M 1k2 News Today

Cuban entrepreneurs Henry and Yendri Garcia have long peddled home-made ice cream in their small town of Bauta outside the capital Havana, but now they are dreaming big.

South Korea's new daily COVID-19 cases rose above 7,000 for the first time, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said on Wednesday, putting hospital capacity under strain as deaths and severe cases rise.

China reported 74 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Dec. 7, down from 94 a day earlier, its health authority said on Wednesday.

Mexico's Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 289 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the country's death toll since the pandemic began to 295,601.

The fifth wave of COVID-19 hitting France has not yet reached its peak, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday, and the cabinet's top adviser on the coronavirus indicated a fourth vaccine shot to fight the disease was possible.

British foreign minister Liz Truss said on Wednesday she did not know the details of what happened when asked about reports of a Christmas party at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office during lockdown.

Britain could implement tougher COVID-19 measures, including advice to work from home, as early as Thursday in a bid to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to media reports.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has so far been detected in the Americas in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States, but it is just a matter of time before it circulates in more countries, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Wednesday.

Britain does not rule out the possibility of invoking Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol if a disagreement with the European Union over how trade with the province operates cannot be resolved, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

Brazil has had 4,385 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 108 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Monday.