Trump orders Pentagon to scale back South Korea drills

This is the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Monday, the seventeenth of August, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

U S President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, describing the drills as inappropriate and hostile. The directive was issued hours before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises were scheduled to begin on Monday. Trump linked the decision to his very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and said South Korea had declined to help with the denuclearization of Iran. He also complained that the exercises were too expensive. The order comes despite warnings from U S and South Korean military officials that Kim's regime is learning new battlefield tactics from the war in Ukraine. It remains unclear how substantially the drills will be reduced.

In entertainment news, Hayden Panettiere, the actor known for her roles in the television series Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of thirty-six. Her father called her an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her, and a representative confirmed the death.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Hurricane Lala weakened to a tropical storm after skirting Hawaii's Big Island without making landfall, but it continued to punish the island chain with hurricane-force gusts and heavy rain. Hawaii's governor said at least one hundred homes were damaged or lost, one person died, and more than one hundred and thirty thousand households were without power. Forecasters warned that nearly a meter of rain could fall on higher windward slopes, turning rivers into raging torrents.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine launched one of its largest aerial attacks of the war on Russia, sending hundreds of drones across the country and killing at least six people. Strikes hit Moscow and nearby areas, including warehouses linked to Russia's largest online retailer.

In sport, Tommy John, the former Major League Baseball All-Star pitcher whose name became attached to the pioneering elbow-ligament replacement surgery, has died at the age of eighty-three. He died at his home in Florida surrounded by family after recent hospice care, and tributes included one from the New York Yankees.

Elsewhere in Africa, The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has become the deadliest in the country's history, with government data showing at least two thousand three hundred and twenty-five people killed and four thousand nine hundred and forty-five confirmed cases. The outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo species and had already been the fastest-growing on record.

In football, Cristiano Ronaldo has said the current football season is probably his last. The forty-one-year-old Al-Nassr and Portugal captain, who has scored more than nine hundred and fifty goals for club and country, made the remark in an interview with Vogue published on Sunday.

That was the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at one news page dot com.