Nigeria, Venezuela, Yemen and Ethiopia are all on the State Department's 2026 list of governments tied to child soldiers. That list is supposed to cut off certain U.S. military aid. But in a determination signed Sept. 30 and made public Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio certified that these governments are taking "effective and continuing steps" and waived the ban. Here is every country he named and exactly what each waiver covers.

The State Department issued 26,483 immigrant visas worldwide in February, about half as many as two years earlier, according to its own monthly tables. Visas for parents of U.S. citizens fell by more than half, the diversity visa lottery issued none, and Cuba, Pakistan and Nigeria each went from more than 1,000 visas to fewer than 70. Here is what the numbers show and the policies behind them.