New News Blog

  Iraq's alliance of Shi'ite political blocs, the Coordination Framework, reaffirmed on Saturday its support for former premier Nouri al-Maliki to lead the next government, despite a  warning  from U.S. President Donald Trump that Washington would no longer help Iraq if Maliki returned to power. The bloc, which holds a majority in parliament,  picked Maliki , Iraq's first elected prime minister after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, as its nominee for the post following  an election . Read more...

  Hundreds of Danes gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday in support of veterans who said they had been insulted by President Donald Trump's comment that European allies had kept "off the front lines" in the Afghanistan war. Denmark, with a population less than 2% the size of the United States, was one of the major combat allies in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, losing 44 service members killed, a per capita death toll on par with that of the Americans themselves. Read more...

  Newly released investigative files concerning the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have cast more scrutiny on his connections with some of the US’s wealthiest and most powerful men, including moguls Bill Gates and Elon Musk. The tranche of documents released by the US Department of Justice on Friday comes more than a month after the December 19 deadline set in legislation for all the Epstein-related documents to be published. Read more...

  President Donald Trump is mentioned more than 1,000 times in the three million Jeffrey Epstein  documents released Friday , after the president initially resisted the effort. While some of the references are benign, others include newly disclosed unverified sexual assault claims against Trump as well as fresh details about how some of Epstein’s victims described their interactions with the future president. Most notably, the newly released documents contain a list of unverified assault allegations against Trump compiled by FBI officials last year. There are also FBI notes about a woman who accused Trump in a lawsuit of raping her when she was 13, and an FBI interview with one of Epstein’s victims who stated that Epstein’s accomplice Ghislane Maxwell once “presented her” to Trump at a party. There’s no public evidence that the any of the allegations against Trump contained in the new documents were deemed credible by the FBI, and the Justice Department said on Friday that the...

  Emmy-winning actress  Catherine O'Hara died at home early on Friday, Jan. 30, at age 71 after "a brief illness,"  Variety  and  Deadline  reported. No cause of death for the " Home Alone " and " Schitt's Creek " star has been  revealed. USA TODAY has reached out to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner for additional information. While the details surrounding O'Hara's death are unavailable, the Canadian native previously revealed a rare congenital condition called dextrocardia with situs inversus. During a 2020 interview  on winemaker Kathryn Hall's  Virtual Happy Hour , O'Hara opened up about having situs inversus, a genetic condition in which some organs are positioned in reverse in the  body. "I’m a freak," she said while laughing. "I don't even know the name because I don't want to know the name." Read more...

  At least  31 Palestinians , including at least six children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera. The violence comes a day before Israel is  due to reopen  the Rafah crossing, which links Gaza with Egypt, on Sunday for the first time since May 2024. Gaza’s Government Media Office says more than 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since a United States-brokered ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on October 10. Israel’s  genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least  71,769  people and wounded 171,483 since it began in October 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led, October 7, 2023 attacks, with about 250 taken captive. Read more...

  British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to China is the latest win Beijing can tout in its rivalry with Washington, but the deals he brings back to London also show the limits of the balancing act that middle powers may try to play. He follows Canadian counterpart Mark Carney, who  struck a trade deal  on a similar visit weeks ago, before heading to Davos to herald a new  global trade order  as U.S. President Donald Trump disrupts long-standing ties with allies. Read more...

  Prosecutors cannot pursue a death sentence against Luigi Mangione in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a federal judge ruled Friday, delivering a blow to prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett dismissed two of the four federal counts against Mangione: murder through use of a firearm, which carries a potential death sentence, and a related firearms offense. Garnett left in place two federal stalking counts, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mangione has pleaded not guilty. Garnett ruled that the murder charge was technically flawed. It can be used only in tandem with a “crime of violence.” The prosecution argued that Mangione’s alleged stalking of Thompson met that standard. Garnett disagreed. Read more...

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday her country would seek diplomatic solutions and alternatives to help Cuba after the United States threatened tariffs on nations that supply the Caribbean nation with oil. "We need to know the scope because we don't want to put our country at risk in terms of tariffs," Sheinbaum said in a morning press conference, adding that she had instructed her foreign minister to reach out to the U.S. State Department. Read more...

  Israel plans to reopen the Rafah border crossing on Sunday, after nearly two years of closure. However, the crossing that links Gaza with Egypt will only be opened to allow a “limited movement of people,” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement on Friday. The opening of the crossing – a key entry point for desperately needed humanitarian supplies for Gaza’s two million or so displaced people lacking food, shelter and medicines – is stipulated under the second phase of the United States-brokered ceasefire deal designed to bring a halt to the devastating war between Hamas and Israel, although no timeframe is set. Read more...

  After more than two years of  bombarding  Gaza, Israel’s military appears to have accepted the death toll in the enclave that the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has been compiling, painstakingly and against the odds. Since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has repeatedly dismissed, denied or downplayed the scale of death and devastation in the territory documented by journalists, Palestinians and Gaza’s authorities. It has at times issued its own statistics on people killed, then changed them, while accusing Palestinians and Gaza officials of exaggerating the death toll, especially of civilians. But on Thursday, an Israeli army official told journalists in the country that the army accepted that about 70,000 people had been killed in Gaza during the war. Read more...

  Ukraine says it has received the bodies of 1,000 soldiers from  Russia  in the latest exchange of those killed in the war as the nearly four-year-old conflict continues to exact a heavy toll on both sides. Russia and Ukraine confirmed the exchange on Thursday, describing it as part of ongoing agreements reached earlier in the war to allow families to bury those killed on the battlefield. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said that “within the framework of the Istanbul agreements, the bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers have been transferred to Ukraine”, adding that “ bodies of 38 dead Russian soldiers have been transferred to Russia”. Read more...

  The EU has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist organisation” after a meeting of European foreign ministers, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas says. Iran’s foreign minister says the Iranian armed forces are ready to “immediately and powerfully” respond to any possible attack by the United States. The warning came hours after US President Donald Trump  reiterated  a threat to take military action against the country. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is one of several military assets the US has  deployed  to the Arabian Sea in recent days. European Union foreign ministers have imposed new sanctions on Iran, which involve travel bans and asset freezes on Iranian officials whom they think are responsible for killing thousands of antigovernment protesters since late December last year. Read more...

  Nicki Minaj is calling herself President Trump’s biggest fan, saying her support for him won’t waiver despite the “hate” from critics.  “I will say that I am probably the president’s No. 1 fan,” the “Starships” rapper told the crowd Wednesday at a  Treasury Department-hosted summit  in Washington to launch “Trump Accounts” for newborn babies. “And that’s not going to change,” the 43-year-old performer continued. “The hate or what people have to say, it does not affect me at all. It actually motivates me to support him more, and it’s going to motivate all of us to support him more,” said Minaj, who was born Onika Maraj. “We’re not going to let them get away with bullying him and the smear campaigns. It’s not going to work, OK? He has a lot of force behind him, and God is protecting him,” she said ahead of remarks by Trump at the event. Read more...

  WASHINGTON − For years, Republicans including  President Donald Trump  have advocated for broad Second Amendment rights, arguing the right to bear arms means Americans are allowed to bring guns to virtually all public places. They've often said more good guys with guns are needed to stop people with bad intentions. Trump hailed Kyle Rittenhouse as the "poster boy" for self-defense after the then-17-year-old shot three men, two fatally, during protests in 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin. Yet after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal authorities in Minneapolis, Trump has dramatically changed his tune, saying the 37-year-old nurse should not have been carrying a loaded firearm to a protest. Read more...

  Eleven countries have condemned  Israel’s demolition  of the East Jerusalem headquarters of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, saying it “marks the latest unacceptable move to undermine” UNRWA’s work. In a joint statement on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom slammed the demolition as an “unprecedented act” against a UN agency. “We call upon the Government of Israel, a member of the United Nations, to halt all demolitions,” they said. Israel has carried out an intensified pressure campaign against UNRWA, which provides aid and services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, amid the country’s  genocidal war against Palestinians  in the Gaza Strip. Read more...

  President ⁠Donald Trump ​has  revived a threat  that the United States is ready to launch a military attack against Iran as he demands Tehran make a deal over its nuclear programme. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that the Iranian government’s “days are numbered”. Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the country will deliver an unprecedented retaliation to any US attack. Iran’s currency has fallen to a record low of 1.6 million to $1, a month after the start of nationwide protests sparked by the country’s economic woes, according to local currency traders. Read more...

  • Lawmaker attacked:  Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was  sprayed with an unknown substance  at a town hall last night in Minneapolis. A  city resident  was arrested and charged with third-degree assault. Omar wasn’t hurt. •  On the ground:  Border Patrol commander-at-large  Gregory Bovino left Minneapolis  amid backlash to the Trump administration’s nationwide  immigration enforcement crackdown . White House aide Stephen Miller defended ICE agents’ work in Minnesota   while acknowledging a possible breach of protocol before federal officers fatally shot  Alex Pretti . •  Trump’s response:  The president today warned Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey that he’s “playing with fire” if he doesn’t enforce federal immigration law. Trump previously said he planned to “de-escalate” the situation in Minnesota, noting he had “very good” phone calls with Frey and Gov. Tim Walz.  Read more...

  President Donald Trump says in an interview the United States now has “a big armada next to Iran” but suggests Tehran’s leadership wants “to make a deal”. Iranian authorities continue to  warn of serious ramifications  in case of US military strikes, as more people are arrested in connection  with the deadly protests  amid a lingering internet blackout. The arrival of the  USS Abraham Lincoln  aircraft carrier in the Middle East “is not going to affect Iran’s determination and seriousness to defend the Iranian nation”, the Foreign Ministry says. An unnamed senior US official tells reporters during a call that Washington is “open for business” if the  Iranians “want to contact us ”. Read more...

  Minnesota’s chief federal judge has ordered the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to appear before him later in the week over the federal agency’s handling of bond hearings for immigrants it has detained, as protests over United States President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the midwestern state continue. In an order dated Monday, Chief Judge Patrick J Schiltz said Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, must appear in court on Friday. “This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” wrote Schiltz. Read more...

  Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi paramilitary group, has warned of a “total war” if Iran is attacked, signalling it would militarily support Tehran if conflict breaks out as the United States  amasses military assets  in the region. The Iran-backed group’s chief, Abu Hussein al‑Hamidawi, issued a fiery statement late on Sunday, calling on fighters to be prepared for war. He said the “forces of darkness” are gathering to subjugate and destroy Iran, describing the country as the “fortress and pride” of Muslims. “We affirm to the enemies that war against the [Islamic] Republic will not be a walk in the park,” al‑Hamidawi said. Read more...

  Venezuela’s defence minister has accused the United States of using the country as a “weapons laboratory” during the  abduction  of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on January 3. Vladimir Padrino Lopez said last week that the US had used Venezuela as a testing ground for “advanced military technologies” that rely on artificial intelligence and weaponry never used before, according to the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump told the New York Post that US forces had indeed used a weapon he referred to as “the discombobulator”. “I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he said, adding that the weapon “made equipment not work” during the operation. Read more...

  The Israeli military says the remains of  Ran Gvili , the last captive in the Gaza Strip, have been recovered, clearing the way for the next phase of a ceasefire deal. The announcement comes after Hamas’s military wing said it had given “all the details” to truce mediators on the possible location of the last captive’s body to be returned to Israel under  the US-brokered ceasefire . Israel had previously said that after the mission is complete, it would open the  Rafah crossing  but on a “limited basis for the passage of people only”. Israeli forces have ordered Palestinians to evacuate a number of buildings, including schools and kindergartens, in the town of Kafr Aqab in the occupied West Bank amid a major military raid. More than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s  genocidal war on Gaza  since October 2023, including more than 480 since the ceasefire began in October 2025. Read more...

  Hamas’s military wing has given “all the details” to truce mediators on the possible location of the last captive’s body to be returned to Israel under  the US-brokered ceasefire . The Israeli military ⁠says it launched a “ targeted operation ” in northern Gaza “to exhaust all of the intelligence” and retrieve the remains of police officer Ran Gvili. When the mission is complete, “Israel will open  the ‌Rafah Crossing “, the Prime Minister’s Office says, but on a “limited basis for the passage of people only”. More than 71,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s  genocidal war on Gaza  since October 2023, including more than 480 since the ceasefire began in October 2025. Read more...

  Kyiv, Ukraine –  In early January, leaders from more than 30 Western countries gathered in Paris, France, to sketch out a new framework of  security guarantees  for  Ukraine  that would take effect if a ceasefire with Russia were to be agreed. The so-called “coalition of the willing” issued declarations of intent, including plans for a United States-led ceasefire monitoring mechanism and the possible deployment of multinational forces led by France and the United Kingdom, to ensure Ukraine’s defence and deter future aggression. French President Emmanuel Macron called the guarantees “robust”, while British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the event of a deal, the UK and France “will establish military hubs across Ukraine and build protected facilities for weapons and military equipment to support Ukraine’s defensive needs”. Read more...

  Short-form video platform TikTok experienced a outage on 25 January 2026, leaving many users unable to access key features and prompting a flood of reactions — and memes — on X. Users across several regions reported problems loading the app, with complaints logged on outage-tracking platforms such as  Downdetector  and discussion forums like Reddit. While some users said the app failed to load altogether, others reported erratic performance, including missing comments, a malfunctioning “For You” page and a lack of refreshed content recommendations. Several users said videos would not play or the feed would not update, making it difficult to browse the app normally. The issue quickly became a trending topic, with users turning to X to confirm whether the outage was widespread or limited to their accounts.  Read more...

  Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has demanded Trump pull “untrained” ICE agents out of the state after a federal agent shot and killed a demonstrator in Minneapolis for the  second time  this month. US citizen Alex Pretti, 37, was an intensive care unit nurse who protested against President Donald  Trump’s immigration crackdown  in Minneapolis. Videos show Pretti holding a mobile phone in his hand, not a handgun, as he ⁠tried to help other protesters  pushed to the ground  by ICE agents. The  Department of Homeland Security  says federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a pistol approached them and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him. Read more...

  It was an extraordinary beginning to the new year: A deadly United States  military operation  on Venezuelan soil. The abduction of the country’s longtime leader, Nicolas Maduro. But in the three weeks since the operation, widely condemned as an  affront to international law  and a potential opening salvo in the administration of Donald Trump’s stated goal of “preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere, only a vague framework of Washington’s plan for the South American country has emerged. Meanwhile, relative calm in Venezuela has overlaid deep-seated anxieties over what comes next, analysts told Al Jazeera. Faultlines in the country’s leadership remain active, with the situation subject to devolve based on how Trump and his top officials proceed. Read more...

  United States federal agents have shot and killed another person in Minneapolis amid an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said. At a news conference on Saturday, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said a 37-year-old man, whose identity has not yet been released, died in hospital after suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The man was a Minneapolis resident and a US citizen, O’Hara told reporters. “Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands,” he said. The deadly shooting took place amid a  weeks-long deployment  of US immigration enforcement and other federal agents to Minneapolis, where they have been carrying out raids as part of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration push. Read more...

  Russia launched another vast attack on Ukraine's energy system in the small hours of Saturday, rocking Kyiv with explosions throughout the night and leaving 1.2 million properties without power countrywide. Nearly 6,000 buildings in the capital were left without heating on Saturday morning as temperatures hovered around -10 degrees Celsius (14 F). Many residents' apartments were already freezing cold from disruption to the city's centralised heat distribution system following previous attacks. Read more...

  Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States have concluded their two-day meeting in  Abu Dhabi  on Saturday without announcing any results in their efforts to end the almost-four-year-long war. In advance of the talks, Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said the discussions focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process”. Russian air attacks have targeted Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, killing at least one person and injuring dozens of others, according to local authorities. Read more...

  WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says he pulled out of the process to become former Vice President  Kamala Harris ' running mate before she settled on Minnesota Gov.  Tim Walz  after determining he would not be a good fit for the role. The revelation was included in Shapiro's memoir, a copy of which USA TODAY obtained. The book that mixes anecdotes about politics and his Jewish faith, “Where We Keep the Light: Stories From a Life of Service,” will be released on Jan. 27. In it, Shapiro, who's up for reelection this fall, offers new details about his conversations with Harris, who he briefly considered challenging for the nomination, as well as former President  Joe Biden  and President  Donald Trump . Shapiro, a top surrogate for Biden before he dropped out, also hints at his own future political plans.  Read more...

  Much of the nation east of the Rocky Mountains is hunkered down for what could be  the worst winter storm of the season , followed by some of the coldest temperatures seen in years. The storm began out of Texas and Oklahoma Friday evening, hitting the region with heavy sleet and snow. Forecasters have warned of "catastrophic" ice accumulation. On Saturday, the system is expected to push towards Virginia, dumping a foot of snow or more on parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic, while New England sees double-digit subzero temperatures.  "Take this storm seriously, folks," the  National Weather Service  warned in statements on social media. "The cold can be deadly."  Read more...