Colombia hikes 2026 minimum wage by nearly 23%In a speech, Petro said the measure aims to reduce inequality and "democratize wealth so that working people, who make up the majority of the Colombian population, can live better." The hike more than doubles the 9.54% increase made this year, which brought minimum wages to 1.42 million pesos ($380), and marks the leftist administration's last minimum wage hike before elections are held at the end of May 2026.
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombia-hikes-2026-minimum-wage-by-nearly-23-2025-12-30/US struck ‘big facility’ in Venezuela, Trump claimed without offering detailsTrump on Monday went further in his characterization of the strike, saying: “Well, it doesn’t matter. But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. We hit the area.” Speaking after a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president said: “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the implementation area… where they implement and that’s no longer around.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/29/trump-venezuela-facility-strikeDeadly clashes erupt in Tartous and Latakia as hundreds take to the streetsSunday's protest was mobilised by Alawite sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council, who urged fellow Alawites to demonstrate peacefully, demanding a federal government system in Syria, and denouncing what Ghazal claimed was ongoing sectarian violations after the recent attack on a Mosque in Homs. In a statement on Telegram, the Syrian Ministry of Interior said that security forces who were on duty to protect demonstrators and maintain public order were directly attacked today in the city of Latakia by armed groups associated with the remnants of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/deadly-clashes-erupt-tartous-and-latakia-hundreds-take-streetsIssam Makoul, chairman of Hadash and former leader of the Communist Party of Israel, dies at 73ISSAM MAKHOUL, chairman of Israel’s Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) and a former general secretary of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), died on Boxing Day aged 73. The CPI said it mourned the death of a “true communist fighter… who took part in all our struggles and activities for five decades.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/issam-makoul-chairman-hadash-and-former-leader-communist-party-israel-dies-73Iran Central Bank governor resigns as protests erupt over currency dropThe official IRNA news agency confirmed protest gatherings. Witnesses reported similar rallies in other major cities, including Isfahan in central Iran, Shiraz in the south and Mashhad in the northeast. In some places in Tehran, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters. Witnesses told The Associated Press that traders shut their shops and asked others to do the same. The semiofficial ILNA news agency said many businesses stopped trading even though some kept their shops open.
https://www.newarab.com/news/iran-central-bank-governor-resigns-protests-erupt-over-currencyPro-Palestine activists target UK Labour offices over hunger strikersThe group Justice for the Hunger Strikers said on Monday that its members had targeted the governing party, citing growing anger at what it described as the government’s refusal to engage with the hunger strikers. The protest was held as four detainees continue to refuse food while being held on remand awaiting trial, prompting increasing concern from doctors and campaigners that one or more could die.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/29/pro-palestine-activists-target-uk-labour-offices-over-hunger-strikershttps://archive.ph/s7EiKSurvivors say ‘no excuse’ as Grenfell firms still receive public contractsAnalysis by Kensington Labour MP Joe Powell found at least 87 contracts across the public sector in the government’s own database involve companies criticised in the phase 2 report into the Grenfell fire, though some may have since expired. Survivors’ group Grenfell United said that it would be a deep injustice to see some of the companies censured in the September 2024 report still receive public funds.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/survivors-say-no-excuse-grenfell-firms-still-receive-public-contractsRussia plans to declare anti-war Telegram channel a “terrorist organisation”The regional prosecutor’s office for the Trans-Baikal region in eastern Siberia has submitted a petition to a local court to recognize the “Trans-Baikal Left Association” as a terrorist organisation. The petition refers to the telegram channel 75zlo, allegedly maintained by jailed anarchists Aleksandr Snezhkov and Lyubov Lizunova, which the petition asks to declare as “leaders” of this association.
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2025/12/29/russia-plans-to-declare-anti-war-telegram-channel-a-terrorist-organisation/Germany’s far-right AfD invited to join Munich Security Conference 2026The reversal, which was confirmed by organisers, came after the US vice-president, JD Vance, lambasted the AfD’s exclusion in a blistering speech at this year’s event in which he accused Germany of stifling free speech by sidelining the anti-migrant, pro-Kremlin party. A spokesperson for MSC declined to explain the new policy, saying only that the event, which has been held in the Bavarian capital since 1963, was run by a “private, independent foundation” and “under no obligation to anyone to issue invitations to its events”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/29/germanys-far-right-afd-invited-to-join-munich-security-conference-2026‘Unfair Election’: Young Voters Shun Myanmar Junta’s PollLegions have left the war-ravaged country since the military seized power five years ago, including many men of conscription age—up to 35—and youngsters seeking better livelihoods away from Myanmar’s moribund economy. And even those still in the country were not particularly eager to take part in the vote, which international rights campaigners have dismissed as a sham.
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/unfair-election-young-voters-shun-myanmar-juntas-poll.htmlhttps://archive.ph/Igt67Optus report whitewashes Australia’s emergency phone breakdownsWhile it partly reads like a forensic review into the technical and organisational problems that led to the disaster, the report’s primary political function is to absolve the company’s management of any responsibility for the events of September 18, when some 605 calls to Australia’s emergency services numbers (primarily 000, but also 112) failed to connect.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/12/29/lpiq-d29.htmlPakistan police detain teen girl radicalized online in suspected suicide bombing plotThe girl was targeted online by the Baloch Liberation Army, which was designated as a terrorist group by the United States earlier year. The group convinced the girl that carrying out an attack would bring her honor and recognition within the Baloch community, similar to other women who have carried out suicide bombings against security forces, Hassan said.
https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-girl-separatists-recruiting-suicide-bombing-balochistan-46b69971c4b86fa823afaa6f701d7ce7