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Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. Gulf tensions escalate as Iran hits Kuwait and the US strikes near Hormuz, Ukraine strikes an oil terminal in St Petersburg as Putin's 'Davos' gets under way, and the US plans new tariffs of up to 12.5% over forced labor concerns.

Plus, a high-profile Meta AI chatbot breach spotlights the security risks of automation.

Today's Top News

A combination picture shows a faulty interceptor missile launched by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system disintegrating above southern Lebanon. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Gulf hostilities flared up again, with an Iranian missile attack damaging Kuwait's airport and the US military carrying out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz, as diplomacy between Washington and Tehran showed little progress. Follow live.
Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism at home after US President Donald Trump declared Israel would halt plans to attack Iran ally Hezbollah in Beirut, highlighting pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election polls show him losing.
Ukraine struck an oil export terminal in St Petersburg hours before President Vladimir Putin's annual ‌economic forum got under way in an attempt to embarrass the Kremlin chief and show how vulnerable Russia's big cities are.
Infighting between the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has led the CIA to pull back from key intelligence assessments. Erin Banco discusses what this might mean for incoming acting CIA Director Bill Pulte, on the Reuters World News podcast.
Republican television commentator Steve Hilton and Democratic former cabinet secretary Xavier Becerra took the early lead in the open primary race for California governor, seeming to emerge as favorites to advance to the November 3 general ‌election.
Britain's interior minister Shabana Mahmood condemned as "completely unacceptable" violent protests which broke out over the case of an 18-year-old who was handcuffed as he lay dying after his killer falsely alleged a racist attack.
Swiss voters look set to reject a referendum proposal to cap the country's population at 10 million people, according to an opinion poll.
Conservative Keiko Fujimori will seek Peru's presidency in a runoff vote, hoping that her tough-on-crime stance at a time of rising insecurity will outweigh a polarizing family legacy with voters.

Business & Markets

In a landmark deal, Paramount is poised to acquire Warner Bros. and gain the studio’s extensive catalog and history. The deal, expected to close in late summer this year, will reshape the industry. Our graphics team takes a closer look.
The Trump administration has proposed new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on imports from ‌60 economies after determining that they failed to curb trade in goods made with forced labor, a finding described by a senior EU lawmaker as "utterly absurd".
SpaceX and Anthropic are preparing for what may be the biggest public-market launches in U.S. history, with OpenAI rumored to be close behind. What happens when IPOs go wrong?
- An Instagram hack that saw attackers talk Meta's AI support chatbot into handing over access to high-profile accounts has exposed a critical flaw at the heart of the company's push to automate sensitive user functions.
Microsoft announced a sweeping slate of AI initiatives, from autonomous workplace assistants and gadgets to Nvidia-powered PCs and a new in-house reasoning model, in a push to move beyond apps and remake computing around AI.
A US jury's fraud conviction of prominent investor Andrew Left this week could rewrite the playbook for activist short sellers, raising fresh questions about the line between legitimate market activism and stock manipulation.

'It's still working': More are living with cancer as era of targeted drugs takes hold

Cathy Smithwick stands in Northern California garden, California, U.S., April 29, 2026. Cathy Smithwick/Handout via REUTERS

Cathy Smithwick, now 67, has lived with breast cancer, and then ovarian cancer, for more than 20 years with the help of targeted drugs, drugs that harness the body's immune system, chemotherapy and hormone pills.

Michelle Vacca, who recently turned 59, has had lung cancer for nearly 10 years and is doing well on an experimental drug that targets ‌a rare tumor mutation.

Both are among a growing number of Americans living with cancer as scientists continue to unravel the biological underpinnings of the disease and develop new drugs that target a tumor's genetic signature.

Read more

And Finally...

Nicholas Galitzine attends the Los Angeles world premiere for ''Masters of the Universe'' at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci

While Nicholas Galitzine, star of the 2026 fantasy film "Masters of the Universe," didn’t grow up playing with the classic Mattel He-Man toys or watching the 1983 animated series, he found his own way to connect with ‌the role.