India protesters topple major minister

Reuters Weekend Briefing <dailybriefing@thomsonreuters.com>
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2026-07-25 13:00

Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to the Weekend Briefing and thanks as ever for sharing part of your Saturday with us. We have plenty below, but first listen to the latest On Assignment podcast in which veteran photojournalist Mike Blake talks about documenting wildfires over 40 years. I’ve worked with him in the field, and he is a great source of knowledge.

Youth protests topple India’s education minister

REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

Out: Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation hands a major victory to youth protesters nationwide who demanded that he quit to take responsibility for exam-paper leaks.
‘Lapdog media’: Dozens of protesters beat an Indian TV reporter because they see his channel as pro-government. The attack was unusual, but crews from major media houses are facing heckling and abuse.

The AI agent that went rogue

Breakout performance: An OpenAI agent broke into a tech firm’s repository for artificial-intelligence tools and models and went on a days-long hacking run that OpenAI didn’t notice until the threat was contained and someone alerted the FBI.
Threat: U.S. threats to sanction Chinese AI developers over accusations of intellectual-property theft and export-control violations risk harming efforts to establish a dialogue on AI safety just as more powerful models raise concerns of security breaches, analysts say.

Saudis shoot down missiles targeting oil refineries

Iran latest: President Trump said Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen faced “major military punishment” for extending the Middle East war to the mouth of the Red Sea, a major shipping chokepoint.
Yemen: The Houthis’ attacks on Saudi infrastructure and shipping are pushing Yemen toward the resumption of its decade-old frozen conflict between the rebels and the government.

Ukraine drone unit hunts Russian ships

A new front: The sleek gray attack drones are launching well behind enemy lines across Ukraine’s steppe, and have hit more than 180 vessels and sea-borne targets around the Crimean Peninsula over the past three weeks in an effort to weaken Moscow’s war effort.
The Baltics: Schools in Tartu in Estonia are putting protective film across their windows in case another drone comes their way. Stray Ukrainian drones are carrying bombs to strike targets in Russia, but are being diverted from their paths. Ukraine blames Russian jamming.

Deadly clash in West Bank follows settler attacks

Confrontation: Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed near a Palestinian village after the military received reports that two Israeli civilians were hiking in an area Israelis are officially prohibited from entering.
Economics: Two Israeli banks will stop working with their Palestinian counterparts. The governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority said this risks creating an economic crisis in the region, including for Israelis.

Minnesota assassin sentenced to life in prison

Political violence: Vance Boelter, 59, pleaded guilty to six counts in June in the assassination of a top Democratic lawmaker, her husband, and the attempted murder of another lawmaker.
Conditions: A group of mostly Democratic-led states asked a federal judge to block the Department of Homeland Security from withholding disaster funds until states adopt the Trump administration’s favored election-administration practices.

What am I eating?

‘Frankenstein’ ingredients: Nestlé wants to use simpler terms to describe the ingredients that go into its KitKat bars and numerous other tasty items. It is trying to keep U.S. customers buying even as they increasingly avoid food they perceive as heavily processed.
Sweet dreams, Sleep Number: The mattress company many Americans know from their repeated ad campaigns and its association with Travis Kelce will sell its assets for a little more than $700 million in bankruptcy.

The public embrace of private labels

Clean-up on every aisle: More Americans are spending their money on cheaper private-label products favored by chains like Walmart and Aldi instead of prestigious name-brand products. What does it say about inflation? About the shopping habits of society at large? About our habit of calling consumers “cash-strapped” all the time?
Reviewing one’s options: Those who have money to play with are exploring commodities, infrastructure, private credit and other assets in addition to bonds to protect against equity sell-offs.

Before I forget…

France evacuated thousands of people from the suburbs of Bordeaux as wildfires burned. Three fires were merging outside Madrid.
A journalist was found dead in Oaxaca, the fourth such killing since June. Francisco Leyva, 60, primarily reported on stories that exposed government corruption and violence linked to criminal groups operating in the state.
The International Criminal Court voted to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan after finding he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a junior ICC lawyer. Singapore’s acting minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs resigned over his interactions with a woman.
Trump tariffs: Expect more. Also: His White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech bombed. He also told federal officials to install signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History saying it presents “inaccurate information.”
Austria turned the building where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station. The aim was to strip it of its mystique, though the head of Austria’s main Holocaust survivors group says it erases history.
South Koreans are asking tarot-card readers to divine their pets’ thoughts. I’ll tell you what they’re saying without consulting the cards: “Feed me. Give me treat.”

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