Reuters Daily Briefing

"Iran vows 'devastating' response."

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Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Iran vows a 'devastating' response as the US threatens to impose an economic hit, Trump seeks to bolster Graham's Senate bid with a South Carolina rally, and North Korea's cool response to Trump's outreach Plus, unlocking the secrets of the "unicorn of the sea".

Today's Top News   Vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo Iran said that its response to any new US threats would be "devastating" after Washington pledged to impose the toughest financial penalties in history with the aim of toppling the Iranian leadership. Here are some of Iran's main trading partners in recent years. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has warned militant Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank not to steal property owned by Palestinian Americans, describing such behavior as "a violation of God's law". Senior Israel Correspondent Alexander Cornwell tells the Reuters World News podcast why his warning is so striking.  Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan was declared medically fit and sent back to prison after being examined by a team of doctors in a hospital overnight, the country's information ‌minister said. President Donald Trump says he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. But his overtures have drawn a frosty response from Pyongyang, suggesting it will set tough conditions to hold such a meeting. Trump signed a memo to help drastically increase ‌the number of US commercial space launches, including directing government agencies to look at federal land for new launch and re-entry sites. Ousted Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov will go to the United States to raise money for new defense technology projects as he seeks new ventures after ‌losing his post, a source close to the former minister told Reuters. World soccer’s regional powerhouses are discussing whether to move a vote of no confidence as they seek to oust FIFA President Gianni Infantino after he angered them with a proposal to sell private investors a stake in the World Cup, senior figures familiar with the ‌discussions told Reuters.

Business & Markets   The US Treasury's surprise bond buyback failed to quell lingering concerns about inflation and expanding government debt, as bond yields rose, dragging the dollar higher as well. It was a vision to give South Korea a stock market that reflected its true economic dynamism, by shedding regulatory taboos and encouraging bolder bets - instead, it created an investor trauma that could take years to shake off. India has directed Google to shut down hundreds of accounts on its Firebase web development platform after finding a pattern of criminals misusing the service to impersonate major banks and defraud people. Uruguay seemed like the perfect place for cryptocurrency giant Tether to launch a bitcoin mining operation. But amid a dispute over the amount of energy that would be supplied for its thirsty bitcoin mining, the plans unraveled and the ‌mining sites were abandoned, a Reuters review of documents and interviews with multiple people reveals.  Walmart just lost nearly 10% of its value in a day. We unpack what it says about the US economy on the Reuters Morning Bid podcast.

The Week Ahead This weekend Trump will cap off the country’s summer celebrations of its 250th anniversary with a roaring auto race through the streets of Washington. Kazakhstan votes on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election expected to strengthen President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's hold ‌over the country. Arsenal will open their title defense as the new Premier League season kicks off.  Nvidia,  whose chips underpin much of the AI infrastructure buildout, reports second-quarter results. The company has become a proxy for the broader AI ecosystem spanning chip makers and companies financing the rapid expansion of data center capacity. Darline Graham faces off against Representative Ralph Norman, her opponent in next Tuesday's Republican primary runoff in South Carolina. Killing of Guinea-Bissau rapper sends opposition underground   A drone view shows a statue of Amilcar Lopes Cabral.  Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. REUTERS/Luc Gnago/File Photo  In the months before opposition activist and rapper Vigario Luis Balanta was beaten to death and his body dumped in a field outside the capital of Guinea-Bissau, his wife begged him to keep a low profile. Balanta's ‌killing in March sent shockwaves through the political movement he founded in the West African country, which has been under military rule since late November. The new leaders of his movement have gone underground as they seek ways to end the cycle of coups and violence since independence from Portugal in 1974. Read more

And Finally... Narwhals swim in the waters off Northwest Greenland in this undated handout image released on August 18, 2026. Carsten Egevang/Greenland Institute of Natural Resources In the Middle Ages, narwhal tusks were sold as unicorn horns blessed with magical powers such as neutralizing poisons and curing diseases — prized possessions of monarchs and nobles worth more than their weight in gold. They provided no such ‌powers, of course, but even today remain objects of mystery. Researchers have now deciphered the internal structure of these spiral-shaped tusks — actually a straight and elongated canine tooth that protrudes from a narwhal's mouth, sometimes reaching up to 10 feet (3 meters) long. Read more

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