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This is The World in Brief from the Economist.

Our top stories. A cargo ship left Odessa, a Ukrainian black seaport, after being trapped there

since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Last week, Ukraine announced a new

corridor in the black sea to release merchant ships stuck in its ports, despite Russia having given

no assurances of safe passage. Russia has threatened to treat all ships leaving Ukrainian ports as

military targets. An American appeals court restricted access to Mifapristone, an abortion drug.

Its ruling would bar users from obtaining the pill by post and telemedicine prescriptions,

but not ban the drug altogether, as a lower court in Texas had done. The order will not go into

effect immediately. The Supreme Court ruled in the spring that the drug must remain available while

litigation works through the courts. Minutes from the Federal Reserve's meeting in July

showed that central bankers were split over future interest rate hikes. Members weighed the risks

of spurring a recession with more tightening against the, quote, significant upside risks to inflation

that most continued to see. Markets fell on the report's release. The Fed will make its next

interest rate decision at its meeting in September. China, in effect, scuppered a planned 5.4 billion

dollar acquisition by Intel, an American semiconductor giant with longstanding operations in China,

of tower semiconductor and Israeli chip manufacturer. China's antitrust regulators failed to rule

on the transaction within the company's set deadline prompting Intel to call off the deal.

It is the latest sign of deteriorating business relations between China and America.

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