World
Georgia ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili handed second prison sentence
Saakashvili was found guilty of illegal border crossing and given a second prison sentence of four and a half years on Monday, in addition to his existing sentence on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement.
A Georgian court sentenced former President Mikheil Saakashvili to another prison term on Monday, extending his imprisonment time to 12 and a half years.
Saakashvili, who served as Georgia’s president from 2004-2013, had previously been sentenced on charges of abuse of power and embezzlement that he and his defence have rejected as politically motivated.
Judge Badri Kochlamazashvili sentenced the 57-year-old ex-president to an extra four years and six months on charges of illegal border crossing, adding time to his existing sentence.
Speaking by videoconference, Saakashvili dismissed the verdict as an “absolutely illegal, unjust sentencing of me for crimes I have not committed.”
“They want to annihilate me in prison,” he said. “But no matter what, I will fight till the end,” he vowed.
According to his lawyer, Beka Basilaia, Monday’s verdict “again showed that Saakashvili is a political prisoner.”
Saakashvili, a controversial reformist
Saakashvili is also accused of repressing demonstrators who claimed that his fervour had turned into dictatorship.
The former president, who led the country in a more pro-Western direction, led the so-called Rose Revolution protests in 2003 that drove his predecessor out of office and enacted a series of ambitious reforms tackling official corruption.
In 2008, he oversaw a brief but intense war with Russia that ended with the humiliating loss of the remaining Georgian bases in two separatist territories.
His reign was brought to an end in the 2012 election when the then newly formed Georgian Dream Party defeated Saakashvili’s United National Movement party.
Saakashvili left for Ukraine in 2013 and became a citizen. From 2015 to 2016, he governed the southern Odesa region.
However, he was swiftly detained when he returned to Georgia in October 2021 in an attempt to strengthen opposition forces before the national municipal elections.
Georgian Dream accused of influencing verdict
Saakashvili’s lawyer on Monday accused the ruling Georgian Dream of influencing the latest extension of the ex-Georgian leader’s prison term.
“As long as Georgian Dream remains in power, the judiciary is a farce and will make whatever decision it is instructed to,” Basilaia said.
Since 2012, when Saakashvili was ousted from office, the Georgian Dream Party has remained in power and itself has recently been facing criticisms and popular protests on allegations of a crackdown on democratic freedoms.
The party is also accused of steering the country away from the path toward European Union membership and back into Russia’s sphere of influence.
After going on multiple hunger strikes, Saakashvili is currently being treated at the Vivamedi facility, where he is being monitored for a number of chronic illnesses, according to the clinic.
World
UAE cuts funding for citizens studying at UK universities over campus radicalization fears: report
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is removing funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom, citing concerns they could be radicalized abroad.
The move means the UAE has removed British universities from a list of higher education institutions eligible for state scholarships amid growing tensions over London’s decision not to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, The Financial Times reported.
“[The UAE] don’t want their kids to be radicalized on campus,” a person directly involved with the decision told the outlet.
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ORDERED TO REINSTATE LAW STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED AFTER ANTI-JEWISH COMMENTS
A “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine” banner at King’s College at the University of Cambridge May 11, 2024, in Cambridge, U.K. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Since then, Emirati students who have applied to their government for scholarships to study in the U.K. have been denied.
The move also means that the UAE will not recognize qualifications from academic institutions that are not on its accredited list, rendering degrees from U.K. universities less valuable than others, according to the report.
NYC STUDENTS EXPOSE ‘EXTREMIST’ PROFESSORS FOSTERING CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM AT MAJOR UNIVERSITIES
The skyline in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom has been halted. (Vidhyaa Chandramohan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“All forms of extremism have absolutely no place in our society, and we will stamp them out wherever they are found,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement. “We offer one of the best education systems in the world and maintain stringent measures on student welfare and on-campus safety.”
The UAE has taken a hardline approach to Islamist movements abroad and at home.
During the 2023-24 school year, 70 students at U.K. universities were reported for possible referral to the government’s deradicalization program, the report states.
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UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has repeatedly questioned the U.K.’s decision to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
Starmer’s administration last year said the matter was under “close review.”
World
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416
These are the key developments from day 1,416 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 10 Jan 2026
Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 10:
Fighting:
- The death toll from a massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that began on Thursday night has risen to four, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service wrote in an update shared on Facebook on Friday. At least 25 people were also injured, including five rescuers, the service added.
- The attack left thousands of Kyiv apartments without heat, electricity and water as temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other local officials said.
- Klitschko called on people to temporarily leave the city, saying on Telegram that “half of apartment buildings in Kyiv – nearly 6,000 – are currently without heating because the capital’s critical infrastructure was damaged by the enemy’s massive attack”.
- Russian forces shelled a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kherson just after midday on Friday, damaging the intensive care unit and injuring three nurses, the regional prosecutor’s office wrote on Telegram.
- “As a result of the attack, three nurses aged 21, 49, and 52 were wounded. At the time of the shelling, the women were inside the medical facility,” the office said in a statement.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned attacks on healthcare in Ukraine in a statement shared on X, saying that there had been nine attacks since the beginning of 2026, killing one patient, one medic and injuring 11 others, including healthcare workers and patients.
- Tedros said that the attacks further “complicated the delivery of health care during the winter period” and called for “the protection of health care facilities, patients and health workers”.
- Russian forces attacked two foreign-flagged civilian vessels with drones in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing a Syrian national and injuring another, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba and other officials said on Friday.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on a bus in Russia’s Belgorod region injured four people, the regional task force reported, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
- Russian forces seized five settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, including Zelenoye, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS.
- Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState said on Friday that Russian forces advanced in Huliaipole and Prymorske in the Zaporizhia region, but did not report any further changes.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russia’s Oreshnik missile strike late on Thursday was “demonstratively” close to Ukraine’s border with the European Union.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun consultations to establish a temporary ceasefire zone near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after military activity damaged one of two high-voltage power lines, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Friday.
Sanctions
- US forces seized the Olina oil tanker and forced it to return to Venezuela so its oil could be sold “through the GREAT Energy Deal”, United States President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. According to The Associated Press news agency, US government records showed that the Olina had been sanctioned for moving Russian oil under its prior name, Minerva M.
- Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said that Ukrainian nationals were among members of the crew of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera seized earlier this week by US forces over its links to Venezuela, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry separately said on Friday that the US had released two Russian crewmembers from the Marinera, expressing gratitude to Washington for the decision and pledging to ensure the return home of crewmembers.
Politics and diplomacy
- Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret” over damage to its embassy in Kyiv, confirming that no diplomats or staff were hurt, in a statement on Friday. The ministry underscored the importance of protecting diplomatic buildings and reiterated its call for a “resolution to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and peaceful means”.
- British Defence Secretary John Healey said that the United Kingdom was allocating 200 million pounds ($270m) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.
- The leaders of Britain, France and Germany described Russia’s use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable”, according to a readout of their call released by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office on Friday.
World
Some flu measures decline, but it’s not clear this severe season has peaked
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.
New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.
However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.
“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.
One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.
The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.
So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.
Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.
Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.
Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.
For years, federal health officials joined doctors’ groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.
But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.
“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.
“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable,” she said in a statement.
Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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