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US Strikes Iran As Conflict Edges Toward Wider War

The United States launched a ninth consecutive night of airstrikes on Iran early Monday after confirming another service member’s death, as exchanges between the two sides intensified. US President Donald Trump said the strikes were carried out “in honour” of those killed, with the military targeting command centres, missile and drone sites, and coastal infrastructure. Since the war began, 17 US service members have been killed, including recent casualties in Jordan and Iraq.

Iran retaliated by firing missiles toward Jordan and activating attacks across US-allied states, while warning signs of regional spillover increased.

A ship caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping traffic has largely stalled, and oil prices rose above $90 a barrel. Both sides have targeted infrastructure, including bridges and power facilities, as the interim deal to end the conflict continues to unravel.

Sources: The Guardian, Associated Press

Russian Strikes Expose Ukraine Air Defence Gaps

Russia launched a wave of ballistic missiles, drones and guided bombs across Ukraine on Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, with Kyiv among the primary targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said most missiles were aimed at the capital, in what officials described as one of the most intense attacks since the invasion began. The strikes damaged residential buildings, industrial sites and infrastructure across multiple cities.

The assault highlighted Ukraine’s shortage of US-made Patriot systems, which remain the most effective defence against ballistic missiles. US President Donald Trump has said he is prepared to grant Ukraine licences to produce the systems, though timelines remain unclear.

At the same time, both sides have intensified strikes on energy and shipping targets, with Ukraine targeting Russian oil facilities and tankers, and Russia increasing missile use to disrupt Ukrainian operations.

Sources: Associated Press, BBC

Jordan Drawn Deeper Into US Iran Conflict

Iran has intensified attacks on Jordan as the country’s role in US military operations has expanded, exposing it to direct retaliation. Analysts say Washington has increasingly relied on Jordanian bases and airspace after other regional allies restricted access, making the country a more prominent operational hub. Jordan hosts major US air bases and nearly 4,000 American service members.

The shift has brought immediate consequences. Iranian strikes on bases in Jordan have killed US soldiers and wounded dozens, while missile attacks have also targeted the southern city of Aqaba. Jordanian air defences intercepted several missiles, with fragments prompting Israeli interceptors near Eilat.

The escalation reflects a broader change in the conflict as retaliation spreads beyond initial targets and draws in states previously on the periphery.

Sources: New York Times, Times of Israel

Ukraine Targets Russian Retail Hubs In Air War Shift

Ukrainian drone strikes on logistics hubs belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries killed at least eight people and injured dozens, marking a shift in the air war. The attacks hit warehouses hundreds of miles inside Russian territory, igniting fires and forcing evacuations, as Kyiv expanded its campaign beyond energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the facilities were linked to Russia’s war effort, delivering sanctioned components used in drones and navigation systems. The strikes triggered a swift Russian response, with a large barrage of ballistic missiles hitting Kyiv and damaging residential and commercial sites.

The escalation reflects a broader intensification of long-range attacks, with Ukraine increasingly targeting infrastructure it says supports the war, while Russia continues strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Kyiv Independent

Venezuela Quake Toll Rises As Response Criticised

The death toll from two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 has risen to 5,069, with 16,740 people injured, authorities said. The increase follows ongoing recovery and debris-clearing operations, particularly in the coastal state of La Guaira, where the damage has been most severe. Officials reported 1,331 aftershocks, alongside widespread destruction to buildings, roads and infrastructure.

The disaster has also exposed weaknesses in the government response. Sources said delayed orders, confusion and a lack of equipment hindered the deployment of military personnel in the critical early hours. Civilians led initial rescue efforts, while international teams and limited numbers of troops arrived later.

Acting President Delcy Rodriguez has defended the response, despite criticism that poor coordination and overlapping authority slowed efforts during the crucial first days.

Sources: Reuters, NBC News

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India Protest Movement Faces Police Crackdown

Police in New Delhi used batons against supporters of the youth-led Cockroach movement as thousands gathered to march on parliament, despite authorities denying permission. Around 10,000 protesters assembled at Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over exam paper leaks that affected more than two million students.

The movement, which began online and rapidly attracted millions of followers, has broadened into a wider expression of youth frustration over unemployment and corruption in the education system.

Tensions escalated after activist Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly moved to hospital, galvanising support. Police denied using force and warned of security risks as parliament opened, raising the prospect of further confrontation between demonstrators and authorities.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters

Ukraine Protests Turn On Military Commander

Protests in Kyiv over the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov have shifted focus toward Ukraine’s top commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, marking an unusual moment of public dissent against military leadership. Thousands gathered in the capital, with demonstrators mocking the general and calling for his removal after he clashed with Fedorov over military strategy.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he did not reappoint Fedorov due to the dispute, which centred on the expansion of drone warfare and broader reforms. While protesters continue to express support for the armed forces overall, the targeting of a senior commander reflects growing frustration over casualties, mobilisation pressures and battlefield setbacks.

Critics accuse Syrskyi of resisting reforms, while supporters argue he is being unfairly blamed for the strains of a prolonged war.

Sources: New York Times, BBC

Hungary President Signs Law Ending Own Term

Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has signed a constitutional amendment that brings his own mandate to an immediate end, concluding a dispute with the country’s new government. The amendment, passed by parliament after Prime Minister Péter Magyar called for his resignation, required Sulyok to sign within five days, which he did on the final day.

Sulyok criticised the measure as an abuse of political power and an attack on the rule of law, but said refusing to sign would have been unlawful. The change is part of a broader overhaul of Hungary’s constitutional framework, including new limits on parliamentary mandates and reforms to judicial institutions. Under the law, parliamentary speaker Ágnes Forsthoffer will serve as interim president until a successor is elected.

Sources: Euronews, Associated Press

Burnham Becomes PM Promising To Rewire Britain

Andy Burnham will become Britain’s prime minister on Monday after Keir Starmer formally steps down, marking the country’s seventh leadership change in a decade. The former Greater Manchester mayor, who secured the Labour leadership unopposed, has pledged to “rewire” the country to address the cost-of-living crisis and underperforming public services.

Burnham faces immediate challenges, including forming a cabinet and setting out economic policy priorities. Early signals from his team include scrapping a planned national digital identity scheme and considering stronger public control of utilities such as water and energy. He has also stressed the need for greater political stability, while critics question whether he has a clear plan and call for stronger parliamentary scrutiny as he takes office.

Sources: Reuters, BBC

Spain Win World Cup After Extra Time Strike

Spain won the men’s World Cup for a second time after Ferran Torres scored the decisive goal in the 106th minute to defeat Argentina 1-0 in extra time. The final, played in New York New Jersey Stadium, saw Argentina reduced to 10 men after Enzo Fernández was sent off late in normal time.

Spain dominated the match but were unable to break through until extra time, with Torres finishing after a cross from Pedro Porro kept alive by Nico Williams. Argentina managed only two shots, both late in extra time, as their defensive approach frustrated Spain for long periods.

The match ended in controversy with post-match confrontations and further red cards, while Lionel Messi, in what may be his final World Cup, collected his runners-up medal in tears.

Sources: The Guardian, ABC News

Escalation remained the defining feature of international affairs this week, but the most important developments extended beyond the battlefield. The conflict between the United States and Iran increasingly became a contest over shipping routes, energy infrastructure and global trade. Europe continued to deepen its collective defence posture while Ukraine grappled with tensions inside its own wartime leadership.

Elsewhere, governments moved to place firmer boundaries around artificial intelligence, and the European Union signalled a notable adjustment to its climate agenda as industrial competitiveness moved higher up the policy agenda.

Together, these developments reflected governments placing increasing emphasis on strategic resilience across security, technology and economic policy.

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The conflict between the United States and Iran continued to evolve beyond conventional military operations into a contest over the infrastructure that underpins global commerce. Successive rounds of strikes were accompanied by competing efforts to shape access to shipping lanes, energy exports and regional logistics rather than simply weaken military capabilities. The Strait of Hormuz remained the focal point of that contest as commercial traffic slowed, oil prices rose and both sides sought to define control over one of the world’s most important maritime corridors.

The confrontation also broadened geographically. Iran signalled it could use Yemen’s Houthi movement to threaten the Bab al-Mandab Strait while the United States continued targeting Iranian maritime capabilities. At the same time, Iraq advanced discussions with Chevron over a pipeline designed to bypass Hormuz altogether. The conflict is therefore beginning to influence not only military planning but also long-term decisions about how energy reaches global markets.

Russia’s continued attacks against Ukraine reinforced Europe’s steady movement towards greater defence integration. During the week, European governments expanded missile defence cooperation, strengthened drone partnerships with Ukraine and continued building industrial capacity alongside military assistance. The Bastille Day military parade in Paris reflected the same strategic direction, presenting support for Ukraine and European rearmament as increasingly collective rather than primarily national efforts.

Ukraine, however, experienced significant internal change. President Volodymyr Zelensky reshuffled his government before removing Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov following disagreements within the country’s military leadership. At the same time, European governments imposed additional sanctions over Russian cyber activity while Baltic leaders warned of possible attacks on critical infrastructure.

The result was a Europe becoming more coordinated externally while Ukraine continued adjusting its political and military leadership to meet the demands of a prolonged war.

One of the week’s more significant developments came from a major international survey showing China viewed more favourably than the United States across most countries surveyed. That marked a notable shift in international opinion after two decades of polling. Yet improving global perceptions did not translate into easier regional diplomacy.

Beijing again rejected the South China Sea arbitration ruling while the United States, the Philippines and other partners reaffirmed support for a rules-based Indo-Pacific. Later in the week, the Philippines condemned an AI-generated China Daily video depicting Filipinos as racist and unacceptable shortly before Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was due to visit Manila.

Together, the developments illustrated that China’s broader international standing and its relationships with neighbouring states continue to follow different trajectories.

The week’s final pattern was not a retreat from existing policy goals but a recalibration of how governments intend to achieve them. New York announced plans to pause approvals for large artificial intelligence data centres while new environmental and energy standards are developed. Australia proposed requiring major AI facilities to generate as much electricity as they consume while strengthening protections for creators whose work is used to train artificial intelligence systems.

The more consequential shift came in Europe. For years the European Union has positioned itself as the world’s leading advocate of increasingly ambitious emissions reduction. This week, however, Brussels prepared to slow the pace of emissions reductions for heavy industry while maintaining its overall climate objectives. The change does not represent an abandonment of climate policy. Rather, it suggests that concerns over industrial competitiveness, energy costs and strategic resilience are beginning to reshape how Europe balances economic security with environmental ambition.

That represents one of the clearest signs yet that geopolitical pressures are influencing even the European Union’s most established policy commitments.

The week’s developments pointed in a consistent direction. Governments increasingly relied on direct intervention to strengthen their position in an environment shaped by geopolitical competition and strategic uncertainty. Whether securing shipping routes, expanding defence production, regulating artificial intelligence or adjusting industrial policy, states showed a growing willingness to place resilience alongside efficiency as a guiding principle of policy.

The cumulative effect is a world in which national strategy is becoming more deeply embedded across economic, technological and security decision-making.

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President Donald Trump used a primetime White House address to argue that American election systems remain vulnerable, releasing declassified documents and renewing his push for federal election legislation before the midterms. He said the disclosure was meant to build confidence, but the documents did not show that past election counts were directly changed by foreign interference or fraud.

The records and subsequent reporting instead showed long-known vulnerabilities, internal debate over how to assess China’s activities and repeated findings that vote tabulation systems would be difficult to manipulate on a scale large enough to alter results.

Trump also cited alleged non-citizen voter registrations and a Michigan case, drawing pushback from state officials, while China denied his claims and Democratic governors accused him of trying to undermine free and fair elections.

Sources: CNN, New York Times

China Daily’s AI-generated video depicting a monkey in Filipino national costume has drawn a sharp rebuke from Manila, which called the content deeply offensive, distressing and unacceptable.

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said the material should be taken down immediately. The video depicted the monkey acting on orders from the US and Japan, being hit by a water cannon and mocked the 2016 arbitral ruling that rejected Beijing’s expansive South China Sea claims.

The dispute comes days before Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due in Manila for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers meeting and against already strained ties over overlapping South China Sea claims. Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr called the video contemptible propaganda and said it exposed the weakness of a government resorting to racism, threats and manufactured hatred.

Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters

Ukraine’s wartime leadership entered fresh turbulence after President Volodymyr Zelensky removed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a six-month incumbent credited with reforms, technological innovation and helping build the country’s drone programme.

The dismissal, part of a broader government reshuffle, triggered protests in Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa from demonstrators who feared his removal could damage the war effort even as Ukrainian forces have shifted battlefield momentum and Russia continues its air campaign against Ukrainian cities.

Fedorov said his dispute with armed forces chief Oleksandr Syrsky contributed to the decision, accusing the general of blocking initiatives and refusing to work with him. Zelensky said the conflict between the Defence Ministry and the military general staff was systemic and that the two men could not sit at a table and communicate. Later on Thursday, he named Yevhen Khmara acting defence minister pending the legal steps for parliamentary approval.

Sources: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal

The US military said it had completed its latest wave of strikes on Iran, marking a sixth consecutive night of attacks ordered by President Donald Trump. US Central Command said fighter jets, aerial drones and warships hit dozens of Iranian military targets, including coastal surveillance and air defence sites, military logistics infrastructure and maritime capabilities. Iran gave accounts of strikes on bridges, a train station in Bandar Khamir and Iranshahr Airport, though those reports could not immediately be verified.

^{US Carrying Out Strikes Against Iran - Video US Central Command}

The latest operations hit Qeshm Island and near Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran launched missiles and drones at US bases in neighbouring states, including a recently expanded air base in Jordan.

The campaign follows the reimposition of a US blockade on Iranian ports after earlier tit-for-tat attacks, and comes with oil prices higher and markets shaken around the world.

Sources: Reuters, BBC

Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, according to three sources.

A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones near the Red Sea gateway, while representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Yemen would control the decision on when to shut the route.

The threat comes with the Strait of Hormuz already shut, raising the prospect that the Middle East’s two main oil export routes could be disrupted at the same time. The Red Sea waterway now carries around 7% of global energy supplies after Gulf oil was diverted through a Saudi pipeline, while Saudi Arabia has shifted 70% of its own energy exports through the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

Sources: Japan Times, The Hill

Chevron expects to sign non-binding accords with Iraq on Friday to advance talks on investing in the West Qurna-2 and Nasiriyah oil fields and on a pipeline intended to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. The company is part of a consortium of US and international firms exploring a route that would help Iraq move crude to the Mediterranean, as the Iran war has underscored the need for export alternatives outside the Persian Gulf.

The push comes after Iraq’s oil exports were hit by the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict, forcing the country to cut production by more than half and straining government finances.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi met Chevron executives in Houston on Thursday after also meeting President Donald Trump at the White House earlier this week, where Trump said massive new oil partnerships would be announced in the coming days.

Sources: FT, Bloomberg

Argentina face the prospect of FIFA disciplinary action after players celebrated their 2-1 World Cup semi-final win over England in Atlanta with a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” - “The Falklands are Argentine”. The banner, handed over by fans after the final whistle, reignited the sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands and prompted the British government to back calls for FIFA to investigate.

FIFA’s disciplinary code prohibits political messaging at stadiums, and earlier cases have led to sanctions including fines and player suspensions. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said “the Falkland Islands definitely are” British, while Business Secretary Peter Kyle called the banner entirely inappropriate.

Argentina President Javier Milei described the celebration as perfectly valid but said he expected FIFA to sanction the team with a fine. Argentina remain due to face Spain in Sunday’s final.

Sources: BBC, Associated Press

Japan’s parliament on Friday approved a revised Imperial House Law aimed at stabilising the shrinking imperial family while preserving the country’s long-standing male-only succession system. The changes allow the adoption into the imperial family of males aged 15 and over from former branch families descended through the male line, and allow female members to retain imperial status after marrying commoners.

The revision leaves unchanged the rule that only males in the paternal line can ascend the throne, despite public support for female emperors and the popularity of Emperor Naruhito’s daughter Princess Aiko, who remains ineligible.

The succession line therefore stays with Naruhito’s younger brother, then his nephew Prince Hisahito. Critics say the reform protects male succession while doing little to resolve the monarchy’s long-term fragility, even as the government presents it as a way to make the imperial system sustainable.

Sources: Associated Press, South China Morning Post

More than 500 people are feared dead after reports of two large shipwrecks off Myanmar since late June, according to a joint statement from the International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency. Preliminary information indicated the vessels departed from Rakhine state in late June carrying mainly Rohingya, while some passengers had reportedly travelled from the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

One boat, believed to have carried about 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. A second boat, reportedly carrying about 280 people, is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on 8 July. The agencies said that, if verified, the tragedy would add to the nearly 300 people already reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal this year.

They said worsening conflict in Myanmar, limited assistance in Bangladesh’s camps, hazardous off-season conditions, and recent torrential rain and flooding were increasing the risks of such journeys.

Sources: The Guardian, UN

The European Union is set to slow cuts to emission limits in its flagship carbon market as the European Commission prepares to publish an overhaul of the Emissions Trading System on Friday.

Brussels is considering reducing the pace at which the emissions cap shrinks over the next decade, giving heavy industry more time to roll out clean technologies while keeping the bloc on track for climate neutrality by 2050.

The move comes as the Commission also prepares an electrification plan with an EU-wide 2040 target to replace fossil fuel combustion with direct electricity use. The two proposals will test whether Brussels can protect industry, lower exposure to volatile fossil fuel prices and still keep its emissions-cutting promises, amid pressure from member states and companies alarmed by energy costs and competition from the United States and China.

Sources: Politico Europe, Bloomberg

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On this day …

On this day in 1918, Russia’s former Tsar Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra and their children were executed by Bolshevik forces in Yekaterinburg during the Russian Civil War.

The killings ended more than three centuries of Romanov rule and removed any realistic possibility of restoring the monarchy as the Bolsheviks consolidated power.

The executions became one of the defining episodes of the Russian Revolution and symbolised the decisive break between imperial Russia and the emerging Soviet state.

More than a century later, the fate of the Romanovs continues to shape debates about revolution, legitimacy and historical memory. What does their story still tell us about political upheaval?

A succinct daily briefing delivered each weekday to help you stay on top of the stories shaping the world.

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Russia hit Kyiv with ballistic missiles overnight, killing two people and injuring six, including a 16-year-old boy, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. At least three of the wounded were hospitalised. Warehouses and non-residential buildings were hit in multiple districts, and emergency crews battled fires after the assault on the capital.

The attack came hours after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv and announced a new drone deal between Ukraine and the European Union. She said the agreement would combine Ukrainian battlefield expertise with Europe’s industrial scale to launch joint projects and expand production, using the EU’s technological and industrial capacity.

Ukrainian officials also reported that Russian bombardments across the country killed 13 people and injured about 50 others on Wednesday, with industrial plants and healthcare facilities struck in Odesa and Sumy.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Kyiv Independent

The United States intensified its strikes on Iran early Thursday, hitting targets further north as American forces also fired on a ship they accused of trying to break their naval blockade. Iran retaliated with missile and drone fire targeting Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait before dawn.

Days of back-and-forth attacks and renewed threats to the Strait of Hormuz have strained the interim deal meant to end the war and widened the regional confrontation.

US President Donald Trump said Tehran “better behave” and said the US had targeted Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels moving through the strait. Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Tehran had “no reason” to abide by the deal if it did not benefit from it. Brent crude traded above $85 a barrel on Thursday as fighting kept the strait at the centre of the conflict.

Sources: BBC, Associated Press

Pew Research Center said views of the United States and China have flipped this year, with China now seen more positively than the US in most of the 36 countries surveyed. More people have favourable views of China than the US in 25 countries, while the US is viewed more positively in only six.

Views of Chinese President Xi Jinping are also more favourable than views of US President Donald Trump in 22 countries, though confidence in both men remains low.

The shift reflects improving views of China and worsening views of the US. Pew said the US still receives higher ratings than China on respect for personal freedoms, but that gap is narrowing as confidence in Washington weakens.

The survey, based on interviews with more than 42,000 people conducted from February to May, marks the first time in roughly 20 years of Pew tracking that China has been viewed more positively than the US.

Sources: The Guardian, Pew Research

French lawmakers approved a bill to legalise medically assisted dying for terminally ill adults, moving France closer to joining a small group of countries that allow the practice. The National Assembly passed the measure 291 to 241 after more than two years of debate, overriding previous Senate rejections.

The law applies to adult patients who are French or living in France on a stable and regular basis, have an incurable, deadly affliction in an advanced or terminal stage, are experiencing unbearable or treatment-resistant pain, and are able to freely express their will.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he would refer the legislation to the Constitutional Council. If approved, the law would allow doctors to help eligible patients die after medical review and a waiting period, though patients would normally administer the lethal substance themselves. President Emmanuel Macron said his 2022 commitment had been honoured.

Sources: New York Times, Le Monde

The United States is imposing 25% tariffs on some imports from Brazil from July 22 after a year-long investigation found what it described as unfair trade practices. The action, announced under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, covers certain Brazilian imports but exempts some goods that are not produced in the US or that officials fear would disrupt supply chains, including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice, some oil and gas energy products, and aerospace parts and components.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the measure was necessary to ensure American workers and companies compete on a level playing field and said negotiations had not resolved the issues.

Brazil would be the first country targeted under US President Donald Trump’s new tariff strategy relying on Section 301. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Brazil had not negotiated in good faith.

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters

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Israeli airstrikes have killed at least a dozen people in Gaza over the past two days, local health officials said, including a woman and six police officers killed in an airstrike on a police station in Jabalia refugee camp.

On Wednesday, three members of a family were killed in central Gaza, while a man was killed in Khan Younis and a child was shot dead in the Muwasi area outside Rafah, according to hospital officials.

The latest killings come despite the ceasefire agreed in October between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli military said four of the police officers killed in Jabalia were Hamas militants, but did not provide evidence on how those killed were involved in planning or carrying out attacks.

At least 1,123 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

Sources: NBC News, Al Jazeera

Hong Kong police arrested five people after raiding two independent bookstores and seizing boxes of books in Mong Kok, in the latest operation targeting booksellers under the city’s 2024 national security law.

Police said two men and three women were suspected of displaying seditious materials and selling seditious publications that stirred up hatred against the government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.

The arrests are the third round linked to independent bookstores since similar operations in March and June. Police said customs officials had referred the case after allegedly seditious books were found in a batch of goods shipped to Hong Kong from overseas. Have A Nice Stay, one of the stores raided, had already said it would shut on August 30, citing financial difficulties and an elusive red line.

Sources: NPR, Washington Post

Australia will require large data centres powering artificial intelligence to generate as much power as they consume and meet water-efficiency standards, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese set out a national framework for the fast-growing industry.

The government said the standards would create a legal obligation for companies to avoid draining the power grid, while new legislation would be introduced early next year and an Office of A.I. reporting to the prime minister would coordinate implementation.

Mr Albanese also said Australian creators of books, music, art and news should retain control over the price and value of work used to train artificial intelligence systems, adding: “Anything less is theft.” The plan still requires backing from state governments, and the details of how the requirements will work and be enforced remain unclear.

Sources: New York Times, ABC News

EU countries failed for a third straight day to agree a new package of sanctions against Russia, forcing a temporary freeze of the bloc’s price cap on Russian crude. Ambassadors agreed to keep the cap at $44.10 per barrel until July 23 and deferred further discussions until July 22, as officials tried to prevent the ceiling from rising automatically after higher global oil prices driven by the war in Iran.

The delay gives the bloc more time to reach agreement on a 21st sanctions package that would further target Russia’s energy revenue. Talks have been slowed by disputes over restrictions on Russia’s liquefied natural gas sales and measures linked to Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank.

Without another extension, the oil cap was due to rise in line with elevated rates, weakening a tool allies use to suppress Moscow’s oil revenues and potentially giving the Kremlin a cash influx.

Sources: Politico Europe, Bloomberg

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said intelligence assessments suggest Russia could launch limited kinetic operations against critical energy or transport infrastructure in the Baltic states or Poland. He said the signals did not identify a specific location or timing, but pointed to targeted attacks rather than a large-scale assault.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs similarly warned that Moscow could respond to growing Ukrainian pressure with provocations against Nato’s eastern flank.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the warnings should be taken seriously and that Poland was preparing intensively for various scenarios, while Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said Warsaw had a message for President Vladimir Putin: “We know what you are planning. Don’t do it.” The warnings come as countries on Nato’s eastern flank strengthen protection around critical infrastructure and after the EU and UK formally attributed a cyber attack on Poland’s energy grid last December to Russia’s FSB Centre 16.

Sources: Associated Press, FT

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On this day …

On this day in 1945, the United States conducted the Trinity test in the New Mexico desert, successfully detonating the world’s first nuclear weapon.

Developed as part of the Manhattan Project during the Second World War, the test confirmed that atomic weapons were operational and ushered in the nuclear age.

Less than a month later, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while the decades that followed were shaped by nuclear deterrence, arms races and efforts to prevent proliferation.

The legacy of Trinity continues to influence international security and strategic thinking today. Has the world ever truly escaped the shadow of that first explosion?

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US President Donald Trump said the United States would strike Iran’s bridges and power plants next week unless Tehran returned to negotiations, as US and Iranian forces exchanged fire for a fourth day.

He said Washington had dropped a proposed 20% fee on Strait of Hormuz cargo shipping but had resumed blockading Iranian ports. US Central Command said its forces had launched an additional round of strikes to degrade Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the waterway.

^{US Carry Out Operations in the Middle East - Video US Central Command}

The escalation came as Iran continued missile and drone attacks on US bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, and after Iranian attacks on commercial ships and two United Arab Emirates tankers. Shipping through the Strait has slowed to a two-month low and the benchmark Brent crude oil price has risen sharply, underscoring the strategic importance of the waterway.

Sources: BBC, Axios

Having choked off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is now signalling it could use Yemen’s Houthi allies to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, opening a new front against Washington and putting two vital energy arteries at risk.

Analysts say that as US strikes deepen inside Iran and Houthi attacks escalate in tandem, Tehran is widening the conflict and increasing pressure on Washington by extending the threat to global trade and energy supplies beyond the Gulf.

The Houthis have already shown they can choke commerce through Bab el-Mandeb. Earlier attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea forced major shipping companies to reroute vessels around southern Africa and raised transport costs, while the growing threat to trade and energy supplies could increase pressure on Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations before the world’s two most important oil chokepoints become the conflict’s defining battleground.

Sources: Reuters, The Guardian

US senators on Tuesday unveiled a revised Russia sanctions bill aimed at pressuring Moscow and major energy buyers including India and China, while easing some of the toughest provisions from the original proposal. The updated measure cuts the maximum tariff threat on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas to 100% from the earlier proposed 500% blanket tariff.

The bill also targets Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers, Russian financial institutions including the Central Bank of Russia, and major state-backed energy projects such as Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG. It provides exemptions for countries importing less than 15% of their natural gas from Russia and taking steps to reduce dependence, and gives US President Donald Trump authority to waive sanctions if he determines they are in the US national interest. The changes were made after concerns that the original proposal could hurt US allies and global energy markets.

Sources: NDTV, Times of India

Russia on Tuesday accused Ukraine of terrorism after Kyiv escalated attacks on shipping in the Sea of Azov, a route that handles about a quarter of Russian grain exports. Ukrainian drone forces commander Robert Brovdi said drones hit 11 Russian vessels overnight, including five tankers, five dry cargo vessels and a tugboat, bringing the total number struck in the past nine days to 116. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the goal was simply to cause damage and intimidate.

Shipping in the Sea of Azov remained restricted, with sources saying commercial vessels were unable to enter or leave via the Kerch Strait or the Azov-Don channel. Russia’s Agriculture Ministry said exports may be redirected to other routes and that supply logistics would be redirected if necessary.

Grain exporters said cargoes could be rerouted through Black Sea terminals or Baltic Sea ports, as Moscow moved to contain disruption to a new maritime front in the war.

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera

New York will block the construction of new large data centres for up to a year as it creates rules to protect the environment and energy grid from facilities that fuel artificial intelligence technology. Governor Kathy Hochul is set to sign an executive order imposing what her office described as the country’s first statewide moratorium on new large data centre permits, while regulators develop standards covering environmental impacts, energy demand, water usage and related factors.

Hochul said data centre development threatened to hike utility bills, deplete natural resources and create uncertainty for New Yorkers. The move comes as tech backers argue that blocking new projects hurts job growth and cedes ground to China in the race to lead in artificial intelligence.

Hochul’s office said the state legislature had approved its own moratorium bill, but the governor was instead opting for an executive order that would take effect immediately once signed.

Sources: NBC News, CNBC

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh told Congress on Tuesday that policymakers had “no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation” and would make the recent surge in prices “a thing of the past”, but he gave no signal on the central bank’s next move two weeks before its next policy meeting.

He said one softer inflation report did not amount to “mission accomplished” and repeated that the Fed would bring inflation down.

Warsh spoke after data showed consumer prices fell in June and core prices, which exclude food and energy, were unchanged. Even so, he said the Fed should not take too much comfort or concern from any one release. He also said the central bank would set interest rates without taking political factors into account, as officials remain divided over whether rates should rise, stay unchanged or be cut later this year.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Associated Press

France used its Bastille Day parade to stage its largest-ever national day military display, bringing European troops and aircraft onto the Champs-Elysees in a showcase of support for Ukraine and a broader display of continental rearmament.

Around 500 soldiers from the Coalition of the Willing marched in Paris, followed symbolically by 25 Ukrainian soldiers, one day after President Emmanuel Macron hosted a summit of Ukraine’s Western allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were among leaders invited to watch.

The parade set a record in scale, with nearly 6,700 troops, 98 aircraft, 31 helicopters and 315 vehicles. French officials said it was meant to illustrate France’s rearmament, strategic autonomy and Europe’s strategic awakening. Macron said Europe faced its gravest threats in decades and stood ready to fight to defend freedom and the rule of law, even at the cost of blood if necessary.

Sources: Euronews, RFI

US Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a $1.15 trillion annual defence policy bill, saying they would not advance legislation that could be seen as approval of President Donald Trump’s war against Iran. The procedural vote on the National Defense Authorization Act failed 50-46, short of the 60 votes needed to move ahead.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump had started the war without authorisation, strategy or an exit, while also warning the bill could not become a permission slip for what he called recklessness in Iran.

The vote came as the administration said it had reimposed a naval blockade of all Iranian ports and begun a fresh round of strikes. Democrats also objected to a push to raise total military spending to $1.5 trillion, including another $350 billion sought through the budget reconciliation process. The setback was unusual for legislation that has passed annually for more than six decades with bipartisan support.

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters

China’s Communist Party on Tuesday expelled former Politburo member Ma Xingrui, accusing him of corruption, abuse of power and trading political favours for sex. State media said the country’s top anti-graft agency found that Ma, the former party secretary of Xinjiang, had severely violated political discipline and was suspected of corruption-related crimes including accepting bribes, helping family members buy property at a discount and condoning relatives and staff in using his position to seek benefits.

The case will be handed to prosecutors and was described by the authorities as “extremely serious”. Ma’s purge makes him the third Politburo member to be ousted since 2022, extending Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive into the top ranks of the party.

Once seen as a rising political star with an aerospace background, Ma later oversaw Xinjiang, where his tenure coincided with the 2022 Urumqi fire protests that became one of the biggest public challenges to Xi’s rule.

Sources: Bloomberg, New York Times

Caribbean leaders have called on Britain to return the British Virgin Islands and urged King Charles to support the decolonisation of Britain’s remaining overseas territories, linking sovereignty directly to the region’s reparations campaign. The Caricom Reparations Commission said the Caribbean remained “the most colonised part of the world” and argued that reparations and decolonisation must go hand in hand.

At a London briefing on Tuesday, David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to Caricom, said decolonisation had been inserted into the commission’s new manifesto as a key demand. Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the commission, said Caribbean people in the Virgin Islands could not make fundamental decisions without consulting the British governor and Downing Street.

The commission’s intervention comes before this year’s Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, where Charles will be the keynote speaker.

Sources: The Guardian, The Telegraph

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On this day …

On this day in 1799, French soldiers serving in Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign discovered the Rosetta Stone near the town of Rosetta in northern Egypt.

Inscribed with the same text in ancient Greek, Demotic and Egyptian hieroglyphs, the stone later enabled scholars to decipher hieroglyphic writing after centuries of uncertainty.

The breakthrough transformed the study of ancient Egypt, allowing historians and archaeologists to read original inscriptions, monuments and official records for the first time in the modern era.

A single archaeological discovery fundamentally changed humanity’s understanding of one of history’s greatest civilisations.

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The US carried out a third consecutive night of strikes on Iran on Tuesday as President Donald Trump said Washington was reinstating a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and insisted the waterway would remain open.

US Central Command said it struck coastal defence systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities around Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak and Abu Musa, while Iran acknowledged strikes around those areas.

Iran responded with attacks across the Gulf, including strikes on Bahrain, Jordan and two tankers associated with the United Arab Emirates in the strait, killing one mariner and wounding eight others.

Trump also said the US would be reimbursed for protection and announced a 20 percent toll on cargo shipped through the strait, a shift from longstanding US support for freedom of navigation. Brent crude rose above $84 and Kpler said crossings fell 52 percent between July 10 and July 12.

Sources: Al Jazeera, The Independent

Yemen’s Houthi movement said it launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport on Monday after strikes on Sanaa International Airport earlier in the day. Saudi Arabia said its air defences intercepted missiles launched towards the southern region, and no casualties were reported. The exchange marked the sharpest escalation between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia since a period of relative calm began in 2022.

The Houthis said the Sanaa strikes were aimed at closing the airport to humanitarian flights and warned airlines against flying through Saudi airspace until what they called the blockade on Sanaa airport was lifted.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government said the runway was hit to stop an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from returning from the funeral of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The United Nations warned of the risk of a wider escalation.

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters

Four in five Americans expect the US war with Iran to continue for an extended period, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted as fighting escalated and US President Donald Trump declared a blockade of Iranian shipping in the Gulf. The three-day poll found that 79 percent expected US military involvement in Iran to last, up from 65 percent in late March, while 18 percent said the war would end quickly in a matter of weeks.

The poll also pointed to the domestic political cost of a longer conflict. Sixty percent of respondents said they expected gasoline prices to worsen over the next year as a result of the war, and half said the war had not been worth its costs.

Trump’s approval rating has stayed near the lowest levels of his political career since the conflict began, with Republican strategists warning that rising living costs have eroded the political benefits of his tax cuts.

Sources: Reuters, Dawn

Russia launched a new ballistic missile attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, hours after Ukraine and nine European countries announced a coalition to build a shared ballistic missile defence capability for Europe. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defence units were trying to repel the attack and that fires had broken out in the Holosiivskyi district.

The announcement in Paris brought together Ukraine, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The coalition said Europe required an integrated missile defence architecture to deter and neutralise future missile threats. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the effort could help develop a mass-produced, lower-cost system within 12 months.

The move came as Russia escalated missile and drone attacks, while President Vladimir Putin warned that Russian strikes would be several times more powerful in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Associated Press

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched a campaign on Monday to dismantle what the Trump administration described as the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to American sovereignty. In a video message and opinion article, Rubio said the court had become radical and extreme, and warned that Border Patrol agents, Marines and prosecutors could face prosecution by the tribunal.

The administration is considering travel bans, visa revocations, increased sanctions against the court and affiliated organisations, and diplomatic pressure on other countries to withdraw from the ICC. A State Department official said no diplomatic option would be off limits and that countries benefiting from US assistance or a US security presence were being called on to reject the court’s authority to prosecute American officials and servicemen.

The ICC said it would not comment at this stage. Legal experts disputed Rubio’s claims, saying the court was not asserting jurisdiction over conduct in the United States.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters

A wildfire in the historic Fontainebleau forest south of Paris prompted evacuations, disrupted train and highway traffic and spread across more than 1,300 hectares as France battled its third heatwave in less than three months. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said a second fire had broken out and around 1,000 people had been evacuated. President Emmanuel Macron said all available resources were being deployed against what he called an exceptionally large wildfire.

The blaze, unusual for its proximity to the capital, came as western Europe faced multiple fires under a third red-alert heat wave this year. In Spain, 10 people were still missing after a southern wildfire that killed 13 people, while authorities said extreme heat, wind and little rainfall were allowing smaller fires to grow unchecked.

French authorities were investigating whether the Fontainebleau fire had been started intentionally.

Sources: Associated Press, South China Morning Post

European authorities imposed sanctions on Monday over what they described as a long-running Russian cyber campaign targeting governments and critical infrastructure across the continent. The European Union and the United Kingdom said the measures targeted Russian military intelligence officers, hackers and private companies, while France said it would summon Russia’s ambassador in Paris. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the campaign involved sabotage and espionage in a dozen European countries.

Officials said the operations targeted government ministries, companies and service operators, with rail infrastructure in Poland cited among the cases. The European Union said Russia had built a malicious cyber ecosystem linking intelligence services, cybercriminal groups, hacktivists and private companies.

The United Kingdom said an alleged plot targeting Poland’s energy grid could have cut electricity to 500,000 civilians had it succeeded. The measures came as France prepared to host a summit of Ukraine’s allies in Paris.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, CBS News

The European Commission on Monday launched a $1bn aid and reconstruction fund for Gaza, bringing together European donors, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank for what it called an early recovery effort. EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica said the package would support debris removal and the restoration of water, sanitation, health, energy, agricultural and food systems.

The initiative comes far short of the scale of need. The European Union and United Nations said in April that more than $71bn would be required over the next 10 years, including $26.3bn in the first 18 months. Suica said support now required conditions on the ground to reach people in Gaza, while EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said shelling continued, disease was spreading and people were dying nine months after the so-called ceasefire.

Sources: Al Jazeera, Times of Israel

Reports published on Monday said Israel spent years trying to cultivate Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential post-regime leader, including meetings in Budapest and a plan to move him to a safe house inside Iran after strikes began in late February. The reports said the effort became such a priority that then Mossad chief David Barnea travelled to Hungary to meet Ahmadinejad.

The plan reportedly collapsed after Ahmadinejad became upset by the rescue operation and disillusioned with the idea of returning to power under the Israeli plan. He later reappeared briefly at the funeral procession for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after months out of public view. The reports said he is now believed to be in the custody of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence wing.

The alleged effort underscored how regime change planning had extended beyond military pressure to attempts to identify an alternative political figure inside Iran.

Sources: New York Times, The Guardian

A federal judge on Monday ruled that President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was filed for an improper purpose and used to manipulate the judicial process. US District Judge Kathleen Williams said there was never true adverseness between the parties and said the case was an attempt to use the court to lend legitimacy to an agreement that would confer tax protections on Trump and entities affiliated with him.

The ruling targeted a now-abandoned proposal for a nearly $1.8bn taxpayer-funded pool for alleged victims of government weaponisation and raised the prospect of professional sanctions for lawyers involved. Judge Williams said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had given at best misleading and at worst disingenuous testimony to Congress.

She ordered her ruling sent to disciplinary bodies in New York and Washington, and referred one Trump lawyer to the Florida Bar while restricting another lawyer’s ability to practise in the Southern District of Florida.

Sources: Washington Post, ABC News

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On this day …

On this day in 1789, revolutionaries stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, an event widely regarded as the beginning of the French Revolution.

Although only a handful of prisoners were held inside, the fortress symbolised royal authority and arbitrary power under the monarchy. Its capture demonstrated that the French crown could no longer rely on unquestioned control and encouraged revolutionary movements across the country.

The Revolution that followed transformed France’s political system and helped spread ideas of citizenship, constitutional government and popular sovereignty that continue to shape democratic societies today.

Few single events have carried such lasting political symbolism.

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US and Iran are now openly contesting control of the Strait of Hormuz, shifting the conflict from a cycle of retaliation into a struggle over who can define access to a vital maritime corridor.

After new US strikes on Iranian military targets, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had struck US military bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Iranian state media said one person was killed and four injured in the latest attacks on Iran.

The dispute over the strait now sits at the centre of the confrontation. US Central Command said the waterway is open and described it as vital for global trade, while Iran said it is closed and insisted it must control it. Brent crude rose 4% in Asia to $79.07 a barrel. Mediators are still trying to de-escalate, but the attacks have underlined that those efforts have yet to restore control over the waterway or stop the fighting.

Sources: BBC, Associated Press

Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least six people on Sunday, including 9-year-old Tala Abu Matar, underlining how little protection the October 2025 ceasefire now offers civilians even as mediators keep trying to preserve it.

Medics said Israeli gunfire killed the girl at a tent encampment in Al-Bureij refugee camp, while an air strike on a metal foundry in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood killed four people. Later, another strike on a tent encampment in Mawasi killed at least one person and wounded several others, including children.

The violence came as Hamas leaders visited Cairo for talks on the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. Those discussions include Hamas disarmament and Israeli army withdrawals, but sources close to the talks said there had not yet been a breakthrough. The ceasefire halted major fighting, but it has failed to stop attacks that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since it took effect.

Sources: South China Morning Post, Reuters

Israel will hold national elections on October 27, setting up a vote widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership. The Knesset said the election will take place on the latest date legally allowed, with Netanyahu’s coalition becoming the first in half a century to complete a full four-year term. Netanyahu confirmed in June that he will run again.

The campaign is already taking shape around whether voters still trust Netanyahu to lead. Current polling cited by broadcasters KAN and Channel 12 has Likud on 23 seats, neck-and-neck with former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party.

The election comes as Netanyahu faces criticism over security failures tied to the October 7 attacks, the war in Gaza, and wider disputes over coalition politics, judicial change and military service exemptions.

Sources: ABC News, Al Jazeera

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stepped down on Sunday as President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was changing its political strategy, opening a fresh wartime government reshuffle. Zelensky said he had offered Svyrydenko leadership of a new and important area in relations with a key international partner, while also signalling changes in the leadership of Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies.

The overhaul places winter preparedness at the centre of decision-making as Russia continues to target Ukraine’s power and heating infrastructure with ballistic missile strikes. Zelensky said preparing for winter was an extremely important priority and that Ukraine had to be ready for any threats that might arise.

The reorganisation, which would be the fourth major overhaul since Russia’s full-scale invasion, comes as Kyiv seeks fresh momentum in government while war fatigue and pressure on critical infrastructure continue.

Sources: South China Morning Post, Bloomberg

Germany is funding 50,000 strike drones for Ukraine in one of the biggest known Western drone purchases for Kyiv, underscoring how quickly unmanned systems are moving from battlefield tool to core military supply line. The order covers Shrike first-person-view drones made by Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall and fitted with software from US defence technology firm Auterion designed to autonomously track and hit moving targets in the final phase of flight.

Auterion chief executive Lorenz Meier said the contract was worth about €90 million and funded by a European country, with some drones already delivered and the rest due this year.

Germany’s role was confirmed by SkyFall, while Berlin’s Defence Ministry declined comment on operational security. The deal follows other large-scale drone commitments as Britain said last month it would provide 150,000 drones this year.

Sources: Japan Today, News Ukraine

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European countries recorded 10,650 excess deaths during the record-breaking late-June heatwave, in an official estimate that points to the human cost of extreme heat across the continent.

Data published by EuroMOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, showed more than 9,000 of the deaths were among people aged 65 and above during the week of June 22 to 28.

Scientists said there were no other known major factors, such as Covid-19 outbreaks, to explain the spike and said the heatwave would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.

The heatwave disrupted power supplies, shut schools and broke temperature records in France, Spain and the UK, while France and Belgium were the only countries to record very high excess mortality. Official figures may yet be revised as more data comes in.

Sources: Reuters, Times of India

Typhoon Bavi made landfall in eastern China after crossing the Pacific, forcing a vast evacuation and extending a week of storm disruption across the region. The storm first came ashore in Taizhou on Saturday evening before making a second landfall in Wenzhou around midnight.

More than 1.7 million people were evacuated in Zhejiang and thousands more in neighbouring provinces, while schools, work and outdoor activities were suspended and hundreds of flights and dozens of train services were cancelled.

Though Bavi weakened to a severe tropical storm, authorities warned it still posed risks because of the volume of moisture in its rain bands. The storm had already brought heavy rain to Taiwan after passing Japanese islands, while earlier landslides in the Philippines killed at least 17 people. Parts of southern China are also still recovering from Typhoon Maysak, which left at least 39 people dead earlier last week.

Sources: BBC, Associated Press

China has renewed its rejection of the 2016 South China Sea arbitration ruling, using the 10th anniversary of the decision to cast US-led military deployments as the main threat to regional stability. In a statement on Sunday, Beijing said the ruling was illegal and invalid, asserted its historic rights, and said continuous deployments, reckless manoeuvres and instigations by external powers such as the United States were the primary threat to peace in the waterway.

The response followed a joint statement from a 14-nation coalition led by the United States and the Philippines reaffirming support for a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific. Signatories included Japan, Australia and Britain. Beijing also protested after Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said China’s refusal to accept the ruling was against the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes.

Sources: South China Morning Post, Bloomberg

Economists are warning that a super El Niño this year could trigger a severe global food price shock lasting into 2028, adding a climate-driven supply shock to inflation already fuelled by the Iran war.

Scientists said the 2026-27 cycle has a historically unprecedented chance of becoming a very strong event, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there is a 63% chance sea surface temperatures will exceed 2C above normal later this year.

Analysts said the world now faces two shocks at once. Goldman Sachs said the strength of this El Niño could cause a 15.8% surge in global food commodity prices, with the consequences not fully realised until the second half of 2028. UBS said the weather cycle would compound disruption from the Iran war through higher prices and shortages of fertiliser and energy supplies.

Sources: Bloomberg, The Guardian

A fire at a Bangkok pub killed at least 27 people and injured 63 others late Sunday, with most fatalities caused by smoke inhalation after patrons became trapped at the rear of the venue.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said musicians reported the blaze began at a circuit breaker on the stage, followed by a blackout and an explosion. Firefighters brought the blaze under control within about half an hour, but 22 of the injured were reported to be in serious condition.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt said the fire spread rapidly through ceiling decorations and toxic smoke from burning plastic. He said around 300 customers were inside when the fire broke out, and that some people, confused by the smoke, ran into toilets while others collapsed in front of fire exits, blocking escape routes. Although the pub had passed inspection in April, authorities said an inquiry would examine the venue’s layout and safety compliance.

Sources: New York Times, Bangkok Post

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On this day …

On this day in 1930, the first FIFA World Cup opened in Uruguay, bringing together 13 national teams in the first global tournament dedicated solely to international football.

Organised by the newly established FIFA, the competition marked a significant step in the growth of organised international sport and reflected an increasingly connected world.

Over the decades, the tournament has expanded into one of the world’s largest global events, watched by billions and often serving as a stage for issues extending far beyond the pitch, from diplomacy and national identity to human rights and political debate.

FIFA has long maintained that football should unite rather than divide, but can a tournament of such global significance ever truly remain separate from politics?

The ceasefire between the United States and Iran has given way to renewed military confrontation. Iran resumed attacks linked to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States responded with further strikes, Israel warned it was prepared to attack again if necessary and global energy markets immediately reacted to renewed uncertainty in one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

At the same time, NATO emerged from its summit in Ankara having reaffirmed its unity without removing deeper questions over America’s long-term role in European security, while new reporting suggested Vladimir Putin has become more determined to continue the war in Ukraine despite growing military and economic pressure on Russia. Alongside these strategic developments, Britain, France, Colombia and the Philippines all entered important periods of political transition that will shape domestic politics well beyond this week.

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The ceasefire between Washington and Tehran has ended. Iran resumed attacks linked to commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States launched another round of strikes, Iran retaliated against American bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, President Donald Trump declared the ceasefire over and Israel warned it was prepared to resume military operations against Iran with “even greater force” if required.

The consequences extended well beyond the battlefield. Qatar paused plans to increase production at its Ras Laffan LNG complex after attacks reinforced concerns over shipping through Hormuz, while vessel traffic through the waterway remained dramatically below normal levels. What had briefly appeared to be a contained regional conflict again became a source of uncertainty for global energy markets and international trade.

The pause created by last month’s agreement has ended. The question now is not whether the ceasefire can be restored, but whether the region moves towards another temporary arrangement or a more sustained period of military confrontation.

NATO left Ankara with renewed commitments and a measure of relief. Donald Trump reaffirmed support for Article 5, allies agreed further military assistance for Ukraine and Washington offered Kyiv a licence to manufacture Patriot interceptor missiles. The summit demonstrated that the alliance remains capable of producing collective decisions despite months of political uncertainty.

It also demonstrated how much the alliance has changed. Trump again pressed allies over defence spending, revisited disputes over Greenland and left unanswered questions about America’s longer-term military presence in Europe. European leaders welcomed the outcome while acknowledging that relations with Washington are likely to remain unpredictable.

Rather than resolving uncertainty, the summit illustrated how NATO is adapting to it. Greater European defence spending, expanded industrial cooperation and new military projects are increasingly serving both strategic and political purposes as allies seek to preserve cohesion within the alliance.

The war in Ukraine is imposing increasingly visible costs on Russia, but there is little indication those costs are changing the Kremlin’s objectives.

Ukraine continued to expand its long-range campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, contributing to restrictions on diesel exports as Moscow sought to protect domestic supplies. Russia has also stepped up efforts to disrupt Starlink communications used by Ukrainian forces, while previous reporting highlighted growing strains within parts of the country’s financial system.

Despite those pressures, reporting late this week suggested President Vladimir Putin has rejected suggestions of compromise and is instead preparing for further escalation, with the remaining Ukrainian-held areas of the Donbas still his immediate objective. Rather than encouraging restraint, Ukraine’s growing ability to strike inside Russia appears to have reinforced the Kremlin’s determination to continue the war.

Ukraine faces mounting pressures of its own. Patriot interceptor shortages continue to expose Kyiv to Russian ballistic missile attacks, even as Washington agreed to support domestic production of the system. The conflict therefore enters the second half of the year with both sides under increasing pressure but neither showing any willingness to moderate its objectives.

Several significant political transitions accelerated this week, each with potentially important domestic consequences.

In Britain, Andy Burnham moved to the brink of becoming prime minister after securing overwhelming backing from Labour MPs, while Nigel Farage resigned his parliamentary seat to force a by-election that he immediately pledged to contest. In France, Marine Le Pen confirmed she would seek the presidency after an appeals ruling left her eligible to run. In Colombia, the transfer of power briefly stalled after President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella accused the outgoing government of attempting to remain in office before President Gustavo Petro reaffirmed that he would hand over power at the end of his term. In the Philippines, the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte began under heavy security as her confrontation with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr entered a new phase.

These developments arose from very different political circumstances. Together, they illustrate how leadership contests, constitutional processes and electoral positioning are becoming defining features of the political landscape across several important democracies.

Temporary pauses rarely resolve international disputes. More often, they provide governments with time to regroup, reassess their options and prepare for what comes next.

This week suggested that several of those pauses have now run their course. The ceasefire between the United States and Iran has given way to renewed military confrontation, NATO continues to adapt to a more transactional relationship with Washington and Russia appears increasingly prepared to absorb mounting pressure rather than alter its objectives in Ukraine. At the same time, political transitions in several countries point to further uncertainty in domestic leadership and policymaking over the months ahead.

Whether these developments lead to wider confrontation or new attempts at diplomacy will become clearer in the weeks ahead. For now, governments across multiple regions are once again operating in an environment where the assumptions that held only a short time ago no longer apply.

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Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran and would do so with “even greater force” if necessary, as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran raised fears of a return to full-scale war after an April ceasefire and a June U.S.-Iran agreement to end hostilities.

At a military ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had been weakened by two previous Israeli campaigns but that the conflict was not yet over. Iranian armed forces launched attacks on U.S. military infrastructure in Gulf states after U.S. strikes on Iran’s southern coastal and eastern provinces, further eroding a three-week-old ceasefire.

The attacks came as Iran buried Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Mashhad, while U.S. President Donald Trump had declared the truce “over” after attacks on Qatari and Saudi shipping vessels earlier this week.

Sources: Reuters, Al Arabiya

Powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela last month are giving way to a wider health emergency as displaced residents and unaffected neighbours crowd relief services in the worst-hit areas. Doctors in La Guaira reported rising diarrheal disease and skin conditions, alongside growing demand for medicines for chronic illnesses.

The United Nations has appealed for roughly $300 million to help 1.3 million people, while the International Rescue Committee said 38 hospitals were damaged.

The pressure reflects both earthquake losses and a system already under strain. Venezuelan officials said 190 buildings collapsed, 856 were damaged and about 18,000 people were left without homes after quakes that killed 3,889 people. U.N. relief chief Tom Fletcher said patients are now arriving not only with fractures but with longer-term needs, and Pan-American Health Organization representative Armando Denegri said 50% of health professionals in La Guaira were directly affected.

Sources: Associated Press, CBS News

Qatar has paused efforts to ramp up production at the Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas complex after an attack on one of its tankers in the Strait of Hormuz reinforced fears that transit through the waterway remains too risky.

According to people familiar with the matter, QatarEnergy Chief Executive Officer Saad Al-Kaabi decided to halt plans to increase output, keep operations at a minimum for safety reasons and reduce the number of vessels scheduled to dock.

The decision threatens to tighten the global gas market further as Asia and Europe compete for spare supply before winter. Asian LNG spot prices are more than 80% above pre-war levels, while European benchmark gas prices rose above €50 a megawatt-hour on Thursday.

The pause came as shipping through Hormuz plunged, with only five vessels tracked crossing on Wednesday compared with roughly 130 daily before the war.

Sources: Bloomberg, Al Jazeera

Andy Burnham is almost certain to become Britain’s next prime minister after 322 of Labour’s 403 MPs nominated him to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as party leader, leaving him one short of the point at which no rival could secure the 81 nominations needed to enter the contest.

Burnham, the only declared candidate after nominations opened on Thursday, said the backing from across the party reflected a shared belief that Britain needs a new approach to politics.

If no other candidate enters, Burnham is expected to be declared Labour leader next week and take office as prime minister on July 20. The swift consolidation of support means the choice is being settled inside the Parliamentary Labour Party rather than through a wider contest, though Dame Siobhain McDonagh said Burnham and his ideas would have been better tested in a leadership race.

Sources: FT, BBC

NATO leaders left Ankara with a measure of relief after U.S. President Donald Trump recommitted to the alliance, endorsed a declaration backing Article 5 and agreed to let Ukraine make Patriot missile interceptors. European leaders welcomed the outcome after months of strain over Greenland, Iran and defence spending, while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the United States remained the alliance’s dominant player.

But the summit did not resolve the deeper uncertainty in transatlantic relations. European officials still expect more volatility in relations with Trump and continue to see major value in keeping the United States inside the alliance because of its military weight.

The gathering also underlined NATO’s growing reliance on higher European defence spending and new military deals to steady the relationship, even as the Pentagon reviews the 80,000-strong U.S. troop presence in Europe and plans for a summit in Albania next year remain on hold.

Sources: Reuters, Atlantic Council

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President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv and is instead likely to escalate the war in the coming months, according to people close to the Kremlin. The shift comes as Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and ports have strengthened his resolve to keep fighting, while U.S. President Donald Trump has said a resolution is closer than many realise.

The immediate objective remains the remainder of the Donbas region still held by Ukraine. One person familiar with Putin’s thinking said he had dug in his heels and recently rebuked advisers who suggested a compromise ceasefire along current front lines.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was ready for a peaceful resolution but had enough capability to continue the special military operation. Russian military experts have increasingly discussed escalation, including possible strikes on European targets such as NATO bases in Baltic countries.

Sources: Reuters, IDN

Twelve people were reported killed in a wildfire in Almeria in southern Spain as about 150 firefighters battled a blaze that broke out amid soaring temperatures and orange weather warnings across parts of Andalusia.

The regional government said the deaths occurred in the hamlet of Bedar and that at least six people were injured, while roads were closed, residents were evacuated and about 50 people were housed in a cultural centre.

The fire came as western Europe recorded its hottest June on record and many countries faced a third heatwave this week since May. The average temperature in western Europe reached 20.74C in June, 3.05C above the 1991-2020 average.

The climate monitor said the June heatwave contributed to severe health impacts, including heat-related deaths, and that the heat also exacerbated drought conditions and fuelled wildfires in Spain and southern France.

Sources: The Guardian, RFI

El Nino strengthened over the past month and is now highly likely to rank among the largest events on record when it peaks between October and December. Forecasters put the chance of a very strong event at 81% and said it is likely to persist through early spring 2027, signalling a weather pattern capable of reshaping rainfall, winds and temperatures across multiple regions.

Sea surface temperatures in the Nino 3.4 region are now 1.2C above average, while warming waters below the surface and shifting wind and pressure patterns point to a strengthening event.

El Nino typically brings drier conditions and drought in Australia and wetter winters in East Africa and the southern United States. Combined with human-induced climate change, the last El Nino contributed to 2023 being the second-hottest year on record and 2024 the hottest.

Sources: France 24, Le Monde

A Palestinian driver bringing food aid into Gaza was killed on Wednesday after an aid convoy stopped because one truck broke down soon after entering the territory, according to witnesses and the local truckers’ association.

Ahmad Esleem was shot in the head after Israeli soldiers ordered drivers out of their trucks, and the association said it may suspend operations in protest. It said the convoy had been fully coordinated and had entered through the only crossing point still functioning for aid shipments.

The Israeli military confirmed the shooting but said troops had identified drivers who exited their trucks contrary to established procedures and opened fire after perceiving an immediate threat. The association said it is moving towards closing the crossings and suspending work, warning that continued targeting of drivers threatens the movement of goods. The killing adds to pressure on an aid system in which private truckers are routinely used to move food and essential supplies into Gaza.

Sources: The Guardian, The Palestinian Information Center

Severe flooding in southern China has created a new public safety risk after hundreds of snakes, including cobras, escaped from breeding farms in Hengzhou as storm waters swept through Guangxi. Authorities warned residents after flood waters damaged snake farms, and emergency guidance said venomous snakes had escaped and could seek shelter in homes, stairwells, corners of buildings and along riverbanks.

The snake alerts came amid a much wider disaster. Authorities said 39 people died in flooding after heavy rainfall, with 26 deaths in Hengzhou after the partial collapse of a reservoir dam sent torrents of water into the city.

About 130,000 people have been evacuated, while officials increased anti-venom supplies and opened a fast-track treatment channel for snakebite patients at Hengzhou People’s hospital. Nine people remained missing in the broader Guangxi region.

Sources: NBC News, The Guardian

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On this day …

On this day in 1940, the Battle of Britain began, opening one of the most significant military campaigns of the Second World War.

Following the fall of France, Nazi Germany launched an air offensive against Britain in an effort to destroy the Royal Air Force and secure control of the skies before a possible invasion.

For months, RAF pilots, supported by radar technology, industrial production and civilian resilience, resisted sustained attacks by the Luftwaffe. Britain’s survival denied Germany air superiority and marked Hitler’s first major military setback of the war.

The Battle of Britain demonstrated that technological innovation, preparation and determination could alter the course of history. Can decisive moments in history sometimes hinge on the resilience of a relatively small number of people?

A succinct daily briefing delivered each weekday to help you stay on top of the stories shaping the world.

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The United States launched new strikes on Iran on Wednesday in the sharpest escalation since both sides signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-June. US Central Command said the action was intended to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards later said they attacked two US bases in Kuwait and two in Bahrain, warning the response could widen.

The fighting exposed the dispute at the centre of the truce. Both sides accuse the other of violating the memorandum, but the key point of contention is the clause on safe passage for commercial vessels through Hormuz.

President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was over and warned strikes would get much worse if Iran again attacked ships in the strait, though he also said he did not think the war would restart and that anything that happens would be over very quickly.

Sources: Al Jazeera, CNN

President Donald Trump threw the NATO summit in Ankara into disarray on Wednesday, demanding the United States cut trade ties with Spain, renewing claims on Greenland and declaring the fragile ceasefire with Iran to be over.

His remarks overshadowed a summit that European leaders had hoped would project solidarity, and came as he criticised allies for not supporting the war on Iran.

Hours later, by evening, Trump changed tack, saying there had been a lot of love in the room and a lot of unity. On paper, the summit ended with allies affirming their ironclad commitment to collective defence under Article 5 and pledging €70 billion in military assistance to Ukraine for 2026. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance was more together than ever.

Sources: Reuters, New York Times

President Donald Trump said at the NATO summit in Ankara that the United States would give Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, a move that could help Kyiv defend against Russia’s ballistic missile attacks.

Trump told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that some interceptors could also be sent immediately, though he added that the US did not have many and needed them for itself.

The offer addresses one of Ukraine’s most acute shortages. Patriots are the only weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal that can shoot down ballistic projectiles, and Ukraine’s air force said earlier this week that a serious shortage of interceptor missiles meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia on Sunday night were shot down. Trump called Patriot a defensive weapon and said Ukraine could begin to produce its own quickly.

Sources: BBC, Reuters

Russia denounced NATO’s summit decisions as potentially catastrophic after the alliance pledged €70 billion in military assistance to Ukraine for 2026, reaffirmed its ironclad commitment to collective defence under Article 5 and unveiled arms deals worth at least $50 billion.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said NATO’s priorities remained the militarisation of Europe, building up defence capabilities, preparation for armed conflict with Russia and aid to Ukraine.

Moscow also sought to turn visible tensions inside the alliance to its advantage. Zakharova said cracks between the United States and its NATO partners had not gone anywhere, adding that Americans did not hide their disappointment with the bloc.

She cited Greenland and what Washington saw as a lack of allied backing when the United States needed support. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said such disputes showed the alliance’s democratic strength and should serve as a lesson for President Vladimir Putin.

Sources: Reuters, Global Banking & Finance

President Donald Trump flew from Turkey to England on the older Air Force One rather than the new Qatari-gifted jet he had used to travel to the NATO summit in Ankara, an unexpected change that drew questions about security as hostilities with Iran resumed. Trump later boarded the new aircraft at RAF Mildenhall for the trip back to Washington. The change came unexpectedly.

Trump said the older plane was used for old time’s sake while the new jet was sent ahead so US servicemembers at the base could tour it.

The switch came after Trump said he was at the top of Iran’s kill list and as the United States had launched strikes on more than 80 Iranian targets. The gifted aircraft has also faced scrutiny over security systems and countermeasures.

Sources: The Guardian, The Independent

Russia imposed a ban on diesel exports on Wednesday after systematic Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries triggered gasoline shortages and price spikes, as drivers in many regions faced hours-long lines to refuel.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said the fuel situation remained complex and was causing concern among the public. He said the export ban would increase supplies to the domestic market and that Russia would start importing fuel in July.

The ban, which includes producers and runs until July 31 with some exemptions under pre-existing government agreements, also tightened fuel markets beyond Russia. Benchmark European diesel margins rose to a record $60.17 per barrel after the announcement.

President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was trying to damage Russia’s economy and create a sense of anxiety in society, while Kyiv says its attacks are designed to limit Russia’s ability to wage war and force Moscow to start peace talks.

Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters

President Donald Trump said he would ask the Supreme Court to rehear the case that struck down his executive order aimed at revoking birthright citizenship, a move the sources describe as highly unlikely to succeed.

The declaration, made in a social media post, showed his continued frustration with last week’s decision, which was delivered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The court ruled that citizenship for nearly all children born on US soil is enshrined in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Trump called the ruling a miscarriage of justice and said American citizenship is not for sale. But Supreme Court rehearing requests are rarely granted after a ruling in an argued case, and the last such request granted after a decision was in 1965. Administration lawyers had not filed the request by Wednesday evening.

Sources: New York Times, South China Morning Post

Russia is installing jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet network as it tries to blunt Ukraine’s mid-strike drone campaign, which has hit supply lines, fuel storage facilities, air-defence installations and command centres.

Ukrainian officials say most of these missions are flown using Starlink, once seen as largely immune to jamming, and that Russia has installed devices near towns and military facilities.

Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence ministry, said Russia was deploying a system called Volna Kupol Garant, strong enough to destabilise Starlink in an area of about 20 square km, with about 10 detected so far.

Ukrainian units say they have already struck two such systems. Rob Lee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute said wider deployment could make the campaign more difficult.

Sources: Times of India, The Independent

A U.N. fact-finding mission said Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces committed mass killings, abductions of women and girls, mass gang rapes and forced starvation in al-Fashir as part of an intentional policy amounting to genocide. The mission said the RSF and allies committed the war crime of starvation by imposing a prolonged siege, impeding relief supplies and shelling food production systems.

The report also warned that similar patterns were emerging around al-Obeid. Mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said the patterns documented in al-Fashir, including encirclement, attacks on civilian infrastructure, restrictions on humanitarian access and widespread abuses against civilians, should serve as a stark warning.

On Monday, members of the U.N. human rights council condemned the violence and set up an urgent inquiry into alleged abuses there. Britain and other states have warned of a risk of large-scale atrocities there.

Sources: Reuters, Arab News

The International Monetary Fund cut its 2026 global growth forecast to 3.0% from 3.1% in April, saying the world economy had weathered the shock from the Iran war better than feared but still faced weaker growth this year. It forecast a rebound to 3.4% in 2027, while raising its 2026 headline inflation forecast to 4.7%.

The IMF said demand for AI and other technologies had helped offset a sharp drop in energy supplies caused by the war, but warned of ongoing risks tied to the Middle East conflict, trade fragmentation and potential corrections in market expectations for AI.

Its forecast assumes the Strait of Hormuz will start to reopen in mid-July and that traffic will gradually normalise by March 2027. It left the US forecast unchanged at 2.3% and lowered the euro area to 0.9%.

Sources: Reuters, South China Morning Post

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On this day …

On this day in 1816, delegates meeting in Tucumán formally declared Argentina’s independence from Spain.

The declaration marked a decisive step in the Spanish American wars of independence, as revolutionary movements swept across the continent seeking self-government after centuries of colonial rule.

While independence ended Spanish political authority, the new nation still faced years of internal conflict over its constitution, leadership and national identity before the modern Argentine state fully emerged.

Argentina’s independence formed part of a broader transformation that reshaped the political map of the Americas and accelerated the decline of European colonial empires.

Is national independence defined by a declaration, or by the institutions and stability that follow?

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The US carried out strikes on more than 80 sites in Iran and revoked a waiver allowing new sales of Iranian oil after July 7, further straining the interim agreement signed on June 17. US Central Command said the attacks were an immediate response to Tehran’s latest attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Brent oil climbed more than 2% to trade near $76 a barrel early Wednesday.

Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi vowed “decisive actions” in response, while Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned the US that “the era of bullying and extortion is over”.

Talks were suspended as Tehran began a funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with the next meeting due to be scheduled after the ceremonies.

Sources: Bloomberg, Times of India

Nigel Farage resigned as MP for Clacton while under investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner over a £5 million gift he received before entering Parliament, but said he would contest the by-election caused by his departure. The Reform UK leader said voters in Clacton should judge his actions and framed the contest as “people versus the establishment”. Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and Restore Britain have all ruled out standing.

The move creates an unusual political test for a party that has led national polls for about 15 months but faces questions over Farage’s broader appeal beyond his core support.

The investigation has been paused following his resignation, but could resume if he wins and returns to Parliament. One possible outcome is suspension, which could trigger a recall petition and another by-election.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, BBC

Marine Le Pen said she would run for president of France next year after an appeals court upheld her embezzlement conviction but reduced her ban on holding elected office, clearing the way for her to stand in the 2027 election. The new 15-month ban was backdated to March 2025 and had already expired.

Le Pen said she would appeal to the Cour de Cassation, which she said would suspend the effects of the ruling, allowing her to campaign without an electronic ankle bracelet. She said Jordan Bardella would be her prime minister if she is elected president in 2027.

Recent opinion polls have largely suggested the far right will lead in the first round of next year’s vote, but her candidacy could remain in limbo until the higher court’s decision. Her opponents are also likely to question her integrity during the campaign.

Sources: Le Monde, Politico Europe

NATO leaders used their summit in Ankara to showcase military projects worth billions of dollars as they tried to show President Donald Trump that European allies were increasing their defence capabilities.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called the investment “money well spent”, while Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Saab would supply up to 10 new GlobalEye surveillance aircraft for a 10-nation consortium.

Yet the display of allied rearmament was overshadowed by Trump renewing his demand that the United States should control Greenland rather than Denmark and announcing that the US would lift sanctions on Turkey. Trump also said selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey was “something certainly we’d consider”.

The moves highlighted how NATO’s summit was shaped not only by new defence projects, but by Trump’s pressure on allies and his personal diplomacy with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sources: PBS, Associated Press

Two bombs exploded near the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron had spent the night, wounding 18 people and overshadowing his visit to Syria. Macron’s motorcade had left for the presidential palace shortly before the blasts, and his office said he had not heard them. The visit continued, with Macron meeting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The attack was a setback for Syrian leaders seeking to project stability and rebuild ties with Western states after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad. Macron and Sharaa said France and Syria would appoint ambassadors, while French companies signed more than a dozen agreements.

Macron, the first major Western leader to visit Syria since Assad was forced out, said France was ready to help rebuild Syria’s economy and banking sector. Syrian authorities said investigations were under way and no group immediately claimed responsibility.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters

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Nine countries have committed to a new global defence bank that Canada says will help rearm allied nations, with Prime Minister Mark Carney announcing the support at the NATO summit in Ankara. Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine joined Canada in backing the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, which will be based in Canada and is intended to raise up to £100 billion in cheap financing.

Canada said the partner countries had been invited to ratify the plans domestically, with the aim of making the bank operational in 2027. The project is designed to expand access to capital, reduce financing costs and support expansion of industrial capacity across member countries.

However the absence of heavyweight G7 nations other than Canada could limit the bank’s financial firepower, even as rising defence demands push allies to seek new funding mechanisms.

Sources: Reuters, Financial Post

Russia’s largest oil refinery in the Omsk region of western Siberia has halted operations after a Ukrainian drone attack, according to two industry sources, in one of Ukraine’s longest-range strikes of the war. The Omsk plant is Russia’s top producer of gasoline, and the halt is likely to exacerbate fuel shortages across the country. Officials said damage assessment and restoration work were under way and no plant personnel were injured.

Ukraine’s military said the strike caused a fire at the refinery, which is nearly 2,500 kilometres from Ukrainian territory. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said upgraded Fire Point drones had put Siberia “within reach of Ukrainian precision” and called the attack a significant blow to Russia’s oil economy. The refinery processed 22 million tons of oil in 2024, according to source-based information.

Sources: Moscow Times, CNBC

A Ukrainian woman suspected of last week’s bomb attack on a businessman and his family in Monaco has been found dead in Ukraine, opening a new phase in a case that had already triggered an international search. Ukrainian authorities said Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was discovered with gunshot wounds to the head after returning to Ukraine on July 1.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general said an intelligence officer and a former law enforcement official had been detained on suspicion of murder. The authorities said both men had been under investigation as possible accomplices in the Monaco attack because they had repeatedly transferred money to Berezovska through cryptocurrency and bank accounts.

Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond had said Berezovska was suspected of attempting to kill a businessman, a woman and a child after surveilling their residence for days before the attack. Ukrainian authorities said all information was being shared with Monaco.

Sources: New York Times, BBC

Colombia’s president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella suspended transition meetings with the outgoing government of Gustavo Petro on Tuesday and accused the president of attempting a coup to remain in power. In an address on social media, de la Espriella said he could not negotiate with officials who did not recognise the result and called on the armed forces to protect the Constitution and disobey any order from Petro to the contrary.

The move followed Petro’s refusal to recognise de la Espriella’s election victory and his allegations of fraud without public evidence. Later on Tuesday, Petro said he respected the people who voted for de la Espriella and confirmed that he would hand over power at the end of his term, while denying that his team was undermining the transition. Finance Minister Germán Ávila then suspended the sector-level handover tables, though he left open the possibility of resuming talks.

Sources: MercoPress, The Hill

Chinese startup DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip designed for inference, the stage of AI computing in which a trained model generates responses for users, according to three people familiar with the matter, in a move that could reduce its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips.

The effort remains at an early stage, with the company reaching out to external partners and holding discussions with chip-design, foundry and memory companies. One person said the effort began about a year ago.

If successful, the chip push would mark a major strategic shift for DeepSeek, which has been known for emphasizing AI model breakthroughs rather than commercialising its technology. The move comes as US export controls bar Chinese companies from buying Nvidia’s most advanced chips and Beijing presses technology champions to build domestic alternatives. DeepSeek has also increased hiring of chip-design engineers in recent months, though recruitment has been done privately without public job postings.

Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg

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On this day …

On this day in 1889, the first edition of The Wall Street Journal was published in New York.

Founded by Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, the newspaper was created to provide reliable financial reporting at a time when American industry and capital markets were expanding rapidly.

Over the decades, it evolved from a specialist publication into one of the world’s most influential newspapers, helping shape the way investors, policymakers and business leaders interpret economic events and market trends.

Its history illustrates that functioning markets depend not only on capital, but also on credible information and informed analysis.

In an age of instant news and misinformation, has trusted journalism become more valuable than ever?

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China’s test-launch of a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine has sharpened regional concern over Beijing’s military trajectory, even as its navy cast the event as routine. The missile was fired at 12:01 p.m. Monday carrying a simulated warhead to a designated area in the Pacific Ocean, according to Senior Captain Wang Xuemeng, a spokesman for China’s navy. U.S. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Washington monitored the launch and described Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons buildup as a concern for the region and the world.

The test drew criticism across the Indo-Pacific. Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said China had informed Australia but called the launch destabilising to the region, while Japan said it had serious concern over the intensification of China’s military activities.

Analysts cited in the sources said the launch highlighted China’s expanding submarine-based nuclear deterrent and showed its navy testing capabilities beyond land-based missile forces. The test was launched within hours of the signing yesterday of a mutual defence alliance between Australia and Fiji.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Times of India

Donald Trump arrives in Ankara for a NATO summit facing two overlapping pressures: Russia’s renewed attacks on Ukraine and Washington’s demand that allies accelerate defence spending.

The meeting comes as the alliance also absorbs disputes linked to the U.S. war against Iran, including complaints from Trump over limited European help in the Strait of Hormuz.

The pressure intensified before the summit. Russia struck Kyiv on Sunday with dozens of missiles and hundreds of strike drones, killing at least 11 people, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attacks showed Ukraine’s need for more military aid, especially from the U.S. Trump is due to meet Zelenskyy in Turkey, but his insistence that Vladimir Putin wants the war to end leaves NATO heading into Ankara with unity under strain and expectations deliberately low.

Sources: CNBC, Washington Post

Iran’s military fired at least two missiles at commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night, according to U.S. officials, damaging two vessels and threatening to undo a memorandum of understanding signed less than three weeks ago under which Tehran agreed to halt attacks in the waterway.

U.K. Maritime Trade Operations said it received a report from a tanker travelling south near Oman that was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a fire.

The attacks also came after a one-week agreement between the U.S. and Iran on halting attacks in the strait expired. One vessel under attack appeared to be Al Rekayyat, a liquefied natural gas tanker owned and managed by Nakilat, while a U.S. official said both vessels suffered significant damage but no casualties. The missile fire came as indirect talks in Doha ended without much progress on the Strait of Hormuz.

Sources: Axios, Wall Street Journal

Ukraine said a serious shortage of interceptor missiles meant none of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia at Kyiv on Sunday night were shot down, leaving the capital exposed as Moscow intensified its air campaign ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Ankara.

At least 15 people were killed in Kyiv and eight more in the wider region, while officials said 56 people were injured in the capital and 48 in the region.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks showed the need for strong decisions on air defences at the summit, while Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Russia was exploiting a serious shortage. A second report said Ukraine had virtually run out of Patriot interceptors, the only system that has proven able to reliably stop ballistic missiles.

Sources: BBC, Wall Street Journal

Canada has chosen a German-Norwegian bid to build up to 12 diesel-electric submarines, handing Prime Minister Mark Carney one of the country’s largest defence procurement decisions as he pushes to deepen Nato ties and reduce military dependence on the United States.

Carney said the decision was about the best platform and partnership for Canada’s strategic, security and economic interests, while the government said the project would expand a fleet that currently relies on ageing submarines bought secondhand from Britain in 1998.

The choice of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and its Type 212CD design comes before a Nato summit in Turkey and fits Carney’s wider push to raise defence spending and strengthen Canada’s presence in the Arctic. Carney said the project would be the most costly military purchase in Canada’s history, though final negotiations with the contractor still lie ahead.

Sources: The Guardian, New York Times

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Emmanuel Macron arrived in Syria on Monday, becoming the first major Western leader to visit the country since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in 2024 and the first Western European head of state to do so since the new authorities took power.

The visit places France at the forefront of Western engagement with Syria’s new leadership during a period of relative calm in the Middle East.

Macron was greeted at Damascus airport by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and is due to meet Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa before both leaders head to the NATO summit in Ankara. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said Macron travelled with a business delegation to discuss regional security as well as business and investment opportunities, while his office said he would also engage directly with diverse Syrian people.

Sources: Associated Press, Euronews

Hamas said Monday it had dissolved its government in Gaza and was preparing to transfer power to a technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. Ismail al-Thawabta, general director of the Hamas-run Government Media Office, said only technical and professional staff would remain to run day-to-day affairs, while Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called the move a positive step forward.

However the move left the central dispute untouched. The Board of Peace said the technocratic committee must control all weapons in Gaza, while committee chair Ali Shaath said effective governance required a unified security apparatus under one authority.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the announcement as an attempt to avoid disarmament, and negotiations on the ceasefire’s second phase remain largely deadlocked for months.

Sources: Associated Press, South China Morning Post

Norway has urged China to use its close ties with Moscow to help bring Russia into negotiations over the war in Ukraine, linking Beijing’s role on the conflict to the prospects for deeper cooperation with Europe. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Oslo that China had the best and most direct access to Russia’s leadership and should use that channel.

Støre also said there was potential for deeper cooperation between Europe and China, but that Beijing’s close partnership with Russia would remain a limit as long as the war continued. Norwegian officials said negotiations should begin without conditions, starting with a ceasefire based on the current front line in Ukraine, which Støre described as a major concession from Kyiv because Russian forces would still be on Ukrainian territory. China’s official readout of the meeting did not mention Russia or Ukraine.

Sources: Kyiv Post, Reuters

Wildfires sweeping southern Europe forced thousands from their homes, with the most acute threat in southwest France where a blaze in the Pyrenees scorched more than 11,000 acres and evacuated more than 10,000 people from nearly 30 villages and towns.

French interior minister Laurent Nuñez said Monday the fire was not yet contained and was still progressing, as more than 2,000 firefighters and water-dropping aircraft worked to slow its spread.

The fire expanded rapidly from Sunday evening and came as France, Spain and Portugal faced renewed wildfire danger after intense heat waves. Officials also barred spectators from Monday’s third stage of the Tour de France, with Nuñez saying the race would proceed without crowds because security and safety personnel had been deployed to fight the fires.

Sources: New York Times, The Guardian

A European state intelligence report warns Russia risks an explosive banking crisis as lenders shoulder more of the burden of the war economy just as the European Union prepares a new sanctions package targeting banks and cryptocurrency networks. The report said deteriorating loans, growing household indebtedness and state-backed credit programmes were masking vulnerability in the banking system.

The report estimated that 10% of corporate loans were doubtful, while some major banks reported retail non-performing loan ratios as high as 15% in 2025. It also said more than 500,000 Russians declared bankruptcy in 2025 and that more than 13 million people had taken out at least three loans simultaneously.

Russia’s central bank has played down the risk, while one analyst said there was no immediate financial crisis to hand. But the intelligence report warned that an ambitious sanctions package against banks could trigger a shock.

Sources: Reuters, The Telegraph

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On this day …

On this day in 2005, four coordinated suicide bombings struck London’s public transport network during the morning rush hour.

Three explosions hit Underground trains before a fourth bomb destroyed a double-decker bus in central London. Fifty-two people were killed and more than 700 injured in the deadliest terrorist attack in Britain since the Lockerbie bombing.

The attacks prompted major changes to the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, intelligence cooperation and emergency response, while raising difficult questions about home-grown extremism and the balance between security and civil liberties.

More than two decades later, the events remain a defining moment in modern British history.

How should democratic societies respond to terrorism without compromising the freedoms they seek to defend?

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Throughout Tehran, Iran’s slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral has become a carefully staged display of continuity at a time of transition and uncertainty. The ceremonies began with three days of mourning in Tehran before a procession through cities in both Iran and Iraq, while banners, portraits and organised demonstrations promoted a narrative of unity among supporters of the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities have emphasised Khamenei’s “martyrdom” in official messaging and promoted grief for his death as a national duty.

The symbolism is also political. At the Grand Mosalla, where tens of thousands arrived dressed almost entirely in black, a giant red flag reading “O avengers of Hussein” linked Khamenei’s killing to Karbala and framed retaliation against the United States and Israel as a religious obligation.

The broader effort appears designed to project strength and continuity as Iran moves through a period of transition under Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Sources: New York Times, Al Jazeera

The Philippine Senate will open the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday in a politically volatile event set against her bitter feud with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

More than 6,000 police officers, including anti-riot squads, were deployed to secure the Senate, where pro- and anti-Duterte demonstrators were expected to converge. Duterte or her lawyers can appear at the start of the trial, which will run for 92 days.

If convicted of charges including alleged unexplained wealth and publicly threatening to have Marcos assassinated, Duterte may be permanently disqualified from holding public office. A conviction would be a lethal blow to her announced plan to seek the presidency in mid-2028.

Last month, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach her over alleged unexplained wealth, misuse of confidential state funds and a public threat to have the president, his wife and a former House speaker assassinated.

Sources: Associated Press, NBC News

Russia launched ballistic missiles and drones at Kyiv on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding at least two dozen others, in its second major attack on the city in less than a week. Explosions rocked the capital early on the eve of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, where the alliance’s response to the war in Ukraine is set to dominate the meeting.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who is expected to attend the summit, had warned that Russia was preparing “a new massive strike” against the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency services were responding to multiple fires and at least one damaged apartment building where people were trapped. On Thursday, Russia pounded Kyiv in a nearly 12-hour assault that killed 31 people and wounded more than 100 others.

Sources: New York Times, The Guardian

NATO leaders meet in Ankara this week with Secretary-General Mark Rutte facing a harder problem than defence spending alone. President Donald Trump has shifted his demands from burden-sharing towards “loyalty”, saying he remained disappointed that some allies refused to join the Iran war and that he might have skipped the summit entirely were it not being hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

That leaves the alliance trying to project unity while confronting deeper questions about capability, cohesion and American commitment. Last month, the Pentagon surprised allies by announcing it was scaling back the troops, warships, aircraft and drones it would provide if one of them came under attack, while Trump has sent conflicting messages about future U.S. troop levels in Europe.

Ankara is now shaping up as a test of whether NATO can manage a more transactional Washington while adapting to a more dangerous security environment.

Sources: PBS, Times of India

Australia and Fiji signed two treaties in Suva on Monday, including the Ocean of Peace Alliance, a mutual defence treaty that commits each country to come to the other’s aid. The deal elevates Fiji to one of Australia’s few treaty allies and deepens Canberra’s Pacific strategy as it seeks to reinforce its position as the region’s security partner of choice.

The agreement says Australia and Fiji will act to meet the common danger if either country is attacked and will consult over any security-related development that threatens sovereignty, peace or stability.

The broader package also includes the Vuvale Union, which Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said would transform the relationship and underpin regional prosperity and security. The signing comes as Australia continues to respond to China’s growing influence across the Pacific after Beijing’s 2022 security pact with Solomon Islands.

Sources: South China Morning Post, The Guardian, Australian Foreign Minister

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Oil prices edged lower on Monday after OPEC+ agreed to raise output targets by 188,000 barrels a day from August, adding to expectations of more supply as Gulf exports recover. Brent crude fell 34 cents to $71.78 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 20 cents to $68.49.

The quota increase follows similar rises for June and July, but much of the added supply has so far remained theoretical because the war blocked the Strait of Hormuz and stopped Persian Gulf members from ramping up exports and output.

Since an interim peace pact between Tehran and Washington, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have restored oil exports to near pre-war levels, while Russia’s crude exports have climbed to record highs even as Ukrainian drone strikes hit its refineries. That combination is adding to the prospect of more supply eventually reaching the market.

Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg

Hundreds of masked members of the white nationalist Patriot Front movement marched through parts of Washington on Saturday as Americans marked the nation’s 250th birthday, carrying Confederate flags or U.S. flags and shouting “Reclaim America”. The group moved through areas around Union Station and Capitol Hill before leaving the city before 11:00 am, according to Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.

The march was followed by a carefully framed response from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who said the demonstration was an example of “messy” democracy and that free speech was one of the foundational principles of the United States.

Burgum said what the group stood for was nothing he could possibly agree with, but stopped short of a broader denunciation. The episode placed an extremist march and the administration’s constitutional framing side by side on a symbolic national day.

Sources: Le Monde, Al Jazeera

Venezuela has entered a new stage in its response to the June 24 twin earthquake, shifting from the search for survivors to clearing rubble and recovering bodies after nearly all international rescue teams departed. Coordination of operations was transferred on Friday from the United Nations to Venezuela’s Civil Protection, while the official toll stood at 2,954 dead and more than 16,500 injured.

In La Guaira, the hardest-hit area, dozens of machines arrived to speed up debris removal and body recovery, work now carried out mainly by Venezuelan volunteers, firefighters, civil defence and residents.

The scale of destruction remains severe. On July 1, the government said 1.25 million tons of debris had been generated in Caraballeda alone, where 856 buildings were damaged and 190 collapsed. Casualty figures remain provisional and could rise as debris removal advances.

Sources: Mercopress, PBS

Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 16 government troops in western Hodeidah governorate in what officials described as the fiercest clashes in years, as fighting also coincided with a reported attack on a cargo ship off the Red Sea coast near Hodeidah. Medical sources said hospitals received 16 dead and 22 wounded from pro-government forces.

The officer with government-aligned forces said the Houthis briefly seized positions after launching the attack late on Friday before a counterattack retook the sites by dawn on Saturday. He said Houthi fighters used snipers, drones and mortars. Front lines have remained largely frozen since a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022.

Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said a bulk carrier 30 nautical miles southwest of Hodeidah came under attack by unknown armed assailants, though the ship and crew were reported safe.

Sources: CBS News, Al Jazeera

In the Australian state of New South Wales police are investigating whether cannibalism was involved in the death of a four-year-old boy on the Central Coast after the child’s mother was charged with domestic violence murder. Police found the boy’s body at a unit in Wyong on Saturday after the 32-year-old woman walked into Wyong police station, triggering a welfare check. She was refused bail and the matter is due to return to court in September.

The case has also triggered an independent review into the family’s previous contact with the Department of Communities and Justice. Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington said the department had “received and responded to a number of reports” relating to the family, the last one 18 months ago. The review, to be led by former Children’s Court president Peter Johnstone, will examine whether more could have been done to protect the child.

Sources: ABC, The Guardian

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On this day …

On this day in 1942, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in a secret annex in Amsterdam to escape Nazi persecution during the Second World War.

For more than two years, the Frank family lived concealed above Otto Frank’s business premises, relying on a small group of trusted helpers while the Holocaust intensified across occupied Europe. Anne documented her thoughts, fears and hopes in a diary that was preserved after the war by Miep Gies and later published by her father, Otto Frank, the family’s only surviving member. It has since become one of the world’s most widely read personal accounts of the Holocaust.

Anne Frank’s story reminds us that history is experienced by individuals as much as nations. How can personal testimony continue to shape our understanding of humanity’s darkest chapters?

Elsewhere, governments kept building practical supports for a less predictable world. In Ukraine, the evidence increasingly suggested Russia was under real strain, but that did not stop it from launching one of its heaviest attacks on Kyiv. Climate and energy stresses, meanwhile, continued to shape economic and strategic choices rather than sit in the background.

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The most important development this week was not a return to full-scale war in the Middle East. It was the degree to which the present peace still looks incredibly fragile. The main hostilities have eased, but the week still brought repeated signs of instability: tit-for-tat strikes, continued disagreement over what the U.S.-Iran arrangement actually means, and no settled answer on how the Strait of Hormuz is meant to operate. Maritime traffic resumed, but remained below prewar levels, while questions around frozen Iranian assets, Iranian nuclear ambitions and future transit arrangements stayed unresolved.

The point was not simply that diplomacy continued. It was that diplomacy was operating alongside unresolved disputes that could still upset the truce. Iran continued to insist on a central role in governing transit through Hormuz, while Oman and France reaffirmed navigation without conditions or restrictions. That left a basic question unanswered at the heart of the arrangement: who actually gets to define the rules of passage through one of the world’s most important waterways.

Lebanon reinforced the same picture. The U.S.-brokered framework tied Israeli withdrawal to verified Hezbollah disarmament, a condition Hezbollah rejects. Benjamin Netanyahu then said Israeli forces would not leave as long as Hezbollah remained armed and threatening Israel. By Friday, reporting that U.S. officials feared Israel might target senior Iranian negotiators showed how exposed the diplomatic track remains to actors with different priorities.

So while the region did not slide back into all-out war, neither did it look close to a settled peace. The ceasefire held, but in a form that still looks highly vulnerable to miscalculation or deliberate disruption.

A second pattern this week was the amount of practical institutional work now being done to adapt to a less dependable security environment. Britain prepared a defence investment plan shaped by lessons from Ukraine, with an emphasis on cheaper systems, uncrewed platforms and faster innovation cycles. Canada pushed ahead with its proposed global defence bank before the NATO summit. India and Japan expanded cooperation across energy, maritime security and artificial intelligence. Australia and Vanuatu signed a treaty barring any foreign military base or military infrastructure on Vanuatu’s territory.

None of these moves amounted to a dramatic geopolitical break. Their significance lies in their accumulation. This was a week of defence financing, procurement changes, bilateral agreements and regional security arrangements - the kind of busy work that rarely dominates headlines but often does most to shape the next phase of the international system.

That practical issue is important, it suggests that self-reliance is no longer just a talking point. It is becoming embedded through routine decisions. Countries are not waiting for a formal declaration that the old order has ended. They are already building the structures they may need if it proves less reliable than before.

The Ukraine war offered a reminder that visible strain does not necessarily bring restraint. Early in the week, the evidence pointed to Russia being under real pressure. Putin acknowledged fuel shortages, the Kremlin said discussions were under way about importing gasoline from abroad and rationing and queues were reported in multiple regions.

An independent study then estimated that more than two million Russian and Ukrainian troops had been killed, wounded or were missing since the invasion began, with Russia bearing the heavier toll and its monthly casualty rates this year probably exceeding recruitment.

Those signs of strain were followed not by moderation, but by one of the war’s heaviest attacks on Kyiv. After Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an imminent major strike, Russia launched missiles and drones at the capital, killing and injuring civilians and damaging sites across the city. The contrast was stark. Mounting battlefield losses, tighter fuel supplies and visible logistical difficulty have not removed Russia’s capacity to escalate.

If anything, the week suggested the opposite risk. A state (or more accurately its leader) under growing strain can become more violent, not less, particularly when its leadership is trying to show that it can still impose costs and retain leverage. Russia’s difficulties remain central to understanding the war. But they are not evidence that it is becoming easier to contain.

The fourth theme of the week was that climate and energy stresses are increasingly shaping policy choices directly. Europe’s heatwave was linked to more than 1,300 excess deaths. France reported around 1,000 additional deaths during the worst period and then faced major wildfires in the south. Global sea surface temperatures also reached a seasonal record.

These stresses also fed into trade and industrial questions. Europe’s tougher rhetoric towards China collided with rising demand for Chinese air conditioners during the heatwave. Chinese planners said AI and electric vehicles were making electricity demand harder to forecast. Amazon and Google reported higher emissions as data centre expansion pushed up energy use.

The wider point is that climate and energy are no longer adjacent to the main story. They are part of it. They are influencing trade dependencies, infrastructure strain and the room governments have to manoeuvre. That makes them not just long-term concerns, but immediate strategic constraints.

What emerged this week was a picture of a system still functioning, but on increasingly brittle terms. In the Middle East, the ceasefire reduced the intensity of the fighting without producing a convincing settlement. Elsewhere, governments continued to put practical supports in place for a world that looks less dependable. In Ukraine, Russia showed both its weakness and its ability to remain destructive. Climate and energy strains kept tightening the constraints around all of them.

That combination is what made the week notable. The main risks did not disappear. They became harder to ignore.

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U.S. officials believed Israel might have been plotting to kill Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf while Washington was engaged in delicate talks with Tehran this spring. American officials feared that any attempt to kill the two men after negotiations began in earnest in April would derail the talks and reignite the fighting, and some officials said the United States asked other countries in the region to warn Iran.

The concern reflected a wider split in war aims. The war began on Feb. 28 with an Israeli strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials. While U.S. strikes focused on Iran’s navy and missile forces, Israel prioritised leadership targets.

In June, Washington and Tehran reached a framework agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and set the outline for follow-on talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Sources: New York Times, India Today

Iran’s ruling clerics are preparing days of mass funeral rites for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic after he was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes in the first attack of the war. Qom Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad Saidi said a large public turnout would amount to another referendum for the Islamic Republic, as authorities laid on transport, accommodation and food to mobilise millions of supporters.

The funeral events will begin over the weekend in Tehran, with a massive procession planned in central Tehran on Monday, followed by ceremonies in Qom on Tuesday, Iraq’s shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday, and burial in Mashhad on Thursday.

Security will be tight, with temporary airspace restrictions in place over Tehran and other cities and threats of a powerful response if the United States or Israel resumes attacks.

Sources: Reuters, Times of Israel

Hernán Gil, a 43-year-old Venezuelan security guard, was rescued alive on Thursday after eight days trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building in Catia La Mar, in La Guaira state, following the twin earthquake that struck the country on June 24.

Gil survived by sheltering under the desk of his booth in the underground parking garage of a shopping mall. His voice was first heard on Sunday, about 100 hours after the quakes.

Teams from seven countries joined the rescue, with up to 300 people working in shifts as an adjacent building threatened to collapse and the operation was close to being suspended several times.

The rescue became a symbol of hope after a disaster that, as of Thursday evening, had killed 2,595 people, even as public criticism of the official response grew in some areas.

Sources: Mercopress, BBC

Papua separatist rebels said they shot dead American pilot Nicholas F. Gosselin and set a civilian plane on fire after it landed in Yahukimo in Highland Papua. Sebby Sambom, a spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army, said the attack was a message to the Indonesian and U.S. governments and claimed the aircraft had been frequently dropping Indonesian military personnel.

Indonesia’s military denied that the plane was used to carry troops and said the seven passengers were indigenous Papuan civilians who were unharmed.

The attack points to a widening risk around civilian aviation in a conflict that has grown deadlier and more frequent. Sambom warned that the group would target other civilian aircraft it believes are assisting military operations.

Authorities said efforts to reach the site were hindered by poor weather and difficult terrain, with access possible only by air.

Sources: The Guardian, Associated Press

Canada is aiming to announce around 10 founding nations for a global defence bank at next week’s NATO summit in Turkey, according to Isabelle Hudon, Canada’s top negotiator on the initiative.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is promoting the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank as part of his call for an alliance of middle powers, and the bank’s purpose is to bolster the defence of allied nations by raising up to £100 billion in cheap finance.

Hudon said the initial roster would likely all be European, besides Canada, but cautioned that an announcement was not guaranteed because final negotiations over capital commitments were still under way. The project’s fate remains uncertain without the backing of nations crucial to securing a triple-A credit rating, even as Hudon said the project had momentum and Carney said a critical mass of countries intended to join.

Sources: Reuters, Times of India

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German prosecutors said on Thursday that Ukrainian state authorities were behind the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia with Europe. In charges brought against suspect Serhii K., prosecutors said he and six accomplices had acted on the orders of state authorities in Ukraine.

They said Serhii K. was an officer in the Ukrainian army at the time and that the plan was to destroy Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 to permanently halt gas supplies and prevent Russia from using natural gas revenue to finance its war effort.

The accusation creates an awkward moment for Berlin, one of Ukraine’s biggest military backers. Prosecutors said the explosives detonated on Sept. 26, 2022, causing significant damage, and noted that before the incident around half of Germany’s annual natural gas supply was transported via Nord Stream 1. Ukrainian authorities said they lacked sufficient information to respond in detail.

Sources: DW, The Guardian

Albanian police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters in Tirana after demonstrations over a luxury resort development linked to President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner turned violent. The confrontation began after a small crowd near the parliament building started throwing eggs and other objects at vehicles carrying lawmakers and ministers to a plenary session. Police said 23 people were detained and 15 officers were injured.

The unrest marks an escalation in protests that began in early June after preparatory work started for a luxury resort in an environmentally sensitive Albanian coastal area.

The rallies have since widened into a backlash against coastal construction, changes to rules on protected areas, and what protesters describe as corruption and a lack of transparency under Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has defended the project as an extraordinary investment that will bring jobs and higher-end visitors.

Sources: Bloomberg, CBS News

Germany’s ruling coalition agreed on Thursday on a broad package of tax, labour and pension reforms after seven hours of talks, presenting the deal as an effort to revive the country’s sluggish economy. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the government was working to increase the flexibility of businesses, cut red tape, protect the welfare state and ease the burden on employees and companies by lowering taxes. The coalition said the tax relief would leave an average family about 600 euros better off per year.

The package also carries political weight. The coalition said the 34 measures include cuts to income tax for low- and middle-income families, tougher rules for sick leave and a gradual rise in the retirement age in line with life expectancy.

The government is keen to show it can get to grips with the country’s problems and diminish the appeal of the AfD, which has been topping national opinion polls for months.

Sources: Euronews, Wall Street Journal

India and Japan agreed on Thursday to expand their longstanding ties as both seek greater stability and security in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi called uncertain times. After meeting in New Delhi, Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said they had signed agreements covering energy self-reliance, security in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and artificial intelligence.

Modi said the two countries were starting a new chapter in their special strategic and global partnership and that the agreement would strengthen regional peace, maritime security and rules-based order.

Takaichi, on her first visit to India as prime minister, said the most important thing was for Japan and India to leverage each other’s strengths. The two leaders also said their defence and foreign ministers would meet later this year.

Sources: New York Times, Hindustan Times

Several wildfires scorched southern France on Thursday after weeks of dry weather and record-high temperatures during the recent heat wave, with strong winds driving the flames across parts of the Mediterranean coast.

Local authorities said the largest fires spread in the Aude and Herault regions, where up to 800 firefighters and 150 vehicles were deployed to combat flames that spread over 900 hectares.

In the Pyrenees-Orientales region, nearly 3,000 tourists and local residents were evacuated after a wildfire broke out in Sainte-Marie-la-Mer and spread to Canet-en-Roussillon near the Spanish border.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said nearly 7,000 fires have broken out since the start of the summer season, with some 8,700 hectares already burned, while Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said weather conditions remained particularly unfavourable.

Sources: DW, Le Monde

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On this day …

On this day in 1988, Iran Air Flight 655 was mistakenly shot down by the USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 passengers and crew.

The US Navy cruiser identified the civilian Airbus as a hostile military aircraft during heightened tensions in the closing stages of the Iran-Iraq War.

The tragedy became one of the deadliest incidents involving a civilian airliner and further deepened mistrust between the United States and Iran.

Decades later, the disaster continues to be cited whenever military operations unfold in crowded civilian environments.

It remains a stark reminder that in conflict, catastrophic mistakes can carry consequences for generations.

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Hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an imminent “massive Russian strike” and cut short a visit to Ireland, Russia hit Kyiv overnight with ballistic missiles and drones.

Journalists in central and eastern districts reported hearing more than a dozen explosions. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said eight people were killed in attacks targeting about three dozen locations across the city, while Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 34 were injured.

Klitschko said people were trapped in a damaged nine-storey residential building and that a large part of a high-rise apartment block collapsed after a direct strike. Residents crowded into underground stations with sleeping mats as Zelenskyy said President Vladimir Putin was refusing to end the war and saw only further aggression.

Poland briefly scrambled fighter jets as a preventive measure before saying no airspace violation was recorded.

Sources: Al Jazeera, New York Times

More than two million Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed, wounded or are missing since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The study said Russia has borne the heavier toll, with 1.4 million casualties, including 400,000 to 450,000 killed. Ukrainian forces were estimated to have suffered 525,000 to 625,000 casualties, including 125,000 to 150,000 deaths.

The study described the figures as a bleak milestone in a war still grinding on despite Russia’s losses. It said Russian forces lost more ground than they captured in both April and May, a net loss of roughly 400 square kilometres and their first monthly net losses since August 2024.

The study also said Russia’s monthly casualty rates this year probably exceeded its recruitment rates, suggesting the battlefield toll is rising faster than it can be replaced.

Sources: New York Times, The Guardian

Europe’s heat wave is colliding with its tougher China trade rhetoric, as demand for Chinese air conditioners rises across the continent. Chinese customs data showed exports of air-conditioning machines to France jumped 57% in May to about $26 million, while exports to Spain rose 41% to about $71 million. Roughly 40% of global air-conditioner exports come from China, and only about one-fifth of European households have an air conditioner.

That dependence sits alongside a wider reluctance inside the EU to escalate. Arianna Podestà, the commission’s deputy chief spokesperson, said Brussels was pursuing engagement through dialogue while seeking to restore balance in the trade relationship.

However officials and member states remain divided over how to respond to a trade deficit that exceeds €360 billion. One anti-coercion instrument that would allow tariff and non-tariff responses has never been used.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg

The United States and Iran concluded another round of indirect talks in Doha with no sign of headway towards a lasting peace, focusing instead on issues they said had been resolved when an interim agreement was announced two weeks ago.

Sources familiar with the discussions said negotiators spent two days discussing maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and unfreezing Iran’s funds.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said the talks produced positive progress on issues related to the memorandum that halted the war in June. President Donald Trump said the sides were making progress on possible limits to Iran’s nuclear programme, though sources said the nuclear programme did not come up in the talks.

The status of the Strait of Hormuz remains unclear even as traffic has partially resumed, and Iran has repeatedly said it will assess tolls on shipping from mid-August.

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera

This week the U.N. General Assembly agreed to limit refunds for four years to states that actually paid their obligations, changing a rule that had forced the organisation to credit countries for unspent money even when they paid late or not at all. The U.N. said the change would save $900 million for peacekeeping operations and $400 million for its general budget, helping it avoid an imminent financial collapse.

The immediate pressure has eased, but the cash problem remains. Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan said the organisation had funds only through the end of August and was waiting for collections to survive beyond September.

The United States still has roughly $2 billion in outstanding regular budget dues, while China still owes about $430 million, and Secretary-General António Guterres said the agreement did not resolve the underlying problem of nonpayment and late payment.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, UN

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German federal prosecutors have filed charges against a Ukrainian national over the 2022 explosions that severely damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The accused, identified in court documents as Serhii K, is a 50-year-old Ukrainian soldier from Kyiv. Prosecutors allege he led a team of seven accomplices in the operation and was in command of the sailing yacht Andromeda, from which the attack was allegedly carried out.

Serhii K was detained in Italy on a German arrest warrant in August 2025 and extradited to Germany in November 2025. He has denied involvement. His lawyer told Reuters he was confident his client would be acquitted.

Asked about the case in Dublin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was too early to comment in detail and that he had not officially received any details.

Sources: DW, Al Jazeera

The Trump administration declined on Wednesday to extend the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (sometimes known as NAFTA 2.0), keeping the trade pact in place for another 10 years with annual reviews before it expires unless the three countries renew it with changes.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the United States did not agree to renew the USMCA in its current form and would continue to engage with Mexico and Canada over the agreement’s shortcomings and U.S. trade deficits.

The decision followed a six-year review and shifts the pact from a six-year renewal cycle to yearly scrutiny. Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said there was no difference between the three countries so large that it could not be resolved, while Canadian minister Dominic LeBlanc said discussions would continue to support North American prosperity and competitiveness. The USMCA underpins a highly integrated regional economy with about $1.6 trillion in annual trilateral trade.

Sources: The Guardian, Reuters

Amazon and Google reported sharp rises in greenhouse gas emissions as AI-driven data centre expansion pushed up energy demand. Amazon said emissions rose 16% from 2024 to about 81 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2025, driven by data centre construction and fuel used for deliveries. Google said its ambition-based emissions climbed 18% overall in 2025 and linked part of the increase to its expanding data centre portfolio.

The company reports highlight a wider energy problem around AI infrastructure. A report by the Environmental Integrity Project said 74 proposed or planned US gas-fired power plants intended to supply data centres directly could generate 143 gigawatts of electricity and produce 662 million tons a year of greenhouse gas emissions.

Amazon and Google said they remained committed to sustainability targets, but the data centre boom is making those goals harder to reconcile with rising power use.

Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters

A new ethnic unity law has come into effect in China despite warnings from Taiwan, the United Nations and rights groups that it could threaten freedoms, especially for minorities.

The law aims to forge a shared national identity among ethnic groups, including by strengthening the status of Mandarin as the official language, but critics say it will further erode the rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans and other minorities.

The legislation also allows people to be held liable for violating the law even when outside China, raising concern about wider overseas enforcement. U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said the law risks deepening restrictions on freedoms of language, education, practice of religion, culture, expression and assembly. Vice-minister of justice Hu Weilie defended the overseas enforcement clause as legitimate, lawful and necessary, while Taiwan said the law expanded threats and intimidation against its people and others.

Sources: The Guardian, Amnesty, CNN

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during their campaign to seize el-Fasher in North Darfur. The report said civilians in and around the city were killed, injured, beaten, tortured and detained between early 2024 and October 2025, and that the RSF’s crimes included murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination and persecution.

The rights group said the RSF besieged el-Fasher from May 2024 to October 2025, restricting food and humanitarian aid while shelling the city almost daily. Amnesty said the siege contributed to famine and that hundreds of civilians were executed, with many others tortured or detained, after the RSF’s final offensive on October 26, 2025.

Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard said a nationwide ceasefire was immediately needed, along with an international force to protect civilians.

Sources: BBC, Amnesty, Al Jazeera

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On this day …

On this day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, one of the most significant pieces of legislation in modern American history.

The Act prohibited discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin, outlawed segregation in many public places and strengthened the federal government’s ability to enforce equal rights.

It represented the culmination of years of activism, protest and political negotiation during the civil rights movement.

While the legislation transformed American public life, it also demonstrated that lasting social change often requires both public pressure and political leadership.

How much can legislation alone change society?

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US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Doha for talks with Qatari mediators on the US-Iran negotiations, but Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said no direct meetings with Iranian officials were scheduled in the coming days.

The visit follows renewed clashes over the Strait of Hormuz that threatened a preliminary agreement to end the four-month war and opened a 60-day negotiating period on Iran’s nuclear programme, US sanctions and a permanent truce.

Qatari and US officials said technical talks between lower-level representatives were continuing, while a senior Trump administration official described recent discussions with regional leaders as very positive. Major issues remain unresolved, including the release of Iranian assets frozen under US sanctions and future management of the strait, which before the war handled about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Sources: BBC, Bloomberg

Iran said it would not meet top US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Doha, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei saying no negotiating session at any level was planned with the American side. Qatari officials said the pair would meet mediators, while lower-level technical talks were due to begin, underscoring how far apart the sides remain on the ceasefire terms agreed two weeks ago.

The strain widened after Iran’s Assembly of Experts called the killing of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a religious duty, though the body’s secretariat later distanced itself.

The interim framework links the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to financial incentives and gives the sides 60 days to negotiate a permanent peace deal, but Iranian officials insist traffic arrangements will be determined by Iran and Oman and say tolls will be imposed in mid-August.

Sources: Sydney Morning Herald, The Telegraph

The Kremlin said Russia is in talks to import gasoline from abroad after Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted oil refineries and energy infrastructure, an extraordinary step for one of the world’s largest oil exporters.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said discussions were actively being held, while President Vladimir Putin acknowledged a fuel shortage and said national gasoline reserves had fallen to 1.7 million metric tons, about 4 percent lower than a year ago.

The pressure is already visible inside Russia. Fuel rationing has been introduced in many regions, including occupied Crimea, and queues have formed at petrol stations as supplies tighten. A count found more than 50 reported Ukrainian attacks on refineries, depots, terminals and other oil infrastructure in Russia and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula since late March, helping drive Russian fuel processing in June to its lowest level in more than two decades.

Sources: Politico Europe, Associated Press

Pakistan warned that any attempt by India to deprive it of water under the Indus Waters Treaty would amount to the weaponisation of water and could have serious consequences for regional peace and security. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said shared waters must never be weaponised, while calling India’s decision to suspend participation in the 1960 treaty illegal and saying Pakistan still considered the agreement valid and legally binding.

The warning keeps alive one of the most dangerous aftershocks of the April 2025 Kashmir attack, which triggered a sharp deterioration in ties, tit-for-tat missile strikes and a ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump.

Pakistani officials also alleged that India reduced flows in the Chenab River in recent months in violation of the treaty, though there was no immediate comment from New Delhi.

Sources: South China Morning Post, Washington Post

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops in occupied southern Lebanon that Israeli forces would not withdraw as long as Hezbollah remained armed and threatening Israel, despite a US-mediated security agreement reached last week that envisages a phased pullback.

His visit was the first since Israel and Lebanon agreed that Israeli forces would hand over two areas to the Lebanese army under a pilot arrangement whose implementation remains unclear.

The remarks underline how tightly any Israeli withdrawal remains tied to Israel’s own assessment of the Hezbollah threat. Israel says it has created a buffer zone about 10 kilometres into Lebanon, while violence has persisted despite a June 19 ceasefire agreed under US pressure. Netanyahu also said Hezbollah still had around 12,000 rockets and missiles, and that the Israeli military had killed 9,000 militants in Lebanon since the conflict escalated on March 2.

Sources: Times of India, Reuters

Global sea surface temperatures reached 21.0C on 21 June, the highest ever recorded for this time of year, according to Copernicus data. The reading beat previous records for the same period set in 2023 and 2024, while the first half of 2026 was marked by persistently elevated temperatures and widespread marine heatwaves across much of the global ocean.

Scientists said the onset of El Nino has contributed to the rise but described it as part of a longer-term trend driven by climate change. Copernicus climate director Carlo Buontempo said current conditions could mark the beginning of a new phase leading once more to uncharted territory, with more records likely in the coming months.

Warmer oceans can contribute to sea level rise, heavier rainfall and flooding, and more frequent and intense marine heatwaves.

Sources: Euronews, Al Jazeera

President Donald Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in income from cryptocurrency ventures in 2025, according to a 927-page financial disclosure released Tuesday, with more than $635 million tied to a licensing agreement for meme coins bearing his name.

The filing also showed nearly $600 million in income from Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial, underscoring how central digital assets have become to his business empire during his first year back in office.

The scale of the earnings is likely to intensify scrutiny of possible conflicts of interest as Trump pushes crypto-friendly policy from the White House. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said neither Trump nor his family had engaged or would engage in conflicts of interest, while Democrats and some crypto executives and lobbyists have voiced alarm. The disclosures also listed more than $80 million from legal settlements with media and technology companies.

Sources: NBC News, Politico

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime said it had carried out strikes on targets along the border with Pakistan, with several people reportedly injured in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. Pakistan’s military said it shot down four rudimentary drones and warned that any further provocation would receive a befitting response, after the BBC said it could not independently confirm the attack.

The exchange follows Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan on Sunday that killed 28 civilians, according to the UN, reigniting tensions after months of relative calm. The two countries had agreed to a ceasefire in October following weeks of deadly clashes, but both sides continue to accuse the other of cross-border aggression.

Pakistan says it targets militants, while the Taliban government says Pakistani attacks hit civilians and has warned it will target every location that poses a threat to Afghan security.

Sources: BBC, The Tribune

NASA-backed satellite analysis suggests about 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed in last week’s twin earthquakes in Venezuela, far above the government’s latest official figure of 855 damaged buildings, including 189 collapses.

The estimate, based on Sentinel-1 radar data gathered on 25 June by researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, was described as a rapid, preliminary assessment showing abrupt surface changes consistent with damage.

The gap in estimates points to continued uncertainty over the true scale of the disaster. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said the death toll had reached 1,719 and that 5,034 people were injured. The US Geological Survey said magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 quakes struck Venezuela on 24 June, 39 seconds apart, both in Yaracuy state.

Sources: Anadolu Agency, The Guardian

China has emerged from the Strait of Hormuz crisis in a stronger position than other major Asian economies, according to a report by The Asia Group, which said Beijing had weathered the global commodities shock better than any regional peer.

The report said China’s large oil stockpiles and rapidly expanding renewable energy capacity helped it avoid the worst effects of the disruption, while global demand for solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles also accelerated.

The assessment points to a wider geopolitical dividend for Beijing from a crisis triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran and the resulting disruption to the strait. The report said China had enough crude in reserve to cover 90-110 days of imports and already had 1.4 terawatts of renewable capacity online. It also said the crisis allowed Beijing to cast the United States as the destabilising actor whose Middle East entanglements impose costs on the world.

Sources: The Guardian, New York Times

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On this day …

On this day in 2002, the International Criminal Court formally began operations after the Rome Statute entered into force.

It became the world’s first permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes when national authorities were unwilling or unable to do so.

Supporters saw the court as a major step towards ending impunity for the world’s gravest crimes, while critics questioned its effectiveness and political independence.

More than two decades later, the ICC remains one of the most influential - and contested - institutions in international law.

Can justice ever be separated from geopolitics?

10 Good Things is our monthly counterpoint to some of the less uplifting reality that faces us in the daily news cycle

1. Mangroves | Global Forests Rebound

A major 40-year satellite analysis published in the journal Science reveals that global mangrove forests have reached a major conservation turning point.

Long considered one of the world’s most endangered coastal ecosystems due to urban development and aquaculture, the study by Tulane University shows that decades of losses have been largely offset by natural regeneration and proactive restoration.

Thanks to slowing deforestation rates, stricter legal protections, and mangroves opportunistically colonising newly formed river delta mudflats, the critical carbon-storing habitats are now experiencing a net expansion overall.

Sources: Tulane University School of Science and Engineering & Mongabay

2. EV Reducing CO | Urban Air Quality Improvement

The rapid scaling of vehicle electrification is translating into measurable urban air quality milestones.

New vehicular emission inventories modeling urban drive cycles indicate that the structural shift away from internal combustion passenger vehicles has directly accelerated the reduction of ambient carbon monoxide (CO) levels.

Because traditional passenger vehicles historically generated the vast majority of urban transportation sector CO emissions through incomplete fuel combustion, local fleet conversions are successfully curbing localized pollution variance, offering immediate respiratory benefits to major metropolitan centers.

Sources: ResearchGate - Emission Rates Study & ResearchGate - Urban Transportation Impacts

3. Mission 300 | Rapid Electrification Across Africa

“Mission 300,” the joint initiative led by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group, has officially surpassed a major milestone by connecting over 50 million people to electricity across 40 African nations.

Launched to secure power access for 300 million people by 2030, the program is currently delivering grid and off-grid connections at nearly double its initial pace.

Backed by $15 billion in public funding and leveraged private investments, the initiative recently expanded its reach via the $1.6 billion RETRADE-EA regional power integration project, which will soon link Uganda’s surplus clean hydropower to the broader Eastern Africa Power Pool, mitigating millions of tons of carbon emissions.

Sources: The World Bank - Press Release & The World Bank - RETRADE Project

4. Philanthropic Land Purchase | Massive Nature Reserve Created

Australian technology investor Mike Gregg and his wife Sue have donated $10 million to purchase 7,000 hectares (over 17,000 acres) of active logging and cattle-grazing land to establish a permanent wildlife refuge.

Facilitated through the Great Southern Land Conservancy, the acquisition connects six adjoining properties southwest of Port Macquarie in New South Wales.

By linking these zones to existing protected areas, the project secures a vital, contiguous habitat corridor for threatened species—including greater gliders, spotted-tail quolls, and what is projected to be the largest koala population on private land in the state.

Sources: The Cooldown & Reddit /r/UpliftingNews

5. Ocean Plastics | Turning Fishing Nets into Pavement

Researchers at Hawaiʻi Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research, in partnership with the Hawaii Department of Transportation, have successfully demonstrated a practical, circular infrastructure solution for marine pollution.

In real-world trials on Oahu, discarded plastic household containers and derelict commercial fishing nets pulled from the Pacific were processed and melted directly into asphalt road binders.

Crucially, the team’s newly published multi-month environmental analysis confirms that these recycled polymer pavements perform just as durably as traditional petroleum-based alternatives without causing any increase in microplastic shedding into the surrounding tropical ecosystem.

Sources: Impactful Ninja & PlasticsToday

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6. Wild Horses | Ecological Balance Restored in Nevada

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has successfully concluded its scheduled wild horse and burro population management operations within the Antelope, Triple B, and Spring Mountains complexes in Nevada.

Utilizing low-stress bait and water trapping methods, teams humanely removed excess animals to align herd sizes with local rangeland carrying capacities.

The targeted reduction mitigates severe forage depletion and protects scarce water resources, supporting critical habitat restoration for native wildlife—including mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and sage grouse - while the gathered horses enter the BLM’s official adoption and long-term pasture programs.

Sources: Bureau of Land Management - Antelope/Triple B & Bureau of Land Management - Spring Mountains

7. Clean Energy Outpaces Subsidies | Market-Driven Green Transition

Global clean energy investment continues to break structural records, increasingly driven by raw market competitiveness rather than government incentives.

According to BloombergNEF’s long-term energy transition modeling, global wind capacity installations hit an all-time high, anchoring a massive surge in private sector capital deployment.

Even as major markets navigate shifting trade tariffs and policy resets regarding federal tax credits, the falling levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for solar and battery storage systems has made renewable infrastructure the default, economically superior choice for utilities responding to rising electricity demands.

Sources: BloombergNEF - Clean Energy Insights & BloombergNEF - Main Portal

8. Wind and Solar Eclipse Gas | The Clean Energy Acceleration

Electrification trends show renewable power generation fundamentally restructuring the global grid, with wind and solar capacity additions expanding fast enough to affect baseline fossil fuel demand.

Industry data highlights that mature low-carbon technologies have reached a self-sustaining scale, effectively capping the growth of natural gas power generation in core power grids.

Driven by a record-breaking influx of private capital and corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), the structural acceleration is transforming transport and utility sectors, moving the needle from peak fossil fuel dependency toward a diversified, electrified economy.

Sources: BloombergNEF - Transition Scenarios & BloombergNEF - Electric Vehicle Outlook

9. Biodiversity | Lost Lorikeet Rediscovered After 100 Years

An international scientific expedition into the remote, unexplored highlands of Buru Island, Indonesia, has successfully rediscovered the Blue-fronted Lorikeet (Charmosynopsis toxopei).

The elusive, bright-green parrot had been documented only once in the last century, leaving conservationists to fear it was extinct. Venturing past sharp limestone ridges and dense tropical forests into elevations above 1,300 meters, the mountaineering and research team secured the first clear photographs and the first-ever audio recordings of the species’ distinct high-pitched calls, proving that a stable population persists within these rugged mountain refuges.

Sources: Artensterben & Rare Bird Alert

10. Nanozymes | Unlocking the Inorganic Origins of Life

A new physicochemical framework published by the Royal Society is reshaping scientific understanding of how biological life first emerged on Earth. Researchers have demonstrated that naturally occurring transition-metal nanostructures—specifically iron oxides and sulfides found in ancient marine environments—function as primitive “nanozymes” (inorganic structures with enzyme-like reactivity).

By facilitating complex processes like proton-coupled electron transfers and redox cycling under early-Earth conditions, these nanoscale mineral catalysts drove key chemical transformations long before metabolic biology or genetic regulation evolved, bridging the gap between geology and biology.

Sources: ScienceDaily & ResearchGate - Royal Society Perspective

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President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran would meet in Doha on Tuesday, but Iran said no talks were scheduled, exposing fresh disagreement over the June ceasefire accord after days of U.S. and Iranian strikes.

Both sides have accused the other of violating the agreement, which set at least 60 days for negotiations on a permanent truce, Iran’s nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz.

The dispute now centres on what the memorandum actually requires. Iranian officials said a technical team would go to Qatar to discuss the release of $6 billion in frozen assets, while U.S. officials said technical issues were already being discussed.

Maritime traffic has resumed but remains below prewar levels, with 108 verified crossings recorded between June 26 and 28 against a daily prewar average of 130 or more.

Sources: Washington Post, Reuters

Iran has intensified its claim to control maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz ahead of fresh negotiations with the United States, raising the stakes around the next phase of diplomacy.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran wants an agreement with Oman to oversee ships passing through the waterway, but would move ahead with its own plans if Oman was not interested. He also said Iran would designate any temporary transit routes in the strait.

The tougher line comes before talks the United States has said are due in Doha on Tuesday. President Donald Trump said the meeting might or might not prove important, while stressing that the focus remained the denuclearization of Iran. Oman and France reaffirmed their commitment to freedom of navigation without conditions or restrictions, even as oil tankers continued to pass through the strait despite recent attacks.

Sources: Bloomberg, The Guardian

A United States-brokered framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon ties Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon to the verified disarmament of non-state armed groups, including Hezbollah. Hezbollah has rejected disarmament, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to hold territory in the security zone until Hezbollah and other organisations are disarmed and no further threat is posed from Lebanon.

Analysts and politicians say the condition is unattainable and risks entrenching a stalemate rather than ending the war. They say the structure puts the burden on Lebanon without a reciprocal guarantee of Israeli withdrawal, giving Israel political cover for an open-ended military presence in the south and leaving the Lebanese state caught between obligations it cannot meet and sovereignty it cannot fully reclaim.

President Joseph Aoun called the agreement a first step towards restoring Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera

Britain is set to publish a Defence Investment Plan that recasts its armed forces around lessons drawn from Ukraine’s war against Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying the focus is now on “cheap systems destroying high-value targets and innovation cycles measured in weeks, not years”.

The shift comes as the government prepares one of the biggest shake-ups of the armed forces in decades and argues that state conflict has returned to Europe.

The plan drops new money for up to eight Type 83 destroyers and Type 32 frigates and instead backs at least six Common Combat Vessels designed to act as control ships for uncrewed systems. It also includes £5 billion for a drone transformation, with the Ministry of Defence citing the 200,000 drones used each month by Ukraine as the model to copy.

Sources: Politico Europe, FT

Russia’s alliance with Belarus is facing a new test as President Alexander Lukashenko has resisted deeper involvement in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, warning Russian officials there was no need for Belarus to be drawn into the conflict.

After talks with Russian Ambassador Boris Gryzlov in Minsk, Lukashenko said his country’s position was peaceful and that Belarus did not want to fight Ukrainians.

The pressure on Minsk comes as military ties with Moscow continue to deepen. The Kremlin says it deployed tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in 2023 and the longer-range, nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile in 2025.

After two days of talks with Putin near Lake Valdai, Lukashenko travelled to Beijing, where President Xi Jinping said China supports Belarus in safeguarding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Sources: Bloomberg, Modern Diplomacy

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A year after the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, most Americans still support foreign aid for disaster relief, disease prevention and security, according to a new Echelon Insights poll commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The survey found 54% had a favourable view of foreign aid, while 81% said the right path was to strengthen programmes with stricter safeguards rather than eliminate them.

Support increased when voters were told foreign aid had accounted for about 1% of the U.S. budget before 2025 and were given more detail about specific programmes. Overall backing rose to 70%, while support for humanitarian relief and preventing disease outbreaks reached 90%. U.S. foreign aid disbursements fell to $47 billion in fiscal year 2025 from $72 billion a year earlier after USAID was shut down.

Sources: Reuters, Rockefeller Foundation

A record-breaking heatwave continued to grip Italy and the Balkans on Monday, with authorities warning of further strain after more than a week of extreme temperatures, excess deaths and wildfire risk.

Across the Atlantic, the U.S. National Weather Service also warned of dangerous heat across much of the central and eastern United States ahead of the July 4 celebrations.

In Italy, 22 cities were under red heat warnings, while Croatia issued red alerts for Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik and firefighters battled a wildfire on the island of Vis.

France has reported 1,000 excess deaths linked to the heat, and forecasters said temperatures in central and eastern Europe were running 8-10 degrees Celsius above average, with another surge expected from July 5 or 6 across parts of western Europe.

Sources: Reuters, Al Jazeera

The EU and China have agreed to three months of formal trade consultations to try to avoid a trade war over the bloc’s €360 billion annual trade deficit with Beijing.

After talks in Brussels, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said the process would focus on making the bilateral relationship more balanced, with Brussels seeking tangible results before their next meeting in Beijing in October.

The two sides agreed to consultations on trade and investment rebalancing, export controls including rare earths, intellectual property rights and World Trade Organization reform. They also set up a joint monitoring mechanism for trade flows so sudden surges in imports or exports can trigger political discussions.

Šefčovič said the gap was widening and that the status quo was not an option.

Sources: The Guardian, South China Morning Post

The World Bank Group said it will retire its goal of devoting 45% of annual lending resources to projects with climate co-benefits, abandoning a target adopted in 2023 as it shifts from input goals to lending outcomes. At the same time, it will extend its Climate Change Action Plan, which had been due to expire, and continue tracking greenhouse gas emissions and beneficiaries with enhanced resilience to climate risks.

The move follows pressure from the Trump administration to scrap climate lending targets. The bank said its climate work would remain client driven and that further progress on outcomes would be shaped by client ambition.

World Bank President Ajay Banga has recast the approach as “smart development”, linking job creation with climate-related benefits such as drought-resistant agriculture, storm-resistant infrastructure and renewable energy where appropriate.

Sources: Reuters, The World Bank

Australia and Vanuatu have signed a bilateral security and economic treaty that bars any foreign military base or military infrastructure on Vanuatu’s territory, tightening Canberra’s effort to limit China’s security influence in the South Pacific.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the agreement provided certainty that there would be no foreign military base, while Prime Minister Jotham Napat said Vanuatu would keep its critical infrastructure free from militarisation, foreign interference or unauthorized access.

The Nakamal Agreement also requires Vanuatu to consult Australia when considering third-party engagement in critical infrastructure, though without the veto power proposed in an earlier draft.

Vanuatu will prioritise policing cooperation with Pacific Islands Forum members, while China warned against using Pacific cooperation as a tool for geopolitical rivalry. The pact follows months of delay after Vanuatu rejected an earlier version last year.

Sources: Associated Press, Euronews

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On this day …

On this day in 1997, ceremonies began to mark the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese sovereignty, with the formal handover taking place shortly after midnight on 1 July.

The agreement established Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region under the principle of “one country, two systems”, promising a high degree of autonomy for fifty years while recognising Chinese sovereignty.

In the decades that followed, Hong Kong became the focus of growing political tensions, including large-scale pro-democracy protests and the introduction of a national security law that critics argue has reduced the territory’s autonomy.

Beijing rejects that characterisation, saying the measures restored stability and safeguard national sovereignty.

Nearly three decades later, the handover continues to shape debates over sovereignty, international agreements and the future of Hong Kong.

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Iran launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday following new U.S. airstrikes, while threatening a “complete halt” in negotiations if Washington continues its attacks.

Kuwait said air defences intercepted Iranian drones and two missiles with no reports of injuries or damage. Bahrain said a residential building near the international airport was damaged and no one was killed.

The exchanges added pressure to a preliminary peace deal already under strain from continued fighting in Lebanon and disagreements over how the Strait of Hormuz should reopen. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran must govern the strait and warned that any separate arrangements would delay its reopening and increase tension.

U.S.-assisted commercial transits continued uninterrupted, with 89 such transits recorded, below the historical average of 138 vessels a day.

Sources: Associated Press, Wall Street Journal

Pakistan launched air strikes and a ground operation along the Afghan border, saying it killed 29 fighters after attacks by armed groups across the country and a Karachi assault that killed three soldiers. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said three targets in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar were destroyed, and described the operation as targeting hideouts and safe havens of the Pakistan Taliban.

The strikes are likely to further strain tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul. They came less than three weeks after Pakistani air strikes on what it said were fighter group hideouts in Afghanistan and ended about a month of relative calm after what Islamabad had described as an open war.

Multiple rounds of internationally mediated peace talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire, even after China hosted both sides in April and Beijing said they had agreed not to escalate.

Sources: Al Jazeera, BBC

Ukraine kept up its heavy drone assault on Russia, setting fire to a major oil refinery in the south as President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time that the country was facing a “certain deficit” of fuel. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said two Russian oil refineries were hit, while local authorities said falling debris killed one person in Slavyansk and wounded another in a nearby village.

The campaign has caused widespread shortages, long lines at petrol stations and fuel rationing in many regions. Putin said Russia was going through a difficult period and would import more fuel, speed up repairs at oil facilities and quickly deal with shortages in Crimea.

As shortages spread, Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said drivers would be allowed to buy no more than 50 litres of fuel per vehicle per day at state-run Rosneft stations in the province.

Sources: South China Morning Post, PBS

More than 1,300 excess deaths have been recorded in Europe since June 21 in connection with the record-breaking heatwave, the World Health Organization said, while French health officials reported around 1,000 more deaths than expected in France since Wednesday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called heat stress a “silent killer” and warned that homes, workplaces and schools were not built for these temperatures.

In Paris, funeral directors said mortuaries quickly ran out of storage space as deaths surged during the heatwave’s peak. Public Health France said there were more than 1,200 deaths last Wednesday, more than 1,400 on Thursday and another 1,400 on Friday, against a pre-heatwave daily rate of around 900 to 1,000. It said 85% of the deaths registered so far over those three days involved people aged 65 and above, with deaths at home up by about 40%.

Sources: France 24, Associated Press

Rescue teams kept searching for survivors in Venezuela on Sunday as the death toll from twin earthquakes rose to 1,450 and experts warned that the critical 72-hour window for finding people alive had passed. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said 3,150 people were injured and 774 buildings had collapsed, while Interim President Delcy Rodriguez said rescue efforts would not be suspended after more people were found alive.

The disaster has left tens of thousands reported missing and intensified pressure on a country already mired in economic crisis. Foreign rescue teams continued operations in La Guaira, the hardest-hit state, where families and volunteers had earlier complained of scant heavy equipment and a limited official presence.

The government said school classes would be suspended for one more week and electricity supply in La Guaira had been restored to 75%.

Sources: Reuters, Euronews

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Uganda’s leading independent media group said it was under military siege after army chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba ordered the closure of TV stations, newspapers and radio outlets under Nation Media Group. The Daily Monitor said armed soldiers were stationed outside its Kampala headquarters, while NTV Uganda and Spark TV were taken off air. Uganda’s National Broadcasters Association said at least six publishing and broadcasting outlets were closed.

In posts on X, Gen Kainerugaba said he did not believe in a free press, that both NTV and Daily Monitor would not reopen without his permission, and that all media in Uganda would follow the rules.

The shutdown came after President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in for a seventh term, amid speculation that he is grooming his son as successor. Opposition figure Bobi Wine said the move was aimed at silencing Uganda’s remaining independent voices.

Sources: BBC, Politico

Australia will double the maximum penalty for breaches of its social media minimum age law to A$99m, while giving the eSafety Commissioner stronger powers to compel platforms to provide evidence of what steps they have taken to comply. Children under 16 have been prevented from 10 key social media platforms since 10 December 2025, but the government said too many are still able to access and use the banned apps.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said big tech was not doing enough to comply with the law and that there were still too many children on social media.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said she was not satisfied that companies were doing everything they could and accused platforms of doing the bare minimum to get by. Investigations have been opened into the alleged non-compliance of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera

Two days after Lebanon and Israel agreed a U.S.-brokered security arrangement intended to ease hostilities along the border, Israel said it destroyed underground Hezbollah infrastructure in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon. A joint statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attack targeted a 200-metre tunnel containing hundreds of weapons and launchers, and that the United States was informed ahead of the strike.

Hezbollah called the attacks a “flagrant” violation of the ceasefire to which it said it had adhered so far. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected the security agreement as a surrender to Israel and said the group would continue its armed resistance.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon and continue to destroy terrorist infrastructure and remove threats from northern communities.

Sources: Reuters, France 24

Thousands of protesters rallied in central Serbia a day after President Aleksandar Vucic said he would step down within weeks and the country would hold early presidential and parliamentary elections. The announcement followed 18 months of student-led anti-government protests triggered by the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in November 2024 that killed 16 people.

The protests continued on Sunday despite Vucic’s pledge to resign, underlining pressure that has become one of Serbia’s largest protest movements in history.

Vucic said he would help his ruling Serbian Progressive Party in the next election, while analysts said his resignation could pave the way for a return as prime minister. Although Serbia’s presidency is largely ceremonial, Vucic has wielded considerable influence over his party and the government.

Sources: DW, CNN

China’s energy planners said rapid growth in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and other emerging sectors is making future power demand harder to predict. Ren Yuzhi, director-general of the planning department at the National Energy Administration, said demand over the past five years surpassed government expectations and that forecasting future energy demand, especially electricity, would be a key challenge in the next planning cycle through 2030.

China now expects average annual power demand growth of around 600 billion kilowatt-hours over the next five years, above the 570 billion kilowatt-hours recorded over the past five years. Ren Yuzhi said new demand from AI computing centres, electric vehicles and the shift from fossil fuels to electricity is prompting policymakers to reconsider where energy and industrial capacity are located, including whether more energy-intensive industries should move westward closer to renewable resources.

Sources: Bloomberg, Global Data

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On this day …

On this day in 2007, Apple’s first iPhone went on sale in the United States.

It combined a phone, music player and internet browser in a single touchscreen device, helping to reshape how people communicate, work, shop, navigate and consume information.

Its wider significance was not only technological but economic and social: it accelerated the smartphone era, changed the balance of power in the technology industry and helped place mobile platforms at the centre of modern life.

Nearly two decades later, the iPhone’s launch remains a reminder that some products do not just create markets - they reorganise daily behaviour.