Happy New Year! Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a Chinese cyberattack on the U.S. Treasury Department, the latest U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, and a state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago.

A ‘Major’ Breach

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday that Chinese state-sponsored actors had hacked into some department workstations and gained access to unclassified documents, in what officials described as a “major cybersecurity incident.” The agency said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to determine the impact of the attack.

According to a letter sent by the Treasury Department to U.S. lawmakers, the hackers infiltrated BeyondTrust, a third-party software service provider, and used a stolen key to remotely access certain workstations. The incident marks the latest breach of sensitive data in a year that has seen an uptick in high-profile cyberattacks on the United States.

In late September, it was revealed that Salt Typhoon, a Chinese government-linked hacking group, had hacked into at least eight major U.S. telecommunication networks, including AT&T and Verizon; last week, the White House added a ninth, unnamed network to the list. In 2023, Chinese actors hacked into the emails of U.S. State and Commerce department officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, weeks before Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied any involvement in the recent hacking. “We have repeatedly stated our position on such groundless accusations lacking evidence. China has always opposed all forms of cyberattacks, and we are even more opposed to spreading false information about China for political purposes,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry.

“Although China is becoming a far broader threat for America’s cyberdefenders, other U.S. adversaries continue to pose significant challenges,” FP’s Rishi Iyengar reported in April.

In September, the Justice Department charged three Iranian nationals with hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and in October, the department revealed that the United States had seized 41 internet domains operated by Russian assets to hack into U.S. government agencies, including the Defense and State departments.

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What We’re Following

A final push for Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the United States is sending nearly $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

“Since Russia launched its further assault against Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has rallied the world to stand with the Ukrainian people, and it has been a top priority of mine to provide Ukraine with the support it needs to prevail,” Biden said in a statement on Monday.

The Biden administration’s final aid package will include air defense, artillery, hundreds of armored vehicles, and other critical weapons systems. In a separate announcement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen disbursed $3.4 billion in direct aid to Ukraine, adding that “Ukraine’s success is in America’s core national interest.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met with Syria’s de facto new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and other officials in Damascus on Monday to strengthen Ukrainian-Syrian relations.

“Certainly, the Syrian people and the Ukrainian people have the same experience and the same suffering that we endured over 14 years,” newly appointed Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani said, referring to Russia’s staunch support for ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lights out in Puerto Rico. A sweeping power outage on Tuesday morning plunged most of Puerto Rico into darkness and left more than 1 million customers without electricity across the U.S. territory. Luma Energy, which is responsible for power distribution on the island, attributed the outage to a faulty underground cable at a power plant on the southern coast.

In a statement released on X, Luma said it was working with partners to restart the island’s power grid but that the full restoration process might take between 24 and 48 hours. Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said on X that he was “demanding answers and solutions” from both Luma and Genera, a private energy company responsible for generating power.

Puerto Rico has recently grappled with other outages, in part due to a fragile and decaying power grid that collapsed in 2017 following Hurricane Maria. Recurring power outages this summer prompted the mayor of San Juan, Miguel Romero, to declare a state of emergency.

Violence in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency on Monday after the country witnessed a spike in gang-related violence over the weekend. Acting Attorney General Stuart Young announced the move at a news conference in Port of Spain; it allows the military to make arrests as well as detain suspects for 48 hours without a warrant.

The twin-island nation of 1.5 million people has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. This year alone, Trinidad recorded a murder tally of more than 620. According to the police, more than 40 percent of the killings are gang-related, and a majority of them are linked to organized crime and the international drug trade.

The latest violence over the weekend saw multiple people shot dead in public areas. “There is no doubt in my mind that we are dealing with an epidemic,” National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds told reporters on Monday.

Odds and Ends

Would you rather spend New Year’s Eve cuddled up at home than at a hip club downtown? You might be part of a trend: Late-night dancing is on the decline globally. According to an analysis by the Financial Times, the number of venues open beyond 3 a.m. fell in 12 out of 15 cities worldwide, including New York and Berlin, between 2014 and 2024.

Thanks in part to post-COVID licensing rules, stricter late-night policing, and the increased popularity of daytime events and music festivals, partygoers are shifting away from late-night events. Maybe 10 p.m. is the new 4 a.m. after all?