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Daily Briefing

Donald Trump's business empire hangs in the balance, a growing disregard for trade rules shows the world is fragmenting, and a closer look at Russia's use of punishment battalions.

Plus, a ballet school aims to break racial barriers.

By Kate Turton

Today's Top News

Testimony in the Manhattan courtroom began following opening arguments. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Pool

US NEWS

Donald Trump's civil trial continues in Manhattan in a case that threatens to dismantle parts of the former US president's business empire. Reporter Jack Queen tells Reuters World News podcast what the former president could stand to lose - listen now.
Far-right Republican Representative Matt Gaetz moved to oust fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives, injecting an additional element of chaos into an already tumultuous Congress.

IN OTHER NEWS

Islamist militants in Mali began a blockade of Timbuktu by cutting road access in August and then shut off river and air routes in an offensive that has put the city once again on the frontline of a jihadist insurgency.
Scientists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for "experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter", the award-giving body said.
Race and relations with the indigenous Maori population have emerged as issues in New Zealand's election as right-wing parties, likely to be pivotal in forming a government, face accusations of stoking racial division.
An alliance of nations said members would raise $12 billion to protect coral reefs from threats such as pollution and overfishing, but experts warned the funding would only be a drop in the ocean unless broader climate risks are addressed.
A powerful faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of ex-Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has banned fentanyl production and sales in Sinaloa, according to roadside banners, though analysts doubted the group would leave such a profitable business.
Ukraine's parliament and its speaker taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's pleas for wartime assistance from the West.

Business & Markets

Nothing illustrates the crisis at the World Trade Organization more than the piling up of unresolved disputes and the growing list of what it terms the "trade concerns" of its members.
US retailers and other delivery customers are easily winning discounts from United Parcel Service and FedEx for the first time in more than four years, according to industry data and interviews.
Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said that any decision on currency market intervention would be based on volatility, not specific yen levels, as investors brace for a possible move if the yen breaches the 150-per-dollar threshold. Here's what Japanese intervention to boost the weak yen would look like.
The number of instances of greenwashing by banks and financial services companies around the world rose 70% in the past 12 months from the previous 12 months, a report showed.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella tech giants were competing for vast troves of content needed to train artificial intelligence, and complained Google was locking up content with expensive and exclusive deals with publishers.
British drugmaker AstraZeneca said it will pay $425 million to settle product liability litigations against prescription-only acid-reflux medicine Nexium and heartburn drug Prilosec in the United States.
China's ByteDance is buying back shares from US employees in a deal that values the TikTok parent company at $223.5 billion, about 26% lower than a valuation a year earlier, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

'They're just meat': Russia deploys punishment battalions in echo of Stalin

A screenshot from a video shared by Russian prisoners' rights campaign group Gulagu.net. Obtained by REUTERS/via REUTERS

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts.

They're among hundreds of military and civilian offenders who've been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units.

Christian Lowe is part of the team who worked on the story and tells Reuters World News podcast about the Stalinesque punishment battalions.

Read our report about Russia's Storm-Z fighters

And Finally...

Kioni and Maya at Pointe Black Ballet School. REUTERS/Alishia Abodunde

It was a pointed comment about her Afro-braided hair that spurred Ruth Essel to carve out what she calls a safe space for Black dancers.

The founder of Pointe Black Ballet School in London said when she was a child, teachers and assistants all but punished her for not fitting the traditional ballerina mould, as if she was using her race as some kind of rebellion.

The Wider Image: London's Pointe Black ballet school aims to break racial barriers

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