Despite travel restrictions, the Omicron variant has been detected already in the UK, Australia, Israel, the USA and other countries. The USA and EU found common ground this past week, as the two sides met to discuss trade, the Indo-Pacific, and other matters, and more.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's era will officially end this week as the final piece fell into place Monday for a new center-left-led coalition government headed by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and his Social Democratic party.
Two out of the three parties that will form Germany's next government have now approved the agreement. After the FDP and Social Democrats, the result of the Green Party's vote will be known Monday.
The U.S. Treasury on Friday kept Germany on its Monitoring List for problematic currency practices and urged the incoming coalition government to keep up its "bold" COVID-19 spending rather than return to persistent fiscal surpluses.