As nations one time zone at a time transition to 2026, New Year’s Eve celebrations are taking place all over the world.
Large crowds gathered at public viewing points and fireworks greeted midnight in the first major cities to celebrate the new year.
Countries from across the Americas will mark the end of the global transition with celebrations that span from Times Square in New York City to Rio de Janeiro’s beaches.
In a significant policy change, US President Donald Trump announced that he would stop deploying federal troops to several Democratic-controlled cities.
Trump’s plans to send National Guard members to Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and Portland, Oregon are all set to suffer legal difficulties, according to the announcement on Wednesday.
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Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that he is “removing” the National Guard from those cities despite the fact that lower courts had already limited their deployment.
Despite the fact that these great Patriots have greatly reduced CRIME in those cities, and only by that fact, he said, “We are removing the National Guard from those cities.”
The National Guard is prohibited from participating directly in law enforcement, which is still prohibited by US law. Trump had not used the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows presidents to deploy troops domestically when “unlawful obstructions, combinations, assemblages, or rebellion” against the federal government render it “impracticable to enforce” US law in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.
Due to this, immigration enforcement was largely tasked with providing support services to troops deployed in or around Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago.
At the time of Trump’s announcement, there were 200 National Guard members who were still under federal control in Portland as well as Los Angeles and Chicago.
Trump has claimed repeatedly that major US cities have been hit by repeated overlapping crime and immigration crises since deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles in response to protests against mass immigration enforcement sweeps.
Trump has been accused of engaging in risky political theater to harm opponents by critics.
Trump’s statement made no mention of the state’s Republican governor’s express request to have the National Guard deploy in New Orleans, Louisiana, or Washington, DC, a federal territory.
A Supreme Court order last week upholding a lower court’s decision to prevent the president from sending the National Guard to Chicago is among the president’s latest legal setbacks.
National Guard troops are typically stationed at the governors’ offices, unlike federal military members, at their request. The National Guard can only be unilaterally mobilized by presidents when other federal agents are unable to break the law.
Trump’s defense of similar deployments across the country was severely hampered by the administration’s majority of Supreme Court justices’ rulings that he has not yet met that threshold.
As part of their appeal of a lower court’s decision, Department of Justice attorneys in California withdrew a request to keep state troops under federal control earlier on Wednesday. According to US District Judge Charles Breyer, the troops must be returned to state control.
The Democrat and leading Trump critic, California Governor Gavin Newsom, stated in a post on X that “Trump and his occult cabinet members’ acceptance means this illegal intimidation tactic will finally come to an end.”
A more significant court decision on the subject is “looking forward” to Newsom and his staff.
Trump, for his part, stated in his Truth Social post that he would not be hesitant to send troops back.
As part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry, the US Treasury Department has recently issued a new round of sanctions.
Four businesses and their associated oil tankers, who are alleged to be involved in Venezuelan oil transportation, are the targets of the sanctions announced on Wednesday.
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Trump has disputed Nicolas Maduro’s claim that the Venezuelan leader is in charge of a ‘narco-terrorist’ government that seeks to destabilize the US, which is repeated in recent sanctions announcements.
The Treasury stated on Wednesday that “Maduro’s regime increasingly relies on a shadow fleet of international vessels to facilitate sanctionable activity, including sanctions evasion, and to generate revenue for its destabilizing operations.”
Venezuela’s main export is oil, but the Trump administration has attempted to obliterate its domestic markets.
The Nord Star, the Rosalind, the Valiant, and the Della are accused of helping Venezuela’s oil sector evade existing sanctions by providing financial resources to “Maduro’s illegitimate narco-terrorist regime” with the release of the allegations in the notice on Wednesday.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that “President Trump has made it clear that we will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from oil exports while supplying the country with deadly drugs.”
The Treasury Department will continue to put pressure on Maduro’s regime under President Trump’s orders.
A separate Venezuelan company that Washington claims assembled drones were created by Iran is now being subject to sanctions.
The Trump administration has cited a number of factors in recent months, including Maduro’s contested 2024 election and immigration.
Trump, for instance, has used the pressure campaign to stop the flow of illegal drugs, despite Venezuela exporting fentanyl essentially not the administration’s main drug.
Washington has also been accused of attempting to overthrow Maduro’s administration and take control of the nation’s vast oil reserves.
Trump’s statements that appear to have held control of Venezuela’s oil have fueled those suspicions.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s top adviser, claimed that the US “created the oil industry in Venezuela” the day after Trump declared a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the country.
He suggested that Venezuela’s petroleum industry was robbed of it when it began to become a nationalist state in 1976.
After the election of socialist President Hugo Chavez in 1998, which relinquished state control over Venezuela’s oil industry, leading to the seizing of foreign assets in 2007, the process accelerated.
According to Miller, that “tyrannical expropriation” scheme was “the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property.”
Chevron, a significant US oil company, still has operations there.
Trump has echoed Miller’s claims, saying that the US “will not permit a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets.”
He added that immediately all of those possessions “must be returned to the United States.”
The Trump administration has launched a number of military operations against tankers in recent months as it has focused more on Venezuela’s oil sector.
The Skipper, the administration’s first tanker, was seized on December 10; a second one was seized ten days later.
As it crosses the Atlantic Ocean, a third tanker reportedly has been on the lookout for US military personnel.
The US began dumping military assets in the Caribbean region along Venezuela’s coast, along with other military assets, several months prior to the attacks on the oil tankers.
In what rights groups refer to as extrajudicial killings, the US military has launched numerous bombing campaigns against alleged drug-smuggling boats in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific since September 2.
The administration has not provided any legal justification for the attacks despite the death of more than 100 people.
Trump claimed that the US had hit a “dock area” in Venezuela that was being used to load the alleged drug boats, and that he had told reporters on Monday.
Trump has long threatened to start attacking targets on land, but the dock bombing is regarded as the first of its kind on Venezuelan soil.
More than ten years ago, it all started. A coalition was formed to combat the Houthis, who had taken control of Yemen, using Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the United Arab Emirates as its pillars.
That mission eventually failed. The UAE then partnered and provided funding for a group called the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the south of Yemen in order to pursue its own long-term goals.
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After the STC seized control of areas close to its borders, Riyadh intervened to counteract what it perceived as a threat to national security.
An ultimatum that the UAE agreed to was given 24 hours’ notice to withdraw.
What does all of this mean for Yemen’s future?
Presenter: James Bays
Guests:
Abdul-aziz Al Ghashian is a Gulf International Forum senior non-resident fellow.
Southern Transitional Council spokesman Alkharder Sulaiman
Palestinians in Gaza are raising the alarm over Israel’s pending ban on dozens of international organizations that support the devasted region’s vital services and aid.
There is “no alternative” to the aid organizations helping besieged Palestinians in Gaza, according to Siraj al-Masri, a Palestinian in Khan Younis on Wednesday.
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What should we do next? We don’t have any money, according to Al-Masri.
“A few medical points are still unfilled. This makes things very difficult, and it will cause both the injured and the hurt to be horrified. Even the most common people who come to see a doctor will experience severe hardship.
In response to unproven allegations of links to Hamas, Israel is attempting to demonize 37 international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF).
According to Israel, the ban, which starts on Thursday and includes organizations like the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International, and the International Rescue Committee, is a result of recent laws that require aid organizations to disclose information about their staff and activities.
The situation is already tragic, according to Gaza resident Ramzi Abu al-Neel, who spoke to Al Jazeera.
God “knows what will happen” if their support and presence are removed. Many families will be devastated by this decision, as well as many children who will pass away and lives who will be lost.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of 10 nations, including Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom, demanded that Israel make it clear that international NGOs “are able to operate in Gaza in a sustained and predictable way.”
It is inadmissible to try to stop them from operating. Without them, it will be impossible to meet all urgent needs on the necessary scale,” it said.
Israel has continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza despite the ceasefire and imposes restrictions on access to basic supplies, including temporary housing, for the area.
More than one million people have been living in makeshift tents in the harsh winter weather as the majority of Gaza has turned into rubble. Additionally, Gaza’s population is still heavily dependent on international aid despite the destruction’ absence of any economic activity.
According to Abdullah al-Hawajri, a displaced Palestinian in Khan Younis, “most people rely entirely on international organizations for assistance.”
Israel’s action is “further compromising the humanitarian operation” in Gaza, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The Israeli decision, according to UNRWA’s Philippe Lazzarini, creates a “dangerous precedent.”
The fundamental human rights that underpin aid work worldwide will be further undermined by failing to counteract attempts to control the work of aid organizations, Lazzarini said in a statement.
Israel approved a number of measures in 2025 to end UNRWA, a key source of aid and essential services in Gaza, and stifle its work.
According to Lazzarini, the most recent ruling against aid organizations “is a troubling pattern of disregard for international humanitarian law and growing obstacles to aid operations.”
Israel imposed a suffocating blockade on the enclave, causing a deadly famine, during its two-year genocidal war, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, which resulted in the killing of about 500 aid workers and volunteers.
The Israeli ban appears to violate both the “20-point peace plan” of US President Donald Trump and the ceasefire agreement.
According to Trump’s plan, “distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will be conducted without the interference of the two parties through the United Nations, its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international organizations not affiliated with either party in any way.”
Many of the organizations that are subject to the ban are members of the well-established, UN-backed aid distribution system.