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President Donald Trump has suggested the United States could punish Chinese banks for helping move Iranian oil, using financial penalties called sanctions.
Canada has published a detailed list of new tariffs on $20 billion of American goods, including steel, dairy, fish, furniture and cosmetics, matching tariffs the United States already placed on Canadian goods.
The United States has tightened sanctions on Iran, and global stock markets mostly rose in response while oil prices fell and European defence company shares jumped.
The United States removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation dating back to 1979 that had kept most foreign banks and investors away from the country.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada is now 'at war' with the United States over trade, after talks between the two countries broke down.
Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse run by Ozon, Russia's second-biggest online retailer, in Russia's Samara region overnight into Saturday, starting a fire and forcing about 500 people to evacuate.
The United States has announced new penalties, called sanctions, meant to cut off money and trade with Iran, calling the move an 'economic D-Day.' Iran's government called the sanctions 'economic terrorism.' Washington also asked China, which buys most of Iran's oil, to help enforce the sanctions, but China publicly refused, saying they won't solve the underlying conflict.
Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank (which sets interest rates for countries using the euro), told a Geneva business forum on 19 August that Europe's decades-old growth formula of open trade, cheap energy and US military protection is breaking down for good, not just going through a rough patch.
News outlets report that Russia has built about ten new drone bases along its borders with Ukraine and Belarus, which could put NATO member Poland, including its capital Warsaw, within reach of drone strikes.
Ukraine's drones destroyed the largest warehouse of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, near Moscow overnight on 15-16 August, the biggest drone attack of 2026.
A magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck off Flores island in Indonesia early Saturday.
Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country in Central Africa, has now spread to a sixth province.