LA races against the wind

Plus, Gaza truce deal final draft presented after 'breakthrough'.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters  Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Los Angeles races to contain wildfires before severe winds return, Qatar gives Israel and Hamas a final draft of a Gaza truce deal, and the US tightens its grip on AI chip flows across the globe. Plus, an Indian festival is expected to draw the world's largest gathering of humanity. Today's Top News   Encino, Los Angeles. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu United States Firefighters raced to contain the frontiers of two Los Angeles wildfires that burned for the sixth straight day, taking advantage of a brief respite in hazardous conditions before high winds were expected to fan the flames anew. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin called off the launch of its New Glenn rocket after "a few anomalies" during the mission countdown. And as SpaceX prepares to launch Starship's seventh flight test, Joey Roulette is on the Reuters World News podcast discussing how this rocket is pivotal to Elon Musk's Mars ambitions. With President-elect Donald Trump's second inauguration a week away and his fixation with attendance numbers at his public events undiminished, crowd size is going to be front and center again for Trump, media outlets and crowd-size experts monitoring the ceremony said. In other news Mediator Qatar has handed Israel and Hamas a "final" draft of a ceasefire and hostage release agreement designed to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters. Chinese and Indian refiners will source more oil from the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, boosting prices and freight costs, as new US sanctions on Russian producers and ships curb supplies to Moscow's top customers, traders and analysts said. Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia's waters. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv is ready to hand over captured North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia. Business & Markets   Regulations aim to bolster US AI leadership. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo The US government said it would further restrict artificial intelligence chip and technology exports, divvying up the world to keep advanced computing power in the US and among its allies while finding more ways to block China's access. Everything you need to know about how the new AI chip rule will work. Trump campaigned on promises of aggressive import tariffs, strict immigration curbs, deregulation and smaller government, but the economy he inherits next week may be screaming for something different. Namely, don't break anything. Joe Biden's administration has concluded that China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, three sources familiar with the results of a months-long trade investigation told Reuters. China's exports gained momentum in December, with imports also showing recovery, though strength at the year-end was in part fueled by factories rushing inventory overseas as they braced for heightened trade risks under a Trump presidency. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the main global producer of advanced chips used in artificial intelligence applications, is expected to report a 58% leap in fourth-quarter profit because of surging demand. At Princeton, Pete Hegseth's views on feminism and diversity drove tension   Trump's pick for defense secretary has Senate hearing on Tuesday. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz Laura Petrillo still remembers a 2002 day on the Princeton campus when she got into a heated argument with Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon. For Hegseth, the publisher of The Tory and the school's best-known conservative at the time, the episode was one of several examples examined by Reuters of his confrontation with modern feminism on campus, decades before he would argue against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the US military. Reuters spoke to more than a dozen former students, faculty and staff at the university to build a picture of his time at Princeton from 1999 to 2003. Read more And Finally... People will take a dip at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati rivers, during the "Maha Kumbh Mela", or the Great Pitcher Festival. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis Tens of thousands of Hindus seeking absolution of their sins immersed themselves in freezing waters at the confluence of sacred rivers, as India began a six-week festival expected to draw the world's largest gathering of humanity. Read more Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2025 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036