said this week in a call with Trump that Ottawa should continue to diversify its trade deals with countries beyond the US, although it had no plans in place yet for a free-trade agreement with China.

Filling the void

Hanscom Smith, a former US diplomat and senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera that Beijing’s appeal could be tempered by other factors, however.

“When the United States becomes more transactional, that creates a vacuum, and it’s not clear the extent to which China or Russia, or any other power, is going to be able to fill the void. It’s not necessarily a zero-sum game,” he told Al Jazeera. “Many countries want to have a good relationship with both the United States and China, and don’t want to choose.”

One glaring concern with China, despite its offer of more reliable business dealings, is its massive global trade surplus, which surged to $1.2 trillion last year.

Much of this was gained in the fallout from Trump’s trade war as China’s manufacturers – facing a slew of tariffs from the US and declining demand at home – expanded their supply chains into places like Southeast Asia and found new markets beyond the US.

China’s record trade surplus has alarmed some European leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, who, in Davos, called for more foreign direct investment from China but not its “massive excess capacities and distortive practices” in the form of export dumping.

Li tried to address such concerns head-on in his Davos speech. “We never seek trade surplus; on top of being the world’s factory, we hope to be the world’s market too. However, in many cases, when China wants to buy, others don’t want to sell. Trade issues often become security hurdles,” he said.

SEOUL, Jan. 28 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test-firing of an upgraded large-caliber multiple rocket system, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Kim said the test held “great significance in improving the effectiveness of our strategic deterrent,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

“We have achieved technical upgrading of this weapon system to employ its most powerful characteristics in the most appropriate and effective way, and thus made it possible to apply it in specific attacks,” Kim said.

The North Korean leader cited improvements in the system’s self-steered guided flight system, as well as the “intelligence and hitting accuracy of the rockets.” He also claimed the mobility of a newly modernized launch vehicle was “perfect.”

The launch marked North Korea’s second major weapons test of the year, following a Jan. 4 firing of what Pyongyang described as hypersonic weapons.

The test took place ahead of the Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, expected to be convened by early next month. The gathering is seen as a forum for the leadership to review policy performance, announce a new five-year economic plan and signal potential shifts in military and foreign policy priorities.

Kim said the upcoming congress “will clarify the next-stage plans for further bolstering up the country’s nuclear war deterrent,” according to KCNA.

The KCNA report said four rockets were fired during the test on Tuesday, hitting a target in the sea some 223 miles away.

South Korea’s military announced on the same day that it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched from an area north of Pyongyang into the sea between Korea and Japan.

North Korea did not supply detailed specifications of the system, but it has tested a 600mm multiple rocket launcher on several occasions, most recently in May.

The United States and South Korea refer to the 600mm rocket system as the KN-25 and characterize it as a short-range ballistic missile. Pyongyang has claimed since October 2022 that the weapon can be fitted with a tactical nuclear warhead.

In late December, Kim visited a munitions factory and praised a new rocket launcher system that can “annihilate the enemy through sudden precise strike with high accuracy and devastating power” and can also be used as a “strategic attack means.”

Analysts warn that North Korea’s expanding long-range rocket artillery poses a growing conventional threat to South Korea, where much of the population and key military infrastructure lie within range of such systems.

While diplomatic circles welcome the recovery of the last Israeli captive’s remains in Gaza and the imminent partial reopening of the enclave’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a quieter, darker reality is taking shape on the ground.

According to comments by retired Israeli General Amir Avivi, who still advises the military, Israel has cleared land in Rafah, an area in the southern Gaza Strip that it had already flattened in more than two years of its genocidal war, to construct an enormous facility to entrench its military control and presence in Gaza for the long term.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency on Tuesday, Avivi described the project as a “big, organised camp” capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people, stating it would be equipped with “ID checks, including facial recognition”, to track every Palestinian entering or leaving.

Corroborating Avivi’s claims, exclusive analysis by Al Jazeera’s Digital Investigations Team confirms that ground preparations for this project are already well under way.

Satellite imagery captured from December 2 through Monday reveals extensive clearing operations in western Rafah. The analysis identifies an area of about 1.3sq km (half a square mile) that has undergone systematic levelling.

According to the investigation, the operations went beyond mere debris removal and involved the flattening of land previously devastated by Israeli air strikes.

The cleared zone is located adjacent to two Israeli military posts, suggesting the new camp will be under direct and immediate military supervision. The satellite evidence aligns with reports that the facility is to act as a controlled “holding pen” rather than a humanitarian shelter.

The trap of return

To analysts in Gaza, no humanitarian intent is behind this projected high-tech infrastructure, which they say is in fact a trap for Palestinians.

“What they are building is, in reality, a human-sorting mechanism reminiscent of Nazi-era selection points,” Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “It is a tool for racial filtering and a continuation of the genocide by other means.”

The reopening of the Rafah crossing, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, according to The Jerusalem Post, comes with strict Israeli conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on full “security control”.

For Palestinians hoping to return to Gaza, this means submitting to what Afifa describes as “human sorting stations”.

“This mechanism is designed to deter return,” Afifa said. “Palestinians will face interrogation, humiliation and the risk of arrest at these Israeli-run checkpoints just to go home.”

By leveraging facial recognition technology confirmed by Avivi, Israel is creating a high-risk ordeal for returnees, he said. Afifa argued it will force many Palestinians to choose exile over the risk of the “sorting station”, serving Israel’s longstanding goal of depopulating the Strip.

Permanent occupation within the ‘yellow line’

The Rafah camp is just one piece of a larger puzzle. Israel in effect occupies all of Gaza with a physical military presence in 58 percent of the Gaza Strip. Its forces directly occupy an area within the “yellow line”, a self-proclaimed Israeli military buffer zone established by an October ceasefire.

“We are witnessing the re-engineering of Gaza’s geography and demography,” Afifa said. “About 70 percent of the Strip is now under direct Israeli military management.”

This assessment of a permanent foothold is reinforced by Netanyahu’s own remarks to the Knesset on Monday. By declaring that “the next phase is demilitarisation”, or disarming Hamas, rather than reconstruction, Netanyahu signalled that the military occupation has no end date.

“The talk of ‘reconstruction’ starting in Rafah under Israeli security specifications suggests they are building a permanent security infrastructure, not a sovereign Palestinian state,” Afifa added.

A ‘show’ of peace

For the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, the hope that the return of the last Israeli captive would bring relief has turned into frustration.

“There is a deep sense of betrayal,” Afifa said. “The world celebrated the release of one Israeli body as a triumph while two million Palestinians remain hostages in their own land.”

Afifa warned that the international silence regarding these “sorting stations” risks normalising them. If the Rafah model succeeds, it would transform Gaza from a besieged territory into a high-tech prison where the simple act of travel becomes a tool of subjugation, he said.

“Israel is behaving as if it is staying forever,” Afifa concluded. “And the world is watching the show of peace while the prison walls are being reinforced.”

A court sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to one year and eight months in prison Wednesday after finding her guilty of accepting luxury bribes from the Unification Church that had sought business favors.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team had sought a 15-year prison term for Kim, the wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who stands trial on an insurrection charge related to his martial law bid in 2024.

But the Seoul Central District Court handed down the far shorter prison term for Kim, acquitting her of charges of involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and violating the Political Funds Act.

The court also ordered Kim to forfeit 12.8 million won (US$8,988). With Wednesday’s ruling, Kim and her husband have become the country’s first presidential couple to be imprisoned with criminal convictions.

The court said it found Kim guilty of receiving luxury goods, such as a Chanel bag and a high-end Graff necklace, from the Unification Church, which had sought business favors from her.

“The defendant misused her position as a means to seek profit,” the court said. “(She) failed to reject high-end luxury goods shared in connection with the Unification Church’s requests and focused on her own adornment.”

Kim had been charged with conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company’s stock price and make 810 million won in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.

She was also indicted for violating the Political Funds Act for allegedly receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won, together with her husband, from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the 2022 presidential election.

The former first lady was additionally charged with conspiring with a shaman to receive luxury gifts worth 80 million won from a Unification Church official in 2022, along with requests for business favors.

Kim, who has been held in custody since August, had denied all of the charges.

Yoon has been sentenced to five years in prison on charges stemming from his martial law bid in 2024. He is also standing trial on more charges, including leading an insurrection through his martial law decree.

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The U.S. Air Force general who oversees America’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force sees a long future ahead for the new LGM-35A Sentinel after it eventually enters service. At the same time, he has acknowledged challenges surrounding the Sentinel program, which is still being restructured nearly two years after huge cost overruns triggered a full review. Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor for the missile, says it is now working with the Air Force to try to re-accelerate the program, which is now years, if not decades, behind schedule.

Air Force Gen. Stephen Davis, head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), recently discussed Sentinel, as well as the existing Minuteman III ICBMs the new missile is set to replace, among other topics, with TWZ‘s Howard Altman. This was Davis’ first interview since taking command of AFGSC in November.

Today, there are 400 Minuteman IIIs loaded in silos spread across five states. The Air Force’s goal is to replace them, one-for-one, with new Sentinels. In 2020, the Air Force declared Northrop Grumman as the winner of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) competition that led to Sentinel.

“Sentinel is probably the biggest program going on in the Department of War right now, certainly in the Department of the Air Force,” Davis said. “Sentinel brings some important new capabilities that we actually have to deliver for the warfighter, for USSTRATCOM [U.S. Strategic Command].”

Much about the new LGM-35A is classified. The Air Force and Northrop Grumman have talked broadly in the past about it offering greater range and improved accuracy, as well as reliability and sustainability benefits, over the aging Minuteman IIIs. The stated plan is for each Sentinel to carry a single W87-1 nuclear warhead inside a Mk 21A re-entry vehicle, but that loading may change in the future, as you can read more about here.

Enabling Peace Through Deterrence

Gen. Davis also called attention to the benefits that are expected to come from Sentinel’s use of open-architecture systems and a supporting infrastructure that is more digital in nature. In general, open architectures, especially software-defined ones, are intended to make it easier to integrate new and improved capabilities and functionality down the line.

“I think Sentinel is going to be a bit easier with some of the things we’re designing into the program, the digital infrastructure, the open architecture,” Davis said. “I think it will make it easier to upgrade and keep that missile relevant. I don’t have any worries about being able to do that in the future.”

The Minuteman III, also known by the designation LGM-30G, first entered operational service in 1970. The missiles, as well as their supporting infrastructure, have received incremental upgrades since then. The design is an evolution of the earlier Minuteman I and II types that entered service in the 1960s. The Air Force did field a newer ICBM, the LGM-118 Peacekeeper, in the 1980s, but withdrew the last of those missiles from service in 2005 as a result of U.S.-Russian arms control agreements. 

LGM-118 MX Peacekeeper ICBM

“We have the challenge of continuing to sustain Minuteman III until we can get Sentinel up online,” Davis said. “We’ve continued to modernize that to keep it relevant. It will continue to sustain it until Sentinel comes on.”

The original program timeline for the Sentinel called for it to begin entering service in 2029. The Minuteman III would continue to serve into 2036 as the Air Force transitioned fully to the new missile.

What the current timeline for Sentinel is now is unknown. In 2024, delays and cost overruns triggered a formal legal requirement for a review of the program, referred to as a Nunn-McCurdy breach, as you can read more about here. This, in turn, prompted an effort to restructure the program that was expected to take 18 to 24 months. At that time, the Pentagon’s Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) projected the total acquisition costs could soar to approximately $140.9 billion, an 81 percent increase over the original estimates, even with the restructuring.

Even then, it had begun to emerge that the bulk of the issues with the Sentinel program were tied to the ground-based infrastructure rather than the missile itself. It has since become clear that the Air Force did not have a full understanding of the magnitude of the physical construction that would be required. This has been compounded by the determination that reusing existing Minuteman III silos is no longer viable, and that entirely new silos will have to be built.

The understanding that it would be possible to reuse substantial parts of the existing Minuteman III infrastructure factored heavily into the original basing plan for Sentinel. The Air Force had considered and rejected a wide range of alternatives, including launchers positioned at the bottom of lakes or in tunnels.

With the Nunn-McCurdy breach, the timeline for replacing Minuteman III has fallen into limbo, at least publicly. Last September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, released a report saying the Air Force was considering options for extending the service life of Minuteman III out as far as 2050.

During a quarterly earnings call today, Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden discussed Sentinel and said that the restructuring effort is still underway, creating continued timeline uncertainty.

“We are in the middle of supporting the U.S. Air Force as they restructure the Sentinel Program,” Warden said. “Coming out of that, they will firm [up] a schedule that both locks in new time ranges for milestone B [entry into the engineering and manufacturing development phase], initial operating capability, final operating capability.”

“I don’t want to get ahead of the Air Force in talking about that, but certainly, as I have shared, and the Air Force has, as well, we are working to accelerate the timelines that were published coming out of the Nunn-McCurdy breach two years ago,” she continued. “So that is the goal, and we’re making good progress to identifying options to do so. We still believe that the program will be in development for several years and not transitioning into production until later in the decade, and that production will very much be guided by the milestone achievement during development.”

Overall, the Air Force and Pentagon leadership continue to view the Sentinel program as a top national security imperative. The announcement of the GBSD effort to replace Minuteman III and the selection of Northrop Grumman’s design had prompted new discussions about the utility of the ground-based leg of America’s nuclear triad. As it stands now, the primary purpose of America’s silo-based ICBMs is to act as a ‘warhead sponge’ that would force any opponent to expend substantial resources on trying to neutralize it in a future nuclear exchange. It also stands as the fastest nuclear response option in the Pentagon’s strategic portfolio. A the same time, the deterioration in the security situation around the globe, with China drastically expanding its nuclear arsenal and Russia at war with its neighbor in Europe, among other proliferation and strategic weapons development concerns, have bolstered the case for Sentinel and nuclear modernization as a whole.

As AFGSC’s Gen. Davis has now told us, the hope is also that the benefits the Sentinels will bring when they finally do enter service will ensure they remain on guard for decades to come.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

West Ham midfielder James Ward-Prowse is expected to undergo a medical with Burnley on Wednesday as he closes in on a loan move.

Ward-Prowse, 31, joined the Hammers from Southampton in August 2023 and has made 78 appearances.

The England international was loaned to Nottingham Forest for the 2024-25 season and played 10 times under then manager Nuno Espirito Santo, but the deal was cut short during the winter transfer window.

He was a regular under former West Ham manager Graham Potter and made six appearances this season before Potter was sacked in September.

Ward-Prowse has not played a single minute of football since Nuno was brought in at West Ham.

Burnley sit 19th in the Premier League and are 10 points from safety following Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Tottenham. The 18th-placed Hammers are five points above the Clarets.

Burnley manager Scott Parker brought in 18-year-old defender Cameron Scott from Rangers earlier this month but is looking to add experience with Ward-Prowse.

Ward-Prowse came through Southampton’s academy and made 410 appearances before leaving for West Ham.

Dutch firm says it expects strong growth in 2026, countering fears of an investment bubble.

Tech giant ASML has reported a quarterly record in orders of its chip-making equipment, boosting hopes for the sustainability of the artificial intelligence boom and countering fears of an investment bubble.

The Dutch firm said on Wednesday that it booked orders worth 13.2 billion euros ($15.8bn) in the final quarter of 2025, more than half of which were for its most advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines.

ASML logged orders worth 7 million euros during the same period the previous year.

Net sales came to 9.7 billion euros in the October-December period, ASML said, taking sales for all of 2025 to 32.7 billion euros.

Net profit for the year was 9.6 billion euros, up from 7.6 billion euros in 2024.

The Veldhoven-based company forecast net sales of between 34 billion euros and 39 billion euros in 2026.

ASML Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet said the company’s chip-making customers had conveyed a “notably more positive assessment” of the market situation in the medium term based on expectations of strong AI-related demand.

“This is reflected in a marked step-up in their medium-term capacity plans and in our record order intake,” Fouquet said in a statement.

“Therefore, we expect 2026 to be another growth year for ASML’s business, largely driven by a significant increase in EUV sales and growth in our installed base business sales.”

Fouquet also said the company would cut about 1,700 jobs, most of them at the leadership level, amid concerns work processes had become “less agile”.

“Engineers in particular have expressed their desire to focus their time on engineering, without being hampered by slow process flows, and restore the fast-moving culture that has made us so successful,” Fouquet said.

The proposed cuts, which would affect positions in the Netherlands and the United States, represent about 4 percent of ASML’s 44,000-strong global workforce.

ASML holds an effective monopoly on the production of machinery used by TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and Intel to make the most advanced AI chips.

The company sells only about 50 of its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines each year, with each unit costing about 250 million euros.

ASML’s share price surged on Wednesday, with its stock up nearly 6 percent as of 9.30am local time.

“ASML’s latest results suggest the AI boom is still in full swing, with strong orders and a bullish outlook,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“However, job cuts in the business would suggest it is not getting carried away with the strength of current trading.”

ASML’s restructuring “looks like a sharper focus on efficiencies and different ways of working, rather than saying there isn’t enough work for existing staff to do,” Mould added.

“Nonetheless, it’s a sign that the AI craze might be trying to catch its breath.”

Tech giants such as Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia and Oracle have poured billions of dollars into AI in the expectation that the technology will deliver dramatic changes to how people work and live.

Global AI-related spending is forecast to hit $2.53 trillion in 2026 and $3.33 trillion in 2027, according to projections by technology insights firm Gartner.

The investment boom has propelled the US stock market to record highs, stoking concerns about the sustainability of huge spending on a technology whose promise remains largely unrealised.

A Russian drone strike on a passenger train in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region has killed at least five people. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the attack as an act of terrorism.

More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled from Tirah, a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, as fears grow of an imminent military offensive against the Pakistan Taliban, according to local residents and officials.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has contradicted claims made by locals and provincial authorities, insisting no military operation is occurring or planned in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province town.

During an Islamabad news conference, he attributed the mass migration to harsh weather conditions rather than military actions, despite residents fleeing for weeks over fears of an impending army operation.

The exodus began after mosque announcements in December last year urged residents to vacate Tirah by January 23 to avoid possible conflict. This follows Pakistan’s August military campaign against Taliban forces in the northwestern Bajaur district, which displaced hundreds of thousands.

Shafi Jan, a provincial government spokesman, blamed federal authorities via social media for the displaced people’s hardships, accusing the Islamabad government of changing its position regarding military operations.

Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, from imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, has opposed military intervention and pledged to prevent a full-scale operation in Tirah.

Military officials maintain they will continue targeted intelligence operations against Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They claim many TTP fighters have found refuge in Afghanistan since the Afghan Taliban’s 2021 return to power, with hundreds crossing into Tirah and using residents as human shields during raids.

Nearly half of population

Local government administrator Talha Rafiq Alam reported that approximately 10,000 families – about 70,000 people – from Tirah’s 150,000 population have registered as displaced. The registration deadline has been extended from January 23 to February 5, with assurances that residents can return once security improves.

Zar Badshah, 35, who fled with his family, said mortar explosions in villages recently killed one woman and injured four children in his community. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.

At a Bara government school, hundreds waited in registration lines for government assistance, many complaining about slow processing. Narendra Singh, 27, explained that members of the Sikh minority also fled Tirah due to food shortages worsened by heavy snowfall and security concerns.

Tirah gained national attention last September after an explosion at an alleged bomb-making facility killed at least 24 people. While authorities claimed most casualties were TTP-linked fighters, local leaders contested this account, stating civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.

One of NASA’s high-flying WB-57F research aircraft went skidding down the runway on its belly at Ellington Airport in Houston, Texas, earlier today.

The incident occurred at around 11:30 AM local time, according to KHOU, a local CBS affiliate in Houston. KHOU has shared video footage showing the two-seat WB-57F spraying sparks and smoke after making contact with the runway. Additional footage shows the pilot exiting the plane with the help of first responders on the ground.

Plane appears to land without gears at Ellington Airport in Houston

NASA plane makes belly landing at Ellington Field, video shows

“Today, a mechanical issue with one of NASA’s WB-57s resulted in a gear-up landing at Ellington Field. Response to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are safe at this time,” NASA’s official account on X wrote in response to KHOU‘s report. “As with any incident, a thorough investigation will be conducted by NASA into the cause. NASA will transparently update the public as we gather more information.”

KHOU also reported that Ellington’s runway 17R–35L was closed as efforts were made to move the stricken WB-57F.

All three of NASA’s WB-57Fs are based at the Johnson Space Center, also located in Houston. The aircraft are well known for their high-altitude capabilities, and can fly as high as 63,000 feet depending on how they are configured. They can carry different sensors and other systems in modular payload bays under the fuselage, as well as in their noses and underwing pods. Though roughly similar in some respects, the WB-57F should not be confused with the U.S. Air Force’s higher-flying U-2s. NASA also operates a pair of ER-2 aircraft, which are modified U-2s.

The WB-57Fs, originally developed for the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War as high-flying intelligence-gathering platforms, are now used for various scientific research purposes. The jets have also been used to support various U.S. military operational and test and evaluation-type missions. One of them was notably called upon to help in the response to weeks of still unexplained drone incursions over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia in December 2023, which TWZ was first to report. Many aerial videos of space launches that we see are taken by the WB-57Fs, as well.

Overall, NASA’s WB-57Fs are the definition of an extremely low-density, high-demand asset, and what long-term impacts today’s belly landing may have on the future of the fleet remain be seen.

Update: 4:20 PM EST —

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has now provided TWZ with the following statement:

“A Martin WB-57 landed with its gear up at Ellington Airport in Houston around 11:25 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Two people were on board. The FAA will investigate.”

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Jan. 28 (UPI) — The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador has filed a protest with the U.S. Embassy in the South American country after a federal immigration agent tried to enter its consulate in Minneapolis.

Uncorroborated video of the incident shared online shows a consular employee confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents attempting to enter the facility.

The employee stands in the doorway and tells the ICE agent that he is not allowed to enter. The ICE agent is heard telling the employee to “relax” and threatens to “grab” the employee if the agent is touched.

The employee repeatedly tells the ICE agent he is not allowed to enter the premises. The agent then leaves. The incident lasts less than a minute.

“Officials of the Consulate prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular premises, thereby ensuring the protection of Ecuadorians who were present at the consulate at the time, and activating the emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility,” the Foreign Ministry of Ecuador said in a statement.

The incident occurred at about 11 a.m. CST Tuesday, the ministry said.

UPI has contacted ICE for comment.

Law enforcement of the host country is generally prohibited from entering diplomatic missions of foreign nations, including consulates, except with the consent of the head of the mission, Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 states.

Minneapolis City Council Member Elliot Payne, of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said he spoke with Ambassador Helena Del Carmen Yanez Loza who explained they were filing the protest “so that they know that their community is safe coming here.”

“It’s really important that our Ecuadorian community knows that their consulate is a safe place to come and do the business that they need to do,” Payne said in a video statement published on Instagram.

The council member added that community members in the area monitoring the situation have been “really helpful” to ensure people feel safe coming to the consulate, encouraging them to continue with their service.

“Stay out on these foot patrols. Stay out on Central Avenue. Stay safe. Stay vigilant,” he said.

Launched by the Trump administration in December, Operation Metro Surge has seen thousands of federal immigration officers deployed to Minneapolis with the mission to arrest and then deport undocumented migrants with criminal records.

Thousands of migrants have been arrested. Activists and civil and immigration rights advocates have accused federal agents of detaining U.S. citizens, racial profiling people and using excessive force as well as violating due process rights.

Residents have taken to the streets in protest against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and have been met with violence, resulting in the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officers in the city this month.

World number two Nelly Korda has called the lack of a mixed gender indoor virtual league “an unbelievable miss” following the launch of a women’s competition backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

The WTGL will be held in the same Florida venue as the men’s TGL, which is currently midway through its second season.

Some of the world’s best female golfers will compete in a season of team matchplay in the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, but Korda suggested not combining the men and women’s events was a missed opportunity.

“I have mixed feelings on it, and I’m surprised no other girls have spoken out about it,” she said.

“It’s a huge and unbelievable miss that we’re not playing alongside the men.

“There’s no greater way to grow the game, and it would have been revolutionary. It would have been the first time, I think, that men and women are on the same playing field, playing for the same exact amount of money.

“But I also think it’s great that we are getting this opportunity, so that’s my mixed feelings.”

The indoor golf set-up features teams of players hitting shots at a five-storey-high simulator screen before moving to a short-game area with bunkers and a green that can rotate 360 degrees, creating hole-to-hole variations.

Asked about the prospect of a mixed-gender event, Mike McCarley, a former TV executive who founded the TGL alongside McIlroy and Woods said the idea had been discussed.

“I think that is something that’s interesting to us and is interesting to the LPGA and is interesting to a lot of the players we’re talking to,” said McCarley.

“Right now, we’re really focused on building (the TGL) out and providing, frankly, a nice stage and really nice platform to showcase the players and their personalities.”

Korda, 27, is yet to commit to entering the event, saying she is “still weighing out the time commitment” required to play in the tournament.

World number one Jeeno Thitikul and British golfers Charley Hull and Lottie Woad are among the players confirmed to compete.

Atlanta Drive beat New York GC 4-3 to win the first TGL title last year, with a prize pot of £10.39m being split between the two finalists.

This season’s competition, external began on 28 December, with a best-of-three final set to start on 23 March.

The start date and prize pot for the women’s competition is yet to be announced, beyond it being scheduled to take place in winter 2026-27.

World-renowned composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June’s world premiere of Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration.

“Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,” Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.

“We have no place for politics in the arts, and those calling for boycotts based on politics are making the wrong decision,” Roma Daravi, vice president of media relations at the Kennedy Center, said in response.

President Trump has served as board chair since early last year when he fired the existing board and appointed former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as president. The newly installed board promptly installed Trump in his current position. The president’s pursuit of a deeply conservative agenda for the arts unleashed unprecedented chaos at the nation’s premiere performing arts center, resulting in massive upheaval and wave after wave of prominent artist cancellations.

The news that Glass was calling off his appearance also caught off guard the National Symphony Orchestra. The NSO commissioned the symphony in 2022 for the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary, and Glass was late to deliver. The symphony was scheduled to be performed with the NSO on June 12 and 13.

“We have great admiration for Philip Glass and were surprised to learn about his decision at the same time as the press,” Jean Davidson, the orchestra’s executive director, said in an email.

The news comes amid a growing chorus of high-profile cancellations that have occurred since the center’s board voted last month to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, and quickly added the president’s name above that of Kennedy’s on the exterior of the building.

Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of a Christmas Eve show and the jazz group the Cookers canceled two New Year’s Eve performances. Banjo player Béla Fleck also stepped away from concerts with the NSO and “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz said he no longer plans to host a May 15 gala at the center.

The arts world was rocked by the news earlier this month that the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971. Kennedy Center leadership, including Grenell, quickly shot back that it was the board that asked the WNO to depart.

“We have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera’s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole — and getting worse,” Grenell wrote on social media.

Most recently, the center’s website announced that soprano Renée Fleming would no longer perform in two scheduled shows. “A scheduling conflict” was the reason cited, but speculation about the opera star’s departure swirled as the center’s artistic losses mounted amid widely reported plummeting ticket sales.

During the recent upheaval, arts watchers have begun wondering about the future of the NSO, which, along with the recently departed WNO, represents the twin pillars of artistic programming at the center.

According to Daravi, the NSO isn’t pulling out of the venue.

“The relationship is strong, and we have a wonderful season here with Maestro [Gianandrea Noseda] in his 10th year leading the NSO,” Daravi wrote in an email last week, noting the “record-breaking success at the recent Gala benefiting the NSO which launched the new season. The event raised $3.45 million, marking an all-time fundraising record for the organization.”

On Monday Trump sought to boost his financial management of the venue in a Truth Social post that read, “People don’t realize that the Trump Kennedy Center suffered massive deficits for many years and, like everything else, I merely came in to save it, and, if possible, make it far better that ever before!”

The center’s calendar is looking increasingly sclerotic as big names continue to defect, with the NSO providing much-needed padding as it moves on in the face of unending change.

US Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was sprayed with an unknown substance by an assailant during a public meeting in Minneapolis, where she called for immigration agency ICE to be abolished. She was unharmed, and police arrested the man on third-degree assault charges.

Kim Keon Hee’s husband, Yoon Suk Yeol, is potentially facing the death penalty over his role in declaring martial law in 2024 while president.

A South Korean court has sentenced former First Lady Kim Keon Hee to one year and eight months in prison after finding her guilty of accepting bribes from the Unification Church, according to South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency.

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday cleared Kim, the wife of disgraced ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, of additional charges of stock price manipulation and violating the political funds act.

Kim was accused of receiving bribes and lavish gifts from businesses and politicians, as well as the Unification Church, totalling at least $200,000.

The prosecution team had also indicted Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja, now on ‌trial, after the religious group was suspected of giving Kim valuables, including two Chanel handbags and a diamond necklace, as part ‌of its efforts to win influence with the president’s wife.

Prosecutors in December said Kim had “stood above the law” and colluded with the religious sect to undermine “the constitutionally mandated separation of religion and state”.

Prosecutor Min Joong-ki also said South Korea’s institutions were “severely undermined by abuses of power” committed by Kim.

The former first lady had denied all the charges, claiming the allegations against her were “deeply unjust” in her final testimony last month.

But she has also apologised for “causing trouble despite being a person of no importance”.

“When I consider my role and the responsibilities entrusted to me, it seems clear that I have made many mistakes,” she said in December.

Kim’s husband, the country’s former President Yoon, was ousted from office last year and has been sentenced to five years in prison for actions related to his short and disastrous declaration of martial law in December 2024.

Yoon could still be facing the death penalty in a separate case.

In 2023, hidden camera footage appeared to show Kim accepting a $2,200 luxury handbag in what was later dubbed the “Dior bag scandal”, further dragging down then-President Yoon’s already dismal approval ratings.

The scandal contributed to a stinging defeat for Yoon’s party in general elections in April 2024, as it failed to win back a parliamentary majority.

Yoon vetoed three opposition-backed bills to investigate allegations against Kim, including the Dior bag case, with the last veto in November 2024.

A week later, he declared martial law.

Kim’s sentencing comes days after former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was sentenced to 23 years in prison – eight years longer than prosecutors demanded – for aiding and abetting Yoon’s suspension of civilian rule.

Jan. 28 (UPI) — A NASA research jet performed a gear-up landing at Houston’s Joint Reserve Base Ellington after suffering a “mechanical issue,” according to NASA officials.

Uncorroborated video of the Tuesday landing posted online shows the plane, a WB-57 research aircraft, coming in low toward the runway, touching down with the belly of its fuselage.

Sparks, fire and smoke spew from the back of the plane as it comes to a stop, the video shows.

NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in a statement that the gear-up landing was the result of an unspecified “mechanical issue.”

“Response to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are safe at this time,” she said.

“As with any incident, a thorough investigation will be conducted by NASA into the cause. NASA will transparently update the public as we gather more information.”

The incident occurred at about 11:30 a.m. CST Tuesday on Runway 17R-35L, according to Houston Airports, the Texas city’s Department of Aviation.

The WB-57 high-altitude research plane is a mid-wing, long-range aircraft based near the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

According to NASA, three of the jets operate out of Ellington Field, and can fly in excess of 63,000 feet above sea level. It can also fly for about 6 1/2 hours with a range of about 2,500 miles.

A pilot and a sensor equipment operator generally crew the aircraft during flights.

US president says he still has confidence in Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid calls for her resignation.

US President Donald Trump said his administration intends to “de-escalate” the spiralling crisis in the state of Minnesota after federal agents killed two United States citizens, including intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, who was shot by two Border Patrol officers over the weekend.

“I don’t think it’s a pullback. It’s a little bit of a change,” President Trump told Fox News on Tuesday.

“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said, referring to a sweeping federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that has led to weeks of protests, the killing of Pretti and Renee Good, and a standoff between state and federal officials.

Top Trump officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, are under fire from Democrats and a growing number of Republicans over how they responded to Pretti’s shooting.

Pretti was filming Border Patrol officers with his phone when he was shot and killed on Saturday.

He was also a licensed gun owner with a permit to carry a weapon in public, which he was wearing at the time of the shooting and which appears to have been confiscated by officers before he was killed.

Trump told Fox News that he still had confidence in Noem despite calls for her resignation.

Noem, who oversees both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), responded to the killing by accusing Pretti of engaging in “domestic terrorism” and suggested the ICU nurse had brandished his weapon at Border Patrol agents during an altercation.

Noem’s remarks preceded any investigation findings and broke with the longstanding protocols of how US officials discuss a civilian shooting by law enforcement. Her characterisation of events also conflicted with preliminary video evidence showing that Pretti did not take out his weapon at any time while he was tackled and later shot and killed by officers.

A CBP official informed Congress on Tuesday that two federal officers fired shots during the killing of Pretti.

According to a notice sent to Congress, officers tried to take Pretti into custody and he resisted, leading to a struggle. During the struggle, a Border Patrol agent yelled, “He’s got a gun!” multiple times, the official said in the notice, according to The Associated Press news agency.

A Border Patrol officer and a CBP officer each fired Glock pistols, the notice said.

Investigators from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on a review of body-worn camera footage and agency documentation, the notice said. US law requires the agency to inform relevant congressional committees about deaths in CBP custody within 72 hours.

Most European countries have either turned down their invitations to join United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza – or politely suggested they are “considering” it, citing concerns.

From within the European Union, only Hungary and Bulgaria have accepted. That is a better track record of unity than the one displayed in 2003, when then-US President George W Bush called on member states to join his invasion of Iraq.

Spain, Britain, Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia said “yes”.

France turned the invitation down on the grounds that Trump’s 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”.

Trump pointedly did not invite Denmark, a close US ally, following a diplomatic fracas in which he had threatened to seize Greenland, a Danish territory, by force.

The US leader signed the charter for his Board of Peace on January 22 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling it “one of the most consequential bodies ever created”.

It has come across to many of the countries invited to join it as perhaps too consequential – an attempt to supplant the United Nations, whose mandate the board is meant to be fulfilling.

Although Trump said he believed the UN should continue to exist, his recent threats suggest that he would not respect the UN Charter, which forbids the violation of borders.

That impression was strengthened by the fact that he invited Russia to the board, amid its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

‘Trump needs a big win ahead of midterms’

“Trump is thinking about the interior of the US. Things aren’t going well. He needs a big win ahead of the November midterms,” said Angelos Syrigos, a professor of international law at Panteion University in Athens.

The US president has spent his first year in office looking for foreign policy triumphs he can sell at home, said Syrigos, citing the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the bombing of Iran and his efforts to end the Ukraine war.

Trump has invited board members to contribute $1bn each for a lifetime membership, but has not spelled out how the money will be spent.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is a member of the executive board.

“How will this thing function? Will Trump and his son-in-law administer it?” asked Syrigos.

Catherine Fieschi, a political scientist and fellow at the European University Institute, believed there was a more ambitious geopolitical goal as well.

“It’s as though Trump were gathering very deliberately middle powers … to defang the potential that these powers have of working independently and making deals,” she said.

Much like Bush’s 2003 “coalition of the willing” against Iraq, Trump’s initiative has cobbled together an ensemble of countries whose common traits are difficult to discern, ranging from Vietnam and Mongolia to Turkiye and Belarus.

Fieschi believed Trump was trying to corral middle powers in order to forestall other forms of multilateralism, a pathway to power that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney outlined in his speech at Davos, which so offended Trump.

“In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: [to] compete with each other for favour, or to combine to create a third path with impact,” Carney had said, encouraging countries to build “different coalitions for different issues” and to draw on “the power of legitimacy, integrity and rules”.

He decried the “rupture in the world order … and the beginning of a brutal reality where geopolitics among the great powers is not subject to any constraints”.

After the speech, Trump soon rescinded Canada’s invitation.

Countering agglomerations of power and legitimacy was Trump’s goal, Fieschi believed.

“Here you bind them into an organisation that in some ways offers a framework with Trump in it and the US in it, and implies constraints,” said Fieschi. “It’s not so much benign multilateralism as stopping the middle powers getting on with their hedging and with their capacity to have any kind of autonomy, strategic and otherwise.”

At the same time, she said, Trump was suggesting that the Board of Peace “might give them more power than they have right now in the UN”.

“Trump thinks this is like a golf club and therefore he’s going to charge a membership fee,” Fieschi said.

“If it was a reconstruction fee [for Gaza], I don’t think people would necessarily baulk at that,” she noted, adding that the fee smacked of “crass oligarchic motivation”.

The Board of Peace is called into existence by last November’s UN Security Council Resolution 2803 to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.

It is defined as “a transitional administration” meant to exist only “until such time as the Palestinian Authority (PA) has satisfactorily completed its reform program … and [can] effectively take back control of Gaza.”

Trump’s charter for the board makes no mention of Gaza, nor of the board’s limited lifespan. Instead, it broadens the board’s mandate to “areas affected or threatened by conflict”, and says it “shall dissolve at such time as the Chairman considers necessary or appropriate”.

China, which has presented itself as a harbinger of multipolarity and a challenger of the US-led world order, rejected the invitation.

“No matter how the international landscape may evolve, China will stay firmly committed to safeguarding the international system with the UN at its core,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun last week.

The UN itself appears to be offended by Trump’s scheme.

“The UN Security Council stands alone in its Charter-mandated authority to act on behalf of all Member States on matters of peace and security,” wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on social media on Monday, January 26.

“No other body or ad-hoc coalition can legally require all Member States to comply with decisions on peace and security,” he wrote.

Guterres was calling for a reform that would strengthen the legitimacy of the UN Security Council by better reflecting the balance of power in the world as it is, 81 years after the body was formed. But his statement can also be read as a veiled criticism of Trump’s version of the Board of Peace.

Transparency and governance are problematic, too.

Trump is appointing himself chairman of the board, with power to overrule all members. He gets to appoint the board’s executive, and makes financial transparency optional, saying the board “may authorise the establishment of accounts as necessary.”

As the Canadian military assesses how it would best deal with a potential invasion from Russia, Ottawa is pushing ahead with plans to significantly bolster its armored forces. On the wish-list are more than 250 armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), as well as an upgrade for the Canadian Armed Forces’ existing Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBTs).

These plans were outlined by representatives of the Canadian Armed Forces speaking at Defense IQ’s International Armored Vehicles conference in England last week, their comments later published by Shephard’s Defense Insight. Events of this kind are typically conducted under Chatham House rules, meaning that information can be freely shared with the public, but the identity of the speakers cannot be disclosed.

Canada already had a plan in place to introduce new AFVs, although the timeline for this has been brought forward. At one point, the new vehicles were expected to be inducted in 2035, but, in a reflection of the new urgency for defense modernization, they are now required to be fielded between 2029 and 2031.

This also appears to be the first time that the number of new AFVs has been officially pitched at 250.

The AFVs are required for the Canadian Army’s armored cavalry forces, specifically the two new medium cavalry (MEDCAV) battalions that are planned to be fielded by the future Maneuver Division.

The vehicles will require both a high level of tactical mobility as well as STANAG Level 6 blast protection, officials say. Level 6 constitutes protection against, for example, 30mm automatic cannonfire, or the detonation of a 15mm artillery shell at 10 meters (33 feet).

According to Shephard, the AFVs are also needed in a highly modular configuration, allowing the fleet to be equipped with cannons and/or mortars for direct fire, as well as for launching loitering munitions. Other versions will be configured as munitions carriers or for command and control (C2) operations.

In the past, three vehicles had been identified as meeting the AFV requirement: the Anglo-Swedish BAE Systems CV90, the South Korean Hanwha Redback, and the German Rheinmetall Lynx. Potentially, many other types could also be considered.

It’s not clear to what degree the new AFVs might be expected to have special modifications for the region in which they will chiefly operate. It is notable that Russia is well-trained for fighting in northern latitudes and is introducing a variety of weapons systems that are optimized for this kind of environment. In contrast, meanwhile, the U.S. Army is only slowly returning to more robust preparations for warfare in Arctic conditions.

Currently, the Canadian Army’s tracked AFV fleet is dominated by variants of the Tracked Light Armored Vehicle (TLAV), which is a derivative of the Cold War-era M113. The service also operates more modern wheeled AFVs, including the Bison (a Canadian version of the LAV II used by the U.S. Marine Corps), the improved LAV 6.0, and the Coyote (a version of the Bison configured for battlefield reconnaissance).

A tracked AFV will ensure the MEDCAV battalions have the requisite off-road mobility and ability to negotiate challenging obstacles, especially vital in the Canadian North. Tracked vehicles are also better able to keep pace with tanks.

As for the Canadian Army’s MBT fleet, this is also slated for an upgrade.

Under the Heavy Direct Fire Modernization (HDFM) project, Ottawa wants to bring its current fleet of German-made Leopard 2A6 MBTs to a new standard, known as Leopard 2A6M, by 2033.

Overall, the country now has a force of 103 Leopard 2A4, 2A4M, and 2A6M vehicles, which are being supported under a contract awarded in 2024. The last of these vehicles is expected to be withdrawn from operational service in 2035. Meanwhile, the oldest Leopard 2A4 versions are only used for training. Canada also donated eight Leopard 2s to Ukraine in 2023.

HDFM replaces most of the remaining analog systems in the Leopard 2A6M fleet and modernizes existing systems, including the optics and fire-control system. The result brings the 2A6M in line with the more advanced Leopard 2A4M fleet.

Canadian Army – Leopard 2A4M CAN Main Battle Tanks Live Firing + On The Move [720p]

The HDFM upgrade is only a stopgap, however, before Canada selects a new MBT. At the International Armored Vehicles conference, officials confirmed that Canada plans to “identify and begin procurement” of a new MBT by 2030. It’s also envisaged that, before the last of the Leopard 2s are retired, these older tanks and the new MBT will serve together within additional armored battalions and companies. The Canadian Forces want these units to be operational by 2037.

“The force design may require additional armored or armored cavalry battalions, but it is just too early at this point to say how many,” one source stated at the conference, as reported by Shephard.

This is part of a wider rethinking of the military, with the aim of having a warfighting concept for 2040.

“We recognize that the army we have is not the army we need, and we are taking the necessary funded steps to bridge that gap,” the source continued. “We are changing our structure, we are modernizing our fleet, we are growing our armored capability. We are no longer just talking about the future; we are actively building it.”

Against this force-structure planning and decisions over new fighting vehicles, Canada is increasingly looking at the kinds of land warfare scenarios it might face in the future.

Earlier this month, TWZ spoke to the operational commander for the Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) about how the Royal Canadian Air Force is looking to counter the growing threats China and Russia pose to the High North.

Simply put, the vast swaths of the Arctic are increasingly of both strategic and economic interest for all the major global powers, and this has been underscored by the growing intensity of Russian and Chinese military and civilian maritime activity in the region.

These same potential threats are also driving a reconfiguration of the Canadian Army.

Remarkably, however, the Canadian Armed Forces are reportedly also now looking at how they would respond to a hypothetical U.S. military invasion of Canada. Officials have stressed that they don’t think it is likely that U.S. President Donald Trump would order an invasion of Canada, and that the war-gamed scenarios were entirely conceptual in nature.

Interestingly, these concepts reportedly involve the Canadian Armed Forces adopting asymmetric tactics, “similar to those employed against Russia and later U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan,” according to two senior Canadian government officials, who spoke to The Globe and Mail on condition of anonymity.

The same newspaper suggests that this war-gaming is the first time in a century that the Canadian Armed Forces have looked at a hypothetical American assault on the country, which is not only a founding member of NATO but also, under NORAD, a close partner with the U.S. military in continental air defense. Canada is expected to be part of the Trump administration’s forthcoming Golden Dome missile defense system.

Undoubtedly, however, relations between Canada and the United States have cooled dramatically in recent years.

While officials in the Trump administration have hammered home their goal of U.S. regional dominance as an overarching geostrategic objective, the president himself has made threats to annex Canada. Last year, Trump said that the border between the two countries was no more than an “artificially drawn line” and one that might be redrawn using force and persuasion.

Last week, Trump posted an altered image on his social media account that placed the American flag over Canada, Greenland, and Venezuela.

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” Trump told reporters earlier this month.

The ongoing Greenland issue, which has led to considerable consternation in Europe, has also now drawn in Canada.

Reports emerged last week that Canada was considering sending a small contingent of troops to Greenland. Here they would conduct maneuvers alongside eight European countries, part of a military exercise that is seen as a show of solidarity for Denmark, of which the self-ruling island is a territory.

Last week, Trump posted on Truth Social that Canada was opposed to having the Golden Dome over Greenland “even though The Golden Dome would protect Canada. Instead, they voted in favor of doing business with China, who will ‘eat them up’ within the first year!”

Clearly, no one within the Canadian Armed Forces expects to be taking up arms — whether using AFVs or guerrilla tactics — against a U.S. invasion.

However, it is very telling how such a ‘what if?’ is apparently now being considered at a theoretical level. This kind of thinking, as well as the renewed impetus to acquire new and modernized armored fighting vehicles and tanks, underscores just how shifting strategic priorities across the High North are being felt by all of the countries within the region, with Canada no exception.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Jan. 27 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Hanwha Group is mounting an unusually broad industrial and technology campaign to strengthen its bid for Canada’s multibillion-dollar next-generation submarine program, extending its proposal well beyond shipbuilding to include steel, artificial intelligence and space-based infrastructure.

Hanwha said Monday that its defense units are offering what it described as a comprehensive “K-defense package” tailored to Canada’s emphasis on local industrial participation and economic offsets under its Canadian Patrol Submarine Project.

At the Korea-Canada Industrial Cooperation Forum held in Toronto on Sunday, Hanwha Ocean and Hanwha Systems signed memorandums of understanding with Canadian partners across five sectors: steel, AI, satellite communications, space technology and electro-optics.

As part of the effort, Hanwha Ocean agreed to cooperate with Algoma Steel, Canada’s largest steel producer. The agreement includes plans to invest about 345 million Canadian dollars to help establish a stable steel supply chain in Canada for submarine construction and long-term maintenance, repair and overhaul work, contingent on winning the contract. Hanwha said the approach goes beyond material procurement by directly supporting local manufacturing capacity.

In AI, Hanwha Ocean and Hanwha Systems signed a three-party MOU with Canadian startup Cohere to jointly develop specialized AI tools for shipbuilding, including production planning, design and manufacturing, as well as submarine system integration and operations. Cohere, which has received backing from companies such as Nvidia and Oracle, is valued at more than $7 billion, according to industry estimates.

Hanwha Systems also reached agreements with Telesat on low-Earth orbit satellite communications and with MDA Space and PV Labs on defense-related satellite and electro-optical technologies. The companies plan to link satellite platforms with Hanwha’s defense electronics to provide secure communications, command and control and data resilience for submarine operations.

The submarine bid has drawn strong backing from the South Korean government. Senior officials, including Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik and Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Kim Jeong-kwan, accompanied the delegation to Canada in what Seoul described as full-scale “sales diplomacy.” The government has designated the submarine project a national strategic export and proposed expanding cooperation to other sectors such as automobiles and hydrogen energy.

Consulting firm KPMG estimated that Hanwha’s proposed industrial cooperation framework could generate more than 200,000 person-years of employment in Canada between 2026 and 2040, a projection seen as a powerful selling point in a country where job creation and regional economic development are key political priorities.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260127010012673