Evening Brief, Thursday 16 July

The United States struck Iranian command centres, air-defence sites, missile and drone systems and coastal surveillance facilities, then renewed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. US forces also disabled the M/T Belma, a Curaçao-flagged tanker, after it ignored warnings and headed towards Kharg Island, the terminal used for most Iranian oil exports. Donald Trump gathered his security team and said operations would continue until he ordered them stopped.

Iran answered with threats of its own. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, warned that regional infrastructure would be crushed if the United States hit Iranian infrastructure, while Iranian forces struck US military sites in neighbouring countries and Bahrain said it intercepted Iranian projectiles. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz fell from 13 vessels the previous day to nine on Wednesday, according to Kpler.

The military exchange now reaches beyond air bases and missile launchers. Kharg Island handles the bulk of Iranian oil exports, and the strait previously carried about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments. That makes every disabled tanker not just a military signal, but a tax on the world's energy nerves.

Russia fired at least eight ballistic missiles at Kyiv shortly after midnight, killing two people and wounding six, including a 16-year-old boy. Ukrainian officials said debris and impacts hit non-residential buildings and a warehouse, while wider Russian strikes across Odesa, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia killed more people on Wednesday. Ukraine also struck back at a power plant in occupied Sevastopol and hit Russian vessels in the Black Sea, showing that both sides keep widening the war's geography.

At home, Volodymyr Zelensky removed defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov after only six months, drawing more than a thousand protesters onto Kyiv's streets and smaller demonstrations in Kharkiv and Lviv. Fedorov had expanded drone production, pushed public tenders in procurement and clashed with commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, whom he accused of blocking reform. Parliament also confirmed Naftogaz chief Sergii Koretskyi as prime minister with 289 votes, a move Zelensky framed as preparation for another winter of attacks on the energy system.

The shake-up shows how the war has become a contest over institutions as much as territory. Ukraine can slow Russian advances and still damage itself if reformers, generals and the presidency turn the chain of command into a family quarrel.

The European Commission adopted two binding measures under the Digital Markets Act that force Google to open Android to rival AI assistants and share anonymised search data with eligible competitors. From January 2027, Google must provide search queries, result rankings and click patterns to qualifying search engines and AI chatbots; from July 2027, rival assistants should gain equal access to 11 Android functions, including voice activation and calendar or local-search tasks. Android powers about 60% of smartphones in the European Union, so Brussels is attacking a gate, not a side door.

Uber, meanwhile, launched a nearly €13bn cash offer for Delivery Hero, offering €41.50 a share and seeking to create the largest food-delivery company outside China. Delivery Hero's board backed the bid, Prosus agreed to tender its 17% stake, and Delivery Hero will sell operations in 14 overlapping markets to SSW Partners for about €1.4bn to ease antitrust concerns. The deal would give the combined group 99 markets and $236bn of gross bookings in 2025, if regulators approve it.

The two stories pull in opposite directions but share a theme. Regulators want data and operating systems loosened, while consumer platforms want to merge rides, food and quick commerce into larger networks. The same Europe that pries open Google may soon decide whether Uber is buying efficiency, market power, or both.

France's National Assembly definitively adopted an assisted-dying bill by 291 votes to 241, with 29 abstentions, after years of argument and three Senate rejections. Deputies voted without party discipline, and the public gallery filled for a final reading that made France the sixth European country to legalise euthanasia, after the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal. President Emmanuel Macron gains a major second-term legacy measure, though the Constitutional Council must still review the text before it can take effect in 2027.

The law allows adults with grave, incurable and life-threatening illness at an advanced stage to request lethal medication under medical supervision. The patient must be French or stably resident, face a short-term vital prognosis, endure pain that treatment cannot relieve or that the patient judges unbearable, and express a free and informed will. Psychological suffering alone will not qualify, and the patient must self-administer the substance unless physically unable.

The vote scrambled France's usual political map. Most of France Insoumise backed the bill, much of Rassemblement National opposed it, and individual deputies broke ranks on conscience grounds. A separate palliative-care law passed earlier, which helped supporters argue that choice and care should travel together. France has not ended the argument over death; it has moved that argument from the courtroom and the hospital corridor into a tightly written national procedure.