Plus, US and China resume talks to ease tariff hostilities.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Police seek clues to a motive behind the deadly mass shooting in Manhattan, the US and China resume talks in Stockholm, and an investigation into how Syrian attackers killed unarmed Druze civilians.

Plus, Venezuela's lonely seniors find a lifeline on the dance floor.

 

Today's Top News

 

Police officers gather during a reported active shooter situation in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 28, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

United States

  • New York City homicide detectives sought clues to what possessed a Las Vegas man to drive cross-country and storm into a Midtown Manhattan office tower to open fire with a military rifle, killing four people, including a policeman. 
  • As members of Congress return to their home districts for the August recess, the Democratic and Republican parties are launching ad blitzes centred around the tax-cut and spending bill, in an unofficial start to the 2026 midterm election campaign.
  • The Justice Department said it filed a misconduct complaint against Chief US District Judge James Boasberg, a prominent judge in Washington, D.C., who has drawn President Donald Trump's ire.

In other news

  • Trump  has set  a new deadline for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine - or face consequences. Andrea Shalal tells Reuters World News it underscores the US president’s disenchantment with Vladimir Putin.
  • A Russian bomb attack on a penal colony in southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people overnight, officials said.
  • A worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to end fighting and allow unimpeded aid access, a global hunger monitor warned, saying failure to act now would result in widespread death. Follow our live updates.
  • Military commanders from Thailand and Cambodia held talks as calm returned to their disputed border and displaced residents began trickling back, following the Southeast Asian neighbours announcing a truce to end five days of fighting.
  • Extreme weather killed at least 30 people in Beijing after a year's worth of rain fell in less than a week, forcing the relocation of more than 80,000 people, damaging roads and cutting off power and communications in more than 130 villages.
  • An Indonesian national dubbed the "Hollywood Con Queen" by the media for allegedly impersonating top female movie industry executives in a seven-year fraud lost his bid to block his extradition from Britain to stand trial in the US.
 

Business & Markets

 

Jerome Powell addresses reporters at the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, February 1, 2023. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

  • A US senator's recent push to strip the Federal Reserve of a key aspect of how it controls interest rates and the battle over who will succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell point to a future where some of the tools policymakers use to influence the economy come under greater scrutiny.
  • Top US and Chinese economic officials met in Stockholm for more than five hours of talks aimed at resolving longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world's top two economies, seeking to extend a truce by three months.
  • Japanese firms, after decades of deflation, have found a rare moment that allows them to raise prices without triggering the intense public backlash that once made such moves taboo.
  • Spain's black olive exporters, subject to harsh tariffs since Trump's first term, are warning it will be difficult to survive an extra 15% they now face under the European Union's latest trade deal with the US.
  • The euro fell as politicians across Europe lined up to condemn the trade deal struck between the US and EU at the weekend. That is also likely to feed through into higher prices and lower profit margins in the US, Elena Casas explains on today's market rundown.
  • Trump’s tariff policy threatens to make Americans poorer while failing to bring back lost manufacturing jobs. In this episode of The Big View podcast, author Philip Coggan explores the parallels with Britain’s foolish return to the gold standard a century ago.
 

How Syrian attackers killed: One hand on the gun, another on the camera

 

A Bedouin fighter passes a burnt building in the predominantly Druze region of Sweida. REUTERS/Stringer

Reuters verified three videos in which gunmen wearing military fatigues carried out the execution-style killings of 12 unarmed Druze civilians in southern Syria earlier this month. The footage was filmed by the killers themselves or people accompanying them.

Read more
 

And Finally...

People sing and dance during the weekly gathering of Club Tobias at a shopping mall, in Caracas, Venezuela July 9, 2025. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa

In a bustling Caracas shopping mall, the sound of music and laughter signals another meeting of Club Tobias.

This is no ordinary social club; it's a lifeline for Venezuelans aged over 60, many of whom live alone after their children and grandchildren emigrated.

Read more