SCMP World·Sunday, January 11, 2026

SCMP World - Sunday, January 11, 2026

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Germany to pitch Arctic Nato mission as Greenland, EU brace for Trump

Germany will propose setting up a joint Nato mission to monitor and protect security interests in the Arctic region in a bid to ease tensions with the US over its threats to annex Greenland, according to two people familiar with the government’s thinking. Nato’s “Baltic Sentry” mission – begun a year ago to shield critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea – could serve as a blueprint for a new “Arctic Sentry” mission, which would include Greenland, said people who declined to be identified...

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How Trump’s raid on Caracas deepens US-China strategic tensions

We had barely entered the new year when Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a brazen raid on the orders of US President Donald Trump. In the early hours of January 3, the couple were taken from their residence in Caracas, Venezuela, and flown to the US in a military operation impeccably executed in the name of countering narcoterrorism. Beijing, for one, was “deeply shocked” by Washington’s “hegemonic behaviour” and strongly condemned it. At a UN...

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Gaza clings to Medecins Sans Frontieres following Israeli aid ban

At a hospital in Gaza, wards are filled with patients fearing they will be left without care if Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is forced out under an Israeli ban due to take effect in March. Last month, Israel announced it would prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from operating in Gaza from March 1 for failing to provide detailed information on their Palestinian staff. “They stood by us throughout the war,” said 10-year-old Adam Asfour, his left arm pinned with metal rods after he was..

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US strips moral framing from foreign aid in ‘America first’ pivot

At a high-level conference in Washington last month, the US State Department unveiled an “America first” aid strategy that ties development dollars directly to the commercial and security goals of the world’s largest economy. This shift away from decades of framing the United States’ foreign assistance as a moral undertaking is a reflection, analysts say, of the Trump administration’s view that foreign assistance should advance America’s national interest above all else. Officials at the...

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Iran will target US, Israel if Trump strikes over protest

Tehran threatened on Sunday to retaliate against Israel and US military bases ‍in the event of US strikes on Iran, issuing the warning as Israeli sources said Israel was on high alert for the possibility of any US intervention. With Iran’s clerical establishment facing the biggest anti-government protests since 2022, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in recent days, warning Iranian leaders against using force against demonstrators. On Saturday, Trump said the US...

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Elon Musk blasts ‘prison island’ UK in showdown over Grok AI sexual images

Elon Musk accused the UK government of being “fascist” after it stepped up threats to block X over sexualised images of women and children produced by his artificial intelligence tool Grok. Responding to a chart claiming to show the UK had the highest arrests for social media comments in the world, Musk posted: “Why is the UK government so fascist?” In separate posts hours earlier, Musk said the UK wanted to “suppress free speech” and referred to the country as a “prison island”. X, formerly...

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Nobel panel rejects Machado’s idea to give her Peace Prize to Trump

The Norwegian Nobel Institute said the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, ‌shared, or revoked, following remarks by Venezuelan opposition leader Maria ‍Corina Machado suggesting she might give her 2025 award to US President Donald Trump. In a statement, the institute said the decision to award a Nobel Prize is final and ⁠permanent, citing the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, which do not allow appeals. The organisation also noted that committees awarding the prizes do not comment on the..

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Who is Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who killed US woman Renee Nicole Good?

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on a Minneapolis street served in a multitude of law enforcement roles during a two-decade career that also included military service. Federal court records show Jonathan Ross’ career includes US military experience and mostly high-level federal law enforcement positions. The details of his tenure are revealed in a federal criminal case against a driver who seriously injured Ross after dragging him 100 metres.

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US says it carried out new ‘large-scale’ strikes against Isis in Syria

US and allied forces carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria on Saturday, the US military said, in the latest response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead. Washington said a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the December 13 attack in Palmyra – home to Unesco-listed ancient ruins and once controlled by jihadist fighters – that killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter. “The strikes today targeted ISIS...

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Trump declares US national emergency to protect Venezuela oil money

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting US-held money derived from sales of Venezuelan oil, after the ousting of Nicolas Maduro, the White House said. In an order signed on Friday, Trump – who has made clear that tapping Venezuela’s vast oil reserves was a key goal in the US ousting of Maduro – is acting “to advance US foreign policy objectives”, the White House said in a fact sheet accompanying the order. The action follows a meeting Friday in Washington where Trump..

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