And if you read this, so did you.

A terrorist has killed at least ten people and injured 35 others after plowing a vehicle into a crowd celebrating New Year in New Orleans. Read it at the Associated Press.

“The man who drove into a crowd, killing 10 people and injuring more than 30 more, has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar,” Advance Local reports.

Read more about Shamsud Din Jabbar at Daily Mail and Channel2Now.

It’s easy to laugh at, but this video is a good illustration of the problem with many journalists in Arab countries. They often side openly with terror organisations, sometimes to the extent that they themselves take part in terrorism, which was the case in the 7 October 2023 massacre.

“New estimates gauge that Hamas’s forces are up to between 12,000–23,000.” Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Officials said they did not believe the suspect who rammed into New Year’s revellers was ‘solely responsible’ for the attack, which killed at least 10 people and injured about 35 more, and were hunting for possible connections to terrorist organisations.” Hm… That’s an odd way to put it. I wouldn’t be surprised if links to the more extreme Palestine activists show up. Read it at the New York Times.

Horrific development. Read it at BBC News.

“The PA said Al Jazeera was sowing division in ‘our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular’ and encouraged Palestinians not to cooperate with the network.” Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Two Israeli citizens were among the injured in an attack in New Orleans where a suspected terrorist carrying an Islamic State flag steered around a police blockade and rammed a pickup truck into a crowd before being shot to death by police.” Read it at the Times of Israel.

This is great news! “The Nordic Council of Ministers has launched a new initiative designed to facilitate easier border crossing for residents within the Nordic countries.” Read it at The Local.

Three critics have listed 2024’s best films. Read it at Deadline.

Sweden’s neighbour to the east did everything right. “Twice in the past two months, commercial ships with Russian links have been accused of damaging cables by dragging their anchors.” Read it at The Economist.

“The group whose flag was found after a New Orleans truck-ramming attack has never stopped orchestrating and inspiring acts of terror.” Read it at the New York Times.

I’m listening to the ongoing press conferees in New Orleans. FBI just said that the terrorist, in the hours before he killed 15 people, had posted several videos online where he pledge allegiance to the Islamic State terror organisation.

The new year began badly for two 15-year-old boys here in Malmö, Sweden. They were shot in the head. One of them has now died from his wounds. Read it at Expressen.

Francis Phillips at the Conservative Woman:

Children should learn classic poems by heart. Such methods are not now favoured by the educational establishment, but they are an essential tool for young people, whose memories are naturally retentive and who would thus develop a deep wellspring of the profound linguistic wisdom provided by poetry that remains with us all our days. I once knew two elderly gentlemen, proudly working-class, who both left school at 14 to go to work. The first, my father-in-law, could quote John Masefield’s Trade Winds by heart 80 years after he had learnt it at school. The second, when asked for his favourite poem, recited Kipling’s If—to me with great gusto.

Christians seem to be a target in many parts of the world. Read the report at International Christian Concern.

Researchers have found that the pupil is key to understanding how, and when, the brain forms strong, long-lasting memories. Read the study at Nature.

Axial Seamount is a submarine basaltic hotspot volcano superimposed on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Pacific Ocean. Starting in 2023, the rates of inflation and seismicity have been gradually increasing, apparently signalling a fundamental change in the magma supply to the volcano. Read it at AGU24.

“In this Damascus suburb, the handful of remaining Jews in Syria can again make pilgrimages to one of the world’s oldest synagogues where people from throughout the region once came to pray.” Read it at Religion News Service.

A 10-year-old study from the Swedish Defence Research Agency still has some information worth paying attention to.

It’s many hours to go until Shabbat begins. I’ll take a 32-hour beak from blogging now. So Shabbat Shalom, everyone! I’ll be back tomorrow night, unless something dramatic takes place over the weekend that hauls me back to the keyboard.

A sequence of stress signals among specialised clean-up cells in the brain could at last reveal why some immune responses can cause significant nerve degeneration that results in the loss of memory, judgement, and awareness behind Alzheimer’s disease. Read the study at Neuron.

Seems odd to me that we haven’t learned all blood groups until now, but it’s fascinating that we still have so much to discover about humankind. Read the study at the journal Blood.

New research reveals the bacterium responsible for the sexually transmitted epidemic was active and diverse in America long before Colombus’s voyage. Read it at Nature.

“He was, in the words of 2002 Nobel–winning economist Vernon Smith, the great deregulator,” Nick Gillespie writes in Reason Magazine. “Carter forced the airline industry, along with interstate trucking and freight rail, to compete for business, with powerful and positive effects that continue to this day.”

Apparently, 70 is the new 60. Read it at Nature Aging.

America’s foreign minister has some really good things to say, not least about those who voice opposition to Israel’s conduct in Gaza but say nothing about Hamas. Read it at the New York Times.

Sweden is facing heavy snowfall in the next few days. I’m driving to Stockholm from Malmö on Thursday, and when I searched for the latest predictions, I found a snow-depth map. Now we can follow the snow in real time. Read it at SMHI.

A study published in 2022 revealed a tenuous but plausible link between picking your nose and increasing the risk of developing dementia. Read it at Scientific Reports.

“Dozens of Gazan civilians, mostly women and children who were brought for treatment in Malaysia, rioted and protested their accommodation conditions at a guesthouse near the capital Kuala Lumpur.” Read it at Israel Hayom.

Israel’s former Chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, has claimed that the reason the government is failing to pass the ultra-Orthodox draft-exemption law is that Knesset speaker Amir Ohana is an openly gay man and therefore lacks divine assistance. Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

France’s most notorious far-right politician is gone. Read it at Le Monde.

This is complete madness. “Donald Trump is refusing to rule out using American military force to retake control of the Panama Canal and seize Greenland.” Read it at the Guardian.

I’m all for free speech, but facts are facts and to let conspiracy theorists and racist monitor social media is simply a bad idea. “Meta is abandoning the use of independent fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X-style ‘community notes’ where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.” Read it at BBC News.

“It’s that weird sort of genocide where no country that has identified genocide wants to help the civilians escape.” David Bernstein might have a point. Read it at Instapundit.

A captured Hamas terrorist has described how terror groups launched attacks from hospitals in Gaza believing they were safe from Israeli attack. Critics will of course say that the prisoner was forced to say this. That might be the case, but there is evidence to back the story. Read it at Ynetnews.

Related: In a video published by IDF, a Gazan tells a soldier how UNRWA is controlled by Hamas. Again, this should be put into context. We can’t know for sure where this is recorded, so it’s impossible to verify. Still, in the flood of media reports with a Palestinian “genocide” narrative, the Israeli perspective is needed to be heard as well.

In response to Trump’s threat to take over Canada, Ontarian politician Doug Ford suggests that his country should absorb Alaska and Minnesota. I think it’s a humorous way to counter Trump. Reminds me of Amos Oz, who wrote that the best way to handle extremists is to make fun of them.

Read Paul Taylor’s analysis at the Guardian. Scary stuff.

Donald Trump said yesterday that he wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”. Read it at the Associated Press.

“The Toyota Motor Corporation will invest $44.4 million in Japan-based Interstellar Technologies to help the private spaceflight firm develop rockets to launch satellites into Earth’s orbit.” Read it at United Press International.

Many Hollywood stars among those hit hard. Read the live blog at Los Angeles Times.

“We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words such as ‘weird’.” Read it at Daily Star.

“Despite the platform’s strict Community Standards, over 3,000 pornographic advertisements featuring explicit adult content have been approved and distributed through the Meta Advertisement in the past year.” Read AI Forensics’s report here.

So, already in the introduction, Musk calling Weidel of AfD the “the leading candidate to run Germany” was false. Read Deutsche Welle’s fact checks.

American men comparing sizes. Read it at Shooting Illustrated.

From the Babylon Bee:

President-elect Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama were just separated from their seats together at the Carter funeral for goofing off, snickering, and generally disruptive behaviour.

According to Jill Biden, the pair had been asked to stop talking together, as it was disturbing the somber atmosphere of the funeral. When the two presidents ignored her, she was forced to take matters into her own hands and sit the pair at opposite ends of a pew.

Hm… Something tells me that one of the men was more disrupting than the other.

“The Polish president has asked the government to not arrest Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu under an ICC warrant if he enters the country.” Read it at Euronews.

“Denmark has reacted calmly to Donald Trump’s remarks on seizing Greenland, amid sharper criticism of US rhetoric by France and Germany.” Read it at EU Observer.

Read Gene Healy’s text at the Cato Institute.

I’ll take an early Shabbat. Have a good one!

One of America’s most vocal homophobe has dies. Missed by no one with a sense of decency. Read it at the Independent.

“The Copernicus Global Climate Highlights Report 2024, published today, confirms 2024 as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°c above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature. Last year was also the warmest for all continental regions, including Europe, except Antarctica and Australasia.” Read it at Copernicus.

Something called the “Climate and Nature Bill” is currently wending its way through the British Parliament. “If this Bill becomes law, it will be activist judges who will be making decisions, not elected politicians.” Read it at the Conservative Woman.

According to this study, published last year, gun owners are more satisfied with their penis size. Read it at American Journal of Men’s Health.

“Rioters in Bologna vandalised the local synagogue with graffiti reading “Justice for Gaza,” as well as other slogans, and caused damage to the property, including removing doors from their frames and other light structural damage.” Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Progressive movements that claim to fight injustice are increasingly fostering hostility toward Jews and Israel.” Read David Ben-Basat’s analysis at the Jerusalem Post.

Related: Sweden’s largest newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, today published an article by Tobias Hübinette and Christer Mattsson on the rise of anti-Semitism in the Swedish “anti-racist movement”.

This is what happens when stupid discuss LGBTQ issues.

That’s if hostages not released before 20 January, according to incoming Vice President Vance. Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country was not at war but not living in peacetime either, citing hybrid attacks, suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea and a proxy war fought on its soil.” Read it at The Local.

This is just bizarre. Bannon—the man who once preached that being called a racist is a good thing—is now calling Musk a racist, and doesn’t seem to be a good thing this time around. Read it at Mediaite.

I’m in Hässleholm, a small Swedish town best known for being a major train junction. The reason for my visit is an operation planned for tomorrow morning. I have now checked in at a hotel in the centre (if you can call it that). The view from my window is stunning, don’t you agree?

People who were hoping for me to die today are greatly disappointed, I’m sure.

I’m back home after yesterday’s surgery. On sick leave for two weeks. Feeling good, which I think is due to the narcotic medication I’ve been given. I have to admit that I feel a little high. Legal with a prescription, though.

Great news! Hamas to release 98 hostages after fifteen months in captivity in Gaza. Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Updates to Meta’s policy on hateful conduct include that LGBTQ people can now be called mentally ill because of their identities.” Hate has its audience. Question is if decent people want to mix. Read it at NBC News.

“David Lynch, the four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, The Elephant Man and others who also created the ABC drama series Twin Peaks, has died. He was 78.” Read it at Deadline.

My personal favourite, a film I’ve seen many times, is The Elephant Man. I’ve always felt a bit like the main character.

I underwent surgery this week, and even though I feel OK, I’m still sore. So an early Shabbat is called for. Have a nice weekend!

In just a few hours, we might see the first step towards peace in the Israel-Hamas war. Terror groups have promised to free some of the Jews they kidnapped in the pogrom on 7 October 2023. I want to be optimistic, but it’s hard to look past the fact that Hamas will consider this a win. They have once again proven that kidnapping Jews is rewarding. Read it at the Times of Israel.

“A new poll found the public is sympathetic to the president-elect’s plans to deport migrants and reduce America’s presence overseas.” Read it at the New York Times.

One of Sweden’s most popular YouTuber has invited the Nazi politician Pär Öberg, who used the platform to praise Hitler and insult Jews. I’m not surprised, but it demonstrates the importance of parents keeping an eye on what their children consume online. Read it at Swedish newspaper Expressen.

“Police say attacker, identified as 19-year-old Palestinian from Tulkarm in West Bank, charged at passersby with a knife on the street.” Read it at Ynetnews.

“Pictures show men in balaclavas and camo fatigues waving their guns as they travelled through various towns in the Gaza Strip.” Read it at the US Sun.

Woke up feeling a bit down. Realised why when I read the news. Read it at the Washington Post.

Yesterday, on his first day in office, Trump embarked on a lying spree. Read it at CNN, the Associated Press, and Fact Check.

Trump has pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of all of the 1,500 people charged with crimes in the 6 January 2021 riot in Washington. This includes people convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers, Read it at the Associated Press.

For a man who’s spiralling downwards into the far-right pit, I guess this was expected. Read it at the Guardian.

No one should be surprised. Read it at Expressen.

From Seth Frantzman’s analysis in the Jerusalem Post:

Hamas will want to begin to tackle reconstruction and invite the media to try to showcase the destruction. Each step of the way will be choreographed by Hamas’s media machine. Hamas has impressive control over every aspect of Gaza, from local media to hospitals and schools. It will galvanise all of this to portray this as a victory for the group.

“This is what we have been praying for,” Jeffrey Salkin writes at Religion News Service.

Interesting how a travelling actor might have given Shakespeare the details he needed for Hamlet. Read Rodney Bolt at the Telegraph.

Scrolled through some photos and found this one from my visit in Jerusalem in 2023.

We live an odd era where a criminal is elected president in America and this said president pardons criminals who tried to overturn American democracy by violence.

“The most popular person in Russia right now is, of course, Elon Musk.” Read it at the Last Pioneer.

“Fulfilling a campaign promise to libertarians and the bitcoin community, the Silk Road founder’s life sentence without parole is now over.” That, however, doesn’t make Trump a libertarian. Read it at Reason.

“A bid to free five elephants from a Colorado zoo has been rejected after a court ruled elephants are not people.” Read it at BBC News.

The fliers feature a cartoon image of Uncle Sam kicking at a family of four. Read it at Washington Post.

“Raphael, 24, from Ra’anana, is a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre and the ‘death shelters,’ the fortified shelters where dozens fled the festival and hid during the October 7 Hamas attacks in 2023.” Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Hundreds of same-sex couples are tying the knot across Thailand on Thursday as the country becomes the first in Southeast Asia to recognise marriage equality.” Read it at CNN and Pink news.

It’s Friday night, the weekend is upon us.

Researchers have found that low-cloud cover over land slightly mitigates global warming. Read it at Nature.

A nightcap might be nice to unwind after a long day, but a glass of wine or a beer may not be as beneficial for sleep as some think. Read it at The Conversation.

President Trump said he told King Abdullah II of Jordan that he would like Jordan and Egypt to take in more Palestinians from Gaza. Read it at the New York Times.

Raise a paw if you’re surprised. Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

Scientists propose the use of electron beams for interstellar travel technology. Read it at Acta Astronautica.

Yesterday, the Palestinian president made a congratulatory phone call to a Palestinian terrorist who was released as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Who can be surprised? Abbas loves terrorism, and his administration uses a “pay for slay” programme to encourage people to kill Jews. Read it at the Times of Israel.

Why act surprised? Al-Jazeera has never been about real journalism. Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

Today we remember the millions killed by Nazi Germany. These victims had never attacked anyone. They neither killed civilians at music festivals nor kidnapped children. This is important to stress these days as so many people are trying to liken Israel’s war with Hamas to genocide. The Holocaust was genocide, fighting Hamas terrorists is not.

The area affected by wildfires in Brazil reached approximately 30.9 million hectares in 2024, an increase of 79% compared to the previous year. Read it at Folha de São Paulo.

America’s Central Intelligence Agency says it’s more likely a laboratory leak caused the Covid-19 pandemic than an infected animal that spread the virus to people. Read it at Politico.

From RushBabe49:

I fear that South Africa may be going down the same unfortunate path as Rhodesia did. It only takes a short time to destroy such thriving economies, but it can take decades to revive, once the destroyers have been defeated. What is ahead for South Africa is not going to be pretty, and people should keep in mind what they had. Blacks will not gain, and the entire population will be worse off.

I don’t know enough about it to form an opinion, but if there’s any substance to this, it’s really bad.

I have read much about yesterday’s remembrance of the Holocaust, about people who speak of anti-Semitism as something in the distant past. So is not the case. anti-Semitism is alive and kicking. And the United Nations didn’t repeal one of its most hostile attack on Jews until 1991. Read more about UN Resolution #3379 at here.

Germany’s far right is gaining support, not least with the help from Elon Musk. One of its aims is to downplay the Holocaust. It’s worrying. Read it at The Local.

It’s worrying that the far-right Alternative for Germany comes in second place with about 20%. Follow the opinion polls at Wahlrecht.

“It appeared to be a reference to transgender troops in the military but a text of the order was not immediately available,” the Guardian reports.

Some sanity still prevails in the White House. Read it at The Times.

How a painkiller threatens an ancient Zoroastrian death ritual. Read it at International Women’s Media Foundation.

From The Times:

Most young people are in favour of turning the UK into a dictatorship, according to a “deeply worrying” study, which has revealed an acceptance of authoritarianism and radicalism among Generation Z.

Fifty-two per cent of Gen Z—people aged between 13 and 27—said they thought “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.

Thirty-three per cent suggested the UK would be better off “if the army was in charge”.

Forty-seven per cent agreed that “the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution”—compared with 33 per cent of 45 to 65-year-olds.

This is worrying. You can read more about it at Metro.

“President Donald Trump’s move to freeze federal funding for a massive number of government programs seems to have impacted Medicaid payment systems across the country, potentially locking 72 million Americans out of their health insurance.” Read it at Quartz.

“Scientists have discovered cannabidiol, a compound in cannabis known as CBD, in a common Brazilian plant, opening potential new avenues to produce the increasingly popular substance.” Read it at Science Alert.

“President Donald Trump’s administration is set to offer federal workers the chance to take a ‘deferred resignation’ with a severance package of roughly eight months of pay and benefits. A senior administration official told NBC News that they expect 5%–10% of the federal workforce to quit, which, they estimate, could lead to around $100 billion in savings.” Read it at NBC News.

The idea of becoming Americans doesn’t fly. Read it at Danish newspaper Berlingske.

Based on the eleven polls released since his inauguration on 20 January, Trump’s average approval rating starts off at 50%. Read it at ABC News.

Salwan Momika, a 38-year-old Iraqi man who sought asylum in Sweden a few years ago, has been an outspoken critic of Islam. He gained fame by burning the Koran in public on multiple occasions. Momika was shot dead last night when he stood on his balcony in Södertälje, a town south of Stockholm. Read it in Swedish at Expressen and in English at The Local.

Good news! Far too many terrorists in this organisation. Besides, UNRWA cements the conflict as it’s made to allow the refugee status to be inherited. It’s absurd that only Palestinians should be considered refugees generation after generation. No one else is condemned to this limbo. UNHCR and WFP skull do the job instead. Read it at Legalinsurrection.

Susan Ville (@villebooks@mastodon.social) is a German journalist and wrote this on Mastodon five days ago. The Jewish state is to blame for the Jewish women being raped, kidnapped, and murdered at the Nova music festival because the country has gender-neutral conscription. So, according to her, Israel is to blame, not the men from Hamas (“the resistance”) who actually shot, abducted, and raped the women. Susan Ville is yet another example of a growing acceptance for anti-Semitism in Germany. It took less then a century for “Never again!” to become “Yes, again!”.

Hopefully, this will help the police find the killer. Read it at Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Five Thai nationals who were kidnapped and held hostage in Gaza for the past 481 days were released from captivity today. Read it at the Jerusalem Post.

“Attackers explain how an anti-spam defence became an AI weapon.” Read it at Ars Technica.

“Look beyond the latest bravado and brutality and it is bitterly split.” I hope the analysis is correct. Read it at The Economist.

A star has died today.

Exactly five years ago, in the early hours of 31 January 2020, I sat by my mother’s hospital bed when she took her last breath. It was just the two of us in the room, and I will never forget it. Not a week goes by without me getting some flashback. I loved my mother dearly and miss her every day. If the Christians are right, and there’s such a thing as Heaven, I’m sure she’s there.

The photo is one I took of her in September 2012 when we visited Beijing and the Forbidden City.

Trump has signed an executive order that bans trans people from serving in the military because “transgenderism” is a mental illness that “can interfere with military performance”. This hatred towards trans people is f**king insane. Read it at National Review.