Category World News

Syria announces ceasefire agreement with Kurd-led SDF after heavy fighting

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Live updates,
According to Syrian state media, the Syrian government has announced a ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that will require the latter’s forces to leave areas west of the Euphrates River.

SDF forces will also be able to join Syria under the terms of the agreement on Sunday.

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The SDF and the Syrian government have been fighting for days in northeastern Syria, leading to the signing of the agreement. Over strategic posts and oilfields along the Euphrates River, the army and the SDF had been fighting.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated in a statement in Damascus that the agreement will allow the SDF to occupy three of its former rulers, al-Hasakah, Deir Az Zor, and Raqqa.

Our Arab tribes should continue to be composed and allow for the terms of the agreement to be carried out, according to al-Sharaa.

The SDF administration in charge of ISIL (ISIS) detainees and camps and the security forces guarding the facilities will now be integrated into the nation’s state structure, giving the government full legal and security responsibility.

In order to ensure national partnership, the SDF will make a list of leaders for the central government’s senior military, security, and civilian positions.

Al-Sharaa met with American Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack in Damascus to make the announcement. Mazloum Abdi, the head of the SDF, was supposed to attend the meeting, but al-Sharaa claimed that the weather had prevented him from traveling until Monday due to the situation.

‘Victory’

Ayman Oghanna, a journalist in the Syrian capital, reported that the agreement “can be seen as a victory” for the Syrian government.

According to Syrian state media, the SDF-controlled governorates will be handed over to the military under the terms of the agreement, as well as civilian institutions.

“Total control of all border crossings and oil and gas fields will be assumed by the Syrian government.”

Fighting has periodically broken out between the two sides in recent months, increasing in ferocity this month, as a previous agreement from March that included the integration of SDF forces into the Syrian military was not implemented.

The Syrian army moved further into towns in the SDF-held territory on Saturday, though.

The army had taken control of the major Freedom dam, which was formerly known as the Baath, west of Tabqa, as well as the northern city of Tabqa and its adjacent dam, according to state media.

In a significant blow to the SDF, the army also seized the largest oil field in the country, the Omar oilfield, and the Conoco gas field in Deir Az Zor. Al-Sharaa claimed last week that the SDF’s claim to have a quarter of the nation’s main oil and other commodity resources was unacceptable.

The SDF’s political isolation, according to Gamal Mansour, a University of Toronto political science lecturer, partially accounts for their swift retreat.

The issue that SDF has is that sometimes you have arms, but your political situation, lack of backing, strategic and regional background, etc., he told Al Jazeera.

Iraqi Kurdistan read the SDF’s regional image and strategic approach in a way that caused them to go to the SDF and say, “You need to cooperate with the Americans so that you can have a peaceful relationship with the Syrian government,” he said, adding that the US has also stated this.

Arab tribes in SDF-controlled areas, whose loyalty to the SDF was already fragile because of dissatisfaction with their rule, Kurdish nationalist dominance, and a lack of economic investment, contributed to the Syrian government’s rapid advance, according to Mansour.

Sudan’s people endure ‘horror and hell’ in war, says UN rights chief

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Volker Turk, the UN’s representative for Sudan, claims that Sudan’s people are still living in severe conditions and are being forced to flee.

Turk made the remarks during his first visit to Sudan since the war broke out in April 2023 that it was “despicable” that money was being used to “adjust the suffering of the population,” not to mention drones.

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The UN has repeatedly warned about foreign actors’ involvement in Sudan’s civil war.

Despite Abu Dhabi’s persistent denial, the United Arab Emirates has been repeatedly accused of providing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with weapons, support, and political backing.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia support the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Iran and Turkiye reportedly gave the army weapons, including drones.

Turk, however, claimed from Port Sudan, on the coast of Sudan, that the nation was “affected by the increasing militarisation of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and the recruitment and use of children.”

After the SAF and RSF fought to oust themselves from power in 2023, the nation was plunged into a bloody civil war.

INTERACTIVE - SUDAN - HUMANITARIAN SITUATION - NOV12, 2025 copy 2-1765797196
(Al Jazeera)

Horrific violations

The UN rights chief warned of similar crimes taking place in the Kordofan region, the epicenter of the conflict right now, after hearing testimony about “unbearable” atrocities committed by survivors of attacks in Darfur.

The “commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding, and profiting from this war” must hear the testimony, he said.

Regardless of affiliation, Turk urged that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could lead to “war crimes” and that “we must ensure that these horrific violations are brought to justice.”

The UN chief urged both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian targets, including markets, hospitals, schools, and shelters,” according to the UN chief.

Both sides of the conflict have been accused of committing war crimes, but the RSF was the one who was alleged by monitoring groups of killing at least 1,500 people during its capture of El-Fasher in Darfur in October.

Out of a population of 46.8 million, 30.4 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Particularly in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, the population is experiencing acute food insecurity and a nutrition crisis. Disease outbreaks are also aggravated by the situation at the same time.

Police chief steps down after UK fallout from ban on Tel Aviv football fan

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The West Midlands Police Chief Craig Guildford resigned following the UK’s decision to forbid Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a game against Aston Villa last year. Despite the police’s own investigation, a government report found that bias and inaccuracies were a factor in the police’s decision to ban fans in Amsterdam despite their violent behavior.

Published On 18 Jan 2026

The threat against Greenland shows that we need to stop appeasing Trump

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The largest island in the world, Greenland, which is currently a semi-autonomous unit within the Kingdom of Denmark, has been threatened publicly for more than a year by US President Donald Trump. By the time you read this, the threats appear to be getting worse, and they might even be getting worse.

I am the Danish parliament’s Folketing and Enhedslisten, the left-wing Red-Green Alliance’s foreign affairs spokesperson. In no way do we as a party care about the possibility of Greenland’s continued “Danish rule.” We support the 57, 000 Greenlanders’ right to choose their future and form alliances, which is evident in the constitution.

Denmark, a former colonial power, bears a sizable burden of historical responsibility and guilt to help Greenlanders create their own democracy, sustainable economy, and statehood vision.

Greenland and Denmark must unite to combat external dominance and aggression. The right of the people of Greenland to self-determination and the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark are both in danger. Trump is not attempting to liberate the Palestinians, Venezuelans, or Greenlanders. He is pursuing self-interest and dominance.

Trump’s actions in Venezuela demonstrated his total disregard for international law and state sovereignty. Silence over such flagrant violations will undoubtedly open the door for the next organized crime plot driven by his or her own desire to conquer other nations.

This world’s bullies don’t respect appeasement and bootlicking. Trump also acts cruelly. Any political leader who is determined to uphold a rules-based global order should be asked to say “no” with a clear “no.”

What the world witnessed in Caracas does not suggest that other states that belong to a superpower’s self-declared sphere of interest will benefit. Trump will obviously rule and “run” his “backyard,” which includes both Venezuela and Greenland because he has the means to do so.

The US is not permitted to impose itself on other nations. Trump’s actions are not in any way justified by the fact that the Venezuelan president’s regime presided over a severe economic crisis and was responsible for widespread poverty, oppression, and electoral fraud. The supporters of and support Maduro’s kidnapping contribute to furthering the international rules-based order and invite Trump and other cynical strongmen to do the same, including in Greenland.

The rules-based global order that we used to believe had been based on limiting power with legal means, ensuring state sovereignty, and protecting people from oppression and state abuse. Without being upheld and upheld, these established standards for peaceful international coexistence lose their relevance, which has uncountable repercussions for stability and peace. We are aware that Western nations have imposed them with a very limited degree of care. A stark illustration of Israel’s colonization and genocide in Palestine.

In Washington’s new National Security Strategy, it is clear that the United States has the right to assert its supreme political, economic, and military positions in the world and specifically in the Western Hemisphere. Trump proudly referenced the “Donroe Doctrine” at his Mar-a-Lago press conference on January 3 and laid out a foreign policy strategy to defend US dominance from any conceivable threat. The consequences are feared by both us and Greenlanders.

Only dominant and autocratic countries with imperial ambitions, which vested in other nations and their resources in vain, stand to gain from the current state of the world order. These countries want more land to demonstrate their size and strength. They use force to overthrow other nations and their natural resources because they can and because we let them.

The end result is lawlessness in a world where “might is right” and where every person in small and medium-sized countries is increasingly insecure.

Greenland, a former Danish colony, has a constitutionally democratic government under the form of a Naalakkersuisut government and an Inatsisartut parliament.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the prime minister of Greenland, has repeatedly emphasized that neither he nor his government are interested in becoming US citizens or even being a part of it.

If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark right now, we choose Denmark, he said at a press conference in Copenhagen on January 13.

Given that the US does not have a free higher education system like Greenland does, this is understandable. The Greenlanders have, without a doubt, taken note of the country’s poor record regarding the respect for indigenous peoples like the Native Americans and the Alaskan Inuits.

Trump will continue to “getting” Greenland through brutal coercion, military, political, and economic threats, among others.

It is no longer necessary to walk on eggshells or try to flatter Trump because of the security situation in Europe and Greenland. The Kingdom of Denmark, the other Nordic nations, and any other country in Europe and elsewhere that respects the rules-based global order will need to reevaluate their strategy and recognize the value of strategic autonomy or independence from the US.

This requires a consistent approach to avoiding purchasing American weapons, including fighter jets, which Denmark regrettably purchased in 2025. Additionally, it means severing ties between intelligence cooperation and creating online platforms and media that are currently largely in Trump’s hands. Our democracies must be safeguarded.

Our party calls on all progressive organizations in Europe and other countries to unite and mobilize in a joint effort to fight the imperial and neocolonial goals of global reshaping.

We need to press political leaders around the world to reject American appeasement and consent and to consistently support international law, the UN Charter, and the right to self-determination.

This is the current equivalent of battle.