Wednesday, January 21, 2026

BIG Wrap

Three British men reportedly held by Taliban in Afghanistan

(BBC News) Three British nationals are being held in custody by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a humanitarian organization has told the BBC. Scott Richards from the Presidium Network named one of the men as Kevin Cornwell, 53, from Middlesbrough. Richards said he and a man who has not been named were arrested on January 11. He confirmed a third British man was taken into custody on a different date. The Foreign Office said it was working hard to...

Trump to be charged over hush money

(BBC News) Former U.S. President Donald Trump will be charged over hush money payments made to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election. The details of the case against him have not yet been released. A grand jury has voted to indict him after investigating a $130,000 payout to Stormy Daniels, reportedly in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair. Trump, 76, denies wrongdoing. He is the first serving or former U.S....

As it clamps down on TikTok as potential surveillance tool, U.S. spies on world through Google, Meta, and others

(Al Jazeera Media Network) During a five-hour grilling of the chief executive of TikTok last week, United States lawmakers railed against the possibility of China using the wildly popular, partly Chinese-owned app to spy on Americans. They did not mention how the U.S. government itself uses U.S. tech companies that largely control the global internet to spy on everyone else. As the U.S. considers banning the short video app used by more than 150 million Americans, lawmakers...

Musk among leaders urging halt to training of potent AI systems

(BBC News) Key figures in artificial intelligence want training of powerful AI systems to be suspended amid fears of a threat to humanity. They have signed an open letter warning of potential risks, and say the race to develop AI systems is out of control. Twitter chief Elon Musk is among those who want training of AIs above a certain capacity to be halted for at least six months. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and some researchers at DeepMind also...

Biden, Netanyahu exchange words over protests

(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Joe Biden has told Israel it “cannot continue” pushing ahead with deeply controversial judicial reforms — now on hold — that have prompted months of unrest. And those comments led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say he does not make decisions based on pressure from abroad. Biden’s comments on Tuesday came as Netanyahu was being accused by opponents of riding roughshod over Israeli democracy in an attempt to strengthen...

Bankman-Fried accused of Chinese bribe

(BBC News) Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of failed crypto firm FTX, has been accused of bribing at least one Chinese official. In new charges unveiled in the U.S., officials accuse the entrepreneur of authorizing a bribe of "at least $40 million" to try to gain access to trading accounts frozen by Chinese authorities. The allegations add to the fraud case filed last year after FTX's collapse. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to those claims earlier this year. He is under...

Iran, Syria denounce U.S. attacks on Iran-linked facilities

(Al Jazeera Media Network) The governments of Iran and Syria have condemned the United States for attacks on Syrian soil that reportedly killed 19 people, which Washington said it carried out following a drone attack on U.S. forces. Both the Iranian and Syrian foreign ministries late on Saturday slammed the U.S. air attacks that targeted the strategic region of Deir ez-Zor bordering Iraq. In a statement, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the “terrorist” attacks by the U.S....

NATO condemns Russian nuclear rhetoric

(BBC News) NATO has condemned Russia's "dangerous" and "irresponsible" rhetoric after Vladimir Putin's decision to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. The organization is "closely monitoring" the situation and said the move would not lead it to change its own nuclear strategy. The U.S. said it did not believe Russia was preparing to use nuclear weapons. Belarus shares a long border with Ukraine, as well as with NATO members Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. Ukraine has called for an...

Trump warns of ‘potential death and destruction’ if he is charged

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Former United States president Donald Trump has warned of “potential death and destruction” if he is charged in a New York investigation into a hush-money payment that his personal lawyer paid to a porn star in 2016. Trump made the comment on Friday, nearly a week after he claimed he would be arrested in relation to the case and urged his supporters to protest. “What kind of person can charge another person, in this...

Subject of Hotel Rwanda film’s prison sentence commuted

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed as a hero in the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda and was serving a 25-year sentence in Rwanda on terrorism charges, has had his sentence commuted by presidential order. The decision was made after a request from Rusesabagina for clemency, government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo told Al Jazeera on Friday. But “no one should be under any illusion about what this means as there is consensus that serious crimes...