| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Monday, July 19, 2021 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. England's 'freedom day' is marred by soaring COVID cases, how AOC is branding the U.S. left, and a bored Simone Biles turns agony aunt | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A Yeoman Warder leads the first 'Beefeater' tour of the Tower of London in 16 months, July 19, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
CORONAVIRUS
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 'freedom day' ending over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England was marred by surging infections, warnings of supermarket shortages and his own forced self-isolation.
In Asia, South Korea's military has recorded its biggest cluster of infections to date, Thailand warned daily cases could hit 30,000 in the worst-case scenario and Singapore saw cases double overnight as testing ramps up.
Cuba, which kept coronavirus infections low last year, now has the highest rate of contagion per capita in Latin America. That has strained its healthcare sector and helped stoke rare protests that have roiled the Communist-run island.
Australia, which is battling to slow the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, said it will deport controversial British commentator Katie Hopkins after she admitted breaching quarantine rules.
See our COVID-19 global tracker for the latest statistics, charts and maps.
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WORLD
The United States and a coalition of allies accused China's Ministry of State Security of a global cyber hacking campaign, specifically attributing a large Microsoft attack disclosed earlier this year to hackers working on Beijing's behalf. Four Chinese nationals have been charged, the U.S. Justice Department said.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in will not visit Tokyo for the Olympics, scrapping plans for what would have been his first summit with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The announcement came after Seoul lodged a protest over a news report that a senior diplomat at Japan's embassy in Seoul had said Moon was "masturbating" when describing his efforts to improve relations between the two countries.
Fifteen diplomatic missions and the NATO representative in Afghanistan urged the Taliban to halt their military offensives just hours after the rival Afghan sides failed to agree on a ceasefire at a peace meeting in Doha.
Russia said it had successfully tested a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world.
U.S.
Gusty winds and dry, hot weather are increasing the size of dozens of wildfires scorching vast stretches of Oregon, California and other western states. The Bootleg Fire in Oregon grew in size to nearly 468 square miles - an area larger than Hong Kong.
U.S. President Joe Biden will today host Jordan's King Abdullah, a key U.S. ally in a volatile region, in what will be the first of three face-to-face meetings with leaders from the Middle East expected soon.
Biden's administration said it had transferred its first detainee from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a Moroccan man who had been imprisoned since 2002, bringing the population at the facility down to 39.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became one of America's most prominent progressive Democrats with her calls to tax the wealthy and spend big to fight climate change. Now she is investing heavily in her online store in efforts aimed at both fundraising and building her profile nationally.
| BUSINESS Futures tracking the blue-chip Dow fell 1%, with economy-linked value and travel stocks taking a hit after a spike in global COVID-19 cases raised fresh concerns about slowing economic growth.
OPEC+ ministers agreed to boost oil supply from August to cool prices which have climbed to 2-1/2 year highs as the global economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
Johnson & Johnson is exploring a plan to offload liabilities from widespread Baby Powder litigation into a newly created business that would then seek bankruptcy protection.
Robinhood Markets is targeting a valuation of up to $35 billion in its initial public offering in the United States, setting the stage for one of the highly anticipated stock market listings of the year.
As tensions mount between China and the United States, automakers in the West are trying to reduce their reliance on a key driver of the electric vehicle revolution - permanent magnets, sometimes smaller than a pack of cards, that power electric engines.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Angela Merkel calls European floods "terrifying" The German chancellor visited a devastated town as the death toll across Europe rose. | | | | And finally… Blue Origin sees clear skies for Bezos space flight  New Shepard is due to launch nine days after rival Richard Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, successfully carried out a suborbital flight from New Mexico with the British billionaire inside its rocket plane. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
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