| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Friday, October 8, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. The U.S. Senate averts a debt default, Tesla is moving to Texas, and Samsung's profit surges | | | | | Today's biggest stories  WORLD Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, journalists whose work has angered the rulers of the Philippines and Russia, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an award the committee said was an endorsement of free speech rights under threat worldwide.
Groups affiliated with Islamic State and al Qaeda are killing and kidnapping elder statesmen and their families in villages across Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. The violence mimics their tactics in other parts of the world where they have seized control. Read our special report.
Taiwan does not seek military confrontation, but will do whatever it takes to defend its freedom, President Tsai Ing-wen said, amid a rise in tensions with China that has sparked alarm around the world. Small numbers of U.S. special operations forces have been rotating into Taiwan on a temporary basis to carry out training of Taiwanese forces, two sources familiar with the matter said.
A blast has torn through a mosque in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Kunduz, a Taliban official said, causing multiple deaths. As desperate Afghans resort to selling their belongings to buy food, international officials are preparing to fly in cash for the needy while avoiding financing the Taliban government, according to people familiar with the confidential plans.
The United Nations human rights office voiced deep concern at what it said was a build-up of Myanmar's military deploying heavy weapons and troops in areas of the country where the internet has also been shut down.
| BUSINESS Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric carmaker plans to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, where it is building a massive car and battery manufacturing complex. The move further mars the company's ESG credentials, says Breakingviews columnist Antony Currie.
Samsung Electronics flagged a 28% jump in its third-quarter operating profit to the highest in three years, driven by rising memory chip prices and display sales for new flagship smartphone launches.
U.S. remote-control maker Universal Electronics told Reuters it struck a deal with authorities in Xinjiang to transport hundreds of Uyghur workers to its plant in the southern Chinese city of Qinzhou, the first confirmed instance of an American company participating in a transfer program described by some rights groups as forced labor.
Chinese property developers' bonds and shares slumped with few clues as to how local regulators propose to contain the contagion from cash-strapped China Evergrande Group that faces nearly $150 million in offshore payment obligations next week.
U.S. airlines are looking at the upcoming holiday season and the reopening of vital trans-Atlantic routes to recover the momentum lost in the last quarter following a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. But the outlook for the industry's cash cow - business travel - remains uncertain.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Used tires transformed into new floors In Nigeria, a country heavily reliant on revenues from its oil exports, entrepreneur Ifedolapo Runsewe has identified another type of black gold. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
