| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Monday, February 21, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. The Kremlin says there are no concrete plans for a summit with Biden, Iran says nuclear talks have make significant progress, and Trump's Truth Social app launches | | | | | Today's biggest stories  People march during a demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine in Krakow, Poland, February 20, 2022 WORLD The Kremlin said there were no concrete plans for a summit over Ukraine between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, after the French president said the two leaders had agreed a meeting in principle. However, both Washington and Moscow played down hopes of a breakthrough, and satellite imagery appeared to show Russian deployments closer to Ukraine's border than before.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today set out plans to scrap coronavirus restrictions as part of a ‘living with COVID’ strategy that aims to achieve a faster exit from the pandemic than other major economies. As Hong Kong builds isolation units and Europe retains social distancing and vaccine rules, Johnson will announce the repeal of any pandemic requirements that impinge on personal freedoms, a day after Queen Elizabeth tested positive for the virus.
Talks in Vienna on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers have made "significant progress", Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said. Separately, Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani said talks with European negotiators were ongoing and would continue while negotiations with the United States were not on the agenda because they would not be the source of "any breakthroughs".
A veteran Turkish political leader who has struggled for years to have President Tayyip Erdogan voted out of office says it is "very clear" that his dream is drawing nearer, even as doubts remain about whether he will be the main opposition candidate at presidential elections set for 2023. In an interview, Kemal Kilicdaroglu confidently predicted victory at the polls as Turkey suffers economic hardships brought on by Erdogan's unorthodox monetary policies.
The United States' yearly counter-terrorism training program for African forces began in Ivory Coast at a time of upheaval in which Islamist fighters control large areas, coups are on the rise and French forces are winding down. In Mali, workers are feeling the squeeze as sanctions take hold after the junta delayed plans to hold elections in February following two coups.
|  FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a sign outside the Glynn County Courthouse after the jury reached a guilty verdict in the trial of William 'Roddie' Bryan, Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael, charged with the February 2020 death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, in Brunswick, Georgia, November 24, 2021 U.S. With closing arguments set to begin in the trial of three white men accused of federal hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger, in south Georgia, legal experts say the prosecution has a high bar to meet. Here are the charges.
Donald Trump's new social media venture, Truth Social, launched in Apple's App Store, potentially marking the former president's return to social media after he was banned from several platforms last year.
When Joenes Gellada joined the National Guard, he never imagined that would mean one day training as a nursing assistant. We look at how soldiers are plugging gaps in the stretched healthcare workforce.
Police in Portland, Oregon, said they believe a shooting that left one woman dead and five people wounded at a protest over police violence on Saturday night was triggered by a clash between an armed homeowner and armed demonstrators.
The sister of fraudster Bernie Madoff, who was convicted of masterminding the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, and her husband died last week from an apparent murder-suicide, authorities said. Madoff died at age 82 last year in federal prison, where he was serving a 150-year sentence.
| BUSINESS The euro zone economic recovery regained momentum this month as an easing of coronavirus restrictions gave a boost to the bloc's dominant service industry, a survey showed, but consumers faced prices rising at a record rate. German producer prices rose in January at their fastest rate since modern records began, soaring 25% as energy costs spiraled.
Switzerland's financial watchdog said it was in contact with Credit Suisse after media outlets published results of coordinated, Panama Papers-style investigations into a leak of data on thousands of accounts held at the bank in past decades.
For more than a decade, Lebanon's central bank charged commercial banks in the country commissions when they bought government securities without making clear that the bulk of those commissions went to a company controlled by the brother of the central bank's governor, according to documents seen by Reuters.
China has placed Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies under sanctions over arms sales to Taiwan, at least the third time it has announced punishments against the U.S. companies. The sanctions are countermeasures against the two companies over a $100-million arms sale that "undermined China's security interests, seriously undermined China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait", foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
McDonald's said Carl Icahn has nominated two members to its board of directors in an escalating fight over the treatment of pigs by the burger chain's suppliers. The billionaire activist investor has previously said that it is "obscene" how the animals used for McDonald's products are treated.
| | | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Australia welcomes back tourists Australia fully reopened its international borders to travelers vaccinated against the coronavirus after nearly two years of pandemic-related closures. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
