Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
1) The US military campaign against Iran has so far failed to force the regime to capitulate. The Trump administration is betting once again that suffocating economic pressure will do the job. Facing a shortfall of necessary munitions and wary of continuing an unpopular war, Trump and his top officials are returning to a familiar playbook with the regime: relying on a steady increase in economic sanctions and a naval blockade to stifle oil exports.
2) The death toll from Colombia’s earthquake rose to 265 as President Abelardo de la Espriella moved to declare an economic emergency to confront the fallout from the strongest tremor to strike the country in 47 years. The 7.4-magnitude quake that struck Aug. 10 was the second strongest recorded in Colombian territory in the past century. Fatalities reached 265, with nearly 3,500 injured and 500 missing, De la Espriella said from the presidential palace in Bogota.
3) Billionaire Mark Walter’s firm is in talks with investors to raise money to help pay down loans on the books of its insurers that had drawn scrutiny from the Justice Department, according to people familiar with the matter. TWG Global has approached multiple investment firms about a range of deals to raise cash, said the people, who asked not to be identified describing private discussions. The firm has been working on plans to address concerns about the outsize loans Walter’s insurers have made to other parts of his investment empire, and those efforts have ramped up in recent days, said some of the people.