AnewZ Morning Brief – 4 July, 2026
Start your day informed with the AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top stories for 4 July, covering the latest developments you need to know....
Iranian attacks have wiped out 17% of Qatar’s liquified natural gas export capacity (LNG), equivalent to $20 billion in lost annual revenue, the CEO of Qatar’s state-owned energy company, Saad al-Kaabi said on Thursday (19 March).
The losses threaten supplies to Europe and Asia, with QatarEnergy declaring a force majeure, freeing it of obligations on long-term contracts for up to five years for LNG supplies bound for Italy, Belgium, South Korea and China.
Kaabi said two of Qatar's 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the Iranian strikes. Repairs to the infrastructure will take 12.8 million tons of LNG out of the system for three to five years, he said.
"I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that Qatar would be - Qatar and the region - in such an attack, especially from a brotherly Muslim country in the month of Ramadan, attacking us in this way," Kaabi said.
Production at Pearl GTL in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City stopped on Wednesday (18 March) after the industrial hub came under fire. Kaabi said that for production to restart, hostilities needed to end.
QatarEnergy previously declared a short-term force majeure on its entire output of LNG after an earlier attack on Ras Laffin. Shell is a partner in the damaged GTL facility, which will take up to a year to repair, while U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil is a partner in the damaged LNG facilities.
The scale of the damage from the attacks has set the region back 10 to 20 years, Kaabi added.
"If Israel attacked Iran, it's between Iran and Israel. It has nothing to do with us and the region. And so now, in addition to that, I'm saying that everybody in the world, whether it's Israel, whether it's the U.S., whether it's any other country, everybody should stay away from oil and gas facilities,” he said.
India is investigating a data breach at Tata Electronics that exposed sensitive documents linked to Apple's unreleased iPhone 18 Pro, marking the government's first public comments on the incident.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has raised its forecast for the rapid emergence of a strong El Niño, warning the climate pattern is likely to drive higher global temperatures and intensify extreme weather in the months ahead.
Iran and the U.S. have concluded indirect talks in Doha without a major breakthrough, with discussions focused on maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and frozen Iranian funds. Both sides are expected to meet again after the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
International politicians and religious leaders have paid respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei throughout the day, ahead of his six day funeral ceremony which begins on Saturday. His casket is currently on display at the Iman Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran.
Eight Buddhist monks were killed and more than 20 others injured after an 11-year-old boy driving his parents' pickup truck ploughed into a religious procession in north-eastern Thailand, police said.
Armenia's parliament has passed a new law raising the requirements for citizens living abroad to vote in national elections, following concerns over alleged efforts to influence last month's parliamentary vote through Armenian citizens residing in Russia.
International politicians and religious leaders have paid respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei throughout the day, ahead of his six day funeral ceremony which begins on Saturday. His casket is currently on display at the Iman Khomeini Grand Mosalla in Tehran.
Georgia’s only oil refinery will stop using Russian crude oil by September to preserve access to Western markets, its operator has said.
Iran has begun talks with Japan about selling oil to Japanese companies, according to Iranian and Western sources. The discussions come less than a month after the U.S. eased decades-old sanctions on Iranian oil as part of efforts to secure a final peace deal with Tehran.
At least 40 people were killed after a passenger bus plunged off a highway into a ravine in southwestern Pakistan, officials said on Friday (3 July).
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