| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Thursday, August 25, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Biden forgives millions of student loans, a Russian attack kills 25 civilians on Ukraine's Independence Day, and the Twitter staff exodus accelerates | | | | | Today's biggest stories  President Joe Biden greets people after arriving at the White House from a trip to Delaware, August 24, 2022. REUTERS/Leah Millis U.S. Americans bearing heavy college debt loads welcomed President Joe Biden's announcement that he would forgive $10,000 in student loans, and some shared hopes they can jettison extra work hours and perhaps take a vacation or return to school. We explain how student loan forgiveness will impact consumers.
Biden will today stage his first political rally in the final stretch to the November midterm congressional elections, looking to give Democrats a boost and prevent Republicans from taking control of Congress.
Republican hopes of taking control of the Senate could hinge on former football star Herschel Walker, a first-time candidate endorsed by Donald Trump, whose campaign appears to be lagging behind other Republicans in Georgia. A sports legend, the 60-year-old Walker secured the Republican nomination to run for the Senate for the state in May.
The Uvalde, Texas, school board fired the school district's embattled police chief for his much-criticized handling of the response to a shooting rampage that killed 19 children and two teachers in the city three months ago.
New York state's highest court has agreed to allow former movie producer Harvey Weinstein to appeal his rape and sexual assault conviction, offering Weinstein a distant chance of being granted a new trial.
|  A man stands next to his car, destroyed by a Russian military strike, in Chaplyne, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, August 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dmytro Smolienko WORLD A Russian attack killed 25 civilians when missiles struck a railway station and a residential area in eastern Ukraine, officials in the capital Kyiv said, as the nation marked its Independence Day under heavy shelling. Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now.
Taiwan proposed $19 billion in defense spending for next year, a double-digit increase on 2022 that includes funds for new fighter jets, weeks after China staged large-scale military exercises around the island it views as its territory.
Most votes in Angola's parliamentary elections have been counted and provisional results show that the ruling MPLA party is ahead with a 52% majority, while their main opposition rivals have 42%, the election commission said.
Malaysia's veteran two-time leader Mahathir Mohamad said that disgraced former premier Najib Razak, who he helped bring down, was likely to win a royal pardon and be freed from a 12-year jail sentence for graft that he began this week.
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, one of two candidates vying to be Britain's next prime minister, said it was a mistake to have "empowered" scientists during the coronavirus pandemic and that the downsides of lockdowns were suppressed. Sunak said the government was "wrong to scare people" about COVID.
| BUSINESS Russia's record employment signals a surprisingly smooth decoupling from the West. Its rapid replacement of McDonald's and Starbucks says business as usual. Yet pressures are building inside its economic machine.
It will be a chilly winter for global stocks, according to analysts in a Reuters poll who cut year-end predictions for most major indices from three months ago and warned the risks to that already-dull outlook were skewed to the downside.
Sony said it was hiking the price of its PlayStation 5 games console in markets including Europe, Japan and Britain following economic pressures including rising interest rates.
India's New Delhi Television sought to block Gautam Adani's attempt to acquire a majority stake in the news network, saying regulatory restrictions meant the bid from the billionaire tycoon's group could not proceed. NDTV is regarded by some as one of the few independent voices in India's rapidly polarizing media landscape.
Twitter is facing more employee departures, company executives told staff, as leaders sought to address multiple challenges, including whistleblower allegations and a legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk. Employee attrition is currently 18.3%, Twitter executives said during a company-wide meeting, audio of which was heard by Reuters.
Britain's drinks and food industry raised the alarm over the availability of carbon dioxide after soaring energy prices forced a major producer to pause its operations. CF Fertilisers UK took a decision to temporarily halt ammonia production at its Billingham plant, which produces CO2 as a by-product that is used to put fizz into beer and stun poultry and pigs before slaughter.
| | | | | | | | | | | Quote of the day "A catastrophe is coming this winter as soaring energy bills risk causing serious physical and financial damage to families across Britain. The new prime minister will need to think the unthinkable." Jonny Marshall Senior economist at the Resolution Foundation New British PM must be radical on power bill pain, says think tank | | | | Video of the day  Teenager flies solo around the world Seventeen-year-old Mack Rutherford became the youngest person to fly solo around the world after a five-month journey that saw him battle monsoon rains and searing heat. | | | | And finally… China's Baidu reveals its first quantum computer  Governments and companies around the world have for years touted the potential of quantum computing, a form of high-speed calculation at extraordinarily cold temperatures that will bring computers to unprecedented processing speeds. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
