Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Hello everyone. We have the latest news on the war in Gaza, E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against Donald Trump, and a weekend edition of our World News podcast that explores Israelis' views of the Gaza war on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Oh, did you ever think cursive handwriting would make a comeback?

Smoke rises during an Israeli ground operation in Khan Younis. REUTERS/Bassam Masoud

World Court stops short of Israel ceasefire order

Ruling: The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinians and do more to help civilians while denying Palestinian hopes of a binding order to stop the war in Gaza. It also called for Palestinian armed groups to release hostages captured in Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Read our key takeaways.
Reaction: Palestinians said they felt the court let them down. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the genocide charge outrageous. South Africa, which brought the case, hailed the ruling as a step toward justice. The U.N. human-rights office warned that cold weather and relentless Israeli attacks are making Gaza "completely uninhabitable." And the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is investigating several employees suspected of involvement in the Hamas attacks.

'Now is the time to make him pay for it dearly'

Damages: A federal jury ordered Donald Trump to pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of destroying her reputation as a trustworthy journalist by denying he raped her nearly three decades ago. The decision includes $65 million in punitive damages. Trump said he never heard of Carroll and that she invented her story to boost sales of her memoir.
Give it up: Nikki Haley said she raised $1 million since Trump warned her donors that he would permanently ban them from his orbit if they don't stop supporting her. Trump is trying to knock her out of the race for the Republican nomination for president before the South Carolina primary, and is furious that she's still around. Strategists and donors to Haley's campaign say they feel powerless after failing to stop Trump's rise. Two thirds of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were "tired of seeing the same candidates" in the 2024 election.

Tattooed body parts and Ukraine IDs

Crash site: Russia said it recovered Ukrainian identity documents and body parts from the site where a Russian military plane crashed. Vladimir Putin said Kyiv shot down the Ilyushin Il-76 over the Belgorod region, killing 65 Ukrainian soldiers en route to be swapped for Russian prisoners of war. Ukraine has not said if it downed the plane, and said there was no proof of who was on board.
Calling on Budapest: Sweden got the green light from Turkey to join NATO, leaving only Hungary blocking the way. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson offered to meet Viktor Orbán in Brussels, but said he would not negotiate.

Boeing's 737 problems ripple across the aviation industry

By air: Boeing's troubles with its 737 MAX jets after the Alaska Airlines blowout are changing airlines' fleet and expansion goals after U.S. regulators froze production of the planes. Smaller businesses that make their living around Boeing are feeling the turbulence.
By land: $80 billion evaporated from Tesla's market value after Elon Musk warned that sales growth would slow this year. GM released an analysis of what went wrong when a Cruise robotaxi struck and dragged a pedestrian last October.

Before I forget…

Houthi rebels launched a hit on a fuel tanker, sparking a fire.

Tuvalu is one of three Pacific Island nations that has maintained ties with Taiwan over China. That might change.

Slovakia's prime minister said there is no war in Kyiv.

France threw farmers a bone to get them to stop their highway blockade. They say it's not enough.

A whole lot of tech and media jobs disappeared this month.

NASA grounded its Mars helicopter Ingenuity after a spectacular three-year run. And its Perseverance rover confirmed ancient lake sediments on the planet.

Remember the "Easy Street" song they used for torturing prisoners in "The Walking Dead?" Alexei Navalny is having a similar experience.

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