| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Wednesday, October 13, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. A components shortage hits the U.S. harvest, Lebanon faces a new crisis, and Jack is back - Alibaba's founder reappears in Hong Kong | | | | | Today's biggest stories  FILE PHOTO: A man standing in Canada leans across the U.S.-Canada border to give a treat to a dog on the U.S. side in Blaine, Washington, August 9, 2021. REUTERS/David Ryder U.S. The United States will lift restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals in early November, ending historic curbs on non-essential travelers in place since March 2020 to address the pandemic.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's ban on vaccine mandates will likely be superseded by the Biden administration plan to require shots for workers, but the dueling rules could take months to sort out in court, creating uncertainty for employers with business in the state.
Scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that Moderna had not met all of the agency's criteria to support use of booster doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, possibly because the efficacy of the shot's first two doses has remained strong.
The House of Representatives gave final approval to legislation temporarily raising the government's borrowing limit to $28.9 trillion, pushing off the deadline for debt default only until December.
The Supreme Court is set to hear the federal government's bid to reinstate Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence for his role in the 2013 attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.
|  Books titled 'Xi Jinping: The governance of China' are placed at a booth inside the venue of the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, Yunnan province, China, October 12, 2021. REUTERS/David Stanway WORLD More than 100 countries pledged to put the protection of habitats at the heart of their government decision-making but they stopped short of committing to specific targets to curb mass extinctions. With plant and animal species loss now at the fastest rate in 10 million years, politicians, scientists and experts have been trying to lay the groundwork for a new pact on saving biodiversity.
While girls across most of Afghanistan remain at home as their brothers go to high school, classes in some northern areas have been open for all students, highlighting regional differences starting to emerge two months after the Taliban seized power.
Growing tension over a judicial probe into last year's Beirut port blast threatens to push Lebanon into yet another political crisis, testing Prime Minister Najib Mikati's new government as it struggles to dig the country out of economic collapse.
The top U.N. top court ruled largely in favor of Somalia in its dispute with Kenya, setting a sea boundary in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be rich in oil and gas. Somalia said the ruling was a result of "sacrifice and struggle" by the Horn of Africa country.
Two Buddhist monks in Thailand have become social media stars with Facebook livestreams that combine traditional teachings with non-traditional jokes and giggles. Some of the country's religious conservatives, however, are not so amused.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Red-hot lava forces evacuations in Spain's La Palma Over 700 residents on the Spanish island of La Palma were ordered to abandon their homes as lava advanced toward their neighborhoods. | | | | And finally… With Captain Kirk aboard, Blue Origin to return to 'the final frontier'  Three months after billionaire U.S. businessman Jeff Bezos soared into space aboard a rocketship built by his Blue Origin company, the craft is set to take another all-civilian crew on a suborbital ride, this time with 'Star Trek' actor William Shatner in the lead role. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
