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Editor's note: Winter has teeth this year—may we all find warmth in acts of resistance.

Touch: The cold metal of a rifle stock, slick with Venezuelan humidity, pressed against a soldier's cheek as planes roared overhead Saturday morning.

The damage: After invading Venezuela and capturing President Maduro, Trump's administration isn't even pretending to be subtle anymore. Secretary of State Marco Rubio—whose entire political identity orbits around toppling Cuba's government—stood at a press conference and essentially said "you're next" to half the damn hemisphere. Mexico, Colombia, Cuba—Trump's rattling off countries like a shopping list, claiming Mexico's "run by cartels," Colombia's president "makes cocaine," and Cuba's "ready to fall." He literally invoked the Monroe Doctrine, that 200-year-old imperial bullshit claiming the Western Hemisphere as America's playground. Progressive International warns this isn't isolated—it's systematic regime change stretching from Caracas to Havana.

Response: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Spain issued a joint statement condemning the "dangerous precedent for peace and regional security." Mexico's President Sheinbaum called it a violation of international law. But here's the kicker: Trump's already threatening Mexico with military intervention over drug trafficking, despite calling Sheinbaum a "terrific person" in the same fucking breath. The contradiction is the point—keep everyone destabilized, compliant, terrified. What you can do: Support Progressive International and Latin American solidarity networks. Pressure representatives to oppose military interventionism. Read more

Taste: The bitter metallic tang of budget ink drying on abandoned field station doors—empty buildings that still appear "active" on official reports.

The science: We're hemorrhaging conservation projects faster than we can count them, and nobody's fucking talking about it. New research in BioScience reveals roughly one-third of community-based conservation programs in Africa have collapsed—stopped enforcing rules, abandoned monitoring, essentially ghosted. Globally, between 1892 and 2018, governments stripped protections from 2 million square kilometers of land (that's Greenland-sized, for perspective). But here's the nightmare: these dead projects still get counted toward biodiversity targets. We're claiming to protect 30% of land by 2030 while one-third of existing projects are quietly decomposing. The US just cut $300 million from international conservation funding. Trump gutted protections for California's 18 national forests and Pacific marine monuments. UK refused to fund Brazil's Tropical Forests Forever Facility. The pattern is clear: announce, abandon, claim victory anyway.

Action: The SEE-Life program in France shows the alternative—sustained recurrent funding supporting 79 long-term studies across 28 research centers. Ecosystems provide $125 trillion in services annually; we're pissing it away chasing photo-ops. Demand accountability: if it's not funded for decades, it shouldn't count. Support organizations documenting conservation abandonment. Push for "time survival" metrics in climate targets. Link

Sight: Layers of tulle—pink, lavender, pearl-white—catching Houston ballroom lights as six women in their 40s and 50s glide across floors their teenage selves could never have imagined walking.

Stakes: Quinceañeras mark a girl's 15th birthday, her passage into womanhood—a massive Latin American tradition involving families, church, elaborate gowns, the works. For trans Latinas who couldn't transition decades ago, who faced violence just for existing, these celebrations were impossible fantasies. Now, Organización Latina de Trans en Texas is making it happen. Kassandra Rivas, 51, finally got hers. Vickymar Castrellon, 54, used to secretly try on friends' quinceañera gowns as a teenager, dreaming. "I never thought I'd get to my 50s," she said. The stakes are life-and-death real: 68% of trans murders globally happen in Latin America, and 80% of victims are under 40. These celebrations aren't just parties—they're survival, visibility, stolen girlhoods finally honored.

Movement: Similar celebrations happened in Mexico City's historic district in May—a church mass for trans women who "never had their party." In Houston, six trans women celebrated together, crowned "Miss Trans Elite," wearing the gowns and heels that teenage transphobia denied them. The movement's spreading: doble quinces (30th birthday quinceañeras) are becoming common for queer Latinx folks reclaiming traditions that excluded them. This is cultural evolution in real fucking time—taking traditions that rejected you and making them yours anyway. Link

🎭 "A Gay in a Manger" stands its ground – York St. John University's LGBTQ+ network staged a Christmas play featuring lesbian Mary and Jo, Jesus as "King of the Gays," heaven as a gay disco, and drag queen wise men. Christian students protested, called it discrimination, asked why "A Gay in Mecca" wouldn't fly. University held firm: artistic expression, free speech, not hate speech under UK law. The show went on December 18th, tickets benefited York LGBT Forum. Sometimes defending queer art means letting Christians stay mad. Link

⚖️ Epstein's brother claims Trump ordered the hit – Mark Epstein told FBI in 2023 his brother was murdered because he was "about to name names," claimed Trump "authorized" it. DOJ released the tip alongside 30,000 Epstein files, immediately posted that claims against Trump are "unfounded and sensationalist." Pathologist hired by Mark disputed suicide ruling, said broken neck bone was "extremely unusual" for hanging, consistent with strangulation. We'll never know the truth—conspiracy's already baked into the cake. Link

🪨 Environmental data being scrubbed and manipulated – Scientists are sounding alarms that long-term ecological datasets are being taken offline or "curated" (read: censored) by governments following recent electoral shifts. In early 2025, leading environmental datasets maintained by national agencies were abruptly replaced with versions that "obscure or distort previously accessible information." We're losing decades of biodiversity monitoring as political interference targets climate science. The stakes? $125 trillion in ecosystem services annually. Link

🪐 Asteroid samples reveal life's building blocks – NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission brought back 121.6 grams of space dirt from asteroid Bennu (cost: $1.16 billion, so about $10 million per gram—expensive as fuck). Findings? Sugars, all five DNA letters, 15 of 20 protein-building amino acids, minerals formed in ancient water. These asteroids are 4.5-billion-year-old time capsules showing how organic chemistry happens throughout the cosmos. The mystery isn't missing ingredients—it's the process that organized those ingredients into life. We now know the recipe; we're still figuring out who the chef was.

📸 One photographer, one year, 30,000 photos – Naturalist Bill Danielson hit a personal record documenting wildlife in his Massachusetts yard: 30,000 photos in 2025, including a female mink moving her babies (his photo of the year). Also logged 38 bird species in November—a new record. Oh, and he was diagnosed with cancer in July, had surgery in September, and is now cancer-free. Sometimes the best life hack is just showing up for the beauty around you, even when your body's betraying you.

🥣 Winter comfort: Roasted root vegetable soup – It's early January, frozen ground outside, your body craving dense carbohydrates and warm spices. Roast carrots, parsnips, sweet potato chunks with olive oil, cumin, smoked paprika until caramelized edges form. Blend with vegetable stock, splash of coconut milk, fresh ginger. The transformation of hard winter roots into silk-smooth soup that coats your throat and settles in your belly like an anchor—this is January's fucking mission statement.

"Jeffrey Epstein was murdered because he was about to name names," brother claims
Miami Herald | Multiple authors. Mark Epstein filed FBI tip in 2023: his brother was killed to protect powerful people, claimed Trump authorized it—DOJ says it's bullshit, but the autopsy pathologist disputes the suicide ruling, and nobody's explaining how Epstein got strangled in a federal jail where cameras mysteriously malfunctioned. Read

🔮 Seasonal prediction: Three things will definitely happen this month: (1) Trump will take 20 aspirin, (2) Trump will develop sexy thin blood from said aspirin, (3) Trump will become concerningly anemic. We're calling it now.

🪨 Asteroid secrets spilling everywhere – Bennu and Ryugu samples contain minerals suggesting Earth got some water from dead ocean worlds—icy moons that got blasted apart in the early solar system. The evaporite minerals found in the samples? They form when very salty water evaporates, and they dissolve so easily in water they're almost never found in meteorites. We're literally holding evidence of extraterrestrial seas in our hands. Link

📷 30,000 photos later, nature photographer reflects – Through cancer diagnosis, surgery, recovery, Bill Danielson kept his camera trained on his Massachusetts yard. Record November bird counts, mink families, Cooper's hawks hunting mourning doves on his deck. "I won't be sorry to see 2025 in the rearview mirror," he writes. But damn if he didn't document the hell out of it anyway. Link

🗑️ Clickbait: 31 organizers that'll banish your junk piles – BuzzFeed's doing the lord's work with shoe organizers, closet shelves, cord hiders, and drawer dividers. Because if your junk piles are becoming junk mountains, hikers will start attempting to scale them, and that's a liability issue. Link

Behind the Name: The Gathering connects you to the mycelial wisdom beneath surface noise—the ancestral knowledge that grounds us, the daily practices that keep us tethered to what fucking matters.