Trump waives Russia sanctions

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2026-10-17 13:07

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Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to another busy Saturday. Protesters are turning out in France as well as in Albania. Bangladesh is trying to contain the world’s worst measles outbreak. And Donald Trump told a crowd in Georgia that if they’re ever in doubt about someone’s name in the Middle East, “just say ‘Mohammad.’”

Trump waives Russia sanctions

REUTERS/Ramil Sitdikov

Executive order: The sanctions and tariffs were supposed to take effect within days and included penalties for buying Russian oil and gas to put pressure on Moscow over the Ukraine war. Trump wants lower prices to give Republicans an advantage in the midterms and his efforts come at Ukraine’s expense.
An atomic combination: Russia and the US are discussing cooperating on more deals after Washington agreed to allow Russian diesel back into the open market to bring fuel prices down. One possibility, according to Vladimir Putin’s investment adviser: building nuclear-powered data centers.

Blame it on the aides

Responsibility: Trump is questioning why Republicans aren't polling better before the November congressional elections and his advisers are blaming one another. One source described the situation as a "circular firing squad." Speaking of firing squads, here’s a look at how Pete Hegseth’s TV instincts failed him on the subject of broadcasting a live execution.
‘I’m gonna try and cheat like hell like they do’: Our reporters Peter Eisler and Mike Spector join On Assignment podcast host Jonah Green to discuss the avenues the president could use to interfere with the midterms.

Israeli settlers attack olive harvesters

Dressed in black: Masked Israeli settlers burned olive trees and attacked Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers who arrived on the scene fired teargas at the Palestinians. Settlers beat a Washington Post photojournalist, putting her in hospital.
Gaza: Israel said commercial goods stopped entering the strip. It said Gazan merchants told the Israeli military’s humanitarian aid group that Hamas was demanding a $3,220 fee for each truck entering the zone and that 30% of all their sales be carried out in cash.

What war is good for

Profit: Norway should allow its $2.3 trillion wealth fund to invest in major Western defense groups that are banned from its portfolio because of their involvement in nuclear-arms production, a government-appointed commission said.
Background: The proposed change is part of an overhaul of the fund’s ethics rules that came after the Trump administration criticized it for divesting its stake in Caterpillar over Israel’s use of its bulldozers in Gaza and the West Bank.

Siberian hunters declare open season on bears

Attacks: Russia’s brown-bear population has doubled to 308,000 over three decades because of shorter and milder winters. They have killed at least 22 people since this spring. Learn how hunters in the Krasnoyarsk region are dealing with the problem.. By the way, Russia doesn’t find AI-generated bears funny.
Other fauna: More people and elephants are dying in Sri Lanka as their habitats collide. Mexico shrank the protected area that keeps the world’s rarest porpoises alive. A Mexican plant for sterile screwworm flies has created a stench of rotten meat that is annoying locals. And El Niño is bringing exotic marine life to California’s Pacific waters.

What is CoreWeave and why are investors scared of it?

Business: Markets worry that AI infrastructure companies could blow up big time should the boom turn to bust. In CoreWeave’s case, it has never turned a profit and has $50 billion in debt on its books..
Rates: The massive debt that companies are taking on before AI starts producing the productivity gains it promises could lead the world’s central banks to keep interest rates higher for longer.

Before I forget…

Katie Zacharia made her entrance and her exit on the White House stage, all in five days.
Pope Leo will appear in public on Sunday, the first time since his surgery for lung cancer. The Vatican released images on Friday of Leo celebrating mass.
A teacher and an armed parent stopped a 16-year-old attacker who shot and killed a teacher and three children in an Oregon special-needs classroom.
The former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party received a 15-year prison sentence, half of which he will actually serve, for child sex offenses including rape.
A California federal judge refused to accept a $3,000 hourly billing rate from a lawyer in a privacy lawsuit, calling it “patently unreasonable.”
Astronomers for the first time identified a green star, or to be more specific, a star colored in a ghostly haze of chartreuse.

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