US eyes swift end to Iran war

Plus, Apple's 50-year journey from garage to tech titan.

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. Trump says US may exit Iran war soon as new attacks hit Gulf states and Iran, RFK Jr. supporters want a vaccine fight, and Apple's 50-year journey from garage to tech titan. Plus, how China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz. Today's Top News   An explosion takes place in a building following an Israeli strike in Beirut, Lebanon, March 31, 2026. REUTERS/Mohammad Yassine War in the Middle East US President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the end of the war on Iran could be near, with Washington signaling potential for both direct talks with Tehran's leadership and a winding down of the conflict even without a deal. France and Italy have pushed back against some US-Israeli military operations, sources said, as Trump criticised NATO allies in Europe as unhelpful in the month-long war in Iran, highlighting ‌divisions. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to reaffirm the US commitment to NATO's collective defense. Phil Stewart tells the Reuters World News podcast that Hegseth's remarks are extraordinary.  Two-thirds of Americans believe that the US should work to end its involvement in the Iran war quickly, even if that means not achieving the goals set out by the ‌Trump administration, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. In other news  A US judge said President Donald Trump cannot construct his planned $400 million ballroom on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing without approval from Congress. Supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are pressing for a fight for the US vaccine overhaul their "Make America Healthy Again" movement helped create. But two weeks after a court ruling halted key aspects of the vaccine revamp, the Trump administration has not taken any steps to appeal. Rising public support for Brazilian opposition Senator Flavio Bolsonaro's presidential run has allowed him to put off naming key economic advisers, his aides say, even as right-wing rivals enter the field ahead of an October election. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned the economic shocks of the war in the Middle East would be felt for months and encouraged citizens to take public transport. Business & Markets   Drivers chat next to taxis charging at a Shell electric vehicle charging station in Beijing — REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo The world's largest importer of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is, paradoxically, also one of the best placed to weather the waterway's closure. Here's how China can survive without the Strait of Hormuz. The Iran war is seeping into the cosmetics supply chain, pushing up the cost of everything from plastic jars and lipstick tubes to transport, and reminding the beauty industry that even a tub of face cream depends on fragile ‌global trade routes. EU lawmakers pressed China over a ‌surge of dangerous products into the bloc and insufficient access to the Chinese market as they kicked off the first European parliamentary visit to the world's No.2 economy in eight years. Shell is in advanced talks with Venezuela's government to develop four large areas near Trinidad and Tobago, in two of the South American country's largest offshore natural gas fields, two people familiar with the discussions said. Read our exclusive. Warren Buffett declined to commit to continuing his annual multibillion-dollar donations to the Gates Foundation, following the recent release of materials about ‌late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with the nonprofit and its co-founder Bill Gates. Apple's 50-year journey from garage to tech titan   In early 1976 in California, Steve Wozniak had just completed the design of a computer circuit board he intended to share with fellow hobbyists at a prominent local club. His friend Steve Jobs also saw a business opportunity to manufacture and sell the boards, and thus Apple was born. As the company turns 50, we look at how its rise has shaped ‌both the technology industry and popular culture by making first desktop computers and then smartphones mainstream, popularizing mobile apps and showing how tightly integrated devices and software can work. Read more Pictures of the month: March A North Korean serviceman on a patrol boat on the Yalu River, as seen from Dandong, Liaoning province, China. Picture taken January 15. REUTERS/Maxim Shemeto A selection of our top photography from around the world last month. 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

Oil tanker off Dubai hit by Iran strike

Plus, Asia barters for scarce energy.

Get full access to Reuters.com for just $1/week. Subscribe now. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. Iran strikes a giant oil tanker off Dubai, Asia barters for scarce energy as the Iran crisis throttles supplies, and US tech stocks struggle for safe haven appeal. Elswehere, meet the Nigerian HIV volunteers who went door‑to‑door to keep patients alive, and paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse stolen from an Italian museum. Today's Top News   Damage to the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi crude oil tanker, following a reported strike, March 31, 2026. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation/Handout via REUTERS War in the Middle East Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai, after President Donald Trump warned the United States would obliterate Iran's energy plants and oil wells if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz. Follow our live updates. Thousands of soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, ‌two US officials told Reuters, as Trump weighs his next steps in the war against Iran. The Israeli parliament has passed a law making the death penalty by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who are convicted of fatal terrorist attacks. Maayan Lubell tells the Reuters World News podcast that critics say the law is discriminatory. In other news Air traffic controller staffing at LaGuardia airport on the night an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck may have violated the facility's procedures by combining roles before midnight, according to a document seen by Reuters. Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga for the fifth time in 10 days, and industry sources told Reuters an oil loading terminal was hit, likely adding to Russia's difficulties in exporting crude. Russia is going to further clamp ‌down Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which are used by millions of Russians to get around internet controls and censorship, Russia's digital minister said. More than 3 million Indian officials are set to spend a year counting every single ‌person in the world's most populous nation, a mammoth task delayed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Business & Markets   Technology shares are struggling to act as safe havens in the turbulence wrought by the Iran conflict, which could be a big problem for the broader US stock market. Tech and other megacap tech-related stocks have led US equity indexes higher during much of a bull run that has lasted more than three years. Gold rose but stayed on track ‌for its biggest monthly drop in more than 17 years as investors flocked to the dollar as the favored safe haven amid the Middle East war that has raised inflation fears and bets for hawkish monetary policy response. Banks in the US are charging more for some loans to private credit funds as doubts grow about the valuations given to some of their investments, three people familiar with the matter said, in a development that could start to hurt funds' returns. Britain's economy barely expanded at the end of 2025, official data confirmed, adding to the challenge for the government to keep growth on track this year with the Iran war likely to push up inflation and hit demand. This as the EU tells members to prepare for 'prolonged disruption' to energy markets from the Iran war. As energy stress spreads across Southeast Asia, governments across the region are asking China to deliver on its pledges of closer energy security cooperation by freeing up now-banned exports of fertiliser and fuel. But so far China has offered only vague statements. With US aid slashed, HIV volunteers went door‑to‑door to keep patients alive   A child living with HIV, wearing an intravenous cannula in the hand, looks on, at the Federal Medical Centre in Makurdi, Nigeria. REUTERS/Marvellous Durowaiye/File Photo For several months last year, Josephine Angev walked the dusty village paths of Nigeria's Benue State with a mission - to help people living with HIV stay on their life-saving medication, after a US aid freeze left thousands scrambling for supplies. The 40-year-old is one of dozens of volunteer "HIV champions" who went door-to-door to bring patients back into care when their access to antiretroviral drugs was disrupted, tending to those whose condition can still bring shame and ‌stigma. Read more And Finally... A handout picture of the painting "Odalisque on the Terrace" by Henri Matisse. Image obtained by Reuters on March 30, 2026. Magnani Rocca Foundation/Handout via REUTERS Three paintings by French masters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse, reportedly worth an estimated $10 million in total, ‌have been stolen from a museum in northern Italy. The theft took place at the Fondazione Magnani Rocca, on the outskirts of the city of Parma, during ⁠the night of March 22-23, the Carabinieri police said in a statement. 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