Burned to death in their cars

And Iran searches for its invisible leader

Stay informed with Reuters. Subscribe for $1/week. Weekend Briefing Weekend Briefing From Reuters Daily Briefing   By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. Our On Assignment podcast shows how we documented the war damage to treasured Iranian cultural sites. City Memo takes us to Starbase,  Elon Musk’s “Gateway to Mars.” And would you spend all your money on a vacation? Readers respond. Burned to death in their cars   REUTERS/Jon Nazca Spain: Panicked people in rural Andalusian villages went against the advice of local mayors and police and fled directly into the path of flames from a mountain wildfire. Four people died in one car while eight others were found in the fire’s path after apparently abandoning their vehicles and trying to escape on foot. China: Typhoon Bavi is churning toward Wenzhou, prompting the evacuation of more than 1.8 million people. A zoo in southwestern China locked lions, bears and wolves in their cages to prevent them from escaping as deadly flooding triggered by Typhoon Maysak swept through the region. Iran’s leader remains unseen, and it’s becoming a liability Mojtaba Khamenei: The son of and successor to Iran’s assassinated supreme leader remains out of sight after sources said he was injured in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. Ordinary Iranians are noticing. President Trump declared the ceasefire over and demanded that Iran arrange safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Renewed fighting is pushing U.S. gasoline prices higher. Gaza: Mohammad al-Waheidi set up screenings for people in the shattered enclave to watch the World Cup match between Egypt and Argentina. Then an Israeli airstrike killed him as he rode in a taxi. Three other people, including two siblings aged 8 and 10, also died in the attack. Trump fires election commission members ‘Thank you for your service’: The White House spent months looking for ways to bypass a federal election agency and use emergency powers to force changes to voting machines before Trump simply fired its leaders. Six Democrats are trying to fill the hole that Graham Platner blew into the center of their campaign to beat Republican Susan Collins in this year’s midterms. Where is Mitch McConnell? Daylight Saving Time again: The House of Representatives may vote next week on a bill to make the time change permanent. The proposal would allow states to opt out. If it passes, the Senate would have to take up the measure again. Ukraine faces a long wait for Patriot missiles The pledge: Trump promised Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Ukraine could produce the air-defense missiles, but experts say that it will take at least a year to start producing them. Patriots are the only weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal that can stop Russian ballistic missiles. Shot in the head: A Ukrainian court is holding two men accused of killing a woman suspected of carrying out a bomb attack in Monaco that wounded a Ukrainian businessman. One of the men is a serving officer in Kyiv’s military intelligence unit. Another is a former law-enforcement officer. Space holds the mysteries, Earth holds the money SpaceX: Elon Musk pitched the vision of a future in which space powers artificial intelligence, but Wall Street analysts say the company’s near-term value remains tethered to Earth where it is building the infrastructure that underpins the AI boom. SK Hynix: The South Korean chipmaker’s U.S.-listed shares rose 14% in their Nasdaq debut, showing that investor enthusiasm for chip stocks remains high as the rise of artificial intelligence prompts billions of dollars of corporate capital spending. Its CEO told us he expects the global memory business to experience its worst-ever supply shortage in 2027. Apple sues OpenAI, two former employees Trade secrets: Apple accused OpenAI tried to acquire and exploit confidential information through former employees and others means. Analysts think OpenAI is working on a phone or some other device. That’s not your song: A federal judge dismissed a Florida woman’s lawsuit that accused Taylor Swift of plagiarizing phrases from her poems. Before I forget… A passenger was partially sucked through a dislodged window on a Ryanair flight shortly after it took off from Thessaloniki. A Miami-based businessman wanted in Albania for allegedly laundering drug money is suspected of faking the deeds to land that Jared Kushner wants to use to build a multi-billion-dollar resort. A bottled-water business owner and his wife were detained over an alleged plot to assassinate top members of the Trinidad and Tobago government, including the prime minister. A young Black man traveled to a Mississippi island with three white friends over the July 4 weekend. His body was found on July 6. His mother is pleading for information. Police arrested dozens of people for violence and vandalism during protests over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in the Indian state of West Bengal. An opposition politician in Georgia received a 13-year prison sentence after his conviction on a terrorism charge for trying to set fire to a court building in Tbilisi. The Normans are returning to Britain, courtesy of the Bayeux Tapestry, which is visiting after a nearly 1,000-year absence.   Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website   Weekend Briefing is sent once 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

Trump makes stock market his scoreboard

Plus, at least eleven killed in one of Spain's deadliest wildfires.

Go beyond the headlines with Reuters on the stories shaping the day. Subscribe for $1/week. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. At least eleven people have died and 19 are missing in one of Spain's deadliest wildfires, Iran says it hit US military targets in the Gulf, and Trump makes the stock market his scoreboard, but many Americans aren't even in the game. Plus, we look inside the US race for drone delivery dominance. Today's Top News   An emergency worker looks on during a wildfire in Almeria, Spain, in this screengrab taken from a handout video. @Plan_INFOCA via X/Handout via REUTERS At least 11 people died attempting to flee a wildfire in southern Spain, and 19 were missing, with firefighters still battling to bring one ‌of the country's deadliest blazes on record under control. After NATO leaders gathered a fractious summit in Ankara, their host, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, handed each an unusual parting gift: ‌a vintage revolver, along with live ammunition, indicating it was not just for show. Andy Burnham is on the brink of becoming Britain's next prime minister after an overwhelming show of support from Labour lawmakers left him ‌all but certain to replace Keir Starmer. Iranian armed forces launched attacks on US military infrastructure in Gulf states following US strikes on Iran's southern coastal and eastern provinces, further eroding a ‌three-week-old ceasefire. A large and powerful typhoon approached a remote chain of islands in Japan's southwest, prompting authorities to warn of violent winds, torrential rain, landslides and flooding in what could be the region's most destructive storm in years. Ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, facing a death sentence back home where her party is banned, told Reuters she and senior party colleagues plan to return from exile in India around December and surrender. China's submarine-fired ballistic missile test into the southern Pacific on Monday gave its military leadership an opportunity to examine some of the most complex and sensitive operations of its evolving nuclear deterrent, analysts and diplomats say. FIFA's handling of two World Cup red-card cases came under renewed scrutiny after England defender Jarell Quansah got a two-match suspension while US striker Folarin Balogun avoided an immediate ban for a similar challenge.That has left former international referees unable to reconcile the two decisions. Business & Markets   US President Donald Trump has increasingly cast Wall Street's gains as a measure of his presidency, treating record stock prices as proof that his policies are working even as many Americans remain squeezed by high living costs and millions own no stock at all. The EU charged Meta's Instagram and Facebook with breaching its tech rules, with regulators targeting features they say are designed to keep users hooked and demanding changes to autoplay ‌and infinite scroll or risk fines. Reuters exclusively reveals Meta is going into production on its own AI chip in September — part of a $145 billion AI bet. Reporter Katie Paul explains why breaking free from Nvidia could be the key to Meta taking on OpenAI and Anthropic. Listen now. Rare earths startup ReElement Technologies has stopped seeking an $80 million Pentagon loan that was part of a broader push by the Trump administration to jump-start domestic production of critical minerals to challenge China's dominance of the sector, two administration officials told Reuters. Could SK Hynix's blockbuster Nasdaq listing trigger a wave of Asian chipmakers listing their ADRs in the US? We explore what it means for the AI trade on the Reuters Morning Bid podcast. The Week Ahead Erica Schwartz, Trump's nominee to lead the US CDC, will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. A packed week of US economic data could give investors their clearest read yet on whether inflation is cooling. The spotlight falls on June consumer price inflation, followed by producer prices a day later.  The world's largest manufacturer of advanced AI chips, Taiwan's TSMC, will report second-quarter earnings. Here's all you need to know about the coming week in financial markets. Inside the US race for drone delivery dominance   A drone used for Walmart deliveries in Ellenwood, Georgia, United States in this screengrab from video. REUTERS/Jayla Whitfield-Anderson Engineer Beth Flippo uprooted her family in 2021, trading New Jersey for the rambling fields of Ohio to run a pilot program delivering groceries via drone for Kroger. It lasted just eight months before both parties agreed to suspend it. "We couldn't make any money," said Flippo, head of drone company Dexa. Success would have meant placing workers around town to watch the drones, as US federal rules prohibited ‌flying them outside human sight. Such hurdles may soon be a thing of the past. Spurred by an executive order by Trump's administration in June 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration has proposed new rules to speed the deployment of drones. Read more And Finally... Designer Elie Saab. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnie Designers sent sculptural silhouettes, shimmering gowns and intricate embroidery down the runways at Paris haute couture shows this week, with collections featuring dramatic pleats, feathered embellishments and nature-inspired motifs. View gallery   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