Monday Briefing: Five killed at chaotic Afghan airport as Taliban proclaim peace

The Reuters Daily Briefing Monday, August 16, 2021 by Linda Noakes Hello Here's what you need to know. Scenes of chaos as Afghans flee to the airport, Haiti hospitals are overwhelmed by quake victims, and Malaysia's political crisis escalates Today's biggest stories People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 16, 2021 TALIBAN TAKE AFGHANISTAN Five people were killed in chaos at Kabul airport, witnesses said, as U.S. troops guarded the evacuation of embassy staff a day after the Taliban seized the Afghan capital and declared the war was over and peace prevailed. As Britain says NATO forces will not return to the country, we look at how China's propaganda machinery has quietly begun preparing its people to accept an increasingly likely scenario that Beijing might have to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate regime. The United States spent more than $8 billion over 15 years on efforts to deprive the Taliban of their profits from Afghanistan's opium and heroin trade, from poppy eradication to airstrikes and raids on suspected labs. That strategy failed. We profile Ashraf Ghani - the departing Afghan president whose peace efforts came to nothing. A woman on a stretcher is pictured with a baby after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, August 15, 2021 Haiti's hospitals have been swamped by thousands of injured residents after a devastating earthquake killed at least 1,297 people. The 7.2 magnitude quake on Saturday destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in a Caribbean nation which is still clawing its way back from another major quake 11 years ago and is reeling from the assassination of its president last month. Malaysia's Muhyiddin Yassin stepped down as prime minister after months of political turmoil culminated in the loss of his majority, but his resignation is likely to open another chapter of instability in the absence of any obvious successor. Here's a timeline of Muhyiddin's rise and fall. Opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema secured a stunning landslide victory over incumbent Edgar Lungu in Zambia's presidential election. It is the third time that power has shifted peacefully from a ruling party to the opposition since the southern African country's independence from Britain in 1964. Flash floods that swept through towns in Turkish Black Sea provinces have killed 70 people and emergency workers continue to search for 47 missing people. Venezuelan opposition leader Freddy Guevara has been released from prison, a month after his arrest and days after the start of talks in Mexico City between the opposition and the government of President Nicolas Maduro. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers that she had asked a House committee to advance both a $1 trillion infrastructure plan and a $3.5 trillion spending package together, an apparent effort to patch up divisions that had threatened to stall President Joe Biden's legislative priorities. BUSINESS China's factory output and retail sales growth slowed sharply and missed expectations in July, as new COVID-19 outbreaks and floods disrupted business operations, adding to signs the economic recovery is losing momentum. The weak data halted a winning streak for European stocks. Any veteran investor will tell you that financial markets overshoot when trouble hits, but what if that market is the world's second-largest economy and the government has decided the rules of the game have changed? Valuing Chinese assets is no easy task after a $1 trillion wipeout. Big Wall Street banks have started enforcing stricter mask and vaccine requirements for staff, sometimes communicating them behind the scenes, in an effort to combat coronavirus infections in their offices while avoiding a fierce national debate about individual rights, sources at the banks and consultants who work with them have told Reuters. PharmaCann, one of the 10 original cannabis licensees in New York, has confidentially filed for an initial public offering that could value it at well over $1 billion, sources have told Reuters. For most of the 13-year life of cryptocurrencies, exchanges were the epicentre for cyberheists. Now, a bigger hacking risk in the growing sector has exploded into view: peer-to-peer crypto platforms. Quote of the day "My first concern was to grow my beard and how to grow it fast. I also checked with my wife if there were enough burqas for her and the girls" Gul Mohammed Hakim Kabul shopkeeper Shops close, security guards flee in Afghan capital Video of the day Troops enforce COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney Australia's Sydney recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic as troops and police set up roadblocks to limit the movement of people, while Melbourne faces a nightly curfew and a further two weeks of lockdown. And finally… Indonesia animal-lovers help pets left behind by coronavirus Four-year-old Indonesian pitbull Gledis was home alone for two days without food when a group of volunteers found her. More from Reuters COVID-19 Investigations Breakingviews Legal News Thanks for spending part of your day with us. Share your thoughts You are receiving this email because you signed up for newsletters from Reuters. No longer want to hear from us? Unsubscribe from The Reuters Daily Briefing. Terms, conditions, and privacy statement © 2021 Thomson Reuters. 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