Israel ceasefire approval, SpaceX, migrants’ mental health and Australian Open
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Today, Israel is set to approve a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. SpaceX's Starship launch explodes just minutes after launch. How a mental health center in Mexico is grappling with extreme violence against migrants. And what we're watching for as the Australian Open gears up for its final week of tennis.

It's Friday, January 17th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. And I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says cementing the Gaza ceasefire deal is imminent, following an 11th hour holdup on Thursday.

The cabinet meets today to give its final approval to the truce and hostage release plan, brokered with Hamas. In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes are ongoing, with Palestinian authorities reporting at least 86 dead since a deal was announced.

And in Washington, D.C., journalists who are outspoken critics of American support for Israel lambasted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his swan song press conference. A Pakistani court has sentenced ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years in jail in a land corruption case. That's according to a local broadcaster.

Khan, who had pleaded not guilty, has been jailed since August 2023 while fighting dozens of cases. Rudy Giuliani has reached a legal settlement with two Georgia election workers that he falsely accused of helping steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden. He's agreed to stop defaming the workers and in exchange will keep his homes in Palm Beach and Manhattan.

American filmmaker David Lynch has died at the age of 78. Known for his Oscar-nominated films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, as well as the TV series Twin Peaks, Lynch was considered a master of surrealism and one of the most innovative filmmakers of his generation. The chief executive of TikTok plans to attend Donald Trump's inauguration, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Xiaozhi Qiu has a seat of honor on the dais, typically reserved for VIPs. But no news of such special treatment for his social media app at this stage. The platform plans to shut its U.S. operations just hours before the event, when a federal ban is set to take hold. And an invitation, but no RSVP yet.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro's defense team has filed a late request with Brazil's top court to urgently reconsider the decision to bar him from traveling to the U.S. to attend Donald Trump's inauguration. Bolsonaro faces criminal charges for allegedly plotting a coup in the wake of his 2022 election defeat and had his passport taken away.

Data shows that China's economy matched the government's ambitions for 5% growth last year, but in a lopsided fashion. That means complaints from many about worsening living standards as Beijing struggles to transfer its industrial and export gains to consumers.

The unbalanced growth raises concerns that structural problems may deepen in 2025, when China plans a similar growth performance by going deeper into debt, in an attempt to counter the impact of an expected US tariff hike under Donald Trump. Five, four, three.

Two private space launches in just 24 hours. One, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin early Thursday morning, successfully launching its New Glenn rocket into space for the first time. And last night, SpaceX's seventh Starship prototype launch, which exploded around eight minutes after takeoff.

Airlines altered course to avoid fiery debris that could be seen streaking through the sky as the 37-story rocket broke apart. As we were checking in on the status of the ship, at this point in time, we can confirm that we did lose the ship. SpaceX engineer Kate Tice just minutes after the launch.

The booster came back for a successful, the second ever booster catch at the launch tower. The Federal Aviation Administration is likely to open an investigation into the failure that could delay Musk's goal of launching at least 12 Starship tests this year. Booster FTS is saved. A warning, this next story discusses topics of sexual violence and trauma. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

At a Doctors Without Borders facility in Mexico City, children play near an ofrenda covered with marigolds and images memorializing deceased friends and loved ones of staff and patients. The medical center is caring for the children's parents, victims of sexual and physical violence along the treacherous migration route aimed at reaching the U.S. border.

And as our reporter Cassandra Garrison learned, the road to recovery from such traumatic violence is its own journey. This care center is one of the only facilities of its kind that does offer help to migrants who have experienced extreme trauma due to severe violence against them either in their home countries or during their migration route through Mexico.

It's focusing on healing people psychologically. It offers support for sexual violence, beatings, kidnappings, extortion. One of the Venezuelan women we spoke to at this facility who's undergoing treatment, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, told us about her experience with her family crossing the Darien Gap.

Of course, she was well aware that there was violence. And because of that, they decided to dress their young daughter as a boy.

And I resisted, I didn't want, I didn't want, I didn't want, I didn't want.

She was sexually assaulted by multiple men to the point where she told me she actually just disassociated from her body because what she was enduring was so incredibly traumatic. And she's been really trying to work through this trauma, which provoked panic attacks and issues with her heart. And she was hospitalized at one point because of this trauma that she'd endured.

Now, how frequent is this sort of violence? It's hard to find data on this because most cases of extreme violence suffered by migrants typically goes unreported. Doctors Without Borders has noticed in the last few years violence against migrants increasing. And the specialist we spoke to attributed that to a rise in women and children migrating.

As the Australian Open enters its final week next week, the year's first major tennis tournament has already dealt some surprising upsets and given fans a lot to be excited for in 2025.

Nick Mulvaney is our Asia Pacific Sports Editor and has been covering the Open. Nick, in the men's tournament, several young up-and-comers have really outperformed expectations. What's going on there? Well, I think on the men's side, it's mainly been about teenagers beating highly-seeded players.

with American Learner Team beating world number five Daniel Medvedev in five sets. But that was only the third of three big upsets that we've had so far here. We've had Brazilian Hal Fonseca who took out ninth seed Andrei Rublev and Czech Jakub Mencik who knocked out sixth seed Kasper Rud. So NuBled is coming and it's been very exciting.

And on the women's side, the age upset looked a little different, right? The oldest player, German Laura Sigmund, upset fifth seed Shengqin Wen. Yes, that was a bit of a shocker because Shengqin Wen came in as a bit of a title hope here. Yeah, and she went down to a 36-year-old, 37-year-old. So that was a remarkable turn of events so early in the tournament. So what are you excited for in this final week?

Well, I think the big one for me is whether Novak Djokovic can get his 25th Grand Slam title. That would make him, without doubt, the most successful Grand Slam tennis player of all time. I'm really interested to see how Coco Gauff goes.

And the other one for me is Naomi Osaka, who won this tournament a couple of times, then went off and had her kid. And she's come back in. She didn't play particularly well last year, but she's looked pretty good this year. And if she gets back to the form that she was showing four or five years ago, she's going to be pretty hard to stop. It's Friday, so a recommended listen from us today. Check out our special episode set for publication tomorrow, all about Donald Trump's inauguration.

what to expect from the day itself, and the immediate aftermath. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show.