Flights and Christmas church services are canceled due to COVID. But NASA just launched a new telescope and Biden said “Let’s Go Brandon.”
Summary
Staffing shortages due to the coronavirus forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights around the globe.
- In the Philippines, Typhoon Rai ravaged the nation, leaving hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands without homes or utilities for Christmas.
- The number of new COVID-19 cases are breaking records in the United Kingdom, with perhaps as many as 1 in 10 Londoners having the virus this week.
- Churches are panicking over the omicron variant and canceling Christmas Mass.
- Despite the omicron surge, Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve Mass with roughly 2,000 people in attendance.
- Scientist Don Lincoln wrote in CNN about the anticipated Christmas Day launch of the James Webb Space Telescope which is many times more powerful than the Hubble telescope, saying the Webb telescope will continue to answer questions about the cosmos.
- Vox chronicled the history of the carol “The 12 Days of Christmas”, calling it “a really effective way to annoy family members on road trips.”
- Eternal optimist Arthur Brooks, host of The Atlantic’s How to Build a Happy Life podcast, provides some tips to readers on how to avoid or confront the “holiday blues.”
- The Daily Mail highlighted an appearance Catholic priest Father Edward Beck made on CNN, in which he stomped on the spirit of Christmas by telling unvaccinated parishioners not to attend Christmas Mass.
- RedState posted a contributor’s Christmas miracle story in which the writer’s mother survived a near-fatal medical emergency during Christmas.
- Newsmax highlighted a prank caller during President Biden’s NORAD Santa-tracking event in which the parent said (and President Biden repeated) “Let’s Go Brandon”, a phrase used my conservatives to denigrate Biden.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
