Reuters World News - Israel rejects Gaza plan, Yemen Saudi strike and Taylor Swift

Episode Date: August 9, 2026

Israel says it rejects U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace's 15-point plan for Gaza. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis stike a Saudi Aramco refinery. Hunter Biden says his father Joe's cancer has spread. Plus, songs by Taylor Swift have been removed from the White House and Trump campaign social accounts. Watch the latest On Assignment: ⁠Chasing Ebola⁠ Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. It's Sunday, August 9th. Today, Israel rejects Trump's 15-point plan for Gaza. Yemen's Houthis launched a drone attack on a Saudi refinery. Canada's British Columbia province declares a state of emergency after the bald-range wildfire nearly doubles in size. And Taylor Swift's songs have been removed from White House and Trump campaign. Posts. This is Roiters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines

in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there, saying they reject the 15-point plan for Gaza put forward by U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, and that Israel will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms. Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war. But Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Gaza since agreeing to a ceasefire last October. Elsewhere in the region, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis say they've attacked Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery using a drone. It's just two days after the kingdom signed a defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the U.S. Israeli War on Iran.

The Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month. They say it's in response for a Saudi siege on them, an allegation Riyadh denies. For their part, Iran and the United States are still arguing over the parameters for peace, with Iran saying that a deal with Oman on control of the Strait of Hormuz is close, but would not be enough to free up the waterway. Now to Canada, where the province of British Columbia has declared a state of emergency. After tens of thousands of people were ordered to flee a fast-moving wildfire that nearly doubled in size overnight. The Bouldrange wildfire was burning out of control and has grown rapidly to over 9,000 hectares.

I heard the lead commander on the site was up all night briefing me this morning, talk about this being like a bomb going off in the summerland region. That's BC Premier David Eby. The trees he described flames on a hundred foot tree, flames going 200 feet above that. And the fire creating its own weather system, which creates lightning, which then feeds on itself. Fires have burned through four million hectares in Canada this year, according to officials. I wish he would complain more. because it's not good.

The cancer has spread, is metastasized into his bones and further. Hunter Biden there telling BBC's Newsnight that his father, former President Joe Biden's cancer, has spread. It's very painful and it's very debilitating in many respects. A spokesman for the 83-year-old Democrat declined on Saturday to comment on the interview. Some Taylor Swift songs have been removed from social media videos posted by President Trump's campaign and the White House. The Trump campaign had used two Swift songs over the last week on its TikTok page. One post, playing on her lyrics, featured a long caption, which included the words

red Donald Trump's version, among other references to Swift's hits, reframed with pro-Trump messages. Swift has not spoken recently about Trump, though she endorsed his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in 2024. Trump has repeatedly criticized Swift, writing on social media after she endorsed Harris, I hate Taylor Swift, all caps. The White House and a representative for Swift did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Voters in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin will cast their ballot in primary races this week as the lead up to November's midterm elections picks up pace. While the Trump administration has been attempting to access state voter roles, saying it's to identify non-citizens or ineligible voters, federal courts have been pushing back. The Trump administration has now lost 21 straight fights over its effort to get access to state voter rolls. The latest loss came earlier this week when a judge ruled that Washington, D.C. does not have to hand over unredacted voter records to the justice. Department. The administration says it's appealing many of the rulings. Our legal reporter, Luke Cohen, says the fight is putting a spotlight on who oversees elections in America and where the

limits of federal power begin. Judges appointed by presidents of both parties have consistently ruled against the Justice Department found they have no authority under federal election law to demand this data of states. Independent audits and studies in multiple, Multiple states have found that voting by non-U.S. citizens is very rare. A recent Reuters analysis of court records of people who have been criminally prosecuted for non-citizen voting has found that since the law was passed, criminalizing non-citizen voting in 1996, just a little over 100 people have been prosecuted for it. So voting rights advocates who I've spoken with have raised the concern that the Justice Department's requests for

voter rolls are part of an effort to lay the rhetorical groundwork to challenge any unfavorable results in the November elections or undercut public confidence in how the elections are run. Now to a topic on which some Democrats and Republicans have found common ground. President Trump's relationship with big AI companies. Voices on both sides of the aisle are criticizing the president's response to AI security threats. saying his ties to Silicon Valley are getting in the way. Recent breaches by OpenAI and Anthropic agents have evoked cries for stronger guardrails. The White House said at the time of those breaches that it was monitoring the situation

and Trump said he's looking at controls on AI. But tech companies and executives gave over $300 million to Trump's re-election and allied groups. And as our tech reporter, Courtney Rosen explains, that's calling into question the president's approach to AI. Republicans and Democrats in Washington have found a rare point of agreement. President Trump needs to do more to regulate AI companies. The Trump administration over the last year and a half has taken a lot of different approaches to AI. At first, we saw them advocating for Congress to block regulations on the state level of the technology.

Now we're seeing the president take more of an interest in overseeing how these companies, companies operate. This past week, we reported on voluntary testing that Anthropic, Open AI, their most advanced models are going to go through at the request of the U.S. government. That's something that's different from maybe 18 months ago when President Trump took office when he said, I want to keep a hands-off approach to AI. They're now setting up these voluntary tests, and that's a little bit different. The White House, OpenAI, and Anthropic did not offer comment on this report when asked. Now to the opposite of bipartisan collaboration in Kosovo,

where an opposition lawmaker threw eggs and acting Prime Minister Albin Curti on Saturday. Alliance Party MP Timei Kadrijaj pulled eggs from her purse and threw them while shouting, shame, shame, after Kirti told Parliament he needed more time to hold talks before proposing a candidate for Speaker following a snap election. The incident underscoring the political deadlock in the small Balkan country. In the South African manufacturing hub of Newcastle, rows of sewing machines sit silent. Weeks after anti-immigrant protests prompted many migrant workers to flee, clothing manufacturers say they're struggling to fill the gaps. Reuters visited factories in late July,

where owners like Alex Law reported losing up to a fifth of their workforce. We can't immediately replace this skill with local. It takes time. Factory owner Ron Kewa Yan saw dozens of foreign workers leave in June. Starting to ask people if they're willing to be trained the skilled workers. This week, I already got eight, seven people. They applied to be training. So I started training.

Manufacturers warned that labor losses and weaker business could force some factories. to close. The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union estimates about 15% of Newcastle's textile workers left during the protests. But the union disputes claims of a skills shortage, arguing the real problem is wages that are too low to attract local workers.

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