welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines: as governments around the globe brace for the omicron effect — britain sets a record for new covid infections for the second day in a row. will it be a difficult night for borisjohnson? votes are counted in a by—election that could heap more pressure on the prime minister. a gang in haiti releases twelve hostages working for an american missionary group — more than two months after they were kidnapped. and comedianjohn cleese talks to newsday as he starts a new tour of south east asia. he shares his views on cancel culture in a forthright interview with me.