By Isabel Kershner from NYT World https://ift.tt/3sN4AH4
via IFTTT On the year’s shortest day, hundreds of Israelis ventured deep into the desert to witness a strange natural phenomenon atop an ancient pilgrimage site that some argue is where God spoke to Moses.

By Adeel Hassan from NYT World https://ift.tt/3mFctdJ
via IFTTT Case counts are down by 30 percent in the last week, researchers in the country said.

By Aina J. Khan from NYT World https://ift.tt/3HnhG1z
via IFTTT The American lawyer spoke to the British broadcaster about the verdict in the Ghislaine Maxwell case, but his connections to the case were not made clear.

By Adeel Hassan from NYT World https://ift.tt/344vaB8
via IFTTT A case study of one infected household observed that it may take as little as three days for people to become contagious, compared with four to six days with earlier versions of the virus.

By Marilyn Berger from NYT World https://ift.tt/3yXYHI7
via IFTTT The archbishop, a powerful force for nonviolence in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

By Lynsey Chutel from NYT World https://ift.tt/3mwf0H1
via IFTTT The new regulations follow data showing that while the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, it has not caused high rates of severe disease in South Africa.

By Hannah Beech from NYT World https://ift.tt/3FuHaJO
via IFTTT A Burmese-Irish family said all the right things, even as it helped Myanmar’s rulers avoid sanctions scrutiny in buying airplanes, defense radar and more.

By Unknown Author from NYT World https://ift.tt/32mLHzs
via IFTTT

By Azi Paybarah and Lauren McCarthy from NYT World https://ift.tt/3yISMX8
via IFTTT At an event in Dallas, the former president revealed for the first time publicly that he had received the additional vaccine dose.

By Declan Walsh from NYT World https://ift.tt/3yI7JIU
via IFTTT Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pulled off a stunning reversal in the year-old conflict with the help of armed drones supplied by the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Iran.

By Megan Specia and Stephen Castle from NYT World https://ift.tt/3e6k4gz
via IFTTT Britain’s health secretary said on Sunday he wouldn’t rule out more restrictions before Christmas, but the prime minister would most likely face sharp pushback from his own party.

By Pascale Bonnefoy and Ernesto Londoño from NYT World https://ift.tt/30EDk1C
via IFTTT The millennial will play an important role in helping shape a new legal framework for a nation that has been roiled by social upheaval.

By Mike Baker from NYT World https://ift.tt/3q8xrme
via IFTTT Doug Ericksen was a Republican who helped lead opposition to Washington State’s Covid-19 emergency orders and vaccine mandates.

By Jim Tankersley from NYT World https://ift.tt/30DFPRM
via IFTTT The remarks are expected to detail how the United States will respond to the latest pandemic challenge.

By Andrew E. Kramer and Steven Erlanger from NYT World https://ift.tt/3m8cmXR
via IFTTT The proposal, coming as Moscow masses troops on the border with Ukraine, would establish a Cold War-like security arrangement in Eastern Europe that NATO officials immediately rejected.

By Jason Gutierrez from NYT World https://ift.tt/3yAgEMK
via IFTTT Nearly 100,000 people in several regions were evacuated, and at least three people died.

By Carlotta Gall from NYT World https://ift.tt/3q6Rr8S
via IFTTT Squeezed by rising costs, price controls and plunging sales, bakers warn of ruin, while their impoverished former customers line up for government-supplied loaves.

By Yan Zhuang from NYT World https://ift.tt/3IU1XZt
via IFTTT A gust of wind swept up the inflatable on the last day of school, and the students fell more than 30 feet. Several others were critically injured.

By Declan Walsh from NYT World https://ift.tt/3GLNVHv
via IFTTT This is the story behind how Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won a Nobel Prize for making peace with his country’s longtime enemy — and then used the alliance to plan a war.

By Jason Horowitz from NYT World https://ift.tt/3EZ2aYZ
via IFTTT You’ve been lied to, children heard from a bishop, the latest Catholic clergyman to try to take down Santa Claus and consumerism. Many Italians were not pleased.

By Mark Landler and Stephen Castle from NYT World https://ift.tt/3IMVSOp
via IFTTT A record number of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s fellow party members voted against his plan for Covid certificates. But the plan passed with the help of the opposition.

By Mark Landler and Stephen Castle from NYT World https://ift.tt/3IGfeox
via IFTTT The British prime minister is facing a new virus variant, a rebellious Conservative Party, collapsing poll ratings and questions about whether he or his staff flouted the lockdown rules.

By Roger Cohen from NYT World https://ift.tt/3m5h4p9
via IFTTT It is still unclear how much of a threat the fast-spreading Omicron variant poses, but fear and a sudden revival of restrictions have added to an epidemic of loneliness.

By Suhasini Raj from NYT World https://ift.tt/3ylNIrp
via IFTTT Food-cart rules spurred by conservative beliefs draw a backlash, showcasing the tensions around the country’s rising Hindu nationalist movement.

By Maria Abi-Habib from NYT World https://ift.tt/3EQG3nt
via IFTTT Dans les mois précédant son meurtre, Jovenel Moïse avait entrepris de lutter contre des trafiquants d’armes et de drogues. Certains responsables craignent aujourd’hui que ce fut sa perte.

By Patrick Kingsley from NYT World https://ift.tt/3lWs6No
via IFTTT Prime Minister Naftali Bennett traveled to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, the first such visit by an Israeli leader, with plans to meet with the Emirati prince.

By Maria Abi-Habib from NYT World https://ift.tt/3EOlMz7
via IFTTT In the months before his murder, President Jovenel Moïse took a number of steps to fight drug and arms smugglers. Some officials now fear he was killed for it.

By Michael Schwirtz from NYT World https://ift.tt/3lRkyvv
via IFTTT If Russia opts for an invasion, Ukraine’s generals say, they would have no hope of repelling it without a major infusion of military help from the West.

By Oscar Lopez from NYT World https://ift.tt/3GwNn8c
via IFTTT Dozens more were reported injured in the crash in southern Chiapas state, where many migrants regularly cross into Mexico from Central America.

By Mark Landler, Stephen Castle and Megan Specia from NYT World https://ift.tt/3oBcZLh
via IFTTT People in England will be urged to work from home and have to show proof of vaccination. Critics say the prime minister is trying to deflect attention from a growing outcry over reports his staff flouted Covid rules.

By Maria Cramer from NYT World https://ift.tt/3oyTCCt
via IFTTT The Natural History Museum in London outfitted its animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex in a colorful Christmas sweater.

By Suhasini Raj and Mujib Mashal from NYT World https://ift.tt/3rLvsGF
via IFTTT Gen. Bipin Rawat, who was killed along with his wife and 11 others on board, was in charge of overhauling a military that has struggled to modernize.

By Stephen Castle from NYT World https://ift.tt/3lMlHEi
via IFTTT Critics have condemned a recording showing the prime minister’s staff joking about breaches of coronavirus restrictions last year, when Britain was in lockdown.

By Stephen Castle from NYT World https://ift.tt/3oz3Tyx
via IFTTT Critics have condemned a recording showing the prime minister’s staff joking about breaches of coronavirus restrictions last year, when Britain was in lockdown.

By Juston Jones and Jenny Gross from NYT World https://ift.tt/3Dw8KEG
via IFTTT Inbound travelers must now show a negative result from a test taken no more than a day before departure, a requirement some say may be hard to satisfy.

By Lynsey Chutel, Richard Pérez-Peña and Emily Anthes from NYT World https://ift.tt/300UvKB
via IFTTT Researchers in South Africa, where the variant is spreading quickly, say it may cause less serious Covid cases than other forms of the virus, but it is unclear whether that will hold true.

By Megan Specia and Isabella Kwai from NYT World https://ift.tt/31tzeKc
via IFTTT With cases of the Omicron variant rising in Europe, there are worries that even tougher restrictions are looming over a holiday period that many had hoped would be a return to some normalcy.

By Ben Hubbard and Hwaida Saad from NYT World https://ift.tt/3EpRJ0n
via IFTTT Powerful associates of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, are making and selling captagon, an illegal amphetamine, creating a new narcostate on the Mediterranean.

By Anton Troianovski from NYT World https://ift.tt/3Drk8lh
via IFTTT There are tactical reasons for threatening an invasion, but the real cause may lie in the Kremlin’s fixation with righting what it sees as a historical injustice.

By Sui-Lee Wee, Elisabetta Povoledo, Muktita Suhartono and Léontine Gallois from NYT World https://ift.tt/3dicLCe
via IFTTT Even before Omicron’s arrival, China was discouraging its citizens from traveling abroad. That has had a huge impact on global tourism.

By Alexandra E. Petri from NYT World https://ift.tt/3dAiUdf
via IFTTT Most of the infected had traveled to southern Africa recently, but health officials are bracing for the inevitable community spread.

By Jenny Gross from NYT World https://ift.tt/3pmGSxS
via IFTTT On her third day out with a metal detector, Milly Hardwick, 13, found a hoard of items from more than 3,000 years ago. “We were just laughing our heads off,” she said.

By Emma Bubola from NYT World https://ift.tt/3Ig2yEt
via IFTTT The stratagem was the latest and perhaps most original episode of vaccine evasion in the struggle between Italy’s government and the country’s anti-vaccine faction.

By Thomas Erdbrink, Henrik Pryser Libell, Natasha Frost and John Yoon from NYT World https://ift.tt/3xQeYhs
via IFTTT All those infected were fully vaccinated and tested before entering a restaurant in central Oslo, where one traveler from South Africa carried the new variant.

By Mark Landler from NYT World https://ift.tt/3DdMmzP
via IFTTT New travel restrictions announced on Thursday by the White House over fears of the spread of the Omicron variant have many worrying that their trips may not happen.

By Steven Erlanger from NYT World https://ift.tt/31mxguH
via IFTTT Sebastian Kurz, a former chancellor under investigation for influence-buying and corruption, said he was quitting politics. Within hours, his successor and ally also resigned, after only two months on the job.

By Lynsey Chutel and Richard Pérez-Peña from NYT World https://ift.tt/3dfEfbA
via IFTTT Evidence from South Africa, where the Omicron variant already dominates, shows a high rate of reinfection of people who have already had the coronavirus.

By Patrick Kingsley from NYT World https://ift.tt/3xHDtNO
via IFTTT In the days leading up to his positive test, Elad Maor interacted with about 100 people. So far, only one contact has tested positive.

By Christine Hauser from NYT World https://ift.tt/3xG1qVG
via IFTTT Unlike Alpha, Beta and Delta, the name of the latest known variant is not as straightforward, with some English speakers offering up diverse pronunciations.

By Jason Horowitz from NYT World https://ift.tt/3lISOt1
via IFTTT A confounding array of Covid rules and lax enforcement of mask wearing may have sent infected passengers on two KLM flights from South Africa on to “who knows where.”