Within hours of President Trump’s announcement of the dramatic weekend capture of Nicolás Maduro, social media was flooded with AI-generated deepfakes showing the captured Venezuelan dictator in handcuffs and even sitting alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was previously locked up in the same jail where Maduro now is in real life.
GUNTER: Citizens don’t make distinction between crime and social disorder
You can’t reduce crime simply by redefining what is and isn’t a crime. Many actions that were once crimes are now chalked by city bureaucrats up to “social disorder” and no longer show up in crime stats.
In other cases, crimes are so common and police response to them is so indifferent — like theft of bikes and tools and law furniture from private yards — that many victims no longer bother to report them.
The Iranian Uprising: The Time to Plan for This Potential Regional Conflict Is Before the Boats Leave Qeshm
On December 29, protests erupted among shopkeepers in Tehran, Zanjan, and Hamadan — all clustered in Iran’s north and west. Then came Qeshm, isolated on the southern coast.
That location matters. Qeshm Island sits just 60 kilometers across the Strait of Hormuz from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That is roughly the distance from Manhattan to Philadelphia, and far shorter than most successful Mediterranean crossings from Syria to Europe.
If Iran’s current instability deepens into a full crisis, Iranians may well attempt these crossings by boat. The proximity of Iran to the UAE makes it virtually inevitable.
A Toronto man was nearly beaten to death in Sri Lanka. Authorities now say the attack was ordered in Canada
For months after his father was beaten to near death by a group of armed assailants while visiting his home village in Sri Lanka, Ganesh Subramaniam was left asking himself: who would do such a thing, and why?
It took more than a year for Sri Lankan authorities to offer a shocking theory: the attack on Ganesh’s father — who founded the Sri Ayyappan Hindu Temple in Scarborough more than 40 years ago — was allegedly ordered on Canadian soil, by the man serving as the temple’s president.
US justice department has released less than 1% of Epstein files, filing reveals
The Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the so-called Epstein files, a court filing has revealed, as Democrats step up criticism of the Trump administration’s “lawlessness” for keeping records under seal.
The department conceded that only 12,285 documents, totalling 125,575 pages, relating to the disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein have been published to date, despite a federal law requiring the vast majority to be released by 19 December.
Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, wrote a five-page update to Paul Engelmayer, the federal New York judge overseeing the case, on Monday, asserting that efforts to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims were a priority, and had slowed the process.
CHARLEBOIS: Canadian milk changed on January 1. Did you know?
As of January 1, 2026, milk sold in Canada contains more vitamin D. This is neither a new product nor a marketing innovation, but rather a quiet regulatory adjustment that has largely gone unnoticed by the public.
Danish PM Says if Trump Annexes Greenland it Will Be End of NATO
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that if the United States forcibly annexes Greenland, it would result in the collapse of the American-led NATO military alliance.
That’s what Trump wants.
Greenland’s Foreign Minister says Greenland and Denmark have asked for an early ministerial meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss recent U.S. statements on Greenland.
Earlier requests for a meeting throughout 2025 were not granted. pic.twitter.com/h4hogJUbXJ
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 6, 2026
h/t Mauser
These international students in Canada didn’t submit test scores because they weren’t asked to. Now, their work permits are refused
International student Han Xu says she has always kept her eye out for government policy changes that might affect her studies and immigration.
She was well aware of the new language proficiency requirement for her post-graduation work permit. She took the English test before completing her PhD program in education at Queen’s University, months before submitting her application in May.
Xu followed the online steps to a tee. She double- and triple-checked that she had provided all the requested information and uploaded the required documents before hitting the submission button.
She’s a ChicCom and the other is Muslim adjacent, deport them all.
Marxism In The Metropolis: NYC’s New ‘Tenant Czar’ Has Targeted White Homeowners, Private Property
Based on her previous comments, New York City’s newly minted “Tenant Director” Cea Weaver will waste no time telegraphing the Mamdani administration’s radical agenda: the systematic dismantling of private property rights in favor of Soviet-style collectivism.
🚨🇺🇸 NYC MAYOR MAMDANI'S HOUSING OFFICIAL: "YOUR HOME SHOULDN’T REALLY BE YOURS"
According to Cea Weaver, a top housing advisor for NYC Mayor Mamdani, the idea of owning your home the way people always have is outdated.
She says we’ve treated property as something personal for… pic.twitter.com/qquR2OIHsE
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 5, 2026
Do not elect a Chow or the Chow adjacent as your mayor.
‘It’s like on Amazon’: Illegal drugs advertised online, delivered by Canada Post
It’s like Amazon for hard drugs: cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, paid for with credit cards and e-transfers, delivered by Canada Post.
For weeks, CBC Ottawa and Radio-Canada exchanged messages with nearly a dozen people who have been buying these drugs online. Eventually one came forward, offering to talk about their experience.
“The first time I was like, OK, it’s not true, it’s a scam,” John said. CBC has agreed to withhold his real name because he fears the impact of his drug use on his family and his job.
DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation Into Tim Walz
On Monday, Tim Walz announced he was dropping his bid for a third term as Minnesota’s governor amid an ongoing fraud scandal. I said that dropping out of the race wouldn’t save him from being held accountable, and sure enough, on Monday evening, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the Department of Justice has launched a sweeping criminal investigation into Walz for his potential role in the fraud.
Conrad Black: Maduro’s Removal an Astonishing Strategic Success for the US
The seizure and removal of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their official residence in Caracas, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, with no American casualties, has been an astonishing strategic and tactical success.
It eliminates one of the few anti-Western governments in the world, reinforces the general move to the democratic right in Latin America, and strikes a deadly blow against the narco-terrorists who have severely provoked the United States. It probably cuts the lifeline from Venezuela to the dismal Marxist regime in Nicaragua, and has already been cited as a warning to the erratic president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, whom Trump has named as head of the vast Colombian illegal narcotics producing and exporting operation. Trump also revoked Petro’s visa to enter the United States after he gave a speech in New York, urging American armed servicemen to ignore orders to engage with Hamas and other terrorists.
Trump’s Hint to Oil Executives Weeks Before Maduro Ouster: ‘Get Ready’
President Trump had a vague but tantalizing message for a couple of American oil executives roughly a month before the U.S. captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro: “Get ready.”
Big changes were coming to Venezuela, Trump hinted.
Although Trump gave the executives a hint, he didn’t provide them with specific details of the strikes on Caracas that unfolded early Saturday, according to people familiar with the matter. Nor did he seek their advice on a plan unveiled the same day to have U.S. energy companies revitalize Venezuela’s dilapidated oil fields with multibillion-dollar investments.
U.S. control of Venezuela’s oil reserves not a threat to Canadian producers, Carney says
Prime Minister Mark Carney has played down concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to boost oil production from Venezuela will have an impact on Canada’s energy sector.
Mr. Trump has made it clear that the U.S. military action in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro was precursor to taking control of the country’s vast oil reserves and its energy infrastructure. That could ultimately lead to a surge of Venezuelan oil on global markets which would pose a challenge to Canada’s oil production.
‘A warning not an insult’: US doubles down on criticism of Europe
Forecast of Europe’s ‘civilisational erasure’ was part of call for pro-growth reform, says Trump official
Donald Trump’s administration has doubled down on its recent criticism of Europe, saying last month’s US national security strategy was an attempt to “jolt” an ally back to economic life.
The document was widely condemned in Europe as representing a seismic shift in the 70-year transatlantic alliance with its dark references to a purported threat of “civilisational erasure” with migration and censorship creating “strife”, “cratering birthrates” and “loss of national identities”.
Its threat to interfere in European politics and oppose what it termed as “elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe” was condemned as unacceptable by the president of the European Council of leaders, António Costa.