By MarketsFarm

WINNIPEG, Aug. 24 (MarketsFarm) – The following is a glance at the news moving markets in Canada and globally.

– Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, met with a top Taliban official in Kabul on Monday as evacuation efforts continue in the country ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline. Details of the secret meeting were not revealed.

– Pfizer BioNTech`s COVID-19 vaccine has been granted full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While the vaccine was granted emergency approval months ago, with hundreds of millions of doses administered worldwide, the move to full approval by the U.S. agency was seen as a step towards reducing vaccine hesitancy among some people. Health Canada also has a review process in place, but has not yet authorized full approval of the vaccine.

– U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris issued a sharp rebuke to China’s incursions in the South China Sea during a speech in Singapore on Tuesday, accusing the country of using “coercion” and “intimidation”. “We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in the speech, adding “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.”