Reuters World News - Iran sanctions, Israeli settler warning and China's space tourism

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. will impose the "toughest sanctions in history" on Iran. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warns Israeli settlers in Qusra they could face a travel ban. Walmart misses its sales target in a rare stumble. And excitement over China's space programme sparks new tourist attractions. 📲 Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download the Reuters app here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit the ⁠⁠Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Friday, August 21st. Today, the U.S. ambassador to Israel warns Israeli settlers they could face travel bans if they break the law. Crypto, AI and online gambling companies shape the midterms by funneling hundreds of millions towards those that help their cause. Lawyers for the man accused of killing Tupac say years of his own claims about the murder were exaggerated. And China's space ambitions sparked a new type of tourism. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret

Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. The U.S. is preparing what Treasury Secretary Scott Besant calls the toughest sanctions in history on Iran. aimed at ending a nearly six-month war that's disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,

Besson says the economic pressure should reduce the need for major military action. Iran's calling it economic terrorism. The U.S. continues to impose a naval blockade and is threatening consequences for any country that helps Iran, which could include potential action against China, which buys most of Iran's oil. Asked about that, Bessent said many, conversations were best to have in private.

Two ceasefires have already collapsed, and Trump's even threatened to bomb Oman if it gets in the way of U.S. objectives, after Oman and Tifran discussed ways to police the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has issued a warning to Israeli settlers, threatening to take Palestinian homes in the West Bank community of Kusra. The U.S. could impose not only a ban of travel. to the US, but could be sanctions. A longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, Huckabee, who is also a Baptist minister, also invoked the Bible.

Let's go to the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not steal. He's called the perpetrators, Israeli terrorists. Our senior reporter Alex Cornwall asked Huckabee about U.S. reaction to the ongoing hostilities in Kustra. There's been a lot of international attention on this village over the past 10 days or so. And those homes were actually at one point had the electricity and water cut off, and the roads leading to it were also blocked by the settlers. Now, I sat down with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee. Throughout his career, he's been a staunch supporter of the state of Israel, of the government of Israel, and also of Israeli settlements.

So his criticism is really pointed and that he's coming out here and telling these settlers that to essentially stay away at the very least from the Palestinian American homes in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is yet to comment publicly at all on what's taken place in Kusha. However, some Israeli officials, settler leaders even have condemned the actions of the settlers. With the US midterms fast approaching, a new group of political kingmakers is emerging. Crypto companies, AI firms and online betting businesses are helping fuel record corporate spending on congressional races. Critics say, they could give them outsized influence in Washington, while supporters say they're just doing what Wall Street and big oil have always done.

Finance editor Dawn Kopecki says it's worth noting, however, that there is now a different playbook. These industries aren't backing one party or another. They're aligning along policy issues, and it's been incredibly effective in helping to build coalitions in Congress later on. And so you saw Congress spend a lot of time debating the Clarity Act, which was a pro-crypto bill just this month. And a lot of that has come from their allies in Congress. So you see them getting bipartisan support in Congress to advance these issues, whereas maybe five years ago they wouldn't have even made it to the floor.

And the power of some of these groups is already impacting what happens in Congress. political strategists from both parties say that some candidates are running scared because they don't want fair shake the crypto pack to come after them they don't want the open ai linked pack leading the future to come after them they don't want the pack or the the nonprofit groups that anthropic executives and anthropic is funding because it's tens of millions of dollars they're spending so much money on these niches issues that, that according to campaign finance activists, Congress isn't willing to debate the pocketbook issues that consumers really care about. The FBI has raided former Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell's Washington, D.C. home as part of an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him. They also seized electronic devices at the San Francisco airport. A prominent Trump critic, Swalwell, resigned.

from Congress and ended his California governor campaign earlier this year after multiple women accused him of misconduct. He denies the allegations, but has apologized for what he called mistakes in judgment. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends and family. to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca.

Walmart says it's missed its sales targets this quarter because of consumer belt tightening and high gas prices. The retail giant has rolled back prices on some 11,000 items, thanks in part to nearly $3 billion it got in tariff refunds, and says that will turn into higher sales later this year. It's a rare stumble for retailer, which has a reputation for consistently exceeding sales expectations. Consumer reporter Nicholas Brown has more.

Walmart's been gaining not just among the sort of price-conscious, lower-income consumers. It's been gaining among high-income consumers as well, and it continued to do well among that cohort, but it wasn't enough. And Walmart, the retailer of rent, record that usually reaps the benefits of those kinds of tough moments, couldn't quite weather this one. And that's not to say they won't bounce back. In fact, most of Wall Street thinks they probably will. But the fact that this happened at all, it's making people think, boy, consumers are really strapped right now, maybe to even a greater

extent than we thought. For more markets news, you can listen to Reuters Daily Markets Podcast Morning Bid, wherever you get your podcasts. Now to the Tupac Shakur murder trial, where the lawyer for the defense is trying to explain away years of his defendant's own words. D. Davis spent years discussing Tupac's killing in interviews, documentaries, and a memoir that appeared to place him at the center of the crime. Now his lawyer says those accounts were exaggerated and argues prosecutors can't prove Davis orchestrated the murder. Our legal reporter Jack Queen looks at the gamble behind that strategy. The strategy is very unusual. but it's not totally unheard of. And in fact, it's most common in cases involving gang defendants

and also rappers who are confronted with incriminating lyrics where they talk about killing people and things like that. And so the argument tends to go, this is just tall talk, this is boasting, it's art, it's not real, he wasn't describing true events. And so that's typically where you see it most. But here it's kind of different again, because this is a book that he wrote. These are multiple interviews that he did where he tells his story. And now he faces the task of going towards the jury and convincing them that he was lying then, but now he's telling the truth. There's not a whole lot of evidence aside what this man has said. And so really, it's going to be a question of whether or not jurors find him credible for the most part.

Australia's Mushroom Murder case is back in court. Judges have heard an appeal from Aaron Patterson, who was convicted of murdering three relatives with a beef Wellington containing deadly death cat mushrooms. The 51-year-old was sentenced to life in prison with a 33-year non-parole period. The legal team says trial errors may have prejudiced the verdict. Prosecutors have rejected the complaints and instead argue in a separate appeal that Patterson's sentence is inadequate. And finally today, as a new space race gathers momentum, China's space program is becoming a mass cultural phenomenon. In Wenchang City, huge crowds gathered on the beach to watch an unmanned rocket launch.

The crowd screaming as the sky lit up. People apparently unaware at the time, at least, that the rocket had turned into a ball of fire mid-air. But accidents aren't dampening excitement, which is being capitalized on at the Wulanhada Volcanoes. geological park, where entrepreneur Tumus has started a business renting space suits so tourists can pose amidst the Mars-like landscape. Showing that as China's space ambitions grow, it's increasingly shaping life back on Earth. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis about the news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. There's a link in the description to download it

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