Category World News

Drone strikes in Ethiopia’s Tigray kill one amid fears of renewed conflict

One person has been killed and another injured in drone strikes in Ethiopia’s ‍northern Tigray ‍region, a senior Tigrayan official and a humanitarian worker said, in another sign of renewed conflict between regional and federal forces.

The Tigrayan official on Saturday said the drone strikes hit two Isuzu trucks near Enticho and Gendebta, two places in Tigray about 20km (12 miles) apart.

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The official said the Ethiopian National Defence Force launched the strikes, but ​did not provide evidence.

A local humanitarian worker confirmed the strikes had happened. Both asked not to be named, the Reuters news agency reported.

It was not immediately clear what the trucks were carrying.

TPLF-affiliated news outlet Dimtsi Weyane posted pictures on Facebook that ‌it said showed the trucks damaged in the strikes. It said the trucks were transporting food ‌and cooking items.

Pro-government activists posting on ⁠social media said the trucks were carrying weapons.

Ethiopia’s national army fought fighters from the Tigray People’s ⁠Liberation Front (TPLF) for two years until late 2022, in a war ​researchers say killed hundreds of thousands through direct violence, the ‍collapse of healthcare and famine.

Fighting broke out between regional and national forces in Tsemlet in the disputed territory of western Tigray earlier this week, an area claimed by forces from the neighbouring Amhara region.

Tension has been brewing over the presence of troops from Amhara and the neighbouring country of Eritrea in Tigray, violating a peace deal in November 2022 that ended the war.

Last year, the head of Tigray’s interim administration established by Addis Ababa was forced to flee Mekele, the regional capital, amid growing divisions within the TPLF, which controlled all of Ethiopia before being displaced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Addis Ababa accuses the group of forging ties with neighbouring Eritrea and “actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia”.

Earlier this week, national carrier Ethiopian Airlines cancelled flights to Tigray, where residents rushed to try to withdraw cash from banks.

The Tigray ‌war ended in 2022, but disagreements have continued over a range of issues, including contested territories in western ‍Tigray, and the delayed disarmament of Tigray forces.

The province is also suffering the effects of United States President Donald Trump’s funding cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) last year, which was once Ethiopia’s largest source of humanitarian aid.

Humanitarian organisations say up to 80 percent of the population is in need of emergency support, and funding shortfalls are placing a strain on the health system.

The African Union’s chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, on Friday urged all parties to “exercise maximum restraint” and “resolve all outstanding issues through constructive dialogue”.

US journalists arrested for covering anti-ICE protest at church

NewsFeed

Two journalists were arrested and taken to court in the US for covering an anti-ICE protest inside a Minnesota church, as protests were held across the country against two killings by federal agents and President Trump’s immigration raids.

Sabalenka ‘really upset’ at blowing Australian Open final chances

Following two ‌years of triumph at the Australian Open, Aryna Sabalenka is now processing another two years of ‍pain – and a series of missed chances in Melbourne that have left her “really upset”.

A year on from ‍losing the final in three sets to American Madison Keys, Sabalenka fell 6-4 4-6 6-4 to Elena Rybakina on Saturday, the Russia-born Kazakh turning the tables on the Belarusian who beat her for the 2023 title.

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“I was really upset with myself, I would say, because once again I had opportunities,” Sabalenka said.

“I played great until a certain point, and then I couldn’t resist that aggression that she had on court.”

While the Keys shock left Sabalenka inconsolable and ⁠her racket in pieces, defeat to fifth seed Rybakina had its own unique sting.

The world number one ​held a 3-0 lead in the third set and had all the running before ‍former Wimbledon champion Rybakina broke back in the fifth game and stormed to her second Grand Slam trophy.

“She made some winners. I made a couple of unforced errors,” Sabalenka continued.

“Of course, I have regrets. You know, when ‍you lead 3-0 and ⁠then it felt like in a few seconds it was 3-4 and I was down with a break. So it was very fast.

“Great tennis from her. Maybe not so smart for me but, as I say, today I’m a loser, maybe tomorrow I’m a winner, maybe again a loser. Hopefully not. We’ll see.”

It was Sabalenka’s second significant loss to Rybakina in a few months, having been beaten for the season-ending WTA Finals crown.

More alarmingly, it ​was her third loss in her last four major finals, with Coco Gauff ‌flooring her at last year’s French Open.

Sabalenka did not lose a set coming into the Melbourne final and had won 46 of her 48 previous matches at hardcourt Grand Slams.

Now Rybakina, one of the few players able to match her ‌for power, has dealt Sabalenka’s aura a heavy blow.

Sabalenka laughed ruefully and shrugged through her post-match news conference but was honest enough to admit ‌she had been despondent outside the room.

On court, she draped a ⁠white towel over her head to conceal her anguish before gathering herself to deliver gracious congratulations to Rybakina, her most frequent opponent on tour.

She consoled herself that, barring a few errors in the final set, Rybakina had simply wrested the trophy from ‌her grip with the quality of her tennis.

“Even in this final, I feel like I played great. I was fighting. I did my best, and today she was a better player,” said Sabalenka.

Madison Square Garden warns brawlers of life bans before Lopez vs Stevenson

Madison Square Garden says anyone fighting at the arena threatens to be “banned for life” after there were multiple altercations at one of its events.

Video on TMZ.com showed two fights breaking out on Friday, when fighters weighed in for the boxing card Saturday night headlined by Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson. One of the videos showed a brawl starting as Bill Haney, father of boxer Devin Haney, was conducting an interview near the stage.

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“Violence will not be condoned at MSG across any type of event including, hockey, basketball, boxing, concerts, or special events,” Madison Square Garden said in a statement. “If any individual is found to participate in violent activity, whether you are part of the event, or a patron, you will be banned for life and unable to attend or participate in any event across all our venues.”

The news conference Thursday for the title fight between Lopez and Stevenson became heated as the fighters on stage traded insults about family members, with people in the audience also shouting.

There was also an altercation near the cage on November 15, when MSG hosted UFC 322.

Rybakina shocks Sabalenka to win Australian Open tennis final

Elena Rybakina produced a thunderous display to dismantle ‍Aryna Sabalenka ‍6-4 4-6 6-4 on Saturday and capture a maiden Australian Open title, turning the tables on the world number one in their Melbourne Park final rematch ⁠from three years ago.

Rybakina returned to the site of her heartbreak in 2023 to complete an impressive victory and earn her second major trophy after Wimbledon 2022, underlining her credentials as the player best equipped to puncture Sabalenka’s hardcourt aura.

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The 26-year-old Kazakh capped ⁠a fortnight of relentless efficiency while largely flying under the radar, adding the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup to a resume that ​also includes the 2025 WTA Finals crown, where she downed Sabalenka.

“It’s hard to find words now but ‍I want to congratulate Aryna for her amazing results in the last couple of years. I hope we’re going to play many more finals together,” Rybakina said.

“I want to say thank you to you guys (fans). Thank you so much to Kazakhstan. I felt the support from that ‍corner a lot. It’s ⁠really a Happy Slam and I always enjoy coming here and playing in front of you guys.”

Aryna Sabalenka reacts in the Women's Singles Final against Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan during day 14 of the 2026 Australian Open at Melbourne Park
Aryna Sabalenka was seeking a third Australian Open title at Melbourne Park [Phil Walter/Getty Images]

In the first Grand Slam final since ​2008 featuring players yet to drop a set, it ‍was top seed Sabalenka who blinked first under the Rod Laver Arena roof as Rybakina came out all guns blazing to break in ‍the opening ⁠game and wrest control.

The fifth seed’s huge ball-striking caused all sorts of problems for twice champion Sabalenka, as she comfortably got to set point in the 10th game and finished it off to send alarm bells ringing in her opponent’s dugout.

Having arrived with 46 ​hardcourt Grand Slam match wins from the ‌last 48, four-time major winner Sabalenka found her groove and started the second set more positively, but Rybakina saved three breakpoints to hold for 1-1.

A ‌wayward forehand from Rybakina handed Sabalenka the chance to level at one set apiece, ‌and the Belarusian gleefully took it ⁠to turn the final set into a shootout destined to be decided by whichever player held their nerves.

Having beaten Rybakina from a similar situation in the 2023 title clash, Sabalenka unleashed a flurry of winners to ‌go ahead 3-0, but the Kazakh erased the deficit and broke for ⁠4-3 before securing victory to add to her All England club triumph.

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan celebrates a point in the Women's Singles Final against Aryna Sabalenka
Elena Rybakina celebrates a point in the Women’s Singles Final against Aryna Sabalenka [Phil Walter/Getty Images]

The knockout blow was a huge ace, after which the typically restrained Rybakina walked forward, smiled and pumped her fist before celebrating with her team.

Sabalenka, denied an Australian Open “three-peat” by American outsider Madison Keys in last year’s final, endured heartbreak again ‌as she retreated to her chair and draped a white towel over her head to conceal her anguish.

“I’m really speechless right now,” she said, before turning to her victorious opponent and the fans.

President Diaz-Canel slams Trump’s bid to ‘suffocate’ Cuba’s economy

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel has denounced what he called an attempt by his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, to “suffocate” the sanctions-hit country’s economy.

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday threatening additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba, the latest move in Washington’s campaign of pressure on Havana. The order alleged that the government of communist-run Cuba was an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security.

In a social media post on Friday, Diaz-Canel said that under “a false and baseless pretext”, Trump plans “to suffocate” Cuba’s economy by slapping tariffs “on countries that sovereignly trade oil” with it.

“This new measure reveals the fascist, criminal and genocidal nature of a clique that has hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal ends,” he said, in an apparent allusion to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban American and a known anti-Cuban government hawk.

Cuba, which is suffering rolling electricity blackouts blamed on fuel shortages, was cut off from critical supplies of Venezuelan oil after the US abducted Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in a bloody military night raid on the capital, Caracas, earlier this month. At least 32 members of Cuba’s armed forces and intelligence agencies were killed in the January 3 attack.

The US has since taken effective control of Venezuela’s oil sector, and Trump, a Republican, has issued threats against other left-wing governments in the region, promising to stop oil shipments previously sent to Cuba.

Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Friday declared an “international emergency” in response to Trump’s move, which he said constitutes “an unusual and extraordinary threat”.

Venezuela’s government also condemned the measure in a statement on Friday, saying it violates international law and the principles of global commerce.

Reporting from Cuba’s capital, Al Jazeera’s Ed Augustin said Trump’s announcement “is a massive psychological blow”, noting that analysts describe it as the “most powerful economic blow the United States has ever dealt the island”.

Days after Maduro’s abduction and transfer to the US, Trump urged Cuba to make a deal “before it is too late,” without specifying what kind of agreement he was referring to.

In a post on social media, Trump suggested Rubio could become the president of Cuba. “Sounds good to me!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

‘There’s no solution’

In Havana, residents expressed anger at Trump’s tariff threat, which will only make life harder for Cubans already struggling with an increase in US sanctions.

“My food is going bad. We haven’t had electricity since 6am,” Yenia Leon told Al Jazeera. “You can’t sleep. You have to buy food every day. There’s no solution to the power situation,” she said.

“This is a war,” Lazaro Alfonso, an 89-year-old retired graphic designer, told The Associated Press news agency, describing Trump as the “sheriff of the world” and saying he feels like he is living in the Wild West, where anything goes.

A man sells vegetables on the street during a blackout in Havan
A man sells vegetables on the street during a blackout in Havana on January 22 [Norlys Perez/Reuters]

Alfonso, who lived through the severe economic depression in the 1990s known as the “Special Period” following cuts in Soviet aid, said the current situation in Cuba is worse, given the severe blackouts, a lack of basic goods and a scarcity of fuel.

“The only thing that’s missing here in Cuba … is for bombs to start falling,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would seek alternatives to continue helping Cuba after Trump’s announcement following a decision this week to temporarily halt oil shipments to the island amid heightened rhetoric from Trump.

Mexico became a key supplier of fuel to Cuba, along with Russia, after the US sanctions on Venezuela paralysed the delivery of crude oil to the island.

Sheinbaum said cutting off oil shipments to Cuba could trigger a “far-reaching humanitarian crisis” on the island, affecting transportation, hospitals and access to food. She did not say whether Mexico would cut shipments of oil or refined products to Cuba, which ‌she said accounted for 1 percent of Mexico’s production.

“Our interest is that the Cuban people don’t suffer,” Sheinbaum said, adding that she had instructed her foreign minister to contact the US ‌State Department to better understand the scope of the executive order.

Mexico supplied 44 percent of Cuban oil imports and Venezuela exported 33 percent until last month, while some 10 percent of Cuban oil is sourced from Russia. Some oil is also sourced from Algeria, according to The Financial Times figures.

In November last year, a senior United Nations expert said the long-running US sanctions on Cuba must be lifted as they are “causing significant effects across all aspects of life”.

The US imposed a near-total trade embargo on Cuba in 1962, with the goal of toppling the government put in place by Fidel Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution. Castro himself was the target of numerous assassination attempts by the US’s Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA.

Alena Douhan, special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights, said the “extensive regime of economic, trade and financial restrictions” against Cuba marks the longest-running unilateral sanctions policy in US history.

She noted that there are shortages of food, medicine, electricity, water, essential machinery and spare parts in Cuba, while a growing emigration of skilled workers, including medical staff, engineers and teachers, is further straining the country.