Vatican defrocks an anti-abortion priest who once placed an aborted fetus on an altar

The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

NPR

A chef changed the name of his restaurant from his nonbinary child’s deadname to their current name — and business is booming

Ollie originally told his parents that he didn’t mind the ongoing presence of his deadname donning the restaurant, Heide said. But the chef soon discovered that “it was really making [Ollie] sad, getting deadnamed every day, seeing the name on the building I went to work at,” Heide told Insider. 

Insider

Milwaukee’s Highway Expansion Will Make a Food Desert Even Worse

Along with completely ignoring the concept of induced demand, the I-94 expansion project has faced significant backlash from the communities adjacent to I-94. Many of these marginalized neighborhoods would be getting double-tapped after the highway’s initial construction in the 1960s.

Jalopnik

El Paso mayor declares state of emergency amid increase in migrants

Migrants have converged on El Paso in recent days, overwhelming shelters and forcing some to sleep on the streets amid dropping temperatures. With more asylum seekers expected, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said the city felt it was time to make the emergency declaration.

The Hill

Will Texas Grid Collapse Again? Major Arctic Blast Predicted for Christmas

The idea of a white Christmas is sure to warm some hearts, but many Texans still remember when the state’s energy grid failed during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021.

Newsweek

Images of migrants on Texas streets in freezing temperatures spark concern

Images of migrants wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the streets of El Paso in freezing temperatures have raised welfare concerns as they circulated online this week amid a surge of people arriving in the west Texan city.

The Guardian

The student loan company being used to attack Biden’s debt relief plan

The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a state-created loan company known as MOHELA, is at the center of a legal challenge from six Republican states trying to stop Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt for more than 40 million Americans.

Politico

An armed Amazon worker stopped a shooter who opened fire outside a warehouse in Arizona

An armed Amazon worker stopped a shooting after a man drove up to an Amazon warehouse employee parking lot and opened fire, Arizona police said.

Insider

U.S. labor board region sides with USC athletes seeking ’employee’ designation

The Los Angeles regional head of the U.S. agency that enforces U.S. labor laws has sided with scholarship basketball and football players at the University of Southern California (USC) seeking recognition as employees and the right to unionize.

Reuters

Starbucks workers plan a 3-day walkout at 100 U.S. stores in a unionization effort

More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign.

NPR

Texas Attorney General Requested A List Of Data On Transgender Adults: Report

The Texas Department of Public Safety was asked to compile a list of Texans who changed their gender on their driver’s licenses in the past two years.

Huffpost

One man seeks to ban 3,600 LGBTQ+ and anti-racist books from Florida schools

He has succeeded in getting 102 books banned from library shelves even though he’s admitted that he hasn’t read most of the books he objects to.

LGBTQ Nation

More than 50% of trans and non-binary youth in US considered suicide this year, survey says

The Trevor Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention, on Thursday released state-level data from nearly 34,000 queer and trans youth ages 13 to 24, showing alarmingly high rates of suicide attempts, depression and anxiety across liberal and conservative regions.

The Guardian

Texas AG Ken Paxton Sues Biden to Allow LGBTQ Discrimination in Foster Care, Adoption Services

“There are so many vital religious institutions in Texas and around the country that can aid in making sure foster children are protected and able to find good homes,” Paxton said in a press release on Monday. “The [Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity] Rule would force them either to adopt a radical woke agenda or surrender their mission of helping children. That’s not right. It’s a disgrace that the Biden Administration is playing politics with our foster care and adoption services, and this lawsuit aims to put our children first and to protect religious freedom.”

Dallas Observer

The Frightening Implications of Gorsuch’s Angry Questions About State “Reeducation”

His maximalist theory of the First Amendment would swallow civil rights law.

Slate

Young Americans Affected by Gun Violence Say Some Relatives Are Still Pro-Gun

“He latched on to right-wing rhetoric, which is really easy answers to hard questions,” Schentrup says. “Instead of what do we do about the amount of guns and lack of mental health care in this country, instead of wrestling with solving those complexities, it’s easier to say, ‘F*ck it, it’s the price you pay.’”

Teen Vogue

Chilean Transgender Icon Claudia Díaz Pérez Dead in Suspected Murder

Pérez was the president of Chile’s first organization for older trans people.

them

Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticizing execution of protester

One of Iran’s best-known actresses has been arrested days after she criticized the execution of a man who was involved in the nationwide protests that have swept the country since September.

CNN

Russia ‘may try to re-enact its early invasion plans of Ukraine on anniversary of war’

Russia may attempt to re-enact a version of its original invasion plans, Ukrainian military officials believe, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned this weekend Vladimir Putin still has enough missiles to order more heavy strikes.

The Guardian

Pope honors Poles killed for hiding Jews during World War II

Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma offered several Jewish people refuge from the Nazis in German-occupied Poland before being caught and killed. The Vatican now plans to beatify the pair before possible sainthood.

Deutsche Welle

Thousands protest new gov’t coalition in Tel Aviv

The demonstration mainly targeted the incoming right-wing government coalition and especially party leaders Deri, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

The Jerusalem Post

2022 is deadliest year on record for Mexican journalists

The deadliest year in at least three decades for Mexican journalists and media workers is nearing a close, with 15 slayings — a perilous situation underlined by a brazen near-miss attack this week on one of the country’s most prominent journalists.

AP News

‘We didn’t vote for this’: anger over Brexit failures is haunting the Tories

The NHS is on its knees and beset by strikes. It is desperately short of money and staff, with nurses, doctors and paramedics leaving in their thousands. Not a penny of the £350m a week that Johnson said Brexit would release for the health service has ever been seen. Increasingly, the whole Brexit endeavour is viewed by business leaders and economists as a self-inflicted disaster that has severely weakened the British economy, despite continued claims to the contrary by former Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg on the BBC’s Question Time last week.

The Guardian

As games draw to a close, plight of migrant workers has cast a shadow over World Cup

Authorities have acknowledged hundreds of deaths in construction and related industries in the 13 years since FIFA awarded the tournament to the Gulf nation.

CNN

Germany: Scholz opens country’s first LNG terminal

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other senior government officials officially opened the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Saturday.

Deutsche Welle

In Israel, Netanyahu’s extremist new government rips off the mask

Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed coalition government of Jewish extremists, fanatic Zionists and religious bigots represents a seismic change in Israel, one that will exacerbate Israel’s pariah status, erode external support for Israel, fuel a third Palestinian uprising, or intifada, and create irreconcilable political divides within the Jewish state.  

Salon

Violent protests in Peru evoke memories of darkest days of civil war

At least 20 people have been killed in demonstrations against the ousting of Pedro Castillo, a flashback to a past many hoped they had left behind

The Guardian

As Hong Kong’s old shops shutter, enthusiasts seek to preserve their presence – online and offline

Social media accounts dedicated to documenting decades-old businesses have been growing in popularity, in turn breathing new life into Hong Kong’s historical shops.

HKFP

Peru is in crisis. How did it happen?

Former President Pedro Castillo is in jail. That’s nothing new in Peruvian politics.

Vox

At least 169 dead after devastating floods in DR Congo’s Kinshasa

The UN estimated 2.9 million people have been displaced by severe flooding in west and central Africa.

AlJazeera

Sônia Guajajara hails Brazil’s Indigenous ministry after Bolsonaro ‘turmoil’

The activist for native peoples says she will work to overturn the ‘catastrophic legacy’ from Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency

The Guardian