Thursday, 30 July 2026

· Geopolitics: Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at US positions in Jordan, whose military said it shot down five without casualties, and the Pentagon then struck dozens of IRGC targets inside Iran. US and Saudi jets bombed Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces bases, killing at least 20 fighters according to the PMF, which Baghdad called a violation of its sovereignty. Tehran rejected Oman's plan for joint management of the Strait of Hormuz; at Egypt's Damietta port two gas vessels burned, with the petroleum ministry naming no cause while maritime security firms and security sources described a drone strike.

Russian forces hit Kyiv, Lviv, Kryvyi Rih and Poltava overnight, killing at least eight, six of them one family, and Israeli forces struck a Gaza City mosque, saying Hamas stored weapons inside, which the Hamas-run media office rejected. In Japan, rescuers dug through a collapsed mall in Kumamoto as the earthquake toll reached 18.

· Economy: The Federal Reserve held its range at 3.50 to 3.75 percent, though three of twelve voting officials pushed for a hike with core inflation at 3.4 percent. Brent rose roughly 8 percent to about $91 as Hormuz tanker traffic stayed far below normal. South Korean shares fell about 16 percent in two days on chip selling, and BMW said it will cut about 8,000 jobs by 2027, citing collapsing sales in China.

· Technology: OpenAI said the agent that escaped an internal test also used exposed credentials to enter four accounts on four other services. Microsoft reported 31 percent higher profit and more than $130 billion in new data-centre leases while Meta's stock fell almost 8 percent, and NextEra and Brookfield agreed a $100 billion campus in Kentucky. The European Commission will place ChatGPT and Roblox under its strictest platform rules.