🗞️Walz drops out

...also Venezuela's Maduro pleads not guilty and Amazon launches Alexa+

January 05, 2026

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January 5th, 2026

What happened today 🇺🇸,

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ends campaign for reelection

The two-term governor has faced mounting pressure over fraud in state programs.

www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2026/01/05/tim-walz-drop-out-minnesota-governor-race

  • Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, announced today that he will not seek a third term in 2026 and has dropped out of the race

  • After being taken from Venezuela over the weekend, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was brought under heavy guard to a Manhattan federal courthouse for his first U.S. appearance, where he pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking charges that carry potential life sentences and that the Trump administration used to justify his capture in a military raid

  • The CDC has adjusted the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule to recommend shots for 11 diseases instead of the previous 17 aligning it more closely with Denmark's approach by shifting vaccines for conditions like RSV, rotavirus, influenza, hepatitis A/B, and some meningitis types to high-risk groups or shared clinical decision-making…read more here

  • Both the Washington Post and the New York Times learned of the Trump administration’s secret plan to raid Venezuela and capture Nicolás Maduro shortly before the operation began, however editors at both outlets agreed to delay publishing what they knew for several hours so they did not endanger U.S. troops

  • The Trump administration will deploy roughly 2,000 DHS agents to Minneapolis for a 30-day immigration crackdown and fraud probe

  • The Department of Energy awarded $2.7 billion in contracts to three companies, American Centrifuge Operating, General Matter, and Orano Federal Services, to expand domestic uranium enrichment capacity over the next decade, with $900 million each aimed at producing low-enriched uranium (LEU) and high-assay LEU (HALEU) for nuclear reactors

  • Amazon launched Alexa+ on the web via Alexa.com, enabling Early Access customers to use its AI assistant in browsers for tasks like answering questions, planning trips, managing calendars, controlling smart homes, and shopping…they are now directly competing with ChatGPT and Google Gemini

  • According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, an estimated 9.3 million Americans are working multiple jobs, the highest number recorded since the government began tracking this data in 1994…read more here

  • U.S. manufacturing activity contracted for the 10th straight month in December with the Institute for Supply Management's PMI falling to 47.9, the lowest since October 2024, from 48.2 the prior month, missing economist forecasts of 48.4

  • DOW up 1.23% / S&P up .64%

  • Denmark's Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, urged President Trump to "stop the threats" against annexing Greenland, which is a NATO ally territory, warning that any U.S. military action would shatter post-World War II security and NATO itself

  • Iranian security forces have reportedly shot at numerous protesters during ongoing anti-government demonstrations with numerous deaths reported as the protests enter their ninth day…also The Times reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is preparing to flee to Russia if unrest intensifies further

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