NEW YORK — Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City mayor in the first minutes of the New Year at the historic City Hall subway station, with his wife Rama Duwaji standing by his side.

The oath, in which he pledged to support the Constitution of the United States and the laws of New York, was administered by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.

“Happy New Year to New Yorkers, both inside this tunnel and above,” said Mr. Mamdani, standing beneath a vaulted ceiling with the words City Hall over his head. “This is truly an honor and a privilege of a lifetime.”

Mr. Mamdani was a trailblazing candidate and is expected by many in his city of 8 million — some with hope, some with trepidation — to be a disruptive mayor.

The democratic socialist’s plans for his first day in office on Thursday nod to his politics and priorities, without straying far from his predecessors with a sober official midnight oath-taking followed by a more celebratory ceremony in the afternoon.

New York law spells out that four-year mayoral terms start on the January 1 after elections. To avoid any ambiguity about who’s in charge of America’s most populous city, it has become a tradition to hold a small swearing-in just after midnight.

Mr. Mamdani chose the Old City Hall subway stop, which was decommissioned in the middle of the previous century and is accessible only a few times a year through guided tours, as the site of his swearing in.

The subway site, according to Mr. Mamdani’s transition team, reflects his “commitment to the working people who keep our city running every day.”

Mr. Mamdani, a 34-year-old former state lawmaker, promised a freeze on rents and free buses and childcare, building a campaign around affordability issues that some have seen as a path forward for his Democratic Party around the country ahead of midterm elections.

Mr. Mamdani inspired a record-breaking turnout of more than 2 million voters and took 50 percent, nearly 10 points ahead of Andrew Cuomo running as an independent and well ahead of Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Attorney General James was among his earliest prominent backers. During the first administration of President Donald Trump, Ms. James began investigating his business practices in New York, resulting in a judge finding in 2024 that Mr. Trump fraudulently overstated his net worth to dupe lenders.

The Trump administration has targeted Ms. James during his second term, accusing her of mortgage fraud.

Grant Reeher, a Syracuse University political science professor, said Ms. James’s role in the inauguration would send a message to core supporters that Mr. Mamdani is “going to be independent of the president.”

INAUGURATION OF A NEW ERA
The Uganda-born Mr. Mamdani, who will be New York City’s first Muslim mayor, has been a sharp critic of Mr. Trump on issues such as immigration and said his differences with the president were numerous after a warm White House meeting.

But being sworn-in by the state attorney general may say more about Mr. Mamdani’s political alliances than rivalries. In 2014 Bill de Blasio, whom Mr. Mamdani regards as the best New York City mayor of his lifetime, was sworn in privately by then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman at the start of the first of his two terms.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive, Brooklyn-born Vermont senator whom Mr. Mamdani calls his inspiration, presided over Mr. de Blasio’s public inauguration ceremony in 2018 and will play a similar role for Mr. Mamdani. Liberal Democratic US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also on the inauguration ceremony agenda.

Plans for Mr. Mamdani’s public inauguration include a ceremony on City Hall’s steps and a program of music and speeches in front of 4,000 guests gathered in City Hall Plaza. In addition, tens of thousands of people will be able to watch a livestream of what Mr. Mamdani’s team has dubbed the “Inauguration of a New Era” in free viewing areas set up along Broadway.

Mr. Mamdani raised $2.6 million for the transition and celebrations from nearly 30,000 contributors, more than other mayors on record this century, both by the total and single donations, according to official campaign data that presents disclosures of inaugural expenses beginning with Michael Bloomberg’s first term in 2001.

Sami Zaman, the owner of Astoria’s low-key Afghan restaurant Sami’s Kabab House, where Astoria resident Mr. Mamdani filmed a campaign video with Mr. Sanders, was on the inaugural committee alongside filmmakers, writers and activists.

After becoming mayor, Mr. Mamdani will move from his one-bedroom Astoria apartment, protected from sharp price hikes by the city rent-stabilization program, to Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City mayors on Manhattan’s upscale Upper East Side.

Bankers and others in New York, the nation’s financial capital, had expressed concern about Mr. Mamdani but since his election many have explored how to work with him.

The city has had another mayor associated with democratic socialism, David Dinkins. Mr. Dinkins did not make much of his association with the Democratic Socialists of America. During his 1990-1993 term he overcame budget deficits and persuaded private businesses to remain in New York, according to city archivists. — Reuters

PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his New Year address to the nation, said late on Wednesday that Ukraine wanted the war to end, but not at any cost, adding he would not sign a “weak” peace agreement that would only prolong the war.

Seated in his office, with a festive tree in the background, Mr. Zelenskiy said Ukrainians were exhausted from nearly four years of war — longer than the German World War Two occupation of many Ukrainian cities. But they were not prepared to give up.

“What does Ukraine want? Peace? Yes. At any cost? No. We want an end to the war but not the end of Ukraine,” Mr. Zelenskiy, wearing a dark green embroidered Ukrainian shirt, said in the 21-minute address issued just before midnight.

“Are we tired? Very. Does this mean we are ready to surrender? Anyone who thinks so is deeply mistaken.”

Mr. Zelenskiy said any signature “placed on weak agreements only fuel the war.”

“My signature will be placed on a strong agreement. And that is exactly what every meeting, every phone call, every decision is about now,” he said. “To secure a strong peace for everyone, not for a day, a week or two months, but peace for years.”

Mr. Zelenskiy said weeks of US-led diplomacy, including his talks last weekend with US President Donald Trump in Florida, had produced a peace deal that was nearly ready.

“A peace agreement is 90% ready, 10% remains,” he said. “That 10% contains everything, it is the 10% that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe and how people will live.”

The main stumbling block to completing a deal is the issue of who will control what parts of Ukraine’s territory.

Russia holds about 19% of Ukraine’s territory in the south and east, but Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region that Moscow’s forces have failed to capture.

Kyiv wants the map frozen at the current battle lines, and Mr. Zelenskiy dismissed as “deception” Russian demands for a complete withdrawal from Donbas.

“Does anyone still believe them? Unfortunately, yes,” he said. “Because too often the truth is avoided and called diplomacy when in fact it is simply lies dressed up in business suits.” — Reuters

TAIPEI/BEIJING — Taiwan remained on high alert on Wednesday after China staged massive military drills around the island the previous day, keeping its emergency maritime response center running as it monitored Chinese naval maneuvers, the coast guard said.

The exercises named “Justice Mission 2025” saw China fire dozens of rockets towards Taiwan and deploy a large number of warships and aircraft near the island, in a show of force that drew concern from allies in the region and the west.

Beijing announced late on Wednesday the completion of the drills, saying its military would remain on high alert and continue to strengthen their combat-readiness.

In reply, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that as there were still a significant number of Chinese planes and vessels in its response area, its armed forces would maintain an “appropriate contingency mechanism”. It did not elaborate.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s aggressive and militaristic provocations endanger regional security and stability, and have been condemned by democratic allies in the international community,” it said in a statement.

China’s President Xi Jinping struck a familiar tone on Taiwan in his New Year address shortly after Beijing’s announcement, repeating last year’s warning to what it regards as forces seeking Taiwan’s independence.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are bound by blood ties thicker than water, and the historical trend toward national reunification is unstoppable,” he said in a speech televised by state broadcaster CCTV.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, and it has not ruled out using force to take it under Chinese control. Taiwan, which rejects China’s claims, condemned the latest drills as a threat to regional security and a blatant provocation.

Chinese ships were moving away from Taiwan by Tuesday night, according to Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council.

“The maritime situation has calmed down, with ships and vessels gradually departing,” she said in a post on Facebook late on Tuesday.

A Taiwan coast guard official told Reuters that all 11 Chinese coast guard ships had left waters near Taiwan and were continuing to move away. A Taiwan security official said emergency response centers for the military and coast guard remained active.

There were more than 90 Chinese naval and coast guard vessels in the region, with many of them deployed in the South China Sea, near Taiwan and the East China Sea, two security officials in the region told Reuters earlier.

The officials, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the size of China’s maritime deployment had steadily increased since early this week.

China is in the middle of what has become a busy season for military exercises.

Taiwan’s defense ministry on Wednesday said 77 Chinese military aircraft and 25 navy and coast guard vessels had been operating around the island in the past 24 hours.

Among them, 35 military planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait median line that separates the two sides, it added.

‘STERN WARNING’
As the war games unfolded, United States Ambassador to China David Perdue posted on X a photo of himself with the ambassadors from countries in the Quad, a grouping that includes the US, Australia, Japan, and India.

In the post, he called the Quad a “force for good” working to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific but gave no details about what the meeting discussed or when it took place.

The US State Department said Perdue regularly meets with diplomats and Chinese officials to advance the US president’s agenda. “In line with these routine meetings he met with Quad Ambassadors in Beijing on December 19”, a State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

The drills, China’s most extensive war games by coverage area to date, forced Taiwan to cancel dozens of domestic flights and dispatch jets and warships for monitoring. Soldiers ran rapid-response drills including putting up barricades at various locations.

China regards the exercises as a “necessary and just measure” to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, its Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhang Han told reporters on Wednesday at a weekly briefing. They were “a stern warning against Taiwan independence separatist forces and external interference”, she added.

China’s state news agency Xinhua published an article summarizing “three key takeaways” from the drills, which began 11 days after the United States announced a record $11.1 billion arms package for Taiwan.

The simulated “encirclement” demonstrated the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to “press and contain separatist forces while denying access to external interference – an approach summarized as ‘sealing internally and blocking externally’,” the article said, citing Zhang Chi, a professor at the PLA National Defense University.

Despite the growing intensity of China’s war games, Beijing is unlikely to start a war at the cost of its reputation, said Lyle Goldstein, the Asia program head of US think tank Defense Priorities.

“They threaten and bluster a lot, but ultimately (a war) would be very costly for China no matter what,” Mr. Goldstein said. — Reuters

10…nine…eight…

As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the new year to come.

Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga, and New Zealand.

FIREWORKS LIGHT UP SYDNEY
In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 kilometers (over 4 miles) across buildings and barges along its harbor and featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This year, it was held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city.

Organizers held a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack at 11 p.m. local time, with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah – a symbol of Judaism – projected onto its pylons.

“After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year’s Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026,” Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event.

In Seoul, thousands gathered at the Bosingak bell pavilion, where a bronze bell was struck 33 times at midnight – a tradition rooted in Buddhist cosmology, symbolizing the 33 heavens. The chimes are believed to dispel misfortune and welcome peace and prosperity for the year ahead.

DRUMS AT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
An hour to the west, there were celebrations and a drum performance at the Juyong Pass, at the Great Wall of China just outside Beijing. Revelers wore headgear and waved boards emblazoned with “2026” and the symbol of a horse. February will mark the arrival of the Year of the Horse on the Chinese lunar calendar.

In Hong Kong, the annual New Year’s fireworks display was called off after the apartment complex blaze in November that killed 161 people. Instead, a light show with the theme of ‘New hopes, new beginnings’ transformed facades in the Central district.

In Croatia, revels got off to an early start. Since 2000, the town of Fuzine has held its countdown at noon, a tradition that has since spread across the country. Crowds cheered, toasted each other with champagne and danced to music – all in the middle of the day. Some brave souls in Santa hats took a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Bajer.

BRAZIL LOOKS TO BREAK RECORD
Elsewhere, preparations got under way for the more traditional midnight toast. In subzero temperatures in New York, organizers began putting up security barriers and stages ahead of the crowds that will flock to Times Square for the annual ball drop.

Similarly, on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro – albeit with warmer weather – staging was being set up for a massive music and fireworks party known as “Reveillon.” Organizers were hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration.

Greece’s ancient Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis had a quiet New Year. The mayor of Athens said silent, environmentally friendly fireworks were used, citing distress caused by loud displays to pets, animals, and some people.

In snowy Kyiv and Moscow, both Ukrainians and Russians saw in the new year, expressing hopes of peace after nearly four years of conflict.

“I wish for the war to end, I think that this is the main and most important topic for our country,” said a woman in central Moscow who gave her name only as Larisa and said she had traveled from distant Altai Krai to see the Russian capital in the winter holidays with her family.

Many Ukrainians lamented that peace still seemed a distant prospect.

But wrapped up warm and visiting a Christmas tree set up in front of Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, nine-year-old Olesia was more optimistic.

“I think there will be peace in the new year,” she said. — Reuters

UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned on Wednesday a move by Israel to ban electricity or water to facilities owned by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, a UN spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the move would “further impede” the agency’s ability to operate and carry out activities.

“The Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations remains applicable to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), its property and assets, and to its officials and other personnel. Property used by UNRWA is inviolable,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said while adding that UNRWA is an “integral” part of the world body.

UNRWA Commissioner General Phillipe Lazzarini also condemned the move, saying that it was part of an ongoing “ systematic campaign to discredit  UNRWA and thereby obstruct” the role it plays in providing assistance to Palestinian refugees.

In 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a law banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency.

As a result, UNRWA operates in East Jerusalem, which the UN considers territory occupied by Israel. Israel considers all Jerusalem to be part of the country.

The agency provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It has long had tense relations with Israel but ties have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called repeatedly for UNRWA to be disbanded, with its responsibilities transferred to other UN agencies.

The prohibition of basic utilities to the UN agency came as Israel also suspended of dozens of international non-governmental organizations working in Gaza due to a failure to meet new rules to vet those groups.

In a joint statement, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom said on Tuesday such a move would have a severe impact on the access of essential services, including healthcare. They said one in three healthcare facilities in Gaza would close if international NGO operations stopped. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somali origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship.

“Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that was first reported by Fox News and reposted by the White House on social media. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, about 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017.

Since taking office in January, Mr. Trump, a Republican, has pursued a hardline immigration policy involving an aggressive deportation drive, revocations of visas and green cards, and screening of social media posts and past speeches of immigrants.

Human rights groups widely condemn Mr. Trump’s policies, saying they curb rights like due process and free speech. Mr. Trump and his allies say the policies aim to improve domestic security.

Federal officials in recent weeks have portrayed Minnesota’s Somali community as a hotspot for fraud involving millions of federal dollars intended for social services. Immigrant-rights advocates say the administration is using the fraud investigations as an excuse to target Somali immigrants more broadly.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Sunday the bureau has “surged” investigative resources and personnel to Minnesota in the latest instance of the Mr. Trump administration’s fraud investigations that have targeted the state’s Somali immigrants.

The US Department of Health and Human Services separately said on Tuesday it has frozen all child care payments to Minnesota. It said that going forward all payments from the department’s Administration for Children and Families nationwide “will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.”

In response, Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said his state government has “spent years cracking down on fraudsters” and that Mr. Trump was “politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans.” — Reuters

HONDURAN presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla has formally challenged the results of the country’s recent election, the latest twist in a closely contested race that was beset by delays, technical problems, and fraud allegations.

Mr. Nasralla finished second to conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, who was backed by US President Donald Trump and was declared the winner on Christmas Eve, more than three weeks after the November 30 election.

Less than 1% of votes separated the two candidates, according to the CNE, Honduras’ electoral authority.

Mr. Nasralla’s legal team filed an appeal with Honduras’ Electoral Justice Tribunal (TJE) on Monday, prompting the tribunal to issue a resolution late on Monday evening calling for additional documentation before it decides whether to admit the challenge.

“There have been too many inconsistencies in this electoral process,” Mr. Nasralla’s lawyer Karla Romero said on Monday night, asserting that in many departments of the country, votes for Mr. Asfura had been “inflated.”

Mr. Nasralla’s lawyers have not made evidence of fraud presented in the appeal publicly available and Mr. Asfura’s party has denied Mr. Nasralla’s accusations of fraud.

Mr. Nasralla, a centrist who has unsuccessfully run for president twice before, is seeking a comprehensive review and recount of presidential ballots in at least 12 of Honduras’ 18 departments.

The TJE has set a 48-hour deadline for the CNE to submit paperwork pertaining to the recount requests.

The challenge unfolds amid heightened political tension and public mistrust in the electoral process.

Honduras’ Attorney General Johel Zelaya also spoke out about the electoral process on Tuesday, warning of upcoming legal action and that a precedent would be set “so shameful practices that undermine democracy and rule of law are not repeated.”

Mr. Nasralla, who also disputed his loss in the 2017 general election, rejected the CNE’s declaration of Mr. Asfura’s victory last week, saying the electoral authority had excluded ballots that should have been counted.

The head of the Honduran Congress, from the ruling Libre party, has also rejected the results. Libre supporters demonstrated outside the CNE headquarters in Tegucigalpa on Monday.

Mr. Asfura is due to take office on January 27 for the 2026-2030 term. — Reuters

ISTANBUL — Turkish police detained 357 suspects in a nationwide operation against Islamic State on Tuesday, the interior minister said, a day after three police officers and six militants were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkey.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities carried out raids in 21 provinces across the country.

“Just as we have never given an opportunity to those who try to bring this country to its knees with terrorism, we will never give them an opportunity in the future either,” he said on X.

Earlier, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office had said police raided 114 addresses in Istanbul and two other provinces, and various digital materials and documents were seized.

Police clashed with the militants on Monday in an eight-hour siege at a house in the town of Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara coast south of Istanbul, a week after more than 100 suspected IS members were detained in connection with alleged plans to carry out Christmas and New Year attacks.

Eight police officers and another security force member were wounded in the raid on that property, which was one of more than 100 addresses targeted by authorities on Monday.

Turkey has stepped up operations against suspected IS militants this year, as the group returns to prominence globally.

The US says it carried out a strike against the militants in northwest Nigeria last week, while two gunmen who attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach this month appeared to be inspired by IS, Australian police have said. On December 19, the US military launched strikes against dozens of IS targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on American personnel.

Almost a decade ago, the jihadist group was blamed for a series of attacks on civilian targets in Turkey, including gun attacks on an Istanbul nightclub and the city’s main airport, killing dozens of people. Turkey was a key transit point for foreign fighters, including those of IS, entering and leaving Syria during the war there.

Police have carried out regular operations against the group in subsequent years and there have been few attacks since the wave of violence between 2015-2017. — Reuters