Americans are unused to prosecuting Presidents, but it really can be done. South Korea does it all the time. Out of 12 Presidents total, four have been convicted, a full 33%. All four living ex-Presidents have been convicted. You can do this America. Just follow the true leader of the free world, the Republic of Korea.

Children around the world should not worry about the logistics of Christmas present delivery while the coronavirus pandemic rages, Dr Anthony Fauci said - because he vaccinated Santa himself.

"I took care of that for you," the top US infectious diseases expert told CNN. "Because I was worried that you'd all be upset.

"So what I did a little while ago, I took a trip up there to the North Pole. I went there and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself. I measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go. He can come down the chimney. He can leave the presents, he can leave, and you have nothing to worry about. Santa Claus is good to go."

Visit from Santa may have infected 75 with coronavirus at Belgian care home

Helpful thread from @firefoxx66 about the UK & separate South African #SARSCoV2 variants recently identified & announced

Both have N501Y mutation, but the variants are different & have arisen separately according to phylogenetic analyseS👇#Science #Collaboration@GISAID @WHO [_link]

— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) December 19, 2020

Ahead of the tier 4 lockdown, Londoners scurried to trainstations to spend the holidays in the countryside 🙃🔥⭕️

Covid: Video shows crowds of passengers cramming in to train leaving London ahead of Tier 4 lockdown[_link]

— ITV News (@itvnews) December 19, 2020

I'll miss 'good friend to UK' Donald Trump, defence secretary says

'Whatever people think of him, Donald Trump's position towards the United Kingdom in many areas was totally aligned with us,' says Ben Wallace.

... and with the Apartheid policy of the Jewish State of Israel.

Under President Joe Biden much needs repair and true change ... NOT leaning over backwards to cross the isle. 😠

Right-wing NY Democrat beats @AOC for seat on House Energy Committee, House Dem moderates are frightened of her Green New Deal advocacy. [_link]

— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) December 21, 2020

In einer früheren Version dieses Artikels wurde der Eindruck erweckt, das Parlament Venezuelas schließe Regierungsgegner von Wahlen aus. Es handelt sich jedoch um das Parlament von Nicaragua. Wir bitten, diesen Fehler zu entschuldigen.

Growing up, my Muslim family never celebrated Christmas. This year I am not going home, because pandemic, so my roommates are teaching me how to have my first proper Christmas.

I am approaching this with anthropological precision.

Here are a few observations. pic.twitter.com/1WARv5nax4

— Mohammad Hussain (@MohammadHussain) December 19, 2020

Full text of King Willem-Alexander's 2020 Christmas speech

Leader of the Dutch Reformed Church

Lonely #healthcare worker in #PPE protests at a #church in #Barneveld, #TheNetherlands. The #christian community continuously ignores government #COVID19 regulations under the #FreedomOfReligion act, and allows hundreds of people during services. pic.twitter.com/65UwcA4nRw

— Saskia Steinhorst (@scruffy65) December 25, 2020

And of course, the King and family traveled to their holiday home in Greece during an imposed period of lockdown at home. 😷 😠

Australian expeditioner evacuated from Antarctica in five-day mission | BBC News |

The expeditioner was at Australia's Davis research station in east Antarctica when the mission began.

The AAD said that "fortunately for the operation" a Chinese icebreaker happened to pass by. It dispatched its helicopters to transfer a team of Australians to a site some 40km (25 miles) inland, so that they could build a ski-way for a US aircraft to land on and pick up the patient.

Meanwhile, the US ski-equipped Basler aircraft flew 2,200km from the US McMurdo research station to Australia's Wilkins Aerodrome to pick up an Australian doctor.

It then flew to the ski-way near Davis, where it picked up the patient and returned to Wilkins Aerodrome.

An Australian Airbus A319 transported the patient back to the Australian city of Hobart on Christmas Eve.

200 Briten über Nacht aus Verbier geflohen

Cobra's in auto, drugs in onderbroek[_link]

— Politie Amsterdam eo (@Politie_Adam) December 28, 2020

Certainly an eye catcher ... early hours in the morning, police in Amsterdam found Cobra's in the car ... and drugs (cocaïne) in underwear 🤣

No, not the snake variety but illegal fireworks 🔥🔥

Meet Louisiana's newest Congressman-elect @LukeLetlow #lagov #lalege #la05 [_link] via @thenewsstar

— Greg Hilburn (@GregHilburn1) December 7, 2020

Luke Letlow passed away due to the coronavirus ...

pic.twitter.com/7mDgswOYrL

— Luke Letlow (@LukeLetlow) December 23, 2020

Republican Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, 41, dies from COVID-19 just days before being sworn in - as US hits new daily death record of 3,700

Luke Letlow, Louisiana's incoming Republican member of the U.S. House, died Tuesday night from complications related to COVID-19 only days before he was due to be sworn into office.

Ahead of being diagnosed with coronavirus, Letlow held multiple campaign events, including meet-and-greets where people did not wear masks although they appeared to be standing six feet apart.  

On December 19, Letlow said he was undergoing treatment at St Francis Hospital in Monroe. Three days after being admitted, his office said he had been transferred to Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport Academic Medical Center.  

At the time, the married father-of-two was in stable condition and was being treated Remdesivir and steroids - the same treatment President Trump was given.

Letlow, who was due to be sworn into office on Sunday, died on Tuesday night.

Members of Congress send mixed messages on getting vaccinated

The vaccine became available to Congress about a week before Christmas, after the National Security Council announced Congress would be allotted doses of the vaccine to protect "continuity of government operations."

"If they were considered a priority to keep the country going, then they need to take the vaccine so they can be healthy and well to keep the country going," said Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious diseases physician.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said it was "shameful" for members of Congress to get vaccines ahead of frontline workers and declared that she would wait until they do to get her own.

Anger as Republican lawmakers who played down pandemic jump vaccine queue

A disfunctional US Congress getting priority during a pandemic? A very bad example ...

Approval rating Congress hits new low in Dec. 2020 of 15%

The EU has secured the ability to shut off gas and electricity supplies if the UK tries to seize control of disputed fish stocks in future, experts are warning.

The sanction - which would hike prices and possibly trigger blackouts - makes a mockery of the prime minister's claim to have "taken control" of British waters in his trade agreement, they say.

This is infuriating. Skylar is an 18 year old girl who left her hotel to watch her boyfriend compete in a jet ski competition... 4 months in jail?!#FreeSkylar [_link]

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) December 22, 2020

.@sendavidperdue & I sent a letter on behalf of Skylar Mack, an 18-year-old student detained in the Cayman Islands, to ensure a safe return to Georgia.

We're working alongside the U.S. Embassy & Mack's family in calling for leniency for this young woman.[_link]

— Senator Kelly Loeffler (@SenatorLoeffler) December 27, 2020

Trailing in the polls ...

Georgia Sen. David Perdue, facing tight runoff, will quarantine after close Covid contact

Covid-19: 12-week vaccine gap defended, and a different New Year's Eve [_link]

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) January 1, 2021

GPs hit out at 'grossly unfair' plan to delay follow-up COVID-19 jabs

As cases continue to surge across the country it is hoped that vaccinating greater numbers with one dose of either the Pfizer or Oxford/AstraZeneca jab will provide more people with short term protection against the virus.

We're talking about treating very, very large populations, which means that you're going to see the usual run of mortality and morbidity that you see across large samples. Specifically, if you take 10 million people and just wave your hand back and forth over their upper arms, in the next two months you would expect to see about 4,000 heart attacks. About 4,000 strokes. Over 9,000 new diagnoses of cancer. And about 14,000 of that ten million will die, out of usual all-causes mortality. No one would notice. That's how many people die and get sick anyway.

[emphasis original]

And Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc too.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

People started breaking Covid rules when they saw those with privilege ignore them | Daisy Fancourt [_link]

— Guardian Opinion (@guardianopinion) January 2, 2021

There's a darker side to English businesses citing Magna Carta to defy lockdown | Hussein Kesvani [_link]

— Guardian Opinion (@guardianopinion) January 2, 2021

South African Covid variant reported in southern Switzerland | Swiss Info |

At least thirteen people in Switzerland have now been detected with the mutant virus, ten with the British version and three with a version detected in South Africa.

On December 20 Switzerland banned flights from the UK and South Africa and imposed an entry ban following reports of the new strain of coronavirus. People who had entered Switzerland from those countries since December 14 were ordered to go into a ten-day quarantine.

Scientists appeal for calm over new Covid variant in South Africa

Covid vaccine UAE: Residents report no side effects after second dose of #Sinopharm vaccine [_link]

— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) January 5, 2021

Hospitals are so overwhelmed by coronavirus patients that the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency issued directives that ambulances should stop transporting patients to hospitals if they have virtually no chance of surviving [_link]

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) January 5, 2021

Dutch to pass urgent legislation to avoid age discrimination in choice for last ICU beds ... the Black scenario.

UK King's Fund: Age discrimination in health and social care

Ethical dilemmas in the age of coronavirus: Whose lives should we save? | LA Times |

#BREAKING Unexpected win for sub-Scandinavian European nation of France as Brexit peace deal halts boiled, bland culinary exports from cold and reclusive island kingdom of Britain whose pitiable, ethnically divided subjects have historically had to escape to find hope of flavour.

He continued: "Over the next ten days, we get to see the machines that are crooked, the ballots that are fraudulent, and if we're wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we're right, a lot of them will go to jail."

Mr Giuliani then suddenly yelled: "Let's have trial by combat!" to lacklustre cheers from the crowd.

#BREAKING Diplomats from first world basket case, US, have written home demanding immediate defenestration of condemned dictator, Donald "Papa Don" Trump, over his role in inciting the failed Orange putsch, which some in the jumpy capital are calling the Day of Pigs fiasco.

A Russian meets up with an American.

"We have freedom of speech," the Russian says. "I can post that Russian elections are falsified on social media."

"What's the big deal?" asks the American. "I too can write that Russian elections are falsified on social media."

The Falkland Islands are back in the spotlight after being excluded from the UK-EU trade deal, meaning the British overseas territory will not benefit from commercial, tax and customs advantages that have been negotiated,

Products coming from the islands to the EU could now face tariffs, following the UK's departure from the bloc.

It's a major concern for the economy of the islands, which exports 90% of its fish to Europe. Local residents hope to eventually maintain the status quo, as 60% of the local government revenue comes from the fishery-related sector and 40% of GDP is dependent n this special relationship with the EU.

Teslyn Barkman, a member of the Falklands Legislative Assembly told Euronews their request is incredibly simple: "We just want to continue to be able to trade in a way that benefits us and benefits the EU,. So, from the EU our calamari is enjoyed in Italy, in France, and everywhere someone can go and enjoy some gorgeous top-quality squid and we want to keep these opportunities flowing.