Homeless Funding, Winter Solstice, & Tommy the Squirrel

News without the noise

Adam Rogers
December 22, 2025

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A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from changing how $3.9 billion in homeless aid is distributed, issuing a preliminary injunction that requires the Housing and Urban Development Department to follow the spending rules approved by Congress.
HUD had sought to redirect funding away from permanent housing programs, rewriting grant rules to prioritize short-term assistance and "self-sufficiency" efforts tied to mental health and drug treatment — changes the judge said likely violate federal law governing homeless aid.
States and advocacy groups argue the shift could put up to 170,000 people at risk of losing housing, while HUD says the policy would restore accountability. The judge ruled the challengers are likely to prevail as the case continues.

Britain and Australia are tightening restrictions on pro-Palestinian protests after an Islamic State–inspired attack at a Jewish Hanukkah gathering in Sydney’s Bondi Beach killed 15 people. Authorities say the violence has changed the security context and prompted a tougher policing response.
Australia’s New South Wales government is expanding police powers to shut down unauthorized protests and proposing new hate speech laws, including a ban on chanting “globalize the intifada,” which officials and Jewish groups say functions as a call to violence. British police have also begun arresting demonstrators using the phrase, citing the attack and other recent antisemitic violence.
Naveed Akram, 24, was charged Wednesday with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder after waking from a coma. His father, who carried out the attack with him, was killed by police.

Sunday marked the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The solstice signals the start of astronomical winter, though the good news is that days will gradually lengthen from here until late June.
The word "solstice" comes from Latin words meaning "sun" and "stop," reflecting the sun's pause in its annual movement across the sky. The winter solstice occurs when Earth's tilt away from the sun reaches its maximum, causing the Northern Hemisphere to receive the least sunlight. The solstice can fall between Dec. 20-23, landing on the 21st this year.
People have celebrated solstices for millennia. Some 8,500 gathered at Stonehenge before dawn Sunday to watch the sunrise over the ancient monument, which was designed to align with the sun's paths at solstices.

President Trump's name was added to the Kennedy Center after a board he now chairs voted for the change. The change appears to require congressional approval. (More)

Power returned to most of 130,000 San Francisco customers Sunday after a substation fire caused Saturday's massive outage, but 21,000 remained without electricity. (More)

The US Coast Guard intercepted another oil tanker and is pursuing a third in international waters near Venezuela, amid ongoing efforts to enforce oil sanctions. (More)

Nigeria released the last 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in Niger state in November. All abducted students are now free. (More)

Rome will charge tourists €2 to approach the Trevi Fountain starting February 1, while locals and children under five visit for free. (More)

A dozen gunmen stormed a bar near Johannesburg early Sunday and shot at least nine people with pistols and assault rifles. (More)

US stock markets closed higher on Friday (S&P +0.88%, Nasdaq +1.31%, Dow +0.38%). Stocks rose, with Oracle leading gains as optimism about artificial intelligence investments returned after recent volatility. (More)

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern filed an $85 billion merger application Friday to create America's first coast-to-coast freight railroad. (More)

Delaware's Supreme Court restored Elon Musk's Tesla stock options worth $139 billion on Friday, sending his net worth to $749 billion per Forbes. (More)

Jacksonville upset Denver 34-20, snapping the Broncos' 11-game win streak and turning the AFC's No. 1 playoff seed into a five-team race. (More)

Anthony Joshua broke Jake Paul's jaw with a sixth-round knockout on Friday, leaving Paul needing surgery with titanium plates. (More)

Texas A&M won its first women's volleyball championship Sunday, sweeping Kentucky 3-0 after rallying from set point down and upsetting multiple top seeds to reach the final. (More)

Scientists discovered two cannonball-sized fossilized dinosaur eggs packed with natural crystals in eastern China, identifying them as a previously unknown species. (More)

Hot, humid conditions during pregnancy are four times more harmful to child growth than heat alone because humidity prevents pregnant women from cooling down. (More)

German engineer Michaela Benthaus became the first person with paraplegia to reach space Saturday on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket. (More)

Meet Tommy Tucker, the war bond-selling, dress-wearing squirrel.

Why gift cards are good for stores, but bad for you.

Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.6 billion.

Why chocolate in holiday candy could be fake this year.

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