| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Tuesday, September 7, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Germany's biggest financial company is under investigation, trailing Trudeau goes on the attack, and how the family of a Myanmar junta leader are trying to cash in | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A barber works at Sevilla Barber Shop where Bitcoin is accepted as a payment method, in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, September 6, 2021 BUSINESS El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a real-world experiment proponents say will lower commission costs for billions of dollars sent home from abroad but which critics warned may fuel money laundering. We look at the pros and cons for the first bitcoin nation.
China's exports unexpectedly grew at a faster pace in August thanks to solid global demand, helping take some of the pressure off the world's second-biggest economy as it navigates its way through headwinds from several fronts.
German regulators have launched an investigation into the country's biggest financial company, Allianz, after the demise of some of its U.S. investment funds last year, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The insurer is already facing a slew of investor lawsuits over its Structured Alpha Funds and related investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.
Toyota said it expects to spend more than $13.5 billion by 2030 to develop batteries and its battery supply system - a bid to lead in the key automotive technology over the next decade.
Britain needs to ease taxes on banks and make it easier to hire staff from abroad, its financial and professional services lobby said in a blueprint to help London unseat New York as the world's top international financial center within five years.
|  An Afghan woman raises the flag of the former Afghan government as she chants during the anti-Pakistan protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 7, 2021 WORLD Taliban gunmen fired in the air to scatter protesters in the Afghan capital of Kabul, witnesses said, as video showed scores of people scurrying to escape volleys of gunfire. Hundreds of men and women shouting slogans such as 'Long live the resistance' and 'Death to Pakistan' marched in the streets.
Myanmar's shadow government, formed by opponents of military rule, called for a revolt against the junta, setting out a strategy that included action by armed militias and ethnic forces and urging bureaucrats to leave their posts. Read our special report on how the family of a Myanmar junta leader are trying to cash in.
Brazil is preparing for Independence Day demonstrations by supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called for a show of support for his attacks on the country's Supreme Court that are rattling Latin America's largest democracy.
Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, trailing in opinion polls, attacked his main rival for waffling on gun control and vaccine mandates as the campaign enters its final stretch ahead of the September 20 election.
Chancellor Angela Merkel made an impassioned plea to German voters to back a government led by conservative Armin Laschet in this month's national election, saying their other option was a left-wing ruling coalition.
As COVID-19 cases and deaths exploded in India in April and May, New Delhi's premier Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and several others ran so short of oxygen that many patients in the capital suffocated. When Reuters visited the hospital on Friday, its last coronavirus patient was readying to leave after recovery - a remarkable turnaround health experts attribute to growing levels of immunity from natural infection and vaccinations.
| U.S. President Joe Biden will visit New York and New Jersey today to view the destruction wrought by last week's Hurricane Ida, which has left at least 57 dead and four missing in the eastern United States.
The U.S. Justice Department said it would not tolerate attacks against people seeking or providing abortions in Texas, as the agency explores ways of challenging the state's recently enacted law that imposed a near-total ban on abortion.
A legal battle is brewing over remote work between administrators at U.S. colleges committed to in-person classes and some faculty with disabilities. Experts warn it is a precursor of what awaits employers that order staff back to the office amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alphonso David, the president of Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the United States, was fired after a New York Attorney General report said he had advised former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on how to handle sexual harassment allegations, the organization's board said.
As Elizabeth Holmes' fraud trial gets underway this week, lawyers for the former Silicon Valley entrepreneur may try to show she was a true believer in the blood-testing technology at her startup Theranos, and never intended to defraud investors and patients, legal experts say.
Michael K. Williams, who played the character Omar Little in the TV series "The Wire," has been found dead in his New York apartment, the New York Police Department said. He was 54.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  This robot was built to produce water on Mars An Egyptian mechatronics engineer has devised a robot that he says can absorb moisture on Mars and turn it into drinkable water. | | | | And finally… Venice prepares to charge tourists  From a control room inside the police headquarters in Venice, Big Brother is watching you. To combat tourist overcrowding, officials are tracking every person who sets foot in the lagoon city. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
