Here's a roundup of news trending across the nation and world today.
What to know now:
1. Republicans debate – most of them: The Republican candidates for president will meet in Iowa Thursday for their final debate in advance of the Iowa caucuses on Monday. All the candidates with the exception of the party's front-runner, Donald Trump, are expected to take the stage in Des Moines. Trump says he will not attend the debate because he believes one of the its moderators, Fox anchor Megyn Kelly, will be neither fair nor balanced in her questioning of him.
2. Democrats may debate – two of them: Hillary Clinton is urging Sen. Bernie Sanders to accept an invitation to a quickly arranged debate in New Hampshire on Feb. 4. Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley have accepted invitations to the event set to be sponsored by NBC and the New Hampshire Union Leader. The debate, however would not be sanctioned by the Democratic Party, meaning Clinton and O'Malley could risk being uninvited to the remainder of the party's sanctioned debates. Sanders' campaign says the senator will not attend an unsanctioned debate.
3. Challenger disaster 30 years later: Thursday marks three decades since the space shuttle Challenger was destroyed a little over a minute after it lifted off from Cape Kennedy on Jan. 28, 1986. The seven astronauts aboard, including the first teacher in space, were killed in the accident. On Thursday there will be a memorial at the Kennedy Space Center called a "Time of Remembrance." In addition to marking the anniversary of the Challenger loss, those there will also remember the Jan. 27, 1967 Apollo launch pad fire that killed Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, and the 13th anniversary of the Columbia shuttle disaster which happened on Feb. 1, 2003.
4. Asylum-seekers to leave Sweden: Sweden's interior minister said in a newspaper interview published Friday that his country is prepared to deport between 60,000 and 80,000 people who have come into that country seeking asylum. Anders Ygeman said his country has rejected the applications of nearly half of those seeking to stay in Sweden this year, and those immigrants will be deported.
5. Legal pot, illegal trafficking: Colorado law enforcement authorities tell The Associated Press that drug traffickers are using that state's legal marijuana trade to grow then ship pot to be sold across the country. According to the report, traffickers are making millions by growing the marijuana legally then sending it to other states to be sold.
And one more
Need to up your sense of calm? Then move. Unless, that is, you live in Hawaii or Alaska. In that case, just stay put because you are already in one of the top two spots on a list of states that boast the best sense of well-being. The annual Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index ranks Hawaii No. 1 in residents with the best sense of well-being, followed by Alaska, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming in the top five.
In case you missed it
You've read about rapper B.o.B. and the flat earth conspiracy? Here's an explanation of what he believes from Mashable.
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