“Former British finance minister Nadhim Zahawi defected to Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party from the Conservative Party on Monday, saying the country was broken and needed Farage as prime minister to fix it. Zahawi, who had a short spell in charge of the nation’s finances under former prime minister Boris Johnson in 2022, becomes the latest in a long line of former Conservatives to switch to Farage’s populist Reform UK. Reform is currently leading the polls in Britain, far ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, which has struggled to translate its landslide 2024 election win into popular change, against a backdrop of constrained finances and global instability. … Farage’s party has five of 650 seats in parliament, but Reform’s surging popularity has come from tapping into public frustration over issues like immigration, crime and a perceived fall in the standard of public services.” (01/12/26)
“Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked access to Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok over its ability to produce sexually explicit deepfakes. Grok, a tool on Musk’s X platform, allows users to generate images but has recently been used to edit images of real people to show them in revealing outfits. The South East Asian countries said Grok could be used to produce pornographic and non-consensual images involving women and children. They are the first in the world to ban the AI tool. There is also growing pressure to block Grok in the UK, with its technology secretary saying she would back the move, leading Musk to accuse the government of wanting to suppress free speech.” (01/12/26)
“Don’t be surprised if you see even more drones delivering groceries across the US since the Alphabet-owned Wing announced another service expansion with Walmart over the next year. The partnership said that drone delivery services will be available at 150 more Walmart locations in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Miami and more metros that have yet to be announced. According to Wing, its top 25 percent of customers have ordered its delivery drones up to three times a week. To meet growing demand, Wing and Walmart said it will serve up to 40 million US customers and build up a network of 270 delivery locations by 2027.” (01/11/26)
“Budget-friendly grocery chain Aldi is expanding its footprint in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it plans to open more than 180 stores by the end of 2026, pushing its total footprint to nearly 2,800 this year. Its goal is to operate about 3,200 stores by the end of 2028. As part of the company’s growth plans over the next five years, it will enter the Colorado market for the first time while opening additional stores in the Southeast and West markets. It also has plans to open three new distribution centers in Florida, Colorado and Arizona. … Demand for the low-cost grocer has risen as consumers grapple with higher everyday expenses.” (01/12/26)
“The top court of the United Nations has opened a landmark case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. Myanmar’s military deliberately targeted the Rohingya minority in a bid to destroy the community, The Gambia’s Justice Minister Dawda Jallow told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday. … The trial is the first genocide case the ICJ has taken up in full in more than a decade, and its outcome will have repercussions beyond Myanmar, likely affecting South Africa’s petition against Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza. The hearings will span three weeks.” (01/12/26)
“Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders, claiming the Trump administration trampled on his constitutional rights to free speech. Kelly, a former U.S. Navy pilot who represents Arizona, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced on Jan. 5 that he censured Kelly over his participation in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth said the censure — by itself simply a formal letter with little practical consequence — was ‘a necessary process step’ to proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of captain and subsequent reduction in retirement pay. Kelly asked the federal court in Washington, D.C., to rule that the censure letter, the proceedings about his rank and any other punishments against him are “unlawful and unconstitutional.” (01/12/26)
“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem vowed on Sunday to send ‘hundreds more’ federal agents to Minneapolis as thousands continue to protest the [murder] of a woman by an immigration officer last week. … Noem’s announcement came a day after tens of thousands took to the streets of Minneapolis to protest over the [murder] of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an immigration officer and the continued presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city. Good, a mother of three and a poet, was [murdered] in front of her partner while inside her car on Wednesday. Those protests have since spread across the country.” (01/11/26)
“U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown targeting demonstrators there, a move coming as activists said the death toll in protests rose to at least 544. … More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces. With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.” (01/11.26)
“The dollar and Wall Street futures dropped and gold jumped on Monday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Trump administration had threatened him with a criminal indictment over the refurbishment of the central bank’s headquarters. … S&P 500 futures fell more than 0.5%, while safe-haven gold – which investors buy as hedge against both turmoil and inflation – hit another record high as money markets priced in a slightly higher chance of short-term U.S. interest rate cuts. … Fed chief Powell had responded to the Trump administration’s threat of a criminal indictment by calling it a ‘pretext’ aimed at pressuring the central bank to cut interest rates.” (01/12/26)
“Hamas announced on Sunday that it will dissolve its current administration in Gaza after a Palestinian technocratic leadership committee assumes control of the region, as is required by the US-brokered plan for the enclave. The Gaza militant group and the rival Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians’ internationally recognised representative, have not announced the names of the technocrats, who are not supposed to be politically affiliated, and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the US. The government and other elements of the truce that went into effect on 10 October, such as disarming Hamas and sending an international security force, are to be supervised by the ‘Board of Peace,’ an international body headed by US President Donald Trump. The members of the board are still unknown.” (01/12/26)
