Britain: Boris Johnson: UK PM told to resign after admitting he attended party during lockdown - Alasdair Sandford

Boris Johnson has apologised over a party held at Downing Street during the first coronavirus lockdown, as he faced MPs at Prime Minister's Questions.

In a heated session in parliament on Wednesday, opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on Johnson to resign.

Some Tory MPs, including Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, have also agreed that the prime minister needs to step down.

Read more at: Boris Johnson: UK PM told to resign after admitting he attended party during lockdown | Euronews

EU: Dutch researchers test ways to party during the pandemic

It's a music festival much like any other. More than a thousand people are packed together, dancing to thumping beats and chugging beer. They aren't keeping their distance, not wearing masks. It's the way it used to be, before the pandemic. The event took place on Saturday, in the small town of Biddinghuizen in the Netherlands — with government approval.

The Back to Live festival was a trial run. Researchers want to find out if and how large-scale events can take place despite the pandemic. In Biddinghuizen, revelers had their temperatures taken at the entrance to the festival grounds and had to show not just a ticket but also a negative PCR test result. They all got a sensor to wear around their necks tracking their movements, and then the fun could begin.

Read more at: Dutch researchers test ways to party during the pandemic | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 22.03.2021

USA: Republican predicts Trump won’t be party’s presidential nominee in 2024

Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican senator, predicted on Sunday morning that Donald Trump will not be the party’s nominee for president in 2024, pointing to the number of seats lost by Republicans in the House and Senate over the four years Trump was in office.

Cassidy was asked on CNN’s State of the Union show whether he would support Trump if the former president runs for another term in 2024, or if he would support him if he did run and won the Republican nomination to challenge Joe Biden. “That’s a theoretical that I don’t think will come to pass,” Cassidy said. He added: “I don’t mean to duck, but the truth is … I don’t think he’ll be our nominee.”

Read more at: Republican predicts Trump won’t be party’s presidential nominee in 2024 | US elections 2024 | The Guardian

USA: CPAC Preview: Trump, Election Claims At Conservative Confab - "as even moderate Republicans join to glorify a charlatan"- by Domenico Montanaro

When the annual Conservative Political Action Conference — CPAC for short — kicks off Thursday in Orlando, Fla., it might as well be called TPAC.

That's because this year, it is all about Trump.

The former president will headline the event with a Sunday afternoon keynote address, his first speech since leaving office last month.

It comes as the Republican Party is struggling with its identity after Donald Trump's presidency. And yet CPAC, the largest gathering of conservative activists in the U.S., will still very much be a pro-Trump event.

Read more at: CPAC Preview: Trump, Election Claims At Conservative Confab : NPR

USA: The battle for the soul of the Republican Party is now underway

A high-stakes battle for the soul of the Republican Party is now underway, holding far-reaching implications for the near future of American politics.

One front in this battle opens up this week with the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump as Republicans grapple with just how far to go in defending a former president whose effort to overturn an election result ended in deadly tragedy amid the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

So far, those rare Republican lawmakers who've dared to criticize Trump have been harshly rebuked by his loyalists.

Read more at: The battle for the soul of the Republican Party is now underway | CBC News

QAnon - the party is over: 'No plan, no Q, nothing': QAnon followers reel as Biden inaugurated - by Joseph Menn, Elizabeth Culliford, Katie Paul, Carrie Monahan

For three years, adherents of the sprawling QAnon conspiracy theory awaited a so-called Great Awakening, scouring anonymous web postings from a shadowy “Q” figure and parsing statements by former U.S. President Donald Trump, whom they believed to be their champion.

In one Telegram channel with more than 18,400 members, QAnon believers were split between those still urging others to ‘trust the plan’ and those saying they felt betrayed. “It’s obvious now we’ve been had. No plan, no Q, nothing,” wrote one user.

In one of the most jarring apparent reversals on Wednesday, Watkins a QAnon leader, appeared to admit defeat, posting: “We have a new president sworn in and it is our responsibility as citizens to respect the Constitution regardless of whether or not we agree with the specifics.”

Read more at: 'No plan, no Q, nothing': QAnon followers reel as Biden inaugurated | Reuters

USA - Poll: 72% of Republicans See Trump As Model for Party’s Future

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 72% of Likely Republican Voters think their party should be more like Trump than like the average GOP member of Congress. Twenty-four percent (24%) see the average Republican in Congress as a better model.

Read more at: 72% of Republicans See Trump As Model for Party’s Future - Rasmussen Reports®