Plus, inside Trump's frantic three weeks of Ukraine diplomacy.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Today's news includes a look inside Trump's frantic dash for a Ukraine peace deal, and the Chicago locals preparing for a possible deployment of the National Guard. Elsewhere, in a show of defiance, Putin and Kim Jong Un will attend a Chinese parade.

Plus, how Tesla and Waymo's radically different robotaxi approaches will shape the industry.

 

Today's Top News

 

Pedestrians walk by Alexander Calder’s Flamingo statue at the Federal Plaza in Chicago, Illinois, August 26, 2025, REUTERS/ Jim Vondruska

United States

  • As President Donald Trump has amped up the threat of a federal deployment in the nation's third-largest city in recent days, Chicago's public officials and community organizers said they are doing what they can to get ready.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez has been fired, the White House said, less than a month after being sworn in, and four senior officials have resigned amid growing tensions over vaccine policies and public health directives.
  • An assailant armed with three guns fired through stained-glass windows into a Catholic church where students were attending Mass, killing two children and wounding 17 other people, officials said.
  • Reuters spoke to over a dozen officials in the US and Europe to reconstruct the Trump administration's latest push to end the war in Ukraine. The picture that emerged was that of a remarkably ad hoc process, in which Trump relied more on close personal advisers and raw instinct than formal deliberative processes and expertise.

In other news

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un will attend a military parade in Beijing, marking the first public appearance of the two leaders alongside President Xi Jinping in a show of collective defiance amid Western pressure.
  • Russian forces launched a large-scale overnight drone and missile attack on Kyiv, killing at least 15 people including four children, and damaging residential and other buildings across seven districts, Ukrainian officials said.
  • Iran's ambassador to Australia has left the embassy in Canberra having been expelled over claims that Tehran orchestrated violent attacks in the country. Kirsty Needham tells the Reuters World News podcast how Australia traced those antisemitic attacks back to Iran. 
  • More food aid is reaching Gaza but it still remains far from enough to prevent widespread starvation, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) told Reuters.
 

Business & Markets

 
  • Nvidia shares dipped as the fate of its China business hung in the balance, caught up in the trade war between Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, CEO Jensen Huang has dismissed concern about an end to a spending boom on artificial intelligence chips.
  • For more, watch our daily market rundown.
  • Japan's top trade negotiator cancelled a visit to the US at the last minute, further delaying talks designed to finalise a $550 billion investment package offered by Tokyo in exchange for relief on punishing tariffs.
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads overseas to meet the leaders of China, Japan and Russia, seeking to build closer diplomatic ties as New Delhi battles fallout from Trump's escalating tariff offensive. 
  • High electricity prices in Britain are hitting both the competitiveness of businesses and also acting as an obstacle to the economy's shift towards cleaner energy. British businesses pay roughly four times as much for their power than US rivals, and double those in France and Germany.
  • New car sales in Europe rose 5.9% in July as a jump in Germany outweighed drops in Britain, France and Italy, European Automobile Manufacturers Association data showed.
 

Insight: Tesla and Waymo's radically different robotaxi approaches 

 

A Tesla robotaxi drives on the street along South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, June 22, 2025. REUTERS/Joel Angel Juarez/File Photo

A month after Tesla launched a trial robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June for select fans, CEO Elon Musk told investors that the company’s driverless taxis would likely be available to “half the population of the US” by the end of this year.

His pronouncements about expanding Tesla’s robotaxis at a “hyper-exponential rate” stand in contrast to Waymo’s deliberate approach ahead of entering new markets.

Read more
 

Archaeologists in Georgia unearth 1.8-million-year-old human jawbone

Archaeologists working at the excavation site where a lower jawbone belonging to an early species of human was found, Georgia, August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze

Archaeologists in Georgia have unearthed a 1.8-million-year-old jawbone belonging to an early species of human that they say will shed light on some of the earliest prehistoric human settlements on the Eurasian continent.

Read more