Overview
- The sitting president advanced protectionist tariffs, mass migrant expulsions and cuts to federal diversity programs, with judges halting several moves and inflation prompting the removal of some food duties.
- A U.S.-pressured truce between Israel and Hamas enabled hostage-prisoner exchanges, limited Israeli withdrawals and increased aid access, yet violations and cross-border strikes kept tensions high.
- Since August, U.S. naval forces operating off Latin America and the Pacific carried out roughly twenty attacks on suspect vessels that left about one hundred dead, drawing legal questions and Venezuelan accusations tied to tanker blockades and a reward for Nicolás Maduro.
- Negotiation efforts on Ukraine intensified without a breakthrough as Russia maintained eastern offensives and strikes against energy infrastructure continued.
- Investment in artificial intelligence hit record levels even as lawsuits and policy actions accelerated, with U.S. regulators moving on chatbot rules and controversies over layoffs, disinformation and copyright.