| |  |  | The Reuters Daily Briefing | Monday, July 18, 2022 by Linda Noakes | Hello Here's what you need to know. Ukraine's Zelenskiy sidelines close allies in the war's biggest purge, a gunman kills three in an Indiana mall before being shot by an armed bystander, and Ghana confirms its first outbreak of the highly infectious Marburg virus | | | | | Today's biggest stories  A member of the Queen's Guard receives water to drink outside Buckingham Palace in London, July 18, 2022. REUTERS/John Sibley WORLD
Britain was on course for its hottest day on record with temperatures forecast to hit 40C for the first time, forcing train companies to cancel services, schools to close early and ministers to urge the public to stay at home. Much of Europe is baking in a heatwave, with wildfires raging across tinder-dry countryside in Portugal, Spain and France.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sidelined his childhood friend as head of Ukraine's security service, and another close ally as top prosecutor, in the biggest internal purge of the war, citing their failure to root out Russian spies. Here's what you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict right now.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin began a meeting in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart, carrying a message of reconciliation in hopes that the neighbors can overcome historical disputes and repair strained ties. Here's a look back at decades of disputes.
North Korea is on the path to "finally defuse" a crisis stemming from its first acknowledged outbreak of COVID, the state news agency said, while Asian neighbors battle a fresh wave of infections driven by Omicron subvariants.
Ghana has officially confirmed two cases of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola, its health service said, after two people who later died tested positive for the virus earlier this month.
|  A crime scene tape is seen tied to a shopping cart after a shooting at a mall in the Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood, Indiana, July 17, 2022. REUTERS/Cheney Orr U.S. A gunman killed three people when he opened fire in the food court of a shopping mall outside Indianapolis before a bystander fatally shot the assailant, Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison said. "The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he began," Ison told reporters.
A Texas legislators' probe of the Uvalde school shooting that left 21 dead blamed "systemic failures" and poor leadership for contributing to the death toll, a report by the Texas House of Representatives committee found. The 77-page report said 376 law enforcement officers rushed to the school in a chaotic scene marked by a lack of clear leadership and sufficient urgency.
Opening arguments are set to begin in the penalty phase of the trial of the man who killed 17 people at a Florida high school on Valentine's Day in 2018, one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty in October to the premeditated murder of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Jury selection begins today in the criminal trial of Steve Bannon, a former presidential aide to Donald Trump, who faces charges that he defied a congressional subpoena from the committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters.
A federal judge in Tennessee has temporarily blocked Biden administration directives allowing transgender workers and students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and join sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
| BUSINESS & MARKETS
World stocks, U.S. futures, oil prices and bond yields all rose as scaled back bets on the latest Federal Reserve rate hike next week and support pledges for China's economy lifted the mood. European equities started the week more than 1% higher and the euro was pushing up and away from parity at $1.0138 with a big week coming up.
In a long scripted overhaul of its business, British drugmaker GSK spun off its consumer health business in the biggest listing in Europe for more than a decade. The new company, Haleon, becomes the world's biggest standalone consumer health business, home to brands including Sensodyne toothpaste and Advil painkillers.
Aviation bosses gathered for the return of the Farnborough Airshow in Britain, aiming for a display of confidence after the devastation of COVID, even though the only records likely to be broken at the event are for sweltering temperatures. Boeing's defense chief said it had learned lessons from a contract to supply the U.S. presidency with new Air Force One aircraft, which has cost the planemaker almost $1 billion in charges and is up to three years behind schedule.
Netflix broke Hollywood's rules to create an $82 billion global streaming colossus that the rest of the entertainment industry rushed to copy. But as growth slows, it is looking backwards for a way forward, borrowing a page from Walt Disney's playbook and building brands that traverse film, television, games and consumer products.
For the poor, small South American country of Guyana, there's no time like the present when it comes to reaping the rewards of its offshore oil jackpot. With sky-high oil prices, a transition to renewable energy on the horizon and 750,000 citizens desperate for better lives, Guyana is putting its foot on the gas to exploit its vast oil reserves.
| | | | | | | | | | | Video of the day  In Ukraine's Kharkiv, Soviet-era trams return Built in the 1980s, the Soviet-era streetcars may look rickety as they rattle past war-damaged buildings, but for local people they represent a step towards something like normal life | | | Thanks for spending part of your day with us. | | | | | |
