| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Tuesday, December 14, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. COVID-19 rattles a major Chinese manufacturing province, Kentucky's tornado death toll reaches 74, and Tesla will accept dogecoin | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a teenager in Johannesburg, South Africa, December 9, 2021. REUTERS/ Sumaya Hisham WORLD Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appear to have given 70% protection against hospitalization in South Africa in recent weeks, a major real-world study on the potential impact of Omicron showed, as the country battles a spike in infections linked to the new variant. This represents a drop from 93% efficacy against hospital admission during South Africa's outbreak of the Delta variant.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken touted a U.S. strategy to deepen its Asian treaty alliances, offering to boost defence and intelligence work with partners in an Indo-Pacific region increasingly concerned over China's "aggressive actions".
Iran accused Western parties to its 2015 nuclear deal of "persisting in their blame game", a day after European diplomats warned the pact would soon become defunct if efforts to revive it fail.
More than 100 former Afghan national security forces and others have been killed since the Taliban takeover in August, most at the hands of the hardline Islamist group which is recruiting boy soldiers and quashing women's rights, the U.N. said.
UK Remainers may take a crumb of comfort as Prime Minister Boris Johnson, elected on a promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’, sees his poll support dive after a string of scandals. But a year after Britain left the European Union, even the most ardent of pro-EU backers accept the divorce was so complete that it could take years to win back anything like the relationship with Europe they would find acceptable.
|  Nicolaus Kruse, 23, stands amongst the rubble of the home he grew up in after a devastating outbreak of tornadoes ripped through several U.S. states, in Mayfield, Kentucky, December 13, 2021. REUTERS/Cheney Orr U.S. The barrage of tornadoes that tore through six states killed at least 74 people in Kentucky, officials said, as those fortunate enough to survive unscathed opened their doors to victims whose homes were destroyed, and hundreds of the suddenly homeless took refuge in shelters.
The U.S. congressional committee probing the deadly assault on the Capitol voted unanimously to seek "contempt of Congress" charges against Mark Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff to former President Donald Trump.
Congress is expected to vote today to raise the federal government's $28.9 trillion debt limit, ending a months-long standoff between Republicans and Democrats that had raised the risk of an unprecedented default.
A U.S. appeals court rejected a renewed attempt by the Biden administration to end a policy put in place by Trump that forced tens of thousands of migrants to wait in Mexico for the resolution of their U.S. asylum cases.
A Harvard University nanotechnology professor faces trial today on U.S. charges that he lied to authorities about his ties to a China-run recruitment program and concealing funding he received from the Chinese government.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Afghan orchestra finds hope in Portugal Hundreds of students and staff of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and their relatives have been granted asylum in Portugal, where they hope to settle and pursue their artistic dreams. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
