Why VW's flying dream stalled

Plus, US strikes Iran again as the war widens.

Go beyond the headlines with Reuters on the stories shaping the day. Subscribe for $1/week. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. France, Spain and Greece battle wildfires and Russian strikes on Ukraine kill eight as Poland scrambles fighter jets. Elsewhere, the US strikes Iran again as the war widens and Washington clinches a $58.6 billion Patriot missile deal amid rising stockpile concerns. Plus, how Volkswagen’s flying-car dream crashed in China. Today's Top News   Residents and firefighters work to extinguish an advancing wildfire near Formariz in Zamora province, Spain. REUTERS/Umit Bektas Europe France, Spain and Greece battled major wildfires as soaring temperatures, parched vegetation and powerful winds extended a summer of deadly fires, mass evacuations and mounting disruption across Europe. Russian air strikes killed at least eight people in Ukraine, including one in Kyiv, in attacks extending as far as ‌the western city of Lviv, forcing neighboring Poland to scramble fighter jets to secure its airspace.  Russia has killed 73 people in June and July in intensified attacks on Kyiv, the city's military administration said. As demand for safe spaces has spiked — with some sheltering for the first time — the lack of proper sites has come into focus. In other news The US military said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets in Iran, including military command centers and drone facilities, in a two-hour operation launched after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East. Follow live. The US Army awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $58.6 billion to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, the Pentagon said, as conflicts in Iran and Ukraine strain US weapons stockpiles. The Trump administration has brought criminal charges against at least 851 people accused of attacking or impeding federal officers, only to abandon them at an unusually high rate.  Anthony Fauci, the former top US infectious disease expert, declined to answer questions at a Senate hearing, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination and accusing Republican Senator Rand Paul of an "unhinged" campaign to see him imprisoned. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Japan toppled houses and split open streets in the small city of Yatsushiro, but there ‌was mounting concern about invisible threats from the lack of water and power amid the punishing summer heat. Business & Markets   US Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh in Washington, D.C. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein "Policymakers who feel that a rate hike needs to happen were not really willing to step aside and give way to the chairman," says correspondent Ann Saphir, discussing dissent at the Fed even while the central bank holds rates steady on today's episode of the Reuters World News podcast — listen now. South Korea's efforts to rein in the leveraged products wreaking havoc in its financial markets may not go far enough to quell skyrocketing volatility, analysts say, as pain and public anger mount over a $2 trillion-and-counting stocks wipeout. Samsung reported a more than 250-fold jump in chip profit and announced multi-year supply deals with major data centre operators, saying it expects global chip shortages to become more acute and extend into 2028. Vehicle leasing has declined in the United States in recent years, curbing what has long been a preferred route to new wheels for many car shoppers. Here's why. Shein, the Chinese-founded fast-fashion retailer, has released financial details ahead of its long-awaited Hong Kong float. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain how a pushback against its business model in the West may have collapsed the valuation to just $10 billion. How Volkswagen’s flying-car dream crashed in China   REUTERS/Illustration/Catherine Tai After years as China's top-selling automaker, Volkswagen in 2019 was looking beyond the roads it dominated and set out to own a piece of the sky. But now, while local upstarts prepare for flying-car liftoff in China, Volkswagen remains grounded.  Volkswagen's flying-car effort simply couldn’t match the speed of China’s low-altitude economy. That's the global aviation industry’s term for an emerging market encompassing drones, air taxis and other aviation services aimed at the airspace below 1,000 meters. In China, local rivals, governments and supply chains have moved faster than VW: that stumble serves as yet another example of older automakers rapidly losing business to Chinese competitors. Read our special report And Finally... BTS performs during the FIFA World Cup 2026 halftime show. REUTERS/Mike Segar K-pop group BTS said they will not submit any music for consideration at the 69th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2027, citing ‌dissatisfaction with the academy's new category for best Asian pop music performance. The decision marks the first time the South Korean group, one of the biggest names in K-pop, have opted out of the awards ceremony. Each member of the group shared the news in a post on Instagram. 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

Major Gulf fighting restarts

Plus, the Trump administration bans new Chinese humanoid robots.

Go beyond the headlines with Reuters on the stories shaping the day. Subscribe for $1/week. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. Iran is getting Chinese shoulder-launched missile systems within weeks, the top US commander for the Middle East warns troops their phones could be confiscated, and Russia's FSB charges Telegram founder Durov with facilitating terrorism. Plus, OpenAI's rogue agent compromised a customer at a second tech firm. Today's Top News   A man looks on near damage at a site belonging to Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Nineveh province, Iraq. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily Middle East The US launched its first airstrikes in the Middle East since suspending its bombing campaign last week, hitting Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq jointly with Saudi Arabia. Foreign Policy Editor Don Durfee talks through the calculus for Washington on today's episode of the Reuters World News podcast. Iran is expected to receive a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers within weeks, three sources familiar with the deal told Reuters, as it rebuilds its defenses amid war with the United States. Meanwhile, the top US commander for the Middle East has warned troops that cellphone videos shared online can help Iran target American bases, and sources told Reuters some deployed personnel could soon be ordered to surrender their phones. In other news Rescuers were frantically searching for survivors of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that shook southern Japan, killing at least 13 people, knocking out power to thousands of homes and rupturing roads across the ‌region. Temperatures were set to soar again in France and Spain in a fourth heatwave of the summer, increasing the threat from wildfires that have scorched through forests and killed wildlife. Our graphics team maps the wildfires outside Bordeaux and Madrid. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities, ‌and that it had issued an international warrant for his arrest. Here's what you need to know about Durov. A small California-based drone maker says one of its sea vessels sailed close enough to a Chinese warship operating inside the Philippines' exclusive ‌economic zone to capture what it believes is the first footage of its kind recorded by a private US firm. United Nations experts have found that Boeing 727s linked by Reuters to a US military contractor's business network transported mercenaries, weapons and drones for Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, according to a draft U.N. report due to be published in September. Business & Markets   A humanoid robot at a robotics laboratory during a government-organized media trip in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. REUTERS/Go Nakamura  The Trump administration unveiled bans that target imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, seeking to protect the US AI buildout from national security threats and reshore key industries slated for explosive growth. The rogue agent that escaped from OpenAI and went on a days-long hacking spree at the AI firm Hugging Face also compromised a customer at a second tech company — New York-based Modal Labs — according to a Modal executive and two other sources familiar with the matter. The rise of young Chinese renters sharing beds to cut costs and save cash offers a revealing snapshot of an economy where consumers remain cautious and jobs feel increasingly insecure for many young workers. BMW said it will cut several thousand jobs in Germany by the end of 2027 ‌under a voluntary redundancy programme, the latest German carmaker to axe staff in response to squeezed profits and weak demand. The Federal Reserve is seen as more likely to leave interest rates steady even as a growing number of its policymakers fret openly about inflation, but the outcome is unusually uncertain because of the no-guidance regime adopted by US central bank chief Kevin Warsh. "Ugly and rusty," Venezuela's refineries are relics that will be hard to revive    Fishing boats are moored down the coast from the Paraguana Refining Center (CRP) in Punta Cardon, Venezuela. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File Photo The Paraguana Refining Center in Western Venezuela once symbolized the country's oil wealth and its ambition to turn vast crude reserves into fuels and export revenue. Today, the 955,000-barrel-per-day complex in Falcon state runs at a fraction of capacity. Reuters reporters visited the site before last month's earthquakes and saw festering decay and little ongoing maintenance at the facility, underscoring the monumental challenges Venezuela faces in restoring its oil infrastructure. The reporting revealed festering decay and little ongoing maintenance at all three facilities, underscoring the monumental challenges Venezuela faces in restoring its oil infrastructure. Read more And Finally... Chefs present the Twinkle Twinkle Tangy Coconut Mousse and Twinkle Twinkle Sweet Coconut Mousse desserts. Singapore. REUTERS/Edgar Su Pop Mart, the Beijing-based maker of ‌collectible "blind box" toys including the toothy-grinned Labubu, is diversifying its business by opening its first international bakery in Singapore. The toymaker is turning its best-known characters into three-dimensional edible treats, from black sesame Labubu popsicles to double cheesecake Molly.  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