AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST

Russians celebrated in snowy Moscow, and a light show with somersaulting jet skis twinkled in Dubai. In Japan, temple bells rang and some climbed mountains to see the year's first sunrise.

Other events were more subdued. Hong Kong held limited celebrations following a recent fire at an apartment complex that killed 161 people. Australia saluted the new year with defiance less than a month after its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.

A heavy police presence monitored crowds watching fireworks in Sydney. Many officers openly carried rapid-fire rifles, a first for the event, after two gunmen targeted a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15.

An hour before midnight, victims were commemorated with a minute of silence, and the crowd was invited to show solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community.

National Guard arrives in New Orleans for 1st New Year's since Bourbon Street attack

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — National Guard members arrived in New Orleans Tuesday to help with safety measures ahead of New Year's celebrations as city officials are still seeking permanent security solutions nearly a year after a truck attack on Bourbon Street left 14 dead.

The rampage, in which a man drove around a police blockade in the early hours of Jan. 1, revealed security vulnerabilities surrounding the city's famous street filled with boisterous bars, brass bands playing on cobblestone corners and a steady stream of partygoers carrying cocktails.

While Louisiana officials say the popular tourist destination is safe and that they've implemented additional measures to crack down on potential threats, families of deceased victims say not enough has been done to prevent similar tragedies.

The attack happened when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street, plowing into crowds celebrating New Year’s Day, killing 14 people and injuring dozens of others. Police shot and killed Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran who had proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group on social media.

In the wake of the rampage, city officials, state agencies and law firms representing victims’ families launched investigations into whether the attack could have been prevented. The investigations focused on the street's bollard system of steel columns designed to block cars from entering the thoroughfare. The bollards were being replaced at the time.

Zohran Mamdani to become NYC's next mayor with a midnight oath underground

Zohran Mamdani will become mayor of New York City as the clock ticks over into 2026 — but the celebrations are set to last through New Year's Day.

The Democrat's team is planning two separate swearing-in ceremonies Thursday — a small, private one with his family in an old subway station around midnight, followed by a large event in the afternoon that will include a public block party outside City Hall.

As a new mayor’s term begins immediately with the new year, it has been customary for the city's incoming leaders to hold two events. Departing Mayor Eric Adams held his initial swearing-in at Times Square shortly after the famous ball drop, while Adams’ predecessor Bill de Blasio took his first oath at home in Brooklyn.

For his part, Mamdani will take his initial oath at the former City Hall subway station in Manhattan — one of the city's original stops on its subterranean transit system, known for its tiled arches and vaulted ceilings.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a political ally and notable foe of President Donald Trump, will administer the oath of office.

These bipartisan bills were noncontroversial — until Trump vetoed them

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued the first vetoes of his second term on Tuesday, rejecting two low-profile bipartisan bills, a move that had the effect of punishing backers who had opposed the president's positions on other issues.

Trump vetoed drinking water pipeline legislation from Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a longtime ally who broke with the president in November to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He also vetoed legislation that would have given the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida more control of some of its tribal lands. The tribe was among groups suing the administration over an immigration detention center in the Everglades known as “ Alligator Alcatraz.”

Both bills had bipartisan support and had been noncontroversial until the White House announced Trump's vetoes Tuesday night.

Trump appeared to acknowledge the tribe's opposition to the detention facility in a letter to Congress explaining his veto. “The Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” Trump wrote.

Trump did not allude to Boebert in his veto of her legislation, but raised concerns about the cost of the water pipeline at the heart of that bill.

Latest deep-sea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 gets underway

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 began in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, reviving efforts to solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries more than a decade after the jet vanished with 239 people on board.

Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said Wednesday that a search vessel, the Armada 86 05, arrived at a designated search area with two autonomous underwater vehicles.

The location of the search area was not disclosed in the statement. It said the vessel had prepared for the search in Fremantle Port in Western Australia.

The government did not specifically mention Ocean Infinity, the company that helmed a previous search and had long been slated to lead the new one. But the craft that the government specified by number has been widely identified by maritime and aviation websites as belonging to Ocean Infinity.

Earlier in December, the Malaysian government said that the Texas-based marine robotics firm would begin searching targeted areas of the seabed under a renewed “no-find, no-fee” agreement.

China announces it 'successfully completed' Taiwan military maneuvers

BEIJING (AP) — China's People's Liberation Army said Wednesday that it “successfully completed” two days of military exercises in the waters off Taiwan, concluding a set of high-powered maneuvers aimed at asserting its sovereignty over the island — actions that ratcheted up tension in East Asia during 2025's waning days.

In a New Year's Eve announcement, the PLA said that the operation it called “Justice Mission 2025” had “fully tested the integrated joint operations capabilities of its troops.”

“Always on high alert, the troops of the Theater Command will keep strengthening combat readiness with arduous training, resolutely thwart the attempts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatists and external intervention, and firmly safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Senior Capt. Li Xi, spokesperson for the PLA's Eastern Theater Command, was quoted as saying.

The brief announcement, presented on video accompanied by rousing martial music, offered no details about what constituted success, nor did it specify exactly when the exercises concluded. An earlier announcement had said they would take place during the day Monday and Tuesday, but it was unclear if any lingering drills had continued into Wednesday around Taiwan.

Taiwan has long been China's most sensitive issue when it comes to the international community.

Channel Tunnel power malfunction fixed, but rail delays linger

PARIS (AP) — Trains were running again Wednesday in both directions through the Channel Tunnel between continental Europe and the United Kingdom but problems remained after a day of travel chaos caused by power malfunctions.

The tunnel operator, Eurotunnel, said the 50-kilometer (32-mile) undersea link was back to “full capacity" after a power fault inside it was fixed overnight Tuesday. The short statement didn’t detail the cause of the power failure.

But Eurostar, which runs passenger trains through the tunnel, warned of continued possible delays and cancellations because of “knock-on impacts" from the severe disruptions on Tuesday. Its website showed delays Wednesday to London-Paris, London-Brussels and London-Amsterdam trains in both directions and early morning cancellations.

Tuesday’s hours-long interruption of cross-Channel train services and a resulting cascade of cancellations upended travelers’ end-of-year getaway plans and provoked scrambles for flights and buses.

Another power malfunction Tuesday on the U.K. side that Eurostar said was related to the electrical fault inside the tunnel also caused severe delays for passengers aboard three trains, Eurostar said.

Thailand releases 18 Cambodian prisoners of war as part of ceasefire agreement

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Thailand on Wednesday released 18 Cambodian prisoners of war held for five months, fulfilling the terms of a ceasefire agreement the two countries signed to end bitter fighting along their border.

The release was stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, signed Saturday by the defense ministers of the two countries at the same border checkpoint between Thailand’s Chanthaburi province and Cambodia's Pailin province where the soldiers were released.

“The repatriation of the 18 Cambodian soldiers was undertaken as a demonstration of goodwill and confidence-building, as well as in adherence to international humanitarian principles,” Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said the release “creates an environment conducive to peace, stability, and the full normalization of relations for the benefit of both nations and their people in the near future.”

The soldiers’ release removes a major impediment toward that goal after two rounds of destructive combat over competing territorial claims.

Russian drone attack injures 3 Ukrainian children as Putin expresses confidence in victory

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country’s eventual victory in the nearly four-year war against its neighbor.

Four apartment buildings were damaged in the Odesa bombardment, according to regional military administration head Oleh Kiper. The DTEK power provider said two of its energy facilities had significant damage. The company said 10 substations that distribute electricity in the region have been damaged in December.

Russia has escalated attacks on urban areas of Ukraine. As its invasion approaches a four-year milestone in February, it has also intensified targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heat and running water in the bitter winter months.

Between January and November, more than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 11,000 were injured, the United Nations said earlier in December. That was 26% higher than in the same period in 2024 and 70% higher than in 2023, it said.

What to know about Trump administration freezing federal child care funds

The Trump administration has said it is freezing child care funds to all states until they provide more verification about the programs in a move fueled by a series of fraud schemes at Minnesota day care centers run by Somali residents.

All 50 states will be impacted by the review, but the Republican administration is focusing most of its ire on the blue state of Minnesota and is calling for an audit of some of its centers.

Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement Wednesday that he was “exploring all our legal options to ensure that critical childcare services do not get abruptly slashed based on pretext and grandstanding.”

It is unclear how much more robust the verification process for states will be than it already has been.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill called the decision a response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country” in a social media post announcing the change on Tuesday.