Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris has formally declared that the federal government has returned to Khartoum after nearly three years of exile in Port Sudan. This follows the Sudanese Armed Forces' recapture of the capital in March 2025 from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which had overrun the city in April 2023 at the start of the civil war. The move comes amid a devastated capital, marked by destroyed neighborhoods, makeshift cemeteries now being exhumed, and barely functioning services, where 1.2 million people have returned since March 2025 per UN estimates. Though the conflict continues with RSF drone strikes and advances in Kordofan and Darfur regions, having killed tens of thousands in Khartoum alone and displaced millions nationwide. Idris described 2026 as the "year of peace," pledging immediate improvements to electricity, water, healthcare, hospital reconstruction, education, and sanitation without new taxes, while forecasting economic growth and a potential return to the African Union. The fighting in Sudan has been horrific and hopefully this signals the end of the dispute as the legitimate governing body is no longer hiding in a part of the country that's not the capital.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague began full merits hearings in a case filed by Gambia in 2019, accusing Myanmar of violating the Genocide Convention through its military's 2017 offensive that deliberately targeted the Rohingya minority with intent to destroy the community, resulting in mass killings, rapes, and arson that forced over 730,000 to flee to Bangladesh. This marks the first full genocide trial at the ICJ in over a decade, spanning three weeks with closed sessions allowing Rohingya victims to testify for the first time, while a UN fact-finding mission previously concluded the offensive included genocidal acts; Myanmar denies the allegations, calling its actions a counterterrorism response, though the post-2021 coup opposition has acknowledged failures and withdrawn objections. The proceedings could establish major precedents for proving genocide, state accountability, and remedies, potentially influencing other global cases like South Africa's against Israel, as refugees express hope for justice, protection, and eventual safe repatriation after years in dire camps. If we are to have something like an International Court of Justice surely it could effectively prosecute those who oversaw the indiscriminate violence inflicted on the Rohingya people.

Meta deactivated more than 544,000 accounts across Facebook (around 173,000), Instagram (around 330,000), and Threads (nearly 40,000) between early December 2025 and January 11, 2026, in the initial weeks following Australia's world-first strict law banning social media access for users under 16, which took effect in December 2025 without parental exemptions. The company described compliance as a multi-layered, ongoing process using age verification tools, while criticizing the ban as flawed, arguing it isolates vulnerable teens from supportive online communities, drives them to less regulated platforms, and relies on inconsistent verification methods, amid fines up to $50 million for non-compliance and political debate over its effectiveness as some teens reportedly evade it. It is clear that teens shouldn't be on social media what appears unclear is if legislation which makes it illegal is the best way to accomplish this task.

The Department of Homeland Security is deploying around 1,000 more U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to Minneapolis starting in early January 2026, on top of an initial surge of about 2,000 ICE and other personnel in "Operation Metro Surge", described as the largest DHS operation ever, focused on immigration arrests, deportation orders, and fraud allegations primarily involving the Somali community but extending to others. Tensions escalated dramatically after an ICE agent's fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and community volunteer monitoring operations, on January 7, 2026, sparking widespread protests, video releases showing the incident, and criticism from local officials like Mayor Jacob Frey and Rep. Ilhan Omar, who called the approach heavy-handed, chaotic, and reckless amid claims of constitutional violations and fear in immigrant neighborhoods. This is a recipe for a very grave constitutional crisis as officials in Minnesota have already flirted with using state resources to rein in the federal government. A conflict between state forces and federal forces must be avoided at nearly all costs.

The Department of Justice has served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening criminal indictment against Chair Jerome Powell over his June 2025 testimony to the Senate Banking Committee regarding a multi-year, $2.5 billion renovation project for the Fed's historic headquarters buildings, which the Trump administration has criticized as excessive and potentially unlawful. Powell, in a rare Sunday video statement, described the probe as "unprecedented" and a pretext for political pressure, insisting the real issue is the Fed's independent interest rate decisions not aligning with administration preferences, while affirming he will continue serving with integrity and without political fear ahead of his term's end in May 2026. This seems to literally be part of a pressure campaign to make it even more clear to the federal reserve chair that he is on the president's bad side. Importantly, the DOJ can't turn into the president's personal litigation unit and it stay true to its quintessential mandate so in my view this comes across as petty but we will have to wait and see if there's reason to think Powell has actually committed a crime.

The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in a high-stakes case examining policies and bans on transgender participation in school and collegiate sports, with arguments expected to address Title IX interpretations, equal protection under the Constitution, and the balance of fairness, inclusion, and safety in athletics. The decision could establish nationwide precedents reshaping rules for gender identity in education and sports, impacting LGBTQ+ rights broadly amid ongoing state-level restrictions and national debates. This is obviously a very important case as part of the reason the culture wars have bled so much into policy discussions in regards to trans participation in sports is the lack of clarity regarding what, if anything, is within the bounds of the law.

Nearly 15,000 nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association initiated a major unfair labor practice strike at key facilities including Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian, and Montefiore, demanding enforceable safe staffing ratios, better pay, improved healthcare benefits, and stronger protections against workplace violence. This historic action, the largest nurses' strike in NYC history, unfolds during peak flu season, forcing hospitals to rely on temporary staff for emergency and critical care while negotiations remain stalled. We talked about this possibility a little bit ago but here we are. Hopefully their demands are met and quickly because this many nurses going on strike has got to put a tremendous amount of strain on the health care system in NYC.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani jointly announced an ambitious expansion of universal child care, starting with free services for two-year-olds statewide funded by New York for the initial two years as a bridge toward full coverage for children under five. Building on existing 3K programs, the initiative targets thousands of additional families in its first phase, aiming to reduce child care costs by billions annually while addressing workforce participation and early education access amid federal funding uncertainties. Is state-run and funded universal child care the solution to the problems families are facing with rising costs, increased work demands and an inability to afford child care.

A new bill introduced in Vermont would create a dedicated state trust fund to cover costs and ensure transgender youth can access medically necessary gender-affirming treatments at private clinics, directly countering financial and provider barriers. The proposal seeks to safeguard care amid intensifying national restrictions, legal challenges, and debates over youth medical interventions. It seems to me that the state couldn't use public funds in this way without triggering some serious legal challenges but perhaps there's precedent to support this that I'm unaware.

Newark residents will vote in May 2026 on a targeted ballot measure to raise local income taxes, with proceeds dedicated exclusively to bolstering public safety through increased police resources, community programs, crime prevention initiatives, and related enhancements. The measure responds to persistent local crime concerns by creating a dedicated revenue stream without affecting broader city taxes or services. This seems unconscionable to raise taxes on people already strapped for cash with the premise that the only way to bring the crime down is for them to give up more of their paycheck.