WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 12-31-25 (1/3)

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

The latest headlines in three minutes from WORLD updated three times throughout the day.Sign-up for the daily Sift email at thesift.org.Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.

With World Radio News, I'm Mark Mellinger. The federal crackdown on potential fraud in Minnesota is ramping up. Federal investigators are looking into whether daycare centers in that state defrauded U.S. taxpayers to the tune of millions of and perhaps over $100 million. And the Trump administration announced Tuesday its freezing child care funds to Minnesota. Republican Minnesota state rep Kristen Robbins says Democratic Governor Tim Wall, and his administration ignored GOP warnings of potential fraud. We warned him about these daycare fraud allegations last year. We did a full hearing on it in February, and they have done nothing since then. Robbins, who's running for the GOP nomination to oppose Walls in the next gubernatorial election

on Fox News channels The Story with Martha McCallum, Walls says a group of fraudsters has taken advantage of the state's generosity, but also accused President Trump of politicizing. the issue. President Trump is threatening to sue Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump is accusing Powell of gross incompetence in his oversight of the costly renovation of the Fed's headquarters. The $2.5 billion cost of the renovation is $600 million over the initial project estimate, and Trump thinks it could get even higher. These are an outstanding buildings. These are small buildings. He's at $4 billion. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion. It's not clear where the president got the $4 billion figure. In East Asia,

tensions are again rising between China and Taiwan. World's Travis Kircher reports. Yesterday was day two of large-scale Chinese military drills around Taiwan. Those drills included live rounds that Taiwanese officials say landed closer to the island than on previous occasions. Communist China claims Taiwan as part of its own sovereign territory. Taiwan, on the other hand, operates as a liberal democracy and claims to be a sovereign state, though it has never formally declared independence. For World, I'm Travis Kircher. Saudi Arabia has bombed a major port in Yemen.

The Saudi government was concerned the port of Mukala could be serving as an entry point for weapons and combat vehicles shipped over from the United Arab Emirates. Saudi leaders believe the shipment was for a UAE-backed separatist group called the Southern transitional counsel and posed an imminent threat to the Saudi kingdom. The UAE's foreign ministry denies sending any weapons for Saudi enemies, but acknowledges shipping vehicles for UAE operatives in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are neighbors who've also competed over economic issues and regional politics. For World Radio, I'm Mark Mellinger. For more sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth, visit world radio.com. News. Thank you.