Since 7 October 2023 until 3 February 2026, 71,803 Palestinians have been reported killed in the Gaza Strip and among them were at least 21,289 children and 171,230 Palestinians were reported injured including 44,500 children.

On Wednesday, 7 January 2026, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had ‘determined’ the military budget for 2027 should be $1.5 trillion—not $1 trillion—for ‘the Good’ of the country in ‘these very troubled and dangerous’ times.

The year ended. The wars did not.

Nations have mechanisms to guard against the leader behaving like a king. In the case of the USA, courts and Congress must be the guards. But when they fail, authoritarianism slowly takes hold.