Taiwan's first home-made submarine

Plus, weight-loss drugs scrutinized over reports of suicidal thoughts.

View in Browser Sign up for Reuters newsletters Daily Briefing Taiwan takes a major step in a project aimed at strengthening the island's defense, more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenians leave the enclave, and the US soldier released by North Korea arrives in Texas.   Plus, the backstage and collection highlights from Paris Fashion Week.   By Edson Caldas Today's Top News President Tsai Ing-wen shows off the first of eight new submarines in the southern city of Kaohsiung. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins Taiwan unveiled its first domestically developed submarine, though it won't enter service for another two years. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has made the indigenous submarine program a key part of an ambitious project to modernize its armed forces. More than half the 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have left in less than four days after Azerbaijan seized control of the mountain enclave. The president of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has signed a decree to dissolve all state institutions from January 1, 2024. Israel reopened crossing points with Gaza, allowing thousands of Palestinian workers to get to their jobs in Israel and the West Bank, after nearly two weeks of closure prompted by violent protests along the border. Around 18,000 Gazans have permits from Israeli authorities to work outside the blockaded enclave. Switzerland's glaciers suffered their second worst melt rate this year after record 2022 losses, shrinking their overall volume by 10% in the last two years, monitoring body GLAMOS said. The glaciers lost as much ice in two years as in the three decades before 1990, it said, describing the losses as "catastrophic". US NEWS US Army Private Travis King landed at a military base in Texas early today after being expelled from North Korea following his surprise dash across the heavily militarized border, CNN reported. Reuters White House Correspondent Trevor Hunnicutt tells us what awaits King in the US – listen here. A small group of Republicans in the House of Representatives have set the government on a course towards its fourth partial shutdown in a decade. At least nine members of Speaker Kevin McCarthy's narrow 221-212 majority are refusing to back any stopgap measure to keep the government funded. Donald Trump's Republican rivals clashed at a presidential debate last night, leveling attacks at the absent former president, President Joe Biden and one another. But none of them appeared to have secured the sort of breakout moment that would alter the dynamics of a primary contest dominated by Trump. Business & Markets The US Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit against Amazon faces hurdles in court, testing the scope of antitrust law and posing roadblocks for the agency. Several experts told Reuters the FTC faces a high bar in trying to show that consumers would be better off in a world without Amazon's policies in place. Trading in shares of Evergrande was suspended after a report that its chairman had been placed under police watch, as concerns mounted about the developer's future. We have an explainer on Hui Ka Yan, Evergrande's billionaire boss who went from power circles to police surveillance. HSBC is set to acquire Citigroup's China consumer wealth management business, which manages more than $3 billion in assets, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, in a major boost to the London-based bank's business in that country. Five economic institutes are predicting gross domestic product in Germany will contract by 0.6% in 2023, as rising interest rates take their toll on the economy and high inflation depresses consumption. Growth of 0.3% had been expected in the institutes' spring forecast. ChatGPT users will now be able to browse the web, OpenAI said, expanding the data the viral chatbot can access beyond its earlier September 2021 cutoff. The artificial intelligence startup said its latest browsing feature would allow websites to control how ChatGPT can interact with them. Wegovy and other weight-loss drugs scrutinized over reports of suicidal thoughts  Dawn Heidlebaugh felt trapped in a disturbing pattern while taking Ozempic, the popular drug used to treat diabetes and obesity. REUTERS/Megan Jelinger The US Food and Drug Administration has received 265 reports of suicidal thoughts or behavior in patients taking weight-loss drugs since 2010, Reuters found in an examination of the agency's adverse-event database. Thirty-six of these reports describe a death by suicide or suspected suicide.   Accounts of suicidal thoughts linked to this class of drugs are drawing increasing scrutiny, including an investigation by European regulators announced in July. In a statement to Reuters, the FDA said it is evaluating such reports and will decide on what action, if any, to take after a thorough review. Read our report here. And Finally... Germanier Spring/Summer 2024 at Paris Fashion Week. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq Style, celebrities and backstage scenes. Our photographers are bringing us all the highlights from Paris Fashion Week. The event runs until October 3, featuring some of the world's biggest brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Dior. See our photo gallery. Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.   Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036

More than 100 dead in Iraq wedding fire

Plus, the looming US shutdown.

View in Browser Sign up for Reuters newsletters Daily Briefing More than 100 people were killed in a fire at a wedding party in Iraq, tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians rush to flee Nagorno-Karabakh, and the pressure on China Evergrande intensifies.   Plus, an "unprecedented" climate trial kicks off at the European Court of Human Rights.   By Edson Caldas Today's Top News A fire ripped through a large events hall in Hamdaniya district in Iraq's Nineveh province. REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily More than 100 people were killed and 150 injured in a fire at a wedding party in Iraq's Nineveh province. Civil defense was searching the charred skeleton of a building for survivors in the early hours of today. Iraq's Interior Ministry said it had issued four arrest warrants for owners of the wedding hall. France's ambassador to Niger left the country early this morning, around one month after the military government ordered his expulsion and days after President Emmanuel Macron said the diplomat would be pulled out and French troops withdrawn. Six young people from areas in Portugal ravaged by wildfires and heatwaves took 32 European governments to court, arguing their failure to act on climate change is a violation of their human rights. It is the largest climate case ever to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. US NEWS The fourth partial shutdown of the US government in a decade is four days away, with House Republicans preemptively rejecting a bipartisan bill advancing in the Senate that would fund agencies through mid-November. Reuters' Lewis Krauskopf gives us the markets' view on the looming shutdown - listen here. Former US President Donald Trump's rivals are running out of time to halt his march to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination unless one emerges as a clear alternative in their second debate, party strategists say. Here are the candidates set to be on stage. Yesterday, a New York judge found Trump and his family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets, in a major defeat for the former US president. The decision will make it easier for state Attorney General Letitia James to establish damages at a scheduled Oct. 2 trial. Senator Bob Menendez is set to appear in court to face charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen. More than one-third of all Democratic Senators, including Cory Booker who also hails from New Jersey, have called on Menendez to resign since the charges were unveiled. Business & Markets Profits at China's industrial firms extended a double-digit drop for the first eight months, but the pace of declines eased slightly as a flurry of policy support steps has started to stabilize parts of the economy. The 11.7% year-on-year fall in profits narrowed from a 15.5% contraction for the first seven months. In more news from China, the chairman of Evergrande Group, Hui Ka Yan, has been placed under police surveillance, Bloomberg News reported, raising more doubts about the embattled developer's future as it grapples with mounting prospects of liquidation. Here is our explainer. Ford's decision to hit the brakes on a planned $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan highlights a challenge for Tesla's growing crowd of rivals in the US market: Tesla is pushing most of them into unprofitable, low-volume niches. For more news on the industry, sign up to the Auto File newsletter. PwC Australia gave multiple clients confidential information leaked from Australian government tax briefings, the company said, the first admission that clients other than Google received leaked government tax plans. The firm says clients were not told the information was confidential. London's office market is in "rental recession" as empty workspace across the West End, City and Canary Wharf business hubs hits a 30-year high, analysts at Jefferies said. They estimated a 20% contraction in office usage due to hybrid working and tenants' growing preference for greener buildings in the suburbs. In Pictures Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region arrive in the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians are rushing to flee Nagorno-Karabakh after a military operation by Azerbaijan that has recast the contours of the post-Soviet South Caucasus. So far more than 28,000 of the 120,000 Armenians of Karabakh have crossed in the border into Armenia. See our photo gallery. And Finally... Cui Chenxi's eye-catching performance featured several 'Ollies' and a huge move off a high rail, which several of her competitors avoided. REUTERS/Ann Wang Cui Chenxi became China's youngest Asian Games gold medalist after the 13-year-old skateboarder won the women's street event on day four of competition in Hangzhou. Cui took gold ahead of compatriot Zeng Wenhui, 18, with Japanese 16-year-old Miyu Ito taking bronze. Read more here: Skateboarder Cui becomes China's youngest Asian Games gold medalist Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.   Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036