Tankers attacked in the Gulf

Plus, airline hedging strategies fall short as jet fuel price surges.

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. In the latest news from the war in the Middle East, oil tankers burn near Iraq as Iranian strikes defy Trump's claim to have won. And US intelligence says Iran's government is not at risk of collapse. Elsewhere, airline hedging strategies fall short as jet fuel price surges, and the US opens unfair-trade probes to rebuild Trump's tariff pressure. Today's Top News   Tanker carrying Iraqi fuel oil damaged after catching fire, following unidentified attacks that targeted two foreign tankers, near Basra, Iraq. REUTERS/Mohammed Aty War in the Middle East Two tankers were ablaze in Iraqi waters after what appeared to be Iranian strikes, the latest wave of attacks on oil and transport facilities across the Middle East. Follow our live updates. US President Donald Trump said that "we won" the Iran war but that the US will stay in the fight to finish the job."You never like to say too ⁠early you won. We won," Trump told a campaign-style rally in Hebron, Kentucky. "In the first hour it was over." US intelligence indicates that Iran's leadership is still largely intact and is not at risk of collapse any time soon after nearly two weeks of relentless US and Israeli bombardment, according to three sources familiar with the matter. A strike on an Iranian girls' elementary school, which killed 175 students and school staff, may have been conducted using outdated targeting data. Idrees Ali joins the Reuters World News podcast to discuss why investigators think the US was responsible for the attack.  In other news The first passenger train service between the Chinese and North Korean capitals left Beijing Railway Station, ending a six-year gap, as China moves to ‌shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbor. A man was arrested with more than 2,200 live garden ants in his luggage at Nairobi's main airport this week amid a rise in cases of smuggling ‌of the insects in Kenya. Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums. Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned a deadly Ukrainian strike on the western Russian city of Bryansk as a "terrorist attack" and accused Britain, whose missiles it said ⁠were used, of overstepping international legal norms. The US Senate is poised to pass legislation aimed at boosting affordable housing construction nationwide, giving lawmakers the ability to campaign for re-election this year by highlighting efforts to ease the burden of ‌high living costs. Business & Markets   A semi-truck drives past Chinese shipping containers at the Port of Los Angeles in Wilmington, California. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Trump's administration said it was launching two trade investigations into excess industrial capacity in 16 major trading partners and into forced labor, rebuilding tariff pressure after the Supreme Court tore down much of Trump's tariff program last month. Global shares fell as attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf shattered any prospects of an imminent de-escalation in the Middle East conflict, pushing oil prices above $100 a barrel and stoking fresh inflation concerns. As a sharp rise in oil prices rattles global transport markets, airlines face an additional threat: the price of jet fuel has risen far faster than crude prices. Even airlines that use hedging contracts to protect ‌against sudden spikes in oil prices are rapidly announcing fare hikes, fuel surcharges and capacity cuts. Nintendo said it has sold more than 2.2 million copies of "Pokemon Pokopia" in the four days since its launch ‌as the game's popularity helps offset fear about Switch 2 sales momentum. Artificial intelligence is being deployed on both sides of the tug-of-war between US healthcare systems that want to be paid more for medical procedures and insurers who want proof the services were necessary, and experts are having a hard time predicting a winner. Though investors are still pricing in a swift end to the Middle East conflict, the disruption to oil and gas flows from the region is producing early signs of stress. In this week's Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists debate how bad the economic and political fallout could get. Brazil's dreams for industrial-scale cocoa farms fading after price crash   Cocoa farmers in Brazil have slammed the brakes on new planting projects following a 70% plunge in cocoa prices from their 2024 record high, stalling growth that investors had expected would make the country a major supplier of the main ingredient in chocolate. At current prices of around $3,000 per metric ton, farmers and analysts told Reuters they expected around half the projects in Brazil to ‌grow cocoa on an industrial scale could be canceled. Read more And Finally... Artist's conception of a magnetar surrounded by an accretion disk exhibiting Lense-Thirring precession. Joseph Farah and Curtis McCully/Handout via REUTERS A supernova - the explosion marking the end of a massive star's life - is one of the brightest cosmic events, usually about a billion times more luminous than the sun. But some - a small fraction - are even brighter than that, 10 to 100 times more luminous. These are called superluminous supernovas. Why these are so bright has been a ‌mystery in astrophysics. But one such superluminous supernova involving a huge star in a galaxy about a billion light-years from Earth is now helping scientists solve the mystery.  Read more   Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website   Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you’ve engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement. Terms & Conditions   © 2026 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036

Air strikes across the Middle East

And oil prices seesaw.

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. Air strikes are reported across the Middle East as Iran clamps down on dissent, a foreign hacker compromised Epstein files, and here's one big reason why prices for new cars have soared. Plus, a free comeback concert for boy band BTS. Today's Top News   Debris and damaged vehicles at the site of an Israeli strike on an apartment building, in central Beirut, Lebanon, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Emilie Madi  War in the Middle East The US and Israel traded air strikes with Iran across the Middle East as the besieged Tehran government warned its state security forces were ready with "fingers on the trigger" to confront any anti-government protests. View our maps and charts of the Iran crisis. Three vessels have been hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime security agencies and sources said, as one of the strikes led ‌to a fire onboard a ship and forced most of its crew to evacuate. Two drones came down in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport, injuring four people, Dubai's media ‌office said, as attacks on infrastructure across the Gulf continued on the 12th day of the Iran crisis, which has caused widespread disruption to global air traffic. Australia says two additional members of the Iranian soccer squad chose to stay behind - but one has now changed her mind and wishes to return to Iran. Alasdair Pal joins the Reuters World News podcast we explain at how the offer of asylum for the group came about - listen now. In other news Britain's parliament has approved legislation to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords, ending a centuries-old system of aristocratic seats in the upper chamber that the government says should not ‌be secured by birth. A foreign hacker compromised files relating to the FBI's investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a break-in at the bureau's New York Field Office three years ago, according to a source familiar with the matter and recently published Justice Department documents reviewed by Reuters. The Republican candidate backed by President Donald Trump will advance to a runoff against a Democrat in the Georgia race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in ‌the US House of Representatives. Trump has claimed that South Africa's white minority is being persecuted by the country's Black majority government. Pretoria says there is no evidence of discrimination or persecution against whites. Many are returning home. Business & Markets   Oil prices rebounded as markets doubted whether the International Energy Agency's reported plan for a record release of oil reserves could offset potential supply shocks from the US-Israeli conflict ‌with Iran. Some Chinese factories are seizing the opportunity of lower US tariffs to frontload their goods. This follows the US Supreme Court ruling that tariffs are set to stay lower until at least July. The US car business is grappling with a stubborn affordability problem, one that threatens to relegate more Americans to the used-car lot and leave automakers vulnerable to lower-priced rivals. Here's why.  Anthropic's lawsuit challenging its Pentagon blacklisting is likely to test the reach of an obscure law aimed at guarding military systems against sabotage, and legal experts say the artificial intelligence lab appears to have a strong case that Trump's administration overstepped. International oil majors Chevron and Shell are closing in on the first big oil production deals with Venezuela since the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January.  Read our exclusive. The US announced the construction of a refinery on its southern border backed by India's Reliance Industries, operator of the world's biggest refining complex. China is rebuilding its grip on North Korea. Is Kim Jong Un ready to oblige?   Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Xi Jinping in Beijing in September. The two countries are deepening engagement once again after years of strained ties. KCNA via REUTERS Growing trade ties and new border infrastructure show Beijing is drawing Pyongyang back into its orbit – and nudging its isolated neighbor toward a long-awaited reopening – as  Donald Trump signals interest in reviving talks with North Korea's leader. Read more And finally Fans holding BTS member's portraits attend 2024 FESTA. Seoul, South Korea, June 13, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon A free comeback concert for boy band BTS in central Seoul next week is expected to draw up to 260,000 people, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety ‌said, making it one of the largest public gatherings in the area since the 2002 World Cup. The chart-topping K-pop group is marking the release of its first new album in more than three years with the free concert on March 21, before ⁠it embarks on a global tour in April. Read more   Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website   Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you’ve engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement. Terms & Conditions   © 2026 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036