Daily Briefing

Hello from a crisp but sunny Cape Town.

In today's headlines, Joe Biden accuses Vladimir Putin of having a "craven lust for land and power", how aspartame made the agenda of the WHO's cancer research arm, and excessive heat is baking the US Southwest.

Plus, fame-crazed Nigerians sing and cook their way to the record books.

By Kate Turton

Today's Top News

Joe Biden, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Vilnius, Lithuania, July 12, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman

President Joe Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having a "craven lust for land and power" at the end of a NATO summit where Ukraine won new security assurances from the US and its allies for its defense against Moscow.
A prolonged heat wave blanketed a swath of the US stretching from California to South Florida, with forecasters expecting temperatures that could shatter records in parts of the Southwest in the coming days. Here are the hottest spots in the US.
A Russian general said he had been dismissed as a commander after telling the military leadership about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, where he said Russian soldiers had been stabbed in the back by the failings of the top military brass.
The SAG-AFTRA actors union said its negotiators unanimously recommended a strike as Emmy nominees were announced. Lisa Richwine has been up all night in Hollywood as talks broke down. She speaks to the Reuters World News podcast about what to expect if actors and writers walk out together for the first time in 63 years.
North Korea's Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which launched for the second time, uses solid-fuel technology, giving it the capability to launch with little preparation.
The imminent move to label aspartame as a possible carcinogen comes after years of advocacy from a leading consumer group in the US and a handful of cancer scientists hoping to settle a decades-long debate over the sweetener's safety.

Business & Markets

China's exports contracted last month at their fastest pace since the onset three years ago of the COVID-19 pandemic, as an ailing global economy puts mounting pressure on Chinese policymakers for fresh stimulus measures.
Alphabet said it is rolling out its artificial-intelligence chatbot, Bard, in Europe and Brazil, the product's biggest expansion since its February launch and pitting it against Microsoft-backed rival ChatGPT.
Global stocks traded around their highs for the year on Thursday as investors bet that the Federal Reserve was finally taming inflation and could end its rate hiking cycle as soon as this month.
Britain's economy contracted by less than expected in May despite the impact of strikes and an extra bank holiday to mark the coronation of King Charles, putting it on track to avoid a decline for the second quarter as a whole.
Global hedge funds and asset managers are scouring Tokyo for talent to expand in Japan and ride a surge of investor interest that has lifted the stock market to its highest in more than three decades.
Global finance chiefs will meet in India next week to discuss increasing loans to developing nations from multilateral institutions, reforming the international debt architecture and regulations on cryptocurrency, Indian officials said.

Chip wars: How 'chiplets' are emerging as a core part of China's tech strategy

Demo chips made with chiplets by Silicon Valley startup zGlue are seen in this picture taken in Richmond, California, US, July 7, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

The sale of struggling Silicon Valley startup zGlue's patents in 2021 was unremarkable except for one detail: The technology it owned, designed to cut the time and cost for making chips, showed up 13 months later in the patent portfolio of Chipuller, a startup in China's southern tech hub Shenzhen.

Chipuller purchased what is referred to as chiplet technology, a cost efficient way to package groups of small semiconductors to form one powerful brain capable of powering everything from data centers to gadgets at home.

Read more: Industry experts say chiplet technology has become more important

And Finally...

Nigerian gospel singer Oluwatobi Kufeji as he attempts to break a Guinness world record of longest singing hours, in Lagos, Nigeria July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Seun Sanni

A Nigerian man has completed more than 200 hours singing, another managed a 100-hour live video on Instagram, while a masseuse's bid to massage people for 75 hours ended in exhaustion.

The three are among more than a dozen Nigerians aiming to set Guinness World Records in the latest craze to hit Africa's most populous nation.

After Nigerian chef Hilda Bassey completed the longest ever cooking session by an individual, Nigerians across the country began seeking their own records, hoping for instant fame.

Read more: Fame-crazed Nigerians sing and cook their way to the record book

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