Firefighters and police rushed to a major blaze at one of Amsterdam’s most famous churches, the Vondelkerk (Vondel Church), less than an hour after the New Year began in the Netherlands. It came in a night when two people died, and numerous others were injured in firework accidents, officials said.

Violence between protesters and security forces intensified across Iran on Thursday, leaving at least five people dead as nationwide demonstrations entered a fifth consecutive day, according to Iranian state-linked media and human rights groups.

The U.S. military conducted five more strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean in the last days of 2025.

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani took the reins of the nation’s most populous city in a midnight ceremony Thursday.

Swiss police say “several dozen” people were killed and about 115 injured, many critically, after a devastating fire tore through a crowded bar in the Alpine resort town of Crans-Montana during New Year celebrations. Authorities have ruled out terrorism.

World leaders rang in the New Year with sharply contrasting messages, as speeches reflected a world divided by war, shaken by tragedy, while still searching for hope and unity.

Israel absorbed approximately 21,900 new immigrants in 2025, marking a sharp decline of about one-third from the previous year, according to data released Monday by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry. The drop was driven largely by a steep fall in arrivals from Russia, following the surge that accompanied Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

President Donald Trump announced Dec. 31 that he will withdraw federally controlled National Guard troops from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Portland, ending months of contentious deployments tied to civil unrest and immigration enforcement.

Iran was gripped by a fourth consecutive day of nationwide unrest on Wednesday as protesters clashed with security forces, torched buildings, and openly chanted “Death to the Dictator,” signaling an escalation from economic anger to direct defiance of the Islamic Republic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia “believes in victory” in Ukraine during a New Year’s Eve address, calling on Russians to support troops nearly four years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.