Police in San Francisco identified UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s alleged killer, Luigi Mangione, and alerted the FBI four days before his high-profile arrest, a new report says.

An officer tipped off the feds after recognizing the 26-year-old’s face in surveillance images put out by the NYPD after Thompson was gunned down last week, sources told the San Francisco Chronicle.

https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/us-news/luigi-mangione-was-idd-by-san-francisco-cops-days-before-alleged-unitedhealthcare-ceo-killer-was-arrested-report/

The conservative think tank told prospective donors that the project was part of its work to combat antisemitism
https://forward.com/news/686797/heritage-foundation-wikipedia-antisemitism/

The Heritage Foundation plans to “identify and target” volunteer editors on Wikipedia who it says are “abusing their position” by publishing content the group believes to be antisemitic, according to documents obtained by the Forward.

Employees of Heritage, the conservative think tank that produced the Project 2025 policy blueprint for the second Trump administration, said they plan to use facial recognition software and a database of hacked usernames and passwords in order to identify contributors to the online encyclopedia, who mostly work under pseudonyms. It’s not clear exactly what kind of antisemitism the Wikipedia effort, which has not been previously reported, is intended to address. But in recent months some Jewish groups have complained about a series of changes on the website relating to Israel, the war in Gaza and its repercussions.

In June, a panel of Wikipedia editors declared the Anti-Defamation League a “generally unreliable” source of information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, limiting when the organization can be cited in Wikipedia articles. And there was an outcry this fall among some Jewish scholars and pro-Israel activists over edits to Wikipedia’s entry for Zionism to add references to “colonization.”

Wikipedia has also recently drawn ire from right-wing figures including Elon Musk, the billionaire who has been by President-elect Trump’s side during much of the transition. Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) in December: “Stop donating to Wokepedia.”

A Heritage Foundation spokesperson said she was not able to answer questions about the organization’s work related to Wikipedia, which editors it was seeking to identify or how it sought to “target” them. The Wikimedia Foundation, which provides the infrastructure for Wikipedia, declined to comment.

Majority of public says Elon Musk having a negative impact on British politics, poll finds

https://news.sky.com/story/majority-of-public-says-elon-musk-having-a-negative-impact-on-british-politics-poll-finds-13287462

Some 53% of people told Opinium they thought Elon Musk was having a negative impact politics, compared to just 12% who thought he was having a positive one.

Half the public think Elon Musk is having a negative impact on British politics following his rants on X about Labour and Sir Keir Starmer, according to a new survey.

The South African-born billionaire has spent much of the past week attacking the prime minister over his opposition to another national inquiry into grooming gangs.

And he also asked his 212 million followers whether America should "liberate" the UK from its "tyrannical government".

A poll published on Saturday suggested widespread opposition to Musk's involvement in British politics.

On his comments about grooming gangs specifically, 47% said they thought Mr Musk was being "unhelpful", compared to 26% who thought the opposite.

Adam Drummond, head of political and social research at Opinium, said a "lack of enthusiasm about a foreign billionaire involving himself in British politics" was "one area of agreement" among the public.

In other posts he expressed support for Reform UK, but called for its leader Nigel Farage to step aside.

The split between Mr Farage and Musk came after the billionaire expressed strong support for Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Arkansas Judge declares Act 372 unconstitutional, striking down key provisions of the "harmful to minors" law.

Act 372 targeted librarians and booksellers, threatening jail for shelving "inappropriate" books.

Critics argued the act targeted LGBTQ+ content; Gender Queer became central in the debate.

ACLU hails the ruling as a victory for free speech; AG Tim Griffin plans to appeal the decision.

A federal judge in Arkansas has struck down two provisions of Arkansas' "harmful to minors" law, known as Act 372, and signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on the 30th of March, 2023, as unconstitutional. Writing in a 23rd of December summary judgment, Judge Timothy Brooks wrote that if the Arkansas legislature's goal was "to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores," and that it would "only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else's First Amendment rights… The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest."

Section one would have imposed a misdemeanour penalty of up to one year in jail for librarians and booksellers who have books deemed inappropriate on the shelves. Section five would have mandated "a new procedure for libraries, city councils, and county quorum courts to follow when evaluating a citizen's request to move or remove a book from a public library's permanent collection".

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/arkansas-judge-strikes-down-act-372-keeps-gender-queer-on-shelves/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/diddy-luigi-mangione-jail-new-york-jealous-b2676032.html

Rumors of jailhouse jealousy are coming out of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where alleged sex trafficker Sean "Diddy" Combs is reportedly pouting because he's playing second fiddle to suspected health insurance hitman Luigi Mangione.

A source reportedly familiar with the situation told the New York Post that Combs was "throwing tantrums" inside the notorious New York jail because all eyes are on Mangione, at least inside the facility.

Combs is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. After he was arrested late last year, colorful details of his alleged "freak off" parties — elaborate sex performances involving a whole lot of baby oil and drugs to leash the sex workers hired for the event — were revealed via discovery.

Mangione allegedly shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last month in an attack New York City police believe was targeted. Mangione faces both state and federal charges, which is why he is being held in the federal facility.

The alleged gunman — was arrested while lurking at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania a few days after the shooting — left a manifesto that made clear he was no fan of the health insurance industry in the U.S....

“Diddy has been throwing tantrums over the fact that Luigi is getting all of the attention in prison and is being revered as a hero after literally murdering someone on camera," the source told the paper. “Even in prison, Diddy’s ego is bigger than life."

"He always wants to be the center of everything," the alleged source said. "If he feels like anyone takes his attention, he doesn't take it well. He gets pissed off, and if he has the power to do it, he makes the other person's life miserable."

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/01/Los_Angeles_struggles_to_contain_wildfires
Five wildfires – the biggest of which are the Palisades and the Eaton fires – are still currently burning (as of 10 January 2025) in areas of north Los Angeles. At least 10 people are known to have lost their lives and many more properties have been burnt to the ground.

This image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission on 9 January 2025, shows the Palisades fire at lower left and the Eaton fire at upper right, with smoke seen reaching Catalina Island and the Santa Barbara reserve to the south of the fires.

See also the image of 7 Jan just after fires broke out.
>https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/01/Los_Angeles_ablaze

Copernicus Sentinel-3 measures Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. It provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/third-spaces-and-gen-z_l_675ca0fee4b0a6324e3b58ad

Kayla Prowell, a 23-year-old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, would really love a place to hang out, and ideally, not have to buy something to do so. Growing up in the South Suburb of Chicago, Prowell said it felt like there was no shortage of places to come together with friends. That was in part due to local politicians’ and community organizers’ efforts to keep kids off the streets.

“As I kid, I remember going to nature clubs, dance classes, knitting clubs, all after school,” she recalled. “I don’t know if it’s my increasing age or just a natural decline of shared spaces, but now it requires much more effort to find these kinds of spaces.”

“I’ve found myself making concerted efforts in adulthood to join clubs, go on Eventbrite, and more,” she told HuffPost. “I’m an avid QR code scanner when I see a poster for a community event, and I enjoy the YMCA.”

Online communities just don’t cut it anymore, Prowell said. She wants IRL.