“A US immigration [thug] has shot dead a 37-year-old woman in the city of Minneapolis, sparking protests overnight. Federal officials said the woman, Renee Nicole Good, had tried to run over immigration [thugs] with her car but the city mayor said the [thug] who shot her had acted recklessly. Videos of the incident show ICE [thugs] approaching a car which is in the middle of the street. As it attempts to drive off, one of them points his gun at the driver and at least two shots are heard. … Following the fatal shooting, the city’s Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, used an expletive to urge the ICE [thugs] to leave the city.” (01/08/26)
“The United States says it has [stolen] two tankers linked to Venezuelan oil exports in ‘back-to-back’ operations in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. US [pirates] boarded the Russian-flagged Marinera after a pursuit lasting almost two weeks and as it travelled through the waters between Iceland and Scotland. The British Navy gave logistical support by air and sea. A second tanker — the M/T Sophia — was accused by the US of ‘conducting illicit activities’ and boarded in the Caribbean.” (01/07/26)
“Bitcoin fell under $90,000 on Thursday as the early-January crypto rebound cooled, even as the broader risk backdrop stayed supportive with a rally in global government bonds and growing bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts. Bitcoin was down about 2% over 24 hours but still up more than 3% over the past week, while ether slipped around 3% on the day and remained roughly 6% higher over seven days, according to CoinGecko data.” (01/08/26)
“A House Oversight panel on Wednesday approved subpoenas for Les Wexner and others in connection with the Epstein investigation. Les Wexner, billionaire founder of The Limited (now Bath & Body Works, Inc.) and longtime friend of Jeffrey Epstein, will be subpoenaed along with Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, the executors of the Epstein estate, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, announced. … Wexner was named in a heavily redacted email sent from someone at the FBI’s New York office in 2019, with the subject line ‘Co-conspirators.’ The email was released as part of the DOJ’s document dump following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.” (01/07/26)
“Two people have been killed and several others wounded in an Israeli strike on a home in Gaza City’s eastern Tuffah neighborhood a short while ago, according to Palestinian media. The dead are not immediately identified. Footage published by Palestinian media shows people wounded in the strike arriving at Gaza City’s al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, including an elderly woman in a bloodied headscarf and a young man lying on a stretcher. The IDF and Shin Bet said they targeted a ‘senior terrorist’ in the northern Gaza Strip this evening in response to shots fired toward IDF troops by Hamas operatives earlier.” (01/07/26)
“Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday opened a new phase of his pontificate by gathering the world’s cardinals to Rome and indicating some reform-minded priorities by calling the modernizing teachings of the Second Vatican Council the ‘guiding star’ of the church. Red-capped cardinals trickled into the Vatican’s audience hall for the opening session of the two-day meeting, the first of Leo’s papacy. Several cardinals said they didn’t know what to expect, since Leo’s written invitation had spoken only in vague terms about four main agenda items. … But during his morning general audience Wednesday, Leo gave the strongest signal yet about the direction of his still-young pontificate, calling for the full implementation of the reforms of Vatican II, the 1960s meetings that modernized and revolutionized the Catholic Church and remain a source of debate today.” (01/07/26)
“A senior French judge warned Tuesday against ‘unacceptable’ foreign interference after the U.S. reportedly considered sanctioning members of France’s judiciary. ‘If such facts were true or were to materialize, they would constitute unacceptable and intolerable interference in our country’s internal affairs,’ Peimane Ghaleh-Marzban, president of the Paris court that handled a contentious case involving far-right chief Marine Le Pen, said in an inaugural speech to new magistrates, according to AFP. His comments come after German news outlet Der Spiegel reported that the U.S. State Department had considered imposing sanctions on the judges who sentenced Le Pen to a five-year election ban last spring over embezzlement of EU funds, preventing her from running in the presidential election planned for 2027. … Le Pen, who denies all charges, will face an appeal trial from next week, with a decision expected ahead of the summer.” (01/07/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration is moving to ban Wall Street from investing in single-family homes in a bid to reduce home prices, a potential blow for private-equity landlords that also pressured homebuilder shares. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was taking immediate action and would ask Congress to codify the measure, adding he would also be discussing additional housing and affordability proposals in a speech at the Davos World Economic Forum. … Wall Street landlords dispute that their investments have stoked inflation and hurt housing supply. In a January research note, Blackstone said institutions own only 0.5% of all single-family homes in the United States. It was not immediately clear what legal authority Trump would draw upon to impose such a ban on the private market purchases of houses.” (01/07/26)
“The deadliest clashes so far broke out Tuesday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, as efforts to merge the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces with the national army have shown little progress. Syria ’s state-run SANA news agency said a soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an attack by the SDF. State TV later reported that three civilians, including two women, were killed and others were wounded, including two children, in shelling of a residential area that it blamed on the SDF. SANA also said nine Aleppo Directorate of Agriculture employees were wounded by SDF shelling that hit its office. The SDF in a statement denied being behind the shelling that killed the civilians and said a shell launched by ‘factions affiliated with the Damascus government’ landed in the al-Midan neighborhood.” (01/07/25)
“Lawyers representing the New York Daily News and an array of news organizations suing OpenAI for allegedly stealing [sic] and distorting their reporters’ work have asked a Manhattan judge to sanction ChatGPT’s parent company, alleging the tech behemoth deleted millions of conversations they were required to hand over as evidence of copyright infringement. OpenAI continued to destroy output logs despite orders from two judges to preserve and provide them to the news organizations, new court filings allege. More than 1 million logs that had been requested — containing information the news outlets believe was based on their journalists’ reporting — were subbed out, according to court documents.” (01/07/26)
