Reuters - Daily Briefing by Kate Turton - At Alaska Summit - Trump will seek to squeeze an Ukrainian ceasefire ....

 

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Today we are covering all the buildup to the Alaska summit, where Trump will seek to squeeze a Ukraine ceasefire deal out of Putin. Elsewhere, the Trump administration weighs a refugee cap of 40,000, and Mexican ranchers hit by flesh-eating screwworm want action on cattle smuggling. Plus, our special report on Meta's chatbot guidelines and a darker side of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Today's Top News   REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon/File Photo Trump-Putin meeting As Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin hold talks in Alaska, the US president's hopes of sealing a ceasefire agreement on Ukraine are uncertain. However, a last-gasp offer from Putin of a possible nuclear deal could help both men save face. White House correspondent Steve Holland has headed to Alaska and tells the Reuters World News podcast the world is waiting to see which Trump will show up at the meeting. Will he be friendly or impatient with Putin? Listen now. In other news Trump’s administration is discussing a refugee admissions cap of around 40,000 for the coming year with a majority allocated to white South Africans, according to two US officials briefed on the matter and an internal refugee program email. Costco said it will stop selling the abortion pill mifepristone across all its US pharmacy stores, citing low demand. California Governor Gavin Newsom led a campaign-style rally for a redistricting plan to foil what he called Trump's bid to rig the next congressional race and cement his Republican House majority by redrawing the political map of Texas. At least 60 people have died and more than 100 are missing, a day after sudden, heavy rain caused floods and landslides in Indian Kashmir, the second such disaster in the Himalayas in a little over a week. Supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party threw flares and firecrackers at anti-government protesters in Novi Sad, prompting police to intervene to end the standoff, a major escalation of nine-month-long protests in Serbia.

Business & Markets   China's factory output growth slumped to an eight-month low in July, while retail sales slowed sharply, raising pressure on policymakers to roll out more stimulus to revive domestic demand and ward off external shocks to the $19 trillion economy. Global stocks traded near record highs as investors awaited key talks between Trump and Putin over Ukraine, and for US retail data that may give clues on the health of the world's biggest economy. Watch our daily market rundown for more. Well-heeled shoppers around the US seem - so far at least - willing to soak up price hikes for aspirational products from trendy Birkenstock sandals to Bugaboo prams, despite the impact of trade tariffs and belt-tightening elsewhere. Air Canada and its unionized flight attendants remained at odds, despite government pleas for both sides to return to bargaining to avert a strike that would upend travel for tens of thousands of passengers. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the country to move towards more self-reliance, manufacture everything from fertilisers to jet engines and EV batteries, and vowed to protect farmers in the face of a trade conflict with Washington.

The Week Ahead There seems to be very little standing in the way of stock-market bulls right now, here's your week ahead in the markets. The first round of Bolivia's presidential election is scheduled for Sunday, and investors are betting voters will make a turn to the right Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech on the economic outlook and the Fed's review of its policy framework next Friday at the Kansas City Fed's annual central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York. He never made it home.   Image of “Big sis Billie” generated using Meta AI on Facebook Messenger, in response to a Reuters reporter’s prompt: “Send a picture of yourself.” Images by Meta AI, via REUTERS. A cognitively impaired New Jersey man grew infatuated with “Big sis Billie,” a Facebook Messenger chatbot with a young woman’s persona. His fatal attraction puts a spotlight on Meta’s AI guidelines, which have let chatbots make things up and engage in ‘sensual’ banter with children. Read our special report

And Finally... Humanoid robots take part in a test 100m run ahead of the opening ceremony of the inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, Beijing, China. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang China kicked off the three-day long World Humanoid Robot Games, looking to showcase its advances in artificial intelligence and robotics as 280 teams from 16 countries compete. Events include sports such as track and field, table tennis, and robot-specific challenges from sorting medicines and handling materials to cleaning services. Read more