Mena Today

What should have been a thrilling finale to a highly competitive Africa Cup of Nations ended in controversy on Sunday night, leaving African football with an uncomfortable aftertaste.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will join the "Board of Peace" proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump after accepting an invitation to do so and wants to contribute to bringing about a stable Middle East peace, his spokesperson said on Monday.

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa has cancelled his visit to Berlin on Monday and Tuesday, a German government spokesperson told Reuters.

Moderate Socialist Antonio Jose Seguro led the first round of Portugal's presidential election on Sunday, followed by the far-right leader Andre Ventura, with exit polls and first partial results showing the two are heading into a runoff next month.

Egypt ended 2025 with a sharp rise in the value of its gold holdings, as the Central Bank of Egypt increased bullion’s role in the country’s reserve mix to cushion against global volatility and swings in hard-currency liquidity.

The Syrian government and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed on an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire on all fronts on Sunday after days of fighting as the army advanced into Kurdish-held territories in the northeast.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian escalated tensions on Sunday by declaring that any attack against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would amount to a declaration of war against Iran itself. 

Libya's security authorities have freed more than 200 migrants from what they described as a secret prison in the town of Kufra in the southeast of the country after they were held captive in inhuman conditions, two security sources from the city told Reuters on Sunday.

Major European Union states decried U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against European allies over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday, as France proposed responding with a range of previously untested economic countermeasures.

The United Arab Emirates is participating in the 56th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), held in Davos from 19 to 23 January 2026.

At least 5,000 people have been killed in protests in Iran, including about 500 security personnel, an Iranian official in the region said on Sunday, citing verified figures and accusing "terrorists and armed rioters" of killing "innocent Iranians".

Syrian government troops are pushing towards Raqqa and Hasakah in the northeast of the country, the last strongholds of the U.S.-backed autonomous Kurdish-led administration, government officials and security sources said on Sunday.