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Jan. 29 (UPI) — A judge has barred federal immigration officers from arresting and detaining legally present refugees in Minnesota, handing the Trump administration a legal defeat in its aggressive immigration crackdown.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, in Minneapolis on Wednesday, issued a temporary restraining order that bars the arrest and detention of any Minnesota resident with refugee status as litigation on the issue continues.

“They are not committing crimes on our streets, nor did they illegally cross the border,” Tunheim wrote in his order.

“Refugees have a legal right to be in the United States, a right to work, a right to live peacefully — and importantly, a right not to be subjected to the terror of being arrested and detained without warrants or cause in their homes or on their way to religious services or to buy groceries.”

The Trump administration has been conducting an aggressive immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have arrested thousands of people since December, attracting protests, which have been met with violence.

Democrats and civil and immigration rights advocates have accused the agents of using excessive force and violating due process protections.

The order issued Wednesday comes in a lawsuit filed by the International Refugee Assistance Project against Operation PARRIS, an initiative launched Jan. 9 to re-examine the 5,600 pending refugee cases in Minnesota in a hunt for fraud and other possible crimes.

IRAP said in its complaint, filed Saturday, that since the operation began, federal immigration agents have arrested and detained more than 100 of Minnesota’s refugee population without warrants and often with violence.

Those detained have not been charged with any crime nor with any violation of immigration statutes, according to the immigration legal aid and advocacy organization, which said this policy not only goes against immigration law but also ICE’s own guidance that states there is no authority to detain refugees because they have not yet changed their status to lawful permanent residents.

The organization states that the purpose of Operation PARRIS “is to use these baseless detentions and coercive interviews as fishing expeditions to trigger a mass termination of refugee statuses and/or to render refugees vulnerable to removal.”

“For more than two weeks, refugees in Minnesota have been living in terror of being hunted down and disappeared to Texas,” Kimberly Grano, staff attorney for U.S. litigation at IRAP, said in a statement, referring to the location of detention centers where refugees detained in Minnesota are being held.

“This temporary restraining order will immediately put in place desperately needed guardrails on ICE and protect resettled refugees from being unlawfully targeted for arrest and detention.”

Tunheim’s order does not interfere with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ ability to conduct re-inspections to adjust refugees’ status to lawful permanent residents nor the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement of immigration laws. It only prevents the arrest and detention of refugees in the state who have yet to become lawful permanent residents while litigation proceeds.

“At its best, America serves as a have of individual liberties in a world too often full of tyranny and cruelty,” Tunheim said.

“We abandon that ideal when we subject our neighbors to fear and chaos.”

For years, 64-year-old Ibrahim Zira lived with high blood pressure, managing the condition at Jigalambu Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in the Michika area of Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria. When his condition worsened, he was referred to the Michika General Hospital, where he faced a familiar struggle: incomplete medical records and repeated tests.

“When I got there, they asked for my records, and the file I had contained very little information. I was asked questions and told to repeat tests I had already done. I had to pay again. It was painful because I don’t have a steady income,” Ibrahim complained.

In Nigeria, about 77 per cent of health spending is paid out of pocket, so each additional test adds a financial burden that many patients can barely afford. But the challenge is not only financial. Without digital medical records, patients like Ibrahim are often made to reconstruct their medical histories whenever they move between facilities, relying on memory of dates, drug names, and test results. 

“Sometimes I forget dates or drug names,” he said. “When that happens, the health workers think I’m not serious. It’s stressful explaining the same sickness again and again, especially when you’re not feeling well.”

The same experience surfaced for Pwavira Akami during her first pregnancy. She began antenatal care (ANC) at Gweda Mallam PHC in her hometown of Numan but later relocated to Jimeta, Yola—more than an hour’s journey away—to stay with her sister. There, she registered for antenatal care at Damilu PHC. 

The transition exposed the same fault line in the absence of digital patient records.

“They asked me many questions that were already written in my ANC card, but some pages were missing,” she recalled. As a result, Pwavira was asked to repeat basic lab tests. “I had to spend more money. It’s tiring; you keep answering the same questions about your last period, past illnesses, and tests. Sometimes you’re not even sure if you’re saying it correctly.” 

In both cases, the problem was not medical knowledge or staff competence. It was the absence of a shared system that allowed patient information to follow people as they moved between facilities.

Frontline workers show concerns

This gap, healthcare workers say, affects patients across Adamawa every day.

Mercy Dakko, a midwife at General Hospital, Michika, said she works almost every month without patient files and that internally displaced persons (IDPs) and pregnant women often arrive with incomplete or fragmented medical histories. 

“It slows everything down,” she told HumAngle. “In emergencies, lack of history can be risky. You may not know past complications or drug reactions.” 

Mercy recalled the case of a woman who came into labour, only for the staff to later learn that she was diagnosed with high blood pressure in a previous clinic. “We found out late, and it almost caused serious complications,” the midwife explained.

Sam Alex, another medical practitioner, agreed that due to a lack of well-documented medical history, they rely only on what the patient remembers, which is not always accurate. “Very often we repeat tests. It’s not ideal, but sometimes it’s the only safe option,” Sam said, noting that the stakes are even higher for chronic diseases.  “It increases the risk of wrong medication, delayed care and poor outcomes, especially for conditions like diabetes or hypertension.” 

He acknowledged that patients often bear additional burdens, spending more time and money, and some even refuse to come to the hospital because they are tired of having to repeat medical procedures. 

‘Everything is paper-based’

At the root of the problem is a paper-based system that requires patients to carry physical files. Emmanuel Somotochukwu, a Nigerian pharmacist, told HumAngle that in his hospital, about one in ten patients are sent back simply because a prescription is illegible or an old lab result is missing. 

Studies in Nigeria have found that illegible or incomplete prescriptions are a leading cause of medical error. In most hospitals across Adamawa, record officers are overwhelmed by paperwork. Bewo Gisilanbe, a record officer at the General Hospital in Michika, described how patient histories are stored. 

“Everything is paper-based. Files are created manually and stored in cabinets,” he said, admitting that old files or files from busy clinic days could get torn, misplaced, and slow to retrieve. “Once a patient leaves, their record ends here. There’s no connection to other facilities.”

Bewo stressed that searching for a lost history wastes time and distorts continuity of care. “We don’t know what happened to a patient’s prior care after they leave,” he said. If systems were linked, he argued, everything would change. “It would reduce workload, improve accuracy, and make record tracking easier.”

Why digitalised medical records matter

Experts say the solution to the flawed health system in Adamawa lies in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). In the health sector, DPI refers to shared, secure information systems that allow “medical histories, prescriptions, insurance status, and laboratory results to move electronically between units, without requiring patients to act as messengers”. 

The cornerstone of this system is a dependable digital identity. By mid-2025, Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) had issued 123.5 million National Identity Numbers (NIN). These IDs, if utilised, can act as a digital passport, enabling the connection of patient records across various healthcare facilities.

Recently, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and NIMC signed an MoU to establish a unified framework linking citizens’ national identity data with health insurance records. This integration is meant to streamline verification, reduce fraud, and expand access to healthcare, especially for underserved communities.

Beyond identity, DPI seems to require an interoperable health information record system. In 2024, the government launched the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI) to build a national health information exchange and patient registry. The goal is for health facilities to securely and seamlessly share information. 

Nzadon David, a digital innovations specialist working with the African Union, and Asor Ahura, a Nigerian-based AI engineer and digital health expert, highlighted several key requirements for success in digital health systems. Nzadon emphasised that “every system needs a way to recognise each person. In Nigeria, this means using the NIN or similar IDs in health records.” Asor also stated that “clinics must agree on data formats and coding systems to ensure that one hospital’s notes can be understood at another. He stressed that privacy laws, such as Nigeria’s 2023 Data Protection Act and clear guidelines about who can access information are essential for building trust. 

Across Africa, early DPI projects show what’s possible. Rwanda has an integrated e-health platform (Irembo) that links digital IDs to patient records and lab results. Kenya’s Afya Kenya initiative likewise allows a clinic in Kisumu to retrieve the same information as a clinic in Nairobi, eliminating duplicate efforts. The payoff is clear: fewer medical errors, faster diagnosis, and better continuity of care, according to the DPI Africa platform. Even India’s Aadhaar ID system now covers 1.4 billion people and is tied into programs including health insurance.

Nzadon noted that these countries didn’t digitise everything at once. They started small, created shared standards, scaling gradually. “States that succeed focus on shared standards and simple, open systems more than expensive software,” he added.

The road map

In 2025, Nigeria joined the UN’s Digital Public Goods Alliance, pledging that government systems, including health, should be open, inclusive, and interoperable. These moves seem to reflect lessons from around the world. Rwanda, Kenya and other countries show that with a national ID, electronic medical records, and a clear privacy framework, health services can become seamless. In Nigeria’s case, there is no shortage of data on why it matters. Aside from the human toll of broken care, inefficiency has economic consequences. According to McKinsey Global Institute’s digital identification report, scaling digital ID systems worldwide could add $5 trillion to global GDP. 

Frontline healthcare workers, seeing the impact firsthand, have a clear wish list. 

With connected records, Mercy said, “we can focus more on care instead of paperwork.” Bewo admitted that a shared system would “reduce mistakes” and free up resources for patients. Perhaps most pointedly, patients themselves feel the difference. Reflecting on his own experience, Ibrahim says a digitalised health system would make life easier. 

This report is produced under the DPI Africa Journalism Fellowship Programme of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Co-Develop.

Man charged with throwing explosive device into a crowd at Invasion Day protest in Western Australia’s Perth.

Police may investigate an alleged bombing attempt during an Indigenous rights protest in Perth, Western Australia, as a possible “terrorist” incident, following calls from Indigenous leaders and human rights groups for a more robust response from authorities.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Thursday that the incident was now being investigated by police as a “potential terrorist act”, two days after a 31-year-old man was charged with throwing a “homemade improvised explosive device” at an Invasion Day protest attended by thousands of people on Monday.

Police charged the man with throwing the device, which consisted of nails and ball bearings, into a large crowd during a protest on Australia’s national holiday, Australia Day, which is also referred to as Invasion Day, since it commemorates the 1788 arrival of a British fleet in Sydney Harbour.

The device did not explode and there were no injuries, police said.

A search of the suspect’s home was conducted, where it was further alleged that a combination of chemicals and materials consistent with the manufacture of homemade explosives was found, Western Australia Police Force said in a statement.

The suspect was charged with an attempt to cause harm and with making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.

Hannah McGlade, a member of the Indigenous Noongar community, told national broadcaster ABC on Thursday that it appeared police had “heard our concerns” regarding the attack.

“A lot of people have been adding concern that it hasn’t been looked at properly as a hate crime or even possibly as a terror crime,” said McGlade, an associate professor of law at Curtin University in Australia.

Indigenous people felt “absolute horror that so many people could have been injured and killed at an event like this, a peaceful gathering”, McGlade added.

The Human Rights Law Centre also called for “the violent, racist attack on First Nations people” to be “investigated as an act of terrorism or hate crime”.

“Reports by rally organisers and witnesses raise serious questions about [Western Australia] Police’s response and communication with organisers, both before and after the attack,” the legal group said in a statement.

The group also said reports that police failed “to address credible threats received ahead of the rally” should be “fully and independently investigated”.

Police alleged that the suspect removed the device from his bag and threw it from a walkway into a crowd of more than 2,000 people during the Invasion Day protest in Perth on Monday.

Alerted by a member of the public, police took the man into custody and bomb response officers inspected the device, the Western Australia Police Force said in a statement.

“It was confirmed to be a homemade improvised explosive device containing a mixture of volatile and potentially explosive chemicals, with nails and metal ball bearings affixed to the exterior,” police said.

Ousted premier says the exclusion of her Awami League party “deepens resentment” on Muhammad Yunus’s interim government.

Bangladesh’s toppled leader Sheikh Hasina has denounced her country’s election next month after her party was barred from participating in the polls, raising fears of wider political division and possible unrest.

In a message published by The Associated Press news agency on Thursday, Hasina said “a government born of exclusion cannot unite a divided nation.”

Hasina, who was sentenced to death in absentia for her crackdown on a student uprising in 2024 that killed hundreds of people and led to the fall of her 15-year government, has been sharpening her critique of the interim government of Nobel Peace winner Muhammad Yunus in recent days, as the election that will shape the nation’s next chapter looms.

“Each time political participation is denied to a significant portion of the population, it deepens resentment, delegitimises institutions and creates the conditions for future instability,” the former leader, who is living in exile in India, warned in her email to the AP.

She also claimed that the current Bangladesh government deliberately disenfranchised millions of her supporters by excluding her party – the former governing Awami League – from the election.

More than 127 million people in Bangladesh are eligible to vote in the February 12 election, widely seen as the country’s most consequential in decades and the first since Hasina’s removal from power after the mass uprising.

Yunus’s government is overseeing the process, with voters also weighing a proposed constitutional referendum on sweeping political reforms.

Campaigning started last week, with rallies in the capital, Dhaka, and elsewhere.

Yunus returned to Bangladesh and took over three days after Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, following weeks of violent unrest.

He has promised a free and fair election, but critics question whether the process will meet democratic standards and whether it will be genuinely inclusive after the ban on Hasina’s Awami League.

There are also concerns over security and uncertainty surrounding the referendum, which could bring about major changes to the constitution.

Yunus’s office said in a statement to the AP that security forces will ensure an orderly election and will not allow anyone to influence the outcome through coercion or violence. International observers and human rights groups have been invited to monitor the process, the statement added.

Tarique Rahman, the son of former prime minister and Hasina rival, Khaleda Zia, returned to Bangladesh after his mother’s death in December.

Rahman, the acting chairman of Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is a strong candidate to win the forthcoming election.

On Friday, Hasina made her first public speech since her ouster, telling a packed press club in Delhi that Bangladesh “will never experience free and fair elections” under Yunus’s watch.

Her remarks on Friday were broadcast online and streamed live to more than 100,000 of her supporters.

The statement was criticised by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which issued a statement saying it was “surprised” and “shocked” that India had allowed her to make a public address.

Bangladesh has been asking India to extradite Hasina, but New Delhi has yet to comment on the request.

India’s past support for Hasina has frayed relations between the South Asian neighbours since her overthrow.

Jan. 29 (UPI) — Britain, Canada, France and eight other allies on Wednesday “strongly condemned” Israel’s demolition of the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency building in occupied Palestinian territory, saying it represents the latest “unacceptable move” by the Middle Eastern nation to undermine the U.N.’s ability to operate.

The joint statement from the foreign ministries of Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Portugal and Spain described Israel’s demolition of UNRWA’s East Jerusalem building as “an unprecedented act against a United Nations agency by a U.N. member state.”

“We urge the Government of Israel to abide by its international obligations to ensure the protection and inviolability of United Nations premises in accordance with the provisions of the U.N. General Convention (1946) and the Charter,” the 11 nations said.

“We call upon the Government of Israel, a member of the United Nations, to halt all demolitions.”

The West Bank and East Jerusalem are widely regarded as Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, and Israeli actions, including the establishment of settlements and the demolition of Palestinian buildings, are widely regarded as illegal under international law.

Israel has long been a vocal critic of UNRWA, alleging it has ties with Hamas, allegations that only intensified after the Iran-backed militant group’s bloody surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed laws in the fall of 2024 to ban the agency from operating in land under its control, with the ban going into effect in January 2025.

Last week, Israel demolished UNRWA’s East Jerusalem building.

“UNRWA is a service provider delivering healthcare and education to millions of Palestinians across the region, particularly in Gaza, and must be able to operate without restrictions,” the 11 nations said Wednesday.

The nations also called on Israel to abide by its obligations to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“Despite the increase in aid entering Gaza, conditions remain dire and supply is inadequate for the needs of the population,” they said.

On Tuesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that not only had Israel “stormed & demolished” its headquarters, but it was now set on fire.

“Allowing this unprecedented destruction is the latest attack on the U.N. in the ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian Territory & erase their history,” Lazzarini said on X.

“Refugee status must be resolved through a genuine political solution, not criminal acts.”

Israel has killed more than 71,600 Palestinians and damaging more than 80% of all of the region’s structures in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israel has killed 492 Palestinians since the fragile cease-fire was announced in October.

Israel has been accused of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by a number of nations, international organizations and human rights groups, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges.

Israel has denied the accusations.

In Dhaka’s political chatter, one word often keeps resurfacing when people debate who really holds the reins of the country: “Kochukhet”.

The neighbourhood that houses key military installations has, in recent public discussions, become shorthand for the cantonment’s influence over civilian matters, including politics.

Bangladesh is weeks away from a national election on February 12, the first since the 2024 uprising that ended then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s long rule and ushered in an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

The army is not vying for electoral power. But it has become central to the voting climate as the most visible guarantor of public order, with the police still weakened in morale and capacity after the upheaval of 2024, and with the country still reckoning with a “security apparatus” that watchdogs and official inquiries say was used to shape political outcomes under Hasina.

For nearly a year and a half now, soldiers have policed the streets of Bangladesh, operating under an order that grants them magisterial powers in support of law and order. On election duty, the deployment will scale up further: Officials have said as many as 100,000 troops are expected nationwide, and proposed changes to election rules would formally list the armed forces among the poll’s “law-enforcing agencies”.

Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million wedged between India and Myanmar, has repeatedly seen political transitions hijacked by coups, counter-coups and military rule, a past that still shapes how Bangladeshis read the present.  Analysts say that the army today is not positioned for an overt takeover, but it remains a decisive power centre: an institution embedded across the state, able to narrow civilian choices through its security role, intelligence networks and footprint inside government.

The military’s role now

Thomas Kean, the International Crisis Group’s senior consultant on Bangladesh and Myanmar, said the army has been “backstopping the interim government” not only politically but also “through day-to-day security amid police weakness”.

He said the institution is eager to see a transition to an elected government so the country returns to a firmer constitutional footing and so troops can “return to their barracks”.

“There are different factions and views within the army, but overall I would say that the army wants to see the election take place as smoothly as possible,” Kean told Al Jazeera.

Kean argued that if the army chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman, and the military “had wanted to take power, they could have done so when the political order collapsed on August 5”, the day Hasina fled to India amid a popular student-led revolt. But the military chose not to, he said, in part because it had learned from the fallout of past experiments with its direct political control.

Asif Shahan, a political analyst and professor at Dhaka University, said the military was aware that a takeover would have also jeopardised key interests, including Bangladesh’s United Nations peacekeeping deployments, which carry both financial benefits and reputational weight for the armed forces. Bangladesh has for decades been one of the biggest suppliers to UN peacekeeping missions, and receives between $100m and $500m a year in payouts and equipment reimbursements for these services.

But Shahan argues that the military remains “an important political actor”. Today, he said, its influence is “less about overt intervention than the institutional weight it carries through the security and intelligence apparatus”.

He also pointed to what he called the army’s “corporate” footprint. That footprint spans involvement in major state infrastructure projects, the military’s own business conglomerate, and the presence of serving and retired officers across commercial and state bodies.

Shahan said the last Hasina government “gave them a share of the pie”, leaving “a kind of culture of corruption … ingrained”. He suggested that this could translate into informal pressure on whoever governs next to do the same, and anxieties inside the force over whether “the facilities and privileges” it has accumulated will shrink.

On the election itself, Shahan too said that the possibility of the army trying to gain overt control was “very low” unless there is such a major law and order breakdown that there is public demand for the army to step in as the “only source of stability”,

Others who track the military closely agreed. Rajib Hossain, a former army officer and author of the best-selling book Commando, said he “strongly believes” the army will avoid partisan involvement for its own sake. “The army will play a neutral role during this election,” he said. “What we’ve observed on the ground over the past year and a half, there is no record of the army acting in a partisan way.”

But, he added, pressure on the institution has been intense since 2024. “Internally, there’s an understanding that if the army fails to act neutrally, it could lose even the public credibility it still has,” he said.

Mustafa Kamal Rusho, a retired brigadier general at the Osmani Centre for Peace and Security Studies, also told Al Jazeera that the military does not have “any clear intent” to influence politics, though “it still remains a critical power base”.

That leverage was clearest during the 2024 uprising, Rusho said, when Bangladesh’s political crisis reached a point that many Bangladeshis and international watchdogs viewed the military’s posture as decisive. “If the military did not take the stand that it took, then there would have been more bloodshed,” he said.

With protests escalating, the military refused to fully enforce Hasina’s curfew orders and decided troops would not fire on civilians. It enabled Hasina to flee to India on an air force plane, and the army chief then announced an interim government would be formed.

In an Al Jazeera documentary on the uprising last year, Waker-uz-Zaman, who is related to Hasina and was appointed less than two months before her collapse, also stressed that his forces would not turn their guns on civilians. “We don’t shoot at civilians. It’s not in our culture … So we did not intervene,” he said.

In the same interview, he added: “We believe that the military should not engage in politics … It’s not our cup of tea.”

When the military ruled

That hasn’t always been the military’s position.

After the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding leader and then-president, by a group of military officers, the country entered a period marked by coups, counter-coups and military rule upheavals that reshaped the state and produced political forces that still dominate elections.

One of them was the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by army general-turned-ruler Ziaur Rahman, who emerged as the country’s most powerful figure in the late 1970s before moving into civilian politics. Rahman was assassinated in 1981 in a failed coup attempt by another group of military officers. The BNP remains a key contender in the February 12 vote, now led by Rahman’s son, Tarique Rahman, who has returned to front-line politics after a long exile.

In 1982, then army chief Hussain Muhammad Ershad seized power and ruled for much of the 1980s. Writer and political historian Mohiuddin Ahmed has described Ershad’s takeover as coming only months after he publicly argued that “the army should be brought in to help run the country”.

Eventually, a pro-democracy movement led by Zia’s wife, Khaleda Zia, and Hasina, also Mujibur Rahman’s daughter, forced him from office. The BNP won a landmark election, and in 1991, Khaleda became the country’s first female prime minister.

Since then, Rusho said, the military’s influence “became more indirect”, though Bangladesh still saw an abortive May 1996 showdown when the then army chief, Lieutenant General Abu Saleh Mohammad Nasim, defied presidential orders, and troops loyal to him moved towards Dhaka. Nasim was arrested and removed from office.

A decade later, in 2007, the military in effect “fully backed” a caretaker government that was formed to replace Khaleda’s second administration, which had ruled between 2001 and 2006. That caretaker government was installed in January 2007 after a breakdown in the election process and escalating political violence. The International Crisis Group described the caretaker administration as “headed by technocrats but controlled by the military”, while then-army chief Moeen U Ahmed argued the political climate “was deteriorating very rapidly” and that the military’s intervention had “quickly ended” street violence.

It was only after 2009, when Hasina came back to power – her Awami League had first ruled between 1996 and 2001 – that the military became “subordinate to the civilian regime”, Rusho said.

Blurred lines

But even though the military today insists that it does not want power, it has often drifted into the political terrain.

A major moment arrived just weeks after Hasina’s ouster, in September 2024, when General Zaman told the Reuters news agency he would back Yunus’s interim government “come what may”, while also floating a timeline for elections within 18 months. The interview, which critics described as something unprecedented for a serving army chief, placed the military close to the country’s central political debate.

Hossain, the former army officer and author, criticised the public nature of the intervention. “If he [Zaman] had discussed this after sitting with all the stakeholders … the interim [administration], political parties, protest leaders … and then gone to the media, that would be acceptable,” he said. “But here, he declared it unilaterally and blindsided the government from his position of power. He had no authority to do that.”

“You may say this is an extraordinary, transitional time and the military has a role to play,” Hossain added. “But then, why do we have an administration at all?”

Shahan, the Dhaka University professor, said Zaman “came very close” to crossing the line and explained it as a product of military institutional culture after August 5. “Military organisations … like to follow standing operating procedures, order, stability,” he said. But August 5, he added, was “a political rupture” that forced the army and the nation into uncertainty: about the interim government’s longevity, legitimacy and how it would deal with the military.

Those anxieties, Shahan said, likely pushed Zaman to speak. In principle, he said, it is reasonable for the army chief to say elections are needed for stability. But “when he set a specific timeline – within 18 months – that is beyond his role”, Shahan said. “It then appears as if he is dictating.”

Shahan added that the problem becomes sharper when that kind of specificity appears to respond to a party demand; he was referring to a time when only the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was repeatedly pushing for a vote timetable.

Eight months later, in May 2025, Zaman again weighed in, telling a high-level military gathering, according to local media reports, that his position had not changed and that the next national vote should be held by December 2025. After that, Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, a special adviser to Yunus, wrote on Facebook that “the army can’t meddle in politics” and argued that the military chief had failed to maintain “jurisdictional correctness” by prescribing an election deadline.

Around the same period, rumours emerged suggesting that Yunus had considered resigning amid political discord.

The shadow Hasina left

Another reason that analysts say the military’s role is being debated so intensely now is because of Bangladesh’s recent wounds.

During Hasina’s 15-year rule, human rights organisations argued Bangladesh’s security apparatus was often used for political control. Human Rights Watch has described enforced disappearances as a “hallmark” of Hasina’s rule since 2009.

When the United States sanctioned the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in 2021 over allegations of extrajudicial killings, the US Department of the Treasury said, “These incidents target opposition party members, journalists, and human rights activists.” Critics argue that security institutions became central to governance, and questions about how that machinery was used are now part of the post-Hasina political settlement.

Hossain, the former officer, said the Hasina-era legacy still echoes inside the top brass. “If you look at the leadership, the general, five lieutenant generals, and some major generals and brigadier generals, a lot of them were part of Hasina’s apparatus,” he said, “aside from a handful of professional officers”.

A report by Bangladesh’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances says disappearances were used as a “tool for political repression” and that the practice “reached alarming levels during key political flashpoints”, including in the run-up to elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024. The commission said it verified 1,569 cases of enforced disappearance.

In cases where political affiliation could be confirmed, the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing accounted for about 75 percent of victims, while the BNP and its affiliated groups accounted for about 22 percent. Among those “still missing or dead”, the BNP and its allies accounted for about 68 percent, while the Jamaat and its affiliates accounted for about 22 percent, the report said.

The commission also noted that the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the military-run intelligence agency, had been “accused of manipulating domestic politics and interfering in the 2014 parliamentary elections”, and argued that perceived alignment with the Awami League compromised its neutrality.

Several senior military officers, including 15 in service, are now facing trial in a civilian tribunal on charges of enforced disappearances, murders and custodial tortures.

The proceedings have become a delicate issue in civil-military relations, as cases against serving officers in civilian courts are rare in Bangladesh’s history.

Former army chief Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan wrote on Facebook that local media had reported disagreements over the “trial process” for officers accused of crimes against humanity and that those disagreements had created what he described as a “chasm” between the interim government and the army’s top leadership.

Hossain, the former officer, however, said he disagreed. “These trials are not defaming the army,” Hossain said. “Rather, they are a kind of redemption for the institution to recover from the stigma created by the crimes of some self-serving officers.”

He argued that accountability could motivate younger officers and reduce the risk of the military being politically exploited again. Rusho, the retired brigadier general, also argued that politicisation under Hasina was driven less by formal doctrine than by executive control over careers.

“Promotions, important postings, placements … they were influenced considerably by the executive branch,” he said. “When you influence postings, some people’s loyalty often gets diverted to political masters, [and] it affects … professionalism and capability.”

Kean of the International Crisis Group said the real test for Bangladesh now would be whether it can stop the security state from being reabsorbed into partisan politics.

“The military is going to remain a powerful institution in Bangladesh, with a level of influence in domestic politics,” he said. “One hopes that the lesson of the past 18 months is that the military is better to support civilian administrations rather than be in power directly – that it can be a stabilising force, and one that is ultimately committed to democracy and civilian leadership.”

But, he added, the onus to do that isn’t only on the generals. Civilian politicians, too, needed to resist the temptation to misuse the military. That alone, he suggested, would help Bangladesh keep the army in the barracks and politicians accountable to the people, not to men in khakis.

Jan. 28 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s opposition People Power Party and the ruling Democratic Party traded accusations Wednesday over U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks about restoring higher tariffs, with conservatives faulting the government’s diplomacy and liberals arguing Seoul must move quickly to pass pending legislation tied to a bilateral investment package.

The dispute unfolded at a National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee hearing, where Foreign Minister Cho Hyun faced questions about what the opposition described as a sudden reversal after the government promoted a tariff outcome that did not require a formal agreement document.

People Power Party floor leader Song Eon-seok said the public had been led to believe tariffs would remain lower once legislation related to U.S.-bound investment was introduced and processed. He said Trump’s renewed tariff warnings felt like a betrayal to many South Koreans and criticized the government for opposing parliamentary ratification procedures, arguing major commitments should be handled through proper legislative channels.

Several People Power Party lawmakers pressed the government over the effectiveness of its communication channel with Washington, mocking earlier claims that a high-level “hotline” had been established and questioning whether Seoul had meaningful leverage if tariff threats resurfaced so quickly.

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo said the government’s claim that negotiations were so successful they did not require a joint statement was not credible. He argued that if talks had been truly successful, the two sides would have presented the outcome publicly through a joint briefing.

Ruling party lawmakers countered that Trump’s unpredictability is well known and that repeated focus on ratification could slow Seoul’s ability to respond diplomatically and economically. They urged swift deliberation and passage of a special bill tied to U.S. investment commitments, saying similar memorandums and fact sheets with partners are often handled without full treaty-style ratification.

The dispute comes as South Korea moves to implement a bilateral memorandum and related measures that had been linked to tariff levels, while Seoul says it has not received an official U.S. notice of any change.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260129010013250

British PM Keir Starmer’s China visit is the first by a UK leader in eight years and marks a thaw in frosty relations.

The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in the first trip of its kind by a British leader in eight years.

Starmer said before his trip that doing business with China was the pragmatic choice and it was time for a “mature” relationship with the world’s second-largest economy.

“I have long been clear that the UK and China need a long-term, consistent and comprehensive strategic partnership,” Starmer said on Thursday.

During their meeting, Starmer told Xi that he hopes the two leaders can “identify opportunities to collaborate, but also allow a meaningful dialogue on areas where we disagree”.

Xi stressed the need for more “dialogue and cooperation” amid a “complex and intertwined” international situation.

The meeting between the two leaders in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday was due to last about 40 minutes, and will be followed by another meeting between Starmer and Chinese Premier Li Qiang later in the day.

Starmer is in China for three days and is accompanied by a delegation representing nearly 50 UK businesses and cultural organisations, including HSBC, British Airways, AstraZeneca and GSK.

The last trip by a UK prime minister was in 2018, when Theresa May visited Beijing.

Strengthening economic and security cooperation was at the top of the agenda during the Xi-Starmer meeting, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Katrina Yu.

“[Starmer] has the very big task of bringing this diplomatic relationship out of years of deep freeze, so the focus when he talks to Xi Jinping will be finding areas of common ground,” Yu said from Beijing.

China was the UK’s fourth-largest trading partner in 2025, with bilateral trade worth $137bn, according to UK government data.

Starmer is seeking to deepen those ties with Xi despite criticism at home around China’s human rights record and its status as a potential national security threat.

Besides business dealings, Starmer and Xi are also expected to announce further cooperation in the area of law enforcement to reduce the trafficking of undocumented immigrants into the UK by criminal gangs.

Relations between the UK and China have been frosty since Beijing launched a political crackdown in Hong Kong, a former British colony, following months of antigovernment protests in 2019.

London has also criticised the prosecution in Hong Kong of the pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who is also a British citizen, on national security charges.

Starmer’s trip to China comes as both Beijing and London’s relationship with the United States is under strain from President Donald Trump’s tariff war.

Trump’s recent threats to annex Greenland have also raised alarm among NATO members, including the UK.

Emmy-winning Owda points to changes in TikTok’s US ownership, remarks from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to explain ban.

Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has said she has been permanently banned from TikTok, days after the social media platform was acquired by new investors in the United States.

Owda, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and contributor to Al Jazeera’s AJ+ from Gaza, shared a video on her Instagram and X accounts on Wednesday, telling her followers that her TikTok account had been banned.

“TikTok deleted my account. I had 1.4 million followers there, and I have been building that platform for four years,” Owda said in the video filmed from Gaza.

“I expected that it will be restricted, like every time, not banned forever,” she added.

Al Jazeera sent a query to TikTok inquiring about Owda’s account and is waiting for a reply.

Hours after Owda shared her video, an account that appeared to have the same username was still visible on TikTok with a message that said: “Posts that some may find uncomfortable are unavailable.”

The last post visible on that account was from September 20, 2025, nearly three weeks before a ceasefire was reached in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

In her video on Wednesday, Owda pointed to recent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s US arm, as a possible explanation for the ban.

Netanyahu met with pro-Israel influencers in New York in September last year, telling them that he hoped the “purchase” of TikTok “goes through”.

“We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield in which we engage, and the most important ones are social media,” Netanyahu, who is a war crimes suspect, said at the time.

“The most important purchase that is going on right now is … TikTok,” Netanyahu added. “TikTok, number one, number one, and I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential,” he said.

TikTok announced last week that a deal to establish a separate version of the platform in the US had been completed, with the new entity controlled by investment firms, many of which are American companies, including several linked to US President Donald Trump.

Owda also shared an undated video of Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s US arm.

In the video, Presser speaks about changes made at TikTok, where he previously worked as head of operations in the US, saying that “the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute” had been designated “as hate speech”.

“There’s no finish line to moderating hate speech, identifying hateful trends, trying to keep the platform safe,” Presser said.

Zionism is a nationalist ideology that emerged in the late 1800s in Europe, calling for the creation of a Jewish state.

Owda’s social media presence grew from posting daily videos in which she greeted her audience, saying, “It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m still alive.”

She made a documentary of the same name with Al Jazeera’s AJ+, which was awarded an Emmy in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story category in 2024.

Her video on Wednesday came as Israel’s top court again postponed making a decision on whether foreign journalists should be allowed to enter and report on Gaza independently of the Israeli military.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire, an Israeli attack last week killed three Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 207 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with the “vast majority” killed by Israeli forces.

Musk’s electric car company says it will invest $2bn in artificial intelligence start-up as part of pivot away from auto market.

Tesla has reported its first-ever decline in annual revenue on a busy day for corporate earnings that also saw the release of results from Microsoft, Meta and Samsung Electronics.

Elon Musk’s electric car company said on Wednesday that revenue fell 3 percent year-on-year to $24.9bn in the final quarter of 2025. Revenue for all of 2025 was $94.8bn, down from $97.7bn the previous year.

Net profit fell 61 percent to $840m in the quarter, taking profit for the year to $3.8bn, down sharply from $7.1bn in 2024.

The Austin, Texas-based company also revealed that it had agreed to invest $2bn in Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI – the developer of Musk’s controversial Grok chatbot – as part of a push to lessen its reliance on the auto market.

“Together, the investment and the related framework agreement are intended to enhance Tesla’s ability to develop and deploy AI products and services into the physical world at scale,” the company said in its earnings report.

Tesla shares rose about 2.2 percent in after-hours trading.

Also on Wednesday, tech giants Microsoft, Meta and Samsung reported strong earnings in their latest reports to shareholders.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported a profit of $22.8bn on revenue of $59.9bn in the October-December period, a 6 percent rise year-on-year.

Meta shares surged nearly 7 percent in extended-hours trading.

Microsoft said profit rose 60 percent to $38.5bn in the final quarter, based on revenue of $81.3bn.

“We are only at the beginning phases of AI diffusion and already Microsoft has built an AI business that is larger than some of our biggest franchises,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.

“We are pushing the frontier across our entire AI stack to drive new value for our customers and partners.”

Despite its strong earnings, Microsoft’s announcement that capital spending hit a record $37.5bn in the second quarter stoked fears of an AI investment bubble, sending stock prices sharply lower.

Microsoft’s shares fell more than 6 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

Samsung Electronics, the biggest producer of memory chips globally, reported a profit of 20.1 trillion won ($13.98bn) on revenue of 93.8 trillion won ($65.6bn), a more than three-fold rise from the previous year.

Court gives Israeli government until March to justify ban on foreign media from Gaza

Israel’s Supreme Court has postponed a decision on whether to allow foreign journalists independent access to Gaza, in the latest delay of a legal battle that has stretched over a year.

The court granted the government until March 31 to respond to the petition filed by the Foreign Press Association, despite state attorneys failing to provide detailed justifications beyond citing security risks.

The decision extends a policy that has barred foreign correspondents from entering Gaza to report on conditions there, unless reporters are prepared to embed with the Israeli army.

At the hearing on Wednesday, justices appeared frustrated with the government’s explanations for maintaining the blanket ban on independent press access, which has remained in place since Israel launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people of Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

A ceasefire took effect in October 2025, though Israel has continued carrying out attacks, which have killed more than 400 people.

Justice Ruth Ronen rejected the state’s arguments, insisting that “it is not enough to cite ‘security risks’ without providing details” and noting there had been “a very significant change on the ground” since the ceasefire.

The FPA’s legal team was barred from attending or accessing the material presented to the judges.

The FPA, which represents 370 journalists from 130 media outlets, said it was “deeply disappointed that the Israeli Supreme Court has once again postponed ruling on our petition for free, independent press access to Gaza.”

“All the more concerning is that the court appears to have been swayed by the state’s classified security arguments,” the FPA added, calling the closed-door process one that “offers no opportunity for us to rebut these arguments and clears the way for the continued arbitrary and open-ended closure of Gaza to foreign journalists.”

This marks the ninth extension granted to the government since the petition was filed in September 2024.

Just days earlier, on January 25, Israel extended its shutdown of Al Jazeera’s operations for another 90 days, citing national security threats the network denies.

US plan for Gaza demilitarisation

The postponement comes as mediators continue to press for progress in the US-backed plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

At the UN Security Council, the United States said it had unveiled plans for an “internationally funded buyback” programme to disarm Hamas as part of Gaza’s demilitarisation, which is a key element in the second phase of the US-backed plan.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the Security Council on Wednesday that “international, independent monitors will supervise a process of demilitarisation of Gaza to include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning”, supported by the buyback scheme.

Hamas still controls just under half of the territory in Gaza beyond the Yellow Line, where Israeli forces remain present.

The second phase of the US plan will also require the Israeli army to withdraw, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said demilitarisation would have to come before any further progress on the ceasefire.

Two Hamas officials told the Reuters news agency this ‌week that neither the United States nor the mediators presented the Palestinian group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal.

Jan. 28 (Asia Today) — Jang Dong-hyuk, leader of South Korea’s People Power Party, sharply criticized the government’s consumption coupon policy Wednesday, arguing that cash handouts during a period of high inflation are worsening the strain on household finances.

Jang made the remarks during his first official appearance since ending a hunger strike, beginning with a price inspection at a retail site. Speaking at a field meeting held at the comprehensive situation room of the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation in Seoul’s Seocho district, he said excessive cash injections were one factor driving prices higher.

“Flooding the market with cash coupons, even as prices threaten the daily lives of ordinary citizens, is like giving only sugar water to a diabetic,” Jang said. “Ordinary people find happiness in ordinary meals. High prices destroy that everyday life. Ultimately, inflation is the root of many problems.”

He urged the government to prioritize price stability, especially ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, and to focus on stabilizing supply and demand. “We will find answers on the ground where people live and work and bring them back to the National Assembly to shape policy,” he said.

Jang’s decision to start his schedule with a grassroots visit just two days after leaving the hospital was widely seen as an effort to underscore concern for household conditions amid volatility in exchange rates and prices.

Political observers expect Jang to step up criticism of the economic policies of the Lee Jae-myung administration. The People Power Party has argued that recent gains touted by the government, including record highs in stock indexes, have been driven largely by a semiconductor boom and have not eased the economic burden on ordinary households.

Party officials say the strategy is aimed at reframing the economic debate by emphasizing livelihoods and cost-of-living issues, while holding the government responsible for inflationary pressures. The push also comes ahead of the June 3 local elections, as the opposition seeks to broaden its appeal beyond its core supporters.

The People Power Party is considering launching a dedicated review body on livelihoods and the economy to scrutinize recent conditions and prepare alternative policy pledges. Party leaders say the goal is to strengthen its image as a party focused on price stability and support for small businesses and the self-employed.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260129010013249

Montreal, Quebec, Canada – Canadian Muslim leaders are calling for an end to Islamophobic rhetoric and fearmongering, as the country prepares to mark the nine-year anniversary of a deadly attack on a mosque in the province of Quebec.

Stephen Brown, CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), said Thursday’s anniversary is a reminder that Islamophobia in Canada “is not benign”.

“It’s something that unfortunately kills people,” Brown told Al Jazeera. “[The anniversary] forces us to remember that there’s real consequences to hatred.”

Six Muslim men were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City on January 29, 2017, marking the deadliest attack on a house of worship in Canadian history.

The assault left Quebec City’s tight-knit Muslim community deeply shaken, spurred vigils and condemnation across Canada, and shone a spotlight on a global rise in anti-Muslim hate and radicalisation.

The Canadian government denounced the shooting as a “terrorist attack” against Muslims and pledged to tackle the underlying issues.

In 2021, it announced it was designating January 29 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action against Islamophobia.

But Brown said he was not sure whether the lessons learned after what happened in Quebec City were being fully remembered today, nearly a decade later.

“Right after the Quebec City mosque massacre, there really was a desire in society to try to mend some of the wounds and build some bridges,” he said.

“Unfortunately, what a lot of people are seeing 1769652192 – and especially for Muslims that live in Quebec – … is a massive return to using Islamophobia and spreading fear of Muslims for political gain.”

Laws and rhetoric

Brown pointed to a series of measures put forward by Quebec’s right-wing Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government that human rights groups say target Muslim Quebecers.

In power since 2018, the CAQ passed a law in 2019 to bar some public servants from wearing religious symbols on the job, including headscarves worn by Muslim women, Sikh turbans and Jewish yarmulkes.

The government justified the law, known as Bill 21, as being part of its push to protect secularism in the province, which in the 1960s underwent a so-called “Quiet Revolution” to break the Catholic Church’s influence over state institutions.

But rights advocates said Bill 21 discriminated against religious minorities and would have a disproportionately harmful effect on Muslim women, in particular.

As the CAQ’s popularity has plummeted in recent months, it has passed and put forward more legislation to strengthen its so-called “state secularism” model in advance of a looming provincial election later this year.

Most recently, in late November, the CAQ introduced a bill that would extend the religious symbols prohibition to daycares and private schools, among other places.

Bill 9 also bars schools from offering meals based exclusively on religious dietary requirements – such as kosher or halal lunches – and outlaws “collective religious practices, notably prayer” in public.

“Quebec has adopted its own model of state secularism,” said the provincial minister responsible for secularism, Jean-Francois Roberge.

Roberge has rejected the idea that the bill was targeting Muslim or Jewish Quebecers, telling reporters during a news conference on November 27 that the “same rules apply to everybody”.

But the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) – which is involved in a lawsuit against Bill 21 that will be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada later this year – said Bill 9 “masks discrimination as secularism”.

“These harmful bans disproportionately target and marginalize religious and racialized minorities, especially Muslim women,” Harini Sivalingam, director of the CCLA’s equality programme, said in a statement.

According to Brown at NCCM, the Quebec government’s moves have sent “the message to society that there’s something inherently dangerous or wrong with being a visible, practising Muslim”.

He warned that, when people in positions of authority use anti-Muslim rhetoric to try to score political points, “it gives licence to those who already hold a lot of these Islamophobic views or hateful views to actually take it out on people”.

‘Hate continues to threaten’

At the federal level, Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia, said the Canadian government has shown a continued commitment to tackling the problem.

That includes through an Action Plan on Combatting Hate, launched in 2024, which has devoted millions of dollars to community groups, antifascism programmes and other initiatives.

But Elghawaby told Al Jazeera that Islamophobia has nevertheless been rising in Canada, “whether it’s through police-reported hate crimes [or] whether it’s Canadians sharing that they’re experiencing discrimination at work [and] at school”.

According to Statistics Canada, 211 anti-Muslim hate crimes were reported to police in 2023 – a 102-percent jump compared with the previous year. There was a slight increase in 2024 – the most recent year for which the data is available – with 229 incidents reported.

Elghawaby, whose office was established after another anti-Muslim attack killed four members of a single family in London, Ontario, in 2021, said the figures underscore “that hate continues to threaten Canadians”.

“Canada, despite a global reputation of being a country that welcomes people from around the world, does struggle with division, with polarisation, with the rise of extremist narratives,” she said, adding that remembering the Quebec City mosque attack remains critical.

“[The families of the men killed] don’t want the loss of their loved ones to be in vain. They want Canadians to continue to stand with them, to continue to stand against Islamophobia, and to do their part in their own circles to help promote understanding,” Elghawaby said.

“History can sadly repeat itself if we don’t learn from the lessons of the past.”

Jan. 28 (UPI) — Electric vehicle maker Tesla’s revenue and profits fell during the fourth quarter of 2025 despite record levels of production.

Tesla officials on Wednesday reported the Elon Musk-owned company’s adjusted income dropped by 16% during the final quarter of 2025, while net income fell 61% for the quarter and 46% for the entire year.

The quarterly and final revenue report for 2025 reflects Tesla’s largest year-to-year revenue drop as its quarterly global sales of electric vehicles declined despite an increased global demand for EVs.

Partly to blame is the end of a $7,500 federal tax credit for those who bought qualifying EVs, combined with opposition by those who opposed Musk leading the Department of Government Efficiency and his general support of the Trump administration earlier in 2025.

Tesla also is facing increased competition from other EV makers, including Chinese EV firm BYD.

Despite the decline in revenues, Tesla shares rose in value by about 3% during after-hours trading on Wednesday and peaked at $449.76 per share before declining to $437.02.

Tesla officials reported that it produced a quarterly record 434,358 EVs during the final three months of 2025 and delivered 418,227. It also produced a record 14.2 GWh of energy-storage products.

For the year, Tesla produced 1.66 million EVs, delivered 1.64 million and produced 46.7 GWh of energy-storage products.

These are the key developments from day 1,435 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Thursday, January 29:

Fighting

• The death toll from a Russian attack on a passenger train in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on Tuesday rose to six, after the remains of several bodies were recovered from the wreckage, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said on the Telegram messaging app.
• At least six people were injured in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram.
• Russian forces attacked several locations across Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing a 46-year-old man and injuring at least two other people, the head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Hanzha, said on Facebook.
• One person was killed in a Ukrainian attack on the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka in Russia’s Belgorod region, the regional emergencies task force reported, according to the country’s TASS state news agency.
• A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in the city of Enerhodar, in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, Russia’s locally appointed official Yevhen Balitsky said, according to TASS.
• Fedorov has ruled out installing anti-drone netting as a mode of defence, saying that “there are more effective ways to combat Russian attacks”, Ukraine’s Ukrinform news agency reported.

Military aid

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that France will deliver more “French aircraft, missiles for air defence systems, and aerial bombs” to Ukraine this year, following a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Regional security

• Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at an event in Paris that a 2035 target for rearming Europe “would be too late”.
• “I think rearming ourselves now is the most important thing,” Frederiksen said. “Because when you look at intelligence, nuclear weapons, and so on, we depend on the US,” she added.

• Switzerland plans to inject an additional 31 billion Swiss francs ($40.4bn) into military spending starting from 2028 by increasing sales taxes for a decade.
• “The world has become more volatile and insecure, and the international order based on international law is under strain,” the Swiss government said, noting that other European countries have also been increasing their defence spending.

Politics and diplomacy

• Vladislav Maslennikov, a top European Affairs official at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told TASS that restoring relations with the European Union will only be possible if European countries “cease their sanctions policy”, stop “pump[ing] weapons into the Kyiv regime, and sabotag[ing] the peace process around Ukraine.”

• President Macron said at an event in Paris that European countries must focus on asserting their “sovereignty, on our contribution to Arctic security, on the fight against foreign interference and disinformation, and on the fight against global warming”.
• “France will continue to defend these principles in accordance with the United Nations Charter,” said Macron, who has turned down an invitation for France to join Trump’s Board of Peace, which some critics say is an attempt to replace the United Nations.

Peace talks

• United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that negotiations over Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which is part of the Donbas region that is now 90 percent occupied by Russian forces, are “still a bridge we have to cross” in talks between Russia and Ukraine.
• “It’s still a gap, but at least we’ve been able to narrow down the issue set to one central one, and it will probably be a very difficult one,” Rubio said.

Energy

• Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 639 apartment buildings in Kyiv remain without heat, with temperatures forecast to drop to -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight this week.

Barcelona leap into Champions League automatic qualifying positions with win in Copenhagen, but PSG face playoffs.

Barcelona stormed ‌back in the second half to claim a 4-1 victory over Copenhagen at the Camp ‍Nou, sealing ‍a top-eight finish and direct qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League.

Goals from Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Marcus Rashford on Wednesday ensured the Catalans finished fifth in the standings on 16 points, level with Manchester City, Chelsea and Sporting but ahead on goal difference.

Copenhagen shocked ⁠the hosts early when 17-year-old Viktor Dadason slotted the opener past Joan Garcia in the fourth minute, but ​the second half began with a Barcelona fightback.

Yamal set up Lewandowski to equalise in ‍the 48th minute, before scoring himself in the 60th with a deflected effort that left Copenhagen keeper Dominik Kotarski helpless. Raphinha made it 3-1 from the penalty spot after Lewandowski was fouled, and Rashford added a fourth with a free kick ‍in the 85th minute.

“We ⁠all came here tonight thinking about getting into the top eight. We’re very happy with the win,” 18-year-old Yamal told Movistar Plus.

“When you concede a goal in the Champions League, it’s very difficult to come back, but the team was very resilient and managed to turn it around. With the number of matches we play in a season, having two fewer matches leaves you feeling much better.”

Despite the comfortable final result, Barcelona endured a frustrating first half, during which Copenhagen took ​a shock lead.

Dadason stunned the home crowd after Mohamed Elyounoussi delivered a ‌defence-splitting pass, allowing Dadason to outrun Barca’s high defensive line before rifling a low shot past keeper Garcia.

Clearly unsettled, Barcelona were wasteful in attack during the opening 45 minutes. Raphinha and Lewandowski spurned opportunities to equalise, while Eric Garcia came closest to levelling ‌when his driven effort struck the crossbar in the 33rd minute.

The second half, however, saw a completely transformed Barcelona.

Barely three minutes after the restart, Yamal burst forward ‌on a counterattack, darting past Copenhagen defenders before unselfishly squaring the ⁠ball for Lewandowski to slot into an empty net.

The hosts seized control and upped the tempo, pinning Copenhagen deep inside their own half, and Barca took the lead on the hour mark through Yamal, whose deflected shot from inside the box looped over a ‌stranded Kotarski and nestled into the far corner.

Raphinha made it 3-1 from the penalty spot in the 69th minute after Lewandowski was brought down inside the area while attempting to shoot, and substitute Rashford wrapped up ‍the scoring.

Although Barcelona delivered a clinical attacking display, questions remain about their defensive organisation. They completed the league phase without a clean sheet and finished with the worst defence among the top 13 teams.

Dembele’s penalty miss costs PSG in 1-1 draw with Newcastle

Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele had a night to forget, missing an early penalty and a golden chance from close range as defending champion Paris Saint-Germain drew 1-1 with Newcastle in the Champions League.

The draw meant both sides finished out of the top eight places in the league table and failed to qualify automatically for the last 16. They will enter the playoffs instead.

PSG was awarded an early penalty when Bradley Barcola got behind the defence down the left wing with less than one minute played. The ball hit Barcola’s arm following a tackle from a defender coming across, and then flew onto the arm of Lewis Miley right behind him.

Miley seemed unsighted, and the handball appeared accidental, but referee Slavko Vincic awarded the spot kick following a short video review.

Dembele aimed for the bottom right corner, but goalkeeper Nick Pope made a brilliant save. Pope was beaten in the eighth minute when Vitinha curled a shot into the same corner after being set up by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the edge of the penalty area.

Dembele, who scored 35 goals overall last season, scooped the ball well over the crossbar from 10 metres out in the 40th minute when meeting a cross from the left.

Joe Willock equalised for the visitors in first-half stoppage time, and substitute Harvey Barnes missed a chance to win it for the visitors with moments left.

Benfica beat Real 4-2 which sends both teams into Champions League playoffs, as Madrid miss out on top eight.

Goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scored an astonishing 98th-minute header as Benfica beat Real Madrid 4-2 to keep themselves in the Champions League and deny their illustrious opponents an automatic spot in the last 16.

In an extraordinary finale on Wednesday, the Portuguese side were ⁠heading out despite leading 3-2 with seconds of stoppage time remaining before Trubin came forward for a free ​kick to score the goal needed to sneak into the playoff round on goal ‍difference.

That sparked wild celebrations from Benfica players, fans and their charismatic coach Jose Mourinho – a former manager of Real Madrid – at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon.

The Spaniards had hoped to finish in the top eight and go straight into the ‍last 16, but ⁠their 15 points from eight games were not enough, and they finished the match with nine men as Raul Asencio and Rodrygo were sent off.

Andreas Schjelderup scored two goals for Benfica and Vangelis Pavlidis netted from the penalty spot, while Kylian Mbappe netted twice for Real in a hugely entertaining, end-to-end contest.

Benfica advance at the expense of Marseille, who lost 3-0 at Club Brugge. The giant screen in the stadium in Belgium congratulated both teams for advancing to the ​next stage, but that proved premature as Trubin turned the tables.

Both Benfica ‌and Real needed a goal for different reasons going into the final minutes, and it is a vindication of the competition’s format that a single goal could have such a dramatic effect on the table.

Benfica were denied two strong early penalty shots, ‌and Real took the lead on 30 minutes against the run of play when Asencio’s cross to the back post was headed in by Mbappe.

The home ‌side drew level six minutes later when Asencio’s slip in the ⁠wet conditions allowed Pavlidis to provide a perfect cross for Schjelderup to head into the net.

Benfica were awarded a penalty in first-half added time when Aurelien Tchouameni was adjudged to have hauled Nicolas Otamendi to the floor, and Pavlidis buried his spot-kick.

Schjelderup ‌scored his second of the game from Pavlidis’s perfect pass to make it 3-1, before Mbappe swept home his second, too – his 36th goal of the season in all competitions.

Benfica were still outside the top 24 ‍when they were awarded a free kick with virtually the final play, and Fredrik Aursnes’s delivery was headed in by Trubin to complete a night of high drama in Lisbon.

Jan. 28 (UPI) — Deploying National Guard and other military troops in U.S. cities cost taxpayers nearly $500 million in the second half of 2025, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday.

The cost breakdown includes the cost to activate, deploy and pay National Guard personnel; related operational, logistical and sustainment costs; and other direct and indirect costs of deploying National Guard and other military units, such as the U.S. Marine Corps, the CBO report shows.

Since June, the CBO said the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to the nation’s capital, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis and Portland, Ore.

The administration also kept 200 National Guard personnel deployed in Texas after they left Chicago.

“CBO estimates that those deployments (excluding the one to New Orleans, which occurred at the end of the year) cost a total of approximately $496 million through the end of December 2025,” the CBO said in a letter to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

“The costs of those or other deployments in the future are highly uncertain, mainly because the scale, length and location of such deployments are difficult to predict accurately,” the CBO said.

“That uncertainty is compounded by legal challenges, which have stopped deployments to some cities, and by changes in the administration’s policies.”

Merkley is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Budget and asked the CBO to provide a cost breakdown of National Guard deployments in U.S. cities.

“The American people deserve to know how many hundreds of millions of their hard-earned dollars have been and are being wasted on Trump’s reckless and haphazard deployment of National Guard troops to Portland and cities across the country,” Merkley said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

The CBO further estimated the cost for continuing such deployments would be $93 million per month, including between $18 million and $21 million per month per city to deploy 1,000 National Guardsmen in 2026.

The cost breakdown includes healthcare, military pay and benefits, plus lodging, food and transportation costs.

“CBO does not expect the military to incur significant costs to operate and maintain equipment during domestic deployments,” the report said.

“So far, such deployments appear to mainly involve foot patrols conducted by small units, without the extensive types of supporting forces or heavy equipment associated with operations in combat zones.”

CBO officials also do not expect the Department of Defense to incur new equipment costs for the deployments.

One of the biggest trade deals in history has been struck by India and the European Union, months after United States President Donald Trump hit both with tariffs.

What’s in the agreement – and how much is driven by Washington’s unpredictable measures?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Brahma Chellaney – Professor emeritus of strategic studies at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi

Remi Bourgeot – Associate fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs in Paris

Dhananjay Tripathi – Senior associate professor in the Department of International Relations at South Asian University in New Delhi

Jan. 28 (UPI) — A French court sentenced former Sen. Joel Guerriau to four years in prison after finding him guilty of drugging a minister of the French parliament in November 2023.

Guerrieau, 68, will spend 18 months of his 48-month prison sentence behind bars, but he has appealed the decision and would not be imprisoned if the appellate court overturns his conviction.

The court also ordered him to pay MP Sandrine Josso, 50, the equivalent of $5,975 in the Tuesday ruling.

Guerriau formerly represented the Loire-Atlantique region in western France and was found guilty of spiking a drink with ecstasy and serving it to Josso in November 2023.

Prosecutors accused him of inviting Josso to his flat in Paris and drugging her with the intent of sexually assaulting her, but reports do not indicate whether a sexual assault is alleged in the matter.

Guerriau admitted he spiked her drink but said it was an accident and that he did not intend to commit sexual assault.

Following Tuesday’s verdict, Josso told media that she “had gone to visit a friend” on the night that she was drugged.

Instead of visiting a friend, she said, “I discovered an aggressor,” adding that “he looked at me insistently” and that she never had seen him like that.

“I didn’t want to show him my weakness because I was worried that if I told him I wasn’t feeling well, he would have forced me to lie down,” Josso said.

She left Guerriau’s flat and, with the help of a friend, went to a hospital, which determined her blood contained three times the normal dosage of a recreational MDMA.

Guerriau claimed he had been depressed and was using MDMA to treat it and meant to consume the spiked drink himself.

Instead of drinking it, he told the court that he accidentally served it to Josso, adding that he feels sorry for her.

“I am disgusted with myself, with my recklessness and my stupidity,” Guerriau told the court.

He said not enough is done to discuss “the effects of these drugs enough,” adding that he wants to “speak out on the dangers of these products.”

Guerriau was a member of France’s center-right Horizons Party and was suspended after being charged. He resigned is Senate seat in October.

Josso is a member of France’s center-right MoDem Party and has become a vocal opponent of “chemical submission” after her encounter with Guerriau.

Foreign minister announces apparent reversal of France’s stance, saying Iran protest crackdown ‘cannot go unanswered’.

France has said it supports the European Union’s push to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist organisation”, reversing earlier opposition to the move.

In a statement shared on social media on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot appeared to link the planned designation to the Iranian authorities’ recent crackdown on antigovernment protests across the country.

“The unbearable repression of the Iranian people’s peaceful uprising cannot go unanswered. Their extraordinary courage in the face of the violence that has been unleashed upon them cannot be in vain,” Barrot wrote on X.

“With our European partners, we will take action tomorrow in Brussels against those responsible for these atrocities. They will be banned from European territory and their assets will be frozen,” he said.

“France will support the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the European list of terrorist organisations.”

EU foreign ministers are meeting on Thursday in Brussels, where they are expected to sign off on the new sanctions against the IRGC.

The move, being led by Italy, is likely to be approved politically, although it needs unanimity among the bloc’s 27 member-states.

Established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the IRGC is a branch of the country’s military that answers directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It oversees the Iranian missile and nuclear programmes and plays a central role in Iran’s defence as well as its foreign operations and influence in the wider region.

While some EU member countries have previously pushed for the IRGC to be added to the EU’s “terrorist” list, others, led by France, have been more cautious.

They feared such a move could lead to a complete break in ties with Iran, impacting diplomatic missions, and also hurting negotiations to release European citizens held in Iranian prisons.

Paris has been especially worried about the fate of two of its citizens currently living at the embassy in Tehran after being released from prison last year.

The push by the EU to sanction the IRGC comes amid global criticism of a crackdown on a wave of demonstrations in Iran, which broke out last month in response to soaring inflation and an economic crisis.

The United States-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it confirmed at least 6,221 deaths, including at least 5,858 protesters, linked to the weeks-long protest movement while it is investigating 12,904 others.

Iran’s government has put the death toll at 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and members of the country’s security forces and labelling the rest as “terrorists”.

Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify these figures.

The protests also spurred renewed tensions between Iran and the US, as US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to launch an attack against the country in recent weeks.

Trump designated the IRGC as a “terrorist” group in 2019 during his first term in office.

Canada and Australia did the same in 2024 and in November of last year, respectively.

Iran has warned of “destructive consequences” if the EU goes ahead with plans to list the IRGC, and it summoned the Italian ambassador over Rome’s spearheading of the move.