| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Tuesday, February 1, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. The White House retools its strategy toward Senator Manchin, AT&T is to spin off WarnerMedia, and the Wordle buyout draws a backlash from fans | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A service member walks past tanks of a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during military exercises outside Kharkiv, Ukraine, January 31, 2022. REUTERS/Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy WORLD Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree to boost his armed forces by 100,000 troops over three years and raise soldiers' pay, but said this did not mean war with Russia was imminent. Zelenskiy urged lawmakers to stay calm as he prepared to host the leaders of the Netherlands, Britain and Poland as part of efforts to defuse tension. Here's a timeline of Ukraine's turbulent history since independence in 1991.
Streets in some of Myanmar's main cities were nearly deserted as opponents of military rule called for a "silent strike" to mark the first anniversary of a coup that snuffed out tentative progress towards democracy. At least 1,500 people are known to have been killed in protests, with thousands more possibly killed in the armed conflict, the United Nations human rights office said.
Amnesty International accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to a system of apartheid founded on policies of "segregation, dispossession and exclusion" that it said amounted to crimes against humanity. The London-based rights group said its findings were based on research and legal analysis in a 211-page report into Israeli seizure of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer of people and denial of citizenship.
The last time rebellious soldiers attempted to overthrow Burkina Faso's government in 2015, Marcel Tankoano was among thousands of protesters who took to the streets to oust the junta. Last week, Tankoano was on the streets again, this time celebrating the military coup that toppled the country's elected president. We look at how Islamist insurgencies are sapping faith in democracy in West Africa.
Boris Johnson's main political rival accused the British Prime Minister of "dragging everybody into the gutter" for repeating in parliament a false claim that he had failed to prosecute one of Britain's most notorious sex offenders. During angry exchanges, Johnson accused Labour leader Keir Starmer "of prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile" during his time as Director of Public Prosecutions.
|  FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Joe Manchin speaks to reporters after voting at the Capitol in Washington, January 20, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz U.S.
White House officials are planning a more subtle approach to try to win pivotal U.S. Senator Joe Manchin's support for a key part of President Joe Biden's legislative agenda, hoping that keeping matters private and avoiding public spats can help salvage the ambitious Build Back Better climate and social spending bill.
A Georgia prosecutor who is conducting a criminal investigation of Donald Trump has asked the FBI for a risk assessment and security protections, citing the former president's "alarming" rhetoric about prosecutors and the Capitol attack. A handful of Republicans pushed back against Trump's weekend offer to consider pardoning people convicted of joining the assault, saying it showed he would "do it all again" if he regains the White House in 2024.
Trump's fundraising slowed in late 2021 but the former leader still amassed more than $100 million in cash that could help Republicans in their bid to win congressional majorities later this year.
A U.S. judge in Georgia rejected plea agreements reached between federal prosecutors and two of the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, saying she was not willing to be bound to the 30-year federal prison sentence set in the agreement. The unusual decision came after Travis McMichael, one of the three attackers due to face trial next week on federal hate-crime charges, admitted for the first time he had pursued the 25-year-old Black man because of his race.
About 6,500 people have been told to evacuate their homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina due to a fire at a fertilizer plant storing over 300 tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate, city officials said.
| BUSINESS AT&T said it will spin off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion transaction to merge its media properties with Discovery and also cut its dividend by nearly half.
Bitcoin was assailed by thousands of new 'altcoin' competitors in 2021, raising the prospect of a rapid fragmentation of the crypto market. Yet it has stemmed its loss of market share this month, and begun to regain ground, as rattled investors seek the relative safety of the biggest crypto player while they contend with an aggressive Fed and talk of war in Europe.
A government plan for tackling Lebanon's financial crisis projects a 93% devaluation of the Lebanese pound and converts the bulk of hard currency deposits in the banking system to local currency, according to a blueprint seen by Reuters. Of $104 billion of hard currency deposits, the plan foresees returning just $25 billion to savers in U.S. dollars.
UBS reported its best annual profit since the global financial crisis, emboldening it to hike share buybacks and set more ambitious profit goals as it banks that more digital products will result in hefty cost-savings. Shares in Switzerland's biggest bank surged 6.5% to a four-year high.
The New York Times Co's acquisition of Wordle has created uproar on social media, with fans expressing fears that the popular online word game, which is currently free to play, might be put behind a paywall. Announcing that it had bought Wordle for an undisclosed price in the low seven figures, the Times said the game would "initially" remain free for existing and new players.
| | | | | | | | | Video of the day  Family torn apart at U.S. border reunites four years later Four years after American authorities pried Honduran migrant Maria Hernandez away from her daughters and deported her, she returned to the United States - this time with the blessing of the U.S. government. | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
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