Happy Wednesday and welcome to your morning wrap of the latest political and business headlines from around the world.
First up, US President Donald Trump has issued an unprecedented threat to Iran, warning that a “whole civilisation will die tonight” if the country does not accept his ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by midday (New Zealand time).
Trump made the comments in a post on social media, which was reported by BBC, before going on to say that he does not want that to happen, “but it probably will”.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he posted.
Hours earlier, US forces struck military targets on Kharg Island, Iran’s key oil export terminal, CNN reported.
Iranian officials remain defiant in light of Trump’s warning. Iran’s representative at the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the threats “constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide”, the Associated Press reported.
During a Security Council session about the Strait of Hormuz, Iravani urged the international community to call out the President’s rhetoric.
“Iran will not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes. It will exercise, without hesitation, its inherent right of self-defence and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures,” he said.
At that same Security Council meeting, Russia and China both vetoed a watered-down resolution aimed at opening the Strait of Hormuz.
The two countries defended their opposition, citing Trump’s most recent threat as confirmation that the proposal would have given the US and Israel “carte blanche” for continued aggression, as Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia put it.
They said the resolution failed to capture the root causes of the conflict by showing that America and Israel started it.
Elsewhere, a gunfight outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul has left one attacker dead and two others detained, Deutsche Welle reported.
The two wounded assailants were identified as brothers Onur C and Enes C, with the former having a criminal record related to drugs. The Interior Ministry said both men were being interrogated, but did not name the group thought to be involved.
A spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the consulate was not staffed at the time and condemned what it called a terrorist attack.
“Israeli missions around the world have been subjected to countless threats and terrorist attacks. Terror will not deter us," the ministry said on social media.
In business news, Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has offered to buy Universal Music in a deal that values the world’s largest record label at about €55 billion (NZ$111.3b) and would shift its primary listing to New York from Amsterdam, the Financial Times reported.
Universal is home to A-list artists such as Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar.
The proposed transaction would merge Universal with a blank-cheque company set up by Ackman, who is one of the world’s best-known hedge fund managers.
Shares in Universal, which was listed in Amsterdam in 2021 after it was spun out by French media group Vivendi, have slumped more than 30% over the past six months.
They rose 11.4% to just over €19.05 after Pershing, which already owns a stake in the company, set out the terms of the deal, which it said valued the company at €30.40 a share.
Taylor Swift.
Staying with business, shares of Apple have fallen 4% after reports that the company is facing engineering challenges with its much-anticipated foldable phone, Nikkei Asia reported.
According to a person familiar with the matter, Apple and the supply chain are working under a “pressured timeline”, and the current solutions are not enough to solve the engineering challenges.
The foldable phone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 in September, but the report has raised concerns of delays. Bloomberg later reported that the phone remains on track for delivery, which caused the shares to rebound slightly.
On Wall Street, stocks have slid, and oil has gained as Trump’s Iran deadline approaches.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broader S&P 500, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were all down 0.8%, 0.7%, and 0.95%, respectively. Brent crude oil – the global benchmark – is up slightly to just under US$110 per barrel.
Facet chief investment officer Tom Graff told CNBC that investors should assume that oil prices would stay “significantly higher” than they were before the war.
He also said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was a “negotiation ploy” by Iran because no one benefited from its permanent closure. “I just don’t think it’s sustainable that the Strait remains closed for months and months and months,” he said. “Something is going to have to give there at some point.”
Kanye West.
Finally, London’s Wireless Festival has been cancelled after headline act Kanye West was blocked from coming to the United Kingdom, the BBC reported.
The Government refused permission for West to travel after backlash to his planned set at the London festival this summer. West has caused outrage in recent years for a string of antisemitic, racist, and pro-Nazi comments.
Wireless Festival, in a statement, said the festival had been cancelled, and refunds would be issued to all ticket holders. It also said that multiple stakeholders had been consulted ahead of booking West and “no concerns were highlighted at the time”.
It added: "Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had.”
