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Daily Briefing

Pakistan goes to the polls in a widely watched national election, Donald Trump brings his fight to stay on the ballot to the US Supreme Court, and Israeli forces intensify strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza.

Plus, the special patrol protecting Spain's brown bears and wary villagers.

By Edson Caldas

Today's Top News

Polling staff walks past police officers on guard outside a polling station in Peshawar, Pakistan. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz

ELECTIONS AROUND THE WORLD

At least nine people were killed in militant attacks in Pakistan as the country voted in a general election after temporarily cutting mobile phone services and closing some land borders to maintain law and order. We look at how the electoral system works in Pakistan and the challenges the new government faces.
In the US, Donald Trump's lawyers bring his fight to stay on the ballot to the Supreme Court. The justices will hear arguments in his appeal of a lower court's decision to disqualify him from Colorado's Republican presidential primary ballot after finding that he participated in an insurrection.

MIDDLE EAST

Israeli forces bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah where more than half of Gaza's population is sheltering, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal to end the war in the Palestinian enclave. He said the terms proposed by Hamas for a ceasefire were "delusional."
Repeated US strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are pushing the government to end the mission of the US-led coalition in the country, the prime minister's military spokesman Yahya Rasool said. He added that the coalition "has become a factor for instability."

IN OTHER NEWS

President Vladimir Putin granted an interview to Tucker Carlson, his first to an American TV host since before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On today's Reuters World News podcast, Russia Chief Political Correspondent Andrew Osborn discusses the benefits to Putin of addressing a US audience directly.
The world experienced its hottest January, continuing a run of exceptional heat fueled by climate change, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said. Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in records going back to 1950. Follow our environment coverage here.
A volcano in Iceland erupted for the second time this year, pumping lava up to 80 meters (260 feet) into the air in what is the sixth outbreak on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula since 2021. Live video from the area showed fountains of bright-orange molten rock spewing from fissures in the ground.

Business & Markets

China's consumer prices fell at their steepest pace in more than 14 years in January while producer prices also dropped, ramping up pressure on policymakers to revive an economy low on confidence. Analysts warn the overall deflationary impulse risks becoming entrenched in consumer behavior.
SoftBank returned to profit for the first time in five quarters, as the Japanese tech investment firm was buoyed by an upturn in portfolio companies. Net profit totaled 985.5 billion yen ($6.6 billion) in the three months to December, versus a 744.7 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier.
Honda reported a sharp rise in operating profit for the December quarter and lifted its annual outlook, helped by robust sales in the United States, a more profitable product mix and a weaker yen. For more news and analysis on the industry, sign up to the Auto File newsletter.
South Korean prosecutors will appeal a court decision to clear Samsung Chairman Jay Y. Lee of charges including accounting fraud and stock manipulation in a case related to a 2015 merger of affiliates. The ruling was a surprise to at least some analysts who had expected a suspended sentence.
Fans can expect celebrities and more lighthearted commercials during the Super Bowl, as advertisers avoid the recent practice of using the big game to promote social causes. While the high-priced commercials often play for laughs in trying to make an impression, the flashy productions can also reflect the national mood.

The Wider Image

Veterinarians measure the head of a bear in Tosande. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Spain's brown bears, once nearly extinct, stray into the mountain villages in the north of the country so often these days that the regional government of Castile and Leon has set up a patrol for locals to report animals on the prowl. Reuters was granted exclusive access to the patrol over the past three years.

See our photo essay on the special patrol protecting Spain's brown bears.

And Finally...

Saturn's 'Death Star' moon has a hidden secret. REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Handout via Reuters

Saturn's moon Mimas is known for its uncanny resemblance to the dreaded Death Star in the original "Star Wars" movie. But it has another intriguing distinction as well, according to researchers - a subsurface ocean hidden under its icy and crater-scarred outer shell.

Read more here.

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