20: People around the world on Saturday marked 20 years since the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami, which ripped through a dozen countries in South and Southeast Asia, killing more than 230,000 people. An undersea earthquake off the Indonesian coast caused the deadly wave. Many of the dead were swept out to sea, their bodies never found.
131,680: The upstart right-wing Reform UK party, led by the charismatic, Trump-friendly populist Nigel Farage, claims to have more members now than the Conservatives. On Friday, the party, which grew out of the Brexit Party barely six years ago, claimed at least 131,680 members, the same number the two-century-old Tories had on their rolls at their last leadership election in the fall.
60: A Pakistani military court sentenced 60 people to up to 10 years in prison for participating in protests that attacked military facilities following the arrest of popular former PM Imran Khan in 2023. Last week, 25 people were sentenced to similar terms for the same charges. The US, UK, and EU have all questioned the fairness of the military trials. Khan, a popular former cricket star who was in power from 2018 until 2022, has been in prison since mid-2023 on a range of graft and other charges that he says are political.
30: Hockey is hitting the skids in Canada. In 2023, barely 300,000 under-18s played the sport, a drop of more than 30% since 2009. Experts blame the high cost of equipment and the rising popularity of basketball and soccer. Sounds to us like Canada is looking more like the 51st state than ever …
65: If you’re reading this we’re glad to have you because a new AP/NORC poll shows 65% of Americans are tuning out political news in the wake of the election. While Democrats were slightly more likely than Republicans or Independents to be plugging their ears when it comes to politics, majorities of all three have had enough for now.
3.8 million: Late Thursday, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe signaled that it had survived the closest-ever encounter with the Sun. The aircraft, which had been out of communication since Christmas Eve, reported that it was “safe” after passing just 3.8 million miles from the Sun’s surface as part of an effort to collect data about the corona. While nearly 4 million miles seems far, one scientist added perspective, noting that Earth is 93 million miles away from the Sun — and if that distance were narrowed to just a meter, the probe would be just 4 cm from the Sun.
