The Jan. 7 fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has become a Rorschach test of sorts, with extreme viewpoints amplified through social media. (Barkley, Baptist Press)
Read MoreWhile watching football playoff games over the next few days, you may see a new ad, called “America. The Beautiful.” It's part of a $9 million marketing campaign drawn up by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank known for its influential “Project 2025” blueprint. (Waddick, USA Today)
Read MoreWhen Wikipedia went online on 15 January 2001, it was the brainchild of two men: Jimmy Wales, an internet entrepreneur with a libertarian streak, and Larry Sanger, a philosopher who became its first editor-in-chief. Their collaboration lasted only a little over a year — but the tension between their visions still shapes the project today. (Haas, DW)
Read MoreThe global music industry hit 5.1 trillion streams in 2025. It’s a new single-year record, up 9.6% from 2024, which held the previous record. But attention is on older music. Less than half all U.S. on-demand audio streams — 43% — were from tracks released in the last five years (2021 - 2025. (Sherman, AP News)
Read MoreThe United States saw a total of 76 million births during the boom, with the annual number surpassing 4 million in 1954 and remaining above that level until 1965. The annual number of births would not surpass 4 million again until 1989. (Fry, Pew Research Center)
Read MoreWith 388 million Christians enduring high levels of persecution and discrimination globally, compared to 380 million in the previous reporting year, Open Doors CEO Ryan Brown said persecution is increasing in breadth and severity. “It’s because the Church is advancing. That’s why the Church is coming under attack,” Brown said. (Chandler, Baptist Press)
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