Important Takeaways:
- Dan Marburger, the principal at Perry High School, was injured in the 4 January that also claimed the life of a 11-year-old
- An Iowa high school principal who “gave the ultimate sacrifice” as he protected his students during a mass shooting earlier this month has succumbed to injuries he sustained during the rampage.
- Marburger’s family announced on Sunday that he had died from the serious injuries he sustained.
- Governor Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags in Iowa to be lowered to half-staff on Sunday, and remain at half-staff until sunset on the day of Marburger’s funeral.
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Important Takeaways:
- Inmates rioted in jails where gangs wield outsize control, taking prison guards and administrative workers hostage, while on the streets a wave of violence has left 19 people dead.
- Ecuador’s security forces on Sunday took back control of several prisons that had fallen into the hands of gang members, after securing the release of more than 200 officials held hostage inside the jails.
- The country’s simmering security crisis erupted last week as the government and powerful narco gangs declared all-out war on each other, after the prison escape of a dangerous drug lord.
- Unverified images on social media of looting, brutal murders and other attacks have struck terror into the population.
- Authorities announced the release of 201 prison guards and administrative officials, from prisons across seven provinces.
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Important Takeaways:
- Lava flows into the Icelandic town of Grindavik appeared to be slowing, authorities said Monday, after several houses were destroyed by fires.
- A volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula erupted in the early hours of Sunday, spilling lava into the fishing town.
- Defenses built after an eruption in December have partially contained the lava, but some have been breached.
- The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the barriers had been breached in some places, allowing lava to reach the town which then set houses and buildings on fire.
- Volcanologist Evgenia Ilyinskaya told BBC Breakfast that the peninsula was likely entering a period of frequent eruptions, known as the New Reykjanes Fires.
- Prof Ilyinskaya said eruptions could take place “every few months or once a year for several decades or several centuries.”
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea claimed Monday to have tested a hypersonic glide missile that is highly maneuverable and use a new type of fuel.
- Hypersonic missiles are defined as those capable of traveling around five times the speed of sound while making maneuvers, meaning their course is difficult to predict. Russia, China, and the US are believed to have been developing the weapons.
- North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has repeatedly menaced the US and its allies in the region, saying earlier in January that he’d “thoroughly annihilate” South Korea and the US if provoked.
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Important Takeaways:
- A blast of arctic cold air is plunging into the U.S.
- Lows in the 20s, perhaps teens, will occur along the northern Gulf Coast, from East Texas to North Florida.
- Teens, perhaps a few single digit-lows, are expected in the Deep South.
- Below-zero low temperatures could occur as far south as parts of the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and northern Arkansas.
- Lows in the minus 20s are possible as far south as Iowa and Nebraska.
- Some lows in Montana will reach minus 40 degrees.
- This generally colder pattern could hang on until the last full week of January or longer.
- A reporting station near Chester, Montana, plunged to minus 54 degrees Saturday morning. Watson Lake, British Columbia, Canada, plunged to minus 57 degrees.
- Dickinson, North Dakota, registered a minus 66-degree wind chill early Saturday morning. Even more brutal, Lupin, in Canada’s Northwest Territories measured a minus 77-degree wind chill Saturday morning, with a 40-mph wind accompanying temperatures in the minus 30s.
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Important Takeaways:
- Adams to implement curfew at four NYC migrant respite centers in response to neighbors’ complaints of panhandling
- Migrants staying at the affected respite centers will be required to check in each night by 11 p.m. and remain inside until 6 a.m., mirroring standard curfews in place at homeless shelters across the city.
- The directive marks Mayor Eric Adams’ first major step to address the complaints of neighbors who say they have been assailed by desperate asylum-seekers begging door to door for food and clothes.
- Exceptions to the curfew include requirements for work, school, and legal and medical appointments. Migrants must apply for permits allowing them to skip the curfew ahead of time, City Hall officials noted.
- Anyone found violating curfew three times within 30 days will be subject to expulsion from the centers.
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Important Takeaways:
- World leaders are set to meet this week to talk out concerns about the potential for a future pandemic that could cause 20 times more fatalities than Covid.
- Disease X represents a hypothetical, currently unknown pathogen.
- Experts do not yet know what type of virus will trigger the next pandemic, but scientists have warned for decades that bird flu is the most likely contender.
- Others have long speculated Disease X would more generally come from zoonotic transmission — an animal virus or bacteria that jumps to humans.
- Some have even warned Disease X could be sparked by a biological mutation, an accident or a terror attack that catches the world by surprise and spreads fast.
- They said the infamous Disease X would most likely appear after a farm worker is infected with an animal-borne disease that mutates, but said they could not rule out the disaster would be sparked by a lab leak, a main theory as to the origin of the Covid pandemic.
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Important Takeaways:
- Thousands of demonstrators descended on the German capital Monday as a week-long protest over subsidy cuts in the agriculture sector reached a climax at the city’s famed Brandenburg Gate.
- Behind the crowd, tractors, which last week blocked highways across the country, lined the avenue cutting through Berlin’s Tiergarten park.
- “Without stability in the countryside, without agriculture our country has no future,” German Farmers’ Association President Joachim Rukwied said from the stage. “That’s why we are prepared to take to the streets.”
- Monday’s demonstration was also an outlet for general dissatisfaction with the government, adding to the mounting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz after scrambling to fix a billion-euro budget blunder, which led to the subsidy cuts.
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Important Takeaways:
- HUD reports record-high homeless count in 2023 for U.S., WA
- Homelessness is on the rise in the United States, and it’s growing at a rate never seen before, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- The 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report shows that more than 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness in the U.S. — marking a 12% increase from 2022. The report uses compiled Point-In-Time Count data — a method that attempts to count every person living homeless one day out of the year — from across the nation to track the ebbs and flows of the nation’s homelessness crisis.
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Important Takeaways:
- Walt Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios is set to cut jobs as the studio has completed production on some shows and now has more staff than it needs, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.
- TechCrunch reported earlier that Pixar was set to undergo layoffs as high as 20% this year, with the studio’s team of 1,300 people reduced to under 1,000 over the coming months.
- Pixar’s Emeryville studio in California had hired staff to complete streaming series and as those shows complete production it has more staff than it needs, the source added.
- Disney did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was brought back in 2022 to turn the company around, has signaled the company will reduce streaming content it makes itself in a bid to keep a lid on costs, and will license shows and movies from third parties
- Pixar is famous for cinematic franchises including “Toy Story”, “The Incredibles” and “Finding Nemo”.
- Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 to revitalize its struggling Disney Animation.
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