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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to this Saturday's briefing. It's hot out there in more ways than one, and we have the latest on Ukraine, heatwaves, Travis King and more.

A man sells umbrellas during a heatwave in Rome, July 19, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Extreme heatwaves to continue through August

Seriously hot: The World Meteorological Organization expects temperatures in North America, Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean to be above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) "for a prolonged number of days this week." It also expects more frequent heatwaves, spread across the seasons.
Tropical disease: The World Health Organization warned that cases of dengue fever could reach close to record highs this year, partly due to global warming benefiting mosquitoes.

The challenge of bringing Private King home

Bizarre odyssey: U.S. Army Private Travis T. King was supposed to fly from Seoul to Dallas. Instead of Texas, he sprinted across the DMZ into North Korea. Getting him home when Washington and Pyongyang have nearly no contact will be even harder than it might have been just a few years ago.
Stumped: North Korea has said nothing about King. While trade with Pyongyang has slowly resumed and COVID-19 mask mandates appear to have been dropped, the north is still keenly nervous about border crossings.

Russia squeezes Ukraine on grain, threatening millions

'Some will starve, many may die': A spike in grain prices since Russia quit a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain threatens disaster for millions, the U.N.'s aid chief said. Moscow meanwhile pounded Ukraine's food-export facilities.
More aid: The U.S. plans to announce $400 million in support for Ukraine, primarily comprising artillery, air defense missiles and ground vehicles. Volodymyr Zelenskiy fired his ambassador to the UK after the envoy publicly criticized the Ukrainian president. Russia will keep compulsory military service for 18-year-olds after lawmakers dropped a proposal to make the minimum age 21.

Trump gets a trial date for classified documents

Mark it on your calendar: Donald Trump's lawyers had resisted setting a date, but said any trial over his handling of classified documents from his time in office should take place after the November 2024 U.S. presidential election. Instead, the court gave him May 20.
In other legal news: A U.S. judge denied Trump's bid to move his Stormy Daniels hush-money trial to federal court. Another judge rejected his request for a new trial after the former president was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. And former Trump fixer Michael Cohen settled his lawsuit against the Trump Organization over legal fees.

Before I forget…

At least 137 migrants have died or gone missing in the Darién gap, the dangerous stretch of jungle that they must cross from South America into Panama as they try to reach the U.S. border. Their hell is becoming an ever-more popular magnet for adventure tourists. Find out more on the Reuters World News podcast.

Women in Manipur in northeastern India attacked the house of the main suspect in a sexual-assault case. The person allegedly dragged two tribal women onto the streets in May and incited a mob to rape and parade them naked.

There's a giant gash in the ground in Russia's Sakha Republic that is expanding as permafrost thaws. It will release ever greater quantities of greenhouse gases, as will other parts of Russia's warming tundra.

Florida's new guidelines on teaching Black history include this item: "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." The Florida teacher's union, the NAACP and Vice President Kamala Harris gave the state board of education an F.

Authorities spent two days looking for a lion on the loose in a Berlin suburb, but it turns out that it might have been just a wild boar. Taking things to a philosophical level, Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert said it was impossible to prove that there was no lion.

Google is exploring the use of AI tools to write news articles, and is in talks with some news organizations about using the tools. OpenAI is spending $5 million in a partnership with the American Journalism Project to support local news. This is my periodic reminder that my editor and I, contrary to appearances, are not robots.

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