Palestinian photojournalists Abdul Ra’ouf, Anas Ghunaim and Shaath Mohammad Qeshta have been killed after an Israeli air strike targeted their car. Gaza’s Health Ministry said they were working for an Egyptian aid group documenting a newly set-up camp when their vehicle was hit. They are among 11 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks Wednesday.
Published On 21 Jan 2026
It’s been more than six years since Ali Hassan Ali Bakhtiyan was released from a secret prison in eastern Yemen’s Hadramout Governorate, but he cannot forget the horrors he underwent during his more than two years in detention.
“It was a very bitter and extremely painful experience,” the 39-year-old man said, adding he was lodged inside the secret prison run by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and local Yemeni troops called the Hadrami Elite Forces (HEF) inside Hadramout’s Presidential Palace.
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“They stripped me naked and used cold water. I was interrogated first by members of the Hadrami Elite Forces, then they handed me to the Emiratis officers,” Ali told Al Jazeera over the phone, saying he was detained twice – first in 2016 and then again in 2017.
The prison, Ali says, was not even suitable for animals. “Closed, dark rooms, hands tied and blindfolded. Twenty days went by without a chance to clean your body. They used physical and body torture, solitary confinement several times, beating many times,” Ali recalls.
The 30-year-old says he was first detained following a bomb blast in Hadramout. “I was falsely accused of being a member of the Islah Party,” he said, denying he was a member of the party, which is the main opposition party in Yemen. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood also falls under its umbrella.
“I do not have any affiliation with any political party. Even the interrogator later told me, ‘I have nothing against you, but the Emiratis wanted you,’” Ali said.
In 2019, he was transferred to the central prison in Hadramout and appeared before a judge, following which, he was released without charge.
Ali’s case and many other prisoners have come under the spotlight again after Hadramout Governor Salem al-Khanbashi on Monday announced the discovery of “secret prisons at sites where UAE forces were stationed”.
The governor “expressed his regret at what was found inside the UAE bases and camps – especially in the vicinity of Rayyan International Airport – of equipment and contents unrelated to regular armies, including explosives, detonators and dangerous components usually used by terrorist groups, in addition to the discovery of secret prisons at those forces’ deployment sites,” according to the state-run Yemeni News Agency (SABA).
The UAE forces withdrew from Yemen on January 3 after Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) chairman Rashad al-Alimi annulled a joint defence agreement with Abu Dhabi and asked UAE forces to leave within 24 hours.
This came after the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces took control of Hadramout and al-Mahrah provinces in early December. The STC control of Hadramout, which borders Saudi Arabia, was seen as a national security threat by Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces bombed Mukalla, the capital of Hadramout, targeting what Riyadh said was a UAE-linked weapons shipment destined for the STC. Soon, government forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, regained the two provinces in early January, triggering the collapse of the STC. The UAE denied supplying weapons to the southern separatists.
Deputy Governor of Hadramout al-Jilani told Al Jazeera that “four illegal detention sites” affiliated with UAE forces in the governorate had been “identified”.
“Such practices are a blatant violation of the Yemeni constitution, applicable laws, and all international and humanitarian charters and agreements that criminalise detention outside the judicial framework,” he said, adding that local authorities in the governorate will carry out comprehensive and transparent investigations and hear the testimonies of victims and witnesses to gather evidence to hold those responsible accountable.
In the meantime, the UAE’s Ministry of Defence issued a statement categorically denying the accusations, describing them as “false and misleading allegations and claims that are not based on any evidence or fact”.
“These allegations are attempts to mislead the public opinion and to defame the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates, the statement read.
The government’s National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR) has been tasked with investigating the cases of torture in prisons. Officials from the body have visited prisons and are speaking with victims.
”The secret detention centres were in state institutions and service facilities, such as al-Rayyan Airport [in Mukalla], the Republican Palace, al-Dhabba Port, and the central prison known as ‘Al-Manoura Prison’,” committee member Ishraq Al-Maqtari told Al Jazeera, adding that Emirati forces had converted them into private, secret detention centres after adding some inhumane modifications.
“Most of the modifications included building very small, extremely narrow rooms unfit for human detention, some far from public life in the desert, and some of them were constructed underground,” she said.
Al-Maqtari further described that detention centres were built with “punitive specifications, such that a detainee could not stand in them even for short periods, let alone attempt to sit or sleep”.
“Some rooms were also used as presses for torture, where a person is held for very long periods, even though they are unfit to remain in for a few hours,” she told Al Jazeera.
Since the UAE forces withdrew, protests have been regularly held demanding disclosure of the fate of hundreds of abducted and forcibly disappeared people in UAE prisons, particularly in the interim capital, Aden.
The NCIAVHR has said it will head to other governorates where secret detention facilities have been reported, including in the Socotra Archipelago governorate, Aden, Lahj, Taiz and Al Hodeidah.
Donald Trump said the US needs “ownership” of Greenland to defend it from adversaries like China and Russia, but in lengthy comments at the World Economic Forum he said that he “won’t use force” to acquire the autonomous Danish territory.
Published On 21 Jan 2026
US President Donald Trump sat in the White House press room for 104 minutes to list his accomplishments on the one-year anniversary of the start of his second term.
Trump introduced a slew of photos of people who had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, the site of extensive searches and counterprotests as well as the fatal shooting of an American citizen by an ICE agent.
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Trump then addressed a crowd of reporters and outlined the policies he had in place since taking office in January 2025. He occasionally continued to use the prepared text, but frequently veered into related and unrelated issues and made repeated remarks at times.
Trump also raised issues with foreign policy, many of which included his plans to buy Greenland, his creation of a “Board of Peace” to oversee reconstruction in Gaza, and Venezuela’s current state of the country following Nicolas Maduro’s abduction as then-leader.
Trump is scheduled to leave for Davos, Switzerland, the day before the press conference.
Trump said, “Everyone said, “Oh, tariffs will cause inflation. ” There is no inflation in our country. There isn’t much inflation in our country.
We looked at a , a broad range of price data , for the previous year to determine that overall prices are still rising despite price declines in some specific products, like eggs and gasoline.
Trump claimed that his administration prioritized deporting criminals in the immigration debate. He said, “We’re concentrating on the drug dealers and murderers.”
Trump has deported somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 people in his first year. Since no detailed deportation statistics have been released, it’s unclear how many of those people had criminal histories.
However, according to reports obtained by US media, about 74 percent of the nearly 70 000 immigrants held in immigration detention have no criminal convictions.
Trump repeated some erroneous assertions he’s made in the past during the briefing. He claimed that the US has “secured commitments for new investments of a record-breaking $ 18 trillion”
Since mid-November, the White House website has reported a figure of $ 9.6 trillion. Additionally, PolitiFact has been cautioned and provided by experts that some of the $ 9.6 trillion in pledges may not be realized and that others are unfeigned in comparison to the countries’ gross domestic product.
Additionally, Trump noted that gasoline costs “at $ 1,99 in many states.” The average price per gallon for the entire nation was $2.78 in January 2026, up from $3.11 in January 2025.
No state has seen the average cost of its products fall below $2. Oklahoma had the lowest average gas price in any state in the middle of January, at $2.34 per gallon.
According to the gas price app Gas Buddy, four states, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, had at least seven stations selling gasoline for less than $2 on January 20; however, one or four other states, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, also had one or four stations selling gasoline for less than $2.
According to Trump, “one out of four jobs added was a government job” under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Exaggerated, that is. About 1.8 million jobs were created by the economy over the course of four years, or about 11% of the total, which includes 16 million jobs created by the government, including those in federal, state, or local government.
In Biden’s final year in office, the overall economy added more than 2 million jobs, up from 473, 000 in 2025 under Trump.
Trump claimed that 300, 000 people died last year as a result of fentanyl overdoses, but that figure is significantly higher than the most recent federal data.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 69, 000 Americans perished in the year leading up to August 2025 from all different drug overdoses, not just fentanyl.
According to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, including three children and three journalists, and six others have been injured.
The Egyptian Committee for Gaza Relief, which oversees Egypt’s relief work in Gaza, is overseen by Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the ministry, who told Al Jazeera.
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When they were struck by an Israeli attack while filming developments on the ground in central Gaza, colleagues and medical personnel reported to Al Jazeera. An Al Jazeera team on the ground reported that the attack also claimed the lives of a fourth victim.
Their burned-out, bombed-out car was seen by video footage that was seen by online users, with smoke still rising from the wreckage.
The committee’s spokesman, Mohammed Mansour, claimed that the journalists were filming a newly established displacement camp. He claimed that the Israeli military knew about the strike as occurring about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Israeli-controlled territory.
According to an Israeli security source, Israeli Army Radio reported that the Israeli Air Force targeted a car in central Gaza, claiming that its owners were attempting to gather intelligence from army forces using a drone.
Three additional Palestinians from a single family, including a child, were killed in eastern Deir el-Balah in a separate attack, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital sources.
According to the sources, the victims included a father, his son, and another relative.
An Al Jazeera team on the ground reported that a 13-year-old was fatally shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza.
The child was shot while collecting firewood in Bani Suheila, according to an Associated Press citation citing hospital staff.
The father of the child could be seen weeping over his son’s body on a hospital bed in video that was made available online.
An Al Jazeera team reported that a 32-year-old woman was killed and shot in a separate attack in the southern Gazan town of Khan Younis.
According to the Wafa news agency, two more Palestinians have been killed in northern strip attacks.
Palestinian officials claimed that since the ceasefire, which was negotiated by the United States, has been broken on October 10 by Israel.
About 2.2 million people in Gaza, where they are hardly protected by flimsy tents, are in acute humanitarian need in the harsh weather. Israel continues to impose restrictions on the movement of food, medical supplies, and shelter supplies.
US President Donald Trump is in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF), where the issue of Greenland will be front and centre.
Trump’s long-running fixation on acquiring Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, has escalated into a transatlantic imbroglio, with threats of sweeping new tariffs and even taking Greenland by military force rattling stock markets.
Speaking at a White House media briefing on Tuesday to mark one year since his second-term inauguration, he said Greenland was “imperative for national and world security”.
He warned the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland that they will face 10 percent tariffs on all goods from February 1, rising to 25 percent by June, unless they back his proposed takeover of the Danish autonomous territory. It comes as European leaders meeting in Davos warn the dispute risks a trade war and a rupture in the NATO alliance.
Greenland is the world’s largest island, located mostly within the Arctic Circle between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Geographically, it is part of North America, lying northeast of Canada and west of Iceland, but politically it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Approximately 80 percent of Greenland is covered by the Greenland ice sheet, the second-largest body of ice on Earth. Because the interior is largely uninhabitable, most of Greenland’s population lives along the coastline. The capital city, Nuuk, located on the southwest coast, is Greenland’s largest city, home to about one-third of the island’s roughly 56,000 residents.
The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line at 66.5 degrees north that includes the North Pole, the northernmost point on Earth.
Eight countries, including Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, have land lying within this region.
Some Arctic countries are closer to each other than many people realise.
Greenland’s closest neighbour is Canada, and at its narrowest point, between the Nares Strait, the two countries are only 26km (16 miles) apart. Canada and Greenland also technically share a land border, having settled a decades-long dispute over Hans Island, a small rock in the strait, by dividing it in half.
Russia and the US are also neighbours, with Alaska and Russia separated by the Bering Strait, which is about 85km (53 miles) at its narrowest point – a distance similar to that between New York City and New Jersey.
In fact, when you count the Diomede Islands located within the Bering Strait, Russia and the United States are less than 4km (2.4 miles) apart. These small, rocky islands consist of Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia and hosts a weather station, and Little Diomede, part of Alaska. The islands are separated by the International Date Line, creating a 21-hour time difference and marking the boundary between North America and Asia.
On some map projections, which enlarge landmasses near the poles, Greenland appears much bigger than it really is.
In reality, the Arctic island covers 2.17 million square kilometres (836,330 square miles), making it roughly three times the size of the US state of Texas, or about the same size as Saudi Arabia, Mexico or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Most of the Arctic is divided into exclusive economic zones (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles (370km) from the territorial waters of states and where they have jurisdiction over natural resources.
According to data from Arctic Ship Traffic Data, the number of ships operating in the Arctic has increased 37 percent between 2013 and 2023, driven by melting ice and expanding economic opportunities in the region.
There are three main shipping routes in the Arctic, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific:
Greenland has one major permanent US base, the Pituffik Space Base, and several smaller Danish military facilities.
Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, is located in the northwest corner of the island. It supports missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance missions and satellite command and control. It is strategically positioned to counter Russian activities in the Arctic.
About 650 personnel are stationed at the base, including US Air Force and Space Force members, as well as Canadian, Danish and Greenlandic civilian contractors. Under a 1951 agreement with Denmark, the US is permitted to establish and maintain military facilities in Greenland as part of mutual defence within the NATO framework.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a US-Canadian joint military organisation, also operates systems from Pituffik in the form of a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) for the organisation’s space surveillance.
In Alaska, NORAD controls the Clear Space Force Station, equipped with missile warning, defence and space awareness capabilities. The US also implements forward operating locations – temporary military airfields and radar stations – in Alaska, which are used to extend US defence and response.
Denmark manages the defence of Greenland through the Joint Arctic Command (JAC) with its headquarters in the capital, Nuuk. The base’s main tasks are surveillance and search and rescue operations, and the “assertion of sovereignty and military defence of Greenland and the Faroe Islands”, according to Danish Defence.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Northern Sea route is central to Russia’s security posture in the Arctic. Control of the route sits with Rosatom, giving Moscow the ability to restrict foreign military traffic without direct government approval. In the eastern Arctic, access through the Bering Strait has pushed Russia to expand radar coverage, search and rescue capacity and airfields, including the Sopka-2 radar installations on Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt.
In the central Arctic, Russia has hardened its military footprint. Bastion-P and Pantsir-S1 systems – mobile defence systems – are deployed on Novaya Zemlya and Kotelny Island, extending area-denial across air and sea approaches.
In the western Arctic, the Northern Fleet, which oversees Russia’s second-strike capability, is based in Severomorsk. CSIS says Moscow has also reactivated dozens of Soviet-era facilities, reopening airbases, radar stations and border posts across the region.
China has emerged as a key player in the Arctic, stating its desire to create a “Polar Silk Road”, similar to the Belt and Road Initiative, where new shipping routes would emerge as ice sheets recede.
According to the Carnegie Endowment, China views the Arctic as a future transport and industrial corridor. A number of Chinese companies also have mining projects in Greenland, including for iron ore, rare earths and uranium. China also has projects focused on Arctic energy via Russia’s LNG sector.
Chinese state-owned firms have stakes in Novatek’s LNG projects and are a major buyer of Arctic gas. The Chinese have also supplied key equipment to Russia’s Arctic LNG projects, especially after Western sanctions on Russia.
Greenland is rich in natural resources, including zinc, lead, gold, iron ore, rare earth elements (REEs), copper and oil.
It is home to some of the world’s largest deposits of rare earths used in high-tech industries. These resources have attracted significant attention, including from President Trump.
Gold pockets exist in areas like Nanortalik and South Greenland. Greenland also has deposits of diamonds in the Maniitsoq region, just north of Nuuk.
Copper deposits are largely unexplored in Greenland, according to the Mineral Resources Authority, with areas in the northeast and central east largely untapped. Iron ore deposits are dotted around West Greenland, while nickel traces have been found around the island’s southwest coast.
Graphite, used mostly in EV batteries and steel-making, is also reported to exist in Greenland, with exploration around Amitsoq. While zinc has been found in the north of Greenland, titanium and vanadium deposits are located in the southwest, east and south of the territory. Tungsten is also found in central east and Northeast Greenland with assessed deposits in the south and west.
The first Inuit people settled in Greenland in about 2500 BCE.
In the 10th century, Norse explorers arrived in Greenland and established settlements. By 1721, Denmark had made Greenland a colony.
Though a Danish territory, Greenland became self-governing in 1979 after more than two centuries under Danish control. It is one of Denmark’s two autonomous territories, with the Faroe Islands being the other.
In 1941, during World War II, the US and Denmark agreed to allow American forces to defend Greenland. Its strategic location was vital for countering German submarines and securing shipping routes. The US maintained a military presence throughout the Cold War, using Greenland for early-warning radar and monitoring Soviet activity.
In 2009, Greenland gained self-rule over most of its internal affairs, including control over natural resources and governance. However, Denmark still handles foreign policy, defence and funding.