China Executes 11 Members of Myanmar-Based Scam Mafia Family
China executed 11 members of a Myanmar-based mafia family on Thursday, January 29, 2026, for their involvement in a criminal syndicate responsible for the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens, according to Sky News. The individuals, members of the Ming family, were also found guilty of illegal detention and fraud.
The Wenzhou City Intermediate People's Court announced the executions in a statement, detailing the crimes committed by the Ming family, which included Ming Guoping, Ming Zhenzhen, Zhou Weichang, Wu Hongming, and Luao Jianzhang. The crime syndicate was reportedly worth more than $1 billion.
In other news, a landslide in Sicily, triggered by heavy rains, caused significant damage to the town of Niscemi, forcing the evacuation of over 1,500 people, Sky News reported. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited Niscemi on Wednesday, where dozens of houses were left "uninhabitable" and teetering on the edge of a cliff after the ground beneath them collapsed. "'The entire hill is collapsing'," Sky News reported.
Meanwhile, Israel and Kazakhstan signed a visa-free agreement on Tuesday to boost tourism between the two nations, Euronews reported. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and his Kazakh counterpart Yermek Kosherbayev signed a memorandum removing visa requirements for holders of national passports. Speaking at a joint press conference in Astana, Saar said his visit reflected "a desire to further strengthen these relations in order to realise their full potential," according to Euronews.
In the tech world, Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI are reportedly in talks to merge ahead of a planned SpaceX IPO this year, according to a report from Reuters published by TechCrunch. This potential merger would bring together products like the Grok chatbot, X platform, Starlink satellites, and SpaceX rockets under one corporation. Recent filings show that two new corporate entities, K2 Merger Sub Inc. and K2 Merger Sub 2 LLC, were established in Nevada on January 21. Last year, SpaceX agreed to invest $2 billion in xAI, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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