In Yemen, there are still ongoing tensions between the separatist group known as the STC and the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government in Yemen, which was supported by the Saudi-backed STC.
All flights at the airport were suspended on Thursday, according to a report from the Reuters news agency, but no further information about flight operations or possible resumes were provided.
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The Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Houthi invasion of large parts of Yemen has formally supported the STC. The STC, however, also wants to establish a separate country in southern Yemen, and in December, expanded its military presence in the Saudi-admiral provinces of Hadramout and al-Mahrahra, causing tensions to rise quickly.
Saudi Arabia has accused the United Arab Emirates of supporting the separatist group’s expansion into Hadramout and al-Mahra, which Riyadh claims pose a threat to its national security, and the United Arab Emirates, which is also a member of the anti-Houthi coalition. The UAE has refuted those claims, saying it supports Saudi Arabia’s security.
The STC has since rejected demands from Yemen’s Riyadh-backed Presidential Leadership Council and Saudi Arabia for their troops to leave Yemen, despite the UAE having since agreed to do so.
The internationally renowned government’s STC-aligned Transport Ministry claimed on Thursday that Saudi Arabia had instituted new regulations mandating that all flights to and from Aden airport be subject to Jeddah inspection.
The ministry expressed shock at the decision, noting that Saudi authorities later clarified that the restriction only applied to flights between Aden and the United Arab Emirates.
A Saudi source claimed that Yemen’s internationally recognized government, led by the Presidential Leadership Council, was responsible for the restriction on flights to the UAE.
Thabet al-Ahmadi, the Yemeni president’s adviser, confirmed to Al Jazeera that a one-way flight requirement was required that included the Aden airport departure. He claimed that the action was to stop STC money being smuggled.
Al-Ahmadi claimed that the government was against a complete stop to air traffic and that it wanted to keep air traffic flown smoothly.
The UAE made a voluntarily withdrawal of its remaining “counterterrorism” forces from Yemen earlier this week. Following Riyadh’s attack on what it claimed was a shipment of weapons from the UAE, Mukalla, in southern Sudan, came that attack.
The internationally renowned government in Yemen, led by Rashad al-Alimi, warned on Wednesday that any actions taken by the STC to further strengthen their hold in the provinces would have severe consequences.
The STC has, however, maintained its defiance, promising to remain in the provinces.
However, STC spokesman Mohammed al-Naqeeb claimed that the organization was coordinating its movements with the provinces’ primary security force prior to the STC offensive. The Saudi-led coalition and the Yemeni government are associated with Homeland Shield.
According to state media images, Ju Ae, the daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is frequently portrayed as his potential successor. She also made her first public appearance at the Kumsusan Mausoleum in Pyongyang along with her parents.
Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, the two founders of the North Korean state, were photographed by the family and presented with respects on Friday by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). According to analysts, propaganda surrounding the Kim family’s “Paektu bloodline” has benefited its members from gaining control of the small, remote nation for decades.
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Ju Ae has been appearing in state media more frequently over the past three years, which has sparked rumors from analysts and South Korea’s intelligence services that she might be the next-generation leader.
Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, and his daughter Ju Ae inspect a Korean People’s Army training in a secret location in North Korea.
Ju Ae is seen standing between her parents in the main hall of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun along with her father, mother Ri Sol Ju, and senior officials during the visit on January 1.
Ju Ae was the first to be publicly recognized in 2022 when she accompanied her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. She participated in this year’s New Year’s celebrations, was believed to be from the beginning of 2010, and traveled to Beijing with her father for her first official overseas trip in September.
The visit to the mausoleum also coincided with significant occasions and anniversaries, strengthening the nuclear-armed state’s dynastic narrative. She is referred to in North Korean media as “the beloved child” and “a great person of guidance” (also known as “hyangdo” in Korean), a term that is customarily reserved for powerful people and their designated successors.
Former NBA player Dennis Rodman, who traveled to the North in 2013, had the only indirect confirmation of Ju Ae’s existence prior to 2022.
Instead of formally announcing their successors in writing, North Korean leaders have made gradual transitions through more formal duties and appearances.
Zohran Mamdani’s public inauguration as New York City mayor on Thursday marked the city’s first year with a new leadership. Sprawling crowds, a seven-block long party, and chants to “tax the rich” were part of the city’s wealthiest city.
Political inaugurations typically have a more stodgy tone. However, with his swearing-in events, Mamdani flipped the script, as he did with his campaign for mayor.
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In Act One, which took the oath of office shortly after midnight as the ball dropped in Times Square in the year 2026, Mamdani swore a modest ceremony on the steps of the famed New York City Hall subway station.
Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, took the oath as Mamdani sat next to his wife Rama Duwaji as they took the stairs inside the transit hub, which hasn’t been used for passenger transportation since 1945. He swore in both a historic Quran from the New York Public Library and a second one that belonged to his grandfather.
Later that night, Mamdani took the oath in front of a crowd that poured down into the streets and the surrounding plaza. The celebration took place on New Year’s Day. Tens of thousands of supporters poured into Lower Manhattan to watch the new mayor take office in the midst of the blistering cold, along with Mark Levine, the city’s comptroller, and Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Vermont, both of whom are leaders of the city, delivered speeches praising the progressive movement’s governing goals in New York and the national repercussions the election has already had on lawmakers across the country.
Before swearing in Mamdani, Sanders said, “The most important lesson that can be learned today is that when working people stand, when they don’t let the wealthy divide us up,” Sanders said.
A seven-block-long public block party was held inside the City Hall grounds, a new twist on the frequently ticketed inauguration format. Anyone who can attend a closed event with a few thousand attendees and endure the chilly air and blustering winds after a night of snowfall could try their luck at getting in.
And many did as bundled New Yorkers scurried through security checkpoints in search of a 34-year-old democratic socialist who was tasked with overseeing the country’s largest city, watching on large monitors stationed all over the city’s perimeter outside City Hall.
Some supporters claimed they spent hours waiting in line, but many never made it through the checkpoints. A few protesters sat behind police barricades while crowds cheered and horns blared in solidarity from a distance.
Democratic strategist Nomiki Konst told Al Jazeera that the block party’s attempt to reach more New Yorkers who otherwise would not be a part of the political process was symbolic.
According to Konst, “It was a way of opening up something that wasn’t previously accessible to anyone, you know, that wasn’t a part of the inner circle of New York politics and media.”
“It gave me an opportunity to give back to the people who helped him win office.”
First-of-its-kind inauguration by New Yorkers [Andy Hirschfeld]
A common goal and affordable goal
Mamdani, Williams, and Levine appeared alongside faith leaders from various different religions, including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and made remarks in English, Spanish, Hebrew, and Greek about unity for all New Yorkers.
There are three swearings in. one by a leader who uses a Quran, one by a leader who uses a Christian Bible, and one by a leader who uses a Hebrew Bible. After taking the oath of office, Levine said, “I am proud to live in a city where this is possible.”
That sentiment was shared by Mamdani.
We’ll bring this city together closer. We’ll switch from rugged individualism to collectivism, which is more chilly. Let this government foster it, Mamdani said in his address, “if our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity.”
As we strive to make this city more likeable to its citizens each day, “We will deliver nothing less.”
The campaign’s underlying message, however, was the same one that Mamdani, Levine, Williams, Sanders, and Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly echoed: that the ultra-rich should pay higher taxes.
It is not radical to demand that the wealthy and the largest corporations begin to pay their fair share of taxes. Sanders remarked as his supporters chanted, “Tax the rich! ” and that is exactly what the right thing to do.
In addition to a 2 percent higher in taxes for those who earn more than $1 million annually, one of Mamdani’s main promises was to raise the corporate tax rate in New York City from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent, which is equivalent to that in neighboring New Jersey. The governor’s approval would be required for any tax plan to proceed.
“Taxi cab depots and Amazon warehouses, DSA]Democratic Socialists of America] meetings and curbside domino games were the origin of this movement,” according to the eight-and-a-half million people who attended the “taxi cab depots and Amazon warehouses.” The powers that be had been hiding these locations for a while, if they had even known about them, and so they dismissed them as nowhere. There is no where and no no one in our city, Mamdani said, where every corner of these five boroughs is in charge.
Mamdani’s affordability message was at the heart of housing policy. One of his signature campaign promises was to freeze the rent for the city’s rental stabilized apartments, which make up about half the rental housing stock in the city.
Because we will freeze the rent, Mamdani said in his remarks, “Those living in rent-stabilized homes will no longer detest the most recent rent increase.”
A list of executive orders, all of which were directed at housing, was introduced just hours later.
At a press conference, Mamdani said, “We will not wait to deliver action on the first day of this new administration, on the day when so many rent payments are due.
In a rent-stabilized building in Brooklyn, he made three executive orders, including one for the creation of two new housing policy task forces: one to identify ways to encourage development and the other to take inventory of city-owned land that could be used for housing.
Our affordability crisis is at the heart of our affordability crisis, according to the statement. We will be focusing on a number of things, including preventing landlord abuse, pursuing bad landlords, and creating more housing. Prior to announcing the new policies, Leila Bozorg, the deputy mayor for housing and planning, told Al Jazeera that a major part of our housing crisis is “building more affordable housing across the city.”
In a significant shift for the country’s tightly controlled, gas-dependent economy, Turkmenistan, one of the most remote countries on earth, has officially legalized mining and trading cryptocurrency.
The country’s central bank approved the legislation on Thursday, which establishes a licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges and regulates virtual assets in accordance with civil law.
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However, digital currencies will continue to be regarded as neither a form of payment nor as a security.
The former Soviet republic of Central Asia, Turkmenistan, depends heavily on the export of its vast natural gas reserves to support its economy.
The country imports most gas from China, and Turkmenistan is currently developing a pipeline to supply gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
Turkmenistan has been making efforts to digitize both its economy and its government functions.
A law introducing electronic visas was passed in April that would have made it easier for foreigners to enter.
The tightly regulated country, which gained independence in 1991, typically forbade prospective visitors, with many visa applications being rejected for ambiguous reasons.
Under its first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who defied both Western and Russian influence, Turkmenistan, a mostly deserted nation of seven million people and the fourth-largest natural gas reserves, officially declared itself neutral in 1995.
Prior to his death in 2006, Niyazov had sway over politics, a policy of isolationism from the outside, and a nation whose economy was heavily dependent on natural gas exports.
Berdymukhamedov has signaled some potential since taking over as president from his father in 2022.
Before a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in December, he made hints about possible political reforms.
Without providing further details, Berdymukhamedov stated in the article, “We are working hard to make our neutral nation a powerful, democratic, and rule-of-law state where citizens live peaceful lives.”
While the government still has strict control over the country’s internet, social media has been made less restrictive, and the country has pledged to liberalize its visa system and expand its air transport links.
The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled the nation as one of the worst countries for independent media in the world.
Authorities in Afghanistan say at least 17 people have died and 11 others have been injured as a result of a prolonged dry spell brought on by heavy rains and snowfall.
According to a spokesman for the Herat governor, Mohammad Yousaf Saeedi, the deceased included five family members in the home in Kabkan, a district in the Herat province, where the roof fell on Thursday. The victims were both young people.
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According to Mohammad Yousaf Hammad, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA), the majority of the casualties have been reported since Monday in districts hit by flooding, and severe weather has also hampered daily life in many of the affected areas.
According to Hammad, the floods worsen conditions in already fragile urban and rural communities, causing damage to infrastructure, killing livestock, and affecting 1,800 families.
He added that surveys are being conducted to determine future needs and that the agency has sent assessment teams to the worst-affected regions.
A truck overturned on the highway in Afghanistan’s Herat-Kandahar province due to flash flooding, according to a video clip posted on X.
Another video showed several people trying to run away after their bus flipped in a strong flood current.
Extreme weather events, particularly flash floods that result from recurring rain, are highly a possibility in Afghanistan, along with Pakistan and India.
The effects of such disasters have grown more severe as a result of decades of conflict, deficient infrastructure, deforestation, and climate change, particularly in remote areas where many homes are made of mud and offer little protection.
More than 1,400 people were killed in an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 that struck Afghanistan near its border with Pakistan in August.
The Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, saw flash floods that hampered rescue efforts.
Afghanistan is expected to remain one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises in 2026, according to a warning issued by the UN and other aid organizations this week.
As authorities work to stabilize a struggling company, which is plagued by mounting losses and debt, Peru’s government has approved an emergency decree allowing private investment in some shares of the state-owned oil company Petroperu.
Just before the new year’s beginning, President Jose Jeri made the announcement.
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The change allows for private participation in significant operations to be reorganized into one or more asset units. That includes the prestigious Talara refinery, which recently received a $6.5 billion upgrade.
Along with a national fuel distribution and marketing network, Petroperu also runs or holds concessions for six crude oil blocks with limited production.
The decree, according to Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, “lays the groundwork for Petroperu’s self-sustaining company by ensuring compliance with financial obligations through technical management of its assets.”
The ministry cited accumulated losses of $479 million between January and October 2025 as well as supplier debts totaling $764 million through December as examples of the company’s financial position, which the ministry called “particularly sensitive.”
These figures add up to the $774 million loss that was previously reported.
The Talara refinery modernization, which ultimately cost double what was originally anticipated, added to Petroperu’s financial strain, which resulted in the company losing its investment-grade credit rating in 2022.
The government has since provided about $5.3 billion in financing between 2022 and 2024, and has since done so on numerous occasions.
The business has also been subject to environmental scrutiny, which is considered crucial to Peru’s energy security.
Authorities declared an “environmental emergency” and launched an investigation in 2024 following an oil spill that reportedly affected 47 to 229 hectares (roughly 116 to 566 acres) along a portion of the nation’s northern coastline.
In response to Peru’s persistent political unrest, Petroperu is attempting to restructure. Dina Boluarte, one of the many presidents who failed to serve fully in office in recent years, was impeached by the Congress in October.
Jeri, her immediate successor, has had a difficult time finding steady leadership at Petroperu, appointing three board chairs in three months.
