BitGou: Friday Briefing: Afghan pilots assassinated by Taliban as U.S. withdraws

Friday, July 9, 2021

by Linda Noakes

Hello

Here's what you need to know.

The Taliban says it controls most of Afghanistan, U.S. civil rights leaders vow a 'summer of activism', and can Reddit's silver 'apes' beat the market?

Today's biggest stories

Reverend Al Sharpton from the National Action Network and other leading civil rights leaders hold a press conference at the White House following a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, July 8, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

U.S.

U.S. civil rights leaders emerged from a White House meeting with President Joe Biden vowing a "summer of activism" to battle new voting restrictions enacted in Republican-led states in recent months.

Michael Avenatti, the brash lawyer who shot to fame representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against Donald Trump before a swirl of criminal charges ended his legal career, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison for trying to extort Nike.

Even as searchers scramble to locate the remains of dozens more victims of the Florida condominium tower collapse, debate has begun in the beachside community over what to do with the site where the building once stood.

Wally Waugh, 57, a front-end manager at a Stop & Shop supermarket in Oyster Bay, New York, makes over $1,150 a week. He is a union member. Adam Ryan, 33, a sales clerk at a Christiansburg, Virginia, Target, makes $380 to $460 a week. He is not. We look at how retail workers in unions reap higher wages even as U.S. organizers suffer setbacks.

With U.S. COVID-19 cases up around 11% over the previous week, Americans are packing reopened concert halls for a summer of music.

Members of the Taliban political office Abdul Latif Mansoor (L), Shahabuddin Delawar (C) and Suhail Shaheen attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia July 9, 2021. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

WORLD

A Taliban delegation in Moscow said the group controls over 85% of territory in Afghanistan and reassured Russia it will not allow the country to be used as a platform to attack others. As American troops pull out of Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents are targeting that country’s military pilots for assassination to weaken its defenses, Reuters has learned.

Having escaped the worst when the coronavirus pandemic erupted last year, Southeast Asia is now suffering record rises in deaths and cases, while vaccination shortfalls and highly contagious variants have derailed containment efforts. Meanwhile, Australia's Sydney faces a lockdown extension amid record 2021 cases.

A heavily armed commando unit that assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise this week comprised 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, authorities say, as the hunt goes on for the masterminds of the brazen killing. We spoke to Haitian Americans fretting for relatives trapped by the turmoil.

At least 52 people were killed, 20 injured and many more feared trapped after a massive fire raged through a juice-making factory in Bangladesh, the latest industrial fire accident in the country.

Lithuania began building a barrier along its border with Belarus after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union.

BUSINESS

Finance ministers representing the G20 large economies back a deal setting a global floor for corporate tax rates and will push to resolve outstanding issues on it by October, the latest draft of a joint communique says.

The Biden administration is set to add more than 10 Chinese companies to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang, sources have told Reuters.

Marlboro cigarettes maker Philip Morris agreed to buy British drugmaker Vectura for $1.44 billion to bolster its portfolio of products that are free from tobacco or nicotine.

Kerry Kraker, 56, has worked in kitchens all his life. Since March he's spent around $100 a week - half his spare cash – on silver coins. He's part of a growing social media movement who say they are buying bars and coins for protection from a coming age of inflation.