January 27, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Reports say thousands of Palestinians have begun to return to their homes in war-ravaged northern Gaza amidst the tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. [more]
• In a move widely rejected by regional powers, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Saturday that Jordan and Egypt should take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1068 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Following recent Russian advances in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replaced the battlefield commander of Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region yesterday. [more]

U.S. GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT | The Trump administration on Friday fired about 17 independent inspectors general at various government departments, including those of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, State, and Education. Critics say the firings could undermine government accountability and that they were carried out in violation of federal law that requires 30 days' notice to Congress before firing an inspector general. [more]

U.S. ABORTION CLINICS | The Justice Department announced Friday that it is suspending most prosecutions for violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which criminalizes the blocking of access to abortion clinics and reproductive health centers, saying only cases involving “extraordinary circumstances” or “significant aggravating factors” will now be pursued. [more]

U.S. HOME SALES | The National Association of Realtors said Friday that sales of previously occupied homes in the U.S. fell 0.7% to 4.06 million in 2024 – a nearly 30-year low that analysts say was exacerbated by high mortgage rates, a shortage of houses on the market, and record-high home prices. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Flash flood warnings are in effect for large portions of the Los Angeles region affected by recent and ongoing wildfires, with authorities saying predicted rainfall could cause flooding and landslides due to a lack of vegetation in fire-stricken areas. [more]

U.S. AND COLOMBIA | A potential trade war between the U.S. and Colombia appears have been avoided after the South American country agreed to begin accepting flights of repatriated migrants from the U.S. following President Donald Trump’s threats of steep tariffs over Colombia’s initial refusal. [more]

COVID-19 | A newly declassified CIA report completed during the Biden administration says the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a Chinese laboratory, but notes that the agency has “low confidence” in its conclusion and that “both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.” [more]

BELARUS | President Alexander Lukashenko has been declared the winner of yesterday’s election in Belarus, extending his more than 30 years in power. Both the European Union and political opposition in Belarus have denounced the election as illegitimate. [more]

CONGO | Rwanda-backed M23 rebels claim to have captured the major Congolese city of Goma from government forces in an escalation of the conflict seen as creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. M23 also briefly occupied the city in 2012. [more]

SOUTH KOREA | Prosecutors formally indicted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol yesterday on charges of rebellion and insurrection related to his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. [more]

SUDAN | According to a social media post by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, as many as 70 people were killed Saturday in an attack on a hospital in the city of El Fasher, Sudan, thought to have been carried out by the country’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. [more]

BALTIC SEA | Swedish authorities say they have opened an investigation and ordered the detention of a Malta-flagged vessel in connection with the suspected sabotage of an underwater fiber-optic cable in the Baltic Sea. [more]

AI INDUSTRY | Shares in major AI technology stocks, including those of Nvidia and Oracle, are down sharply in pre-market trading today following the recent launch of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s free and open-source AI model that reports say uses less data at a fraction of the cost of other major AI models. [more]

TENNIS | Maddison Keys beat world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, and Jannik Sinner beat Alexander Zverev, over the weekend to win the women’s and men’s titles, respectively, at the Australian Open. [more]

FOOTBALL | The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Commanders, and the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills, yesterday to win the NFC and AFC championships, respectively, and to set the matchup for the February 9 Super Bowl in New Orleans. [more]

LITERATURE | The American Library Association has named Percival Everett’s “James” as the winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Kevin Fedarko’s “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” was awarded the nonfiction prize. [more]

WEEKEND MOVIES | "Flight Risk" topped the North American box office over the weekend with an estimated $12 million in receipts, followed by "Mufasa: The Lion King" and "One of Them Days." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1945, during World War II, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz by Nazi Germany, an estimated 1.1 million were murdered. [more history]