Biden extends temporary protections for more than 800,000 immigrants

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US president moves to shield roughly 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans against Trump administration

The Biden administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US, in an effort to shield those groups from an incoming Trump administration that has promised to deport them.

The decision in the dying days of Joe Biden’s presidency came after immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS), designed to protect immigrants from being deported to countries that are engulfed in disaster or conflict.

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Ukraine’s highest profile combat unit to recruit English-speaking soldiers

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Azov, a volunteer brigade, plans to form international battalion to boost numbers as Ukraine heads into fourth year of war

Ukraine’s highest profile combat unit is seeking English-speaking recruits at a time when the impending presidency of Donald Trump means that Kyiv is expected to come under intense pressure on the battlefield.

Azov, a volunteer brigade whose decade-old nationalist origins have made it a target of Russian propaganda, plans to form an international battalion to boost its numbers as Ukraine heads into a fourth year of full-scale war.

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20 Israeli jets attack two ports and a power plant used by Houthis in Yemen – The Times of Israel

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  1. 20 Israeli jets attack two ports and a power plant used by Houthis in Yemen  The Times of Israel
  2. LIVE: Israel bombs ports, power station in Yemen as Gaza carnage continues  Al Jazeera English
  3. Israel Strikes Ports and a Power Plant in Houthi-Controlled Parts of Yemen  The New York Times
  4. Israel, US, UK launch coordinated airstrikes on Houthi stronghold in Yemen  The Jerusalem Post
  5. Netanyahu: Houthis will continue paying price for attacking Israel  The Times of Israel
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Qatar sends Israel ‘positive message’ regarding hostage deal advancements – KAN – The Jerusalem Post

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  1. Qatar sends Israel 'positive message' regarding hostage deal advancements - KAN  The Jerusalem Post
  2. Updates: Blinken says ceasefire and captives deal in Gaza is ‘very close’  Al Jazeera English
  3. CIA chief says hostage talks ‘quite serious’; White House: Deal possible by Jan. 20  The Times of Israel
  4. Biden aides express optimism about Gaza ceasefire negotiations  NBC News
  5. Hurdles remain as Israel and Hamas once again inch toward a ceasefire deal  The Associated Press
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JP Morgan Chase requires all workers to return to office five days a week

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Executives acknowledge ‘not everyone will agree with this decision’ as bank calls time on remote and hybrid working

JPMorgan Chase is summoning all staff back to the office, becoming the latest corporate giant to call time on era of remote and hybrid working sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US’s largest bank, which has some 316,000 employees worldwide, announced on Friday that all workers on hybrid work schedules will be required to return to the office five days a week from March.

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Mark Rylance joins criticism of police ban on pro-Palestine march in London

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Protesters planned to gather outside BBC HQ, which is near a synagogue, on the Jewish holy day

Mark Rylance, the star of the BBC’s Wolf Hall, has joined the singer Charlotte Church and actor Juliet Stevenson to condemn a decision by the police to ban a pro-Palestine protest outside the corporation’s Broadcasting House headquarters.

Protesters were planning to gather in Portland Place in central London on Saturday 18 January before marching to Whitehall. A ban was imposed on Thursday by the Met, with officers citing the risk of “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.

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Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds

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Analysis estimates death toll by end of June was 64,260, with 59% being women, children and people over 65

Research published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was about 40% higher than numbers recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions, using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis.

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Three teenagers arrested after 17-year-old fatally stabbed in Bedford

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‘Shocking incident in which teenage boy has lost his life as a result of knife crime and serious youth violence,’ says DI leading the investigation

Three teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 17-year-old was fatally stabbed near Bedford bus station, police have said.

Thomas Taylor, 17, was attacked by a group of males at 5.50pm on Wednesday as he walked along Greenhill Street, close to the town centre bus station, officers said.

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Who is Joseph Aoun, a low-profile army chief who is now Lebanon’s president? – The Associated Press

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  1. Who is Joseph Aoun, a low-profile army chief who is now Lebanon’s president?  The Associated Press
  2. Lebanon Turns a Political Page as Hezbollah’s Hold Is Weakened  The New York Times
  3. Lebanon's new president strikes a nationalistic tone amid regional shifts, further weakening of Hezbollah  Fox News
  4. Biden and Trump teams coordinated push for new Lebanese president  Axios
  5. Lebanon’s PM vows to disarm country’s south after new president threatens Hezbollah  The Times of Israel
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Coroner issues warning about antidepressants after suicide of royal’s husband

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Thomas Kingston, son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, had been prescribed SSRIs

A coroner has issued a warning about the effects of antidepressants prescribed by a Buckingham Palace doctor to the son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent before his suicide.

Thomas Kingston, 45, whose marriage to Lady Gabriella at Windsor Castle in 2019 was attended by the late Queen, killed himself last February after “suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed”, an inquest found last month.

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