A $106 billion EU emergency loan is now on its way to Ukraine, following the fall of Hungary's strongman Viktor Orban, who was holding it up. However, as a condition of the loan, Kyiv is obliged to re-open the war-damaged Druzhba pipeline, which sends Russian oil through Ukrainian territory to Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Germany. Kyiv is cooperating in getting the pipeline operational again—but is meanwhile drone-bombing Russian oil facilities on the Baltic and Black seas, in hopes of diminishing how much petrol Moscow will have to export through that pipeline. The strikes have caused "apocalyptic scenes" in the Black Sea port of Tuapse—air thick with toxic fumes, a huge column of smoke blotting out the sun, black rain falling from the sky. Russia, unwilling to sacrifice its own oil revenues but seeking to punish Europe for backing Ukraine, has announced that it will cut off the flow of oil from Kazakhstan through the Druzhba pipeline. (PRI, Al Jazeera, Reuters, E&E News, The Moscow Times)

Chinese construction workers building a fuel-production unit at a Rosneft refinery in Far East Russia's Khabarovsk krai took to the streets on April 12 to protest unpaid wages, regional authorities said. At least 200 employees of the Russian-Chinese contractor Petro-Hehua marched through the city of Komsomolsk-na-Amure demanding back payments and help from both the Russian government and Rosneft in returning to China. After the march, some workers staged a sit-in at a nearby park. Following the protest, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur prosecutor's office said it had opened an inquiry into possible labor law violations, but at least four protesters were fined for illegal assembly. (Novaya Gazeta, The Moscow Times, UA News)

President Trump issued an executive order Jan. 10 to block judicial processes from being instituted against Venezuelan oil funds held in the US, on the basis that it would "materially harm the national security and foreign policy of the United States."

Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, appeared alongside his wife before a federal judge in New York on Jan. 5—with dueling demonstrations by his supporters and opponents outside the Manhattan courthouse. Separated by police lines, the rival protests nonetheless repeatedly escalated to physical confrontations. Inside, Maduro told US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein: "I'm innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country." Maduro also told the judge he was "kidnapped from" his home in Caracas. His attorneys are expected to argue he was illegally arrested and is immune from prosecution.

President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 3 that the US would "run" Venezuela, following a strike on the country that led to the capture and transfer to the US of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores.

The world's governments approved a new climate deal at the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, adopting the so‑called Belém Package, a bundle of decisions that calls for tripling outlays to help vulnerable countries adapt to intensifying climate impacts.

President Donald Trump praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as "incredible in terms of human rights" during an Oval Office meeting Nov. 18, preemptively deflecting questions about the kingdom's extensive record of abuses as the crown prince pledged $1 trillion in US investments.

Indigenous groups held protests Nov. 14 in Belém, blocking the main entrance to the restricted area at the UN Climate Summit (COP30) to demand that the Brazilian government halt extractive projects that jeopardize their cultures and livelihoods.