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Mali and Burkina Faso have announced travel restrictions on American nationals in a tit-for-tat move after the United States included both African countries on a no-entry list.US President Donald Trump, who has long campaigned to restrict immigration, expanded a travel ban earlier this month by barring people from seven more countries.The list included Syrian citizens, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, and nationals of some of Africa’s poorest countries, including also Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.The White House said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.The move brought to nearly 40 the number of countries whose citizens face restrictions in coming to the United States solely by virtue of nationality.Burkina Faso and Mali, which are both led by military juntas, responded in statements issued separately by their foreign ministries, seen Wednesday by AFP.They said they were imposing “equivalent measures” on US citizens.Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said in the statement that it was applying “equivalent visa measures” on Americans.Mali said it was, “with immediate effect”, applying “the same conditions and requirements on American nationals that the American authorities have imposed on Malian citizens entering the United States”.It also voiced its “regret” that the United States had made “such an important decision without the slightest prior consultation”.- Exceptions -The two countries in west Africa’s jihadist-hit Sahelian region are members of a confederation, formed in 2023, that also includes Niger. The leaders of Burkina, Mali and Niger have made sovereignty their watchword, leaving the West African bloc ECOWAS, while turning away from traditional partner France and closer to Russia but have maintained generally cordial relations with the United States.Niger has not officially announced any counter-measures to the US travel ban, but the country’s news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said last week that such measures had been decided.In his December 17 announcement, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which  qualified for the football World Cup to be played next year in the United States, Canada and Mexico.The Trump administration has promised to let in athletes for the football tournament but has made no such promises for fans of blacklisted countries.Burkina Faso said in October it refused to take in people kicked out of the United States, in a snub to one of Trump’s signature migration policies.Burkina Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore at the time said the proposal was “indecent”.Since his return to the White House in January, the Trump administration has made deporting people to third countries — often to nations they have no connection to — part of a sweeping immigration crackdown.

New Year’s Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, waving goodbye to 12 months packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.It was one of the warmest years on record, the stifling heat stoking wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across Southeast Asia.There was a sombre tinge to party preparations in Australia’s harbour city Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”.Barely two weeks have passed since a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting for almost 30 years.Parties will pause for a minute of silence at 11:00 pm (1200 GMT) as the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge is bathed in white light to symbolise peace.”Right now, the joy that we usually feel at the start of a new year is tempered by the sadness of the old,” Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a video message.Hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line Sydney’s foreshore as nine tonnes of fireworks explode on the stroke of midnight.Throughout the evening, residents and tourists began gathering by the city’s harbour and sailboats dotted the water to secure the best viewing spots near the Sydney Opera House. “The fireworks have always been on my bucket list and I’m so happy to be here,” said Susana Suisuikli, an English tourist.  Security was tighter than usual, with squads of heavily armed police patrolling the crowds.Sydney kicks off a chain of celebrations stretching from glitzy New York to the Hogmanay festival on the chilly streets of Scotland.More than two million people are expected to pack Brazil’s lively Copacabana Beach for what authorities have called the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.In Hong Kong, a major New Year fireworks display planned for Victoria Harbour was cancelled to pay homage to 161 people killed in a housing estate fire in November.- Truce and tariffs -Labubu dolls became a worldwide craze in 2025, thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new pope, and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.The president used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of 2026 midterm elections.”The polls are rigged,” he wrote, without providing evidence.”Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!”But many expect tough times to continue in 2026.”The economic situation is also very dire, and I’m afraid I’ll be left without income,” said Ines Rodriguez, 50, a merchant in Mexico City.After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped land a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October.But with each side already accusing the other of flagrant violations, no one is sure how long the break in hostilities will hold.Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians.Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 70,000, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, a figure the UN deems credible.World leaders including China’s Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin began exchanging New Year greetings.Xi said he was “ready to maintain close exchanges with Putin to jointly push for continuous new progress in bilateral ties”, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday.The war in Ukraine — sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 — grinds towards its four-year anniversary in February with no temporary ceasefire reached in the final days of 2025 despite a renewed burst of diplomacy.- Sports, space and AI -The coming 12 months promise to be full of sports, space and questions over artificial intelligence (AI).NASA’s Artemis II mission, backed by Elon Musk, will launch a crewed spacecraft to circle the moon during a 10-day test flight, more than 50 years since the last Apollo lunar mission.After years of unbridled enthusiasm, AI is facing scrutiny and nervous investors are questioning whether the boom might now resemble a market bubble.Athletes will gather on Italy’s famed Dolomites to hit the slopes for the Winter Olympics.And for a few weeks in June and July, nations will come together for the biggest football World Cup in history in venues across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

American actor Isiah Whitlock Jr., who played a corrupt politician on HBO crime drama “The Wire” and had roles in numerous films directed by Oscar winner Spike Lee, died at age 71 on Tuesday, his manager said. “It is with tremendous sadness that I share the passing of my dear friend and client Isiah Whitlock Jr. If you knew him — you loved him. A brilliant actor and even better person,” manager Brian Liebman wrote on social media.Whitlock delighted audiences as slimy politician Clay Davis on action-packed drama “The Wire,” based on former journalist David Simon’s gritty tales from the seedy underbelly of drug-trafficking and criminal politicking in Baltimore, Maryland.Writers on the show leaned into his character’s catchphrase, a drawn-out pronunciation of the word “shit” that lasted several syllables — “sheeeee-it.”On Tuesday, Simon posted an image of Whitlock, smiling with gentle eyes, in honor of the actor’s passing.With more than 125 acting credits to his name, Whitlock’s career spanned decades and includes roles in many Spike Lee films, including “She Hate Me,” “25th Hour,” “Red Hook Summer,” “Chi-Raq,” “BlacKkKlansman” and “Da 5 Bloods.” Lee took to social media to share a photo of himself holding hands with Whitlock, calling him “My Dear Beloved Brother.” Whitlock’s other memorable turns include his role as the US Secretary of Defense on the satire TV comedy series “Veep,” which parodies the workplace environment of politicians in Washington.In one of his earliest film roles, Whitlock appeared in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” as a doctor who provided mobster Henry Hill with valium. His deep baritone voice was in animated movies and TV shows, including Pixar’s “Lightyear” and “Cars 3.”Born in the midwestern state of Indiana as a middle child in a family of 10, Whitlock’s father was a steel mill worker. A graduate of Southwest State University, he studied drama at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater.

Iowa farmer Aaron Lehman was already paying a hefty price for health insurance, but his premium is set to skyrocket in January when major government subsidies expire, after US President Donald Trump’s Republican party declined to extend them.That imminent change to the “Obamacare” health insurance program means that Lehman, 58, a fifth-generation grain farmer in the US Midwest, may have to postpone improvements in his farm.”My wife and I have been paying about $500. We’re anticipating to go to about $1,300 a month,” Lehman, who is president of the Iowa Farmers Union, told AFP. “It’s more than double.”More than 20 million Americans from lower and middle-income brackets are facing a significant increase in the cost of their health insurance in 2026. The hike comes as persistent inflation weighs on households and adds to political pressure on Trump, who had promised to bring down the cost of living when he took office nearly a year ago.”It’s pretty stressful for a lot of people,” said Audrey Horn, a 60-year-old retiree from another Midwestern state, Nebraska, that Trump comfortably won in the 2024 presidential elections. She told AFP that her monthly increase will be $300. “Most Americans can’t afford a bill of (an) extra 300 or whatever a month on top of, you know, their mortgage… car insurance and groceries,” she said.- Dipping into savings -For their first payment in January, Horn and her husband will be tapping into some of her retirement savings. Her husband works for a small construction company where he is paid by the hour and doesn’t get health insurance. “Next year, we probably won’t be going out to eat as much. We don’t go out to eat as much anyway,” Horn said, adding, “And I’m going to keep driving my old 2008 Honda for a few more years.” Created in 2010 under then President Barack Obama, so-called Obamacare allowed millions more people to access health coverage. The program included financial aid, which was expanded and strengthened during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is this temporary boost that is now coming to an end.This issue was at the heart of the budget standoff between Republicans and opposition Democrats in October and November that led to a 43-day shutdown of the federal government.The Democrats demanded the extension of the enhanced subsidies, which the Republicans opposed, arguing it was too expensive for taxpayers, subject to abuse, and failed to control the rising cost of health insurance. “It is frustrating to me that that these subsidies were cut in order to make tax breaks for billionaires,” said Andrea Deutsch, 58, owner of a pet supply store in Pennsylvania, referring to the Trump-backed legislation that Congress eventually passed.- ‘Largest rollback in health coverage’ -Deutsch, who has suffered from type one diabetes since childhood, said that Obamacare was life-changing as it mandated that insurance companies provide coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. So, she’s resigned herself to paying $160 more per month for her insurance in 2026.But others are expected to forgo insurance rather than pay much bigger premiums.According to a government estimate, the expiration of the subsidies is expected to cause four million Americans to lose their health insurance over the next 10 years. But Matt McGough, at the health policy think tank KFF, said there are estimates that an additional 10 million could become uninsured because of changes under the budget bill to health insurance marketplaces and the state-funded Medicaid program that serves low-income Americans.”This is the largest rollback in health coverage in US history, certainly in modern times,” he told AFP.He warned that could lead to increased mortality and higher health care costs for all Americans, with insured individuals paying for the unpaid bills of the uninsured.But things could still change. While Republicans are still refusing to extend the subsidies, they want to limit the surge in costs which will come less than a year before midterm Congressional elections.Democrats have made the issue key to their election platform to claw back control of both houses of Congress from Republicans.Faced with this risk, Trump has floated the idea of summoning health insurance executives to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he is spending the holidays, “to see if they can lower prices.”

American environmental journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of late president John F. Kennedy, has died from cancer at the age of 35, her family announced Tuesday.”Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning. She will always be in our hearts,” the family wrote in a statement posted on the JFK Library Foundation’s Instagram account.Schlossberg, a science and climate reporter for the New York Times, wrote movingly about her diagnosis with acute myeloid leukemia in an essay for The New Yorker published in November.Doctors were first alerted to the condition — mostly seen in older patients and among first responders to the 9/11 attacks in New York — after detecting an unusually high white blood cell count following the birth of her second child in May 2024.”During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,” she wrote. “My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me.”She was also deeply critical of her relative Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who now serves as health secretary in President Donald Trump’s cabinet and has curtailed access to vaccines while slashing spending on government medical research.”I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the position, despite never having worked in medicine, public health, or the government,” she wrote.Schlossberg published widely in leading outlets including The Atlantic and Vanity Fair, and in 2019 authored the prize-winning book “Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have.”The daughter of designer Edwin Schlossberg and diplomat Caroline Kennedy, she is survived by her husband, George Moran, a physician, and their two children.

A prominent jazz group and a dance company have canceled shows at Washington’s premier performing arts center to protest its renaming to include US President Donald Trump.Family members of late president John F. Kennedy and Democratic politicians have already expressed outrage over the change this month at the Kennedy Center rebaptizing it the Trump-Kennedy Center.Now artists are voicing their disapproval. Several who were scheduled to perform end-of-year and 2026 shows at the center have pulled out.The Cookers, a veteran jazz ensemble, voiced “deep regret” they would not be performing on New Year’s Eve as planned.  “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice,” the group said in a statement that did not give a reason for the cancellation.But the band’s drummer, Billy Hart, told The New York Times that the center’s name change had “evidently” played a role in their decision. Richard Grenell, the Trump-appointed president of the arts center, denounced the artists canceling shows and said they “were booked by the previous far left leadership.””Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” he wrote on X late Monday.Late last week, Grenell accused another jazz artist, Chuck Redd, of a “political stunt” and said the center would be seeking $1 million in damages after the musician cancelled a performance he hosts there annually on Christmas Eve, according to a copy of a letter from Grenell seen by AFP. A New York dance company, Doug Varone and Dancers, withdrew from a performance scheduled for April. They posted on Instagram Monday, “With the latest act of Donald J. Trump renaming the Center after himself, we can no longer permit ourselves nor ask our audiences to step inside this once great institution.”And last week, folk singer Kristy Lee announced on social media that she was cancelling a January 14 performance as “losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.”Trump has stamped his mark on the Kennedy Center since the start of his second term as part of an assault on cultural institutions that his administration has accused of being too left-wing.A number of musicians and other artists had already pulled out of performing at the center after Trump named himself its chairman and replaced most of its board with people loyal to him.The new management of the center has cut drag shows and events celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, and it has hosted conferences for the religious right and invited more Christian artists.According to US media reports, ticket sales have declined since the new board of directors took over.

The United States hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuela drug boats, President Donald Trump said Monday, in what could amount to the first land strike of the military campaign against trafficking from Latin America.The US leader’s confirmation of the incident comes as he ramps up a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Trump of seeking regime change.”There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”Trump would not say if it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, noting only that it was “along the shore.”Sources familiar with the operation told CNN and the New York Times that the CIA had carried out a drone strike on a port facility. The strike was believed to be targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, though no one was present at the time of the operation and there were no casualties, the US media outlets reported.There has been no official comment from the Venezuelan government.The Pentagon earlier referred questions to the White House. The White House did not respond to requests for comment from AFP. Asked on Monday if he had spoken to Maduro recently, Trump said they had talked “pretty recently” but that “nothing much comes out of it.”Trump revealed details of the operation after being asked to elaborate on comments he made in a radio interview broadcast Friday that seemed to mention a land strike for the first time.”They have a big plant or a big facility where they send, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump told billionaire supporter John Catsimatidis on the WABC radio station in New York.”Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.” Trump did not say in the interview where the facility was located or give any other details.Trump has been threatening for weeks that ground strikes on drug cartels in the region would start “soon,” but this is the first apparent example.- Fresh US strike in Pacific -US forces have also carried out numerous strikes in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug-smuggling boats.The administration has provided no evidence that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking, however, prompting debate about the legality of these operations. International law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings, a charge that Washington denies.After Trump spoke Monday, the US military announced on social media that it had carried out another strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two and bringing the total killed in the maritime campaign to at least 107.It did not specify where exactly the strike took place.The Trump administration has been ramping up pressure on Maduro, accusing the Venezuelan leader of running a drug cartel himself and imposing an oil tanker blockade.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran of fresh strikes and said Hamas would have “hell to pay” if it fails to disarm in Gaza, as he presented a united front with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.Speaking at a news conference with Netanyahu in Florida, Trump threatened to “eradicate” any attempt by Tehran to rebuild its nuclear program or ballistic missile arsenal following US and Israeli strikes earlier this year.Trump also downplayed reports of tensions with Netanyahu over the second stage of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, saying that Israel had “lived up” to its commitments and that the onus was on Palestinian militant group Hamas.”If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do, then there will be hell to pay for them,” Trump told reporters at his lavish Mar-a-Lago resort. “They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time.”Hamas’s armed wing reiterated earlier on Monday that it would not surrender its weapons.A top political adviser to Iran’s supreme leader on Monday said any aggression against his country would be met with an “immediate harsh response.””Iran’s #Missile_Capability and defense are not containable or permission-based. Any aggression will face an immediate #Harsh_Response beyond its planners’ imagination,” Ali Shamkhani wrote on X.- ‘Productive’ meeting -Netanyahu said his meeting with Trump had been “very productive” and announced that Israel was awarding the US leader its highest civilian honor — the first time it has gone to a non-Israeli citizen.Trump, the self-proclaimed “president of peace,” has been keen to move onto the next phase of the Gaza truce, which would see a Palestinian technocratic government installed and the deployment of an international stabilization force.While some White House officials fear Netanyahu is slow-walking the process, Trump said he had “very little difference” with the Israeli premier and was “not concerned about anything that Israel’s doing.”During their fifth meeting in the United States since Trump’s return to power this year, Netanyahu also appeared to have steered the US leader toward focusing on Israel’s concerns about Iran.Israeli officials and media have expressed concern in recent months that Iran is rebuilding its ballistic missile arsenal after it came under attack during the 12-day war with Israel in June.Trump said Iran “may be behaving badly” and was looking at new nuclear sites to replace those targeted by US strikes during the same conflict, as well as restoring its missiles.”I hope they’re not trying to build up again because if they are, we’re going have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup,” Trump said, adding that the US response “may be more powerful than the last time.”But Trump said he believed Iran was still interested in a deal with Washington on its nuclear and missile programs. Tehran denies that it is seeking nuclear weapons.- Focus on Gaza -Trump and Netanyahu’s talks also focused on other regional tension points, including Syria and the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.Trump said he hoped Netanyahu could “get along” with Syria’s new president, a former Islamist rebel commander who toppled long-term ruler Bashar-al-Assad a year ago, despite a series of Israeli strikes along their border.Netanyahu’s visit caps a frantic few days of international diplomacy in Palm Beach, where Trump hosted Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday for talks on ending Russia’s invasion.The Gaza ceasefire in October is one of the major achievements of Trump’s first year back in power, and Washington and regional mediators have hoped to keep their foot on the gas.The Axios news site said Trump seeks to make announcements as soon as January on an interim government and an international force.But Trump gave few details beyond saying that he hoped “reconstruction” could begin soon in the Palestinian territory, devastated by Israeli attacks in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks.The disarmament of Hamas however continued to be a sticking point, with its armed wing again saying that it would not surrender its arms.”Our people are defending themselves and will not give up their weapons as long as the occupation remains,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a video message.

The United States has hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuela drug boats, President Donald Trump said Monday, in what could amount to the first land strike of the military campaign against trafficking from Latin America.The US leader’s confirmation of the incident comes as he ramps up a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Trump of seeking regime change.”There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”The US leader would not say if it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, saying only that it was “along the shore.”Asked if he had spoken to Maduro recently, following an earlier phone call in November, Trump said they had talked “pretty recently” but said that “nothing much comes out of it.”Trump had been asked to elaborate on apparent throwaway comments he made in a radio interview broadcast Friday that seemed to mention a land strike for the first time.”They have a big plant or a big facility where they send, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump told billionaire supporter John Catsimatidis on the WABC radio station in New York.”Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.” Trump did not say in the interview where the facility was located or give any other details.There has been no official comment from the Venezuelan government.The Pentagon earlier referred questions to the White House. The White House did not respond to requests for comment from AFP. Trump has been threatening for weeks that ground strikes on drug cartels in the region would start “soon,” but this is the first apparent example.- Fresh US strike in Pacific -US forces have also carried out numerous strikes in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug-smuggling boats.The administration has provided no evidence that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking, however, prompting debate about the legality of these operations. International law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings, a charge that Washington denies.After Trump spoke Monday, the US military announced on X that it had carried out another deadly strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two and bringing the total killed in the maritime campaign to at least 107.It did not specify where exactly the strike took place.The Trump administration has been ramping up pressure on Maduro, accusing the Venezuelan leader of running a drug cartel himself and imposing an oil tanker blockade.

The US military said Monday two people were killed in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific, bringing the total killed in Washington’s campaign in the region to at least 107.In a post to X, US Southern Command said “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” adding two men were killed.The post included a black-and-white video of the “lethal kinetic strike” on a small boat, with what appeared to be two explosive flashes and flaming debris visible.Since September, the US military has carried out at least 30 strikes on what it says are boats used to smuggle drugs to the United States, with the majority of the attacks occurring in the Eastern Pacific. Some have also occurred in the Caribbean Sea.The administration has provided no evidence that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking, prompting debate about the legality of these operations.International law experts and rights groups say the strikes likely amount to extrajudicial killings, a charge that Washington denies.The US military’s post did not specify where exactly the strike took place.News of the latest attack came after US President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that Washington had hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged drug boats in Venezuela, in what could amount to the first land strike of the military campaign said to target drug trafficking.In recent months Trump has waged a pressure campaign against Venezuela’s leftist President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Washington of seeking regime change to gain access to the Latin American country’s massive oil reserves.The US has also imposed a partial naval blockade on Venezuela and recently intercepted oil tankers. Trump says he does not need lawmakers’ approval to strike suspected drug cartels at sea or on land in Venezuela, citing concerns over information leaks.