Pope Francis will get his coronavirus shot next week; there should be enough vaccines for the entire Vatican. Actress Kate Hudson has admitted that she has four more half-siblings she has never seen. She plans to fix it this year. A snowstorm painted Madrid white, people went skiing and snowboarding in the city center.
US Vice President Mike Pence will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20. The decision came just one day after President Donald Trump had announced he would not attend the inauguration, and three days after Pence had been interrupted by a violent, deadly siege of the US Capitol while presiding over a joint session of Congress to confirm Biden's victory.
Many of those involved in the riots directly threatened the vice president himself when they attacked the building. Pence faced tremendous pressure from Trump to reject Biden's election victory and instead declare Trump the winner. Pence refused to do that, explaining that he believed it would have been unconstitutional for the vice president to decide unilaterally on the results of the 2020 elections.
Yesterday, Pope Francis said that he plans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus next week. At the same time, he called on everyone to get their shots as well, thus protecting not only their own lives but also the lives of others.
"It's an ethical choice because you're gambling with your health, your life, but lso gambling with the lives of others,"
said Pope Francis, who has booked a vaccination appointment next week. The Vatican, the smallest state in the world which is home to about 450 people, expects to receive enough vaccines in the coming days to vaccinate all its inhabitants who live behind its walls in Rome.
The Ministry of Education recommended that teachers evaluate students verbally on their report cards due to absences from school. Despite their recommendation, most schools will grade their students as usual. Schools are used to that form of classification; verbal assesment will mainly apply to classes such as physical education.
Until last year, children used to receive their report cards in the classroom; this year's ceremony will take place behind computer screens. All pupils, with the exception of 1st and 2nd grades, are now being taught in the distance learning mode, and at this point it doesn't look like their return to the classrooms is anywhere close. According to the instructions of the Ministry of Education, teachers will simply have to communicate the results to the pupils at a distance and distribute the actual report cards later, when the schools are open again.
"Given the different conditions in individual families, the complexity of distance learning and the generally difficult situation in this semester, I believe that the use of verbal assessment is definitely a better option at the moment,"
says Minister of Education Robert Plaga. According to him, students now need quality feedback more than ever before. He also adds that if schools do have sufficient information for grading their pupils, they shouldn't feel forced to use verbal evaluation.
Actress Kate Hudson wants to reunite with her family this year. When she spoke to her brother Oliver Hudson in the last episode of their podcast, Sibling Revelry, she said that while she wasn't making any New Year's resolutions, she had recently thought of her other siblings and her estranged father, Bill Hudson.
"You know what I’ve been thinking about lately? I’ve been thinking about our sisters that we don’t spend any time with and our brother — brothers. We’ve got four siblings we don’t spend any time with,"
Kate Hudson revealed in the podcast. Their mother, Goldie Hawn, was married to Bill from 1976 to 1982. After their divorce, the actor had two children - daughter Emily and son Zachary. In 2006, Bill welcomed another daughter, Lalania. Kate Hudson had already addressed her relationship with her biological father in the past and said she'd forgiven him for leaving her as a child.
"I really do recognize whatever those issues are, it’s just something that he has to live with, and that must be painful for him. So I forgive him,"
A storm killed four people in Spain, put travel on hold, and on Saturday, the capital city of Madrid was covered with so much snow that skiers set out for the main avenue Gran Via. Meteorologists warned of a huge mayhem after the Filomena storm brought the heaviest snowstorm in decades in central Spain. There were around 1,500 people trapped in cars on the streets of Madrid, while residents were snowboarding and skiing down the streets. A snowball fight broke out on the usually congested Gran Via.
Julian Morcillo of the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) said that temperatures would fall to minus 10 degrees Celsius next week, bringing dangerous ice. He added that Madrid had been covered in 20-30 cm of snow, which was the most since 1971.
Have a beautiful winter Sunday. What awaits you today? Are you about to go skiing or do you prefer to enjoy a lazy day in the comfort of your home? It's all up to you, because as William Shakespeare said: