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Thursday, January 22, 2026

'US Begins 'Transfer' Of ISIS Prisoners From Syria To Iraq, Mulls Full Withdrawal'

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in a fresh statement that it has launched a mission to transfer ISIS fighters from Syria to Iraqi government-controlled facilities. The announcement came hours after the Syrian army entered the Al-Hawl Camp in the country’s north, resulting in the escape of thousands of ISIS and ISIS-linked prisoners.

“CENTCOM launched a new mission to transfer ISIS detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraq … to help ensure the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities,” the CENTCOM statement said. “The transfer mission began while US forces successfully transported 150 ISIS fighters held at a detention facility in Hasakah, Syria, to a secure location in Iraq. Ultimately, up to 7,000 ISIS detainees could be transferred from Syria to Iraqi-controlled facilities,” it added.

CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper was quoted as saying that Washington is “closely coordinating with regional partners, including the Iraqi government, and we sincerely appreciate their role in ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS.”

“Facilitating the orderly and secure transfer of ISIS detainees is critical to preventing a breakout that would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security,” he added.

The CENTCOM chief failed to mention the release of scores of ISIS members in Syria over the past few days.

This week, the Syrian military entered Hasakah Governorate’s Al-Hawl Camp, which for around a decade housed tens of thousands of ISIS prisoners and their families, including foreigners who entered Syria illegally to join the US-backed war against former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Since the Syrian army entered the camp on 20 January, thousands of ISIS members and their families have been released from Al-Hawl. Videos on social media showed government-affiliated troops arriving at Al-Hawl and allowing the prisoners to leave.

Over 25,000 people were held in the camp prior to the withdrawal of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which recently lost most of its territory across northern Syria following the start of a massive assault by Damascus.

“It remains unclear how many detainees have fled and who currently controls the camp,” one of the camp’s overseers told Rudaw. The camp is made up of prisons that held ISIS fighters for years, as well as areas designated for internally displaced people.

Al-Roj Camp and the Hasakah Prison also hold tens of thousands of ISIS militants. Government forces are nearby but have not yet entered those two prisons.

Yet Hasakah’s Al-Shaddadi Prison fell to government troops three days ago after the SDF said it could no longer hold the facility due to continuous attacks. The Kurdish group slammed the US coalition, located at a base two kilometers away, for ignoring repeated distress calls and requests for assistance.

According to Kurdish media, at least 1,500 ISIS members have escaped from Al-Shaddadi. Damascus claims a little over 100 ISIS members escaped, and accused the SDF of letting them out.

According to Damascus-linked media reports, 81 ISIS prisoners have been detained by authorities out of a total of 120 who were “let out” by the Kurdish militia.

“I did a great job. You know what I did? I stopped a prison break,” US President Donald Trump boasted to the New York Post on January 20. “Oh, we did a good job with Syria. They had a prison break. European prisoners were breaking out and I got it stopped. That was yesterday,” he went on to say.

“European terrorists were in prison. They had a prison break. And working with the government of Syria and the new leader of Syria, they captured all the prisoners, put them back to jail, and these were the worst terrorists in the world, all from Europe,” he added, referring to foreign extremists who entered Syria years ago to join Washington’s war against Assad.

The US military has, for years, been transferring ISIS militants across different countries in the region. In 2021, Iraq’s anti-ISIS Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) revealed that thermal cameras had recorded US military helicopters transferring ISIS militants to different locations in the country.

In August 2017, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported seeing US choppers transporting ISIS fighters in and out of the city of Deir Ezzor multiple times. The last reports of these activities came mere days before Syrian and Russian troops retook the city from the terrorist group.

The former Syrian government also said years ago that ISIS fighters were being moved out of a Kurdish-run prison and relocated to a US military base. Since the government assault on the north started earlier this month, Kurdish authorities have been warning that attacks on prisons pose the threat of triggering a major ISIS resurgence.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-begins-transfer-isis-prisoners-syria-iraq-mulling-full-withdrawal

Mamdani unveils $4M plan to open NYC youth 'behavior, reproductive' health clinics

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the opening of two mental health clinics for Big Apple youths Thursday at an event where he rubbed elbows with Democratic Party rivals.

The clinics — which are being supported through a $4 million donation from MetroPlusHealth — will provide behavioral and reproductive care to teens and young adults aged 16-25.

“We are speaking about the health of young New Yorkers who are often reluctant to seek care or who don’t have the health resources specifically tailored to their needs,” Mamdani claimed.

“And we know that as New Yorkers transition into adulthood, their lives, their priorities, they change,” he explained at a press conference held in the new site of one of the clinics–Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn.

Hizzoner was joined by a slew of politicos at Thursday’s ribbon cutting on the Woodhull clinic — including City Council member Chi Ossé (D-36) and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso — both of whom he has had scuffles with since the November election.

Mamdani raised eyebrows last week when he endorsed Democratic Socialists of America candidate Assembly Member Claire Valdez (D-37) to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-12) despite Reynoso’s bid for the coveted district 12 seat.

The mayor and Ossé also had a reported tiff when he declined to back the lefty council member for a primary run against moderate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-8).

Mamdani noted the new facilities will provide young people with vocational assistance along with health care to assist with college and career planning. Additionally, students will begin working with a care team at age 16 that will stay with them until they are 25.

The new Elevate You clinics will be located at NYC Health + Hospitals Woodhull and Queens locations.

https://nypost.com/2026/01/22/us-news/zohran-mamdani-unveils-4m-plan-to-open-nyc-youth-health-clinics/

TikTok closes deal to ensure future in US

ByteDance Ltd.'s TikTok announced that it established a majority American-owned joint venture to keep it operating inside the United States, in line with a deal announced by President Donald Trump last September.

The newly formed TikTok USDS Joint Venture will be led by Adam Presser as CEO, while Will Farrell is to serve as Chief Security Officer. It will operate as an "independent entity" governed by a seven-member board consisting of TikTok CEO Shou Chew, TPG Global senior adviser Timothy Dattels, Susquehanna International Group Managing Director Mark Dooley, Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban, DXC Technology CEO and President Raul Fernandez, Oracle Executive Vice President Kenneth Glueck and MGX Chief Strategy and Safety Officer David Scott.

ByteDance itself will retain 19.9% of the venture, which will function "under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances for US users."

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/TikTok-closes-deal-to-ensure-future-in-US/65530220

SpaceX said to line up 4 major banks for IPO

SpaceX is laying the groundwork for what could become one of the largest initial public offerings in history, with Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley leading the pack, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Other banks are also expected to back the listing, according to people familiar with the matter, and SpaceX executives have reportedly held multiple meetings with financial advisors in recent weeks. The IPO preparations come as SpaceX undergoes an internal share sale that values the company at reported at approximately $800 billion.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/SpaceX-said-to-line-up-4-major-banks-for-IPO/65528055

Trump says maybe should've tested NATO's loyalty

United States President Donald Trump said he maybe should have put NATO "to the test" by invoking Article 5 and forcing the alliance to "protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants."

This would have freed up "large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks," Trump added on Truth Social. The post adds to the US president's growing list of airing out grievances against NATO, whose readiness to come to Washington's aid he questioned repeatedly.

NATO's Article 5, which has been invoked only once in the organization's 76-year history, states that an attack on one member is considered an attack against all. The mutual defense clause was activated the day after the September 11, 2001, (9/11) Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on American soil. The wider NATO response that followed claimed the lives of over 1,000 non-American troops in Afghanistan.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Trump-says-maybe-should've-tested-NATO's-loyalty/65530330

At Davos, the WEF now promotes less clothes-washing to save the planet

by Monica Showalter

What is it about the greenie jet-setters of World Economic Forum flying in on a plume of carbon compounds, and their urge to make life just a little more solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short for the little guys they claim to know what's best for?

Not too long ago, the "you will own nothing and you will be happy" guys were promoting the eating of bugs to save the planet -- recall that a French company called Innovafeed that was promoted at one of these WEF gatherings that got a lot of attention from the Washington Post as a bright new wave-of-the-future idea.

Now they'd like us to wash our clothes less often:

See, 70% of CO2 emissions coming from a cotton tshirt come from washing and drying it. Bad tshirts, stop them! And washing clothes puts microfibers into the water system! (Let's see their video on birth control into the water system, which is actually believed to be giving young men high-pitched voices.) Worse still, washing clothes wears them out, and creating a lot of 'clothing waste.' Maybe they should try recycling.

They want jeans washed just once a month, with no adjustments suggested for the condition they are in. Pajamas get once a week, jumpers, or sweaters, get once every six weeks, again, with no concessions about how dirty they are. They do make a concession on worn underwear and stinky gym clothes.

But can you imagine having to deal with kids' clothes washed on that schedule? Kids love dirt, they're drawn to dirt, they demonstrate it every time they go out to play, and it's not just the boys.

By these greenie standards, drug-addicted street bums would be the most eco-friendly people on the planet.

The BBC reports that there are leftists who have already joined something called "the no-wash movement' to save the planet. I wrote about them here, citing their bid to create a Pig-Pen Nation.

Now the horrid idea has exited the dumpsters and made a home for itself at the WEF for promotion outward.

It's all part of the leftist urge to make life as wretched as possible for the well-fed average joes of the West.

As I wrote here, they really like this stuff and they're on a tear:

What a sick world this is. Greens have unsuccessfully tried to sell us on all sorts of repulsive things to put into our bodies -- from various versions of soylent green, to "stewmaking" burials, to human compost burials, to recycling urine into drinking water to save the earth, to eating bugs. It's one disgusting thing after another, which these days even includes attempting to coax people into taking public transit. Not too long ago, a Utah official tried to encourage people to eat wild toads to save the environment. Utah teachers were also recently caught teaching CRT in schools behind the kids' parents' backs.

... and ...

It wasn't enough that the greenie left came for our light bulbs, our flush toilets, our guns, our plastic straws, our gas stoves, or our hamburgers.
Now they're coming for our coffee.

Another greenie favorite is going without air conditioning. The New York Times was promoting that last year. I wrote about it here.

Now they want crusty, dirty, smell-it-a-mile-away clothing, all made worse by the greenie practice of going without air conditioning.

This is disgusting, and the WEF is all part of its promotion. Whatever their next bright idea is, and there will be a new one, you can bet it will be disgusting. All to get them back into grass skirts and mud huts.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/01/at_davos_the_wef_now_promotes_less_clothes_washing.html

11 high-impact drugs to look out for in 2026

Medicines for obesity, diabetes, rare diseases, cancer, and women's health feature among Clarivate's annual round-up of 11 Drugs to Watch this year, but two of them far outstrip the others in sales potential.

There are no prizes for guessing that the multibillion-dollar predictions go to GLP-1-based therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes, given the class has dominated the pharma news agenda in the last couple of years. But while the current market is a duopoly dominated by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, Clarivate sees one clear winner in its sales projects in the G7 markets (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US) in 2031.

As we can see from the list below – which considers both the sales potential and the broader impact of new therapies and can be viewed here – that winner is Lilly.

1) Orforglipron

Clarivate is predicting that Lilly's oral GLP-1 drug orforglipron will bring in a massive $11.1 billion in G7 obesity sales in 2031, with another $5.2 billion from use in type 2 diabetes (T2D). It is one to watch because it avoids the strict dosing requirements of Novo Nordisk's oral Wegovy (semaglutide) – which is its main rival and has beaten Lilly's drug to the market – and is also easier and less expensive to produce. Orforglipron is due for an approval decision by the FDA in the second quarter, but, in the meantime, initial take-up data on oral Wegovy is encouraging for Novo Nordisk.

2) Retatrutide

If Clarivate's forecasts for orforglipron are high, they are trumped by its predictions for Lilly's retatrutide, a once-weekly, injectable triple agonist – targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon at the same time – that it predicts will make $10 billion from obesity and a massive $20.1 billion from T2D sales in five years. It looks set to be the first triple therapy to reach the market, and has already pulled off stellar weight reduction in a phase 3 trial, thanks to a mechanism that combines reducing calorie intake and augmenting energy expenditure. Post-2028, retatrutide is expected to become the primary growth driver for the obesity drug market, according to the report.

3) Exdensur (depemokimab)

GSK gets an entry in the list with Exdensur (depemokimab), a twice-yearly injectable IL-5 inhibitor for severe asthma, which picked up its regulatory approvals in the US and UK towards the end of 2025 and could provide greater convenience over current drugs in the class that require monthly or bimonthly dosing. Clarivate reckons it will make $510 million from asthma alone in 2031, thanks to its potential to address adherence barriers for patients, with additional upside from other indications like chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), for which it is also approved in the UK.

4) Icotrokinra

Johnson & Johnson's icotrokinra, an IL-23 receptor antagonist for plaque psoriasis, has been included on the grounds that it combines a tried-and-tested biological mechanism with oral dosing. J&J has shown its confidence in the drug by pitting against Bristol Myers Squibb's oral therapy Sotyktu (deucravacitinib), a TYK2 inhibitor that is the most efficacious oral agent for psoriasis so far, as well as its big-selling injectable therapy, IL-12 and IL-23 inhibitor Stelara (ustekinumab), in head-to-head trials. Assuming those studies deliver positive results, the report predicts G7 sales will reach $1.5 billion.

5) Voyxact (sibeprenlimab)

Otsuka picked up an approval from the FDA for its anti-APRIL antibody Voyxact (sibeprenlimab) in the increasingly crowded immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) market a few weeks ago, becoming the first drug in the class to reach the US market ahead of rival Vera Therapeutics, and Clarivate thinks it could become a $955 million seller in 2031. The drug is a "high-impact, disease-modifying" entrant for the life-threatening kidney disease, addressing a root cause of disease progression, allowing monthly self-administration at home to avoid clinic visits, and "superior efficacy" to current IgAN drugs.

6) Tolebrutinib

Sanofi has high hopes for oral BTK inhibitor tolebrutinib, aiming to be the first drug in the class to be approved for multiple sclerosis, but suffered a setback in its plans when it was turned down by the FDA at the end of last year. Nevertheless, Clarivate thinks it could get a green light in the US as well as Europe this year, and in Japan in 2027, and become the first approved therapy for non-relapsing secondary progressive MS (nrSPMS), and carve out a $1.4 billion slice of the G7 market for MS therapies thanks to the convenience of its oral administration over injectable therapies like Roche's Ocrevus (ocrelizumab).

7) BGB-16673

China's BeOne Medicines makes it into the list with BGB-16673, a BTK-targeting chimeric degradation activation compound (CDAC), suitable for once-daily, oral dosing that could launch from 2027 onwards as a treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). Early clinical data supports a strong preclinical profile and, if approved, it has the potential to be a "paradigm-changing" treatment for B-cell malignancies, according to Clarivate, which has set its 2031 G7 sales forecast in CLL/SLL at $1.19 billion, given there are limited treatment options in the double- and triple-refractory patient population.

8) Mezigdomide

Bristol Myers Squibb's mezigdomide is described as a second-generation CELMoD (cereblon E3 ligase modulator) – one of three clinical-stage candidates being developed by the drugmaker – and is due to generate results from a pair of phase 3 clinical trials (SUCCESSOR-1 and SUCCESSOR-2) in second-line multiple myeloma later this year. The trio (which also includes iberdomide and golcadomide) are viewed as key for BMS' multiple myeloma franchise, now that its Revlimid (lenalidomide) and Pomalyst (pomalidomide) products, which act via a similar pathway, are coming to the end of their patent lives. Predicted 2031 sales are $1.47 billion.

9) Gedatolisib

Shares in Celcuity skyrocketed last summer when it reported positive data from the phase 3 VIKTORIA-1 study of gedatolisib, an intravenous PI3K/mTOR inhibitor originally developed by Pfizer, for previously treated patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer without PIK3CA mutations. The results showed "unprecedented" reductions in the risk of disease progression or death and median progression-free survival (PFS), according to Clarivate, which notes that a rolling marketing application has been filed in the US. A second phase 3 trial (VIKTORIA-2), due to read out in 2027, could move the drug into the first-line setting. Its ability to address resistance to endocrine therapies when used second-line, and a good safety profile, underpins a forecast of $1.08 billion in 2031 sales.

10) Inlexzo (TAR-200)

Johnson & Johnson's TAR-200 intravesical formulation of gemcitabine, recently approved by the FDA as Inlexzo for BCG-unresponsive high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (HR-NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS), addresses a significant unmet medical need for effective, less-invasive, bladder-preserving therapies in this type of cancer. It could make G7 sales of $1.8 billion in five years, according to the report, fuelled by monotherapy use and potentially part of combination regimens with therapies including checkpoint inhibitors, although it is facing competition from other novel therapies like ImmunityBio's Anktiva (nogapendekin alfa inbakicep) and Ferring Pharma's Adstiladrin (nadofaragene firadenovec), while CG Oncology's experimental cretostimogene grenadenorepvec is also in late-stage development, with results due in the first half of this year.

11) Relacorilant

Finally, Corcept Therapeutics secures a place on Clarivate's list with relacorilant, a selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonist (SGRA), suitable for oral dosing, that is being developed for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and hypercortisolism (Cushing syndrome). The FDA declined to approve the drug earlier this month for Cushing's, but it is due to deliver a verdict on the ovarian cancer indication in July. Clarivate has pointed to "compelling data" in the ROSELLA study, where its combination with nab-paclitaxel significantly improved PFS and overall survival in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, without increasing toxicity. It is predicting ovarian cancer sales of $150 million in 2031.

https://pharmaphorum.com/news/11-high-impact-drugs-look-out-2026

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Thursday, January 22, 2026