| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Thursday, August 18, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. The FBI's sealed evidence that led to the search of Mar-a-Lago is the focus of a court hearing, NATO says it is ready to step up forces if Serbia-Kosovo tensions escalate, and Fed minutes show more rate hikes are in the pipeline | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A view shows debris of a tram depot hit by a Russian missile strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, August 18, 2022. REUTERS/Vitalii Hnidyi WORLD
Ukrainian forces said they had beaten back a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson, while the death toll from Russian shelling of Kharkiv city in Ukraine's northeast climbed as the nearly six-month war grinds on. Russia warned of the risk of a man-made nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Ukraine of planning a "provocation" there today during a visit by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
NATO will increase its peacekeeping force in Kosovo if there is an escalation of tensions with neighboring Serbia, the alliance's chief said, ahead of EU-facilitated talks between the estranged western Balkan neighbors. Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared this month when Pristina said it would oblige Serbs living in the north, who are backed by Belgrade and do not recognize Kosovo institutions, to start using car license plates issued in Pristina.
The global geopolitical situation shaped by the war in Ukraine is an opportunity for Argentina to continue adding support for its sovereignty claim over the British-run Falkland Islands, an Argentine official told Reuters. Secretary for Falklands (Malvinas) Affairs Guillermo Carmona begun a tour of neighboring countries to bolster support for his country's claim over the South Atlantic islands where Britain and Argentina fought a brief war 40 years ago.
Residents living near a tributary of the Yangtze river in the southwestern region of Chongqing clambered along the dry riverbed amid an unprecedented drought across the region that could last another month. In Europe, France's river Loire has set new lows as drought dries up its tributaries, rocky beaches are emerging from Italy's Lake Garda, and Serbs are wading across a vast stretch of the shrinking Danube.
Torrential rain slammed the west and north of New Zealand's South Island for a third straight day, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes and triggering road and school closures and land slips. Coming on top of weeks of damp weather, the latest rainstorms are worsening conditions in New Zealand's already sodden landscape.
|  The sign for the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building can be seen through fencing and barbed wire in Washington, D.C., August 17, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis U.S. Sealed records containing evidence the U.S. Justice Department presented to secure court approval to search Donald Trump's Florida home will be at the heart of a hearing today, when news organizations will try to persuade a federal judge that the public deserves to see the details.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said he would consider testifying before the House of Representatives committee investigating the attack on the Capitol if he were to receive an invitation. Aides to Pence told the panel in June that Trump pressured Pence to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
The Justice Department said it has charged a Missouri man for leaving threatening voicemails for an election official in Arizona, marking the sixth federal criminal case brought so far to combat the rising tide of threats against local election officials.
A longtime senior executive at Trump's family business is expected to plead guilty today to conspiring with the company in a 15-year tax fraud. Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, is expected to enter his plea before Justice Juan Merchan in a New York state court in Manhattan.
A federal judge reinstated a decades-old North Carolina ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks of gestation, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision allowing states to freely regulate procedures to terminate pregnancy. Meanwhile, South Carolina's highest court blocked enforcement of a state law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy while it considers a challenge to the law by a Planned Parenthood affiliate and other abortion providers.
|  A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, August 17, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid BUSINESS Federal Reserve officials saw "little evidence" late last month that U.S. inflation pressures were easing, and steeled themselves to force the economy to slow down to control an ongoing surge in prices, according to the minutes of their July 26-27 policy meeting.
Speculative options trading is on the rise again among individual investors alongside a rally in so-called meme stocks, reviving a trend that swept Wall Street last year but faded as markets turned volatile in 2022.
U.S. oil companies are working around a century-old shipping law to supply fuel to the U.S. East Coast, according to data from Refinitiv and oil trading sources, as high demand for gasoline and global disruptions in fuel markets sent prices higher.
The Manchester United Supporters Trust said any new owner of the Premier League club must be willing to invest heavily to restore its former glory amid speculation of a sale by the Glazer family. While the U.S. securities regulator is likely to examine Elon Musk's tweet in which he joked about buying the club, legal experts say the wisecrack is unlikely to land him in hot water.
Asset managers are tightening controls on personal communication tools such as WhatsApp as they join banks in trying to ensure employees play by the rules when they do business with clients remotely.
From $300 bucket hats to $900 sneakers and $700 t-shirts, the high-flying luxury sector is fretting over the appetite among financially stretched Gen Z consumers for such 'aspirational' purchases. Executives are troubled in particular by a hit to young Chinese shoppers, as high-end consumers in the world's second-largest economy are a decade younger than the global average of 38.
| | | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  'Color of skin' may be why Tigray crisis is not getting attention, says WHO chief The director-general of the World Health Organization said that the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's Tigray is worse than the conflict in Ukraine, and suggested racism could be behind a lack of attention from the international community. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
