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January 21, 2026
Polls
Generic Ballot - Registered voters
Democrats: 51%
Republicans: 43%
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"Would Definitely" or "Very Likely" to vote
Democrats: 55%
Republicans: 42%
Newsweek - More than seven in 10 Americans think the United States is "out of control" under President Donald Trump, according to a new national poll of adult citizens.
Meanwhile. . .
Donald Trump
Newsweek - President Donald Trump said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum that "sometimes you need a dictator" while addressing the CEO Reception and Dinner at the Davos, Switzerland event.
Independent, UK - Donald Trump is demanding a federal judge block his Department of Justice from releasing Jack Smith’s report on the president’s alleged hoarding of government documents and classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
The president filed a motion Tuesday arguing that the release of the former special counsel’s "inherently biased” report would "irreparably harm” the president and his former co-defendants.
Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon — the Trump-appointed judge who dismissed the case against the president in 2024 — had previously blocked the Justice Department from sharing a redacted version of the Mar-a-Lago report with members of Congress, ensuring that Smith’s final report wouldn’t see the light of day during his first months back in office.
The judge will now decide whether that report can ever be released.
Newsweek - President Donald Trump appeared to repeatedly confuse Iceland with Greenland as he gave a speech at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland on Wednesday.
"They're not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland's already cost us a lot of money," the president said, in an apparent reference to Greenland.
Trump has repeatedly demanded Denmark ceded the island territory to the United States and has previously declined to rule out military force to take control of it if necessary. However, in his Davos speech, Trump said "I won't use force."
The president's mix up between Greenland and Iceland was quickly noted by critics.
Bloomberg - The latest wrinkle in Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace for Gaza”? A US official said the president could still chair the group even after he leaves the White House, until he chooses to resign. Trump has suggested the board may replace the UN—his list of invitees is certainly far-ranging—but there’s little indication any charter would be signed in Davos as the president wishes.
NPR - While Trump was on the campaign trail, he promised to cut Americans' energy bills in half and lower gasoline and electricity prices. One year in, gasoline prices are down about 20%, but electricity prices are going up. The Trump administration has also invested in nuclear power, which could help reduce costs in the long term. Take a look at how he has delivered on his goals.
Time - The first year of Trump 2.0 has been soundly rated a failure in all major national polls and in each dimension of national and international priorities. Gallup found that only 36% of Americans approve of the President’s job performance. And according to a CNN poll, just 37% of Americans say that Trump places the good of the country above his personal gain and 32% say that he’s in touch with the problems ordinary Americans face in their daily lives.
Trump regime rebuked by Washington Post for raid
Newsweek - The Washington Post has demanded that items seized from the home of a reporter by the FBI last week be returned.
In an article posted to the outlet's website Wednesday, the news organization reported they had filed to compel the government to return the items, which included a phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch.
The filing argued the search “flouts the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory safeguards for journalists,” and noted that "irreparable harm" had been done.
FBI agents searched the home of reporter Hannah Natanson last week as part of a leak investigation involving a Pentagon contractor accused of mishandling classified national defense information, according to the Justice Department (DOJ).
ICE
Independent, UK - The Trump Law enforcement leaders in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region said off-duty officers are among those who have been targeted by federal agents as they expressed wider concerns about “civil rights violations” in the area.
Three police officials from the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area hosted a Tuesday press conference to sound the alarm on concerns about “discrimination,” “profiling” and “civil rights violations” as federal immigration officials operate in the region.
The Department of Homeland Security launched “Operation Metro Surge” in the region last month, and agents have made 10,000 arrests since, the agency said Monday. The operation has sparked protests and backlash from local officials, which further intensified after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, on January 7 in Minneapolis.
Local officials are “receiving endless complaints about civil rights violations in our streets from U.S. citizens,” according to Mark Bruley, the police chief of Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. Off-duty police officers have also been targeted, he said.administration has started an immigration enforcement operation in Maine, targeting Somali immigrants in the state, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.
Abortion Bans Have Increased Pregnant Women’s Risk of Dying
Newsweek - Abortion bans across the U.S. are increasing the health risks faced by pregnant women, according to new research that highlights how pregnancy continues to have a much high mortality rate abortion. Researchers who analyzed national birth and mortality data say women with high-risk pregnancies are now more likely to carry them to term because they no longer have access to abortion care in many states, placing them at greater risk of dying in or after labor.
Longevity
Telegraph, UK - Harvard experts believe the optimal way to extend life is adding more variety to exercise routines. They tracked more than 111,000 people over more than 30 years, finding that those with the broadest mix of physical activity had an almost 20 per cent lower risk of early death from all causes.
Walking was the single activity associated with the lowest risk of death – 17 per cent lower for those who did the most walking compared with those who did the least.
Individually, tennis, squash and racquetball were found to cut risk by 15 per cent, rowing by 14 per cent, running or weight training by 13 per cent, jogging by 11 per cent and cycling by 4 per cent. Climbing the stairs regularly was linked to a 10 per cent lower risk.
Those whose lives involved a regular, varied mix of activity saw the best results, with a 19 per cent lower risk of death in total. Meanwhile, risk of death from heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease and other causes was lowered by between 13 per cent and 41 per cent.
Davos Conference
NY Times - Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada delivered a stark speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, prompting global political and corporate leaders in the audience to rise from their seats for a rare standing ovation. He described the end of the era underpinned by United States hegemony, calling the current phase “a rupture.” He never mentioned President Trump by name, but his reference was clear.
The Hill - President Trump on Wednesday made his case for the U.S. to acquire Greenland before a swath of foreign leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland...
“Would you like me to say a few words on Greenland?” Trump asked the audience. “I was going to leave it out of the speech but I thought ‘I think I would have been reviewed very negatively.'”
Trump noted that he has “tremendous respect for the people of Greenland and Denmark,” but “the fact is no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland, other than the United States.”
He also suggested the U.S. would not use force to take over the island.
Hartmann Report - Trump went to Davos this morning and gave the speech that Vladimir Putin wanted him to, lying and pissing off Europe and shaking the North Atlantic alliance to its core.
Our president has refused to help out Ukraine in any meaningful way for a year now, giving Russia the room to destroy much of that country’s electric and heat infrastructure so badly that President Zelenskyy had to cancel his trip to Davos to deal with the crisis.
....Russian media is proudly proclaiming that their own internal crackdowns on immigrants, dissidents, and people of color aren’t so bad because Trump’s doing the same thing in America. We’ve legitimized Putin’s racist police state.
Trump’s destroyed much of America’s “soft power,” our friendly relations with resource-rich developing nations, by killing off John F. Kennedy’s USAID program, directly causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people with more to come.
Both parties push back against Trump's NIH cuts
Axios - Republicans and Democrats are using the latest government funding package to push back against President Trump's proposed cuts to NIH — and limit the administration's influence over biomedical research grants.
The bipartisan sentiment shows that efforts to find new cures still have strong support on Capitol Hill after a turbulent year for the agency.
The health care portion of the spending package released early Tuesday includes $48.7 billion for NIH — an increase of $415 million, and a far cry from the roughly 40% cut in President Trump's budget request.
.... The spending bill would also keep language blocking NIH from imposing a 15% cap on research universities and institutions' overhead and administrative costs.
....Yes, but: NIH grant cancellations, program cuts and other unilateral moves by the administration are unlikely to stop. Moree
Minnesota
Bloomberg - The DOJ sent subpoenas to top Minnesota officials in a widening investigation over whether they conspired to impede federal immigration enforcement efforts, a person familiar said. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani told The View he supports abolishing ICE, a view shared by about half of Americans, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll.
The Maryland town that likes co-ops
Washington Post - On a Saturday in late October, Mark and Angie Gordon spent the morning as they often do — volunteering in Roosevelt Center, the historic shopping plaza in Greenbelt, Maryland. Mark helped out at the tool library, in a basement office space, where locals can find things like cordless drills and refurbished KitchenAid mixers and can lend tools for other neighbors to borrow or repair. Angie is a volunteer at the town’s traditional book library just up the road....
Mark Gordon is a volunteer at the Greenbelt Makerspace and Tool Lending Library, where people can check out leaf blowers, blenders and other items. The tool library is part of the Greenbelt MakerSpace, one of many co-ops in the city of about 25,000 residents in Prince George’s County, roughly 10 miles outside D.C.
The MakerSpace embodies the spirit of Greenbelt, where many of the main attractions are co-ops — including the New Deal Cafe, which locals call the “community living room” with live music six nights a week, and the Greenbelt Co-Op Supermarket & Pharmacy, which boasts nearly 11,000 members who spend as little as $10 a month to participate in food samplings, wine tastings and wellness programs.
The federal government built Greenbelt on former tobacco fields during the Great Depression as a planned utopia for low-income residents to help solve the housing crisis. At the time, only White applicants were accepted, despite Black workers helping to construct it. Houses came with furniture and yard space, and residents were encouraged to be active participants in their community. Visitors can see a 1930s model at the Greenbelt Museum, located in one of the original units. MORE
Israel chrged with sexual mistreatment of prisoners
The Guardian Extensive and extreme sexual violence in Israel’s civilian and military jails has been documented by domestic and international observers including doctors, Israel’s military prosecutor, and the UN committee on torture.
The human rights group B’Tselem described a “grave pattern of sexual violence in detention facilities and prisons”, in a report released on Tuesday detailing abuse of Palestinians in Israeli jails.
It ranges from “threats of sexual assault, through forced stripping, to actual sexual assaults”, the report found. “These include beatings to the genitals that caused severe injuries, setting dogs on prisoners, and forced anal penetration with various objects.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli prison service said it “categorically rejects the false allegations presented in the [B’Tselem] report”, and was “not aware of the claims described” by al-Saei and other survivors of sexual violence.
Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms
The Guardian - Just 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half the global carbon dioxide emissions that drove the climate crisis in 2024, down from 36 a year earlier, a report has revealed.
Critics accused the leading fossil fuel companies of “sabotaging climate action” and “being on the wrong side of history” but said the emissions data was increasingly being used to hold the companies accountable.
State-owned fossil fuel producers made up 17 of the top 20 emitters in the Carbon Majors report, which the study’s authors said underscored the political barriers to tackling global heating.
How bad are the worst offenders? Saudi Aramco was responsible for 1.7bn tonnes of CO2, much of it from exported oil. If it were a country, Aramco would be the world’s fifth biggest carbon polluter, just behind Russia. ExxonMobil’s fossil fuel production led to 610m tonnes of CO2 – it would be the ninth biggest polluter, ahead of South Korea.
Hundreds of millionaires and biillionares call for more taxes
The Guardian - Almost 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries are calling on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich amid growing concern that the wealthiest in society are buying political influence. An open letter, which was released to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, urges world leaders attending this week’s conference to close the widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else.
Signatories include the actor and film-maker Mark Ruffalo, the musician Brian Eno and the film producer and philanthropist Abigail Disney.
“A handful of global oligarchs with extreme wealth have bought up our democracies; taken over our governments; gagged the freedom of our media; placed a stranglehold on technology and innovation; deepened poverty and social exclusion; and accelerated the breakdown of our planet,” it reads.
Solar storm
Time - Solar storms can knock a wired planet sideways, disrupting communication and navigation satellites, power grids, defense systems, data centers, weather forecasting, and more. On Monday afternoon, the sun slugged the Earth with a massive flare, landing its most powerful energetic punch since the Great Halloween Storm of 2003. For the most part, we got off easy, with little infrastructure disruption reported. The biggest impact was actually a lovely impact: the northern lights, usually confined to the polar regions, have been visible across Canada, much of the U.S., and Europe.
... From the jump, the astronomers knew they had spotted a big one. Solar flares are divided into four categories according to their strength: B-class, C-class, M-class, and X-class, with B being the least powerful and X the most. As with earthquakes, the scale is logarithmic, so X is 10 times more powerful than M, which is 10 times more powerful than C, which is 10 times more powerful than B. This one was an X. It was headed our way and there was nothing to do but brace for the blow.
Earth has suffered worse. Within the M, C, B, and X categories is a more precise 1 to 9 scale, with 1 being the weakest and 9 the most powerful—so a B7, for example, will be stronger than a B3. The current storm is an X1.9. The Oct., 2003 flare was so powerful it blew out the detectors, exceeding the 1 to 9 scale and registering a whopping X17 before the instruments failed.
January 20, 2026
Polls
Trump Job Approval Start of 2nd Term
Approve: 50.5%
Disapprove: 44.3%
Trump Approval January 20, 2026
Approve: 42.5%
Disapprove: 55.1%
Approve: 50.5%
Disapprove: 44.3%
Trump Approval January 20, 2026
Approve: 42.5%
Disapprove: 55.1%
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