Reuters World News - Putin's offer, Kaepernick docuseries, Air Canada, Bolivia and screwworm

Episode Date: August 17, 2025

An outline of Putin's peace offer to end his war in Ukraine has emerged, suggesting that Russia relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine and Kyiv cede swathes of its eastern land. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington Monday. Voters go to the polls in Bolivia with inflation top of mind and waning support for the left. The Canadian government moves to resolve Air Canada's cabin crew strike by pressing for binding arbitration. And why Texas ranchers fear the flesh-eating screwworm. Listen to ⁠⁠On Assignment⁠⁠ podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Find the Recommended Read ⁠⁠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

Today, Putin's offer to end the war in exchange for large areas of Ukrainian land. Zelensky plans to travel to Washington for talks with Trump. Israel's military prepares to relocate residents to southern Gaza. The Canadian government moves to end an air Canada strike. Spike Lee says ESPN will not air his docu-series on Colin Kaepernick. Voters in Bolivia head to the polls and why Texas farmers fear the deadly screw worm. It's Sunday, August 17th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

I'm Tara Oaks in London. More details have emerged from the Alaska summit with US President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin, which ended in no deal for peace in Ukraine. According to sources, Putin's offer was that Russia would give. up small areas it occupies in Ukraine, while Kiev would hand over larger parts of eastern land in return for freezing the current front lines. Putin also wants some of the sanctions lifted on Russia and Ukraine blocked from joining NATO, as well as formal recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Sources say it's unclear if this is just an opening position or a final offer.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has rejected Putin's offer, according to a source. Zelensky is due to travel to Washington on Monday to talk with President Trump, who has said that the Ukrainian leader has got to make a deal because Russia is a very big power and they're not. Director Spike Lee's multi-part documentary series for ESPN films about former NFL quarterback Colin Kappanik will not be released. coming out. That's all I can say. Because that's all like you say.

It's not coming out on ESPN or it's not. Not coming out, period. Asked why, the Oscar-winning director declined to elaborate, citing a non-disclosure agreement. In a statement to Reuters, ESPN said that all parties had collectively decided to no longer proceed with the project as a result of certain creative differences. Kappernick played for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2016. and ignited a national debate when he knelt during the US national anthem to protest systemic racism and police brutality. Israel's military has announced plans to move Gaza residents from combat zones to the south, saying it's for their safety.

The announcement comes as Israel prepares a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza city. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that relocation could increase suffering, though it welcomed Israel's move to allow tents and other shelter equipment back into Gaza. Palestinian officials have said no place in the enclave is truly safe and have rejected the plan. Meanwhile, sources say Israel has been in talks with South Sudan about resettling Palestinians there.

Israel said they've spoken with a few other countries about possible destinations, but both South Sudan and Israeli officials say no formal deal is in place. The Canadian government has moved to end a strike by Air Canada's cabin crews. It's seeking binding arbitration to break a deadlock in contract talks. Thousands of Air Canada flight attendants walked off the job after months of negotiations over a new contract. David Younggren in Ottawa is looking at what's behind the dispute. Well, the attendants say they would like to be paid for the time they actually work. Right now, you're met by the attendant at the plane, and they help you put your bag in the overhead locker,

and they give the safety demonstration. They're only paid for the hours that the plane spends in the air. And given that attendants can spend quite a lot of time before the plane takes off, and afterwards, they've decided they want to be paid for the hours they work, as opposed to the hours the plane actually flies. And how is Air Canada responding to some of those requests? Air Canada is coming out with what it says is a very generous pay bump, which they say is about 38% across the board. But the union disagrees with that, saying that the pay offer is staggered

and will only result in about an 8% or 9% pay increase in the first year. And even though the airline is offering more money, it does not help them regain the purchasing power they had before inflation began to spike. Voters in Bolivia head to the polls today for a general election. It's a race that has been overshadowed by inflation and the absence of former leftist president Evo Morales, who is barred from running. Reporter Lucinda Elliott is covering the race. It's been governed almost continuously since 2006 by the leftist movement for socialism or mass party that was co-founded by former president Evo Morales, who was the country's, first Indigenous leader. This year, however, for the first time, polls show that Mass is entering

the race as a weak and fractured political force, which is giving the centre-right opposition in Bolivia an opportunity for the first time, really, in two decades, to actually win. And part of that weakness is because voters blame the incumbent party for fairly recent but deep economic crisis. Bolivia is a natural gas exporter. Those exports have collapsed in recent years. There are widespread shortages of fuel and food, and inflation is at a 40-year high. So the economy is front of mind for voters and overshadowing the campaign really is the absence of not only the current president, Luis Arse, who was not vying for re-election, but also of the former president, Morales, who is this towering figure in Bolivian politics and who is constitutionally barred from running.

He has actually called on the public to boycott the vote, and all of that has added a kind of a level of uncertainty really, over how mass and how the ruling party deal with the results if they are defeated and lose power, which is what the polls are showing. Now, this next story is a bit gross. It's about screw worm, a parasitic fly that eats livestock and wildlife alive.

It's horrific what's going to happen if it gets out of hand. Kip Dove is a rancher out in Oakville, Texas, and he's not alone in fearing this tiny fly as it races north from Mexican herds. Reporter Head the Schlitz has been following the outbreak. It's a fly that will lay hundreds of eggs in the wounds of any warm-blooded animals. And those eggs, when they hatch, they will just eat the animal alive. And they really won't stop until the animal is dead. So right now, the scurrum fly is,

370 miles south of the U.S. border in Veracruz, Mexico. And this is the first time in multiple generations that ranchers there have had to deal with the fly, which can just be absolutely devastating. And ranchers in Texas are extremely worried right now because it's heading north so quickly. And the estimates say that it could pose up to $2 billion worth of damage to the Texas cattle industry alone. How are they trying to respond? So the most powerful weapon that we have to fight scurm infestations are sterile flies. And sterile flies are produced in just this one factory in Panama.

They produce infertile eggs. And so it kind of kills the next generation of flies. And we just don't have enough of them. That plant is producing 100 million sterile flies a week. And that's not nearly enough to significantly slow the outbreak. And the treatment is just, extremely arduous. And you have to monitor every single head of cattle in every pasture. These pastures can be just absolutely massive. So what might this mean for consumers?

So the U.S. closed the U.S.-Mexico border to cattle imports, and the supply of cattle has shrunk to a 75 or so year low. And so because the supply is so low, it's raising prices. And these closures are helping beef prices get to record highs. And for today's recommended read, the latest in our Culture Current series. We sit down with Oscar nominee Amy Berg to talk her new film, It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley.

You can read the interview by following the link in the pod description. And also be sure to check out our latest episode of On Assignment Podcast. This week, following the story of a cognitively impaired man who is invited by a flirt AI chatbot to meet up in New York City.

My heart skips beats when you say that, boo. A young, beautiful woman he had met online was in fact not real. She was an AI chatbot designed by meta. Want me to send you a selfie to prove I'm the girl who's crushing on you? For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. and if you're listening on a smart speaker,

just ask for the latest news from Reuters, seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.