REUTERS WORLD NEWS: Holmes Guilty, Prince Andrew & Epstein, Big Powers Nuke Pact, Toyota Bigest in US, More

The Reuters Daily Briefing

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

by Linda Noakes

Hello

Here’s what you need to know.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is found guilty of fraud
Australian COVID cases overload the testing system
Toyota is poised to dethrone General Motors in the U.S.

Today’s biggest stories

FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Prince Andrew speaks2021 to the media at Windsor Great Park, Britain, following the death of his father Prince Philip, April 11,

U.S.

Britain’s Prince Andrew will today urge a New York judge to dismiss Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit accusing the Duke of York of sexually abusing her when she was underage and also being trafficked by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Here is what we know about the lawsuit.
A U.S. jury found Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes guilty of defrauding investors in the blood testing startup, convicting her on four of 11 counts. We look at the rise and fall of the Silicon Valley star.
New York state’s attorney general is demanding that two of Donald Trump’s adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, testify in her civil probe into the former president’s business practices and namesake company.
Attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters soon begins weeks of public hearings that will put the investigation in the spotlight as campaigning intensifies for the November elections. Here’s an hour-by-hour look at the assault on the Capitol.
Congress is experiencing an unprecedented rise in COVID-19 cases, with the seven-day positivity rate at a congressional test site surging to 13% from just 1% in late November, the Capitol’s attending physician said.

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attend a military exhibition in Moscow, December 21, 2021

WORLD

China, Russia, Britain, the United States and France have agreed that a further spread of nuclear arms and a nuclear war should be avoided, according to a joint statement by the five nuclear powers published by the Kremlin.
Australian COVID-19 cases soared to a pandemic record as the Omicron variant ripped through most of the country, driving up hospitalization rates as the once-formidable testing regime buckled under lengthy wait times and stock shortages.
A Hong Kong court sentenced a 36-year-old barrister to 15 months in prison for inciting an unauthorized assembly to commemorate those who died in China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
A former North Korean defector who made a risky and rare cross-border return home last week had struggled in South Korea, officials and media reports said, sparking fresh debate over how such defectors are treated in their new lives.
Authorities said they had finally contained a suspected arson fire at South Africa’s parliament building after a second-day flare-up that completely destroyed the lower house National Assembly chamber.

MARKETS

World shares extended their positive start to 2022 with markets from Europe to Asia shrugging off worries the Omicron coronavirus variant could choke the global economic recovery, while the dollar rose after U.S. bond yields jumped.

Global manufacturing activity remained strong in December as factories took rising cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant in their stride, although persistent supply constraints and rising costs clouded the outlook for some economies.

China Evergrande Group’s shares soared briefly in resumed trade after the developer said a government order to demolish 39 buildings on the resort island of Hainan would not affect the rest of its massive project there. Investors in financial products issued by Evergrande protested outside the cash-strapped company’s offices in Guangzhou, with many worried that their returns would be sacrificed to keep real estate projects afloat.

Japanese automaker Toyota is poised to outsell General Motors in the United States in 2021, which would mark the first time the Detroit automaker has not led U.S. auto sales since 1931.

Tesla’s announcement that it has opened a showroom in Xinjiang has attracted criticism from U.S. rights and trade groups, making it the latest foreign firm caught up in tensions related to the far-western Chinese region.


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Video of the day

Winter storm pounds D.C. as it moves up East Coast

The winter’s first blizzard hit the U.S. capital – shutting federal buildings and even delaying Air Force One – and knocked out power from the Carolinas to New Jersey.

And finally…

Djokovic will defend Australian Open title after exemption from vaccination

The world number one will defend his title at Melbourne Park later this month after receiving a medical exemption from getting vaccinated against COVID-19.