Plus, Texas grid relies increasingly on solar and wind power.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Trump raises Brazil's tariffs to 50%, a former DOGE official rushed a grant to a controversial Gaza aid group, and European leaders attend a Kyiv aid conference in Rome.

Plus, Trump calls wind and solar bad for the power grid. Texas shows otherwise.

 

Today's Top News

 

A firefighter on a roof of a damaged apartment building in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

  • President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had held a "substantive" conversation with Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, in Rome shortly after Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv. Follow our live updates as EU leaders gather to discuss Ukraine.
  • A top US State Department official waived nine mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards to rush a $30 million award last month to a Gaza aid group backed by the Trump administration and Israel, according to an internal memorandum seen by Reuters.
  • Iran's president said the U.N. nuclear watchdog should drop its "double standards" if Tehran is to resume cooperation with it over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.
  • Texas officials are deflecting mounting questions about whether they could have done more to warn people ahead of the fatal flash flooding that killed at least 119 people. Julia Wolfe joins the Reuters World News podcast to explain just how vulnerable Kerr County is.
  • A federal judge will consider whether to prevent Trump's administration from enforcing his executive order limiting birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court restricted the ability of judges to block his policies using nationwide injunctions.
  • British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will announce tougher migration controls, capping a state visit designed to deepen ties, including in defense and nuclear cooperation.
  • Tayyip Erdogan's main political opponents have faced an unprecedented crackdown that has seen more than 500 detained in just nine months, according to a Reuters review of a sprawling investigation that has accelerated dramatically in recent days.
  • Greek lawmakers prepared to vote on legislation that would temporarily halt the processing of asylum applications of people coming from North Africa, a move rights groups have called illegal.
  • Kenya's President William Ruto said that police should shoot protesters who vandalise businesses in the leg to incapacitate them, two days after 31 people were killed during nationwide anti-government demonstrations.
 

Business & Markets

 
  • Donald Trump announced a new 50% tariff on US copper imports and a 50% duty on goods from Brazil, both to start on August 1. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that his nation would act with reciprocity. Meanwhile, Brussels is discussing a range of measures aimed at protecting the EU's auto industry from steep US import duties. 
  • OpenAI is close to releasing an AI-powered web browser that will challenge Alphabet's market-dominating Google Chrome, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. For the latest news about AI advances and the business of technology, sign up for the Artificial Intelligencer newsletter.
  • Trump claims that rapid adoption of solar and wind power has made US electricity unstable and expensive, justifying his bid to end most subsidies for renewable energy. But reliability has improved dramatically in the US grid with the most renewable energy – in Texas. Electricity prices there are below the national average.
  • As the cost of spraying crops with pesticides becomes increasingly expensive, European farmers are turning to cheaper, potentially more harmful alternatives. Laboratory tests shared with Reuters show the bottles contain pesticides banned in the European Union for several years because of suspected risks to humans or the environment.
  • European investors are bracing for a pivotal second-quarter earnings season, which could offer the first meaningful insight into how companies are navigating a new era of trade volatility and, crucially, how resilient their share prices remain. For more, watch our daily rundown on financial markets.
  • The US budget law passed by the Republican Party may add $3 trillion to the debt while cutting healthcare, green energy and more. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss the consequences for firms across the globe that were banking on an American boom.
 

Childhood shaped by war for two Ukrainian brothers

 

Andrii Tupkalenko plays in a trench in the outskirts of Kalynove, Ukraine, April 11, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Varvara Tupkalenko’s two sons played at home with miniature cars, like many boys their age.

Today, plastic guns are the favored toys in their living room in the village of Kalynove, just 15 kilometres from the Russian border in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Instead of scampering across playgrounds, Andrii, 8, and Maksym, 6, climb through abandoned trenches and charred shells of armoured vehicles that sit on the outskirts of the village.

“They’re kids afflicted by war,” said Tupkalenko.

Read more
 

And Finally...

Author Aatish Taseer poses for a portrait with his dog Cuzco at his home in Manhattan, New York City, July 2, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

In our latest edition of Culture Current, author Aatish Taseer recounts losing his Indian citizenship, and how it led to a reckoning with nationalism, belonging and the illusion of purity.

Read more