Trump ordered that the term Homo sapiens be changed to Hetero sapiens. In history books and on websites, the airplane from which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima will no longer be identified as the Enola Gay, but rather the Enola Straight. Trump also ordered billionaire Mark Cuban, who supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, to change his name to Mark American. If he does not do so, he will be charged with terrorism.   read more

Same-sex marriage has gone from being a hard-won right to a requirement for many gay couples. With many states now authorizing (or at least not banning) gay marriage, some employers are phasing out domestic partnerships and telling couples they have to get married in order to keep their benefits. The way companies see it, there’s no point in keeping domestic partnership rules if marriage is legal. However, this could have implications for heterosexual couples' domestic arrangements.   read more

The ITC Maurya hotel, where Obama will be staying, has been taken over by Secret Service personnel and a multi-frequency control room manned by the U.S. officials has been set up. 15,000 CCTVs have also been installed across the capital, and American security personnel will be part of the teams manning the control rooms set up to monitor this footage.   read more

Pope Francis says climate change is a serious problem and that mankind is responsible for causing and fixing the problem. But at least a dozen GOP Catholic lawmakers reject the idea that humans are responsible for global warming. One of them, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, said she believes it is ridiculous to think humans are the cause of climate change because God created the climate.   read more

The NSA documents did not indicate if any journalists were intentionally targeted. However, other documents revealed that the British spy agency considered “investigative journalists” a threat, putting them in “a hierarchy alongside terrorists or hackers,” said The Guardian. A classified document directed to army intelligence stated “journalists and reporters representing all types of news media represent a potential threat to security. Of specific concern are investigative journalists..."   read more

A mere 80 individuals control nearly $2 trillion, reported Oxfam. That amount is nearly the same as what’s owned by 3.5 billion people at the bottom of the scale. Oxfam also reported that the poorest 80% of people have only 5.5% of all wealth on the planet. “Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined?” said Oxfam director Winnie Byanyima. “The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering.”   read more

The “Friendship Nine” challenged racial segregation in Rock Hill, South Carolina on January 31, 1961 by refusing to leave the lunch counter at McCrory’s, a five-and-dime store. They went into the store with a strategy called “jail, no bail,” intending to force local law enforcement to incarcerate them, which they believed would draw more attention to their cause. The men refused to post bail and were sentenced to 30 days of hard labor at a county prison farm.   read more

The Miss Universe pageant got a little political when Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, posted a selfie on Instagram with several other contestants, including Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige. Having Miss Israel next to Miss Lebanon was a big deal because the two countries have no diplomatic relations, going back to 1948 when Israel was created. Some in Lebanon were so upset by the photo that they demanded Greige lose her title for being publicly seen “with the citizen of an enemy state,”   read more

Millennials continue to grow in number, even though the generation was born from 1981 to 1997, thanks to the continuing flow of immigrants, particularly younger foreign residents, into the country. The generation’s numbers will reach more than 75 million this year, surpassing the 74.9 million of Boomers, whose totals will continue to shrink as more die off in the coming years. The Millennial population won’t peak for another 21 years, when it will reach 81.1 million by 2036.   read more

The requested documents contained sensitive trade secrets. Last week, after waiting out the three-month appeal period, the Times sued to get them. The system’s three-stage rocket intercepts the target warhead in space head on in a “bullet-to-bullet” collision. Except when it doesn’t. So far, the missile is eight for 17 at shooting down its target, despite the Pentagon staging “carefully choreographed tests that are more predictable and less challenging than an actual attack would be.”   read more

Police back the halt in deportations because it makes undocumented immigrants more likely to report crimes and cooperate with police. “When criminals know that their victims are afraid or are unwilling to cooperate with the police, then they enjoy that. And, in fact, crime thrives,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank told the Salt Lake Tribune. The National Immigration Law Center praised the chiefs and sheriffs for their move, which they say supports public safety.   read more

The Solar Foundation, which supports solar power, claims in a new report that more than 173,000 people had solar-related jobs as of last year. The coal industry had only about 93,000 workers. Job growth in solar has been phenomenal, expanding by 20% or more in each of the last two years. In 2014, it added 31,000 new jobs and solar businesses plan to add another 36,000 employees this year. One out of 78 jobs created in the U.S.over the past year were created by the solar industry,   read more

It took Slahi six years to get his book published after the U.S. tried to keep it classified and contains 2,500 redactions ordered by the federal government. Guantánamo Diary is being published in the U.S. and 19 other countries. Like other accounts from detainees, Slahi’s is filled with stories of being tortured, including sleep deprivation, death threats, sexual humiliation, threats against his mother, forced to drink salt water, and beaten for hours at a time while immersed in ice.   read more

Each year, more than 73,000 diabetics in the U.S. have to have limbs or appendages amputated. Some of these surgeries could be prevented if Heberprot-P, a drug developed and produced in Cuba, is approved by the FDA. Heberprot-P has been around for nine years in Cuba, where it has helped numerous people avoid amputations resulting from diabetic foot ulcers. American researchers hope the U.S. will allow the drug to undergo clinical trials once trade normalization takes effect.   read more

High-deductible plans are becoming increasingly common. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2006 10% of workers were enrolled in a plan with a deductible of $1,000 or more. By 2014, that number had increased to 41% of workers. Smaller firms had an even larger percentage of workers covered by high-deductible policies. In companies employing fewer than 200 people, the numbers went from 16% in 2006 to 61% last year.   read more

Children can get a free lunch through the National School Lunch Program if their family is at or below 130% of the federal poverty rate. They get reduced-price lunches, costing no more than 40 cents, if their family income is between 130% and 185% of the poverty rate. In 2013, 51% of children qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. That’s up from 38% in 2000. Mississippi leads the nation with 71% of its children eligible for the school lunch program.   read more

2014 was the warmest year recorded since 1880, when weather records began to be kept. The average temperature was 0.69 degrees C (1.24° F) warmer than the average 20th century temperature. Had you been hoping for a white Christmas? Chances are, you didn’t have one. No state capital had snow cover on December 25 for only the second time since 1946.   read more