TOPS of things

  Wales will see new Covid regulations introduced from 6am on Boxing Day which will affect various parts of our lives as the Welsh Government tries to slow the spread of Omicron. Professional and grassroots sport, gym-goers, fitness classes and kids' sport will all be affected. Here's a look at what the new rules will be in Wales from December 26: Professional sport Professional sport in Wales will have to be played behind closed doors without fans. It is a big blow as this would normally be one of the busiest times of the year for fans attending festive sports fixtures. Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips has estimated that every Welsh derby or European fixture taking place without fans would mean a loss of more than £100,000 per match. The Welsh Government has announced a £3million Spectator Sports Fund to support affected venues. Gyms From Boxing Day, the alert level two measures will mean there is a general requirement of two-metre social distancing in all pre...

  US stocks rose to a record-high close on Thursday, marking the third consecutive advance for the $52tn market as promising economic data helped offset fears surrounding the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The S&P 500 stock index added 0.6 per cent, following two days of more than 1 per cent increases. Together the gains have helped reverse sharp falls on Monday and late last week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed 0.8 per cent higher, leaving the index up more than 3 per cent for the week. The record follows a volatile month of trading. Stocks have swung dramatically since the discovery of the Omicron strain in late November, and a recent shift from global central banks to tighten monetary policy. US markets will be closed on Friday for the Christmas holiday. Investors on Thursday digested data that suggested the world’s largest economy remained resilient. American consumers showed they were still spending at a rapid rate, with the US core personal consumption...

  China is furious with Lithuania for letting Taiwan's government open an office in its capital. Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its own territory. China is threatened Lithuania over its strengthening relationship with Taiwan. The tiny European nation allowed Taiwan to open an office in its capital, Vilnius. Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own, reacted furiously and downgraded relations with Lithuania. China threatened to consign the tiny European state of Lithuania to "the garbage bin of history" after it defied Beijing by allowing Taiwan to open a representative office in the capital of Vilnius. Lithuania, which has a population of 3 million, broke from its European neighbors by formally recognizing Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims belongs to it. In August, Lithuania said it would allow Taiwan to open an office in its own name, prompting fury from Beijing, which recalled its ambassador to Lithuania in response. It also downgraded diplomatic relatio...

Economically at least, this holiday season feels a bit more like it belongs to Ebenezer Scrooge than Santa Claus. Amid a resurgent pandemic, there are shortages at the grocery store and the highest inflation in almost 40 years. So who better to sum up 2021 and forecast 2022 than  Larry Summers , the man whose contrarian warnings about inflation have, at least at this point, largely proven accurate. On this special holiday edition of  Stephanomics , the former U.S. Treasury secretary shares with host  Stephanie Flanders  how he arrived at his prediction that inflation would run higher than most everyone else expected, and why he fears “we are already reaching a point where it will be challenging to reduce inflation without giving rise to recession.” Summers, a Harvard University professor and paid Bloomberg contributor, also explains why  he thinks “running the economy hot” is unlikely to help U.S. workers get a larger slice of the economic pie. If inflation isn’...

  LONDON -- British car manufacturers had their slowest November in 37 years as the sector struggled to cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global supply chains, industry data showed. Car production fell by 29 percent compared with November 2021 to 75,756 units, despite a 53 percent increase in electric vehicle output, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said on Thursday. It was the fifth consecutive month of decline and represented the worst November performance since 1984. Some of the fall was due to the permanent closure of a Honda's car factory in July but SMMT Chief Executive Mike Hawes said the figures were "incredibly worrying" and underscored the severity of the industry's situation. It the first 11 months of 2021, British car production of just under 800,000 units was down by 433,000 compared with 2019, before the pandemic hit. "COVID is impacting supply chains massively, causing global shortages - especially of semicond...

BEIJING — Less than a week after Chinese electric car start-up Nio announced its latest competitor to Tesla, Huawei released details on a vehicle with specs it claims beat the Model Y. Technology giant Huawei specializes in telecommunications, smartphones, and says it won't make cars on its own. But it has been working with automakers on car technology such as autonomous driving. In a speech at Huawei's winter product launch event on Thursday, Richard Yu, executive director and CEO of the company's consumer business group, said the Aito M5 will be the first car to run on Huawei's HarmonyOS operating system. Deliveries are set to begin around Feb. 20 after the Lunar New Year, said Yu, who is also CEO of Huawei’s intelligent automotive business solution unit. Post-subsidy prices for the Aito M5 start at 250,000 yuan ($39,063). That’s lower than Tesla’s Model Y, which starts at starts at 280,752 yuan after subsidies. On Saturday, Nio revealed deliveries of its ET5 electric...