Friday News Roundup
World News
As of last Saturday, a force of 150 Guatemalan troops and a few military advisors from El Salvador arrived in Haiti to combat armed gangs who have targeted both Haitian and U.S. government buildings in the country.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen handed responsibility to Herbert Kickl for forming a new parliamentary government. Kickl is the leader of the far-right, anti-immigrant Freedom Party (FPO), a party founded by ex-Nazis. Kickl could be the first far-leader of the country since 1945.
In an apparent rebuke to Donald Trump’s saber-rattling about Greenland, the King of Denmark redesigned his royal coat of arms to emphasize Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as head of Canada’s Liberal Party pending the selection of another party leader. The Liberal Party trails the Conservative Party by 20 points in national polls.
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez reported his son-in-law was kidnapped by masked men, while Gonzalez himself faces an arrest warrant after claiming he was the rightful winner of the July 28 national election. Another opposition leader María Corina Machado was kidnapped by regime officials after emerging from her hideout after 133 days.
Pandemic Watch
On January 6, the CDC reported the first death from H5N1 bird flu in the United States. According to health officials, the patient was over the age of 65 and had underlying health conditions. Mutations were founded in bird flu samples collected from the deceased patient, which suggests that flu is mutating as it moves from avian to human hosts. There are 66 bird flu cases in the United States as of January 6, 2025.
All 50 states have now reported outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry.
Data from December 2024 indicates that 6 domestic house cats were reported contracting H5N1 bird flu, in addition to several other reports from wild cat species.
A Canadian teen with asthma has recovered from H5N1 bird flu this month after requiring hospitalization since November.
Deportation Watch
House GOP bill plans to revive Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy, which forces asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their claims for asylum in the U.S. are being processed.
The House passed the Laken Riley Act, a demagogically titled anti-immigrant law named after a Georgia woman killed by a Venezuelan immigrant, even though undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born. The act would require the deportation of undocumented immigrants merely arrested for but not proven to have committed minor crimes.
Wildfire and Climate Change Watch
The World Resources Institute (WRI) has an amazing article with infographics about both the severity and the rarity of California’s winter wildfires. According to WRI, between 2012-2024, Los Angeles County would only receive on average 1.5 fire alerts in the first two weeks in January. By contrast, for the first two weeks of 2025, Los Angeles County has received 38 fire alerts. WRI attributes global warming and the cumulative loss of tree cover through fire as causes for the severity of the current fires.
According to CAL FIRE, the state fire control agency, gusts of up to 40 miles per hour have been reported exacerbating the fires.
In reaction to the wildfires, Governor Newsom deployed the state National Guard to Los Angeles, stating “Looting will not be tolerated.”
Euronews has provided economic estimates for losses of $135 to $150 billion dollars due to the fires.
Nonprofit website CalMatters has also provided excellent news coverage, explaining to bewildered Californians why they now have wildfires in January. According to CalMatters, California has 78 more “fire days” on its yearly calendar than it did 50 years ago. As a result of trends like these, fire scientist Stephen Pyne argues that California has entered the “Pyrocene era.”