Portal:Current events/2025 December 31

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War on drugs
  • United States strikes on alleged drug traffickers during Operation Southern Spear
    • Five people are killed while others escape after the United States conducts airstrikes on three alleged drug boats at an undisclosed location. (BBC News)
• Russo-Ukrainian war
  • Russian authorities report at least 24 people are killed, including a child, and dozens of others are injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a hotel and a restaurant in Khorly in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. (The Moscow Times)
• 2025 Cambodian–Thai border crisis
  • Thailand releases 18 prisoners as part of a ceasefire agreement with Cambodia. (AP)
• Syrian conflict
  • An Islamic State suicide bomber blows himself up near a checkpoint in Aleppo, Syria, after attempting to reach an Orthodox church, killing one security force member and wounding two more. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

• Saudi Vision 2030
  • The Six Flags Qiddiya City amusement park officially opens to the public in Saudi Arabia, with the Falcons Flight attraction breaking records as the world's tallest, fastest, and longest roller coaster. (Zawya) (Arab News)

Business and economy

• 2025–2026 Iranian protests
  • Iran appoints Abdolnaser Hemmati as the new leader of the Central Bank following protests over the Iranian rial's value depreciating and the previous governor's resignation. (AP)

International relations

• Serbia–United States relations, United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
  • The United States issues a temporary license allowing Serbia's majority-Russian-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije to resume refinery operations until January 23 despite sanctions linked to the Russo-Ukrainian war. (AFP via Barron's)
• United States–Venezuela relations, Operation Southern Spear
  • The United States imposes sanctions on four Venezuelan companies in the oil industry and four oil tankers. (AP)

Law and crime

• 2025–2026 Iranian protests
  • A Basij officer is killed and 13 others are injured in clashes in Lordegan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran, during demonstrations over rising living costs. (AP)
• 2025 deployment of federal forces in the United States
  • U.S. president Donald Trump announces the withdrawal of National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland after federal courts blocked or restricted the deployments. (AFP via France 24)
• Deportation in the second Trump administration
  • U.S. federal judge Trina Thompson of California blocks the Trump administration from ending temporary protected status for about 89,000 migrants from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua, ruling that the terminations may be motivated by racial hostility. (Reuters)
• At least three informal miners are killed in a shooting in Pataz District, Department of La Libertad, Peru. Two people are arrested. (Reuters)