A costly stalemate

Plus, nearly 1,500 missing in Nepal floods.

Go beyond the headlines with Reuters on the stories shaping the day. Subscribe for $1/week. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. A glacier collapse may have triggered the deadly Nepal flash flood, the Iran war has reached its endgame - a costly stalemate, and Meta agrees to settle US lawsuits over children's social media addiction. Plus, China’s humanoid robots aren’t smart enough to take your job – yet. Today's Top News   A drone view shows mud covering buildings following a flash flood in Trishuli, Nuwakot district, Nepal, August 27, 2026. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar A deadly flash flood near Nepal's border with Tibet may have ‌been triggered when the lower part of a glacier broke off and crashed on to the valley floor hundreds of metres below, experts said citing satellite imagery from Planet Labs. Follow our live updates. Meta has agreed to pay $18 billion to settle US lawsuits over children's social media addiction while denying any wrongdoing. It emerged with its core business intact. Diana Novak Jones walks through what it means on today's episode of the Reuters World News podcast - listen now. The Iran war has reached its endgame: a costly stalemate. Six months after US and Israeli forces attacked Iran, killing its supreme leader and maiming his son and successor, the Iranian government is under economic siege, but it still holds power and believes it has time on its side. Here are six of the war's probable ‌enduring consequences. Companies donated a record $646 million to US political campaigns in the 18 months through June, 40% more than the total spent during the entire 2024 presidential election cycle, according to new data from watchdog group Public Citizen. Democratic-led states and voting rights groups renewed their efforts to block the US Postal Service from imposing new requirements on mail-in voting before ballots go ‌out for the November congressional elections, as ordered by President Donald Trump. A Pentagon review of US troop deployments in Europe will create at least four sets of options for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by November 6, well ahead of a December deadline for the review's completion. Read our exclusive. Russian-speaking hackers used SpaceX’s AI coding assistant, Cursor, to help break in to a Belgian chemical company and at least six other firms earlier this year, according to data reviewed by Reuters and a report issued by the startup Gambit Security. After enjoying a summer of well-received measures giving "people some breathing space now", British Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces a much greater test when parliament resumes next week – how to fund some of his more ambitious policies. Business & Markets   Nvidia forecast a 70% jump in revenue next fiscal year, underscoring unabated demand for AI computing, while warning that shortages of memory components would continue to curb how ‌quickly it can expand. Bill Gates is looking to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year, eager to propose global efforts to mitigate the growing ‌risks posed by artificial intelligence. Cyber insurers have spent years defining what constitutes a hack and when coverage should pay out, but the rapid emergence of AI agents is raising new questions, forcing insurers to review their policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh appear at odds over a question at the heart of US financial policy. How hands-off can policymakers be when it comes to setting a price for money? Scott Bessent wants lower borrowing costs but the bond market has other ideas. On the Econ World podcast host Carmel Crimmins unpacks the Treasury Secretary’s plans for a “Treasury twist” and the battle over US interest rates. China’s humanoid robots aren’t smart enough to take your job – yet.   A human trainer teaches a robot how to package noodles. Humanoids currently lack the intelligence needed for general-purpose work. REUTERS/Laurie Chen Inside a training center in southern China, more than 100 humanoid robots stand in neat rows. A dozen human trainers wearing headsets guide some of them through simple tasks – sorting crates, packaging noodles, making coffee. The humanoids are slow and awkward. A novice trainer might get them to produce one usable movement in 300 attempts; an experienced trainer, one in 50. The facility captures a central tension in China’s humanoid push: Government funding and manufacturing investment are racing ahead of the robots’ ability to operate outside of choreographed demonstrations – like the kung fu routines, dances and boxing matches that have made the machines internet sensations. Read our special report And Finally... Mourners pay their respects to Dolly Parton after the announcement of her passing, at the Dolly Parton Statue in downtown Sevierville, Tennessee. REUTERS/Megan Varner  Dolly Parton, the trailblazing country music icon, songwriter and actress who died on Tuesday at age 80, was so much more to millions around the world. She was a symbol of generosity, whose philanthropic work spanned literacy, disaster relief, medical research and support for marginalized communities and racial justice, transcending the political and cultural divides that reshaped the world around her. Her charitable efforts were ‌informed by an upbringing in profound poverty in rural Tennessee, which later became as central to her public legacy as the songs that made her famous. 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

Meta's AI plan implodes

Plus, the world mourns Dolly Parton.

Go beyond the headlines with Reuters on the stories shaping the day. Subscribe for $1/week. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. Today we have a special report on the implosion of Meta's plan to replace staff with AI. Elsewhere, a Ukrainian commander sped through the 'kill zone' to save wounded troops, and Trump administration issues a pause on visa appointments for applicants worldwide. Plus, the world mourns Dolly Parton.  Today's Top News   Birds on the beach, with vessels in the Strait of Hormuz visible near the beach of Bandar Abbas, Iran. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Iran has held new talks with neighboring Oman on management of the Strait of Hormuz, blockaded over nearly six ‌months of conflict, with Oman's foreign minister saying he was hopeful a temporary corridor through the waterway could be announced soon. US Senate Democrats urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rein in a "surge" of violence by West Bank settlers and mass arrests of Palestinians by Israeli security forces in the occupied territory. Seeing two wounded fighters stranded on the battlefield, one of them still strapped to a land drone immobilized by a Russian strike, Ukrainian commander Vladyslav Polskyi knew he had to do something. Here's how he sped through the 'kill zone' to save wounded troops. US authorities are investigating a data breach at a small maker of water utility technology, highlighting infrastructure cybersecurity threats even though the Kansas firm was apparently not part of a suspected Iranian-affiliated campaign against water plants in Minnesota ‌and other states starting in July. President Donald Trump's administration has issued a pause on visa appointments for applicants around the world during ‌an ongoing immigration crackdown. Earlier this week, the administration moved to impose more than $100,000 fee for H-1B worker visas. South Carolina Republicans nominated Darline Graham to run in November's general election for her late brother's US Senate seat, as she defeated Representative Ralph ‌Norman in a primary runoff. Here are some takeaways from the result. Country music singer, songwriter, and philanthropist Dolly Parton died in Nashville. Reporter Lisa Richwine talks Dolly Parton's life and legacy on the Reuters World News podcast — listen now. A massive flash flood in the Himalayan nation of Nepal washed away villages while damaging roads, bridges and power projects in a region bordering Tibet, authorities said, as they braced for news of casualties. Business & Markets   Stacks of produce crates at the Taylor Farms processing facility in Salinas, California. REUTERS/Fred Greaves Taylor Farms, the produce company at the center of a US cyclospora outbreak, frequently failed to submit federally required workplace injury logs in recent years, including for at least four facilities where workers suffered fatal or otherwise serious injuries, a Reuters review of federal records found. France's BNP Paribas and South Korea's KB Kookmin Bank are in separate talks to acquire at least a 15% ‌stake in Vietnam's Techcombank as strategic investors, in a deal that could be worth $2 billion, two sources said. Read our exclusive. Investors this week will watch the annual Jackson Hole symposium for clues on how policymakers plan to navigate a landscape in which higher Treasury yields could do some of the tightening work for them. Trump's efforts to oust Federal Reserve officials to clear room for his own appointees have been stalled so far by the courts and political pushback in the Senate, but he may still have as many as four opportunities to try to beef up his influence over the central bank's policy committee. A huge recall in China last week aims to address a long-standing fear of EV owners: potentially being trapped in their cars when the power fails. It also highlights how Beijing is now spearheading new auto safety standards for some of the world's most advanced cars. Germany's top financial regulator has questioned a regional bank over its financing of one of Europe's largest brothels, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Mark Zuckerberg had a bold plan to replace Meta staff with AI. Here’s how it imploded.   REUTERS/Illustration/Catherine Tai. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his top lieutenants gathered for their annual leadership retreat at his Hawaii compound. There they hatched a radical plan to reimagine work at the social-media giant in the age of artificial intelligence. The restructuring would be carried out in two “waves,” beginning with a first purge in May and followed by another shake-up in November, internal planning documents seen by Reuters showed. Layoffs would be supplemented with the closing of open positions and pushing people out who Meta believed are poor performers. But on the night of May 19, just hours before the first layoff wave, Zuckerberg blinked. Meta laid off 10% of its employees the next day, but it called off planning for the November cuts, according to one internal document reviewed by Reuters. Read our special report And Finally... Madonna arrives at the Paris Fashion Week. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo AI-generated music will be excluded from Australia's music charts starting this week, the country's peak ‌music trade group said, following controversy over an Australian DJ's cover of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" topping local music charts. The Australian Recording Industry Association, or ARIA, said on Tuesday that wholly AI-generated tracks would no longer be eligible for its popular ARIA Charts, although recordings that use generative AI in a supporting role would remain eligible. 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