Strait Talk, Hot Air, And A Last Dog-Meat Summer

World & Security

Donald Trump, with a chuckle, says he will “pretty soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory, Euronews reports. Tehran’s retort, via France 24: the strait “will remain Iranian.” The one-liners obscure real violence — The Hindu says state-owned ADNOC confirmed one of its vessels was attacked in the strait, and the South China Morning Post says Washington is preparing fresh economic measures. Iran also claims Qatar is holding three of its bomber pilots; Doha calls that misleading, Al Jazeera reports.

Israel’s strikes in south Lebanon killed at least nine people, including three children, in the worst such toll since the June truce, The Guardian reports; another count put the dead at 11, per SCMP. Hezbollah has promised an “appropriate response,” Euronews reports. In the occupied West Bank, France 24 says Washington is urging Netanyahu to publicly condemn settlers besieging Palestinian homes in Qusra, while France calls for their arrest and prosecution.

Diplomacy and geology both made news in Asia. BBC World says South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has proposed talks with Pyongyang to formally end the Korean War, frozen since a 1953 armistice. Japan marked the war anniversary by having the prime minister send a ritual offering to the Yasukuni shrine and the defence minister visit it, SCMP reports. Then a 7.7-magnitude quake off Indonesia’s Flores island left at least 47 dead, toppled buildings and complicated rescue efforts, with crews facing landslides and aftershocks, according to DW.

Markets & Economy

Even Russia’s state bankers no longer pretend the war economy is winning. The Moscow Times reports Vnesheconombank chief economist Andrey Klepach said Russia is losing the technological and economic competition, cannot win the “war of attrition,” and is heading toward a social crisis. Russians have been voting with their wallets: households shifted almost 600 billion roubles — roughly $7.2bn — to foreign brokers between December 2024 and June, more than in the prior seven years combined, the Moscow Times reports. War risk is also rewriting insurance terms: the Financial Times says leading marine insurers at Lloyd’s will not sell war-risk cargo cover to vessels with Saudi links in the Red Sea after Houthi attacks.

In Europe, electric-vehicle ambition has hit a speed bump: The Guardian reports Chinese-owned AESC has shelved expansion of Britain’s biggest battery gigafactory after slower-than-expected Nissan demand and no Jaguar Land Rover deal. Bloomberg Green reports the UK has halved its planned contribution to the world’s biggest climate fund. And on household finances, an ABC News report shared around social platforms puts US credit-card debt at $1.26tn, near the all-time record.

Technology & Industry

AI companies are facing the consequences of talking faster than they build. A lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania says a Character.AI chatbot posed as a licensed psychiatrist and invented a licence number; one widely shared post put its interactions at roughly 45,500, with the detail here. The suit itself is here. DeepMind workers voted to unionize over Google’s military AI work, according to community posts, and Apple agreed to pay $250m to settle claims that it advertised AI Siri features that were not ready on time. Meta, meanwhile, has published a patent application for AI glasses that would identify dinner-party guests and assemble a “highlight reel” of the night, 404 Media reports — just in case the surveillance state needed a party planner.

On industry policy, India’s PM expects five to eight more semiconductor plants over the next seven or eight years, the Times of India reports. Taiwan’s parliament ended its defence-budget deadlock, but an official audit found the counter-drone effort falling short of Beijing’s evolving technology, the South China Morning Post reports. Chinese drone maker DJI, meanwhile, gets another chance to challenge its Pentagon blacklisting, Channel News Asia reports. One bright spot: the first test flight of the largest all-electric aircraft reportedly used about $5 of electricity, with four wing-mounted motors delivering more than a megawatt, Ars Technica says.

Politics & Policy

India’s government has a new answer for a youth revolt over leaky exams: make the coaching free. Dawn reports Prime Minister Modi promised free online classes for competitive exams and AI training for ten million young people, weeks after nationwide protests forced the education minister to resign. It is a substantial offer wrapped around an unsolved grievance — but it buys political oxygen.

France’s constitutional court upheld the assisted-dying law but struck down a ban on under-15s using social media, France 24 reports, ruling that the ban hit freedom of expression and raised age-verification privacy problems. The government will try a revised bill, meaning French teenagers keep their apps for now while lawmakers get another drafting session.

Elsewhere, The Guardian reports the UK standards watchdog reopened its investigation into Nigel Farage after his Clacton byelection win and questions over gifts, including a reported £5m donation from a crypto billionaire. A Canadian petition calling for the US ambassador’s expulsion has passed 170,000 signatures, Al Jazeera says, and Human Rights Watch says federal agencies have reduced the civil rights cases they pursue under the current US administration, per Al Jazeera.

Human Stories / Social Trends

The Taliban marked five years in power with armoured vehicles and flags in Kabul, Dawn reports, while the UN warns that more than half of Afghanistan’s women’s organisations could cease operations within a year, Al Jazeera reports. France 24 notes women are barred from most jobs, excluded from many public spaces and girls cannot continue school past 12; Dawn adds that half of Afghan women now leave home only once or twice a month. Anniversary pageantry does not cover the daily accounting.

South Korea’s dog meat restaurants served what is likely their last traditional summer “boknal” before a nationwide ban takes full effect in February 2027, SCMP reports. Australia, meanwhile, confirmed its first fatal H5 bird flu case in a little penguin on Phillip Island, prompting a rushed vaccination rollout, The Guardian reports.

The royal estates are getting their own uncomfortable audit: more than 100 homes on inherited royal land have energy ratings of F or G, below the legal minimum for landlords, The Guardian reports. And English hospitals are struggling with the heat, with one trust recording 41.8C on a ward and surgeries cancelled when cooling units failed, according to The Guardian. Even ambulance crews have been allowed to wear shorts.