Reuters World News - US Iran strikes, Cape Verde and Sweden's immigration crackdown

Episode Date: June 27, 2026

The United States and Iran each launched strikes in the worst escalation since they signed their interim peace deal, while tensions brew in the Trump administration between competing foreign policy camps. Venezuela’s earthquake death toll tops 900, with 50,000 missing. Plus, Sweden's businesses warn that hardening immigration policies are harming start-up culture and Cape Verde's World Cup dream continues. Listen to On Assignment podcast here and see the Climate Monitor 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 Tara Oaks in Liverpool. It's Saturday, June 27th. Today, fresh strikes by Iran and the US in the worst escalation since they signed a deal. While tensions brew in the Trump administration between competing foreign policy camps. John Bolton pleads guilty to mishandling classified documents. Plus, Sweden's businesses warned that hard. pardoning immigration policies are harming startup culture. And Cape Verde's World Cup Dream continues.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Another tanker has reported being struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, as both the United States and Iran say the other is violating the ceasefire. Both countries have launched fresh strikes in recent days. the worst escalation since they signed their interim peace deal. The latest tanker strike comes after an attack on a cargo ship on Thursday. Washington says it hit Iranian targets overnight, while Iran has said it struck targets linked to the US forces in response,

with Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy's regional headquarters reporting an Iranian drone attack. Elsewhere, however, there are signs of progress in ending the conflict, as Israel and Lebanon sign an agreement to end the fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Both sides are being careful to frame this as an early step, not a final peace deal. Under the agreement, the Lebanese army gradually take control of territory in the south, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli forces can remain if Hezbollah does not disarm. U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says the U.S. will play a central role in implementing and supporting the deal. Meanwhile, in the U.S., a split is emerging inside the Trump administration over how to handle Israel and Iran.

White House reporter Graham Slattery says the contrast in statements between Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance highlight competing foreign policy camps within the Republican Party, as the White House insists everyone is aligned behind the president. There are differing statements, you know, do create a lot of uncertainty among foreign officials and diplomats and not just in the Middle East. We see it in Latin America, Europe, etc. Probably the most salient example of this were comments by Vice President Vance last week in which he suggested that sort of Israeli carelessness in terms of hitting civilian targets in Lebanon was really disraeling U.S. efforts to forge a peace in the Middle East.

that we seem to be right on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the agreement. And then all of a sudden, there's a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That's not acceptable. And that was really attacked by some congressional Republicans, and it's not a line that Rubio has embraced. And, you know, in that context, of course, we have a lot of Israeli officials thinking, oh, to what extent does this represent the administration line right now? or to what extent does this represent

Vice President Vance's thoughts? So certainly, yeah, you have a lot of officials kind of interpreting various statements from different officials and trying to suss out what is the administration position insofar as there is one. When you're listening to these various officials, no one's going to be explicitly against,

you know, for instance, Trump's decision to snatch Nicolas Maduro or his decision to invade Iran or a subsequent decision to sue for peace in Iran. All these differences, manifest themselves in terms of tone, emphasis, basically the selection of issues to focus on. And when you listen closely, certainly you can hear the subjects. Rescue teams in Venezuela combed through rubble to find trapped survivors and the bodies of those killed by deadly twin earthquakes.

Simon Medina is one of the many joining them. He's looking for his mother and little. brother, who he says were in the now destroyed apartment when the quakes hit. The death toll now stands above 900, with foreign crews and aid only beginning to reach devastated areas now. More than 50,000 people are missing. John Bolton, the former US National Security Advisor, who later became a sharp critic of Donald Trump, is now pleading guilty to mishandling classified information. Prosecutors say he shares. more than a thousand pages of sensitive diary entries with relatives,

exposing national security risks. His Justice Department reported Dan Rosenzvig Ziff with more. Prosecutor said that while none of that information ended up in the book, sharing that classified information was a national security threat. Bolton apologized in court on Friday for what his lawyer later said was a mistake. He will face sentencing in October. Great news. The federal EV rebate is back. Eligible customers get up to $5,000 with the federal EVAP rebate on select 2027-volt and

26 Equinox EV models. Visit your local Chevrolet dealer today for more details. Anthropics says the U.S. government is allowing it to release its powerful Claude Mythos 5 artificial intelligence model to some trusted U.S. organizations, partially reversing an order two weeks ago to suspend access over national security risks. A source familiar with the matter says more than 100 companies and institutions will now have access to Mythos 5, including many from the Fortune 500. Health authorities across Europe remain on high alert as a killer heat wave progresses across the continent, prompting alcohol bans and the cancellation of mass gatherings in France, melting road surfaces in Germany and twisting rail tracks in Sweden. And if you want to learn more about what's fueling this week's deadly heatwave and how abnormal it is, check out our latest on assignment podcast.

We sit down with data journalist Ben Welsh, who's just created the Reuters Climate Monitor, a global database showing how much hotter it is now compared to historic averages. We'll put a link to the episode and to the monitor in today's show notes. Now, one of the platforms you might be watching or listening to this podcast on is Spotify. a company made in Sweden, which is also home to payment system, Klanar. But businesses there are warning that a hardline immigration crackdown

is harming Sweden's innovative startup culture. Simon Johnson is in Stockholm. Over many, many years, Sweden has been pretty generous in accepting migrants. Over the last 10 or 15 years, I'd say that there's been a change in the way that immigration is perceived in Sweden. alongside the rise of the right, the populist right party, which is called the Sweden Democrats.

And essentially they blamed the rising gang violence on Sweden's liberal immigration policies. So the current government has instituted a crackdown, mainly against asylum seekers, but they have also broadened that immigration crackdown to include labor migration. One of the most obvious ones is a minimum wage level, for example. and in order to be able to come here and work, you will need to have a salary of the new rules, say 90% of the average Swedish wage. If you think about somebody who came to Sweden and went to university here, who did a science qualification, say, when they come out of university in order to get a job, that will be a relatively sort of low-level job. and companies are quite unlike to be able to offer them the level of salary that would allow them to stay in Sweden. So, you know, Sweden, for example, could be educating new mathematicians, new physicists, new people who work in AI,

but they won't be able to stay here because the salaries they'll be able to get when they first go out into the job market will be too low to qualify for a work visa. And businesses say this is both damaging Sweden's economy now and will have long-term impact. on Sweden's ability to produce these new innovative companies and to be at the forefront of technological development in Europe. Cape Bird have prolonged their World Cup fairy tale, securing a place in the round of 32 following a nil-nil-drawera, setting up an unexpected clash with defending champions Argentina in Miami. Cape Verde's players and staff huddled over their phones and broke out in celebration when the other match in the group ended, generating a roar from their supporters.

But some funds have been celebrating the team capturing the public imagination in different ways. Fan O'Dair Rodriguez bringing his pet goats, Vizigno and Vizina, named after the Cape Verdon Goldkeeper, to a watch party in Brockton, Massachusetts on Friday. You don't see these ghosts a lot because it's Cape Byrd, we ain't going nowhere. It's perfect. For the ROTS for Brits on All-T-RILL. And that is Carverville. For more on any of the stories from today,

check out Rooters.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.