Chinese President Xi Jinping met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Beijing on January 5 for their second summit in two months. This was the first state visit by a South Korean leader since 2019. The meeting aimed to reset strained ties with South Korea's largest trading partner through discussions on lifting China's decade-long unofficial ban on Korean cultural content, securing stable rare-earth supplies, resolving maritime disputes, and enlisting Chinese support for North Korean denuclearization and peninsula peace amid regional tensions including a recent diplomatic row with Japan over Taiwan. In a separate meeting the same day, Xi hosted Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin. This was the first such visit in 14 years. The talks emphasized expanded economic and trade cooperation in areas like artificial intelligence, digital economy, pharmaceuticals, education, culture, and tourism, while urging Ireland to play a constructive role in improving China-EU relations during its upcoming EU Council presidency and advocating mutual respect, multilateralism, and open trade amid recent EU-China tariff disputes on dairy and electric vehicles. China continues to leverage soft power with the threat of military might as it attempts to occupy a prominent position in the new and emerging global order.

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, including the Homeland Shield, swiftly recaptured the vast governorates of Hadramout and al-Mahra. These comprise nearly half of Yemen's territory. They took them from UAE-supported Southern Transitional Council separatists, retaking key locations like the eastern port city of Mukalla and all districts in both provinces following an offensive launched days earlier. The operation, hailed as a "record success" by the Presidential Leadership Council, reversed STC seizures from December 2025, inflicted heavy casualties including at least 80 fighters killed, and underscored the intensifying Saudi-UAE rivalry, with the STC welcoming Saudi dialogue offers amid government accusations of unconstitutional restrictions in Aden. Proxy wars are amongst the most fascinating and distressing as those most impacted by the violence often are put in a position to align with forces who don't always have their best interests in mind.

A suspected arson attack by far-left extremists on infrastructure at Berlin's Lichterfelde power plant triggered a widespread blackout in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district, disrupting electricity for approximately 35,000 households and 1,900 businesses as restoration efforts continued. Authorities authenticated a claim of responsibility from the Volcano Group, which targeted the fossil-fuel energy sector in a politically motivated act condemned as inhumane by Berlin's interior affairs minister. The battle between the left and right elements of German politics has been quite intense for many years now and it would seemingly be wise for Germans to use both political and social resources to reduce the friction lest more incidents like this start to cause serious problems in day-to-day life in Germany.

Cuba's government stated that 32 of its armed forces and interior ministry personnel died heroically in ferocious combat or from bombings during the U.S. military raid that arrested and extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife for prosecution on narco-terrorism charges. The operation, described by Cuba as a criminal act of aggression and state terrorism following weeks of U.S. regional buildup and threats from President Trump, involved direct ground assaults and airstrikes on facilities where Cuban personnel were stationed. International reactions were sharply divided, with allies like China strongly condemning the action as hegemonic and a violation of international law while calling for Maduro's immediate release, Russia denouncing it as an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, and several Latin American countries including Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia rejecting the unilateral intervention; meanwhile, some right-wing leaders in the region praised it as advancing freedom, and European figures expressed concern over legality but welcomed the end of Maduro's rule. What's most interesting about the fracturing of the world is the ideological divides are not sorting themselves out regionally leading to a quilt-like arrangement and that somehow to me seems especially precarious and volatile.

President Donald Trump renewed assertions that the U.S. must acquire Greenland for national security, arguing its strategic Arctic position and resources are vital amid Russian and Chinese naval activities, while claiming Denmark lacks the capacity to secure it adequately and invoking the Monroe Doctrine for hemispheric assertiveness. The statements provoked strong rebukes from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who affirmed existing NATO access agreements and demanded respect for territorial integrity, as Greenlanders and Danes reacted angrily to provocative social media imagery suggesting imminent U.S. control. I spent an inordinate amount of time looking at maps and history related to Greenland, and in the end I think the president is right to pursue Greenland and to frame it as a means to advance the economic and security interests of the U.S. What say you?

A Department of Energy inspector general audit revealed systemic failures in the loan programs office to enforce federal ethics requirements, with 20 percent of reviewed employees showing conflicts or appearances of impartiality loss due to undisclosed outside positions, incomplete financial reports, and inadequate vetting. Covering September 2024 to September 2025, the issues stemmed from non-compliance with regulations and internal policies, highlighting risks in interactions and disclosures within the office responsible for major energy financing. Transparency is perhaps the most critical component of keeping public power from devolving into tyranny and if true we have to see those who cannot keep their private interests at bay removed from the department.

A commission convened by the Rhode Island Foundation recommended a comprehensive redesign of the state's K-12 funding system to shift more of the $3 billion annual education costs from local property taxes to state coverage, calculating municipal contributions equitably based on residential and commercial revenues while having the state fund the remainder including extras like special education, transportation, maintenance, and teacher pensions. The overhaul addresses a fundamentally inequitable current formula that leaves students in high-poverty areas underserved, aligning with national best practices to ensure transparent, fair resource allocation supporting all children's success and the state's economic future. Every American child should have access to a quality education and if that requires reevaluating how schools are funded throughout the state then I'm happy to see the discussion come to the floor. I again continue to think though that the education system is headed for a radical overhaul as I'm unsure that any shift in funding can deal with the real underlying problems.

The New York State Nurses Association delivered a 10-day strike notice over the weekend to 12 private-sector hospitals in New York City and three on Long Island, warning that up to 20,000 nurses could walk out starting January 12 if contracts are not finalized. Nurses are prioritizing enforceable safe staffing ratios, continued healthcare benefits, and stronger protections against workplace violence in negotiations affecting major facilities across the region. I think it's always best to initially stand with workers in strike negotiations as in my experience, the demands are almost always reasonable. Hopefully the nurses are able to get their demands met and the people of NYC don't have to deal with the serious problems that would emerge if 20,000 nurses walked out.

A Plymouth Superior Court judge rejected defeated candidate Jean Bradley Derenoncourt's emergency bid to postpone the January swearing-in of mayor-elect Moises Rodrigues, who won by 259 votes in November despite allegations of voter coercion targeting Cape Verdean and elderly residents, supported by claimed video evidence and concerns over absentee ballot signatures during a recount. The decision allows the transfer of power to proceed while Derenoncourt's lawsuit alleging election fraud advances, with a status hearing scheduled for January 14, as Rodrigues denies the accusations. We often talk about the importance of well-run elections at the federal level but this serves as an important reminder that at every level of government we ought to have electoral systems in place that are as trustworthy as possible, including how votes are collected and counted.