News Briefing by Reuters

 

Hello. In an expletive-laden social media post, Trump threatened further strikes on Iranian energy and transport infrastructure if Iran failed to make a deal. We have details of how the mission to rescue a US airman unfolded. Plus, who will succeed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un? South Korea's spy agency says it knows.

Today's Top News   A statue of Lebanese saint Charbel Makhlouf at the site of an Israeli strike in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon. REUTERS/Raghed Waked Iran war The United States and Iran received the framework of a plan to end hostilities, but Iran rejected immediately reopening the Strait of Hormuz, after President Donald Trump threatened to rain "hell" on Tehran if it did not make a deal by the end of Tuesday. White House correspondent Humeyra Pamuk joins the Reuters World News podcast to unpack the diplomacy behind the scenes. Trump and other US officials cast the rescue of a US airman in Iran as an "Easter miracle", framing the operation in religious terms that portrayed the war as a just cause and divinely ‌blessed. The perilous rescue mission nearly went off course as mechanical failure of two MC-130 aircraft forced a risky extraction. In other news The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission entered the moon's gravitational sphere of influence as they cruised along a path that will soon take them over the shadowed, lunar far side to become the farthest-flying humans in history. Ukraine has regained control of 480 sq. km of territory in the southeastern and eastern parts of the front since late January, its army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said, adding that Russia was continuing its spring offensive. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called an emergency defense council meeting after powerful explosives were found near a pipeline in Serbia that carries Russian gas to the country. South Korea's spy agency now believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's teenage daughter has been positioned as his successor, lawmakers said, citing a recent public display of her driving a tank that was likely intended to dispel any doubts. Trump endorsed former British government aide and Fox News host Steve Hilton in the upcoming California governor's race. Hilton, who has dual nationality, served as former British Prime Minister David Cameron's director of strategy.

Business & Markets   A drone view shows damage at oil storage facilities west of Basra, Iraq. REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani  Oil prices fell more than $2 in choppy trade, as investors awaited clarity on the status of talks between the ‌US and Iran and remained wary about sustained supply losses due to shipping disruptions. An oil tanker loaded with Iraqi crude passed through the Strait of Hormuz close ‌to the Iranian coast, a day after Iran said Iraq was exempt from any restrictions to transit the vital sea route.  US stock index futures inched higher, after the main indexes marked their biggest weekly jump in four months in the last session, as investors assessed prospects of an end to the Middle East conflict. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that the war in Iran risks oil and commodity price shocks that could keep inflation sticky and push interest rates higher than the market now expects. Samsung Electronics, benefiting from red-hot chip prices stoked by the AI boom, is expected to book a six-fold jump in operating profit for January-March - a quarterly record and just shy of what it earned for all of the past business year.