REUTERS WORLD NEWS: US Sets Virus Record, More Than Half of Europe Will Get Covid, Russians Ready to Leave Kazakhstan, More

The Reuters Daily Briefing

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

by Linda Noakes

Here’s what you need to know.

• It’s too soon to treat COVID like flu
• Russian-led troops will start leaving Kazakhstan
• Smart guns are finally arriving in the U.S.
  

Today’s biggest stories

COVID-19

• The United States reported 1.35 million new coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world as the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing.
• The Omicron variant is on track to infect more than half of Europeans, but it should not yet be seen as a flu-like endemic illness, the World Health Organization said.
• Preliminary findings from two South African clinical trials suggest the Omicron variant has a much higher rate of “asymptomatic carriage” than earlier variants, which could explain why it has spread so rapidly across the globe.
• Cities across China are imposing tougher restrictions to try to control new outbreaks of COVID-19, with Tianjin now battling the Omicron variant, which has already been detected in at least two other provinces.
• Australia’s COVID-19 infections hovered near record levels as a surge of infections caused by Omicron put a strain on hospitals already stretched by staff isolating after being exposed to the virus.

• 
  WORLDA Russian-led military bloc will begin withdrawing its troops from Kazakhstan in two days’ time after fulfilling its main mission of stabilizing the Central Asian country after serious unrest, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.
• North Korea appeared to test fire a ballistic missile that may be more capable than the “hypersonic missile” it launched less than a week earlier, South Korea’s military said, as Pyongyang pursues increasingly advanced weapons.
• The Hong Kong government is expanding its use of a long-dormant sedition law in what some lawyers and democracy advocates say is intensifying a squeeze on press freedom.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was under fire after it emerged his private secretary had invited over 100 people to a “bring your own booze” party in the garden of Downing Street during the first coronavirus lockdown.
• European Parliament President David Sassoli, an Italian socialist and former journalist, died in hospital in Italy aged 65. He had been president of the 705-seat parliament since July 2019 and his term in the predominantly ceremonial role had been due to end this month.U.S.
• President Joe Biden will travel to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace of Atlanta today to jumpstart stalled efforts to reform U.S. voting rights after new laws by states that some activists say will deter Black voters from the polls. Here’s why Senate Democrats are mulling ending the filibuster to pass voting rights reform.
• Donald Trump’s lawyer argued in court that the former president cannot be sued over his fiery speech before the deadly attack on the Capitol because he was acting within the scope of his official presidential duties.
• New York authorities said the city was investigating a possible “maintenance issue” with self-closing doors that failed to function properly when a devastating fire erupted in a Bronx apartment building, killing 17 people, including eight children.
• The U.S. government is prepared to dismiss two perjury charges against Ghislaine Maxwell if her conviction for aiding Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuses is allowed to stand, according to a joint letter from prosecutors and Maxwell’s defense team.
• Robert Durst, the multimillionaire real estate heir who was serving a life sentence for murder in California and was the prime suspect in two other murders over the past four decades, died in prison at age 78.

BUSINESS

• Only one in 10 World Economic Forum members surveyed expects the global recovery to accelerate over the next three years, a poll of nearly 1,000 business, government and academic leaders found, with only one in six optimistic about the world outlook.
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will pledge to fight inflation when he testifies today at a congressional hearing during which fast-rising U.S. prices will likely spark plenty of lawmaker questions and criticism.
• U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla sold 70,847 China-made vehicles in December, the highest monthly rate since it started manufacturing in Shanghai in 2019.
• Airbus kept its crown as the world’s largest jetmaker for the third year running as it outstripped Boeing by delivering 611 jets in 2021, up 8% from the year before, company data showed.
• Personalized smart guns, which can be fired only by verified users, may finally become available to U.S. consumers after two decades of questions about reliability and concerns they will usher in a new wave of government regulation.