It was a healthy year for big gifts to charitable causes in 2021, a year that saw one of the largest multi billion-dollar contributions in more than a decade, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy tally.
Ukrainian officials in December 2021 said that Russia could invade the country next month. Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said the number of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Russia-annexed Crimea is estimated at 94,300, and warned that a “large-scale escalation” is possible in January. The world believes that there will be an invasion soon. 
Cases involving the coronavirus Omicron variant will likely to reach a peak by the end of January, presidential medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said. 
A shooting attack in north-central Mexico killed eight people at two homes including a baby boy, authorities said Wednesday. They said the assailants apparently targeted four men who were at one home, killing them and a woman.
US President Joe Biden has ended the COVID-19 related travel restriction imposed last month on the eight southern African nations due to the spread of coronavirus variant Omicron.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States said that it is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others.
Italy on Thursday tightened anti-pandemic rules for the Christmas and New Year holidays amid concerns over rising Omicron cases across the country. The cabinet unanimously approved a decree to introduce new restrictions which will enter into force in the next few days, including prohibiting public gatherings for Christmas and New Year's Eve.
U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation’s founding during the first year of the pandemic as the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, according to figures released Tuesday.
Israeli health officials are reporting what is believed to be the country's first death from the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Soroka Hospital, located in the southern city of Beersheba, said a man in his 60s died Monday, two weeks after he was hospitalised.
The World Health Organization's top official in Europe urged governments on Tuesday to prepare for a 'significant surge' in coronavirus cases across the continent due to the omicron variant, which is already dominant in several countries.
Queen Elizabeth II has decided not to spend Christmas at the royal Sandringham estate in eastern England amid concerns about the fast-spreading omicron variant.
The United Kingdom on Friday recorded 93, 045 cases, registering a record high in Covid-19 cases for the 3rd consecutive day. The development comes after a British official predicted a steady rise in cases in the country. On Wednesday, the UK recorded the highest daily Covid case tally since the pandemic started with 78,610 cases.
The US Department of State on Thursday released country reports on Terrorism 2020, in which it mentioned that Pakistan made limited progress to counter-terrorism. The department added in the report that Pakistan did not take steps to prosecute terrorist leaders such as JeM founder Masood Azhar and LeT’s Sajid Mir, mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. 
As concerns regarding the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 is on the rise, the World Health Organization Chief Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said that the new variant has been detected in over 70 countries and it was likely already present in most countries in the world. "77 countries have now reported cases of Omicron, and the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn't been detected yet. Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant," WHO said in a tweet. 
A third booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine provides 70-75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection from the Omicron variant, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Friday. In its latest technical briefing, the agency said that two doses of both the Oxford/AstraZeneca - administered in India as Covishield - and Pfizer/BioNtech vaccines provide "much lower levels" of protection against symptomatic infection compared to the currently dominant Delta variant of COVID-19.
Users on Tuesday evening reported Amazon Web Services including its shopping site, Prime video were suffering a major outage. The company provides cloud computing services to individuals, universities, governments, and companies apart from e-commerce and entertainment apps like Prime Video, Prime Music, and others.
A strong and shallow earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the Richter Scale jolted Indonesia on Sunday. The quake was reported at 5:17 am with its epicentre at 259 km north of Tobelo in Indonesia, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The depth of the quake was 174.3 km.