$40 trillion debt, cancer vaccine, humanoid robots and IDF probes

Hi, I'm Kim Vanelle in Wangenewy, New Zealand. It's Thursday, August 20th. Today, US government debt crosses the $40 trillion mark, sparking new warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing. A new cancer vaccine for melanoma raises hopes tumors could be targeted too. And our reporters check out the World Robot Conference in Beijing. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. US government debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time. A milestone that's fueling fresh warnings about America's long-term fiscal health. Reuters, David Lauder, explains what this record debt level means for the US economy, and for the people who ultimately foot the bill. The debt is basically the mismatch between what the federal government spends and what it takes in and tax revenues. It's the cumulative effect of that. So to run the government, the treasury has to go out to the market and borrow everything from two months bills to 10-year treasury notes to 30-year long bonds, of various array of debt instruments. The debt has more than doubled since Trump first took office in 2017. The Biden administration, there was a lot of spending on infrastructure and clean energy subsidies and things like that under Biden, and then resumed under Trump. Now, also during the Trump years, we've had two huge tax cuts that have really brought revenues down. And another thing that we're facing is auto-pilot spending. I guess it would be a better term for it. For things like social security, which has an automatic inflation adjustment, you've got the baby boom generation retiring, drawing those benefits. You've got health care for seniors, costs for that are keep going up and up. What that means for tax payers now is interest rates could stay relatively high. People may have to pay more for loans, and benefits could be scaled back. We are in a position where the trust funds for social security and Medicare are going to run out of money in the early 2030s, at which point they will not be able to pay all the benefits that they're scheduled to pay. They would be having to cut back what they pay out in social security. And unless something is done, either to raise taxes or cut spending or, you know, kick out the retirement age or something like that, that, you know, this is where we're headed. The US Treasury is doubling its buyback of long-term government bonds in an attempt to calm jittery markets. For more markets news, here's the host of our sister podcast, Morning Bid, Mike Dolan. So the Treasury surprised everyone yesterday with this buyback announcement. It was twice what it typically does in the market. And there was no mention of this two weeks ago when it had its quarterly refunding announcement. So it did surprise people and clearly raised the question about how worried they were about the multi-decade highs in borrowing rates at 10 and 30 years in the Treasury market. Interestingly, the timeline for this runs for two months to the midterm election. So there may have been a political optic on it. The impact of it going forward, it doesn't change the total amount of debt that the Treasury has to raise. It might do it more in short term debt and longer term debt. But ultimately, with the US debt pile at 40 trillion this week, more than twice what it was in a decade ago, then you can see the scale of the problem it has going forward. Thanks, Mike. You can subscribe to Morning Bid wherever you get your podcasts. The United Arab Emirates has suspended all financial and economic transactions with Tehran indefinitely after it detected two ballistic missiles launched from Iran. Both missiles fell into the sea and residents received phone alerts before authorities gave the all clear. Iran's foreign ministry says the statement by the UAE that its missiles targeted maritime traffic is baseless. Dubai has been considered one of Iran's most critical economic lifelines. Meanwhile, in a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump has warned any country that supports Tehran would face a quote economic D-Day. He didn't name any particular country nor did he specify what exactly that would entail. It comes just as a 60-day window for US Iran peace talks expired without a deal, raising fresh fears of a broader escalation. More than two and a half years after the death of Palestinian girl Hindrajab and Gaza, Israel's military has opened a criminal investigation into her killing. The five-year-old initially survived an attack that killed several family members and spent hours pinned down in a car calling Palestinian medics for help. Her body was found 12 days later. The military had previously denied its troops were in the area, but now says a month-long internal investigation has found its troops did open fire at the vehicle as it approached them. The IDF says it will also probe the killing of 15 emergency and aid workers in March of 2025. The inquiries follow investigations into three other incidents involving the death of Palestinians. Israeli rights groups say criminal misconduct investigations like these rarely lead to convictions. The billionaire founder of China Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted property developer, has been sentenced to life in prison. In April, Huikaiyan pleaded guilty to eight charges including misuse of funds, fundraising fraud, and illegally taking public deposits. A cancer vaccine has cleared a major milestone. Moderna says its personalized cancer vaccine developed with Merck and used alongside Ki Trudeau successfully reduced the chances that high-risk melanoma would return or spread after surgery in a large-scale late-stage trial. Global Health Editor Michele Gershberg says it's raising hopes that the technology could eventually be used against a number of tumours. This is designed to treat melanoma, but there are dozens of studies looking at this in all kinds of cancers, in lung cancer, in pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, a wide array. So this is the first sign scientifically that on a large setting compared to other kinds of treatment that this works. They've added more than $40 billion in market capitalization, and what investors are really showing is a revival of interest in Moderna as a company in this idea of a vaccine against cancer. The results are also positive for Merck. They are very well-known, you know, within the cancer community for Ki Trudeau. It's a powerful immunotherapy that treats multiple types of cancer. They are set to lose their patent exclusivity on that drug in a number of years. And so the possibility that combining Ki Trudeau with a cancer vaccine, that that could create a whole new treatment avenue, creates new possibilities for Merck. Prince Harry and his wife, Megan, are planning to move back to Britain, media outlets are reporting. It's been six years since the couple stepped down from their royal duties and relocated to the US. Their two children will reportedly begin school in the UK in September. And finally, China's robot makers are out and forced this week in Beijing. More than 300 companies are attending the World Robot Conference, showing off over 2,000 exhibits and launching more than 150 new products. Walter's China correspondent, Laurie Chen, was there. Some of those questions could be answered at the World Humanoid Robot Games starting on Saturday in Beijing. Competitions include parcel sorting, industrial assembly, even connecting cables and using tools. But before you get to excited that a robot to unfold your laundry or do your dishes is imminent, it's estimated between 50 and 70% of humanoid robots produced this year will be used to collect training data rather than doing productive work. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis on the news, shaping our world, check out rotis.com or the rotis app. There's a link in the description to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source. 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.