Spaniards like me began 2026 as usual: swallowing twelve grapes, timed to the tolling of a tower bell at midnight. Each grape corresponds to a month, hoping that ‘eating’ all the months upon entering the year ensures good luck throughout—at least for those who successfully swallow the full set. Myriad fans of La Roja, as Spain’s national soccer team is known, ate their chewable charms hoping, though edible alchemy, to transfer their grape-forged fortune for the summer months of June and July to their soccer warriors. However, the lights and festivities of the new year, and of the approaching premier sporting event, have been somewhat dimmed by shadows cast by escalating global instability and mounting boycott threats directed at the tournament.
With barely any time to digest the grapes, the United States Government, one of the tournament’s co-hosts, launched Operation Absolute Resolve (Barnes, Pager, and Schmitt Citation2026). The military attack involved airstrikes on Venezuela’s infrastructure and civilians, aimed at capturing its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. Initially justified as an action against global narcoterrorism, the operation was later explained by US President Donald J. Trump as an act of justice against the greedy, crude-harboring practices of the Latin American country, whose government allegedly seized oil owned by US companies: ‘We’re gonna take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground’ (CNN Citation2026). Subsequently, on January 10, the Department of Defense, renamed as the Department of War in September of 2025, launched targeted strikes on Syria as part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which extended the 2025 US counterterrorism operations in Nigeria, Somalia, and Iraq (The Associated Press Citation2026a). Hence, in the first ten days of 2026, the US President led campaigns to fight narcotrafficking and terrorism, two evils threatening global peace and stability.
#BinancePickAndWin
With barely any time to digest the grapes, the United States Government, one of the tournament’s co-hosts, launched Operation Absolute Resolve (Barnes, Pager, and Schmitt Citation2026). The military attack involved airstrikes on Venezuela’s infrastructure and civilians, aimed at capturing its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. Initially justified as an action against global narcoterrorism, the operation was later explained by US President Donald J. Trump as an act of justice against the greedy, crude-harboring practices of the Latin American country, whose government allegedly seized oil owned by US companies: ‘We’re gonna take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground’ (CNN Citation2026). Subsequently, on January 10, the Department of Defense, renamed as the Department of War in September of 2025, launched targeted strikes on Syria as part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which extended the 2025 US counterterrorism operations in Nigeria, Somalia, and Iraq (The Associated Press Citation2026a). Hence, in the first ten days of 2026, the US President led campaigns to fight narcotrafficking and terrorism, two evils threatening global peace and stability.
#BinancePickAndWin