US AND CANADA

Photo Credit; Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City just after midnight Thursday, taking the oath of office at an historic, decommissioned subway station in Manhattan.

Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in as the first Muslim leader of America’s biggest city, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath.

“This is truly the honor and the privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said in a brief speech.

Photo Credit; Getty Images

President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. has “hit” a dock facility along a shore as he wages a pressure campaign on Venezuela, but the U.S. offered few details.

Photo Credit; Getty images

President Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of National Guard troops from multiple US cities, notably Chicago and Los Angeles, following a Supreme Court ruling that limited his executive authority to use military forces for domestic policing. This decision comes after the administration dropped its legal challenge to maintain control over troops in Los Angeles on Tuesday, a move prompted by last week’s Supreme Court verdict involving similar deployments in Chicago.

Trump's statement also mentioned Portland, Oregon, but not Washington DC, where troops remain on patrol.

"We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again," Trump wrote on Truth Social on New Year's Eve.

Photo Credit; Getty Images

Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Photo Credit; Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani will become mayor of New York City as the clock ticks over into 2026, but the celebrations are set to last through New Year’s Day.

The Democrat’s team is planning two separate swearing-in ceremonies Thursday, a small, private one with his family in an old subway station around midnight, followed by a large event in the afternoon that will include a public block party outside City Hall.

As a new mayor’s term begins immediately with the new year, it has been customary for the city’s incoming leaders to hold two events. Outgoing mayor Eric Adams held his initial swearing-in at Times Square shortly after the famous ball drop, while Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, took his first oath at home in Brooklyn.

Photo Credit; Getty Images

The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbor’s land by force.

Photo Credit; Getty Images

The historic all-female Blue Origin space flight earlier this year, featuring Vietnamese-American scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, has been overshadowed by the personal toll it took on her. Nguyen, the first Vietnamese woman to venture into space, has opened up about a period of depression after facing a "tsunami of harassment," which she attributed to "an avalanche of misogyny."

Photo Credit; Getty Images

The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbor’s land by force.