Alberta's election agency announced Monday it has approved a proposed referendum question on the province separating from Canada. The question seeks a yes or no answer to: "Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?" Elections Alberta says the proponent " the Alberta Prosperity Project and its chief executive officer, Mitch Sylvestre " have until early January to appoint a financial officer for its petition campaign, after which signature collection can begin. Read more
An Iranian is due to be executed tomorrow, just four days after he was seized for taking part in anti-government protests. His execution will be the first of a protester since the uprising began at the end of last year. Read more
The fundraiser collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for the ICE agent who killed Renee Nicole Good has been busted spewing antisemitism. A description for the GiveSendGo account, titled "Stand With Our Brave ICE Hero," called Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey an "anti-American traitor" and pointed out that he is Jewish"a head-scratching aside that was called out by CNN host Jake Tapper, among many others. The Atlantic journalist James Surowiecki called out the antisemitism. "This preferred method to donate' to the ICE agent who shot Renee Good calls Jacob Frey an anti-American traitor' and, even more offensively, makes a point of saying he's Jewish," he wrote on X. "Seems like a bad sign when the people raising money for you are Nazis."
China has quietly begun a strategic expansion into U.S. territory, starting with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), including Saipan. This video explains how the quiet moves could have major geopolitical consequences without firing a single shot.
Today, the New York Times reported that the Environmental Protection Agency would cease to calculate the negative health impacts of air pollution in its future rulemaking process...
President Donald Trump declared Sunday night that he was the new "acting president of Venezuela" by sharing a doctored image of his online biography bearing the new title...
The Trump administration is taking a $150 million equity stake to build the US's only big producer of gallium, a critical mineral used in satellite systems and military radar.
Donald Trump has said he might block ExxonMobil from investing in Venezuela after the oil company's chief executive called the country "uninvestable" during a White House meeting last week.
Darren Woods told the US president that Venezuela would need to change its laws before it could be an attractive investment opportunity, during the high-profile meeting on Friday with at least 17 other oil executives.
Trump had urged the group to spend $100bn to revitalise Venezuela's oil industry in a meeting less than a week after US forces captured and removed Venezuelan president Nicols Maduro from power in a brazen overnight raid.
Woods' sceptical remarks quickly emerged as the dominant headline, undercutting the White House's hopes of building momentum from its engagement with the world's most prominent oil executives.
The UK's independent online safety watchdog, Ofcom, has opened a formal investigation into 'X' under the Online Safety Act, to determine whether Elon Musk's company has complied with its duties to protect people from content that is illegal in the UK.
Ofcom Protects UK Citizens Online
The largest nurses strike in NYC history is underway after negotiators for five major hospitals and the state nurses union failed to agree to a new contract by Monday's deadline, forcing 15,000 nurses to walk off the job.
NYC Nurses Picketing
The Los Angeles Times obtained an internal review of US Border Patrol's use-of-force policies, which US Customs and Border Protection has refused to release publicly (members of Congress have seen a summary). While the Times did not offer the report in full, the paper did publish previously unseen snippets that portray a law enforcement agency operating under loose use-of-force standards and little accountability. The review was completed in February 2013 by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit that develops best practices for law enforcement use-of-force policies. It examined sixty-seven use-of-force incidents by federal border agents near the US-Mexico border that resulted in nineteen deaths.
"USCENTCOM forces, alongside partner forces, conducted large-scale strikes against multiple ISIS targets across Syria. Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice."
Erich von Dniken, the Swiss author whose bestselling books about the extraterrestrial origins of ancient civilizations brought him fame among paranormal enthusiasts and scorn from the scientific community, has died. He was 90. Von Dniken's representatives announced on his website on Sunday that he had died the previous day in a hospital in central Switzerland. Von Dniken rose to prominence in 1968 with the publication of his first book "Chariots of the Gods," in which he claimed that the Mayans and ancient Egyptians were visited by alien astronauts and instructed in advanced technology that allowed them to build giant pyramids. Read more
A suspect has been arrested following an arson attack on Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, that heavily damaged the historic synagogue early Saturday morning, according to chief fire investigator Charles Felton. The fire, reported shortly after 3 a.m., destroyed two Torah scrolls and damaged five others while reducing the library and administrative offices to charred ruins, Mississippi Today reported. The Jackson Fire Department, FBI, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made the arrest Saturday night after investigators ruled the blaze arson. No congregants were injured in the fire, which erupted during Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest. The synagogue has suspended services indefinitely, according to congregation president Zach Shemper.
Ecuadoran police on Sunday found five human heads hung on display on a tourist beach in Puerto Lopez, as the country reels from a wave of gang violence. Beside them a wooden board had a message threatening gang members who extort protection payments known locally as "vaccine cards".
Jan 11, 2026 Stranger Things
I've always been a fan of political cartoons because I feel that they can just cut through all the nonsense that goes on, and with just one picture and a sentence or two, they can speak volumes. Here are a few of them that I noticed from this past week.
