The year of 2021 was a brutal year for gun violence in the United States, where more than two-thirds of the country's most populous cities have seen more homicides in 2021 than last year, according to a report by CNN on Tuesday.

The toll of this violence isn't spread equally across the country. "Shootings, as well as the grief and trauma that come with it, are concentrated in lower-income, mostly Black and Latino communities in California, New Jersey, Louisiana and other states," The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

This wave of spiraling violence became ever more difficult to address as the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare all of society's inequities, CNN added.

The European Union welcomed the United Kingdom government's decision to appoint Liz Truss as its new chief post-Brexit negotiator, but has warned she faces the same problem as her predecessor in trade talks.

Truss, who is also the UK's foreign secretary, was due to speak with her EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday, to address the Northern Ireland Protocol, which governs the post-Brexit trade status of the province.

Truss, who supported the unsuccessful campaign to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum, was given the job of negotiating with the bloc following the resignation of Brexit minister David Frost at the weekend.

"I want a comprehensive solution that delivers for the people of Northern Ireland and everyone across our great country," Truss said on Twitter.

There had been no EU-UK talks planned in the last days before Christmas, until the surprise resignation by Frost, reported the Irish Times.

Frost was understood to have become disillusioned with the direction of the UK government under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, noted Reuters news agency.

Officials in Brussels said they hope Truss will be a more "constructive partner" than Frost, but noted that she faces the same quandary as her predecessor: to compromise with Brussels or risk a trade war.

One EU official welcomed Johnson's decision to hand Truss the key role, reported the Financial Times.

"It's good the Foreign Office is getting involved again," an EU diplomat told the FT. "Let's give her the benefit of the doubt but I fear more of the same."

Another EU official said: "She is a politician where Frost was not, so perhaps she can get something out of a space where he was more destructive. But Boris Johnson calls the shots, so domestic UK politics will always dictate what happens."

European Commission's chief spokesman Eric Mamer said on Monday that the EU's stance remains the same. "Our position... particularly on the protocol, does not change depending on who is holding the position on the other side."

Northern Ireland is politically part of the UK but geographically on the island of Ireland. Both the UK and the EU seek to avoid a hard border with EU member state the Republic of Ireland, in order to protect the Good Friday Agreement and prevent a return to conflict. Brexit formally happened in January 2020. Following a transition period, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement came into force on Dec 31, 2020.

Under the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed, Northern Ireland effectively remains in the EU customs union and the single market for goods. Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP, has called for the protocol to be scrapped.

On Monday, Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of DUP, told the BBC that he understood from Frost that the trade talks were failing to make progress. "He felt, I think, that we were fast approaching the time when the UK government needed to take unilateral action," Donaldson said.

In April, energy industry regulator Ofgem will reassess the capped price that suppliers are allowed to charge customers, which since October has been set at just under 1300 pounds.

Volatile market prices worldwide have seen 26 suppliers in the United Kingdom go out of business since August, as the cap, which is based on average consumption, limits how much of the price increase that suppliers pay can be passed on to customers.

But with wholesale gas prices in the UK currently trading at six times their level at the start of the year, a significant change seems inevitable.

"Right now people have been insulated from those wholesale price rises but we are really, really worried about what happens in April," Audrey Gallacher, director of retail at Energy UK, told the Financial Times.

"Many people are in for a shock," added Michael Lewis, chief executive of Eon, Britain's largest electricity supplier. "Most households are not aware of what is coming."

Tim Lord of the Tony Blair Institute told ITV News that intervention was needed to avoid making existing problems of fuel poverty much worse.

"Unless government can find a way of acting to address some of the impacts, in particular on people on the lowest incomes, I think it could cause genuine hardship," he said. "Already, people struggle to make ends meet, week to week and month to month."

The energy price cap exists for the benefit of more than 15 million households in the UK that opt not to shop around to find the best fixed price deals. Generally, fixed price deals have been better value, although the price push has seen some companies offer fixed price deals above the current cap limit.

The vast majority of the estimated figure of two thousand pounds is the cost of the fuel itself, but there are other factors, such as the cost of helping customers of failed suppliers, and funding for renewable energy development, that could potentially be delayed. The FT reports that energy companies and charities have for some time been urging the government to find a better way to manage these additional charges.

Bill Bullen, founder and CEO of energy supplier Utilita, told the BBC Radio 4 Today program that the energy regulator itself had to accept part of the blame for the predicament the industry, and as a result customers, were now in. "We can't duck the fact that we're in this situation because of some pretty serious regulatory failures," he said.

Crowds of migrants attempting to cross international borders have become familiar sights in recent years, with Syrians escaping civil war and Afghans fleeing turmoil being just two examples.

However, the crisis on the border between Belarus and Poland, where hundreds of migrants are camped in a freezing forest－several of whom have died－differs sharply from other such situations.

On Nov 16, in the worst clash to date in the tense standoff, hundreds of migrants stampeded a checkpoint and Polish troops fired water cannons and tear gas to quell them, The New York Times reported.

About 2,000 people, mainly from the Middle East, are estimated to be living near this border in dire conditions and are desperate to cross into the European Union.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for the second time in three days, part of a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at de-escalating the migrant crisis.

Lukashenko's media service said the two leaders reached "a certain understanding on how to move forward and solve existing issues".

Merkel's spokesman said the chancellor "underlined the need to provide humanitarian care and return options" for migrants stranded at the border, adding that UN agencies and the European Commission should be involved.

The talks between Merkel and Lukashenko follow a series of diplomatic contacts that raised tentative hopes that the crisis could be resolved.

However, the talks appear not to have helped. On Nov 16, some 100 migrants clashed with Polish forces in an attempt to force their way through the Bruzgi-Kuznica border crossing.

The Polish army detained dozens of migrants who crossed the Belarus border, and accused Belarusian special forces of masterminding the operation.

EU officials have accused Lukashenko's government of orchestrating the crisis in retaliation for the trading bloc's support for the Belarusian opposition. Last week, EU foreign ministers agreed on the legal basis for a new round of sanctions against Minsk.

Foreign ministers from the EU and G-7 global powers said, "We call on the government to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign."

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday met with Mohammad Eslami, the chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Iranian foreign minister.

At a televised joint press conference, which followed a meeting at the AEOI venue, Grossi and Eslami announced that they would continue negotiations until remaining disputes are resolved.

Eslami said the agency had some questions to Iran "based on the documents published by our enemies", adding that "some questions have been answered and some others remain".

The head of the AEOI said that "parts of these questions were addressed and closed" in the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"We agreed today to end these issues ... the negotiations of which are still ongoing," he added.

The Iranian nuclear chief stressed that Iran aims to utilize nuclear technology in various sectors, and "the agency will help us in this regard".

"We have a plan to build at least 10,000 MW of nuclear electricity production capacity in Iran, especially by small power plants each with a maximum capacity of 300 MW," Eslami said, adding that he hopes the agency will persuade and support the countries, which have the technology to help Iran develop its nuclear power capacity.

For his part, Grossi, who arrived in Tehran on Monday, said that the two sides, during his last Tehran trip in September, had "agreed to continue our joint work on the clarification of a number of issues and continue and deepen the dialogue with the government of Iran".

"We are continuing our negotiations at this point with the view of finding common grounds. There are a number of issues that we are working on. We will multiply our efforts with the view of concluding our exchanges today on a positive note. We are working very hard," Grossi stated.

Grossi also described his visit to Tehran a sign of determination to hold talks, mutual understanding, resolve problems and boost cooperation with Iran, announcing the agency's readiness to resolve the remaining issues in the coming months in close cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

In similar remarks, the Iranian foreign minister urged the UN nuclear watchdog to deal with "technical issues" relating to the Iranian nuclear program and to remain "technical, professional and neutral" in this regard.

Amir Abdollahian, in his meeting with Grossi, stressed the seriousness of his country to interact constructively with the IAEA within the framework of the Safeguards Agreement, expressing the hope that during Grossi's visit "mutual trust and cooperation" would be further strengthened.

Prior to his arrival in Tehran, Grossi had expressed the hope that during this trip to Tehran, he would be able to establish a "fruitful and cooperative channel of direct dialogue", so his agency can resume "essential verification activities" in the country.

The meetings on Tuesday came ahead of the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors' meeting on Wednesday about a recent report pertaining to Iran's nuclear program and a week before the resumption of talks, scheduled on Nov 29, on reviving the JCPOA in the Austrian capital of Vienna, aimed at persuading Iran and the United States to re-adopt commitments under the JCPOA in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions against Iran.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a mini revolt in the United Kingdom Parliament on Tuesday, as some lawmakers from his ruling Conservative Party pushed back at restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.

With The Guardian newspaper saying before the three votes on the proposed measures that around 80 Conservative Party members of Parliament planned to oppose, it was always going to be an unpleasant experience for Johnson.

But, with a large majority and support from other parties, victory for Johnson was never in doubt. The BBC said, however, the dissent from his own ranks will have sent Johnson a message that additional restrictions will likely not be tolerated.

The prime minister insisted before the votes that his so-called Plan B restrictions, which include virus passports for large events, more mask-wearing in public, and advice to work from home when possible, were "balanced and proportionate" to the risk posed by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The Guardian quoted Health Secretary Sajid Javid as saying they are far less strict than measures throughout much of Europe.

With the UK recording its first Omicron death on Monday, Javid told lawmakers the variant is now infecting 200,000 people a day in the UK and will become the dominant strain in London before the end of the week. In the face of the threat, the National Health Service has declared the variant a "national incident", ensuring central coordination of the emergency response.

With the UK Health Security Agency saying 10 people were in UK hospitals because of the variant as of Tuesday morning, experts expect the number of hospitalizations and deaths to rise quickly in the coming days.

But, despite the challenge posed by the variant, the call for virus passports was controversial among some Conservative Party lawmakers, who said they were draconian.

Conservative Party member of Parliament Marcus Fysh told the BBC the idea was "the thin end of an authoritarian wedge".

But Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab hit back, telling Radio 4's Today program that vaccine passports and other Plan B measures mean "we go into this Christmas in a very different position to last year", when there was a lockdown.

In another interview on Times Radio, he said: "I think people can look forward to spending Christmas with loved ones in a way that we couldn't last year."

He insisted in an interview with Sky News the government will not be introducing additional restrictions before the festive break.

Raab said London is instead focusing on existing restrictions, and its booster campaign, which aims to deliver 1 million jabs a day to people who are double-jabbed.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Omicron variant is also starting to dominate.

The Financial Times said it will become the dominant strain in Denmark this week, where there are record numbers of COVID-19 cases.

Soren Riis Paludan, a professor of biomedicine at Aarhus University, told the paper: "Denmark is a front-runner here. We were one of the first countries to have initial spreading domestically, but other countries in Europe will see the same."

The highly infectious variant is also set to become dominant in Norway before Christmas, where health authorities say it will soon infect 300,000 people a day, up from the previous strain's record of 1,000 a day.

Cases are also skyrocketing in Switzerland, which has Western Europe's worst vaccination rate.