This announcement follows a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against the Trump Administration’s deployment of the National Guard to Illinois in order to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has announced, that at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, military forces under Joint Task Force-Southern Spear (JTF-SS) carried out a strike Tuesday, December 30, against three narco-trafficking vessels traveling in a convoy in International Waters.

According to SOUTHCOM, intelligence indicated that the vessels were transiting along a known narco-trafficking route and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes, with three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel killed in the initial engagement while the remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two boats, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels, all of which were believed to have been associated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO).

Following the strikes, search-and-rescue operations for the survivors were launched by the U.S. Coast Guard.

I know I’m a bit late, but Happy New Year to everyone following along here. Thank you for the continued support throughout what was - without question - an extremely eventful 2025. Stay safe out there and enjoy the time you have with friends, family and others you hold dear. 🥂

U.S. national-security officials, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said Wednesday that Ukraine did not target Russian President Vladimir Putin or one of his residences in an alleged drone operation, challenging claims made earlier this week by the Kremlin and President Putin in a phone call with President Donald J. Trump, according to an official briefed on the intelligence who spoke with the Wall Street Journal.

Only days after reports stated the Guyana-flagged Iranian-linked sanctioned crude oil tanker, M/T Bella 1 - which the U.S. Coast Guard has now been chasing for over a week across the Northern Atlantic - following a failed boarding off the coast of Venezuela, had painted a Russian Flag on its hull and attempted to claim protection from the Russian Federation. Officials have told The New York Times that the Russian Government has made a formal diplomatic request that the United States stop its pursuit of an oil tanker via the State Department, with the Bella 1 recently appearing in Russia’s official register of ships, under a new name, the Marinera, homeported in Sochi, on the Black Sea.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing law enforcement matter said the Trump Administration continued to view the tanker as “stateless” because it was flying a false flag when it was first approached by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Throughout 2025, Russia launched 54,000 one-way attack drones, 44,782 guided-aerial bombs, and 2,000 missiles against Ukraine, with 46,000 drones and 1,100 missiles being successfully intercepted by the Ukrainian Air Force.

The Russian Ministry of Defense published a video earlier today showing Admiral Igor Kostyukov, Head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces, handing over data and a controller from a Ukrainian one-way drone that they claim was used in the the alleged attack on President Vladimir Putin’s state residence in the Novgorod Oblast, to U.S. Coast Guard Cpt. Richter Tipton, military attaché for the American Embassy in Moscow.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Paul Ignatius (DDG-117), seen earlier today, January 1, 2026, pulling into Naval Station Rota in Spain, following a strike mission on Christmas against ISIS in Northwestern Nigeria, involving the launch of over a dozen BGM-109 “Tomahawk” Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM).

U.S. President Donald J. Trump states that if Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, the United States will come to their rescue, adding, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine has warned that Russia is preparing a large-scale provocation that will cause significant human casualties and will be blamed on Ukraine, in an attempt to disrupt ongoing peace negotiations mediated by the United States.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced the completion of its withdrawal of military forces from Yemen, following a request earlier this week from the Yemeni Government and Saudi Arabia.

The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has stated that all American bases and forces across the Middle East will be “legitimate targets” in response to any intervention by the United States in the ongoing civil unrest throughout Iran. This follows a post last night by President Donald J. Trump, in which he threatened to intervene if Iranian security forces shoot and kill peaceful protestors, claiming that they are “locked and loaded and ready to go” against Iran.