“The High Court of Hong Kong has convicted pro-democracy activist and newspaper founder Jimmy Lai on three charges related to accusations that he undermined China’s national security, as part of a widely scrutinised trial. Lai now faces the possibility of a life sentence in prison. On Monday morning, a panel of three judges found Lai, 78, guilty of two counts of conspiring with foreign forces to threaten national security and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material.” (12/15/25)
“Chile has elected the far-right wing José Antonio Kast to be its next president, after an election campaign that was dominated by themes of security, immigration and crime. Kast beat the governing left-wing coalition candidate Jeanette Jara decisively with more than 58% of the vote in his third attempt at running for president. It marks the biggest shift to the right since the end of Chile’s military dictatorship in 1990. Kast has openly praised Chile’s former right-wing dictator, Augusto Pinochet.” (12/14/25)
In the “good news” category, RRND is going to have a “real” office for the first time since 2002.
By “real office” I mean a little $700 camper I bought this weekend and parked behind our house.
It needs some work (that’s an understatement), but I hope to be publishing RRND/FND out of it by next week. I’ve always worked from whatever home we’re living in, but at the new (to us) house there’s not a good segregated “office space” in the “open floor plan” layout. I’m up at 4:30am each day to bring you your daily dose of news, commentary, and podcasting; now I’ll have to walk (10 feet or so) to work, too. The rent’s not too high, but I hope you’ll help with it:
“Shares of cannabis companies jumped on Friday after the Washington Post reported U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to push the government to dramatically loosen federal restrictions on marijuana. U.S.-listed shares of Tilray Brands gained 35%, while SNDL, Canopy Growth and ETF AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis were up between 20% and 31% in morning trading. According to the report from Thursday, Trump plans to direct agencies to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug, reducing oversight of the plant and its derivatives to the same level as some common prescription painkillers and other drugs. … Trump’s administration has been looking to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a shift that could ease criminal penalties and reshape the industry through potentially lower taxes and by making it easier to secure funding.” (12/12/25)
“Astronomers have seen the orbit of a star wobbling around a black hole — a spectacular dance in the cosmos that serves as one of the very few direct confirmations of Einstein’s general theory of relativity made over 100 years ago. The result, derived from periodic changes in X-ray and radio emissions in a tidal disruption event, is essentially a new window onto the workings of a spinning black hole that warps space and time around it. According to the study, researchers analysing the tidal disruption event AT2020afhd noticed that both the swirling disk of stellar debris and the black hole’s powerful jets were wobbling in unison, repeating roughly every 20 days. This motion matches a phenomenon called frame-dragging, where a rotating black hole literally drags spacetime around with it — an effect first described by Einstein and later quantified by Josef Lense and Hans Thirring.” (12/12/25)
“Israel announced Saturday it had killed Ra’ad Sa’ad, the head of the Weapons Production Headquarters in Hamas’[s] military wing and one of the architects of Oct. 7. ‘Sa’ad was one of the last remaining veteran senior militants in the Gaza Strip and a close associate of Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’ military wing. He held several senior positions and was a central figure within the organization’s military leadership,’ the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X. The IDF added his death ‘significantly degrades Hamas’ ability to reestablish its capabilities.’ An IDF official told Fox News that, in recent months, Sa’ad had been working to reestablish the terror group’s capabilities and weapons manufacturing in violation of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The official also stated that, under the ceasefire agreement, Israel is allowed to strike targets that are actively engaging in terrorism.” (12/13/25)
“Farmers in southwest France blocked roads and set fire to bales of hay on Saturday, December 13 to protest the culling of cows due to a skin disease as the government said one million cattle would be vaccinated. French farmers have been angry over what they see as the government’s heavy-handed response to an outbreak of nodular dermatitis, widely known as lumpy skin disease. On Friday, veterinarians slaughtered a herd of more than 200 cows in the village of Les Bordes-sur-Arize near the Spanish border after discovering a single case of the sickness. The police had to disperse angry farmers to escort in a team to carry out the culling. … On Saturday, dozens of tractors blocked traffic, while others were parked in front of public buildings, with farmers setting fire to bales of straw and tires.” (12/13/25)
“Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko freed 123 prisoners on Saturday including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava after two days of talks with an envoy for President Donald Trump, a U.S. statement said. In return, the United States agreed to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash. Potash is a key component in fertilisers, and the former Soviet state is a leading global producer. The prisoner release was by far the biggest by Lukashenko since Trump’s administration opened talks this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Western governments had previously shunned him because of his crushing of dissent and backing for Russia’s war in Ukraine.” (12/13/25)
“They’re clicking taboos to the curb. Pornhub has released its annual Year in Review report, revealing women are tuning in to X-rated videos at record rates. In 2025, the fairer sex made up a sizable 38 percent of all visitors to the adult website, a 14 percent surge since 2015. ‘Over the last decade, our statisticians have been tracing the proportion of female visitors to Pornhub,’ the company stated. ‘They have noticed an upward trend over the years, putting into question the dated umbrella statement: ‘It’s only men who watch porn.” In the Philippines, Colombia, and Argentina, women now make up a majority of Pornhub visitors. In Mexico, the stats were almost split: 48 percent of all visitors to the site this year were female. Meanwhile, American men are still more likely than their female counterparts to peruse porn, with just over a quarter of all searches (28 percent) conducted by women.” (12/13/25)
“The German Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Russian ambassador Friday after accusing Moscow’s military intelligence of a cyberattack on air traffic control and attempted election interference. A spokesperson for the ministry said a hacker group behind the 2024 cyberattack likely has ties to GRU, Russia’s military intelligence. … A Russian propaganda group called Storm-1516 is accused of launching a targeted disinformation campaign to influence the election. The group allegedly spread misinformation about ballot manipulation, Green Party candidate Robert Habeck and now-Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the BBC reported.” (12/12/25)
