Thursday Morning Briefing: Venezuela's new cryptocurrency is nowhere to be found

Highlights

"There is no sign of that petro here," said Igdalia Diaz, a 35-year-old homemaker who launched into a diatribe about her town's crumbling school, pitted roads, frequent blackouts and perpetually hungry citizens. It turns out that Venezuela's petro is hard to spot almost anywhere. Reuters’ hunt turned up little evidence of a thriving petro trade. The coin is not sold on any major cryptocurrency exchange. No shops are known to accept it.

An online army of skeptics and amateur sleuths that has spent years promoting bets against Tesla senses an opportunity to renew pressure on the electric carmaker after the failure of Elon Musk’s plan to take it private. A spokesman for Tesla declined to comment on short-sellers, who are often dubbed “haters” by Musk’s supporters on Twitter.

A massive swarm of bees gathered on a hot dog cart umbrella in New York City’s Times Square on Monday. Before long it became a social media sensation thanks to live footage from Reuters. It may have been just a piece of light news on an August afternoon, but it illustrated a widening trend.

North Korea

North Korea's Kim Jong Un is looking to capitalize on an easing in international tensions with his isolated regime to advance plans for a high-speed rail network to rival those in Europe and neighboring South Korea.

“It was like I met someone I don’t know at all,” said 81-year-old South Korean Jung Hak-soon, who was among 89 South Korean families who joined in reunions last week of relatives separated by the Korean War, fought from 1950 to 1953. There were no tearful hugs when she met her North Korean nephew and sister-in-law for the first time. Instead, she says, she just wanted to return home.

David Brunnstrom  @davidbrunnstrom

Trump hails Kim, sees no need to resume U.S.-South Korea war games @realDonaldTrump #NorthKorea https://reut.rs/2C83aOm

8:32 PM - Aug 29, 2018

World

With the largest artificial lake in the European Union, the Alqueva reservoir located in southern Portugal, irrigates an area the size of Los Angeles, luring foreign investors at a time when climate change is fanning droughts from California to northern Europe.

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc must prepare for a no-deal Brexit, even if its goal was an orderly exit. adding that the issue of the Irish border with Northern Ireland was “the most sensitive point” of the negotiations.

Commentary: Next month Chinese troops will join their Russian counterparts for Moscow’s largest military exercises in more than three decades. While neither country likely desires or expects war with the United States or its allies, both Beijing and Moscow want to give every impression that they are increasingly ready – and are relying on that message to dominate their neighborhoods, writes Reuters global affairs columnist Peter Apps.

Reuters Top News  @Reuters

Two @Reuters journalists have been detained in Myanmar for 262 days. See full coverage: https://reut.rs/2PNvI2F

5:01 AM - AUG 30, 2018

Deals

Trump and Trudeau upbeat about prospects for NAFTA deal by Friday

The leaders of the United States and Canada expressed optimism that they could reach new NAFTA deal by a Friday deadline as negotiators prepared to talk through the night, although Canada warned that a number of tricky issues remained.

5 min read

Breakingviews - Australia’s $11 bln telco deal dials up high hopes

A telecom deal Down Under is dialing up high hopes. TPG Telecom and a Vodafone Hutchison joint venture are uniting to create a $11 billion competitor in the cutthroat market. The merger reduces chances of a price war and investors are implying hefty synergies can be achieved. Even rival Telstra may come out ahead.

3 Min Read

Apple buys startup focused on lenses for AR glasses

Apple has acquired a startup focused on making lenses for augmented reality glasses, the company confirmed, a signal Apple has ambitions to make a wearable device that would superimpose digital information on the real world.

4 min read

Top Stories on Reuters TV

Grain trains bring relief to Australian farmers

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