US says no cease-fire: The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Almost all other Security Council members voted for the ceasefire, as did dozens of other nations, according to the Associated Press. The 15-member council voted 13-1 (the United Kingdom abstained from the vote) for a ceasefire. The US was the lone no vote. That's damning. 

Ceasefire calls in Seattle: On Friday, hundreds of Jewish people and their allies gathered in front of Pike Place Market to call for a ceasefire. 

Pipeline leak: A vault along a BP-owned gasoline pipeline leaked near Mount Vernon. Gas seeped into local  Hill Ditch and Bulson Creek. Crews are trying to keep the gas from spreading further throughout the waterways. A local K-8 school, Conway School, is closed due to the spill.

Weather calms down: The week ahead should be calm and dry. There may be a touch of a storm on Thursday. After last week's deluge of rain and mountain snow, a reprieve is nice. I mean, personally, I could always use some more storms, but whatever. 

Keep sunning those gay buns: After a massive public outcry, Seattle Parks and Recreation canceled its plan to build a privately funded children's playground near Denny Blaine, the city's unofficial nude beach. People feared that a playground in close proximity to the nude beach would bring scrutiny and law enforcement and ultimately kill the nude beach. Hundred of people showed up to a public meeting last week to speak out against the new plans. Around 9,000 people signed a petition opposing the plans. Within days of the meeting, Seattle Parks and Rec scrapped the plan. Huzzah. It's cool when people power really works. Go hang dong, sun all the lips you got, and roast your cheeks to celebrate. 

Oh, good: Alex Jones, Infowars host and bankrupt defamer of murdered children, is back on Twitter/X after Elon Musk ran a poll on his own page asking whether he should reinstate Jones's account. Back in 2018, then-Twitter banned Jones for abusive behavior. Over 70% of the respondents to Musk's Twitter/X poll voted in favor of bringing Jones back. So, Musk did. Twitter/X continues to become more and more of a cesspit. 

Hound heist: A woman broke into the Whatcom County Humane Society and stole a dog. She cut through an outer fence, broke a locked steel dog kennel door, took a dog named Pogo, and then cut a different hole into the outer fence to leave. The day of the robbery, staff received a call from a person inquiring about Pogo who said they knew the dog's former owner. 

Ohtani goes to the Dodgers: Well, realistic Mariners fans probably didn't hold out any hope that management would spring for Shohei Ohtani, the former Anaheim Angels dual hitting and pitching phenom. Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a 10-year guaranteed $700 million contract. It's the fattest contract ever inked by an athlete. 

Tennessee tornadoes: A slew of tornadoes and thunderstorms swept across northern Tennessee Saturday. The storms killed six people, injured 50, and destroyed multiple buildings. 

The tornado also upended a Supernatural convention: Fans and minor celebrities sheltered together inside a subterranean parking garage. I smell a self-insert fan fiction brewing.

American night-time pedestrian deaths rise: America's rising pedestrian deaths mostly occur when a driver hits someone walking at night. The trend, which started in 2009, is not happening in any other wealthy country. So what's the deal? Is it driver behavior, vehicle design, road safety? Researchers aren't sure. There are new risks. Namely, smartphones. The pervasiveness of automatic transmissions in the US means our idle driving hands can find another plaything the way countries with manual transmissions can't. Instead of downshifting or whatever (in a very appropriate American example, I never learned to drive stick), we can swipe or Snapchat or kill a pedestrian while scrolling. Whether it's responding to post-work emails or coordinating evening social plans, when darkness falls, American phone usage in cars goes up. Car size, street design, and societal change are also to blame. 

Where in the world is Alexey Navalny? Russian opposition leader Navalny, an outspoken critic of Putin who was supposedly imprisoned in a penal colony 150 miles east of Moscow, is missing from prison, his lawyers said. 

The Golden Globe nominations are out: It's a big day for Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Succession.

Seamonster, ahoy! Paleontologists unearthed the six-foot-five-inch skull of a Pliosaur dinosaur in southern England's Dorset cliffs. The complete fossil is totally intact. The jaw houses 130 big, fat teeth. 

An update on the Texas abortion case: Last week, a Texas judge waived the state's dystopian abortion restrictions for a woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis and who could risk her own fertility by carrying the pregnancy to term. Texas' Attorney General kicked up a big stink about the whole thing. Now, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the original judge's ruling. The woman currently cannot get an abortion. 

What happens to online orders when you return them? The Atlantic dives into the nearly $1 trillion industry of reverse logistics. The process seems to involve a lot of warehouses, third-party companies, and sniff tests. 

Chocolate, murder, international animators, real estate: NBC News reports "police arrested an American chocolatier and his suspected accomplices in connection with the murder of a Canadian animation pioneer and his wife near their resort on the Caribbean island of Dominica last Friday." The Canadian animation pioneer and his wife were found burnt to a crisp in the charred remains of their car. The murders may be a result of a years-long dispute between the chocolatier and the animator concerning a public road running through their adjacent estates.