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Daily Briefing

NATO leaders dashed Ukraine's hopes for an immediate invitation to join the alliance, but the country is still set to come away with some tangible rewards. And back in Kyiv, Russian hackers lured embassy workers with a fake ad.

Plus, a century on, Hemingway's prose lures revelers to Spain's Pamplona.

By Edson Caldas

Today's Top News

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meet during a NATO leaders summit in Vilnius, July 12, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman

UKRAINE WAR

Britain, the US and global allies were due to unveil new security assurances for Ukraine. The declaration by the world's most industrialized countries "will set out how allies will support Ukraine over the coming years to end the war and deter and respond to any future attack", said a British government statement.
It comes after NATO declared Ukraine's future lay inside the alliance but stopped short of naming a date. The daily Reuters World News podcast unpacks what's next for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after the alliance declined to offer him a timeline for membership. And here are some of the commitments pledged to Ukraine in connection with the NATO summit.
Hackers suspected of working for Russia's foreign intelligence agency targeted dozens of diplomats at embassies in Ukraine with a fake used car advert in a bid to break into their computers, according to a cybersecurity firm report. The wide-reaching espionage activity targeted people working in at least 22 of the roughly 80 foreign missions in Kyiv.

AROUND THE WORLD

US President Joe Biden's public approval rating held steady at 40% in early July, close to the lowest levels of his presidency, as economic worries continued to trouble Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Biden's rating is identical to his predecessor Donald Trump's 41% approval at this point in his presidency.
Thai prime ministerial hopeful Pita Limjaroenrat was dealt a major setback when two separate complaints against him gained momentum, threatening to derail his leadership bid on the eve of a crucial vote on the premiership. Pita's supporters called for protests later today.
North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast, as leaders of South Korea and Japan were set to meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit to discuss threats. The suspected ICBM flew for 74 minutes to an altitude of 6,000 km and range of 1,000 km, Japan's chief cabinet secretary said.
Czech-born writer Milan Kundera, author of the novel "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" has died aged 94. He won accolades for his style depicting themes and characters that floated between the mundane reality of everyday life and the lofty world of ideas.

Business & Markets

Women in the STEM field don't marry? Many aspiring female engineers in Japan choose a different path due to the social stigma, creating a headache for the country. The upshot, experts warn, is a decline in innovation, productivity and competitiveness for a country that grew on those strengths during the last century.
A private Chinese company launched into orbit the world's first methane-liquid oxygen rocket, beating US rivals in sending what could become the next generation of launch vehicles into space. The Zhuque-2 carrier rocket blasted off from northwest China and completed its flight according to plan, state media said.
Microsoft cleared major hurdles to its plan to buy videogame maker Activision Blizzard, after a US judge gave a thumbs-up to the $69 billion deal and a British regulator suggested it could reconsider its opposition. The judge rejected the Biden administration's contention that the deal would hurt consumers.
A year after US inflation peaked and touched off an aggressive turn in monetary policy, Fed officials may soon open a more encouraging chapter in policy discussions with the first of what many analysts expect to be a run of data showing renewed declines in key price measures. Consumer price index data for June is released this morning - keep an eye on our Macro Matters page.

The Wider Image

Bulls run along Estafeta street during Sanfermines, Pamplona, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Susana Vera

St Fermin engulfs downtown Pamplona every July when people from around the globe descend upon the northern Spanish city for nine days of adrenaline, sweat and debauchery savored as freely as the wine flows. Some are drawn to the Sanfermines - as the famed bull-running festival is popularly known - by the timeless prose of one of the grandees of 20th-century American literature.

Our report shows, a century on, Hemingway's prose lures revelers to the festival.

And Finally...

People take pictures of ice creams shaped like tiles of the famous Wat Arun temple, or Temple of Dawn, in Bangkok, July 8, 2023. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

Under a scorching sun, visitors to Thailand's renowned Temple of Dawn cool down by tasting an elaborately-shaped ice cream depicting intricate patterns inspired by the tiles of the pagoda. "It's different and pretty," said Thai resident Doungkamon Koedthong, holding up the ice cream against the backdrop of the temple, also known as Wat Arun, for an Instagram-worthy snapshot.

Read more here: Ice cream inspired by Thai temple tiles cools admiring tourists

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