Democratic Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones acknowledges supporters at the election night party in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S., December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry

 

United States

 

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates, but, more significantly, it may give its strongest hint yet on how the Trump administration’s tax overhaul could affect the U.S. economy. 

 

President Trump will make a final push to shepherd a Republican tax overhaul over the finish line, hosting congressional negotiators for lunch before delivering a speech in which he will make his closing arguments for the legislation. 

 

Democrat Doug Jones won a bitter fight for a U.S. Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama. The stunning upset makes Jones the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Alabama in a quarter-century and will trim the Republicans’ already narrow Senate majority to 51-49, opening the door for Democrats to possibly retake the chamber in next year’s congressional elections. 

 

In backing Roy Moore in the Senate race even though the candidate faced allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, Trump made a risky bet - and lost big. 

 

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand fired back at Trump and said she would not be silenced after he attacked her on Twitter for calling for an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct against him. 

 

Commentary

 

Roy Moore’s party has been punished for his refusal to do the right thing, writes Scott Lemieux. Support for Moore from the Republican National Committee, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump himself after nine women accused the Alabama candidate of sexual misconduct underscores how differently Democrats responded when their own members were accused of sexual harassment and assault. "Democrats who fretted that Al Franken shouldn’t have been pushed out of the Senate over the sexual misconduct allegations against him were wrong," says Lemieux. "The result in Alabama suggests that, aside from being right on the merits, dropping candidates who have been widely accused of sexual misconduct is good politics too." 

 

Ukraine's allies "may finally have run out of patience with Kiev's unwillingness to fight the country's endemic corruption." With the United States, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund all criticizing the recent undermining of an independent investigation into graft, it's time for Ukraine's Western allies to use their financial leverage, writes Josh Cohen. "Hit corrupt politicians and their cronies where it really hurts – their wallets." 

 

 

A diver dressed as Santa Claus feeds fish inside a fish tank at the Malta National Aquarium in Qawra, Malta, December 11, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

 

World

 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, backing away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that giving up its nuclear arsenal would be part of any negotiations. 

 

From Damascus to Doha, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has been showing up in unexpected places, a sign of the military’s growing influence under Vladimir Putin. 

 

Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a military police camp in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa, killing at least 39 people and wounding 90 more, including some prisoners, an official and witnesses said.

 

Some building companies that installed dangerous cladding on social housing blocks across Britain are now winning new contracts following the Grenfell Tower blaze to remove their original work and install panels that can pass safety tests, a Reuters review shows.

 

Germany’s Social Democrats said they would share power with Angela Merkel’s conservatives only if ordinary voters get a fairer deal, seeking to reassure party skeptics hours before highly-sensitive talks between the two camps. 

 

Reuters TV: Paris climate summit overshadowed by Trump 

 

Cyber

 

Trump signed into law legislation that bans the use of Kaspersky Lab within the U.S. government, capping a months-long effort to purge the Moscow-based antivirus firm from federal agencies amid concerns it was vulnerable to Kremlin influence. 

 

Net neutrality advocates said they are gearing up for a legal fight after abandoning attempts to convince the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to keep 2015 rules aimed at maintaining an open internet.

 

Business

 

Virtual currency bitcoin hit another all-time peak, two days after the launch of the first ever bitcoin futures on a U.S. exchange and ahead of the start of another futures contract next week, as investors grew optimistic that the $20,000-mark is within reach. 

 

Japan’s army of retail investors, no strangers to high risk bets in the past, have emerged as a major force in bitcoin’s spectacular rally, now accounting for an estimated 30-50 percent of trading in the cryptocurrency as it spikes to record highs. 

 

For investors in Australia’s Westfield, its $16 billion sale to European property giant Unibail-Rodamco may mark a turning point for a mall industry under pressure to reinvent itself amid fierce online competition. 

 

Breakingviews: Exxon climate U-turn deserves wary investor cheers 

 

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page argued in court papers that AT&T should not be permitted to buy CNN parent Time Warner because there was a risk it would lead to “recklessness” in journalism. 

 

San Francisco technology companies including Twitter, Salesforce.com, Uber and Airbnb lost an important ally with the sudden death of Mayor Ed Lee. Lee courted the industry with tax breaks and helped fend off a backlash against the tech sector and the soaring rents and rising inequality it has brought to the city.