Ukraine claimed a drone strike on a helium plant close to Orenburg, Russia that produces a key component for missiles as well as the space and aviation industries, a Ukrainian official who asked not to be identified told us.

It wasn’t possible to verify the claim; facility owner Gazprom didn’t immediately reply to a request for a comment. Russian and Ukrainian military forces have been trading air strikes ahead of a hastily arranged meeting between US President Donald Trump and his counterpart Vladimir Putin scheduled for Friday.

Trump downplayed expectations for the Alaska sitdown as he seeks to end the war in Ukraine, casting it as a “feel-out meeting” and saying he’d confer later with leaders from Ukraine and Europe. The next step would be for Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet directly. — Caroline Alexander

What You Need to Know Today

Growing worries that artificial intelligence tools could soon disrupt the world’s biggest software businesses are sparking a selloff across the sector. A 30% plunge in Monday.com shares grabbed investor attention in Europe today. SAP — Europe’s biggest company by market value — dropped as much as 7.1% in Frankfurt, erasing almost €22 billion ($26 billion) at the session low. Smaller peers like Sage Group and Dassault Systemes also slid in Tuesday trading. 

Demand for the riskiest bank bonds is so strong that the spread investors demand to hold them is the tightest since the securities were created more than a decade ago. The average risk premium on a Bloomberg index that tracks secondary market prices of AT1s by European lenders — the main issuers of this type of debt — ended yesterday at 255.2 basis points. The US dollar-hedged version of the index is on track for a second straight year of double-digit returns. 

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund enjoyed its best quarter since late 2023, returning 6.4% in the second quarter. Equities drove the results for the $1.9 trillion fund, at 8.45%, with unlisted infrastructure investments generating 8.1%. Fixed income and unlisted real estate had a small positive contribution. Among its top 10 holdings, the fund added to its stakes in Nvidia, Apple, Tesla and Berkshire Hathaway and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in the first half. “It’s really an environment where you need to be very broadly diversified and very long term in your investment horizon,” Chief Executive Officer Nicolai Tangen told Bloomberg TV. 

Italy is considering plans to curb Chinese investors’ holdings at key companies to avoid potential tensions with the US. efforts. That would involve both privately held and state-controlled firms considered strategic, with tiremaker Pirelli — in which China’s state-owned Sinochem International has a 37% holding — a notable example, we’re told.

Xi Jinping and Giorgia Meloni at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing last year. Photographer: Kyodo News/Kyodo News Stills

Audi must secure jobs and production in Germany before building a factory in the US over Trump’s tariffs, the carmaker’s top labor official, Jörg Schlagbauer, told us. The US president’s trade moves and push to curtail support for EVs are hitting VW’s premium brands at a bad time. Audi and Porsche are under pressure to move production to the US, as lower demand in China and muted European sales mean their factories at home are running below capacity, and labor leaders are wary about giving up more output.

OPEC forecast a tighter global oil market than previously projected, citing accelerating demand growth and a slower expansion in rival supplies. The cartel raised estimates for world demand growth in 2026 by 100,000 barrels a day to 1.4 million a day. It trimmed forecasts for supply growth outside the group by the same amount. The data suggest global oil inventories will deplete next year — by almost 1.2 million barrels a day — unless the group and its allies revive more of the production they halted.

Large parts of Europe are facing wildfire threats as the region bakes. Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heat waves, triggering more extreme weather events such as the wildfires that briefly shut the Dardanelles Strait — a maritime chokepoint for oil and gas from the Black Sea and Central Asia — yesterday. Meanwhile, temperatures of as high as as 50C (122F) pushed up power demand in Iraq, triggering a failure in transmission lines that led to a near nationwide blackout.

Firefighters tackle a wildfire in Canakkale, Turkey, on Aug. 11. Photographer: Murat Sengul/Getty Images

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

For Your Commute

Switzerland’s tolerance for foreign drivers clogging up its highways is wearing so thin that some politicians now want to make them pay extra for the privilege.

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