“Myanmar on Sunday held the second phase of a vote organised by a junta-appointed election commission, with the ballot missing Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, the landslide winner of the last two general elections, which was banned after the 2021 coup. … With Suu Kyi sidelined and her massively popular party dissolved, democracy advocates say the vote has been rigged by a crackdown on dissent and a ballot stacked with military allies.” (01/11/26)
“Bob Weir, the singer, songwriter and guitarist who co-founded the Grateful Dead and helped define the sound of the San Francisco rock scene, died Saturday, Jan. 10, after a prolonged battle with cancer and underlying health issues, his family said. He was 78.” [editor’s note: In 1983, I was sitting in a high school science classroom reading the newspaper, when I had occasion to look across at my friend Victor Weir and ask him if he was related to Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, who had just died of a drug overdose. I’m not sure when the Matrix’s programmers changed the timeline to undo that; I didn’t notice until the early 2000s when I married a Deadhead – TLK] (01/10/26)
“Sudan’s military-led government has returned to the country’s capital after nearly three years of operating from its wartime base in the eastern city of Port Sudan. Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris told reporters on Sunday that the ‘government of hope’ was officially back in Khartoum and would begin efforts to improve services for the city’s beleaguered residents. The military was forced out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) when civil war erupted between the two sides in 2023. The army recaptured it in a significant breakthrough last March.” (01/11/26)
“Nicaragua’s left-wing [sic] government has announced the release of dozens of prisoners following pressure from United States President Donald Trump’s administration. The government of President Daniel Ortega said in a statement on Saturday that ‘tens of people who were in the national penitentiary system have gone home to their families.’ … While the government described the move as a gesture to commemorate 19 years of Ortega’s government, Nicaragua is under considerable pressure from the US over its human rights record and a years-long crackdown on opposition leaders and activists.” (01/10/26)
“NASA has made an ‘unprecedented’ decision to bring a crew home early from the International Space Station after a medical emergency in orbit, marking the first time in the station’s 25-year history that a mission has been cut short for health reasons. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Thursday that a single crew member experienced a medical situation aboard the station on Jan. 7 and is now stable. After consultations with medical and agency leadership, he ordered the early return of the crew. … Isaacman said the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft would bring Crew-11 back to Earth within the coming days, ahead of their planned return later this year. The crew arrived at the ISS in August and was set to spend six to eight months there.” (01/11/26)
“The Trump administration on Friday was blocked from freezing roughly $10 billion in federal funding for child care and social services in five Democratic-led states, a federal judge ordered. Judge Arun Subramanian decided that the administration must release funds for three social service programs that serve low-income families and individuals with disabilities for the next two weeks, despite President Trump’s efforts to withhold the funds. … The suit, filed Thursday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that the freeze was triggered by viral misinformation, political rhetoric and public threats from Trump and top officials, not by fraud findings.” (01/10/26)
“A once well-regarded Bay Area chef has been indicted by a federal grand jury after allegedly attempting to rob three banks in a single day. Valentino Luchin, 62, was arrested in September after hitting three banks, San Francisco police said. According to police, Luchin passed notes to bank workers demanding cash. He allegedly robbed a bank on the 1100 block of Grant Avenue of $300 and stole about $2,500 from a Bank of America on Stockton Street. He also attempted to rob a bank on the 400 block of Columbus but failed to walk away with any money. … He has pleaded not guilty to charges of bank robbery and attempted bank robbery. … Before his legal troubles, Luchin worked as the executive chef at Rose Pistola in San Francisco. He then opened Ottavio in Walnut Creek, serving as both the owner and the head chef. But the restaurant closed in 2016, sending Luchin into a tailspin of financial woes.” (01/11/26)
“The United States has seized another tanker in its campaign to control the flow of oil to and from Venezuela. The Olina was seized overnight in the Caribbean Sea, an operation conducted by the Coast Guard and Joint Task Force Southern Spear, two U.S. officials told NBC News. … It’s the fifth tanker seized by the U.S. in recent weeks, and comes days after American forces in the North Atlantic took control of the Bella 1, a Russian-flagged tanker that fled the American blockade and led a weekslong chase.” (01/09/26)
“Iranians staged their biggest protests yet of an almost two week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, chanting slogans including ‘death to the dictator’ and setting fire to official buildings, videos showed Friday. Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout late Thursday …. AFP verified videos of crowds of people, as well as vehicles honking in support, filling a part of the vast Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard late on Thursday. The crowd could be heard chanting ‘death to the dictator’ in reference to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei …. Several videos said protesters had set fire to the entrance to the regional branch of state television in the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to verify the images. Flames were also seen in the governor’s building in Shazand, the capital of the Markazi province in central Iran, after protesters gathered outside, other videos showed.” (01/09/26)
“At least four people have been killed in Kyiv after Russia launched a major offensive across Ukraine with drones and missiles. Alongside the attack on the capital, Russia struck critical infrastructure in the western city of Lviv using an Oreshnik hypersonic missile. A total of 278 missiles and drones were fired by Russia overnight, according to Ukraine’s military, which said it downed 244 of them in flight. … Russian drone strikes knocked out power to the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine, leaving more than 600,000 households without electricity in a cold snap, with temperatures in some parts of the country below freezing.” (01/09/26)
