- Kat Abughazaleh, a journalist turned podcaster who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Illinois' 9th congressional district, has been indicted on charges of conspiring to impede a federal officer following a protest in September in which Abughazaleh and others allegedly slowed the progress of an ICE vehicle towards a facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview.
- Some National Guard members in the US are vowing to defy illegal orders from the Trump regime if ordered to deploy in Chicago. Two of them say they have already received written warnings about this; one, who is also running for the Democrats in Illinois' 13th district, has had his security clearance suspended and an investigation opened against him. The deployment is currently on hold pending a Supreme Court decision, but given Trump's stacking of the court that may not last much longer. Even if the court rules against the regime, they might simply invoke the Insurrection Act in order to get around the ruling.
- Airports in Winnipeg and Kelowna are so short of air traffic controllers that they had to briefly close their control towers on occasion. Perhaps NAV Canada should be trying to poach controllers from the US, where they are currently not being paid as a result of the government shutdown.
- The Times of London has removed an interview in which former New York mayor Bill de Blasio was quoted as criticizing current mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. De Blasio is actually a supporter of Mamdani and says that the quotes were fabricated. The Times was once a highly respected if somewhat conservative paper, but under Rupert Murdoch's ownership it has fallen a long way. For their part, they claim that their reporter was "misled" by someone "falsely claiming" to be the former mayor.
- King Charles is stripping Prince Andrew of all his royal titles and kicking him out of his official residence following revelations linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. The evidence against Andrew must be pretty damning for it to go this far.
- For a long time it has been accepted wisdom that a plot of happiness against age produces a U-shaped curve, with happiness being high in teens and young adults, declining through middle age, and then gradually increasing again in old age. This has been found in numerous cultures, not only of humans but even other great apes - but a recent study now suggests that this once ironclad rule is breaking down. This is not because middle-aged people are getting happier, but because young people are miserable. And this seems to be the case in more than 80 countries, including some of the poorest countries as well as some of the richest. This trend apparently started around 2014; a definitive reason for this dramatic shift has not been found, but one of the researchers mentions the rise of smartphones as a possible cause.
- The City of Winnipeg has released details of a plan to deal with homelessness. Encampments will be sorted into three categories, with the highest priority being encampments that are in "sensitive" locations (defined based on proximity to everything from schools and playgrounds to bus stops, as well as those with active safety hazards such as fires); these will trigger an "urgent" and "coordinated" response. At the other end of the spectrum are small sites in low-risk areas; these will be monitored rather than actively cleared. A major caveat is the fact that the plan does not include any new staff or funding. One encampment resident suggests that the city should provide a designated location for encampments as some other cities have. Meanwhile, south of the border, Utah is building a large internment camp for the homeless, complete with forced labour, in response to federal threats to withhold funding for states and municipalities that fail to crack down on people camping in public places.
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