🗣 @Ianblackford_MP: “Mr Speaker, this afternoon, millions around the world will breathe a massive sigh of relief when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are sworn into office.” #PMQs

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I want to update Parliament on Cabinet’s review of the current lockdown restrictions which took place this morning."

NS: "Let me confirm at the outset that - with one limited exception - I will not be announcing any immediate changes to the current lockdown restrictions."

NS: "The core stay at home requirement will remain in place until at least the beginning of March - and possibly for a further period beyond that although not for any longer than is absolutely necessary."

NS: "I will however confirm that the phased and gradual return to school that I said we were hopeful about when I updated Parliament two weeks ago will go ahead as planned from Monday."

NS: "I will say more about this - and about the importance of carefully implementing and monitoring it - later.

In addition, I will give an assessment of the current state of the pandemic."

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Good afternoon, thank you for joining us. I'll give you some warning in advance - my update is going to be slightly longer than normal today because I've got a few updates I'm going to cover."

NS: "I'm also going to touch a little bit on Christmas, which I know is of huge interest to everyone. But firstly, as usual, I will cover today's statistics."

NS: "There were 689 positive cases reported yesterday, which is 5.9% of the total number of tests and means that the total tally of confirmed cases now is 108,438."

NS: "140 of today's new cases were in Lothian, 109 in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 92 in Lanarkshire and 91 in Ayrshire & Arran, and the remaining cases are spread across 8 other health board areas."

NS: "1,031 people are currently in hospital which is an increase of 35 from yesterday. 49 people are in intensive care, which is 4 more than yesterday."

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I want to update Parliament on Cabinet's review of the current lockdown restrictions, which took place earlier today."

NS: "I will report on some cautious grounds for optimism, I'm pleased to say, but also set out why it is vital, in order to protect the NHS and save lives, to stick with these restrictions for a further period."

NS: "I will set out what that means for the timing of getting children back to school, which, of course, remains a priority for all of us."

NS: "And finally, I'll touch on other aspects of our response to Covid, including control of borders, the further expansion of testing, and the progress of the vaccination programme."

NS: "Firstly, I'll give a brief summary of the latest statistics and then seek to put these in some context."

🛫 As Boris Johnson sets off on his jaunt to Scotland, he'd hope people forget his catalogue of broken promises.

🔎 We thought we'd remind him.

👀 Their latest attack on workers' rights is only the most recent example of why you can't trust the

There's hardly enough space in an article to contain what Boris Johnson thinks of Scotland, devolution, Scottish spending, and the NHS... so here's a thread 👇

1⃣ Just a few months ago, Boris Johnson said devolution is "a disaster".

2⃣ While Boris Johnson seemingly liked devolution as Mayor of London, he told Tory MPs he did not "currently see a case" for devolving more powers from Westminster to Scotland and other nations.

3⃣ Boris Johnson's Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, recently said that devolution amounted to "vandalism" and must be

4⃣ In 2007, nearly a decade after the Scottish Parliament was re-convened - Boris Johnson's current Secretary of Scotland, Alister Jack, indicated he was opposed to devolution and the Scottish Parliament.

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Firstly, can I thank you, Presiding Officer, for this recall of Parliament today and join you in wishing everyone all the very best for a new year that we hope, despite its very difficult start, will bring better times."

NS: "The Cabinet met this morning to assess the up to date Covid situation - which I must say at the outset is extremely serious - and to discuss what further action is necessary to minimise further spread of the virus. I will set out our decisions shortly."

NS: "However, I can confirm now, in summary, that we decided to introduce from midnight tonight, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes. This is similar to the lockdown of March last year."

NS: "However, before I set out these decisions in more detail, I want to take the opportunity to explain in some detail why they are so necessary.

In the last few weeks, there have been two significant game changers in our fight against this virus."

NS: "One, the approval of vaccines, is hugely positive and offers us the way out of this pandemic.

But the other - the new faster spreading variant of the virus - is a massive blow."

#BREAKING
U.S. charges political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi with acting as an agent of #Iran's regime.

https://t.co/fsmrOtgImm

Afrasiabi is a known Tehran apologist & strongly defends the world's number one terrorist Qassem Soleimani.

"Afrasiabi was actually a secret employee of the Government of Iran & the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN who was being paid to spread their propaganda.... he intentionally avoided registering with the Dept. of Justice as the Foreign Agents Registration Act required."

“Mr. Afrasiabi never disclosed to a congressman, journalists or others who hold roles of influence in our country that he was being paid by #Iran's gov to paint an untruthfully positive picture of the nation."

Afrasiab on CNN with Amanpour & Reza Aslan, all Iran apologists.

"For more than a decade, Mr. Afrasiabi was allegedly paid, directed & controlled by #Iran's gov to lobby U.S. gov officials, including a congressman; and to create & disseminate information favorable to the Iranian gov."

Seen here with former regime president Mohammad Khatami.

"Afrasiabi has also been secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the IMUN. Afrasiabi has been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn on the IMUN’s official bank accounts since 2007..."

Ok. I began this journey because of Pizz'gat3, deehate cabal, Trump etc. Now it has led to RH- bloodtypes, (of which I am one). This is another rabbit hole, and suddenly close to home. Joining the dots of info I have read so far, other RH- stories and my own history (pt1)

-putting aside all of the theories of Nephilim, reptilians, aliens, etc. I think I was an experiment as a child. I was adopted by a military person and had an extremely traumatic and abusive upbringing. Watching trans videos has made me remember how I was forced to dress (pt2)

in boy clothes as a child. My hair was always cut off short. My sister wore all of the pink clothes, long hair & ribbons. I had the blue, the dungarees, the shit hacked off hair cut, and was given marbles, train sets, and racing cars to play with. I was effectively a tomboy (pt3)

This remained with me through to this day. I am still largely interested in male activities. But I did get ridiculously into pink and all girly things, to the point of now being awake and realising it is childish and mkultra programming. I was sexually and physically abused (pt4)

I also wonder, as I have medical issues and was given meds my whole life and only ever visited military hospitals & medical healthcare in my childhood, what meds was I given? I do have an extremely strong physique for a female. It is often commented on how unnatural it is (pt 5)

A federal judge in DC is holding a detention hearing in the cases of Capitol insurrection defendants Eric Munchel (who was photographed wearing tactical gear and holding a bunch of zip tie handcuffs) and his mother Lisa Eisenhart — the govt is arguing to keep both behind bars

Re: the zip tie handcuffs that Munchel and Eisenhart allegedly picked up inside the Capitol, AUSA Ahmed Baset says they were visible to lots of people passing by at the time but these two not only took them, but did so "with glee"

Baset says it's true that Munchel and Eisenhart aren't charged with physically hurting anyone, the evidence shows they were looking for lawmakers, who had been cleared out. "They should not be given credit for that," Baset argues.

Baset says that Munchel was in touch with the Proud Boys in Tennessee *after* Jan. 6 and talked about how he'd wanted to join their ranks before but didn't know how

Munchel's lawyer Sandra Roland argues that the Tennessee magistrate judge who granted pretrial release to Munchel and Eisenhart got it right in finding that the govt failed to show there were no combination of release conditions that would protect the community