Reuters World News - Venezuela, China’s war games and Russia-Ukraine

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

President Donald Trump says the U.S. has "hit" an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, marking a first land operation inside the country. China fires rockets towards Taiwan in its most extensive war games. And Trump’s Ukraine peace plan faces new challenges after Russia says Kyiv tried to attack President Vladimir Putin’s residence. Listen to Morning Bid podcast here. Listen to our On Assignment on Syria here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read⁠ here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices.You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Tuesday, December 30th. Today. The U.S. says it struck a boat loading facility inside Venezuela. Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking Putin's residents. Trump threatens more attacks for Iran. And China carries out its largest ever war games around Taiwan. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know.

from the front lines 10 minutes, seven days a week. President Donald Trump says the U.S. is carried out a strike on an alleged drug boat loading facility in Venezuela. As our Pentagon reporter Idris Ali explains, it marks a new phase of Trump's pressure campaign on Venezuela's president, Nicholas Maduro. So President Trump didn't say who carried out this operation, but we do know that he has authorized the CIA

to carry out covert operations. inside Venezuela. The Pentagon, the CIA, and the White House have all declined to comment. In the past, when the U.S. military has carried our operations, including against drug vessels in the Caribbean, they have actually posted videos. And so the silence, I think, says a lot about what may or may not have happened. If this took place when President Trump initially said it took place, which is sort of around Christmas Day, Venezuelans have had quite a bit of time to actually respond. But as of recording, we had not heard anything from the Venezuelan president nor the Venezuelan government in any shape or form. President Trump has been point blank saying,

strikes on land are coming. And I think we may have seen the first known one actually been carried out. And it's a real escalation because it's one thing to carry out strikes in international waters, no matter how legally due to be as they might be, it is another thing to go into a country and carry out a sort of military operation or a covert operation, either one. Russia has accused Ukraine of trying to attack President Vladimir Putin's residents in northern Russia, but provided no evidence for the claim. Ukraine is dismissing the allegation as baseless and designed to undermine peace negotiations. With President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Russia does not want to see any progress,

in talks. Russia says some 90 long-range drones were used in the attack, all of which were destroyed by its air defences, causing no injuries and leaving no damage. U.S. President Donald Trump says Putin told him about the alleged attack and a phone call on Monday. It's one thing to be offensive because they're offensive. It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that. President Trump was speaking there at a point press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the two leaders met at Mar-a-Lago. There, Trump also said the U.S. would back further strikes against Iran if Tehran resumes building ballistic missiles or restarts its nuclear weapons program.

I hope they're not trying to build up again because if they are, we're going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup. But on the biggest issue, the next steps in In Gaza, there appeared little progress, except a warning from Trump that there will be held to pay if Hamas does not disarm. Israel has repeatedly warned that if Hamas does not lay down its weapons, it will resume military action. Trump also told reporters that Israel's president has told him a pardon for Netanyahu, who is facing bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges is on its way.

President Herzog's office immediately denied that conversation took place. Now to Markets, and Dara Rangisinger is here from our sister podcast, Morning Bid, to talk us through the day. Hey, Dara. Hey, Kim, so let's talk geopolitics. That's what's in focus for markets, lots of headlines over the last 24 hours, whether that's setback in progress on ending the war in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump, making some headlines over Iran, urging Hamas to disarm. And over in Asia, we have China continuing its war games around Taiwan.

So that keeps geopolitics in focus for markets. At the moment, there isn't an immediate market reaction or angst, if you like. But it just highlights just how clearly geopolitics is framing the conversation already for next year. Dara, thanks so much. That's video released by Taiwan's military, with a man on the bridge of a ship saying, we have repeatedly warned you, you have already entered our waters.

Taiwan says the video shows Chinese planes and ships taking part in its latest round of war games around Taiwan, the democratically governed island, which Beijing claims as its own. Reuters China Bureau Chief Kevin Krollicky has more on why the maneuvers are so critical. Part of the significance here is the scale of these drills and the scope of the undertaking China's testing,

naval systems, air combat systems, amphibious landing systems, and it's doing that in a larger area than it has before. It's also trying to show its ability to isolate Taiwan, to blockade Taiwan. And then there's also a messaging aspect of this. We've had, you know, the Chinese military releasing images of, you know, fiery arrows raining down on Taiwan or, you know, Taiwan in handcuffs, AI-generated video of humanoid soldiers and robot dogs. I mean, technology that doesn't exist.

And that's part of, I guess, a campaign to convey the message that resistance is futile. Kevin says a lot of analysts consider the drills to be both about. intimidation and stage-sitting for an actual attack and that they're not cheap. We previously reported that in 2023, based on a Taiwanese estimate, drills over the course of that year alone had cost China $15 billion, about 7% of its defense budget. The Pentagon just last week repeated its assessment that it believes China has set a goal of being ready by 2027 to take Taiwan if it believed that were necessary. In the US, meteorologists are warning that winter storm Ezra is set to strengthen into a bomb

cyclone, bringing blizzard conditions, ice and flooding rain from the Midwest to the northeast. Holiday travel has already been badly impacted, sending airlines scrambling with thousands of delays and cancellations since Friday. Road travel remains dangerous with authorities urging drivers to stay off icy routes. British boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been injured in a car crash in Nigeria that killed two of his teammates. The 36-year-old former World Heavyweight was travelling in an SUV when it collided with another car on an expressway. Joshua sustained only minor injuries. The crash comes just 10 days after Joshua knocked out Jake Paul.

in Miami. Khaledda Zia, Bangladesh's first female prime minister, has died. Zia came to power in 1991 and spent decades locked in a bitter rivalry with Sheikh Hesina, with the two women trading Bangladesh's top office for years. Zia had been jailed on corruption charges under Hesina's government, but was freed last August when a student uprising toppled Hesina from power. Her son is now seen as a strong candidate to become the next Prime Minister. And Syria's government has ordered soldiers to guard a mass grave created to conceal atrocities under Bashar al-Assad and opened a criminal investigation. The move follows a Reuters report that revealed a year's long conspiracy by the fallen dictator

to hide thousands of bodies on the remote desert site. Exhumations at Assad-era graves, including this one, are scheduled for 2027. And you can follow the link in the description to hear more from our episode of On Assignment podcast where our reporters talk about how they revealed the mass grave site. And for today's recommended read, how India's domination of the global rice trade is stoking a looming water crisis. India overtook China to become the world's largest rice producer this year, but it comes at a cost. Find out more by following the link in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today,

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