AnewZ Morning Brief - 8th August, 2025

Anewz

Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for the 8th of August, covering the latest developments you need to know.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with U.S. President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington

On 7 August, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with U.S. President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in Washington.

Prior to the meeting, a 'Memorandum of Cooperation' was signed between SOCAR and ExxonMobil in the presence of President Ilham Aliyev and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

The document was signed by Mikayil Jabbarov, Minister of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and John Ardill, Vice President of ExxonMobil.

Following the signing ceremony, President Ilham Aliyev and U.S. President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held a meeting.

Israel approves plan to take control of Gaza City

Israel's political-security cabinet approved a plan early on Friday to take control of Gaza City, as the country expands its military operations despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating almost two-year-old war.

"The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement, referring to the Israeli Defence Forces.

OpenAI launches GPT-5 as the AI industry seeks a return on investment

OpenAI launched on Thursday its GPT-5 artificial intelligence model, the highly anticipated latest installment of a technology that has helped transform global business and culture.

OpenAI's GPT models are the AI technology that powers the popular ChatGPT chatbot, and GPT-5 will be available to all 700 million ChatGPT users, OpenAI said.

White House now says Trump 'open' to meeting Putin without his meeting Zelenskyy

President Donald Trump on Thursday said Russia's Vladimir Putin doesn't have to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in order for him and Putin to meet.

"No, he doesn't," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

"They would like to meet with me and I'll do whatever I can to stop the killing," the president continued.

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