Hong Kong on ‘brink of total breakdown’

The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November. The WHO has listed it as a ‘variant of concern’ and said it could take several weeks to know if there are significant changes in transmissibility, severity, or implications for Covid vaccines, tests, and treatments. Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Israel, Hong Kong, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada are countries where the new COVID-19 variant has also been detected.

While most people stayed at home as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged New York, Ghanaian national Paul Ninson sifted through storage containers and struggling bookshops in order to build what he says has become the world's largest collection of African photography books. His collection now consists of more than 30,000 books. He plans to bring them back to Ghana and open a photography museum with help from a crowdfunding campaign that raised more than a million dollars in two days.

Police have used tear gas to disperse a crowd protesting gender-based violence in Istanbul. Many of the protesters called on the government to resign.

Black Friday was born in the US, but this day of sales and promotions has become an increasingly global event. Also, Turkish consumers grapple with a plunge in the lira, residents of Brussels awaken to a city without Uber, and British fair competition regulators win some new pledges from Google.

Can NATO strike the right balance of force and diplomatic fortitude to make the Kremlin back off? Aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, Teri Schultz tees up a key meeting of foreign ministers in Riga.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told his British counterpart Priti Patel that she was "no longer welcome" at weekend talks. This follows Boris Johnson's decision to publish a critical letter to Emmanuel Macron.