Reuters World News - Iran-US talks, Houthis, Russia's spring offensive and Chinese humanoid robots

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Pakistan says it's ready to host U.S.-Iran talks to end the war. Israel says Yemen launched a second attack as fears mount that the Houthis could block a second key shipping route. Ukraine looks to hold the line against a new Russian springtime offensive. And U.S. lawmakers plan to introduce a bipartisan bill to ban the government from buying humanoid robots made by China. 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 Monday, March 30th. Today, Pakistan says it's preparing for U.S.-Iran talks. Oil jumps again as the Houthis enter the war, raising fears over a second shipping choke point. Russia gets ready for its spring offensive in Ukraine. And U.S. lawmakers want to ban Chinese humanoid robots before, They're everywhere. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. We begin with a few major updates on the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. First, Pakistan appears confident it's going to play host for peace talks between Iran and the U.S.

after speaking with foreign ministers from across the region over the weekend. Here's Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dhar. Pakistan will be honoured to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in coming days for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the ongoing conflict. It's not clear whether Washington and Tehran have agreed to attend. But US President Donald Trump says the US is already negotiating directly and indirectly with Iran, saying that Tehran's new leaders have been, quote, very reasonable. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Trump said Iran is allowing more

tankers of oil to make it onto the market. They gave us, I think out of a sign of respect, 20 boats of oil, big, big boats of oil, going through the harm most strength. Even so, oil prices are climbing again, at least partly on the news that Yemen's houthis have entered the conflict. Israel says two drones from Yemen were interested in. accepted early today, but gave no further details. For now, the Houthis are attacking Israel, but the fear is they could attack shipping in the strait of Bab al-Mandeb, the second key choke point for oil getting out of the Middle East. The Bab al-Mandeb waterway is on the other side of Saudi Arabia from the Strait of Hormuz. Asia commodities and energy editor Tony Monroe explains.

It's a very important waterway. A lot of Saudi oil that ordinarily would have transited the Strait of Hormuz is now transiting via pipeline to the west, to the port of Yambu, and then south through Ba'Bal-Mand-Dab. So it's become very important as an alternative shipping route during this war. The Houthi's last attacked shipping in the strait of Babal-Mandeb in late 2023. But if they were to do it again now, the impact would compound fast. It would be significant. And the only way for the Saudi oil then to get out would be north. Most of the oil that was originally coming through the Strait of Hormuz is headed for Asia. It takes roughly four weeks or so for oil to get from there ordinarily to East Asia.

This would add something like 40 days to the trip as it goes through the Mediterranean and around the Horn of Africa and up to Asia. so it would add a lot of time and expense to getting oil out. All of that is feeding into inflation fears. Brent Crude has soared this month, exceeding gains seen during the 1990 Gulf War. And Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell could give some clue as to his assessment of the economic impact at an event later today.

For more on what to expect, here's Mike Dolan from our sister markets podcast Morning Bit. Good morning, yeah, Powell's speech will be something to watch very closely, but we have many things going on today that will feed into how the markets are reacting. The G7 finance ministers meet also looking at ways to alleviate the energy shock, and the energy shock clearly is unfolding in quite alarming fashion. Brent crude, global benchmark above $150 barrel this morning, is heading for its biggest monthly rise ever. And also, possibly most worrying, I think, for markets is.

the fact that Brent futures out to three months and three or four months are now above a hundred dollars a barrel as well. So fading hopes that there's any end of this conflict anytime soon. And of course, that feels the economic impact and indeed the market impact. Thanks, Mike. You can catch morning bed wherever you get your podcasts. As fighting with Iran continues, Israel says it's expanding its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Hezbollah's continued rocket fire into Israel's north means he's ordering the military to enlarge what Israel is calling a security buffer zone up to the Latani River, 20 miles inside Lebanon.

It's unclear if that means more territory will be seized, beyond that which Israel is already occupying. Cuba could be getting some relief in the form of much-needed oil, with a tanker carrying crude from Russia being allowed to enter Cuban waters. It's a sign President Donald Trump is easing his de facto oil blockade on the Caribbean island. Until now, the Trump administration had been halting oil deliveries to pressure Havana. Cuba has faced major power outages and strict fuel rationing under the blockade. In Ukraine, a woman Claire's debriefing. in her home, the result of a Russian strike on Slaviansk in the Dernetsk region.

Four people were killed and 16 injured. After a punishing winter, Russia now appears to be launching its anticipated spring offensive. Its primary target, the so-called fortress belt, of heavily defended cities in the eastern Dernetsk region. It's a large swath of land that Russia hasn't been able to conquer in four years of fighting, and Moscow has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine give it up in peace talks. We spoke to correspondent Dan Palishek in Kiev to see how these new battles might play out for both sides. There are signs that Ukraine is kind of entering this fighting season with at least some modicum of silver linings that it might be able to develop into advantages.

One of them is the fact that Ukrainian assault forces were successful in. in retaking a very modest amount of territory on part of the southeastern front, south of the Denedsk regions. Modest but meaningful in the sense that it showed that Ukrainian troops, despite kind of fending off this unrelenting Russian assault along a 1,200 kilometer front line over the past three years, are still able to kind of stage operations where they can seize back the initiative, if even on very localized level. Low morale, poor preparation has been kind of a mainstay on the Russian. side. It's one of the reasons that Ukrainian troops were able to sort of exploit weaknesses in the

Russian lines and kind of make these very small tactical gains. This is very likely to be a slow grind on Russia's part, much as it has been doing the past several years, throwing masses of troops out there, probing for Ukrainian weaknesses. A lot of analysts say that Russian gains this year may be significant, but they'll come, again, at a great cost, and it still won't be about capturing the entire Netsk region. A group of U.S. lawmakers want to block the government from buying humanoid robots made by Chinese firms, and they're citing concerns over national security and data privacy as the reason. Reuters' technology correspondent, Stephen Nellis, has more.

The security risks that the lawmakers proposing this bill cited are basically two things. Number one, that these robots, if used in the United States, could be used to gather up data and send it back to China. And number two, that these robots could somehow be hijacked or otherwise remotely controlled from China. Now, we should be careful here to note that these allegations of a back door are largely at this point not proven. And this debate is landing at a moment when interest in humanoid robots is surging. So there have been some developments in the artificial intelligence market over the past year or so that are just causing this humanoid robotics market to explode.

and China is putting a ton of effort into this, both private companies and the government itself. If you've been tracking what's been happening in China over the Lunar New Year celebrations, these robots are everywhere. They're doing everything from running half marathons to having boxing matches and performing dance routines for huge audiences. And there are even Chinese firms that are starting to propose selling robots at a low enough cost that they might even be appealing to the average consumer to help around the house or do choice. and things to take a little bit of workload off of them.

For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.