A fire tore through a nightclub in Arpora, in the Indian coastal state of Goa on Sunday, killing 25 people and injuring six others.

Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on X that he’s ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident and that all six injured are in stable condition.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident «deeply saddening.» 

«My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Goa CM Dr. Pramod Sawant Ji about the situation. The State Government is providing all possible assistance to those affected,» said Modi.

FIRE TEARS THROUGH HONG KONG HOUSING COMPLEX, KILLING AT LEAST 36 WITH HUNDREDS MISSING

The Press Trust of India (PTI), the country’s largest independent news agency, reported that police initially pointed to a cylinder blast as the possible cause, but a surviving tourist told the agency that firecrackers set off during a dance routine likely ignited the blaze.

A woman identified as Riya, a tourist from New Delhi, told PTI that firecrackers were going off when the dancers were performing.

«The fire must have been caused due to this. There was a stampede-like situation,» she said.

SEVERAL FEARED DEAD IN A STAMPEDE OUTSIDE A CRICKET STADIUM IN INDIA

People stand outside the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, which has been sealed for investigation following a fire that killed multiple people, in Goa, India, Dec. 7, 2025. (Ali Monis Naqvi/Reuters)

Another tourist, Fatima Shaikh, told PTI that more than 100 people had been on the dance floor at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub when the fire broke out, and some fled toward the kitchen, where they became trapped along with staff members.

«There was a sudden commotion as the flames started erupting. We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames,» she said.

The nightclub, which caught fire early Sunday, is seen across an expanse of water in Arpora, in Goa, India, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo)

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A preliminary inquiry, according to PTI, indicated the fire began on the first floor, where congestion and narrow exits kept people from escaping.

«Some of them rushed to the ground floor and got trapped there,» said Sawant. «We will take action against the club management and also against the officials who allowed it to operate despite flouting safety norms. This is an unfortunate incident during the peak tourist season.»

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

El gobierno de Japón denunció este domingo una nueva provocación militar del régimen de Xi Jinping luego de que aviones de combate chinos encendieran sus radares contra aeronaves japonesas cerca de las islas Okinawa, en el sur del país.

La primera ministra Sanae Takaichi calificó el incidente como “extremadamente lamentable” y subrayó que los movimientos hostiles de Beijing fueron “un acto peligroso que va más allá de lo necesario para la seguridad de vuelo”.

Tokio presentó una queja formal al régimen comunista, señalando que se sigue intensificando una conducta que atenta directamente contra la paz en la región.

Los hechos se produjeron cuando el portaaviones chino Liaoning y tres destructores realizaban maniobras cerca del territorio japonés. Aviones J-15 lanzados desde el buque activaron los sistemas de radar sobre aeronaves japonesas F-15. Este tipo de acción —iluminar con radar— es considerado globalmente una amenaza táctica y puede obligar a los pilotos a realizar maniobras para evitar un ataque.

La respuesta del régimen chino no tardó en llegar. A través del portavoz militar Wang Xuemeng, Beijing acusó falsamente a Japón de aproximarse a sus ejercicios y “difamar” las operaciones chinas. Además, amenazó con “medidas necesarias” para proteger lo que llama sus intereses legítimos. El régimen chino insiste en su política expansionista y su rechazo a las normas internacionales en los espacios aéreos y marítimos de la región.

El episodio ocurre en pleno deterioro de las relaciones bilaterales, en un contexto marcado por la presión autoritaria de China sobre Taiwán, isla democrática a tan solo 110 kilómetros de Yonaguni, Japón.

El régimen de Xi Jinping amenaza abiertamente con la anexión forzosa de Taiwán, intensifica patrullajes navales agresivos y, según analistas, busca debilitar la posición japonesa en el Indo-Pacífico. La propia Takaichi reafirmó recientemente que Japón podría responder a cualquier agresión china en Taiwán que comprometa la seguridad nacional nipona.

La comunidad internacional ha mostrado su preocupación por la escalada del régimen chino. El ministro de Defensa australiano, Richard Marles, lo dejó claro en Tokio: “Estamos profundamente preocupados por las acciones de China en las últimas 24 horas. Australia se mantendrá unida a Japón para defender el orden regional basado en normas”.

A su vez, Estados Unidos sigue de cerca la situación, con su mayor contingente militar fuera del país desplegado en Okinawa. Aunque el presidente Donald Trump evitó declaraciones públicas, la administración estadounidense reafirma en documentos estratégicos que la acumulación de poder militar es esencial para disuadir una agresión autoritaria en Asia Oriental.

Taiwán también ha sido blanco de la presión de Beijing, que utiliza regularmente ejercicios militares, patrullajes y manipulación informativa para hostigar y desgastar a la isla. El gobierno taiwanés sostuvo que la retórica y las acciones de China constituyen acoso y “guerra psicológica”, además de exponer a toda la región a un mayor riesgo de conflicto.

El uso de radares para intimidar y poner en peligro a aeronaves japonesas no es una novedad. Incidentes previos han sido denunciados por Tokio ante organismos internacionales, pero el régimen chino ha reiterado su desafío a las reglas del derecho internacional, reclamando su supremacía sobre rutas que otros países.

La actitud de Beijing mantiene en vilo el futuro de la estabilidad en Asia Oriental, mientras Japón, Estados Unidos, Australia y Taiwán refuerzan la cooperación para contener la amenaza creciente de un régimen que no oculta su desprecio por el equilibrio internacional y las normas del sistema multilateral.

(Con información de Reuters)

Democrat lawmakers are increasingly turning up the heat on the Trump administration over its series of military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean since September, most recently focusing on alleged drug runners who survived an initial strike and were killed by a follow-up. 

«If the reports are true, [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean,» Nevada Democrat Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement earlier in December of strikes that killed suspected traffickers. 

The White House told Fox News Digital on Friday that the Democrat criticism echoes the «Maryland Man» hoax, referring to the arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member who was illegally residing in Maryland. 

Abrego Garcia received an outpouring of support from Democrat lawmakers in March over his deportation to El Salvador, with lawmakers traveling to El Salvador to meet with him, and media outlets describing him as a «Maryland man.» 

EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’

«’Innocent fisherman’ is the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – just like the media tried to paint MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the year,’ they are now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans. President Trump is using every element of American power to take on the cartels and stop deadly drugs from flooding into our country – just like he promised on the campaign trail,» White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital. 

Trump has long vowed to take on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stop foreign drugs and precursor chemicals from flowing into the U.S. The administration has defended the at least 22 strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to «poison Americans.»

Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

«These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,» Hegseth wrote in a post on X in November. «The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.»

Democrats have increasingly taken issue with a pair of strikes on Sept. 2 against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. The White House confirmed the military carried out an initial strike on the boat before firing off a second that killed two suspected traffickers, sparking Democrats to claim the administration committed potential war crimes. 

«You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,» Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters earlier in December of the strikes. 

While Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly shot back, «Going after survivors in the water, that is clearly not lawful.»

Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly’s and Himes’ respective offices for comment on the White House statement and the opioid epidemic in the U.S., but did not immediately receive replies. 

Rosen’s office told Fox News Digital on Friday in response: «If Donald Trump is serious about fighting drug smuggling, why did he pardon the former President of Honduras who was convicted for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States? And why did the Trump Administration threaten to cut millions of dollars in funding to address the opioid epidemic? The American people deserve to know.» 

Republicans such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarked that video of the survivors allegedly showed individuals who wanted to «stay in the fight.»

«I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight,» Cotton said. 

Alabama Republican Senate candidate Capt. Morgan Murphy told Fox News Digital that he’s seeing «utter hypocrisy from a party of theater kids who just don’t care about the lives being lost to the drug trade» when asked about Democrats sounding off about the strikes. 

«For nearly a decade, Democrats lauded President Obama as the ‘Prince of Peace,’ even though his bomb strikes Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia killed hundreds of civilians. None of those countries were at war with the United States or targeted American civilians,» Murphy said, referring how former President Barack Obama faced war-crimes accusations from critics over his administration’s drone strikes and civilian casualties in countries like Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan. 

Murphy formerly served as the head of public diplomacy for the President’s Special Envoy to Russia and Ukraine in the Trump administration before launching his Senate campaign earlier in the fall. He is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, as well as a veteran of the Afghanistan war, where he was awarded the Meritorious Defense Service Medal and the Afghan campaign medal, among others. 

«But when President Trump pushes his own effort to stop human smugglers and drug dealers who have done untold harm and killed millions of Americans, they want to place the President and Secretary of War on a show trial,» he said. 

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility on Sept. 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)

CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT

The Trump administration launched the strikes after the president campaigned to end the flow of narcotics into the U.S. from nations including China, Mexico and Central and South America. The Trump administration turned its attention toward Venezuela, which is led by dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro, saying the U.S. is engaged in an «armed conflict» with drug cartels after the groups evolved into transnational terror organizations. 

The administration has defended the strikes as necessary to curb the flow of opioid deaths in the U.S., while experts have also said the pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely aimed to also oust Maduro as leader of the oil-rich nation. 

HEGSETH DID NOT ISSUE ‘KILL THEM ALL’ ORDER DURING VENEZUELA STRIKES, ADMIRAL TELLS CONGRESS

The CDC found that an estimated 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose between 1999-2023. The opioid crisis is viewed as unfolding in three waves, beginning in the 1990s with the increase in prescriptions to opioids, the CDC reported, followed by the second wave that began in 2010, when heroin overdoses spiked, and finally the current third wave of deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl. 

The crisis has slowed from its high of 81,806 opioid-related deaths in 2022, with 2023 marking the first annual decline in deaths since 2018, according to CDC data. There were an estimated 79,358 opioid deaths in 2023, according to CDC data. 

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has grown in popularity and contributed to a spike in opioid deaths in the U.S. in recent years.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As of Thursday, an estimated 86 suspected drug traffickers have died in the strikes. 

Fentanyl has long been on the medical market to treat individuals suffering with severe pain, but has since become an illegal manufactured substance by transnational criminal organizations, such as cartels. 

Trump vowed in his 2022 announcement that he would run for re-election to the White House that cartels would face the U.S. wrath over overdose deaths upon his return to the Oval Office.  

RAND PAUL JOINS DEMS ON ‘WAR POWERS RESOLUTION’ CLAIMING TRUMP ADMIN COULD SOON STRIKE VENEZUELAN TERRITORY

«We will wage war upon the cartels and stop the fentanyl and deadly drugs from killing 200,000 Americans per year,» he said in November of 2024, previewing his administration. 

Several Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration has been well within its rights to act against Maduro’s regime. They added that they’re eager for more information after several strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats and Trump’s heightened rhetoric targeting Maduro.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is facing increasing pressure from the U.S. as the Trump administ (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

«These boats, they’re stacked up with bags of white powder, that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs too,» Trump said in September. «Every boat kills 25,000.»

Democrats in past decades have promoted fiery rhetoric focused on taking out foreign narco-terrorist, including then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden calling for «another D-Day» to end the war on drugs in a 1989 address criticizing Republican President George H.W. Bush’s administration for not taking strong enough action on the crack cocaine epidemic.

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«Let’s go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists and they must know it,» Biden said in the 1989 speech.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.