Plus, Musk's AI pivot challenges Tesla's image.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Iran strikes on CIA facilities prompt questions about a possible Russian role, and Houthis say they attacked Saudi tankers in the Red Sea threatening a new chokepoint.

Meanwhile, Google is hit with a $1 billion EU fine and Adani weighs an airline launch in India.

Plus, a special immersive graphic goes inside the kill zone on Ukraine's front line.

Today's Top News

 

Iranian drones, image obtained January 13, 2025. Iranian Army/WANA/Handout via REUTERS

Middle East

  • Iranian drone attacks on CIA facilities in the Gulf have prompted US intelligence analysts to investigate whether Russia assisted by providing targeting information or advanced drone technology. National Security Correspondent Jonathan Landay joins the Reuters World News podcast to explain what they're looking into.
  • The Iranian-aligned Houthis said they struck two Saudi oil tankers as part of a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening to create a second chokepoint on global oil supplies. Meanwhile the US military completed a new round of strikes on Iran. Follow live.
  • A deal between the United States and Saudi Arabia allowing the kingdom to build nuclear reactors using American technology and to enrich uranium has fueled fears in Israel of the start of an arms race ‌in the Middle East.

In other news

  • More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a ‌rapidly spreading wildfire scorched through 2,000 hectares of land west of the city of Bordeaux.
  • Leading Russian online retailer Wildberries halted operations at one of its warehouses following a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, as Kyiv broadens its campaign against a company at the heart of Russia's consumer economy.
  • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that "fast-track" courts would be set up to prosecute those behind exam paper leaks, his first public response after days of ‌youth protests demanding the resignation of the education minister.
  • A Chinese coast guard vessel fired a water cannon at a Philippine government fisheries vessel in Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, ‌scoring an indirect hit, a Philippine Coast Guard official said.
  • At a US-funded facility in Panama, scientists are preparing to launch the first outdoor tests of genetically modified screwworm flies, a milestone in efforts to develop a more effective weapon against the flesh-eating parasite that has spread through Central America and into the United States.
 

Business & Markets

 
  • As Elon Musk pivots to robots and AI, he wants investors to stop thinking of Tesla as simply an automaker. Yet to fund those bets, he is relying on a car business that is under mounting pressure, as the company’s second-quarter results showed.
  • Alphabet's Google was fined a ‌total of $1 billion for flouting European Union rules aimed at reining ⁠in the power of Big Tech, the European Commission said.
  • Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's group is considering launching a new airline, a move that could potentially reshape competition in a market dominated by IndiGo and Air India, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
  • The risk ‌of hair loss in patients taking GLP-1 drugs for obesity or diabetes, while low, is higher than with other diabetes drugs, new studies suggest.
  • Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh may hope to stay mum about the Fed's rate plans, but fresh oil and potential tariff shocks and a hawkish tilt among his colleagues are likely to test that resolve when US central bankers gather next week.
  • Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, said he would lower business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues by 20% from April, his third announcement in ‌three days of measures to help households and businesses.
 

Inside Ukraine’s Kill Zone

 

REUTERS/Mariano Zafra

It’s a new kind of war. In the “kill zone” of Ukraine, surveillance and attack drones swarm the skies, hunting anything that moves.

There’s no more massing of troops and artillery. Instead, soldiers on both sides hide for months at a time in tiny, isolated foxholes to survive.

Our immersive reconstruction will take you deep into the kill zone, a strip of land about 20 miles wide in some places that straddles the line of contact. 

View our interactive graphic
 

And Finally...

England's Reece James and Ghana's Jordan Ayew after a clash of heads during the Group L match in Foxborough, Massachusetts. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

If you are missing the World Cup already, you can revisit six weeks of heroics and heartache, thrills and spills, heat, ‌rain and rowing, with some of our favorite moments.

Reuters had photographers in all 16 World Cup cities, as well as at team training camps and fanfests across the host countries and at the 104 matches over the tournament's 39 days. They delivered some 74,000 photos of the action on and off the pitch to audiences around the globe.