Macro & Markets
- Looming mass extinction could be biggest ‘since the dinosaurs,’ says WWF: More plants and animals than ever before are on a global list of threatened species, with the World Wildlife Fund Germany warning that more than 1 million species could go extinct within the next 10 years. – DW
- South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration – BBC
- The world’s biggest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2, generates first power – Orsted
- Samsung and Micron, two of the world’s largest memory chip makers, warn that a COVID-19 lockdown in the Chinese city of Xian could affect their chip manufacturing bases in the area – Reuters
- Land and water ecosystems, ‘stressed to a critical point’ – UN
Americas
- Leaders urge Americans to cancel New Year’s plans: ‘Omicron and delta are coming to your party’ – WaPo
- Florida reports 46,923 new coronavirus cases, shattering state daily record – WPTV
- Elon Musk owes a massive $11 billion in taxes after wrapping up his Tesla stock sales – CNN
- More than half of U.S. states will raise their minimum wage in 2022, but employers are hiking pay faster – CNBC
- New COVID-19 cases in US soar to highest levels on record – APNews
Asia
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- Kim Jong Un pictured looking noticeably slimmer, fanning rumours of health issues – BBC
- Southwest Japan industry group develops bamboo paper cups to reduce plastic waste – Mainichi
- Chinese Military Deploys Troops as Xi’an Covid-19 Situation Worsens – VisionTimes
- Hong Kong pro-democracy Stand News closes after police raids condemned by U.N – Reuters
- Chinese armed police parade ‘Covid restriction violators’ through streets as zero-Covid strategy falters – Telegraph
- Chinese officials admitted Wednesday they have faced challenges getting enough supplies to residents in locked-down Xi’an – France24
Europa
- France reports ‘dizzying’ daily record of 208,000 COVID cases – Al Jazeera
- Russia to Require Netflix to Stream State Television Broadcasts – MoscowTimes
- Russia and Belarus to hold joint war games early next year | AP News
- Russia orders health and drug checks for foreigners – BBC
- Labour lambasts reported £330k award of public money to repair peer’s road: Lisa Nandy questions whether ‘filling in potholes for a Conservative peer’ is what PM means by levelling-up. – Guardian
- UK daily covid cases hit 183037. – DailyFail
Terra Specufestor
- ‘Complete collapse of leadership’: Australia’s recent Covid response amounts to world-class bungling – Guardian
- Man contracts, then recovers from COVID while waiting in testing line – The Shovel
- Asylum seekers in Melbourne detention say they were served ‘maggots and mould’ for dinner SBS
- UK DJ Dimension becomes New Zealand’s first Omicron community case after breaking quarantine rules – News.NZ
- Australia’s Old Parliament House set on fire by protestors – ABC
…and furthermore…
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- Apple ditched Intel, and it paid off – CNBC
- Natural History Museum identifies more than 500 new species in 2021: ‘Hell herons’, metallic beetles, tiny shrimp – scientists have been busy describing unusual creatures despite Covid restrictions. – Guardian
- China’s small Beijing-3 satellite can take high-resolution images of US cities within seconds, a speed its American counterparts can’t match, scientists say – Insider
- China will set up a research base on the moon by around 2027, eight years earlier than previously scheduled, space authority deputy director says – SCMP
- Webb’s Deployable Tower Assembly Successfully Extends in Space!! Next up: Aft Moment Flap deployment followed by Sunshield Cover Release – NASA