The danger of Trump's Saudi nuclear deal

Plus: The robots cometh  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Richard Hall | July 24, 2026 Hey there! Today in The Brief, we’re looking at the potential ramifications of a nuclear deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. First up, check out Charlie Campbell’s story on the robotics firm making giant robots pulled straight from science fiction.   Five Must-Reads The Next Big Robot Moment  For this week’s TIME cover story, Charlie Campbell meets Wang Xingxing, the founder and CEO of Hangzhou-based humanoid-robotics firm Unitree, which claims to have built the first mass-produced, transformable mecha robot. —TIME Tick Bites Are Causing Red-Meat Allergies Lifelong meat eaters are suddenly breaking out in hives, getting bad stomach pains, and sometimes vomiting or having diarrhea after eating red meat. The symptoms are typical of alpha-gal syndrome, a strange tick-borne illness that has increased dramatically in recent years. —TIME Trump Plans to Impose 100% Tariffs on Generic Drugs Starting in 2028 President Donald Trump announced this week that he plans to impose tariffs on generic drugs imported into the U.S. starting in 2028—a policy that experts say could have far-reaching consequences for the prices and availability of those medications. —TIME An FDA Committee Just Voted in Favor of Peptides—Despite the Agency's Opposition In a highly unusual move, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee voted against FDA staff’s own advice in a meeting on July 23, recommending that two peptides, called BPC-157 and KPV, be added to a list that will allow certain specialty pharmacies to dispense them. —TIME The Republicans Who Have Broken With Their Party to Support Limiting Trump’s Iran War Powers The House on Thursday narrowly voted to restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran for a second time, with four Republicans again breaking ranks with their party to push the measure over the line. —TIME     Presented by: 200+ Proven Ways to Make Money With AI in 2026 The next wave of millionaires will be people who figured out how to make AI work for them. The window to get ahead is still open. But not for long. Here are 200+ proven ways to make money with AI in 2026. Sign up for Superhuman AI, the free daily newsletter read by 1M+ professionals, and get instant access to all 200+ ways to profit from AI this year. Claim your free list     IN FOCUS A nuclear arms race in the Middle East? It has been a dizzying 48 hours for advocates of nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East.  The United States is currently bombing Iran in pursuit of a longstanding American goal: to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet elsewhere in the Middle East, it is adopting a very different policy. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it had signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to have a civilian nuclear program on its own soil in cooperation with American companies.  The apparent contradiction between the U.S. approach to Riyadh and its actions in Iran was not lost on Middle East experts, as well as nuclear non-proliferation experts, most of whom warned that the Saudi pact could kickstart a nuclear arms race in the region.  “If true, this is tantamount to the United States' giving up on nonproliferation,” James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote on social media in reaction to the announcement.  “The highest standards of nonproliferation involve NOT transferring enrichment technology to a state that openly declares an interest in nuclear weapons,” he added, in an apparent reference to the warning by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, Riyadh would be forced to do the same.  President Donald Trump stands with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his visit to the White House, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. Mark Schiefelbein MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS The Saudi deal is a so-called 123 agreement, a legal process required for the U.S. to engage in any significant trade or cooperation with another country on civilian nuclear energy. Such deals need to be submitted to Congress for review, and can be overturned by a joint resolution of disapproval with a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate—enough to override a presidential veto. Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities, tells TIME that the proposed deal differs from previous nuclear agreements with other U.S. allies because it gives Saudi Arabia uranium-enrichment facilities that will allow it to produce its own nuclear fuel for power plants. “Technology transfer has a way of happening when you build facilities in another country, whether or not you're talking about a company with proprietary information or a government,” she says. “The U.S. has many times in the past built nuclear plants for other countries. We did this for Iran, for instance, in the mid-20th century, but we've never before helped countries build technology to enrich nuclear fuel on their own territory.”  Whatever safeguards are in place to prevent technology transfer, Iran may still perceive the deal as a definitive move toward a nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia.  “If Trump's goal in the war is to prevent weaponization, he is actively undermining his own goal because he has done something that is going to encourage Iran to pursue the bomb just to keep up with the neighbors on the other side of the Gulf,” Kelanic says.  It is still unclear whether the deal will go ahead. The morning after it was announced, Trump took to Truth Social to say that it was contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords, which would require normalization with Israel. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that if the kingdom does not join them, "the deal is off." The next few days, then, will determine if the deal sparks a new nuclear arms race in the Middle East, or if it is called off before it reaches Congress.      ONE NUMBER $100 The price of oil hit $100 a barrel on Thursday for the first time since May. It comes after the Houthis of Yemen struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, enforcing a long-threatened blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another shipping route crucial to the world’s energy supplies. SOURCE: FactSet     Presented by: Get 15% Off Coffee Pods Roasted Days Ago Angelino's roasts, grinds, and seals 50+ specialty coffees in-house at their LA roastery, then ships within days. Mix and match to unlock up to 34% off — and new customers get 15% off on top, applied automatically. No code, no subscription required. Get 15% Off Today     A VIRAL MOMENT Loomer’s Satori in Kyiv Laura Loomer was once one the loudest voices in MAGA opposing U.S. support for Ukraine. But she has recently undergone a conversion to Kyiv’s cause, and is currently on a visit to Ukraine, where she met with President Volodymyr Zelensky. She said ahead of her trip that she “fell for Russian propaganda” and was “living in a media echo chamber.” Her remarkable turnaround comes as Trump himself has shifted his view on Ukraine. In the clip below, Zelensky and Loomer discuss the much improved relationship between Ukraine and the U.S. since the infamous Oval Office row.     Linked In this addictive word-association game, find the steps that will unite two seemingly unrelated words in just four moves. PLAY NOW   ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME POLITICS Meet Marie-France van Heel, Wife of Britain's New Prime Minister Andy Burnham HEALTH  10 Foods That Food Safety Experts Never Eat TV Breaking Down the Emotional Ending of Ransom Canyon Season 2   EMAIL US: thebrief@time.com   More Newsletters from Click to sign up. D.C. 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