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Israel approves upgrade to 4G mobile services to Palestinians in West Bank

JERUSALEM, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Israel has approved an upgrade to fourth-generation (4G) mobile services for Palestinians in the West Bank, the Israeli Communications Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said the two Palestinian mobile operators - Jawwal and Ooredoo - and Swedish infrastructure firm Ericsson signed management agreements that were approved by Israel on Sunday.

Women look at a mobile phone screen in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

Tourists on remote Yemeni island stranded after Saudi, UAE rift

DUBAI, Jan 6 - When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week under a deadline from Saudi Arabia, it also left behind the remote Yemeni island of Socotra and the roughly 600 tourists who had flown in but could no longer fly out.

Air traffic at the island's main airport came to a halt as a deepening crisis between the UAE and Saudi Arabia translated into fresh conflict on Yemen's mainland, where the two Gulf powers now back opposing groups in the country's civil war.

Tourists stand outside a hotel in the Socotra Island, Yemen, January 5, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Azerbaijan will not send peacekeepers to Gaza, president says

BAKU, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan has no intention of sending a contingent of its troops to take part in peacekeeping operations outside its borders, including in Gaza, President Ilham Aliyev said late on Monday.

Aliyev, interviewed by Azeri television channels, said Azerbaijan had been in contact with Donald Trump's U.S. administration with a list of questions about the operation of a peacekeeping force in Gaza.

"We prepared a questionnaire of more than 20 questions and provided it to the American side. No participation in peacekeeping forces is envisaged," Aliyev said.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 25, 2025. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

Where's next? Trump eyes new targets after Venezuela

An emboldened US President Donald Trump has hinted that he has other countries in his sights after toppling Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, leaving the world asking: where's next?

Trump took aim at Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico and Iran in the space of a single half-hour exchange with reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One.

Trump, who openly campaigned for last year's Nobel peace prize and has scorned interventionism, now says he is enforcing Washington's right to do what it pleases in his backyard.

- Greenland -

US President Donald Trump has hinted at new targets after deposing Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro

Delegation led by Yemen's main separatist group to travel to Saudi Arabia, sources say

CAIRO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - A delegation led by Yemen's main separatist group STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi will travel to Saudi Arabia, two sources told Reuters on Monday.

The visit would come days after STC welcomed a call for dialogue by Saudi Arabia to end a recent military escalation that has opened a major feud between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

(Writing by Menna Alaa El-Din)

Southern Transitional Council (STC) security personnel search vehicles at a checkpoint in Aden, Yemen, January 5, 2026. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman

Israel says targets Hezbollah, Hamas in Lebanon strikes

The Israeli military launched strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese state media reported, after warning it would hit what it called Hezbollah and Hamas targets in four villages.

It was the first such warning issued by the Israeli military this year, as Israel continues to strike targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Israel warned Lebanese civilians to evacuate the village of Kfar Hatta before Monday's strike

Israeli airstrike kills two in Gaza including girl, hospital staff say

CAIRO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Israel killed at least two Palestinians including a girl, and wounded four others including other children, in an airstrike on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, officials at the city's main Nasser Hospital said.

The Israeli military said the strike, carried out in an area controlled by Hamas, had targeted a Hamas militant who was planning to attack Israeli troops in southern Gaza.

Palestinians look out from a building at the site of a collapsed house that was damaged during the war by an Israeli strike, in the central Gaza Strip, January 5, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Russia loses ally in Venezuela but hopes to gain from Trump's 'Wild West' realpolitik

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro's capture by the United States has deprived Vladimir Putin of an ally and could increase U.S. "oil clout", but Moscow is eying potential gains from President Donald Trump's division of the world into spheres of influence.

Special Forces seized Maduro only eight months after the Russian president agreed a strategic partnership with his "dear friend", and Trump said the U.S. was taking temporary control of Venezuela, which has the world's biggest oil reserves.

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, May 7, 2025. Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo