Reuters World News - Ukraine talks, Hamas, AI poll and Labubu boost

Starting point is 00:00:01 Today, Trump hints that security guarantees for Ukraine with Putin and Zelensky talks next, maybe. Air Canada's flight attendant strike is over, but it could be a week or more before flights fully resume. Hamas accepts a proposed ceasefire deal. Most Americans are worried about the role artificial intelligence could play in society, and the must-have LeBoububu-Dol helps profit sore at. Pop Mart. It's Tuesday, August 19th. 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 Kim Van Nal and Wanganui, New Zealand. And I'm Christopher Walgessper in Chicago. A key meeting for Ukraine's president, Volodymy Zelensky.

Starting point is 00:01:00 Thank you very much. It's an honor to have the president of Ukraine with us. Perhaps his most important meeting since Russia's full-scale invasion. And I think progress is is being made very substantial progress in many ways. The stakes are high, and next is a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, if Zelensky gets his wish. Talks in Washington appearing more successful than their clash six months ago, with Donald Trump promising security guarantees in any future peace deal with Russia. Asked explicitly whether those guarantees could include U.S. troops in Ukraine, Trump did not rule it out. Instead, he teased an announcement as soon as Monday on the topic.

Starting point is 00:01:50 With European leaders by Zelensky's side, there was a more upbeat feel, but a peace deal still appears some way off. Andrea Shalal is our White House reporter. So there's tons of questions unanswered. One is, what does it mean to offer security guarantees to Ukraine when you at the same time exclude the possibility of Ukraine ever joining? NATO. So, you know, there's a lot of questions about what that means. I spoke to a senior administration official today who told me that President Trump would never agree to have U.S.

Starting point is 00:02:25 troops on the ground. The other question is, what happens to the land that the Ukrainians have lost to the Russians? And even President Zelensky today told journalists after the meeting was over that the territorial issue would be something that he would discuss with Putin in about. bilateral meeting. The other question is, where is this bilateral going to take place? There are legitimate security concerns for Zelensky in meeting with Putin, knowing that the Russian government has been accused of poisoning its adversaries in the past. A lot of the summit seemed dedicated to showing respect to President Trump after Zelensky's disastrous last Oval Office visit. Then Trump slammed him.

Starting point is 00:03:14 for wearing a military-style sweater. This time, Zelensky wore a black shirt and blazer. And while Trump didn't mention their past meeting, he did comment on the new look when prompted by a reporter. You look fabulous in that suit. I said the same thing. Yeah, you look good. I said the same thing.

Starting point is 00:03:32 Andrea says Zelensky and the Europeans knew how to approach Trump this time around. Zelensky definitely learned his lessons. He said, thank you, I think eight times in the beginning remarks that we saw publicly when he met with Trump. But there were definitely differences. The president had come out and said, ceasefire is not the answer. We have to move to a peace agreement.

Starting point is 00:04:00 And German Chancellor Merritt was very strong in his remarks and saying that a ceasefire was the way to go. So it was superficially quite cordial, but I think that there are still, you know, grave underlying differences, and we'll see how that gets worked out in the next two weeks. Flight attendants for Air Canada have reached an agreement with the airline, ending a four-day strike that scrambled travel plans for hundreds of thousands of passengers. Air Canada says it'll gradually resume operations, but full service could take a week or more. The details of the agreement haven't been released, but the union has said unpaid work is over. Hamas is agreeing to a 60-day ceasefire proposal to pause the war in Gaza, according to an Egyptian source. They say the proposal includes the return of half the hostages held in the enclave and Israel's release of some Palestinian prisoners.

Starting point is 00:05:05 It also outlines a framework for a full deal to end the nearly two-year-old conflict. There's been no response from Israel so far. I'm sure I'll fall asleep eventually, whether that's in my chair or on the floor. Texas State Representative Nicole Collier prepares to spend the night in the House chamber. That's after the Republican Speaker of the House said Democrats who had left the state as part of a redistricting battle would only be allowed to leave if they go in the custody of police escorts. Democratic lawmakers returned on Monday. after fleeing the state to block voting on new congressional maps that they say benefit Republicans.

Starting point is 00:05:54 European equity futures are ticking up in the wake of the Ukraine summit in Washington, with traders evaluating the diplomatic signals toward ending hostilities. Oil prices slipped in early Asian trade, with the market contemplating a possible end to sanctions on Russian crude. The dollar, meanwhile, is holding on to its gains as traders wait for policy hints from the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium, where Chair Jerome Powell is expected to outline the economic outlook. A majority of Americans are worried about the role artificial intelligence could play in our society. That's according to a new Reuters Ipsos poll. Our data and politics reporter Jason Lang in Washington, D.C., has been looking into the poll's findings.

Starting point is 00:06:41 AI is driving a lot of worries in the U.S. generally about the prospect that, a lot of people could lose their jobs and become permanently unemployed because of AI. But two-thirds of people said they think that. Now, to be sure, there really aren't any signs of this happening just yet. A lot of people are worried about the prospect that this could cause political chaos. About two-thirds of people said that they had that concern. And I think what's on a lot of people's minds is the, the uncanny ability of this AI technology to create things that look real that aren't.

Starting point is 00:07:27 It was pretty clear that people are leery of the government using AI in military applications. About half of people said that the government shouldn't use AI to determine the target of a military strike. And about a quarter said that, you know, that's okay. The rest of the folks said that they didn't know. This is still very new technology and a lot of people are getting their heads around it. Mourners gather for a funeral in Pakistan's northwestern Buna district after devastating flash floods killed more than 300 people.

Starting point is 00:08:12 The floods, caused by heavy rains, swept through villages, leveling homes. And finally, you've more than likely seen kids, celebrities, even David's Beckham rocking the weird little charm that's LeBoubu, the ugly cute art toy. That's everywhere. Now, Pop Mart, the company behind the viral Labibu Doll, is reporting record profits. Casey Hall is in Shanghai. So Popmart is an art toy company that came out of Beijing. It's been around for a long time. What they're really known for is selling blind boxes. So when people buy a toy from Pop Mart don't actually know what you're getting. You know what kind of character you're getting, but which one, which kind of iteration of that character within this series you don't know.

Starting point is 00:09:05 I think part of the success has been in the Blindbox model. It's almost like gambling. Labibu has obviously been wildly successful, but Pop Mart also has a number of other IPs or intellectual properties that they've incubated, and some of those are also becoming really popular. There is crybaby, twinkle, twinkle. I mean, these are the kind of things we're looking at that could be the next big thing in art toys. And for today's recommended read, which is also a watch, the 113-year-old Swedish church jacked up from its foundations

Starting point is 00:09:47 and sent on a two-day relocation road trip. It's to try and save it from the impact of mining. There's a link in the pod description for where you can read more and see the video of its first moves. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. And don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker,

Starting point is 00:10:10 just ask for the latest news from Reuters, seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.

Reuters World News - Ukraine talks, Hamas, AI poll and Labubu boost

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