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Three out of four Americans think their fellow countrymen have forgotten ‘the real meaning of Christmas’

More than one in five Americans (21%) believe in Santa Claus, the fabled North Pole-dwelling red suit-clad old man who delivers presents to deserving recipients on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, according to a recent holiday-themed Ipsos poll published on Thursday. 

A further 46% of respondents claim their minor-age children believe in Santa Claus.

Meanwhile, fully three out of four respondents are apparently convinced the majority of their fellow Americans have forgotten what Christmas really means. 

Republicans were more likely than any other demographic to believe their countrymen had forgotten the meaning of Christmas, more likely even than the Christians for whom the holiday represents the birth of their savior (88% vs 84%). However, even 60% of non-religious types saw their fellow Americans as somewhat lost where the true meaning of the holiday is concerned.

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One in four Germans won’t buy Christmas gifts this year – Bild

Many Americans view Christmas as a time to visit family, exchange presents, and listen to seasonal music even in the absence of strong religious feeling. Poll respondents presented themselves as both tolerant and generous, with fully 70% reporting they would be comfortable attending a holiday party for a religion not their own compared to just 17% who wouldn’t. The average American claims to give about 12 gifts while receiving only six.

Ipsos’ inquiry into which Christmas songs inspire the most irritation revealed Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ as the clear winner with 12% of the vote. 

Jingle Bells, with just 6%, was a distant second. A majority – 56% – of respondents think it is “appropriate” to play Christmas music as soon as Thanksgiving has passed.

Americans who haven’t done their holiday shopping yet might be in for a rude awakening this year, according to economic statistics crunched by Bankrate. The financial services company found 88% of holiday staples have increased in price over the last 12 months, with entertainment and traveling increasing the most in price. 

Santa Claus isn’t the only larger-than-life figure Americans admit to believing in, either. Depending on the poll, as many as nine in ten religious adults believe in angels of various kinds, while a Gallup poll conducted last year found 41% believe UFOs are alien spacecraft. 

Belgrade has made an official request that NATO peacekeepers can’t legally refuse

The government in Belgrade has officially petitioned the KFOR peacekeeping mission for the return of up to 1,000 police to its breakaway province of Kosovo, citing a provision of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The request comes as President Aleksandar Vucic accused the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina of “terrorizing” the remaining ethnic Serbs.

The resolution officially put an end to the NATO attack on Serbia in 1999, allowing the US-led alliance to seize Kosovo but nominally guaranteed Serbia’s sovereignty over the province. Kosovo’s provisional government then declared independence in 2008, but neither Serbia nor the UN have recognized it.

Appearing on RTS state television on Thursday evening, Vucic said that KFOR doesn’t have the legal right to reject the request, but will most likely do so anyway. He is prepared to go to the Security Council next, he said.

The security presence is intended to protect Serbian citizens and establish control over the administrative crossings of Jarinje and Brnjak. Local residents have barricaded both checkpoints for several days now, in protest over the deployment of ethnic Albanian police.

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Kosovo applies for EU membership

Kosovo PM Albin Kurti “openly speaks about wanting to destroy Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija,” Vucic claimed, adding that the local Serbs are unwilling to “suffer his terror” any longer. He also criticized the US and the EU, saying their envoys “literally told me they did not intend to abide by any” of the agreements regarding Kosovo. 

Earlier this week, the State Department’s special envoy Gabriel Escobar told a US government outlet that Washington “categorically” opposed the return of Serbian police to Kosovo. In response, Serbian PM Ana Brnabic asked if there were any resolutions, agreements or principles that the West deemed applicable, “or are we just supposed to follow your horoscope in order to guess your wishes?”

Vucic said he was willing to talk about anything, but that recognizing Kosovo or its membership in the UN is simply “unacceptable.” Before anything else can be discussed, Pristina would need to carry out its obligation to establish a community of Serb municipalities, “but I don’t believe they ever will,” he added.

Escobar has also urged Pristina to do this, as an obligation it cannot walk away from, but Kurti’s party publicly refused. Moscow has warned the ethnic Albanian government that it was “playing with fire.”

Meanwhile, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama called Serbia’s request “surreal,” adding that “Kosovo was once and for all liberated from Serbia” more than 20 years ago. Kurti’s party advocates a ‘Greater Albania’ that would include Kosovo as well as parts of Montenegro, Greece, and North Macedonia. 

An environmental group has claimed the Pentagon vastly understated the number of potential victims of PFAS toxins on its bases

Exposure to toxic “forever chemicals” on US military bases has affected more than three times as many people as the Pentagon admitted, tainting the drinking water used by over 600,000 troops and family members, an environmental watchdog has claimed.

At issue are chemicals known as PFAS, such as perfluorooctanesulfonic and perfluorooctanoic acid, which are used in firefighting foam, industrial lubricants and hydraulic fluids. The Pentagon acknowledged in April that water supplies had been tainted by PFAS on dozens of its bases, mostly by the flame retardants used by military firefighters, but it pegged the number of people exposed at around 175,000.

The scale of the exposure was vastly understated, mostly because the Pentagon included only bases where water levels had PFAS contaminants greater than 70 parts per trillion (ppt), an old EPA standard, the Washington-based Environmental Working Group (EWG) said on Thursday. The EPA’s new advisory level for unsafe PFAS levels is anything over 1 ppt, though that standard hadn’t been finalized.

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US Navy sued over ‘toxic secrets’

The Pentagon report left out several major bases where contamination levels have exceeded 70 ppt, including Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the EWG said. In fact, the water at Fort Leavenworth was found to have 649 ppt of PFAS contaminants. An additional 88 bases fell below 70 ppt but exceeded the revised standard for safe PFAS levels.

“PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because once released into the environment, they do not break down and can build up in our blood and organs,” the EWG said. The chemicals have been linked to increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, as well as pregnancy complications and harm to reproductive systems.

The group added that the Pentagon report also failed to account for service members who were exposed to contaminated drinking water provided on bases by non-military utilities. The study offers only a current snapshot of the number of people on the affected bases, ignoring the millions of past residents who could have been exposed.

READ MORE: US Navy lied about fuel-laced water on aircraft carrier – media

A Pentagon spokesman told Military.com that the military has worked to address contaminants in its drinking water since 2016 and remains committed to its cleanup duties.

READ MORE: US state sues ‘forever chemicals’ manufacturers

A jury found Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter in the death of Atatiana Jefferson, killed during a police welfare check.

US lawmakers have voiced concern that user data could be accessed by the Chinese government.

Bill, unlikely to pass in the Senate, would offer Puerto Rico voters choice between statehood and forms of independence.

The CIA reiterates it “never engaged” the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, as over 13,000 files go online.

European Union leaders on Thursday granted Bosnia candidate status to join the union, putting the volatile Balkan nation at the start of a long road to membership. The move came as Kosovo became the latest country to formally lodge an application to apply for membership in the bloc.

Fall of coalition government is latest stage of ongoing political crisis and could pave way for early elections.

Although tourism hasn’t fully recovered, the hordes of visitors are an encouraging sign, business owners say.