Plus Betty White dies at 99 and quarantine comforts start to fray View in browser | nytimes.com Continue reading the main story December 31, 2021 By Whet Moser Writer/Editor, Briefings Good evening. Here's the latest at the end of Friday. Times Square in Manhattan on Friday. Gabby Jones for The New York Times 1. Omicron is dampening New Year's Eve. In New York City, the Times Square celebration will be capped at 15,000 revelers. Parties at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Trafalgar Square in London, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the Champs-Élysées in Paris were canceled or scaled down. Pope Francis canceled his traditional visit to the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square. India is entering 2022 with curfews ; Paris reintroduced an outdoor mask mandate . Chicago and Las Vegas neither canceled nor pared back plans. South Africans are without curfew restrictions for the first time during the pandemic. And in Sydney, which was locked down this year for 107 straight...