Source: Deutsche Welle [German state media]
“Iranians were finally able to call the outside world on Tuesday morning, over four and a half days after Iran’s clerical regime imposed a communications blackout to suppress growing anti-government protests. People were able to make international phone calls on their mobile phones for the first time since Friday. But people from outside Iran were unable to make calls into the country. The internet and text messaging were also still blocked. The blackout has been in effect for over 108 hours, according to monitor Netblocks. The communications blackout was imposed as Iranian authorities began a violent crackdown to suppress the uprising sweeping the nation. Over 648 people have been killed, Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Monday.” (01/13/26)
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-international-calls-resume-but-internet-still-cut/live-75483027
Source: Expression
by Matthew Harwood
“Accounts differ, but sometime between late November and the middle of December 1774, a terribly sick man was carried off a ship in colonial Philadelphia. Riddled with typhus, the middle-aged Brit was too weak to walk after his long voyage from London. …. If the British had any idea of who this Thomas Pain would become — he wouldn’t add the ‘e’ until later — they may never have let him set sail to the New World to begin with. In little more than a year, this impoverished 37-year-old, who had known only heartache and failure in Britain, would find his voice as a successful editor and journalist in America’s largest city. And with his newfound purpose and confidence, he would write one of the great world-changing pieces of political propaganda ever published and help birth a free and independent United States of America.” (01/12/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/a-royal-paine
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Zaprudering ICE After The Renee Good Shooting.” (01/12/26)
https://rumble.com/v747c4i-ep150-zaprudering-ice-after-the-renee-good-shooting-gracearchy-with-jim-bab.html
Source: KSTP 5 News
“Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are jointly suing the Trump administration over the influx of federal immigration agents taking over the Twin Cities. The lawsuit seeks to stop the ‘unprecedented surge’ of more than 2,000 federal agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security that has resulted in the [murder] of a 37-year-old mother and countless claims of civil rights abuses since Department of Homeland Security forces began taking hold in Minnesota late last year. The filing further accuses the federal government of violating the 10th Amendment of the Constitution by usurping Minnesota’s right to police itself. Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Cmdr. Greg Bovino.” (01/12/26)
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/minnesota-twin-cities-sues-dhs-to-end-federal-invasion/
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance
“Although it may have been true at one time that libertarians and conservatives were ‘uneasy cousins,’ such has not been the case for many years. Still, conservatives have no problem with using libertarian rhetoric to portray themselves as advocates of the Constitution, private property, the free market, individual liberty, federalism, limited government, and a free society when they only selectively believe these things.” (01/12/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/libertarian-aspirations/
Source: Associated Press
“Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid and apparently snubbing U.S.-led peace efforts as the war approaches the four-year mark. Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media. One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said.” (01/13/26)
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drone-missile-attack-aa7d5c2e54619fefabab72165444f8e3
Source: JFK Facts
by Jefferson Morley
“I was taught to understand American history as the history of political institutions, how ideas of individual liberty, free speech, separation of powers, and rule of law were manifested and contested. At a time when such institutions and ideas are powerless, endangered or defunct, we might find more clarity — and power — by understanding American history as a narrative of extra-constitutional political violence. If, as Judge Andrew Napolitano says, we now live under ‘a lawless presidency,’ it’s not the first time.” (01/12/26)
https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/in-times-like-this-reframe-american
Source: Politico
“Nearly 15,000 nurses are walking out of their hospital jobs early Monday morning and onto the picket line, in what their union says is the largest nursing strike in New York City history. New York State Nurses Association members working for Montefiore Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian and the Mount Sinai Health System are demanding salary increases to account for inflation while fighting to maintain protections against understaffing that they won after a three-day strike three years ago. They are also calling for new contract provisions on artificial intelligence and workplace violence. … The strike follows months of negotiations — most recently with a mediator — over new three-year contracts to replace the union’s prior collective bargaining agreements, which expired Dec. 31.” (01/12/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/12/thousands-of-new-york-city-hospital-nurses-go-on-strike-00721612
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux
“Why don’t economics—the analysis of the social consequences of individual actions—and a knowledge of initial conditions suffice to make predictions? There are many reasons. Initial conditions cannot all be perfectly measured and are continuously disturbed, which generates divergent trajectories and creates new surprises as time goes on. Preferences (tastes and values) dwell in the head of each individual. Moral character may be opaque. Thanks to the law of large numbers, the average behavior of a group of individuals may be predictable (consider the law of demand: quantity demanded is an inverse function of price), but the actions of a specific individual are not. The longer the prediction horizon, the more fog in the oracle’s crystal ball. Not surprisingly, my own predictions have not all been glorious.” (01/12/26)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/not-all-predictions-are-impossible
Source: United Press International
“Meta has removed more than half a million social media accounts belonging to Australians under the age of 16, the company said, as it announced its efforts to comply with the Oceanian nation’s new social media age ban. The law, introduced in late 2024, went into effect Dec. 4, requiring social media services to remove accounts held by those under the age of 16 and younger and block the creation of new accounts for youth under 16. … Meta, which has argued against the ban, said it is committed to complying with the law’s obligations, while arguing that the prohibition is linked to isolating vulnerable teens from online communities and driving some to less regulated apps and alternative parts of the Internet.” (01/12/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/01/12/australia-Meta-removes-youth-social-media-accounts/2261768205917/
