And Israel attacks Iran's only operating nuclear power plant.

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Daily Briefing

Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton

Hello. The MAGA base is in uproar as Trump mulls Iran action, and polling shows Democrats want new leaders. In the Middle East, Israel attacks Iranian nuclear sites, and angst over Gaza is set aside as Netanyahu's critics back him over Iran.

Plus, how the world's top ad agencies aligned to fix prices in India.

 

Today's Top News

 

A destroyed drone, which the Iranian Army says belongs to Israel, is seen in Isfahan. Handout image obtained on June 18, 2025. Iranian Army/WANA via REUTERS 

Middle East

  • Israel struck a key Iranian nuclear site and Iranian missiles hit an Israeli hospital, as President Donald Trump kept the world guessing about whether the US would join Israel in airstrikes seeking to destroy Tehran's nuclear facilities. Follow our live updates. 
  • The prospect of US involvement in Iran has laid bare a divide in President Donald Trump’s MAGA base. Steve Holland tells the Reuters World News podcast that Trump risks alienating some of his most loyal supporters who don’t want another foreign war. 
  • Plus, our graphics team assesses the damage to Iran’s nuclear programme.
  • Israel's military assault on Iran has united much of the nation after a period of bitter divisions over the war in Gaza, transforming the political landscape overnight as even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's foes close ranks behind him.

In other news

  • Democrats want new leaders for their party, which many feel isn't focusing enough on economic issues and is over-emphasizing issues like transgender rights and electric vehicles, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
  • Hurricane Erick strengthened rapidly into a major Category 3 hurricane as it churned toward Mexico's southern Pacific Coast, where it is expected to make landfall early Thursday, authorities said.
  • Flags across Kyiv were lowered to half-mast, as Ukrainians mourned more than two dozen people killed a day earlier in Russia's deadliest strike on the capital this year. Russia sent 440 drones and fired 32 missiles during the overnight attack, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
  • European Union governments have reached an agreement on a $1.73 billion EU scheme to fund defence investments, although some complained that its 'buy European' provisions are too restrictive, diplomats said.
  • South Korea's nominee for spy agency director said he believed the US would strike North Korea with nuclear weapons if Pyongyang launched a nuclear attack against South Korea.
  • The government of Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was hanging by a thread following the withdrawal of a major coalition partner, building pressure on her to resign after just 10 months in power.
 

Business & Markets

 
  • The US central bank held interest rates steady and policymakers signaled borrowing costs are still likely to fall in 2025, but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned against putting too much weight on that view, and said he expects "meaningful" inflation ahead as consumers pay more for goods.
  • Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia could act jointly to stabilise oil markets if needed, Russia's investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev told Reuters. Oil prices surged after Israel said it attacked Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak overnight and as investors  worry a broader conflict could disrupt crude supplies.
  • The outbreak of armed conflict between the two nations is a perilous new front in the ongoing Middle East hostilities. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists discuss the dissonance between a mild market response and the manifold paths to further escalation.
  • The US government's ownership of a golden share in US Steel will not block Nippon Steel from taking any management action that it deems appropriate, the Japanese steelmaker's CEO said.
  • India's antitrust watchdog has compiled a confidential dossier that chronicles how global advertising companies, including leading US and European firms, coordinated to rig prices in the world's most populous nation.
  • Rio Tinto agreed to pay $138.75 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the Anglo-Australian mining giant of defrauding investors by concealing problems with its $7 billion underground expansion of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia.
 

China floods Brazil with cheap EVs triggering backlash

 

A drone view shows a BYD vessel docking to deliver vehicles at the Itajai port in Santa Catarina, Brazil May 28, 2025. REUTERS/Anderson Cohelo

The world's largest car-carrying ship - with the equivalent of 20 football fields of vehicles - completed its maiden journey late last month to dock in Brazil's Itajai port. But not everyone is cheering its arrival.

Read more
 

And Finally...

Image of the Sculptor galaxy captured with the MUSE instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, released June 18, 2025. ESO/E. Congiu et al/Handout

The Sculptor galaxy is similar in many respects to our Milky Way. It is about the same size and mass, with a similar spiral structure. But while it is impossible to get a full view of the Milky Way from the vantage point of Earth because we are inside the galaxy, Sculptor is perfectly positioned for a good look.

Read more