Biden says he decided to pass the torch

Plus, we bought everything needed to make fentanyl.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters  Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton US President Joe Biden addressed the nation in a sedate Oval Office speech that contrasted with the rough-and-tumble campaign. Plus, for a Reuters special investigation into the global opioid trade, we bought everything needed to make $3 million worth of fentanyl. All it took was $3,600 and a web browser. Today's Top News   Biden addresses the nation about his decision to drop his Democratic presidential reelection bid. Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERS Joe Biden addressed the nation for the first time since dropping his reelection bid, saying he decided to forgo personal ambition to save democracy. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are striking a different tone. Listen as Jim Oliphant tells the Reuters World News podcast how Trump has already moved away from his softer rebrand to launch barbs at Harris. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sketched a vague outline of a plan for a "deradicalized" post-war Gaza in a speech to Congress and touted a potential future alliance between Israel and America's Arab allies. The gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump did an online search of the John F. Kennedy assassination around the time he began to focus attention on the Republican presidential candidate, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. A wildfire reached the Canadian town of Jasper, Alberta, one of hundreds ravaging the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, as firefighters battled to save key facilities such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Typhoon Gaemi swept through northern Taiwan, killing two people, triggering flooding and sinking a freighter before barreling west across the Taiwan Strait towards China where it is expected to dump more torrential rain. As part of a vast security operation for the Olympic Games in Paris authorities have turned to powers passed under an anti-terror law, placing 155 people under surveillance measures that strictly limit their movement and oblige them to register daily with police even though some have never faced criminal charges. Business & Markets   Investors are scrambling to shore up global portfolios against wild market swings ahead of the US presidential election and backing out of assets stuck in the crosshairs of uncertainty, from big tech stocks to European government debt. Mexico's incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum will likely face a new challenge fulfilling the dream of energy independence that led her predecessor to spend $17 billion on a new refinery: a shortfall in domestic crude supply. Shares of Ford sank over 12% in early premarket trading after the automaker missed second-quarter profit estimates, as it struggles with quality-related costs and stiff competition in its EV business. Japan's Nissan slashed its annual outlook after deep discounting in the United States almost completely wiped out the automaker's first-quarter profit. An Australian judge dismissed a class action lawsuit claiming Bayer's Roundup weedkiller can cause a type of blood cancer, a boost for the company which is grappling with a slew of similar cases in the United States. China's shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts say. An investigation into the global chemical trade behind America's opioid crisis   Packages of chemicals and equipment needed to manufacture the deadly synthetic opioid were delivered much like any other merchandise. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly We bought everything needed to make $3 million worth of fentanyl. All it took was $3,600 and a web browser. At the tap of a buyer's smartphone, Chinese chemical sellers will air-ship fentanyl ingredients door-to-door to North America. Reuters purchased enough to make 3 million pills. Such deals are astonishingly easy – and reveal how drug traffickers are eluding efforts to halt the deadly trade behind the fentanyl crisis. Read more And Finally... Brazilian Sharpnose Sharks at a laboratory in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in this handout picture made available on July 23, 2024. Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz)/Handout via REUTERS Sharks off the coast of Brazil's party city Rio de Janeiro have tested positive for cocaine. The predators were consuming the potent stimulant due to its continuous release from inadequate sewage treatment facilities and clandestine refining operations, scientists wrote in a study published in Science of The Total Environment. Read more Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. 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