10: Eternal opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was (finally!) sworn in as Malaysia's 10th prime minister. Anwar — who was cheated out of the job twice by his former mentor, ex-PM Mahathir Mohammad, and spent years in prison on bogus sodomy convictions — will have a tough time keeping together a shaky multiethnic coalition.
100,000: US oil giant Chevron hopes to pump as much as 100,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude after getting a six-month license from the Biden administration to resume production via PDVSA, the national oil company. This comes as Venezuela's socialist government resumed talks with the opposition in Mexico City.
6 million: That's how many Ukrainians are now without power after the latest flurry of Russian air strikes. As Russia doubles down on targeting Ukraine's infrastructure to make up for its battlefield losses, civilians wonder how they'll make it through the cold winter.
4: At least four people were killed Thursday in a botched coup attempt in São Tomé & Príncipe, a sleepy Central African island nation considered a model for parliamentary democracy in the continent. Whodunit? An opposition leader who contested the result of the last election and a former mercenary who tried to overthrow the government have been arrested.Of all the threats to the world, what are the top 10 most urgent global risks for 2026? On Monday, January 5, at 12 pm ET, join us for a livestream discussion with Ian Bremmer and global experts to discuss the Top Risks of 2025 report from Eurasia Group. This report will mark twenty years of Ian Bremmer’s annual forecast of the political risks that are most likely to play out over the year. Event link: gzeromedia.com/toprisks
Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales explains why a specific page titled “The Gaza Genocide” risks undermining trust with users.
In his latest Quick Take, Ian Bremmer explains a major shift in the Ukraine war: Europe, not the United States, is now driving the strategy.
Chief Superintendent of the police force's National Security Department Steve Li Kwai-wah speaks at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building after the verdict in the national security collusion trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, in Hong Kong, China, on December 15, 2025.