Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on 5 Jan that Vasyl Maliuk will step down as head of Ukraine's effective Security Service (SBU) but will remain in the agency to focus on asymmetric operations against Russia.
The landmark mission, dubbed Artemis II, is on track to lift off as soon as February. The highly anticipated endeavor will mark the first time astronauts have ventured beyond the bounds of near-Earth orbit since the final Apollo mission in 1972. Artemis II will send a group of four astronauts " NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen " on a trip around the moon. Read more
Russia has deployed navy assets to escort an oil tanker also being pursued by US forces across the Atlantic, CBS News, BBC's media partner in the US, reported. The ship, which currently isn't carrying anything, historically has transported Venezuelan crude oil and was thought to be between Scotland and Iceland on Tuesday. Read more
Aldrich Ames (84), the CIA counterintelligence officer who spied for the Soviet Union and Russia for ten years in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in US history, died in a Maryland prison.
"It's not just that American manufacturing under President Donald Trump is shrinking," argued journalist David Shuster on his Blue Amp Substack. "It's that U.S. manufacturing is shrinking under a lunatic who never tires of boasting that he alone can make U.S. manufacturing great again." Despite Trump hammering former President Joe Biden on his economy in the months leading up to Trump's election, Shuster observed that U.S. manufacturing actually grew under Biden. "Output climbed to record levels. Investment poured into factories, supply chains stabilized following the Covid hurdles, and the dull, unglamorous business of making things regained a measure of dignity. The boost in U.S. manufacturing was achieved not with chest-thumping speeches or tariff tantrums, but with policies designed for the real world"predictability, infrastructure, and a government that did not wake up each morning looking for a trade war to fight," Shuster wrote.
Darren Michael, associate professor at Austin Peay State University, has reportedly been reinstated and given $500,000 after being fired over posts about assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Tennessee's WKRN News 2 obtained a copy of a settlement agreement between Michael and the university, showing the school will dish out $500,000 and reimburse "therapeutic counseling services." "APSU agrees to issue a statement acknowledging regret for not following the tenure termination process in connection with the Dispute," the settlement reportedly reads. "The statement will be distributed via email through APSU's reasonable communication channels to faculty, staff, and students."
Jimmy Kimmel has a lot to talk about. The late-night host returned to the air on Monday, Jan. 5, to catch up on all the news that's happened since he went on his holiday break last month. "Donald Trump did so much crazy stuff over the last two weeks, it would take a nine-part Ken Burns documentary series to cover it all, but I'm going to do my best to boil it down," he said.
Death toll rises. The situation was likely to worsen as Iran's Central Bank drastically reduced the subsidized exchange rates for dollars it offers to importers and producers.
"I hope this is the beginning of a longer trend."
Berlin " An arson attack claimed by a left-wing extremist group has left tens of thousands of residents in Germany's capital without electricity in the dead of winter for several days. The Saturday morning arson attack on critical electricity infrastructure in southwest Berlin cut power to nearly 50,000 homes and businesses, and renewed scrutiny of a long-running sabotage campaign by the left-wing "Vulkangruppe." The group claimed responsibility for the fire, which destroyed several high-voltage cables near the Lichterfelde heat and power station and triggered one of the most severe blackouts the capital has experienced in years. Read more
Edith Renfrow Smith grew up in the 1910s hearing her grandparents' stories of surviving slavery, including a grandfather who escaped bondage with a group led by abolitionist John Brown. She was still alive more than a century later, having witnessed two world wars and the birth of penicillin, television and artificial intelligence " as well as the end of statutory racial segregation in the United States. Read more
Donald Trump, his Cabinet, and other White House insiders are 'discussing options for acquiring Greenland' and 'utilizing the US military is always an option.'
"You gotta win the midterms 'cause, if we don't win the midterms, it's just gonna be - I mean, they'll find a reason to impeach me," Trump told Republican lawmakers at a retreat in Washington. "I'll get impeached." Read more
POTUS on Truth Social: "I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America. This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States! I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately. It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
