Archive January 28, 2026

Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula will clash in the semifinals of the Australian Open after knocking out pre-tournament favourites Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova, respectively.

Reigning Wimbledon champion and second-seeded Swiatek, who was seeking a career Grand Slam with a win at Melbourne Park, was stunned by Rybakina in straight sets on Wednesday.

The 7-5, 6-2 win for the 2022 Wimbledon champion gives her a chance to win her second Grand Slam, while crushing Swiatek’s dreams of lifting the one Slam trophy that has eluded her despite six major titles.

Rybakina has made the Melbourne final once before, in 2023, when she lost in three tough sets to Aryna Sabalenka.

The 26-year-old fifth seed took her latest victory in her stride, saying a calmer mindset helped in the heat of battle.

“In the beginning, when it’s the first final and you go so far in a tournament, of course you are more emotional,” said Rybakina.

“Now I feel like I’m just doing my job, trying to improve each day. So it’s kind of another day, another match.”

Rybakina fired 11 aces ⁠and 26 winners at Rod Laver Arena, winning eight ​of the last nine games to underline her authority.

“Really pleased with the win,” said ‍Rybakina. “We know each other pretty well and I was just trying to stay aggressive.”

Swiatek struggled with her serve throughout the contest, and the world number two said that was something she needed to ‌improve on in the coming months.

“I didn’t serve as well ⁠as in Cincinnati, for example, against Elena. My serve was kind of normal and sometimes it could have given me a bit more,” Swiatek told reporters.

“There’s some stuff on the serve that I want to change and I already changed that ‌in the preseason. But then matches come and you don’t have that much time to think about this.

“You don’t want to think about these details when you play. So then it comes back to ‍the old patterns… There’s some stuff that I can change to play better, and I’ll try to do that.”

Pegula revels in ‘awesome win’ over Anisimova

Meanwhile, Pegula – fresh off her win over last year’s champion Madison Keys – emerged victorious in an all-American quarterfinal against Anisimova with a 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) scoreline.

Pegula is yet to drop a set this year in Melbourne and is arrowing in on her first major crown at the age of 31.

“It’s awesome,” Pegula said of reaching her first Australian Open semifinal.

“I’ve been able to go deeper in ‍the US Open ⁠in the last couple of years, but here was the first Slam that I broke through at.

“I feel like I play some good tennis here, I like the conditions and even ​matches I’ve lost here I’ve played well ‌in, so I’ve been waiting for the time when I could break through.”

The sixth seed was helped by an error-riddled display from fourth seed Anisimova, who racked up 44 unforced errors to Pegula’s 21.

Anisimova’s frustrations boiled over at the end as her hopes of reaching a third major title in a row melted away in a blur of mistakes.

Sixth seed Pegula and Rybakina have shared three wins each in their six matches so far.

Two-time champion Sabalenka faces Ukrainian 12th seed Elina Svitolina in the other semifinal.

The world is closer than ever to destruction, scientists have said, as the Doomsday Clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight for 2026, the gloomiest assessment of humanity’s prospects since the beginning of the tradition in 1947.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a not-for-profit organisation founded by Albert Einstein and other scientists, warned in its annual assessment on Tuesday that international cooperation is going backwards on nuclear weapons, climate change and biotechnology, while artificial intelligence poses new threats.

“The Doomsday Clock’s message cannot be clearer. Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time,” said Alexandra Bell, the president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

“Change is both necessary and possible, but the global community must demand swift action from their leaders,” Bell said.

In a more detailed statement explaining the reasoning for moving the clock closer to midnight, the bulletin expressed concerns that countries including Russia, China, and the United States were becoming “increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic”.

It said that “hard-won global understandings are collapsing”, while a “winner-takes-all great power competition” is emerging in its place.

The assessment cited conflicts in 2025, including Russia’s war on Ukraine, clashes between India and Pakistan that erupted in May, and the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran in June.

On the climate emergency, the bulletin said that national and international responses have ranged from “wholly insufficient to profoundly destructive”.

“None of the three most recent UN climate summits emphasised phasing out fossil fuels or monitoring carbon dioxide emissions,” it said, adding that US President Donald Trump has “essentially declared war on renewable energy and sensible climate policies, relentlessly gutting national efforts to combat climate change”.

At the same time, the Bulletin noted that renewable energy, especially wind and solar, saw record growth in both capacity and generation in 2024, and that “renewable and nuclear energy together surpassed 40 percent of global electricity generation for the first time”.

From Cold War to climate change

The clock is used to symbolise how close humans are to extinction. Since beginning the Doomsday countdown in 1947, the bulletin has varied its assessments between as far as 17 minutes from midnight up to this year’s assessment of 85 seconds.

The lowest ever risk was recorded in 1991, the year the Cold War officially ended and the United States and Russia began making significant cuts to their nuclear arsenals.

Just seven years earlier, in 1984, the clock had been at three minutes to midnight, one of its lowest points for the period, as it said dialogue between the Soviet Union and the US had virtually stopped.

In more recent times, the clock has ticked closer to midnight, as the Bulletin has increasingly assessed the lack of action on climate change as a significant threat alongside nuclear war and other global issues.

Speaking at a ceremony revealing the new assessment on Tuesday, Daniel Holz, professor of physics, astronomy & astrophysics at the University of Chicago and chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said that the rise of nationalistic autocracies was adding to a range of threats.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar has been attacked by a man while hosting a town hall meeting in Minneapolis.

Omar was sprayed with an unknown substance by the man before he was tackled to the ground on Tuesday.

The Reuters news agency said that Omar was not injured in the attack, and authorities have not said what substance was sprayed or whether charges have been filed against the assailant.

The audience cheered as the man was pinned down and his arms were tied behind his back. In a video clip of the incident, someone in the crowd can be heard saying, “Oh my god, he sprayed something on her”, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Omar continued the town hall after the man was ushered out of the room.

Just before the attack, she had called for the abolishment of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign.

“ICE cannot be reformed,” Omar said.

Minneapolis police did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident and whether anyone was arrested.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message from the AP seeking comment.