❗️🏙🇺🇸🦠 The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state of New York almost doubled in the past ten days.

📈There were 4,452 COVID-19 patients in NY hospitals on December 21. Updated coronavirus data released on Saturday shows that the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 now stands at 8,451.

💉More than 200 US Marines have been discharged from service due to their refusal to take any COVID-19 vaccine.

Per the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, a service member cannot be dishonorably discharged over vaccine refusal alone.

As of Thursday, the USMC reported that it had reviewed and adjudicated 3,080 of 3,192 vaccine exemption requests submitted by Marines.

When you make your personal needs more important

📊One in three Americans answering questions in a survey say that violence against the government can sometimes be justified, according to the poll.

The poll, from The Washington Post-University of Maryland found that 40 percent of Republicans participating said violence could be "justified for citizens to take violent action against the government", compared to 23 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Independents. This poll-based percentage has increased in recent years.

22% of those surveyed said that violent action could be justified if there was clear evidence that the government was removing people’s Constitutional rights, and 15 percent participating in the poll cited a potential military takeover or collapse of democracy.

One night in 1955, US Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup was on duty when a top-secret phone rang. Instead of a commanding officer, it was a child asking to speak with Santa.

It turned out that a department store misprinted a phone number in their Santa advert, accidentally prompting children to call the US military. Shoup asked the phone company for another number but instructed other personnel to take the children’s calls, his daughter, Terri Shoup van Keuren, tells Sputnik, and later on, he came up with an idea to track Santa.

Each year since 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has organized the Santa watch. In December, anyone can track Santa's journey across the world on NORAD's website.

For van Keuren, there is a personal lesson in the tradition her father helped start: "Do the right things, do the kind things. We need more kindness in this world. That is what changes the world. People getting to know each other, love each other.”

Photo credit: Department of Defense

Bill Clinton should face probe over ties to sex traffickers Maxwell & Epstein claim legal experts

❗️Three people missing, nearly 1,000 houses destroyed after Colorado wildfires

A horrific story from Georgia where Kamarie Holland, a five-year-old girl from Columbus, was sold as a sex slave by her mother. The girl was later found dead in the next-door state Alabama and a 37-year-old suspect – Jeremy Tremaine Williams – was taken into custody after authorities seized him at a nearby motel.

The girl’s mother has also been arrested: "She did agree with another person to pay her for having sexual intercourse and sodomy with her minor daughter,’’ the warrant states.

The consequences of Colorado wildfires could be much worse, according to Boulder County sheriff

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has been permanently suspended from Twitter after the US Republican lawmaker posted the following statement:

"Maxine Waters can go to the streets and threaten violence on Twitter, Kamala and Ilhan can bail out Black Lives Matter terrorists on Twitter, CNN and the rest of the Democrat Propaganda Media can spread Russia collusion lies, and just yesterday the Chief spokesman for terrorist IRGC can tweet mourning Soleimani, but I get suspended for tweeting VAERS statistics.

Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth.

That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies. They can’t successfully complete a Communist revolution when people tell the truth.

Social media platforms can’t stop the truth from being spread far and wide. Big Tech can’t stop the truth. Communist Democrats can’t stop the truth. I stand with the truth and the people. We will overcome!"

🔥Two people are still missing after a wind-stoked wildfire roared through two towns in Boulder County, Colorado, prompting thousands of evacuations and destroying nearly 1,000 homes.

Out of three people missing as of Saturday, one has been accounted for, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said at a press briefing on Sunday.

🗣 US Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who serves on the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, revealed on Sunday that the panel has “firsthand testimony” that Ivanka Trump asked her father, then-US President Donald Trump, to intervene during the insurrection.

“We have firsthand testimony that his daughter, Ivanka, went in at least twice, to ask him to please stop this violence,” Cheney said. "He was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred.”

Multiple reports have cited Trump watching the riot unfold in real time on television, but Sunday marks the first time those reports have been confirmed by a member of the committee.

Donald Trump is getting ‘terrible advice’ from his current posse in scheduling a news conference on the one-year anniversary of the deadly January 6 Capitol attack, a former aide says.

🗣In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Farah Griffin suggested that the upcoming January 6 memorial “would be a wise day for [Trump] to stay silent, to let those who were victims on Capitol Hill talk about that very important and solemn day."

She noted that the idea of Trump holding a conference was proof that those around him are misleading the former president. She also believes that Trump's fanning of the same inflammatory rhetoric that led to the deadly Capitol violence on its anniversary will put congressional Republicans in a difficult position.

⚡️White House: Biden told Zelensky US, allies will 'respond decisively' if Russia 'invades' Ukraine