| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Friday, September 10, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Afghanistan commercial flights resume, Biden mandates widespread COVID shots, and the SolarWinds probe sparks fear in Corporate America | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A woman carries her child as they and other passengers leave a Qatar Airways plane that arrived from Kabul, Afghanistan, in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2021 WORLD The first international commercial flight under Afghanistan's new Taliban interim government departed Kabul carrying more than 100 foreigners, including some U.S. citizens left behind after last month's chaotic Western airlift. The Taliban takeover will provide a "morale boost" to extremists plotting attacks elsewhere, and could again give them a base to operate as they did in the run-up to 9/11, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy service said.
President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke for 90 minutes in their first talks in seven months, discussing the need to ensure that competition between the world's two largest economies does not veer into conflict. The U.S. side said the "proof will be in the pudding" as to whether the stalemate can be broken with ties between the superpowers languishing at their lowest point in decades.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that all-out war with neighboring Russia was a possibility, and that he wanted to have a substantive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia and ex-Soviet ally Belarus today launched the active phase of vast military exercises involving 200,000 personnel.
Australia's COVID-19 daily cases topped 1,900 for the first time in the pandemic as an outbreak fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant continued to gain ground in locked-down Sydney and Melbourne, its largest cities.
Japan's popular coronavirus vaccination minister, Taro Kono, announced his candidacy to lead the ruling party and, by extension, become the next prime minister, highlighting his image as an outspoken reformer with a conservative streak.
|  FILE PHOTO: A mob of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump fight with members of law enforcement at a door they broke open as they storm the Capitol Building in Washington, January 6, 2021 U.S. A congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 assault on the Capitol received thousands of documents before yesterday's deadline for U.S. companies and government agencies to submit them. The National Archives has also begun a pre-release review of documents tied to former President Donald Trump's White House that were part of the committee's request.
In an exclusive report, we reveal that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio urged the group not to ‘turn on each other’ in the riot probe.
Biden took aim at vaccine resistance in America, announcing policies requiring most federal employees to get COVID-19 vaccinations and pushing large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly. The plan drew protests from congressional Republicans who accused him of overstepping his authority.
Biden's administration sued Texas, seeking to block enforcement of a new law almost entirely banning abortion in the state, as Democrats fear the right to abortion established almost 50 years ago may be at risk.
| BUSINESS The U.S. Department of Justice investigation into German insurer Allianz is looking at possible misconduct by fund managers and misrepresentation of risk to investors, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the SolarWinds Russian hacking operation has dozens of corporate executives fearful information unearthed in the expanding probe will expose them to liability. The SEC is asking companies to turn over records into "any other" data breach or ransomware attack dating back to October 2019 if they downloaded a bugged network-management software update.
Food-delivery companies DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats have sued New York City over legislation to license food-delivery apps and to permanently cap commissions they can charge restaurants.
Toyota cut its annual production target by 300,000 vehicles as rising COVID-19 infections slowed output at parts factories in Vietnam and Malaysia, compounding a global shortage of auto chips.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has asked employees to "go super hardcore" to make up for production challenges early in the third quarter and "ensure a decent Q3 delivery number," according to an internal email seen by Reuters.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Facebook unveils its first smart glasses The glasses, which were created in partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, allow wearers to listen to music, take calls or capture photos and short videos and share them across Facebook's services using a companion app. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
