“Local law enforcement sprang into action Saturday morning after a kangaroo was spotted on a major highway in central Virginia. The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched to the intersection of Thomas Nelson Highway and Oak Ridge Road near the unincorporated community of Arrington after receiving a report of a kangaroo blocking traffic. … Officers safely steered the kangaroo off the roadway and onto nearby private property before tracking down the animal’s owner, according to authorities. ‘When the owner arrived, he shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart to subdue the animal,’ Nelson County Sheriff Mark Embrey told Fox News Digital.” (02/01/26)
“A federal judge has rejected a bid by state and local officials in Minnesota to end Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration’s massive deployment of thousands of federal agents to aggressively enforce immigration laws. In a ruling Saturday, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez found strong evidence that the ongoing federal operation ‘has had, and will likely continue to have, profound and even heartbreaking, consequences on the State of Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Minnesotans.’ … But the Biden-appointed judge said state officials’ arguments that the state was being punished or unfairly treated by the federal government were insufficient to justify blocking the surge altogether.” (01/31/26)
“Victor Ahansu was barely awake with his wife and baby twins before the grinding sound of bulldozers woke them. It was all the warning the family had, he said, before fleeing mass evictions in their historic community of Makoko in Lagos. Their house was demolished on Jan. 11, one of thousands taken down by the ongoing operation. Now the 5-month-old twins and their parents live in a wooden canoe, with a woven plastic sack for shelter from the rain. The thump of hammers fills the air as other residents of Nigeria ’s largest city break down homes and salvage what they can. … For decades, tens of thousands of people have lived in homes on stilts above the lagoon in Makoko, one of Africa’s oldest and largest waterfront communities.” (02/01/25)
“Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez has announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, her latest major reform since the US military abducted the country’s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife earlier this month. ‘We have decided to push ahead with a general amnesty law that covers the whole period of political violence from 1999 to the present day,’ Rodriguez said on Friday. Speaking at a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military officials and other government leaders, the acting president said the National Assembly would take up the amnesty bill with urgency. … Rodriguez also announced the shutdown of El Helicoide, a notorious secret service prison in Caracas, where torture and other human rights abuses have been documented by independent organisations. El Helicoide, she said, will be transformed into a sports, social and cultural centre for the surrounding neighbourhoods.” (01/31/26)
“The national security adviser to Slovakia’s prime minister has resigned after documents released by the US showed he exchanged messages about girls and diplomacy with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Robert Fico announced he had accepted Miroslav Lajčák’s departure in a video message on Saturday, describing the adviser as ‘an incredible source of experience in diplomacy and foreign policy’. The resignation comes a day after three million files relating to the influential financier were released by the US Department of Justice. While the files do not show any wrongdoing on the part of those featured, including Lajčák, they have raised renewed questions for those who associated with Epstein.” (01/31/25)
“President Trump early Friday nominated former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh to be the central bank’s next chair. … Warsh, a former Morgan Stanley banker and economic adviser to former President George W. Bush, had long been considered one of the front-runners for the president’s nomination. He served on the Fed board from 2006-11, becoming the youngest governor in the bank’s history, and served as its liaison to Wall Street during the 2007-08 financial crisis.” (01/30/26)
“NASA began a two-day practice countdown Saturday leading up to the fueling of its new moon rocket, a crucial test that will determine when four astronauts blast off on a lunar flyby. Already in quarantine to avoid germs, Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew will be the first people to launch to the moon since 1972. They will monitor the dress rehearsal from their Houston base before flying to Kennedy Space Center once the rocket is cleared for flight. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket moved out to the pad two weeks ago. If Monday’s fueling test goes well, NASA could try to launch within a week. Teams will fill the rocket’s tank with more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold fuel, stopping a half-minute short of when the engines would light. A bitter cold spell delayed the fueling demo, and the launch, by two days. Feb. 8 is now the earliest the rocket could blast off.” (02/01/25)
“Uganda’s army chief accused U.S. Embassy officials of helping opposition leader Bobi Wine as he went into hiding, in an escalation of political tensions that have alarmed Ugandans days after a disputed presidential election. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, President Yoweri Museveni’s son and presumptive heir, wrote on X that ‘unimaginative bureaucrats at the Embassy’ for years have ‘undermined security ties between Uganda and Washington. Citing intelligence in X posts that he has since deleted, Kainerugaba said on Friday that Wine ‘kidnapped himself and is missing’ while ‘in coordination with the current administration at the U.S. Embassy in our country.’ The U.S. Embassy didn’t comment.” (01/30/26)
It’s a FIREHOSE FRIDAY at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper. We’ve got nearly 120 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links (too many for a standard email edition) lined up for you here at our web edition:
But wait … now that most or all of our daily editions are “hybrid” editions with some content in email and some only on the web, why have these web-only days?
Two reasons, one of them specific to this week.
The reason specific to this week is that Steve has been out of action the last few days due to the winter storm weather taking out his power and Internet. Which means that I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest, so I decided today to focus entirely on “lots of content” rather than spending any time on “email formatting.”
The general reason is that, outside of our annual year-end fundraiser, I limit my mentions of money to the occasional reminder — usually on “web-only” days — that we’re a reader-supported publication and that you’re a reader. Please consider a one-time donation or, better yet, become a “subscribing contributor” for as little as $1 per month! Here’s the info on that:
Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous weekend — and stay warm (even here in north central Florida, we’re expecting temperatures below 20 degrees fahrenheit this weekend)! We’ll be back with the regular email / social media editions on Monday.
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
“Civil society groups and celebrities are calling for a general strike or ‘National Shutdown Day’ across the US on Friday, 30 January, to protest the government’s hardline immigration crackdown. In cities and towns across the country, people will not be going out to school, work or shopping to show solidarity with residents in Minnesota, where earlier this month Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents [murdered] two local protesters. … Some of the main organisers of Friday’s general strike are student unions and labour activists from the University of Minnesota, who advocated a similar statewide action on 23 January, the previous Friday. This time, the shutdown is set to be nationwide, with hundreds of endorsements from local, state and national organisations, and with some major names showing their support.” [editor’s note: Nice sentiment, but I don’t expect it to be the big deal it should be – TLK] (01/29/26)
