Two Chinese-flagged very large crude carriers are proceeding toward Venezuelan waters despite a U.S.-imposed blockade on sanctioned oil tankers, raising the prospect of heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over Venezuela’s crude exports.

Thousand Sunny oil tanker (photo: Tommy Chia)

Shipping data published by Lloyd’s List on Tuesday shows the Thousand Sunny is expected to arrive at Venezuela’s Jose Terminal in mid-January after rounding the Cape of Good Hope empty in the southern Atlantic, Newsweek reports. The vessel, which is not subject to U.S. sanctions, has historically transported Venezuelan Merey heavy crude to China. A second unsanctioned Chinese-flagged VLCC, the Xing Ye, is currently positioned off French Guiana, awaiting loading at the same terminal, Newsweek said.

Via Newsweek

Both the State Department and China’s Foreign Ministry have remained mum on the vessels’ movements.

The high-stakes voyages come as President Donald Trump escalates pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, including a mid-December order for a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving the country. U.S. forces have seized at least two tankers carrying Venezuelan crude in international waters this month, with a third evading boarding. The Pentagon has described the measures as a “quarantine” aimed at curbing revenue to the Maduro government, which Washington accuses of links to drug trafficking and terrorism.

Separately, the Central Intelligence Agency carried out a drone strike on a remote coastal dock in Venezuela earlier this month, marking the first acknowledged U.S. operation on Venezuelan territory, according to people familiar with the matter briefed to CNN.The target, believed by U.S. officials to be used for storing and loading narcotics onto boats – potentially by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua – was unoccupied at the time, and no casualties were reported. The strike followed a series of U.S. attacks on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in international waters.

Trump first referenced the operation in a Friday radio interview with WABC’s John Catsimatidis, saying U.S. forces had “knocked out” a “big facility where the ships come from” two nights earlier.

On Monday, Trump elaborated on the mission during a gaggle with reporters, saying, “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs… That is no longer around.”

The White House and Pentagon have declined to provide further details on the operation or its execution. Venezuelan officials have not publicly responded to the reports.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times,

JOSEPHINE, Texas – This rural town with farmland stretching to the horizon might as well be a million miles away from New York City with its skyscrapers and big-city worries.

But the residents of the Big Apple and Josephine have something in common—controversy over the construction of a mosque.

Perhaps not since the “Ground Zero Mosque” was proposed two blocks from the World Trade Center site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has a mosque drawn so much attention.

The proposed 2009 Manhattan mosque and Islamic cultural center was known as Park 51. It faced sharp public criticism for plans to place a symbol of Islam so close to where thousands died from an attack by radical jihadists. Groups such as Stop Islamization of America led protests against “radical Islam” before the project was eventually abandoned.

More than a decade later, as Muslim migration to Texas has increased, a similar uproar has risen over a proposed Muslim-focused neighborhood anchored by a mosque in rural Texas, some 40 miles from Dallas.

Promotional materials first described EPIC City, named after the East Plano Islamic Center, as the “epicenter of Islam in America.”

Following backlash at the local, state, and federal levels, it changed its name to The Meadow.

The development would encompass 402 acres of farmland outside Josephine, a town of 8,800 residents founded in 1888 by a railroad company back when cotton was king in Texas.

It would include 1,000 homes, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school, sports facilities, a community college, senior housing, an outreach center, and businesses.

Since the idea was proposed, numerous public officials and community members have worked to halt the development, citing concerns about whether the new community would integrate with the local population and asking questions over sharia—Islamic law—and potential ties to foreign Islamic groups.

The development has prompted legal battles, state and federal investigations, and new state laws addressing neighborhood composition and foreign ownership. The ongoing battle included Texas Gov. Greg Abbott classifying some Islamic groups as foreign terrorist organizations; and the White House is considering similar action.

A new mosque is the centerpiece of the proposed EPIC City, described as the “epicenter of Islam in America.” The city was renamed The Meadow after backlash at the local, state, and federal levels. Republican leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and residents have opposed the proposed 402-acre Muslim development outside the rural town of Josephine, Texas. Rendering from Texas legal documents

Grassroots Backlash

The Muslim-led community would be located in an area largely populated by white and Hispanic residents whose religion is predominantly Christian.

Locally, residents have voiced concerns about Islamic radicalization and sharia law in communities they believe may not integrate into U.S. culture, despite the developer’s denials.

Sharia law is an Islamic code of conduct and law derived from the Quran, often at odds with laws and rights in Western countries.

One woman who spoke at a Collin County Commissioners Court meeting in November raised concerns that sharia would replace U.S. law within the development.

“This remains an Islamic-focused community, and Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our Constitution,” she said.

At the Josephine City Council meeting, a resident of Armenian descent said people should be aware that, in his view, Islam is only peaceful when it is not in control.

“Islam is not truly a religion of peace,“ he added. ”Once they get to a certain point in a culture, they start to ravage it from within.”

Most Muslims are good people, he said, but when their religious ideology demands it, they feel compelled to obey. “They don’t speak up against it.”

He referenced historical events, saying the West should consider the Armenian genocide over a century ago under the Ottoman Empire, which imposed sharia.

“We were walked into the Syrian desert until we died of hunger, of starvation. They hung Christian females to posts and lit them on fire as candles,” he said.

As public concerns intensified, state officials stepped up their efforts to address them.

Earlier this month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit against the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), which contracted for the land, and developer Community Capital Partners, and others, alleging violations of Texas securities laws.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at a press conference in Anzalduas Park near McAllen, Texas, on April 28, 2021. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

​The lawsuit claims the housing development would be illegally reserved for Muslim residents. It also asserts that the project’s leaders “lined their own pockets” with funds during development.

Abbott took to social media on Dec. 3, stating the development’s name change does not alter its intent and that at least four state agencies continue to investigate “this misguided mission.”

“‘The Meadow’ will remain just that—an empty meadow,” Abbott said. “EPIC can change its name, but can’t change the legality of the flawed structure they seek to impose. They delete social media posts & rewrite contracts. But it’s just a disguise to impose sharia on a community they create.”

Developers Say No Wrongdoing

​Meanwhile, the Texas enclave’s developers and Muslim groups have denounced the legal action as Islamophobic and a violation of their rights.

The Islamophobia Network, a project of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), produced a report about the development condemning Abbott’s actions as politically motivated.

​“Anti-Islam organizing targeting the Muslim-led EPIC City development project saw bias mobilizing the power of Texas government to deny Muslims their equal opportunities to pursue their dreams and potential,” the report said.

​It denounced what it called “anti-Islam” legislation and what it called “advanced conspiracy theories” involving “no-go zones.”

​The report compared tactics used to stop the EPIC development to those used in the controversy over the “Ground Zero Mosque” at Park 51.

​“We also note that Governor Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attack on EPIC City has not resulted in any evidence of wrongdoing to date and may violate Constitutional prohibitions against arbitrary government action,” the group stated.

People watch construction at the World Trade Center site in New York City on Aug. 16, 2010. The proposed Manhattan mosque and Islamic cultural center, known as Park51, drew sharp criticism in 2009 over plans to locate it near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

​High-profile Texas attorney Dan Cogdell, who represents developer Community Capital Partners, held a press conference in the spring as the pressure campaign against the development ramped up.

​​“My clients are law-abiding Texans, law-abiding Americans, and law-abiding Muslims,” he said.

​​He added that no one associated with the community follows or implements sharia and that Abbott was attempting to “demonize” Muslims.

​Neither EPIC nor Cogdell responded to requests for comment.

State Legislation

Republicans campaigning in the Lone Star state are tapping into public unease over mass immigration and the increase in terrorist incidents, such as the Nov. 26 shooting of two Washington D.C. guardsmen by an Afghan immigrant.

​Abbott is currently seeking his fourth term as governor, while Paxton is running in the Senate Republican primary against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

In a flurry of activity this fall, Abbott took steps to block foreign threats and developments in Texas.

In September, he signed House Bill 4211 into law, banning residential property developers from creating exclusionary compounds, specifically citing the EPIC project.

Abbott stated that the law bans residential property developments such as EPIC City “from creating sharia compounds and defrauding and discriminating against Texans.”

“The fact is, religious freedom is a central part of the Texas Constitution. But bad actors like EPIC and EPIC City tried to use religion as a form of segregation. We will ensure that we have the laws and law enforcement in place to prevent attempts to build such discriminatory compounds in the state of Texas.”

​Likewise, in June, the governor signed Senate Bill 17 into law, banning transnational criminal organizations and foreign adversaries—including Iran—from purchasing land.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signs a bill at the state Capitol in Austin on April 23, 2025. Earlier this year, Abbott signed measures that would curb exclusionary residential compounds—citing the EPIC project—and restrict land purchases by foreign adversaries and transnational criminal groups. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

On Nov. 18, Abbott cited these laws in a proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood, which has ties to Hamas, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and transnational criminal organizations.

The designation authorizes “heightened enforcement against both organizations and their affiliates and prohibits them from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas,” according to the governor’s office.

Abbott took the additional step in December of asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to suspend CAIR’s tax-exempt status, citing longstanding ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

CAIR filed its own lawsuit against Abbott and Paxton in November, calling Abbott’s proclamation “unconstitutional and defamatory.” The group said the proclamation falsely declared the Texas chapter of CAIR as a terrorist group.

A few days later, the White House announced it would investigate whether certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as FTOs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested during a radio interview with “Sid and Friends in the Morning” in August, that designating CAIR as a terrorist group was also “in the works.”

Other leading Republicans, opponents of Islamic extremism and sharia, have weighed in on the EPIC development.

In May, Cornyn said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a civil rights investigation into the development at his request. The investigation was ultimately dropped with no violations cited.

Cruz, who reintroduced a bill in July to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, said during a Heritage Foundation appearance that sharia law was a concern at the EPIC development in North Texas.

​Last month, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who is running for Texas Attorney General, introduced legislation to counter mass migration. The bill would deny legal status to followers of sharia, known or suspected terrorists, and other groups.

​“Many Americans strive to live their life practicing their faith, while our immigration system is actively importing radical Islamic sharia adherents and communists,” Roy said in a press release.

Demonstrators attend a rally with the Coalition to Honor Ground Zero in New York City on Aug. 22, 2010. The rally was held to oppose the construction of an Islamic Center and mosque near Ground Zero. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

‘A Different Population’

​Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, said public fears over Muslim enclaves and mass migration are symptoms of a brewing national identity crisis.

Americans fear they are losing their culture and way of life to foreign influences, including those from the Middle East, he told The Epoch Times.

​The foreign-born population of the United States currently sits at about 16 percent—the highest in history, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s January 2025 Current Population Survey.  The last time it was close to being that high was in 1890, when immigrants mainly from Eastern Europe pushed the foreign-born population to 14.8 percent, according to the Census Bureau.

​“But obviously, now the Muslim population is growing rapidly with immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa—and it’s a cultural change,” Hankinson said.

​“So it’s a new phenomenon. I think people, maybe in parts of rural Texas, were kind of used to the certain makeup that they had.”

More Americans are paying attention to immigration policy because it’s impacting their communities, he said.

Social media is awash in posts highlighting the effect of mass migration in Europe, warning that it’s a harbinger of things to come in America.

On Dec. 20, Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, warned against “Islamist ideology” and sharia taking over the West during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest

“This Islamist ideology is a direct threat to our freedom because at its core it is a political ideology that seeks to create a global caliphate that governs us here in America,” she said.

“If we don’t take action to identify this threat, to define it, to call it out for what it is, and take action to defeat it, then we will find ourselves in a place where many European countries and countries like Australia have found themselves.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix on Dec. 20, 2025. Gabbard warned against “Islamist ideology” and sharia taking over the West. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Hankinson, a British immigrant, said that native-born English citizens are now the minority in London.

​“If you replace a population with a different population, then everything’s going to change,” he said.

​But immigration is not accidental; it is a policy choice that voters make, he said.

Small groups of immigrants with cultures similar to those of the areas they move to tend to assimilate, such as Ukrainians settling in Poland, he said.

​Enclaves of culturally diverse immigrants have been accepted when they are localized and relatively small, he said. ​But large groups of people coming into a country will change that society.

​“I think Americans are noticing, and some of them probably don’t like it,” he said.

Ammon Blair, a security consultant and senior fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Secure & Sovereign Nation Initiative, said the mass migration that occurred during the Biden administration was different from past migrations.

​“This is a completely engineered, fabricated form of immigration where it’s done for the sole purpose of eradicating the sovereignty of a nation and state,” he told The Epoch Times.

​Blair pointed to large immigrant settlements that sometimes remain under the control of the countries they left, making assimilation difficult.

Muslims pray at a mosque during Friday prayers in Plano, Texas, on April 11, 2025. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images

This March, President Trump asserted in a proclamation that the Venezuelan transnational gang Tren de Aragua was part of the Cártel de los Soles, sponsored by President Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Tren de Aragua is known to target Venezuelan nationals in the United States.

Another example would be recent fraud rooted in Minnesota’s Somali settlement, which allegedly funds Al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization, he noted. Since then, President Donald Trump announced a crackdown on temporary legal status for Somalis.

“It all comes down to not just assimilation, but allegiance,” Blair said.

Hankinson said after experiencing immigration himself and watching countries change, he no longer believes multiculturalism works, saying it has probably “failed as an experiment.”

The ongoing debate over the proposed Muslim-centric development in Texas encapsulates larger questions about immigration, assimilation, and national identity across the United States, he said.

“The idea is that we can all live in one country, but we can have completely different values, beliefs, religions, cultural traditions, etc. I don’t think there’s enough to hold a country together without those things.”

Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

Millions worldwide will watch a crystal ball descend 139 feet down a flagpole in Manhattan’s Time Square as a throng of thousands counts down the last 10 seconds of 2025 and ushers in 2026 in a blizzard of confetti and a cacophony of kazoos, party horns, whistles, and whatever else imaginative noisemakers can stash and carry.

The minute-long ball drop is among the planet’s most viewed annual live events.

At least a billion will see the 12.5-foot diameter, 12,350-pound “Constellation Ball“ with 32,000 LEDs and 5,280 Waterford crystals shimmer, shine, and sink.

Only this year, they’ll see the ball rise again in a blaze of red, white, and blue as 2026 dawns to mark the 250th birthday of the United States and instantly kick off a year of commemorative celebrations across the country.

The Times Square New Year ball drop is glitter, glitz, and a tradition since 1907 so when it comes to ball drops, it’s the premier event.

But face it: Anyone can drop a ball.

Ask Jacksonville Jaguars’ quarterback Trevor Lawrence. His receivers have dropped the ball an NFL-leading 45 times in 2025. It’s been done. Over and over.

So ever-innovative Americans have found all sorts of weird and wonderful things to drop when saying farewell to one year and welcoming the next.

On New Year’s Eve, anchors and shoes will drop—a “whiskey boot” in Prescott, Ariz.; flip-flops in Folly Beach, S.C.—and pants will be run up and down flagpoles, including yellow breeches on Yellow Breeches Creek in Lititz, Pa.

Marine life will be honored with sardines, mossbunkers, lobsters, oysters, conch, carp, red crabs, and blue crabs dropping in coastal towns, including Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, where “Cosmic Turtle” is set to rise and fall to the occasion like a true hard-shelled urbanite.

There will be birds of all feathers diving into posterity, most commonly eagles, pelicans, and ducks, but in Perry, Ga., a buzzard will wing in the New Year.

Stuffed beavers, bears, goats, a hamster, and a flying pig will be among cherished critters descending to applause with a live possum the honoree in Tallapoosa, Ga. When it comes to, let’s say the most distinctive New Year drops, Georgia and Pennsylvania top the list.

Vegetables and fruits will be frequent fallers. Oranges, blueberries, pineapples, peaches, watermelons, grapes, cherries, strawberries, acorns, mushrooms, lemons, peanuts, olives, lettuce, potatoes, chili peppers, and applies—including apples with arrows shot through them—will take the plunge. There will be pickle drops but the one in Dillsburg, Pa., soberly conducted since 1907, is the best preserved.

Stars, sunbursts, atoms, meteorites, jugs, race cars, hockey pucks, fishing lures, piñatas, ukuleles, guitars, bricks, beer bottles, cannonballs, ping pong balls, golf balls, beach balls, popcorn balls, crayons, kettles, cigars—there’s controversy in Red Lion, Pa., where a lion will defiantly hoist a cigar, but in a parking lot rather than from the municipal building—horseshoes, and gumbo pots will all mark the passage of time and decorum.

Meatballs, sausage, cheese dogs, pretzels, French fries, potato chips, pierogies with kielbasa, tacos, an 80-pound cheese wedge, giant M&Ms, Hershey’s Kisses, lollipops, ice cream cake, doughnuts, a 600-pound moonpie, and tortilla chips will be on the drop menu and, for the 29th year, so will a 150-pound “stick” of bologna in Lebanon, Pa.

Pac-Man, pirates, drag queens—in Key West, pirate drag queens—Las Vegas skydivers in lighted suits, and a Kansas City comedian will be among those who drop as the last seconds of 2025 tick away, as will Jasper The Flea, Lucky The Dead Carp (kiss it for good luck!), Captain Wylie Walleye, Spencer The Stuffed Opossum, Chuck The Chicken, Bob The Shrimp, and Marshall P. Muskrat in top hat and bow tie.

Below are 12 arbitrarily selected towns with distinctive styles in counting down the final fleeting moments of a year.

The 6-foot Bayer aspirin tablet drop Myerstown, Pa., would be included but confirming if that’s happening this year is too much of a headache, and if others are overlooked, someone in marketing dropped the ball.

In Guam, where “America’s Day Begins” 15 hours before the day begins in Times Square, it’s good luck to wear polka dots on New Year’s Eve, and on Cadillac Mountain in Maine, the first place to see a winter sunrise in the continental United States, anyone who sees a snowy owl on New Year’s Eve is destined to have a fortuitous year.

But luck has nothing to do with these local New Year’s drop rituals that drop-kick convention, some for don’t ask, don’t tell reasons lost to antiquity.

— Eastport, Maine: There are two New Year’s Eve drops in the easternmost town in the continental United States as part of The Great Sardine & Maple Leaf Drop. At 11 p.m., an illuminated maple leaf descends to honor neighboring towns across the border in Canada’s Atlantic Time Zone and an hour later, down comes a six-foot sardine that onlookers swarm to kiss for good luck. If smooching a sardine doesn’t appeal, there’s always the DownEast Lobstah Drop an hour away in Machias.

— Key West, Florida: A six-foot queen conch shell will drop 20 feet onto the bar at Sloppy Joe’s during the Key West Conch Drop but whether celebrants notice is always uncertain with all sorts of things dropping elsewhere on Duval Street. There will be plenty of citrus-themed drops across the Sunshine State and kids can pick a brick to drop at Legoland in Winter Haven.

— Unadilla, Georgia: A pig-shaped sign will be lowered in awestruck reverence during the ninth annual “Hog Drop” that includes a BBQ competition, Monster Truck show, dirt bike stunts, fire breathers, racing pigs, chainsaw sculptors, and axe-throwers.

Sure, Atlanta is dropping a big peach, Brunswick has “Bob The Shrimp,” Cornelia the “Little Red Apple,” and Perry has its buzzard, but watching the hog drop in Unadilla is, like, seeing what Georgia is all about.

— Vincennes, Indiana. An 18-foot, 500-pound steel-and-foam watermelon descends 100 feet during the last 60 seconds of the year before hitting the ground and spilling forth a bounty of locally grown watermelon. This isn’t merely some quirky local oddity, this is the National Watermelon Drop—the Super Bowl, World Cup, Nobel Prize of watermelon drops.

— Frederick, Maryland: The 78th annual “Key Drop” on Carroll Creek will commemorate Francis Scott Key, the hometown lawyer who wrote the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry“ that became the United States’ national anthem., ”The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Less than 30 miles away, a giant doughnut will be dunked in Hagerstown to honor Krumpe’s Do-Nuts, a family-owned bakery in business since 1934, because—why not?

— Detroit: The ninth annual “D Burst” will drop at Campus Martius Park to commemorate the Motor City’s renaissance and serve as the finale of a series of celebrations that began with a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, in Naguanee, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the annual New Year’s Midnight Meatball Drop at Strega Nonna, will likely draw many of the town’s 4,600 residents to enjoy a 50-pound meatball that drops into a massive pot of tomato sauce.

— St. Paul, Minnesota: The Midway Saloon will again orchestrate the New Year’s “Minnesota Bobber Drop” that features the descent of the unchallenged, no doubt, Guinness World Records-certified largest functioning fishing bobber—a seven-foot diameter red-and-white float “big enough to make Paul Bunyan proud.”

— Allentown, Pennsylvania: Downtown Allentown isn’t just dropping hockey pucks, it annually stages “The World’s Largest Puck Drop” on New Year’s Eve, just one of many distinctive celebrations across the Keystone State.

Among notable drops: Mabel The Cow from a silo in Blain; Haydn’s Jug in East Petersburg; a wrench in Mechanicsburg; and “chunks of coal” in several towns.

— Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Celebrate the end of 2025, which marked the 80th anniversary of atomic weaponry that somehow, thus far, hasn’t ended life on Earth, at the “Secret City New Year’s Eve Atomic Ball Drop” in the national lab city where it all began.

— Mobile, Alabama: A Mardi Gras-style parade ends with the descent of a 600-pound MoonPie from RSA Tower in Mobile’s 17th annual “MoonPie Over Mobile“ New Year’s Eve party.

For something more down to earth in ‘Bama, there’s always the Wetumpka Crater “Meteor Drop” and Samson’s “Snuff Drop,” which commemorates “an incident where a train containing a shipment of Rooster-brand snuff [tobacco] was parked at the town’s depot for an extended period of time.” Got to be there to learn the details of this “incident.”

— Plymouth, Wisconsin: Home of “The Big Cheese Drop,” where an 80-pound decorated cheese wedge is dangled and dropped 100 feet from a firetruck ladder.

— Show Low, Arizona: The annual “Show Low Deuce of Clubs Drop” will draw locals and tourists to see a giant playing card lowered from the town’s library to commemorate “the infamous card game that started the town.”

Elsewhere in Arizona, iceberg lettuce will be dropped in Yuma and a pinecone in Flagstaff, and a boot in Prescott.