Reuters World News - Khamenei burial, Erdogan’s gun gifts, Meta’s AI chip and drone deliveries

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

Iran hits U.S. military targets in the Gulf as it buries its slain leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei. NATO leaders leave Turkey armed – literally – after President Tayyip Erdogan hands out vintage revolvers. President Donald Trump says Russian President Vladimir Putin wants peace, but three Kremlin sources say he’s getting ready to escalate. Meta will start making its own AI chip to undercut OpenAI and Anthropic. A proposed FAA rule could supercharge the U.S. drone delivery industry. And Germany tops more than 5,000 heat-related deaths this year as a wildfire tears through southern Spain. 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, July 10th. Today, Iran attacks U.S. military sites in the Gulf as it buries its slain supreme leader. Turkey's Erdogan sends NATO leaders home with a loaded gift, hint, it's a gun. Meta tries to take on open AI and anthropic by making its own AI chips. And a change in flight rules could see US drone deliveries take off. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Here we go. Someone's already claiming this is our year. Someone else said that last year too. A round of James and ginger and lime arrives at the table. Smooth enough for kickoff, smooth enough for extra time.

New friends pulling up a stool. Debates about whether that was a handball. Cheers rising like a roar around the room. Because match days are about the shared moments. How did Jameson to your match day lineup? Jameson, it's what you bring. Please enjoy our products responsibly. We begin in Iran, where Tet for Tat strikes with the U.S.

show no sign of slowing down. Tehran has launched attacks on U.S. military targets in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, and Iranian media later reported explosions across the country's south, including in Bashir, where one of Iran's nuclear plants is located. It comes as Iran ends a week of mass funeral processions for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini. Huge crowds gathered at Imam Reza Shrine in Mashad as the coffin arrived, carried inside on the shoulders of mourners. Then funeral prayers with three of Khomeini's sons.

But not Moshtaba, the son who succeeded their father and is the new supreme leader. He hasn't been seen since being injured and reportedly disfigured in the February strike, which killed his father. Photographer Al-Castantinidis is covering the funeral processions in Mashat. We are here in from the of the Imam Reza Shrine, where today Iranians bid farewell to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hameini. It has been a day full of emotions, tears, but also anger against the United States, Israel, and specifically President Trump. Under the searing sun from early morning, Iranians

gathered around the coffin of the late Supreme Leader and members of his family and escorted them to the shrine, waving flags, shouting slogans against the United States. And in a very, very long procession that lasted throughout the day, they opened the doors to the shrine and the coffin finally entered. With that now over, Iranians are looking into what's next. And where is Mostaba, Hamei's son, who is yet to be seen after he was annoyed. Over to the war in Ukraine,

in U.S. President Donald Trump's optimistic assessment following a phone call with the Russian president of Vladimir Putin. He wants to end it, and Ukraine wants to end it, and we're in talks, and we'll see if we can get it ended. But according to three sources close to the Kremlin, the opposite is true. They say Putin is rejecting negotiations and is preparing to escalate the war. NATO leaders are dealing with an unexpected and awkward souvenir from their summit in Turkey.

President Rechip-Type Erdogan gifted them engraved vintage revolvers, complete with ammunition, a move meant to showcase Turkey's rise as a small arms exporter. But the guns set off a scramble. Even for heads of state, airport security rules apply.

Some officials moved quickly to secure or disable the weapons. Others tried to figure out how to handle a gift that carries very different meanings across borders. Struck me that my gift of maple syrup kind of undermatched, undermatched the whatever it was, 357 caliber or whatever. Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, says his gun has been deactivated, as it's not legal in Canada and could end up in the National War Museum. Protesters march outside a Washington, D.C. courthouse,

where a former US Olympic canoeist has pleaded not guilty to vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The case has become a flashpoint over President Trump's makeover of Washington's monuments. Trump spent more than $14 million to renovate the pool with an American flag blue liner, but it quickly turned green with algae and started peeling, and Trump blamed saboteurs. 67-year-old David Hearn faces up to 10 years in prison for allegedly damaging a two-square-foot piece of liner, though his lawyers say the charges are meant to distract from a botched renovation. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you.

It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming. Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapy denim wide leg. Germany has recorded more than 5,000 heat-related deaths so far this year, most of them in late June, when temperatures soared across Western Europe. The majority of victims were 75 or older,

and the death toll is fueling a political fight over climate policy. The Greens are accusing Chancellor Friedrich Mertz of staying silent on the crisis, while his government proposes cutting billions from climate protection funds. And a wildfire in southern Spain has killed at least 11 people and left more than a dozen missing, with most victims believed to be foreigners who fled by car or on foot against official orders. A loose power cable is blamed for igniting the blaze during a heat wave, making it Spain's deadliest wildfire in over two decades. Meta is starting production this September on its own AI chip,

a breakthrough for an in-house effort that struggled for more than five years. The company plans to use the chip codenamed Iris as part of a massive computing expansion, and it's set to spend up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone. The move comes a few days after we reported that, China's flagship AI company, Deepseek, is seeking to produce its own AI chips. Both are designed to reduce dependence on chipmakers like Nvidia. Katie Paul covers AI and social media. So Meta has a few different goals for AI.

One is that they use it to run their social media apps, right? Rankings and recommendations, figuring out what goes for a spin-a-news feed, doing content moderation, that kind of thing. They also have this goal of personal superintelligence. So they want to put their AI models into the apps and make them accessible to users, to consumers, right? Then they're also trying to build out these brand new business models to effectively compete with OpenAI and Anthropics. So selling the AI models to developers to use. And so that means that they need to try to compete on price with those.

other players in the market and also keep their costs low enough that they can, you know, make this business model make sense. Speaking of making business models make sense, in the U.S. regulators are loosening rules around drone deliveries as they try to catch up with China. Big retailers are already moving fast. Walmart now runs drone services from 70 stores. Amazon says it wants to reach 30 million customers by the end of 20. 26, and a proposed FAA rule could be the turning point.

Reporter Waylon Cunningham says if it passes, it could trigger exponential growth. The FAA has proposed creating a streamlined process for drone operators to be able to fly drones beyond the line of sight. So right now, unless you get a waiver, the drone has to be within eyesight. That might not be too much of a problem for people like you and I who want to fly drones for fun. But if you're a business, if you want to fly more than, you know, the short distance away, you've got to be able to fly longer distances. One drone operator said that without these line of sight restrictions, drone delivery could become an operation that doesn't require a lot

of manpower. So one controller making around $25 an hour, say, can watch 40 drones at once on a screen, roughly 160 deliveries an hour, which is a fraction of what it costs to deploy a fleet of drivers. Waylon says the U.S. is keeping an eye on China's drone delivery industry, which experts say could be worth about $280 billion by 2030. In China, drones are not exactly common, but the volume of deliveries, especially in cities like Shenzhen or Guangzhou is quite high.

China also focuses on some hard-to-reach rural areas. So tourists, for instance, of the Great Wall of China in some places can order drone deliveries. France is through to the World Cup semi-finals after a commanding

two-nil win over Morocco. Killion Mbapé missed a first-half penalty but responded by curling in a superpowers. goal on the hour. France will now face either Belgium or Spain. Before we go, we want to flag an upcoming episode of On Assignment. I spoke with Michael Pell, who was one of the reporters who worked on this incredible investigation into the cultural heritage sites in Iran, damaged in the war. It's a look behind the scenes at how this sort of in-depth reporting actually plays out. That podcast drops Saturday morning. 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.