"A local resident on Ailuk discovered a boat with 649 one-kilogram bricks of cocaine," said Marshall Islands Attorney General Richard Hickson. Police said the discovery last week was the largest volume of cocaine to ever wash into the Marshall Islands, which has seen hundreds of kilos of cocaine found near multiple islands over the past two decades. The drug haul has an estimated street value of over $US80 million. https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/433026/marshall-islands-destroy-record-cocaine-haul

Woman loses dog under massive amounts of sea foam
Several people jumped into action to save a dog that got lost under massive amounts of sea foam covering an Australian beach. https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/12/15/australia-beach-foam-dog-lost-jr-orig-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/around-the-world/

Italy has ordered a nationwide lockdown over much of the Christmas and New Year period in an effort to combat a rise in coronavirus cases.
The country will be under "red-zone" restrictions over the public holidays, with non-essential shops, restaurants and bars closed, and Italians only allowed to travel for work, health and emergency reasons.
Limited home visits will be allowed. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55372491

Reports from Britain and South Africa of new coronavirus strains that seem to spread more easily are causing alarm, but virus experts say it’s unclear if that’s the case or whether they pose any concern for vaccines or cause more severe disease.
Viruses naturally evolve as they move through the population, some more than others. https://apnews.com/article/new-coronavirus-strain-england-explainer-74ea2d47820b8dcac02f95ad9440f533

If the Brits panic you know what happen if that mutation comes to the USA!! India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for Britons after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a mutated variant of the virus, up to 70% more transmissible, had been identified in the country. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman closed their borders completely. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain/shaken-by-new-coronavirus-strain-world-shuts-the-door-on-britain-idUSKBN28V1FF

This is the world that press photographers captured in 2020, a world beset by every sort of catastrophe — natural and unnatural disaster, violent and non-violent conflict.
And, in every corner of that world, the coronavirus.
https://apnews.com/article/AP-photos-2020-virus-racial-injustice-2dffd369c407c5b313f3db0c1fa35377

Ray Dalio founded and manages the largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates. He warns that if we don't reform capitalism to narrow the wealth gap in this country, we’ll not only see greater polarization, but also a worse economy for all. https://youtu.be/pYZxD1Nnglw

Wombats, snails, ferrets: The animals that brought us joy during the pandemic https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/23/world/2020-covid-pandemic-animals-intl-hnk-dst-scli/index.html

The day before Christmas Eve, the pilot stayed in the air a little less than two hours. He first flew from Friedrichshafen to Ulm, then suddenly turned around and made a few unusual turns in the air space north of Lake Constance. Evaluations of his flight data show: The man traced the shape of a syringe. With the campaign, he wanted to draw attention to the upcoming corona vaccinations. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/impf-kampagne-ueber-friedrichshafen-pilot-zeichnet-riesige-spritze-in-den-himmel-a-fa98ef6f-c1b0-47e3-a8f8-231bc6822a3b

The foundations of the American experiment have been shaken — by partisan rancor, disinformation, a president’s assault on democracy and a deadly coronavirus pandemic. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-michigan-north-carolina-c331eaa4bfb954d5584d8c712eb0a7e8

Hackers knocked out one of Germany's biggest news organizations over the Christmas holiday. Such criminal attacks, which often come with ransom demands, have become a lucrative business model. https://p.dw.com/p/3nL00

"Hospitals are declaring internal disasters and having to open church gyms to serve as hospital units," County Supervisor Hilda Solis said. "Our health care workers are physically and mentally exhausted and sick." https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/05/us/los-angeles-county-california-human-disaster-covid/index.html

Mutants are significantly more contagious and have become the dominant virus variants in these countries in just a few weeks. The British mutant has already been found in several other countries, including Germany. I think it is inevitable that these new variants will spread and soon become dominant around the world. This will make it much more difficult to control the pandemic — and it could get worse if the virus continues to change. https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/jeremy-farrar-on-the-coronavirus-we-are-in-a-dramatic-race-against-a-changing-virus-a-4afdbc24-b5a1-499d-a0d1-ae95415844ed

Armed men on Sunday killed at least six rangers and wounded several others in an ambush in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/11/africa/congo-virunga-park-rangers-killed-intl/index.html

At least several users of the far-right social network Parler appear to be among the horde of rioters that managed to penetrate deep inside the U.S. Capitol building and into areas normally restricted to the public, according to GPS metadata linked to videos posted to the platform the day of the insurrection in Washington. https://gizmodo.com/parler-users-breached-deep-inside-u-s-capitol-building-1846042905?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

Few other issues are as hotly debated as school closures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. New data from Austria now provides further evidence of the risk posed by children. The virus mutant B.1.1.7 could make the situation even worse. https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-study-explores-risk-played-by-children-in-covid-spread-a-b0a90b6f-1d21-41e8-a2d0-13751aa3ce09

Europeans have considered the last four years extremely distasteful. They've been bemused by Trump's envoys, like Richard Grenell in Germany, who have turned up and started behaving like Fox News anchors and insulting the country they were supposed to be building relations with https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/16/europe/trump-has-trashed-the-transatlantic-alliance-intl/index.html

Anti-lockdown and anti-mask groups, which now count some 3 million members on Facebook, were a crucial recruiting ground for the “Stop the Steal” effort that culminated in the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. “The ranks of ‘Stop the Steal’ groups were able to swell to hundreds of thousands almost overnight largely because they drew on this established base that had already been radicalized,” https://theintercept.com/2021/01/15/capitol-riot-mob-anti-lockdown/

Now that guy is in a real clusterPhuk!! Man who accidentally threw out a bitcoin fortune offers $70 million for permission to dig it up https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/15/uk/bitcoin-trash-landfill-gbr-scli-intl/index.html