Fire fighters attack the Thomas Fire’s north flank with backfires as they continue to fight a massive wildfire north of Los Angeles, near Ojai , California, U.S., December 9, 2017. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

 

Bitcoin

 

World stocks climbed and equity volatility neared a record low as investors focused on signs of strong economic growth ahead of a slew of central bank rate decisions, while the launch of bitcoin futures fed the market’s cryptocurrency obsession. 

 

Bitcoin futures jumped more than 20 percent in their eagerly anticipated U.S. debut, which backers hope will encourage wider use and legitimacy for the world’s largest cryptocurrency even as critics warn of the risk of a bubble and price collapse. The one-month bitcoin contract opened trade at 6 pm ET at $15,460, dipped briefly and then rose to a high of $18,700. 

 

Business

 

Monsanto will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread crop damage, offering an incentive to apply its product even as regulators in several U.S. states weigh restrictions on its use. 

 

Apple has asked India to defer a planned increase in import taxes on mobile phone parts so it can expand its iPhone manufacturing in the country, but the government is unlikely to accede, people familiar with the matter said. 

 

Ford’s sales in China fell 8 percent in November from a year ago, following a 5 percent decline in October, the U.S. automaker said. 

 

Troubled international retail conglomerate Steinhoff, whose shares plunged last week after disclosing accounting problems, said it had appointed two advisory firms ahead of a meeting with lenders on Dec. 19. 

 

A Hong Kong-based activist investor in Toshiba has told the embattled conglomerate that the $18 billion sale of its chip unit to a Bain Capital-led group is no longer necessary after its recent capital injection, according to a letter seen by Reuters. 

 

Breakingviews: Uber's taxi U-turn sets better Southeast Asia path 

 

United States

 

The campaign of Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for U.S. senator in Alabama who has been accused of sexual misconduct, appealed to President Donald Trump’s supporters, saying a vote for Moore would be a vote for Trump’s agenda. 

 

Crews battling a massive wind-driven California wildfire that has torched nearly 800 buildings and charred 230,000 acres are bracing to protect communities menaced by flames along the state’s scenic coastline. 

 

Incoming Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, chosen by Trump to keep the recovery humming, appears set to let an expected trillion-dollar tax cut run its course through the economy as weak wage growth and inflation buttress his view that the economy remains underpowered. 

 

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that any woman who has felt violated or mistreated by a man has every right to speak up, even if she is accusing Trump. 

 

 

An aerial view shows a road on the banks of the Yenisei River, in air temperatures of about minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit), outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 10, 2017. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin

 

Jerusalem

 

A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli security guard at Jerusalem’s main bus station, police said, and violence flared near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut over U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the European Union to follow Trump’s lead and recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but EU ministers shook their heads at Trump’s move. 

 

World

 

Russia’s military chief warned that military exercises by Japan, the United States and South Korea aimed at countering North Korea only raise hysteria and create more instability in the region. 

 

Indonesian police are hunting for a U.S. citizen who escaped from an overcrowded prison on the holiday island of Bali by cutting through steel bars in a ceiling, the jail’s second breakout of foreign inmates this year.

 

Saudi Arabia said that public cinemas would be allowed in the conservative kingdom for the first time in over 35 years, and that the first ones were likely to open next March. 

 

Most Russian athletes want to go to next year’s Winter Olympic Games even though they would have to compete as neutrals, an official of the country’s Olympic committee said. 

 

Reuters TV: Philippines defied expert advice on dengue vaccine 

 

President Donald Trump’s Oval Office style dominated U.S. headlines in 2017, but readers were particularly perplexed by his use of the word “covfefe,” in what turned out to be one of the oddest news stories of the year. Read the oddest headlines of 2017. 

 

Commentary

 

After bombs from German and Italian warplanes razed most Guernica while fighting for General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, Franco's nationalists tried to blame the victims by claiming the Basques had set fire to their own town. Courageous journalists exposed the lie,  and it's worth exhuming their 80-year-old reporting “for it shows that fake news often originates from those who accuse their enemies of producing it,” writes John Lloyd.