Lets do this

Plus Betty White dies at 99 and quarantine comforts start to fray View in browser | nytimes.com Continue reading the main story December 31, 2021 By Whet Moser Writer/Editor, Briefings Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Friday. Times Square in Manhattan on Friday. Gabby Jones for The New York Times 1. Omicron is dampening New Year's Eve. In New York City, the Times Square celebration will be capped at 15,000 revelers. Parties at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Trafalgar Square in London, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the Champs-Élysées in Paris were canceled or scaled down. Pope Francis canceled his traditional visit to the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square. India is entering 2022 with curfews ; Paris reintroduced an outdoor mask mandate . Chicago and Las Vegas neither canceled nor pared back plans. South Africans are without curfew restrictions for the first time during the pandemic. And in Sydney, which was locked down this year for 107 straight

Plus the F.D.A. plans Covid boosters for teens and Eminem serves up Mom's Spaghetti View in browser | nytimes.com Continue reading the main story December 30, 2021 By Whet Moser Writer/Editor, Briefings Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Thursday. President Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke on the phone on Thursday. Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times 1. President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned President Biden that new sanctions over Ukraine would result in a rupture between the superpowers, a Russian official said. After the 50-minute phone call that had been requested by Putin, a senior White House official told the Washington Post that Putin had wanted to set the "tenor and tone" for diplomatic talks that are scheduled to take place on Jan. 10. Putin's desire to speak directly with Biden set off speculation about whether Putin was trying to de-escalate a situation largely of his own creation, or whether he was see