| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Monday, December 27, 2021 by Robert MacMillan | Hello Here's what you need to know. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Edward O. Wilson remembered, COVID-19 crimps Christmas travel, and space isn't big enough for Elon Musk and China. | | | | | Today's biggest stories  Archbishop Tutu shares a joke with the Dalai Lama. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings WORLD Archbishop Demond Mpilo Tutu, the Nobel Peace laureate whose moral right permeated South African society during apartheid’s darkest hours and the uncharted territory of new democracy, died on Sunday at the age of 90. The outspoken Tutu was considered the nation’s conscience by Black and white, an enduring testament to his faith and spirit of reconciliation in a divided nation.
Australia reported its first confirmed death from the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 amid its biggest daily surge in infections. Authorities refrained from imposing new restrictions, saying hospitalization rates remained low. Cases also are rising in Italy, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And in Israel, a hospital administered fourth vaccine doses to a test group as the country considers approving the measure for vulnerable people.
A Russian court added two more years to a 13-year jail sentence for historian Yuri Dmitriev, in a sex abuse case that his supporters say was trumped up to punish him for uncovering mass graves of Stalin's Gulags.
A senior U.N. official called on Myanmar authorities to investigate the reported killing of at least 35 civilians that opposition activists blamed on government soldiers, saying he was "horrified" at the violence.
India froze the accounts of Mother Teresa's charity. The government says it has nothing to do with religious tensions, though Hindu hardliners have repeatedly accused the charity of surreptitiously leading religious conversion programs. Hindu vigilante groups meanwhile disrupted Christmas mass in parts of the country.
China is using the Winter Olympic Games to drive its efforts to improve the environment, but smog-prone capital Beijing is still preparing for the worst as the opening ceremony looms. And two dams gave way in the Brazilian state of Bahia after weeks of heavy rains.
|  Travelers walk through Philadelphia International Airport. REUTERS/Hannah Beier U.S. U.S. airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights on Sunday as COVID-19 thinned out the number of available crews on the third straight day of pain for some Americans traveling over the weekend as the Christmas holidays coincided with the rapid spread of Omicron.
Edward O. Wilson, the naturalist dubbed the "modern-day Darwin" died on Sunday at the age of 92 in Massachusetts. Alongside British naturalist David Attenborough, Wilson was considered one of the world's leading authorities on natural history and conservation.
President Biden and his wife Jill were taking calls into the NORAD Santa Tracker, which follows the progress of Santa’s reindeer-guided sleigh for millions of children. At the end of one call, a parent who gave his name as Jared said, "Merry Christmas and Let's go Brandon." Biden replied, "Let's go Brandon, I agree," before asking Jared if he was in Oregon.
|  People ride an escalator at a mall during holiday season shopping. Brooklyn, New York City, December 18, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly BUSINESS U.S. retail sales rose 8.5% during this year's holiday shopping season from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, powered by an 11% rise in online sales, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse report, underscoring the pandemic's role in changing people's shopping habits. In London, Boxing Day sales weren’t quite what they used to be.
Road rage in space: Chinese citizens lashed out online against Elon Musk after China complained that its space station was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with satellites launched by Musk's Starlink program.
Workplace wellness expert Jennifer Moss shared her thoughts about workplace burnout and what companies can do to relieve their strung-out employees. It’s going to take more than a day off.
| | | | | | | Quote of the day "Lots of couples prefer to remain childless or to have one child only.... It's a tragedy." Pope Francis Bishop of Rome, Head of the Catholic Church Pope bemoans Italy's plunging birthrate | | | | Video of the day  NASA launches revolutionary telescope The James Webb Space Telescope, built to give the world a glimpse of the universe as it existed when the first galaxies formed, launched by rocket from French Guiana on Saturday, opening a new era of astronomy. | | | | And finally… It's too cold for the dog  REUTERS/Taisiya Vorontsova Members of a local winter swimming club bathe in the icy waters of Boyarskoye lake outside Tomsk, Russia, December 26, 2021. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
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