And Ukraine marks 1,000 days of war in 'frozen trenches, burning steppes'.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters 

 

Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Ukraine marked 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion with weary troops battling on numerous fronts, G20 leaders turn their focus to climate change and Trump picks hold grudges against the agencies they would run.

Plus, unlocking the history of ancient flying reptiles.

 

Today's Top News
 

Ukraine says war must be brought to just end in 2025. Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout

  • As Ukrainians mark 1,000 days since Russia's invasion, Donald Trump's upcoming return to the White House comeback spells both uncertainty and a possibility of renewed peace talks. Follow the latest from the war.
  • A driver in an SUV has ploughed into students and pedestrians outside a primary school in southern China, leaving several people injured. Casey Hall joins the Reuters World News podcast from Shanghai to discuss escalating fears over a spate of violent attacks in the country this year. 
  • Hong Kong’s High Court jailed 45 pro-democracy activists for up to 10 years following a landmark national security trial that has damaged the city’s once feisty democracy movement and drawn criticism from the US and other countries.
  • Residents in India's northern states woke up to another day of poor air quality, as a layer of dense fog shrouded most of the region, and pollution in the capital Delhi remained severe.
  • US envoy Amos Hochstein landed in Beirut for talks with officials on a truce between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon’s state news agency said, hours after a proposal drafted by Washington from the Iran-backed group.
  • Donald Trump said that he is nominating former Wisconsin Representative and Fox Business News host Sean Duffy to be transportation secretary.
  • Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies meet to discuss sustainable development and the transition to cleaner energy, as they aim to increase the odds of a successful deal to address global warming at UN climate talks in Azerbaijan.
 
 

Business & Markets

  • Investors rushed into safe-haven currencies, including the US dollar, the Swiss franc and the yen, after a warning from Russia over its updated nuclear doctrine. 
  • Boeing will lay off more than 2,500 workers in the US states of Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and Missouri, according to federally required filings and a union official, as part of the debt-heavy planemaker's plan to cut 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global workforce.
  • The chief executive of Airbus said that Europe's space industry needs to restructure and consolidate in the face of private US competition and investments in China and elsewhere.
  • A camp of protesters opposed to the expansion of US electric vehicle maker Tesla's plant in Grueneheide near Berlin is being cleared, a police spokesperson said.
  • The highest dose of an experimental pill developed by Eli Lilly dramatically lowered an inherited form of high cholesterol in a mid-stage trial, according to data presented at a medical meeting.
  • Nestle will boost advertising and marketing, trim costs by at least $2.8 billion by 2027 and carve out its water and premium drinks businesses into a standalone global unit as it looks to drive growth under its new chief, the company said.
  • Ireland expects a record budget surplus in 2024 thanks to a cash deluge from tech giants. In this episode of The Big View podcast, Pascal Saint-Amans, the architect of a landmark tax 2021 treaty, explains how the US’s failure to ratify the deal allows havens to rake in billions.
 

Trump picks Gaetz, Hegseth hold grudges against the agencies they would run

 

Matt Gaetz at a campaign rally for Donald Trump. October 31, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake

In Matt Gaetz, nominated as Trump’s attorney general, and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice to helm the Pentagon, the president-elect has tapped two pugnacious candidates with a MAGA-fueled mandate to gut and transform the institutions they would take over. If confirmed by the new Republican-controlled Senate, they could help Trump carry out his revenge agenda - as well as their own.

Read more
 

And Finally...

Pterosaurs were cousins of the dinosaurs. Illustration released on November 18, 2024. Gabriel Ugueto/Handout via REUTERS

Aloft over the landscape of Bavaria some 147 million years ago was a pterosaur - an ancient flying reptile - with a wing span of about 7 feet, a bony crest on front of its snout and a mouthful of sharp teeth, searching for a lizard or another nice morsel to eat.

Scientists have unearthed a well-preserved fossil skeleton of this newly identified species, named Skiphosoura bavarica, in a discovery that fills a major gap in the understanding of the evolution of pterosaurs - creatures that were important components of ecosystems during the age of dinosaurs.

Read more