| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Wednesday, December 8, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. The battle against Omicron gets a boost, Olaf Scholz takes over as German chancellor, and Renault's electric car Zoe goes from hero to zero | | | | | Today's biggest stories  People wearing face masks walk in front of a Christmas tree carousel in Nantes, France, December 7, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe COVID-19 BioNTech and Pfizer said a three-shot course of their COVID-19 vaccine was able to neutralize the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test and they could deliver an Omicron-based vaccine in March 2022 if needed.
The variant has been reported in 57 nations and the number of patients needing hospitalization is likely to rise as it spreads, the World Health Organization said. We look at how Omicron is a wake-up call for vaccine developers.
Germany recorded the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 since February, while France registered a surge in hospitalizations after a rise in new infections in mid-November.
Up to one million COVID-19 vaccines are estimated to have expired in Nigeria last month without being used, two sources told Reuters, one of the biggest single losses of doses that shows the difficulty African nations have getting shots in arms.
The first person in the world to be given a fully-tested COVID-19 vaccine, 91-year-old Briton Margaret Keenan, urged people to get vaccinated, one year on from her shot.
|  Newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives applause during a session of the German lower house of parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
WORLD
German lawmakers elected Social Democrat Olaf Scholz as new chancellor, ending 16 years of conservative rule under Angela Merkel and paving the way for a pro-European coalition government which has vowed to boost green investment.
India's Defence Chief Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other people were killed after a military helicopter they were traveling in crashed in southern India.
Australia will join the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, as other allies weighed similar moves to protest China's human rights record.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Reuters that talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin had enabled "deterrence and de-escalation".
A Malaysian court upheld former premier Najib Razak's conviction on corruption charges over a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, dealing a blow to his hopes of a political comeback.
U.S.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure allowing Congress to fast-track legislation raising the federal government's debt limit and stave off a potential unprecedented default.
Mark Meadows, who served as former President Donald Trump's White House chief of staff, has decided not to cooperate with the congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 Capitol riot, and the panel said it is prepared to pursue contempt charges against him.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge by two Christian families to a Maine tuition assistance program that excludes private schools that promote religious beliefs, giving its conservative justices a chance to further expand public funding of religiously based entities.
A white Minnesota police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black motorist in April, triggering protests against police brutality, will go on trial today as opening statements to the jury get underway.
Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial enters its eighth day, after jurors heard testimony from three women who said they were teenagers when the British socialite set them up for sexual abuse by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. We look at the difficult task facing Maxwell's defense.
| BUSINESS A rebound in market sentiment continued in early European trading, with world shares set for their biggest two-day jump since November last year as investors became less concerned about the Omicron variant.
China Evergrande Group's shares hit a record low after a missed debt payment deadline put the developer at risk of becoming the country's biggest defaulter, even as hopes of a managed debt restructuring calmed fears of a messy collapse.
Visa, the world's largest payment processor, launched a global crypto advisory service for clients such as banks and also merchants, as the adoption of digital currencies gains steam.
A major outage disrupted Amazon's cloud services, temporarily knocking out streaming platforms Netflix and Disney+, Robinhood, a wide range of apps and Amazon.com's e-commerce website as consumers shopped ahead of Christmas.
French carmaker Renault received a blow for its popular Zoe electric model, as the European New Car Assessment Programme gave it a zero-star safety rating in tests that are standards for Europe. In the year through October, the Zoe was the third top-selling fully-electric car in Europe
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Reform in Cuba has entrepreneurs dreaming big A ban on private companies in Cuba has been lifted after being in place for more than 50 years, enabling many to pursue long-held business dreams. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
