The WHO Sounds Warning Over the Fast-Spreading Omicron Variant, Biden To Expand COVID Testing and Global Stocks Gain as Appetite for Risk Stages Comeback

The Biden administration will open federal COVID-19 testing sites in New York City this week and buy 500 million at-home rapid tests that Americans can order online for free starting in January as it tries to tackle the Omicron variant sweeping the country.

Texas’ Harris County reported its first death related to the Omicron COVID-19 variant, a man who was unvaccinated, the county health department said.

The National Hockey League and its players’ body have agreed to begin their holiday break after Tuesday’s matches, they said in a joint statement. The regular season schedule is set to resume on Dec. 27.

The Pentagon stopped short of creating a list of extremist groups that military members cannot join and declined to say explicitly whether refusing to view President Joe Biden as America’s legitimate leader was a violation of policy.

A Washington state man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer during the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol received a sentence of almost four years in prison, one of the longest yet for a Jan. 6 defendant.

Jurors retired for the evening after starting deliberations in the manslaughter trial of Kimberly Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who mistook her handgun for her Taser and shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.

World

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading faster than the Delta variant and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from the COVID-19 disease, the head of the World Health Organization said.

Countries across Europe were considering new curbs on movement as the fast-moving Omicron variant swept the world days before Christmas, throwing travel plans into chaos and unnerving financial markets.

Thailand will reinstate its mandatory COVID-19 quarantine for foreign visitors and scrap a quarantine waiver from Tuesday, while New Zealand postponed its phased border re-opening plans until the end of February due to concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant.

At least eight people have died in floods that have ravaged Malaysia, authorities said, as the government faced criticism from the public and opposition lawmakers over its rescue efforts.

Hungary will not change its controversial immigration laws despite a European court ruling, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, stepping up his nationalist campaign ahead of a closely-fought national election due early next year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for escalating tensions in Europe, saying it had incorrectly assessed the outcome of the Cold War.

Civil war has pushed millions of Ethiopians to the brink. History shows how deep the country’s divides run. Read the Reuters Special Report on Ethiopia’s struggle to build a nation.

Business

World shares gained as investors weighed up the extent to which the Omicron coronavirus variant would hit economies around the world, with the dollar softening as appetite for riskier assets made a cautious return.

Turkey’s lira rocketed back from record lows in volatile trading after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan proposed measures to protect local currency savings against such swings.

Qatar plans to invest at least $10 billion in U.S. ports and has approached international banks for financing help, sources say, in an infrastructure spree that reflects the Gulf country’s deepening ties with Washington.

Black and Hispanic tech startup funding ticked up in Florida and Georgia this year, following an influx of investors fleeing California and efforts by some venture capitalists to focus on minority founders in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

Having long shunned property ownership, rock-bottom borrowing costs, rising rents and for some the impact of having to pay to keep their money in the bank have persuaded almost one in two Germans to buy a house or apartment. The property rush is seeing high-rise buildings spring up across Frankfurt, a building frenzy replicated across Germany, where prices have hit record highs. (Reuters)