So what’s…the New Year gonna bring?

Well, here we are… We just completed the first quarter of a century in this third millennium. Whew!! So it ain’t surprising we wanna know what lies ahead!!! Over those millennia past, there were all sorta techniques developed to answer that question. The ancient Greeks were very big on prophecies and had the Oracle at Delphi, in whom they laid great faith. Sadly, they didn’t pass her down to us. More recently, there’s the reading of tea leaves, but the invention of the tea bag – which has now taken over the tea-drinking world (of which your humble Eyewitness is a card-carrying member) – obliterated that practice called “Tasseography”. With no tea leaves… no divination! Of course, there’s always the option of reading the entrails of slaughtered animals, including chickens – “haruspicy” – but frankly, your Eyewitness confesses, he’s much too squeamish to go that route!
So he’ll just fall back to using logic and his own “gut feeling” (a form of haruspicy?) to look ahead at 2026, into which we’ve now been hurled by Father Time. He might as well start with the question that’s right on top of everyone’s minds as they emerge from the alcohol-induced fog from their year-end excesses: cash grants!! The question ain’t “if” but “how many” there’s gonna be! Your Eyewitness’ gut tells him there’s gonna be two – one to make up for last year’s disappointment and another to deal with the disappointment of no 50 per cent lower electricity bills this year!!
Inside our fair land, the big question’s whether Sanction Man’s gonna be taking that trip to South Florida to face the (US extradition) music in 2026!! To your Eyewitness, all the ducks have been lined up by the Yanks – the local law enforcement types and, most pertinently, the political will to ensure that’s gonna be the case. It’s not just the Canadian Mounties who always get their man!! Remember Roger, the artful dodger, who they renditioned after smoking him out to Suriname?? There a whole lotta ways, to skin a cat – and extradite miscreants!!
Another question on some folks’ minds is what’s gonna happen to the PNC? One sign that assured your Eyewitness that the party of Burnham was gonna be dumped in the dustbin of history was a letter from a fervent true believer that called for a new party to replace it!! So here again, it’s not a question of “if” but of “how” the PNC’s gonna disappear!! It’s a “cancel and replace” procedure, as we say in business!!
And finally, Dear Reader, there’s the question of whether GT will really be transformed into a garden city. While he believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, your Eyewitness doesn’t believe in miracles!!

…with Mad Maduro?
Then there’s the threat that’s staring us (literally) in the face – from over our western border in Venezuela!! This deserves its own separate treatment!! The question for the last several months has been “Will he or will he not invade?!” The “He” being US Pres Trump, who ain’t necessarily engulfed by Hamlet-like doubt but more like a cat toying with a mouse for his own amusement!!
Frankly, your Eyewitness’ gut tells him there’s gonna be no invasion – just an increase in missions like the CIA operation that blew up a dock from where narco-boats left for America!!
These strikes against targets INSIDE Venezuela will complement the kinetic strikes against the above-mentioned narco-boats. As of 31 December 2025, at least 115 persons have been killed in 35 strikes on 36 vessels in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean – with five in just the last two days killing eight. The third prong is the blockade on tankers with oil being shipped.
Seems like Trump believes that Mad Maduro’s gonna hit the road soon!!

…with test cricket
Your Eyewitness had pretty much given up on Test Cricket after our WI atrocious performances. Then came the ashes in Australia – where both teams were skittled out in two days. Twice.
Tests’ death knell?