The Pentagon's secret anti-vax campaign

Plus, how India's opposition leveraged caste and constitution to shock Modi.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters  Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Linda Noakes The Pope will lead AI discussions at the G7, French markets are caught in a storm, and Reform UK overtakes Sunak's Conservatives in an opinion poll. Plus, how the US military launched a secret propaganda operation to counter China's growing influence in Southeast Asia. Today's Top News   A Reuters Investigation The US military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China's Sinovac inoculation, as payback for Beijing's efforts to blame the pandemic on Washington. One target: the Filipino public. Health officials in Manila and the United States say the gambit put innocent lives at risk. Christopher Bing, one of the reporters who covered the story, joins the Reuters World News podcast to talk about the investigation. Read the Special Report More Top Stories Group of Seven leaders hold a final day of talks at their annual summit, with China topping the agenda before Pope Francis puts in a historic appearance to discuss artificial intelligence. The G7 has agreed on a loan deal to support Ukraine, while Italy and France have been sparring over abortion. Nigel Farage's Reform UK Party overtook Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives in an opinion poll for the first time ahead of Britain's election on July 4. You can follow our full election coverage here. South Africa's newly elected parliament convenes today to choose the country's next president with the public still in the dark about which parties will join the African National Congress in government and the policies they will pursue. Donald Trump criticized US aid to Ukraine and suggested raising tariffs to replace the US income tax on a visit to Capitol Hill where he also called Milwaukee - the city hosting his party's presidential convention - "horrible." Families of the Sandy Hook massacre victims want to seize Alex Jones' social media accounts in his bankruptcy, saying that the conspiracy theorist's frequent posts to fans are a key part of the Infowars business being liquidated to pay Jones' debts. Business & Markets   French markets endured another brutal sell-off, as political uncertainty unleashed the biggest weekly jump in the premium investors demand to hold French government debt since 2011 and bank stocks tumbled. The Bank of Japan said it would start trimming its huge bond purchases and announce a detailed plan next month on reducing its nearly $5 trillion balance sheet, taking another step toward unwinding its massive monetary stimulus. Tesla shareholders approved CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package, a big thumbs-up to his leadership and an incentive to keep his focus on his biggest source of wealth. Boeing is investigating a new quality problem with its 787 Dreamliner after discovering that hundreds of fasteners have been incorrectly installed on the fuselages of some undelivered jets. Visa's and Mastercard's proposed $30 billion antitrust settlement to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants is in peril, after a New York judge signaled she was preparing to reject the accord. The Week Ahead World leaders will join Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a summit this weekend to explore ways of ending the conflict with Russia. Central bank decisions in Britain, Switzerland and Norway are expected to provide more evidence that the global rate cutting dash is slowing to a crawl, while retail sales data from the United States and China will provide a consumer health check. A supply crisis puts cocoa markets in the spotlight and Europe gears up for a summer of sports with the Euros 2024 tournament kicking off in Germany. Here's the lowdown on the week ahead. India's opposition leveraged caste and constitution to shock Modi in election   A Hindu holy man shows his ink-marked finger after voting in Ayodhya. REUTERS/Pawan Kumar A seminal moment in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's unsuccessful campaign to retain his parliamentary majority occurred days before India's marathon election began in April. Speaking in the constituency that includes the Hindu temple town of Ayodhya, lawmaker Lallu Singh said that his and Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was seeking a supermajority in parliament's lower chamber to make material changes to the constitution. Opposition parties latched onto Singh's remark to assert, without evidence, that the BJP would amend modern India's founding document to strip Hindus at the bottom of the caste hierarchy of access to affirmative action policies. Read more Photos of the Week A selection of some of our top photography from around the world this week. View gallery 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. Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036