How Mexico's cartels recruit child killers

Plus, Putin wants NATO enlargement to stop before agreeing to Ukraine peace.

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. The Trump administration halts scheduling of new student visa appointments, the US and Russia clash in public as the Ukraine war heats up, and SpaceX's Starship spins out of control. Elsewhere we have a report on Mexico's cartels recruiting children and grooming them into killers. Plus, a Nepali Sherpa scales Mount Everest for the 31st time. Today's Top News   US President Donald Trump's administration has ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student visa applicants as it prepares to expand social media vetting of foreign students, according to an internal cable seen by Reuters. Senior Foreign Policy Correspondent Humeyra Pamuk explores the implications on the Reuters World News podcast. The US and Russia quarrelled in public over the intensifying Ukraine war after Trump warned that President Vladimir Putin was "playing with fire" and Moscow massed 50,000 troops near a Ukrainian region. Meanwhile, Putin's conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include a demand that Western leaders pledge to stop enlarging NATO. French President Emmanuel Macron is leaning towards recognising a Palestinian state, but diplomats and experts say such a move may prove a premature and ineffective way to pressure Israel into moving towards a peace deal with the Palestinians. Italy's mafia is turning away from violent turf wars to collaborate in drug trafficking, prostitution rings and money laundering, the national anti-mafia agency said in an annual report about the organized crime groups. A German court is due to decide whether a lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer against German energy giant RWE can continue, in a landmark case that is setting a precedent for future climate change litigation. Israel said it had struck Houthi targets, including the last remaining plane used by the group at Sanaa international airport, after the Yemeni militants launched missiles towards Israel a day earlier. Global makers of surveillance gear have clashed with Indian regulators in recent weeks over contentious new security rules that require manufacturers of CCTV cameras to submit hardware, software and source code for assessment in government labs, official documents and company emails show. Business & Markets   SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft at the company's launch pad in Starbase, Texas, May 27, 2025. REUTERS/Joe Skipper  SpaceX's Starship rocket roared into space from Texas but spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals, bringing fresh engineering hurdles to CEO Elon Musk's increasingly turbulent Mars rocket program. An intensifying auto industry price war in China has stoked fears of a long-anticipated shake-out in the world's largest car market. Shares of China's largest automakers sank after Chinese electric-vehicle giant BYD offered fresh discounts across more than a dozen models. Franco-Italian-US automaker Stellantis named Antonio Filosa, the Italian head of its North American operations, as its new chief executive, effective from June 23. Here's everything you need to know about Filosa. Shein is working towards a listing in Hong Kong after the online fast-fashion retailer's proposed IPO in London failed to secure the green light from Chinese regulators, said three sources with knowledge of the matter. Global shares were steady while the dollar held gains on promising signs on US trade talks, as attention was turning to earnings from Nvidia later in the day. Watch our daily rundown on financial markets. How Mexico's cartels recruit children and groom them into killers    A former cartel member, who requested to be identified as Isabel, speaks during an interview with Reuters at an undisclosed location in Mexico April 3, 2025. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha Reuters spoke to 10 current and six former child assassins, as well as four senior cartel operatives, who said cartels are increasingly recruiting and grooming young killers. Their experiences reveal the growing brutalization of Mexican society and the failure of President Claudia Sheinbaum and past governments to address not only the expanding territorial influence of the cartels but their extensive cultural hold too. Read more And Finally... Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, a Nepali mountaineer, creates a new record for the most summits of Everest, Kathmandu, Nepal May 25, 2023. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar Nepali Sherpa guide Kami Rita scaled Mount Everest for the 31st time, breaking the record he set last year. He first climbed Everest in 1994 and has done so every year except for three years when authorities closed the mountain to climbers for various reasons. Read more Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website 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. This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you've engaged with its contents. 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