TOP NEWS

Political situation in Japan
Takaichi dissolves Japan's parliament ahead of new elections

The Japanese parliament has been dissolved by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, several media outlets report.

The decision was made ahead of the new elections to be held in the country on February 8. Takaichi is said to have announced her intentions as early as Monday, writes TT.

According to Bloomberg, Takaichi hopes that the decision to dissolve parliament will strengthen her narrow majority in the lower house in the upcoming elections.

Protests in Iran
Iran denies Trump's statements: "No executions stopped"

Iran's Attorney General Mohammad Movahedi Azad refutes Donald Trump's information that the country has stopped 800 executions, reports the AP, citing the state news agency Mizan Online.

Trump claimed on Friday that Iran had stopped 800 executions of political prisoners. He also thanked the Iranian regime for doing so.

But now Movahedi says that Trump's information is "completely false."

- Such figures do not exist and the judiciary has not made such decisions, he says.

The fight against IS
Iraq calls on Europe to take back its IS prisoners

Iraq wants European countries to take back their citizens who are in IS camps in Syria, reports AFP.

According to sources, 150 IS members have been moved to Iraq so far. All of them are high-ranking and several of them are said to be Europeans.

The country's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has spoken on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron. He is said to have underlined that countries around the world must take their responsibility and accept people who carry their citizenship.

Under American supervision, approximately 7,000 suspects are to be moved from Syria to Iraq.

Trump's USA  Protests against ICE
ICE took Liam in Minnesota – used as "bait"

Five-year-old Liam Ramos has been taken by the immigration police ICE when he was on his way home from preschool with his father, several American media outlets report.

Liam was in a car with his father in the driveway of the family's home in Minnesota when the arrest took place. They are now being held in an ICE detention center in Texas.

According to representatives of the preschool, the five-year-old was used as bait. Liam's mother and older brother were in the family's home and the immigration police allegedly forced him to knock on the door to see if anyone was home.

The arrest has fueled anger against ICE in Minnesota, where Renee Nicole Good was shot dead by immigration police.

Davos Summit
The Mystery of Davos – Why Did Gahr Støre’s Throat Itch?

There is no clear picture of why the Davos conference center was forced to evacuate on Wednesday evening. But several participants began coughing and many thought they identified the smell of tear gas, reports Norwegian TV2.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre says he had a “stinging feeling” in his throat when he breathed and that he too was forced to cough. His bodyguards identified what was in the air as tear gas or some similar gas.

“I felt that there was a certain stress among the police. We were told that we were not allowed to move freely,” says Støre.

The incident is said to have occurred shortly after Donald Trump left the venue.

But no one found the source. Local authorities pointed to two small fires as the possible explanation, but this does not match Støre’s and TV2’s own view. The article describes it as the “Davos tear gas mystery”.

Newsom’s words in Davos irritate Trump: “Embarrassing the USA”

The Trump administration is cracking down hard on California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, who is seen as an early favorite to become the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2028. With his scathing criticism of Trump and his scolding of Europe, Newsom received a lot of attention during the Davos summit.

In a furious post on Truth Social, Donald Trump himself writes that “Gavin Newscum” – a nickname he launched in 2024 – should not be running around in Davos, taking up space and “embarrassing our country”.

“He made a fool of himself”, Trump thinks.

He further rules out Newsom’s chances of becoming president, but still adds as a final word: “Who knows, it’s a very strange world!”

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also seems to be annoyed with Gavin Newsom. In an interview with Politico, he says that the Trump critic has a "brain the size of a walnut."