Netanyahu, Trump appear to abandon Gaza ceasefire hopes

Plus, who qualifies as a South African refugee?

Global news you can trust. Download the Reuters App. Weekend Briefing Weekend Briefing From Reuters Daily Briefing   By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. Before we dig into the news, I want to share with you a story about how artificial intelligence is helping neurodivergent people navigate the subtle cues of social encounters. It's our first story in the AI&Us series. And I urge you to read this story about a Mexican family whose decision to self-deport from the United States led to calamity. Netanyahu, Trump appear to abandon Gaza ceasefire hopes   REUTERS/Amir Cohen 'I think they want to die': Israel is considering "alternative" options to bring its hostages back from Gaza while ending Hamas' rule. President Trump said Hamas didn't want to make a deal, and said he thought its leaders would be hunted down. Israel and the U.S. rebuked France for its plan to recognize a Palestinian state. Some other major Western powers demurred. Israel said it would allow other countries to parachute aid into Gaza. People including malnourished children are facing man-made mass starvation, the U.N. and aid agencies said. 'The situation has intensified': In southeast Asia, Thailand and Cambodia fought for a third day as new flashpoints emerged along the border. Both sides blame the other for starting the conflict. Read this report from the Thai side of the border where families are trying to stay safe. Musk ordered Starlink shutdown during Ukraine war 'We have to do this': During a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia in late September 2022, Elon Musk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive and dented Kyiv's trust in Starlink. It is the first known instance of the billionaire actively shutting off coverage over a battlefield during the conflict. Starlink's global outage on Thursday hit Ukrainian military communications for more than two hours. Ukraine-Russia news: President Zelenskiy said he would restore the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, bowing to rare wartime protests and EU disapproval over his attempt to curb them. Zelenskiy earlier said the agencies needed to be cleansed of Russian influence. China-made engines for drones are being shipped to Russia in the guise of "industrial refrigeration units" to avoid detection, documents show. Russia's shipbuilding chief said the nation's lone aircraft carrier would be scrapped or sold. Who qualifies as a South African refugee? A question of color: The top U.S. embassy official in South Africa asked Washington if non-whites could apply for a refugee program geared toward Afrikaners. The reply he received from the State Department's senior refugee and migration official was that the program was for white people. The official policy? It's more complicated. And FEMA money is going to pay for states to build U.S. immigrant detention centers. A question of clemency: Trump said he has not considered pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell or commuting her prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. Deputy Attorney General Tom Blanche interviewed Maxwell over two days in federal prison in Tallahassee. Trump remains under pressure from his supporters and political opponents to release more information about the investigation into Epstein, and his usual methods of distracting people from his problems are not working. AI? Good. Everything else? Not so much Earnings season: Businesses focused on artificial intelligence did well in their latest quarterly results. Consumer names didn't fare so well. Stocks and the dollar firmed on Friday as markets prepared for a Fed policy meeting and Trump's Aug. 1 deadline for negotiating trade deals. Mainstream media are about to get a look at what the Trump administration considers unbiased journalism. And Macquarie found a business opportunity I'd never have thought of: student-housing businesses in Europe. Quashed: Anyone here remember Tom Hayes? That was a big name a decade ago when he became the first trader to be jailed for interest-rate rigging. Earlier this week, Britain's top court overturned his conviction. Peru's guano problem Not enough droppings: Scientists along Peru's central Pacific coast warn that climate change, disease and overfishing are threatening the survival of birds that produce large quantities of excrement that are used as natural fertilizer. A toxic algae outbreak off South Australia is devastating marine life and disrupting tourism and fishing. Too much heat, too much water: Storms in northern China poured nearly a year's rainfall on a city near Beijing. A heatwave is searing Turkey and Cyprus as wildfires rage. Heat and a lack of sufficient winter snowfall are killing Greece's fir trees. Before I forget… Five Australian women who said they were pulled from a Qatar Airways flight and subjected to strip searches in 2020 won the right to sue the airline. Some women said they were forced to undergo gynecological exams to see if they'd recently given birth after an abandoned newborn was found at Doha's airport. Five former members of Canada's 2018 gold medal-winning world junior ice hockey team were acquitted of sexual assault. Whether they can resume their NHL careers is still to be determined. U.S. health authorities are changing the organ-transplant system and threatened to close a major procurement body after a probe found premature attempts to start organ retrieval while patients showed signs of life. A U.S. judge dismissed a mail-fraud criminal case after the Justice Department realized that it should have ended in 1993. See you there? Thales Alenia Space and the Italian Space Agency said they signed a contract to develop the first human outpost on the moon. Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website Listen to the Reuters World News podcast Weekend Briefing is sent once a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you've engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement. Terms & Conditions © 2025 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036

Thailand-Cambodia border battle escalates

Plus, Elon Musk's Starlink network suffers a rare global outage.

Global news you can trust. Download the Reuters App. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Linda Noakes Hello. Thailand rejects international mediation to end the fighting with Cambodia, France plans to recognize a Palestinian state, and Trump presses Powell to cut rates during a tense visit to the Fed. Plus, Montreal over Miami - why Canadians are changing their vacation plans. Today's Top News   A Thai mobile artillery unit fires towards Cambodia. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha Thailand has rejected mediation efforts from third countries to end the ongoing conflict with Cambodia, as fighting rages for a second day. Today's Reuters World News podcast features Martin Petty, Breaking News Editor for Southeast Asia, who explains what's behind the dispute. France intends to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly, but the plan drew angry rebukes from Israel and the United States. Gaza is on the brink of running out of the specialised therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children. Starlink systems used by Ukrainian military units were down for two and a half hours overnight, a senior commander said, part of a global issue that disrupted the satellite internet provider. Iran pushed back on suggestions of extending a UN resolution that ratifies a 2015 nuclear deal as it began the first face-to-face talks with Western powers since Israel and the US bombed it last month. Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte scored a big legal win when the Supreme Court struck down an impeachment complaint against her, ruling that it was unconstitutional. President Donald Trump heads to Scotland for a trip that will mix golf with politics, mostly out of the public view. As uproar over files relating to Jeffrey Epstein engulfs Trump and Congress, the US Supreme Court is due to wade into the controversy and decide whether to hear a bid by Ghislaine Maxwell to overturn her criminal conviction. Business & Markets   President Donald Trump, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Senator Tim Scott tour the Federal Reserve Board building. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura Trump locked horns with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell during a rare presidential visit to the US central bank, criticizing the cost of renovating two historical buildings at its headquarters and pressing the case for lower interest rates. Europe's smaller companies are emerging as a popular vehicle for investors to help insulate portfolios against both tariffs and a stronger euro, as cheaper credit and the prospect of more government spending bolster confidence in the economic outlook. Volkswagen reported a 1.3-billion-euro first-half hit from tariffs and cut its full-year sales and profit margin forecasts in the German carmaker's first assessment of the damage from Trump's trade war. Puma shares dropped 16% after the German sportswear brand said it now expects an annual loss as sales decline and tariffs dent profit. The $8.4 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media won approval from US regulators, clearing the way for a sale that evolved into a clash over press freedom. Intel is going to end the year with a workforce that is over a fifth smaller than last year, it said, and new CEO Lip Bu Tan presented a blueprint for a more cost-disciplined, streamlined chipmaker that would issue "no more blank checks." The Week Ahead Trump's August 1 deadline for trade partners to sign deals or face hefty tariffs is fast approaching in a crucial week for markets. We have a Federal Reserve meeting and US jobs data on the slate, as well as a jam-packed data calendar for the euro zone. The Bank of Japan has a lot to consider when it meets as a new US trade deal clears some of the economic clouds, while the political scene at home becomes ever hazier. Tech firms huge and small will converge in Shanghai this weekend to showcase their artificial intelligence innovations and support China's booming AI sector as it faces US sanctions. Meanwhile, China's Vice Premier He Lifeng will visit Sweden for a new round of economic and trade talks with US officials. Patriotic Canadians change vacation plans   Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. REUTERS/Mark Blinch Canadians are trading their annual vacation south of the border for road trips around Ottawa, the midnight sun in Yukon, whale watching in Nova Scotia or hiking in Banff. The newfound desire to stay local started earlier this year when Trump threatened to annex Canada and imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian goods, spurring a 'Buy Canadian' movement to boycott US businesses and avoid traveling to the US. Read more Photos of the Week A horseback rider performs a fire stunt during an equestrian show in Kyrgyzstan. REUTERS/Vladimir Pirogov See a selection of our top photography from around the world. View gallery Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you've engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement. Terms & Conditions © 2025 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036