The rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will be assumed on January 1 by Somalia – a barely functional state that has exported thousands of “refugees” to the rest of the world, accompanied by crime waves and social distortions.
On the day after Christmas, Israel became the first nation in the world to recognize the independence of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia.
Australia’s New Years Eve celebration was a more solemn affair than usual this year, with a heavy security presence on the streets and a nationwide minute of silence for the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday designated the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) as a “terrorist organization,” a nakedly political move intended as retaliation for Canada designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization last year.
The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas released a statement on Monday confirming that five of its senior leaders were killed during the Gaza war, including “masked spokesman” Abu Obeida and Mohammed al-Sinwar, the brother of former top leader Yahya al-Sinwar.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa rolled out the country’s new currency at a ceremony in Damascus on Monday.
Argentinian President Javier Milei told the UK Telegraph on Monday that he would very much like to meet with Reform UK leader and Brexit champion Nigel Farage. The appreciation appears to be mutual, as Farage has praised Milei’s successful efforts to trim the bloated Argentinian socialist state.
Huge protests spread through several Iranian cities on Tuesday after the national currency, the rial, collapsed to a record low.
The National Citizens’ Party (NCP) of Bangladesh, which grabbed headlines in 2024 as part of the worldwide “Gen Z” youth movement against corrupt dynasties, is facing a revolt from many of its members after announcing a political alliance with the Islamic supremacist Jamaat-e-Islami party.
In a radio interview on Friday, President Donald Trump surprisingly revealed that American forces have neutralized at least one smuggling facility in Venezuela, the first land strike in Trump’s campaign against Venezuelan narco-terrorists and dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al Arabiya News on Monday that “we trust Trump” to deliver peace in Gaza and stabilize the Middle East.
China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday sought to give Beijing credit for the ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand negotiated by President Donald Trump.
The Chinese Communist government on Friday imposed sanctions against 20 American defense-related companies over arms sales to Taiwan.
Fifteen people were injured severely enough to require hospitalization in a bizarre attack on a rubber factory in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture on Friday. A lone suspect was arrested for attempted murder in a rampage that included eight stabbings and seven people injured by a “spray-like liquid.”
The Yemeni separatist group STC accuses Saudi Arabia of launching airstrikes against their forces in the province of Hadramout.
Both Syria and Nigeria were struck by deadly mosque bombings this week, killing and injuring dozens of people. Both attacks were timed to coincide with prayer services to inflict maximum carnage.
Poland scrambled jet fighters on Christmas Day to intercept a Russian reconnaissance plane operating near Polish airspace. The Russian plane was safely escorted away from Poland.
The Trump administration’s “blockade” of illegal Venezuelan oil shipments is among the few serious efforts at controlling the “shadow fleet” or “dark fleet” – the vast armada of tankers flying false flags, submitting false paperwork, shutting down their identification equipment, and helping rogue nations like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela evade U.S. sanctions against their oil industries.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a report on December 12 that found freedom of expression has declined sharply over the past decade.
Reuters claimed on Monday to have viewed a draft report from the Pentagon that said China “is likely to have loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) across its latest three silo fields” which are located near the Mongolian border.
Hindus in the Indian capital of New Delhi protested on Tuesday after a Hindu man was lynched and burned alive by a mob in Bangladesh.
Maritime tracking data released on Monday showed that international oil tankers have dramatically scaled back loading activity at Venezuelan ports, fearful of a crackdown by the Trump administration on illegal sanctions-busting oil shipments.
El Salvador’s Villa Navidena, the Christmas Village in the capital city of San Salvador, featured familiar holiday favorites like Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the Grinch in a parade on Sunday.
Fighting broke out in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday between Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and security troops loyal to President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The Japanese government is preparing to revise its immigration rules to make it more difficult for foreigners to obtain citizenship, including doubling the required period of residency in Japan and adding a requirement for Japanese language proficiency.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday denied accusations from the European Council (EC) that Tehran has been assisting Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.
The assembly of Japan’s Niigata prefecture on Monday passed a vote of confidence in Governor Hanazumi Hideyo’s plan to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, which has been shut down ever since the earthquake that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were each sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption on Saturday. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), denounced the ruling as a “black chapter in history” and declared there is “no rule of law in Pakistan.”
Shipping giant Maersk announced on Friday that one of its ships successfully navigated the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait for the first time in almost two years, potentially signaling a return to using the cost-effective trade route after the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen shut it down with missile and drone attacks.
Chinese state media has been heavily promoting a rumor that the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae wants to develop nuclear weapons that could potentially be used against China.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced on Friday it has filed a case with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against certain Indian tariffs and subsidies, saying they give Indian domestic industries an “unfair competitive advantage” and “harm Chinese interests.”
Opposition lawmakers from the Democratic Party (DP) of Albania unleashed chaos in parliament on Thursday, lighting flares, throwing water bottles at Speaker Niko Peleshi as he tried to restore order, and scuffling with police.
The Islamic State’s power was diminished with the loss of its “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq and the elimination of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but it remains a worldwide threat capable of directing and inspiring terrorist attacks, as last week’s murders in Syria and Australia demonstrate.
The Australian government is touting tougher hate speech laws in the wake of the terrorist shooting rampage at Bondi Beach in Sydney last weekend, including higher penalties for promoting violence and plans for a watchlist of organizations that “promote violence or racial hatred.”
Israeli officials are reportedly investigating a possible Iranian connection to the murder of senior MIT nuclear scientist Prof. Nuno F. G. Loureiro, who was shot at his home on Monday evening by unknown assailants and died in the hospital a few hours later.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC), the Yemeni separatist movement that abruptly abandoned its alliance with the deposed national government last month and began snapping up oil-rich territory in southern Yemen, is urging the United States to support them against the Iran-backed Houthi extremists who control the northern half of the country.
South African immigration police on Tuesday raided a U.S. refugee processing center in Johannesburg and arrested seven Kenyans who were allegedly working there illegally, along with two U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) officers.
A report released on Wednesday by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce warned that China is exploiting joint nuclear research partnerships financed by the Department of Energy (DOE) and some of the sensitive technology China stole has found its way into the hands of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Missouri is being sued by the municipal government of Wuhan, China, in retaliation for Missouri’s 2020 pandemic lawsuit against China.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC) of Yemen, a group of separatists who have largely been aligned with the internationally-recognized government of Yemen ever since it was deposed by Houthi insurgents in 2014, has marched its fighters into another province — taking more territory away from its erstwhile allies and stoking fears of a renewed civil war.
