Adani's adversity raises the stakes for India and investors

Plus, ChatGPT sets a record for the fastest-growing user base

Hello Adani's market losses top $100 billion, Shell's profit more than doubles to a record $40 billion, and Microsoft rolls out a ChatGPT-powered Teams Premium   by Linda Noakes   Business & Markets A man walks past a screen on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai, India, February 1, 2023. REUTERS/Niharika Kulkarni  India's Adani group shares sank after market turmoil forced the conglomerate to axe a crucial $2.5 billion stock offer, deepening its market losses to more than $100 billion. As tycoon Gautam Adani's woes mount, foreign investors and Indian regulators are abandoning any pretence that the conglomerate's troubles are contained and domestic markets will be spared contagion. The Federal Reserve said it had turned a key corner in the fight against high inflation, but that "victory" would still require its benchmark overnight interest rate to be increased further and remain elevated at least through 2023. The European Central Bank is all but certain to raise interest rates again today and pencil in more hikes for the next few months. The Bank of England is poised to raise rates for the tenth time in a row to keep up its fight against rampant inflation. Shell delivered a record $40 billion profit in 2022, capping a tumultuous year in which a surge in energy prices after Russia's invasion of Ukraine allowed it to hand shareholders unprecedented returns. Microsoft rolled out a premium Teams messaging offering powered by ChatGPT to simplify meetings using the AI chatbot that has taken Silicon Valley by storm. ChatGPT is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. Volvo Cars is gearing up for an electric blitz to convert all its mainstay models - three SUVs and two sedans - into electric vehicles and to introduce a luxury electric van aimed at boosting sales in Asia, two people with knowledge of the plans said.   World News A residential building destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy A Russian missile destroyed an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk as top European Union officials arrived in Kyiv for talks seen as key to Ukraine's pivot towards the West. A former commander of Russia's Wagner mercenary group who fled to Norway told Reuters he wanted to apologize for fighting in Ukraine and was speaking out to bring the perpetrators of atrocities in the conflict to justice. The Philippines has granted the United States expanded access to its military bases, their defense chiefs said, amid mounting concern over China's increasing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea and tensions over self-ruled Taiwan. North Korea's Foreign Ministry said that drills by the United States and its allies have pushed the situation to an "extreme red-line" and threaten to turn the peninsula into a "huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone." The suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people at a mosque in a police compound in the Pakistan city of Peshawar this week wore a police uniform and entered the high security area on a motorbike, a provincial police chief said. Mourners and protesters faced off in Sydney at the funeral service for Australian Cardinal George Pell, a former top Vatican official who was acquitted in 2020 of sexual abuse accusations.   U.S. News Private security guards the perimeter of a beach house owned by President Joe Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, February 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mark Makela The U.S. Justice Department did not find documents with classified markings during a three-and-a-half hour search of President Joe Biden's beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, but did take some materials for further review, Biden's attorney said. The search by FBI agents appeared to represent an expansion of the probe into Biden's handling of classified documents. Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held initial talks about raising government borrowing limits in a first test of how the two will work together, with both sides agreeing to talk more. We outline House Republicans' many proposals for spending cuts. A group of Republicans in the House of Representatives said they would seek to impeach Biden's top border official, a sign of coming political battles over record numbers of illegal crossings. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will kick off her campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination this month, squaring off against her one-time boss, Donald Trump, two sources familiar with her plans said. The relatives of Black people killed by police in cities across the United States attended Tyre Nichols' funeral in a Memphis church to offer comfort to the family of the 29-year-old, who was fatally beaten by officers last month. Speaking over a flower-bedecked casket, preachers recalled a young man who loved photography and skateboarding, and demanded justice. And Finally An illustration shows the binary star system CPD-29 2176, located about 11,000 light years from Earth Astronomers document a not-so-super supernova in the Milky Way Australia to replace monarch on banknote  Video: Shape-shifting robot imitates turtles We think you may like this: Reuters Crypto Wire Reuters crypto and fintech experts help you spot the scams and understand the value of cryptocurrencies, Web3 and NFTs. Subscribe Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.   Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Follow Reuters on social media Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement   © 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036

The U.S. is set to send new weapons to Ukraine

Plus, Britain's teachers and civil servants join a mass strike on 'Walkout Wednesday'

Hello Afghans are risking an 11-country trek to seek haven in the U.S., Adani loses his crown as Asia's richest person, and Australia finds a radioactive 'needle in a haystack'   by Linda Noakes   World News Policemen help Arina, 6, dressed in a bulletproof vest and helmet during her evacuation from the frontline city of Bakhmut in Donetsk region, Ukraine, January 31, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak News that the United States could soon send rockets nearly doubling the firing range of Ukrainian forces gave Kyiv a big lift, even as its troops were being pushed back by a relentless Russian winter offensive in the east. Read our story on a risky mission in the besieged city of Bakhmut to evacuate a six-year-old girl who had become separated from her pregnant mother. Up to half a million British teachers, civil servants, and train drivers walked out over pay in the largest coordinated strike action for a decade, with unions threatening more disruption as the government digs its heels in over pay demands. Protesters marked the two-year anniversary of Myanmar's military coup with a "silent strike" in major cities and rallies overseas, as exiled civilian leaders vowed to end what they called the army's "illegal power grab". We look at how the coup has left a trail of upended lives in its wake. Pope Francis urged people in Democratic Republic of Congo, where decades of armed conflicts have killed millions, to grant each other a "great amnesty of the heart" and called on Christians engaged in battle to lay down their arms. We explain what's driving the violence in eastern Congo. Australian authorities found a radioactive capsule smaller than a coin that was lost in the vast Outback after nearly a week-long search along a 1,400 kilometers stretch of highway. The Caesium-137 capsule was discovered when a vehicle traveling at 70 kms per hour equipped with specialist detection equipment picked up the radiation. U.S. News Humaira Ziwari, an Afghan refugee, plays with her eldest son Ahmad Altaf Ziwari at Heather Farms Park near their home in Concord, California, December 13, 2022. REUTERS/Brittany Hosea-Small More than a year after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Kabul, the number of Afghans crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum in the United States has soared. We report on an 11-country trek that starts with a humanitarian visa for Brazil. Family and friends of Tyre Nichols will pay their final respects today to the Black 29-year-old father whose fatal encounter with Memphis police last month transformed him into the new face of the U.S. racial justice movement.  President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are set to discuss the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling today, a meeting that will give a first sign of how the two will work together, or fail to, in a divided Washington. Donald Trump's bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 got off to a modest fundraising start, with his campaign ending the year with about $7 million on hand while his Save America fund had about $18 million, according to financial disclosures. The Colorado River, which provides drinking water to 40 million people in seven U.S. states, is drying up, straining a water distribution pact amid the worst drought in 12 centuries, exacerbated by climate change. Business & Markets Gautam Adani speaks during an inauguration ceremony after the Adani Group completed the purchase of Haifa Port, in Israel, January 31, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen Indian tycoon Gautam Adani lost his title of Asia's richest person as a rout in his conglomerate's biggest companies deepened to $84 billion in the wake of a short-seller report. Today's stock losses saw Adani slip to 15th on Forbes rich list with an estimated net worth of $76.8 billion, below rival Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries. Volatility-linked funds estimated to be buying as much as $2 billion in U.S. equities daily are helping drive this year's rebound in stocks and may ramp up purchases in coming weeks, though a hawkish Federal Reserve could spoil the party. The Fed will loudly insist again today that its inflation battle is not yet won - even as it slows the pace of interest rate rises to combat it, writes Reuters columnist Mike Dolan. Intel said it had made broad cuts to employee and executive pay, a week after the company issued a lower-than-expected sales forecast driven by a loss of market share to rivals and a PC market downturn. Tesla plans to step up output at its Shanghai plant over the next two months to meet demand ignited by aggressive price cuts on its best-selling models, according to a planning memo seen by Reuters and a person with knowledge of the plan. Lebanon adopted a new official exchange rate of 15,000 pounds per U.S. dollar, marking a 90% devaluation from its previous official rate that had been unchanged for 25 years. Here's why cash is king in Lebanon as banks atrophy. A rising wave of shareholder activism has turned Tokyo into a growth market for businesses that offer advice on shareholder relations, as corporate Japan scrambles for help to deal with investors who are no longer silent. And Finally John W. Dietrich, president and CEO of Atlas Air Worldwide, and Dave Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, converse on stage during the delivery of the final 747 jet at their plant in Everett, Washington, January 31, 2023. REUTERS/David Ryder Boeing delivers last 747, saying goodbye to 'Queen of the Skies' AI uncovers unknown play by Spanish great in library archive Video: Meet the Ice Lions - Kenya's only ice hockey team We think you may like this: Reuters Auto File From Shanghai to Detroit to Munich, a look at the fast-paced world of automotive technology. Subscribe Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.   Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Follow Reuters on social media Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement   © 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036