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FIFA has selected sports AI firm Stats Perform as their first official betting data and betting streaming rights distributor, which includes live streams for all matches at the 2026 World Cup, world soccer's governing body said, Reuters reported. 

The agreement also grants Stats Perform exclusive rights to distribute official betting data and live streams for other FIFA competitions such as the 2027 Women's World Cup, Futsal World Cups, youth World Cups and the Intercontinental Cup.

The three-year agreement will run until 2029, according to Reuters. 

Xabi Alonso has left his job as coach of Real Madrid, only seven months after arriving for his first day at the club’s Valdebebas training ground. A brief statement announced his departure “by mutual consent” on Monday evening after Madrid’s 3-2 defeat in the final of the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona the previous night, The Guardian reported. 

He will be replaced, at least in the short term, by his former Real Madrid and Liverpool teammate and friend Álvaro Arbeloa, who was coach of Castilla, Madrid’s B team.

Alonso had been on the edge over the last month, with the defeat at Liverpool in the Champions League in early November beginning a run of two victories in eight games which also turned a five-point lead over Barcelona at the top of the La Liga table into a four-point deficit, according to The Guardian. 

The paddy production decreased in Rautahat district this year compared to last year. 

Acting Chief of District Agriculture Knowledge Centre Surendra Prasad Kurmi said that paddy production witnessed a decline of 21,578 metric tons in the district this year.  

The incessant rainfall occurred during the harvesting season in the first week of the last October resulted in reduced paddy production.

Acting Chief of Office Kurmi shared that the district produced 95,130 metric tons of paddy this year, while the paddy production was 116,708 metric tonnes last year. 

According to Kurmi, paddy farming was done in 31,500 hectares of land in the district and the production was 3.02 metric tons per hectare. 

The flooding in Bakaiya and Bagmati rivers had caused damage to the paddy farms, which were almost ready for harvesting in more than 17,600 hectares.  

The paddy farmers in Rajdevi, Paroha, Rajpur, Madhav Narayan, Gadhimai, Ishnath, Maulapur and Durga Bhagawati areas suffered due to the rainfall and flood occurred in the first week of October.

A total of 85 candidates listed in different political parties' closed list in the proportional representation (PR) electoral system for the upcoming House of Representatives (HoR) polls withdrew their names on Monday. 

According to the Election Commission (EC), the candidates included in the closed list submitted by the political parties on December 28 and 29 withdrew their names as per the deadline set for Monday.

The EC stated that 21 candidates of Janata Samajbadi Party and 20 candidates of Janamat party withdrew their names from the closed list of the PR electoral system.

Likewise, the candidates of CPN-UML, Nepali Communist Party, Pragatisheel Loktantrik Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party also withdrew their names.  

The Janata Samajwadi Party and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party withdrew some of the candidates' names for the fresh management in the list following the two parties' merger.  

The EC has stated that there could be slight changes in the parties' closed list in the final announcement of the candidates' closed list.

The closed list will be made public on January 18 for any protests or claims, which will be investigated and the final list shall be published on February 3.

A total of 64 political parties had submitted their closed list in the EC for the HoR elections scheduled for March 5. 

Out of 64 political parties, 54 political parties are using their own election symbols while remaining 10 parties would use a common election symbol.

Of the total 275 seats, 110 MPs will be elected from the PR electoral system while 165 MPs will be elected from the first past the post electoral system.   

A total of 93 political parties had filed applications in the EC to file candidacy under the PR system. 

The EC had given time to the political parties from January 5-11 to make corrections after investigating the closed lists of the parties on January 4.

Four migrants died while in custody of US immigration authorities over the first 10 days of 2026, according to government press releases, a loss of life that followed record detention deaths in 2025 under President Donald Trump, Reuters reported. 

The incidents involved two migrants from Honduras, one from Cuba and another from Cambodia, and occurred from Jan 3 to 9, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The spate of in-custody deaths coincided with thefatal shooting of a Minnesota mother of three by an ICE officer, an incident that sparked protests in Minneapolis and cities around the country, according to Reuters. 

Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado will meet President Donald Trump on Thursday, the White House has confirmed, BBC reported. 

The visit comes just weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was seized in Caracas by US forces. But Trump declined to endorse Machado, whose movement claimed victory in 2024's widely contested elections, as its new leader. 

The US instead backed Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice-president, according to BBC. 

The US state of Minnesota has sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block a surge of federal immigration agents into the state, BBC reported. 

The lawsuit argues the deployment amounts to an unconstitutional "federal invasion". Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison said immigration operations had upended life for millions and caused "chaos and violence".

It comes after Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last week, triggering large protests in the city, according to BBC. 

US President Donald Trump on Monday said he had imposed a 25% tariff on goods from countries with commercial ties to Iran, a move that could put pressure on Tehran as anti-government protests enter a third week, BBC reported.

Trump said on social media that the tariff was "effective immediately", without offering details of what constituted "doing business" with Iran.

China is Iran's largest trading partners, followed by Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and India, according to BBC.