Reuters World News - Spain’s migrant crisis, Gaza disarmament, Claude hack and World Cup boycott

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Madrid deploys troops as tens of thousands of migrants cross into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa. President Trump says Hamas agrees to a disarmament deal in Gaza but support is uncertain. Anthropic’s Claude AI models hacked into three companies during cybersecurity tests. And European countries agree to boycott the World Cup if soccer’s governing body FIFA goes ahead with plans to bring private investors into the tournament. Watch the latest episode of On Assignment ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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, July 31st. Today. Spain sends the military to deal with a surge of migrants from Morocco. Trump says a deal to disarm Hamas is reached, but US officials say Israel is skeptical. Sources tell Reuters Iran is actively coordinating its aligned militias in the region. And European soccer accuses FIFA. of selling out and votes to boycott the World Cup in protest.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Spain has deployed the military to its North African enclave of Theuta to try and stop a surge of migrants attempting to cross the border from Morocco. Dramatic scenes show people trying to enter by land and sea, scaling border cross. and streaming through gates. Nine bodies have been discovered in the area, and local leaders warn the city is facing a full-blown emergency. Breaking news correspondent, David Latona, is in Madrid.

In this case, in Theuda, migrants were mostly arriving by swimming across from Morocco. It's not such a long distance. We've seen similar incidents in the past. Five years ago was probably the biggest one. Over 10,000 people crossed over. in a matter of days, overwhelming security forces on the Spanish side of the border. There are some indications that this crossing could be even bigger.

Theuta is one of only two land borders between the European Union and Africa. And David says people attempting to enter know that their cases must be heard. Both opposition politicians and migration experts have said that one of the possible reasons is this recent Supreme Court ruling that basically ensures that the migrants that arrive cannot be completely rejected as soon as they arrive. There is a specific procedure that must be followed by authorities so that their rights are guaranteed. U.S. President Donald Trump says a peace deal is near in Gaza. In a post on social media, Trump says a process for Hamas to begin disarming in Gaza has been agreed. But a Hamas official described the deal as a draft, and US officials say

Israel is skeptical the militant Palestinian group will surrender its weapons. Elsewhere in the region, Reuters has discovered that the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran and are usually based in Yemen, have attacked Saudi Arabia from Iraq. That's according to assessments from Riyadh and its partners in the region. So why does that matter? Well, it shows. growing coordination between members of Iran's so-called axis of resistance and demonstrates their ability to inflict damage despite years of U.S. and Israeli attacks. Crucially, sources say the Houthis worked alongside local Iraqi armed groups under the supervision of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, proving, according to one analyst, that Tehran is now training and coordinating

its various linked militias. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is trying to protect its interests. It has unveiled plans for a coalition to secure shipping in the Red Sea, through which its oil exports travel, and which has been disrupted by Houthi attacks. But getting its allies to put pressure directly on Iran is more of a challenge. Most notably, China, a top trading partner of both Iran and the Gulf states. Chief Saudi correspondent Timor Azari in Riyadh, explains.

Today, Gulf states are looking to China to play a deeper role, a stronger role. They say we haven't really seen you put the pressure on Iran that we thought you could to try to get them to come to the table, to negotiate, to stop attacks on Gulf States. What we've seen on the ground, really, is China secure its own interests, and it does that by trying to get its tankers through the strait. Timor says that China may actually benefit in some ways from the regional hostilities. So in speaking to officials in the region here, I think they were quite clear-eyed about great power competition here. So the way they see it is, yes, China has interest with us, they buy our oil.

But if this Iran war is bleeding the United States, if it's turning people against the United States in the region, if it's undermining the U.S. security umbrella in the region, that could benefit China. So what one official here told me is basically that. He said we do expect China to pressure Tehran to at least consider and move towards a political resolution. But we also understand that the longer this war drags out, the more it might serve China's interests because it hurts the U.S. Two markets now, and there's a lot going on in the world of tech. Anthropics says some of its clawed AI models hacked three companies during tests. The disclosure comes days after their rival, Open AI, revealed one of its agents went rogue.

In the Anthropic case, the hacks were caused when the models were inadvertently given access to the open internet. Anthropic launched a review of its cybersecurity tests after OpenAI's announcement. And as Mega Cap earnings continue, Apple is forecasting slower than expected growth, dogged by supply chain struggles. But as tech reporter Stephen Nellis explains, the foreman. focus for everyone remains artificial intelligence. The big takeaway from a spate of big tech earnings this week is that what Wall Street really cares about is not how much it costs to build AI, but whether you have a plan to make money

from it. Let's take a good contrasting example. Meta saw its free cash flow mostly evaporate this week and it got punished. The stock was down 15% in a single day. Other companies like Amazon and Microsoft also shrank their free cash flow. will buy quite a bit spending billions of dollars, but their stock was up. What's the reason? Well, Amazon and Microsoft both have booming cloud computing businesses that are already tens of billions of dollars a quarter and are still growing at 40% roughly. So there's a huge businesses.

Meta is saying that it wants to start renting out its data centers and have a similar business, but a lot of questions remain about how well it would really work. And frankly, whether it can really compete against existing companies like Amazon and Microsoft. Firefighters douse flames in the aftermath of a Russian missile strike in Kyiv. Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones this week, at a time when the Ukrainian military is grappling with an acute shortage of high-end air defenses. US President Trump, having previously indicated he may let Ukraine make its own Patriot missiles, has, to the FT, appeared to walk back on that.

Meanwhile, many of the shelters Ukrainians rely on when drones and missiles are overhead are in disrepair. Suddenly, when alert goes on or you hear an explosion, everything changes. That's Yulia Disa, who's been reporting on calls for Kiev to up the number of its underground shelters. Right now, the capital has just over 4,000 facilities to shelter its 3 million residents. Although only around 500 of those are proper bomb shelters.

Some of them are just regular basements in the residential buildings. Some are not in really good shape without utilities, Wi-Fi connection or just regular mobile connection as well. Some are actually the metro stations, so it's what Ukraine calls dual purpose facilities. And I think everyone we kind of interviewed for this story, they were desperate to see some action from the authority. World Soccer is up in arms after countries represented by FIFA's European affiliate, UEFA, unanimously voted to boycott the World Cup. It's in protest at FIFA's plans to sell stakes to outside investors. Asia-Pacific sports editor Nick Mulveni breaks down FIFA's proposal.

The new proposal is that it's... It sets up a subsidiary commercial body, which it will sell stakes in, and they're hoping the commercial body will be worth about $20 billion. And they're hoping to sell these stakes of up to 20% for around $4.2 billion. It wants to use this money then to develop the game around the world. Nick says FIFA will likely have to take UEFA's threat seriously. A World Cup without European nations who have won most of the World Cups and have most of the star players would not be a very attractive opposition to any kind of investment.

This issue goes to the very heart of who owns the game. Does it belong to the fans without whom there would be no revenue and there would be no World Cup? Or does it belong to fee-feworthy executives? Does it belong to the world of private equity finance? In a statement after the vote, UEFA wrote that, quote, The World Cup is not for sale. And finally, an apparently AI-generated map has put the U.S. State Department in hot water. A map shown at the AIDS-2020 conference in Rio mislabeled every country in the continent of Africa, and a photo of it went viral.

Nigeria appeared landlocked in the Sahara, and Mozambique was moved to the Horn of Africa. Reuters found the map carried an open AI watermark, suggesting it was AI generated. The State Department has taken full responsibility, blaming a staffer who hastily swapped in the slide before the event. 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 favourite 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.