Washington

About one in eight people who voted for President Donald Trump said they would not do so again after witnessing Trump's tumultuous first six months in office, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 2016 voters. While other surveys have measured varying levels of disillusionment among Trump supporters, the Reuters/Ipsos poll shows how many would go as far as changing how they voted.

Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee known for political independence during more than three decades in the Senate, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, his office said.

Russia investigation

President Trump said he would not have appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation, according to a New York Times interview. There were media reports last month that Sessions, a former U.S. senator who was an early supporter of Trump's campaign, had offered to resign because of tensions with Trump over the recusal.

Trump's son, close associates to appear before Senate

Kremlin says Trump and Putin did not have a secret G20 meeting

Healthcare

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans to discuss healthcare at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017. From left are U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Dean Heller (R-NV), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Trump gathered 49 Republican senators for a White House lunch after a bill to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act collapsed. After Trump's exhortation to keep trying, party members met with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price behind closed doors on Wednesday night to try to finally come together on a major Republican promise of the past seven years - undoing Obamacare. There was no immediate breakthrough.

Inside Trump's last-gasp effort to save Senate healthcare overhaul

32 million people lose insurance under U.S. Senate Obamacare repeal plan: CBO

Cyber Risk

BlackBerry said it has won the right to sell tools for encrypting phone calls and text messages to the U.S. federal government. The fear that eavesdroppers are listening in to government communications has risen sharply in recent years. An unencrypted mobile phone call between a senior U.S. State Department officer and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was intercepted and leaked online in early 2014.

Middle East

Hours before leaving his northern Egyptian hometown for the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, the man accused of stabbing two German tourists to death ate a simple lunch with his mother and asked her to pray for him. Abdel Rahman Shaban Abokorah's friends, neighbors and relatives recalled a "respectful" man who minded his own business and showed no signs of radicalization or ties to militant Islamists.

After Saudi police briefly arrested a woman who appeared in an online video wearing an "indecent" skirt and crop top, many Saudis sprang to her defense on social media. Some Twitter users referred to a visit last month by President Donald Trump whose wife, Melania, and daughter Ivanka were widely praised by Saudi commentators for their elegance despite eschewing veils and wearing stylish dresses. Police freed the woman after she told investigators that the video was posted on social media without her knowledge.

 Addiction and intrigue: Inside the Saudi palace coup

 After Mosul, Islamic State digs in for guerrilla warfare

Israel faces mounting Palestinian anger over holy site metal detectors

Business

U.S.-based payment card companies, including American Express, MasterCard and Visa, are preparing to submit license requests to operate in China within months, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Big Wall Street banks have spent billions of dollars and untold man-hours in recent years transforming their trading desks from hedge-fund like operations trading on their own account into market-making businesses offering a price based on what customers want to buy or sell. But the shift in business model, prompted by reforms following the 2008 financial crisis, has done little to shield banks from suffering big losses when markets move against them, traders and risk managers told Reuters this week.

Science

Axheads and grinding stones from a cave in Australia's far north suggest humans arrived on the continent about 65,000 years ago, or 18,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to research published today. The discovery changes the scientific understanding of the date humans migrated out of Africa, the study's lead author Chris Clarkson told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.

Commentary: Justin Trudeau masters the Trump two-step

Unilever CEO to ask UK's May for extended Brexit transition

Nestle CEO plays down chances of deal rush: Manager Magazin

Breakingviews TV: BlackRock and a hard place