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Good morning, Portland! I hope you had a restful weekend and are ready to jump into this NEWS.

In local news:

While Mayor Ted Wheeler said that he learned of complaints against (now former) advisor Sam Adams’ behavior by multiple women employees two weeks ago, city records show that members of Wheeler’s staff were contacted by the Bureau of Human Resources about a “theme of failed interactions” between Adams and female employees in 2021. One woman who contacted human resources in 2021 said that she had talked to Wheeler’s chief of staff about Adams’ behavior, but was worried nothing would be done because of how much the Mayor’s office valued Adams’ expertise.

• ICYMI: The Oregon Brewers Festival will not return this summer, despite its revival in 2022 following two years of pandemic-induced hiatus. Organizers for the event cited low attendance, rising costs, and extreme weather—last year’s event took place during one of our increasingly-frequent mini-heatwaves.

• A 40-foot sperm whale that washed onto Oregon’s Northwestern coast was killed after being struck by a ship, biologist determined Monday. Biologists studied the whale after it beached Saturday, taking samples and removing its teeth so that they would not be stolen and sold on the black market. Officials are now determining how to remove the whale carcass, but they have confirmed that they are not going to blow it up with a shit ton of TNT.

• US Representative Suzanne Bonamici and her husband were hit by a driver while crossing the street in Northwest Portland Friday night. Both are recovering at home after being treated at the hospital.

In national and international news:

• A Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Ukraine killed 44 people Saturday, officials reported Tuesday. The apartment building housed about 1,700 residents, nearly 80 of whom were also injured in the blast. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would work with allies to bring charges against Russian forces involved in the strike, which he asserts fall in the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. 

• China’s population declined last year for the first time in decades, sparking fears of economic decline and an aging workforce. Over one million fewer babies were born in 2022 than 2021, as the country struggled through widespread pandemic lockdowns and a slowing economy. While China has longheld the title of most populous nation, that title is expected to be taken by India soon if it hasn’t already.

• Jury selection begins this week for the civil trial of a 2018 lawsuit against Elon Musk, claiming that Musk acted recklessly by tweeting that he had secured private funding to buy back all Tesla shares at $420 per share in order to make the company private. The tweets made Tesla stock volatile over the next 10 days, leading shareholders to claim that Musk’s tweets harmed them. While Musk maintains that he believed he had the funding in place to take Tesla private, the money never materialized.

• We'll end today with a joyful fun fact: On January 21, sunset will be after 5 pm and by the end of the month, sunset will be at 5:15 pm. Huzzah, something to look forward to!