US-Iran ceasefire expires, Tupac murder trial and microdramas

Hi, I'm Indy Burrows in London. It's Tuesday, August 18th. Today, the US-Iran peace deal deadline expires, with both sides threatening escalation. The Tupac murder trial gets underway, 30 years later. And the bite-sized format that's reshaping how we watch TV. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, 7 days a week. Reuters World News The 60-day deadline for a permanent peace deal between the US and Iran has come and gone with no agreement. And both sides are threatening to escalate. Are you any closer today to reaching a final deal to end Iran's nuclear program? Well, they want to make a deal, but they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary. The interim deal, signed in June, promised to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Collapsed, in part, over who controls the strategic waterway. Now, Iran says it's shifting from defensive to fully offensive. While President Trump is threatening to bomb Oman if it interferes with US plans for the Strait. Humeyra Pamuk has been following the breakdown in negotiations. President Trump wants this war to end definitively, so that gas prices in the United States, inflation, will not be going up weeks ahead of the midterms. But he has not been able to get to that deal. It's not a great place to be for President Trump. He has been stuck in this position for some time anyway. We have seen the president say that he has all options on the table. Whenever he wants to go back to a fully-fledged war, he would. But we know from our own reporting, that's not what he ideally prefers. He ideally wants to end the war. For the latest on how markets are responding to the latest Iran developments, check out our sister podcast, Morning Bid. Available wherever you get your podcasts. In the US, Americans are not pleased with the lack of progress in the Iran conflict. And that, coupled with rising prices, has brought Trump's approval rating down to the lowest of his presidency. The latest Reuters Ipsos poll finds just 33% approve of how he's doing his job as president. And that same poll. finds an overwhelming majority of Americans expect the war with Iran to drag on. A far cry from Trump's initial pledge that the conflict would take just a few weeks. The war in Gaza also appears to be stuck in place. Trump's envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. And the pair agreed to establish two working groups. One focused on the disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza, and another on public health needs in the enclave. That's according to a statement from the Prime Minister's office. But Netanyahu insists Israeli forces will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed. And that Israel will never agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Hamas says it will only hand over its weapons after Israeli troops withdraw. Our correspondent Alexander Cornwell says there's good reason to think the impasse will continue. There doesn't appear to be any major pressure from the US administration on Netanyahu or his government. to move forward on the Trump plan. However, the fact that Kushner himself, the president's son-in-law, came out is an indication that this does appear to be important to the White House. However, we must remember that this is also taking place against the backdrop of the war for Iran, of which the US has not reached an agreement to end the conflict there. It's also happening against the backdrop of the upcoming national elections in Israel that consistent polls show that Netanyahu's ruling coalition is likely to lose. While Netanyahu himself. is largely unpopular amongst most of the Israeli public, according to local opinion polls, your average Israeli also want the war in Gaza to continue. So it's unlikely to help him in the election if he was to make any concessions in Gaza now. Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, jurors have heard opening statements in the murder trial of the man prosecutors say orchestrated the killing. Duane Keefie D. Davis, a former gang leader, Duane Keefie D. Davis, a former gang leader, is charged with leading a group of men to kill the rap star in retribution for the beating of his nephew. And prosecutors say they can prove it using Davis' own words from interviews and his memoir. The defense says it's all talk with no evidence to back it up. Reporter Jack Queen is covering the trial. So the reason we're here now is because the defendant, Duane Davis, started making public statements in the past few years in media interviews and in a book that he published acknowledging his role in Tupac's killing. And that essentially revived what had been a decades-old cold case because prosecutors say they had always suspected him and known about his involvement but didn't have enough evidence to charge him until he came forward and publicly acknowledged his role. But I think the most interesting aspect of his defense, actually, is Mr. Davis' lawyer said that he has the habit of talking, quote, and that a lot of what he said in his media appearances and in his book actually couldn't be corroborated or trusted. So that was an interesting place to be in where, um, the defendant's own lawyer is saying that, uh, you can't trust his own words. Luigi Mangione's murder trial in New York State Court has been postponed after the 28-year-old pleaded guilty last week to separate federal charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione's lawyers are now arguing the state charges should be dismissed entirely, citing double jeopardy, the legal principle that you can't be punished twice for the same crime. For more information, visit www.fema.gov. BJ's Home of the Save. Also in court today, a landmark trial gets underway in Oakland, California, with 29 states accusing Meta of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to hook children. Meta says it's not made misleading statements about safety and that the states have failed to present evidence of actual harm. The potential penalties are staggering, up to $1.4 trillion, and the state has not made any statements about safety. The state has not made any statements about safety. Roughly Meta's entire market cap. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify. A grade 9 student opened fire inside a classroom at a private school in the Philippines, killing a grade 10 classmate before turning the gun on himself. The tragedy marks the second school shooting in the Philippines in under two months, prompting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to order a nationwide review of campus safety measures. As buildings in Indonesia were torn apart by Saturday's 7.7 magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 60 people, Maria Florida Nogo Kelen was giving birth to her daughter. She had to undergo surgery in a shaking hospital with doctors using flashlights due to power outages. Maria says even as the room was collapsing around them, the doctors and nurses stayed. One of them was her obstetrician, Yona Sara Padidi. Yona Sara Padidi, obstetrician, Yona Sara Padidi, obstetrician, Yona Sara Padidi. She says she was terrified, but did what she could without a lamp or a ventilator. Maria's daughter was born during aftershocks and laid in an incubator in a tent outside. Her name is Gempita, after the Indonesian word gempa, meaning earthquake. And finally today, Hollywood is under threat from many angles. The industry is shrinking, streaming companies are losing ground to YouTube, and actors fear being replaced by ARs. But one industry that is growing in Hollywood is microdramas. These are short-form scripted series, typically one to two minutes per episode, designed for vertical, mobile-first consumption. Some 66 million monthly active users watched microdramas last year in the US, more than double the 26 million in 2024. Dawn Chmielewski says this is just the beginning. Microdramas are indeed a phenomenon. We saw. This format gaining legs in China. And it has slowly sort of crested over the Pacific and reached our coast. Research would tell us about 66 million people are watching microdramas these days. It's an audience for the moment that's largely female, ages like 22 to 55-ish, in part because these are sort of rom-coms that we're no longer finding elsewhere. So it's appealing to a female audience. but it is. It is reaching beyond that demographic as more types of stories are being adapted for this format. Hollywood has definitely taken notice of this phenomenon. All the major studios are beginning to experiment with vertical video, which includes more than merely micro dramas. It's video that's formatted for the phone. NBC Universal, for instance, has launched two unscripted series that are based on some of their familiar Bravo characters to try to tap into this phenomenon. And there's more to come. So the studios have definitely noticed this behavior and are trying to find a way to capitalize on it. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters 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. 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