外媒每日新闻 Evening Edition

On July 6 at 12:01 PM, a Chinese PLA Navy strategic nuclear submarine successfully launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) carrying a training simulated warhead into international waters of the Pacific Ocean, with the warhead accurately landing in the designated area. China's Foreign Ministry stated this was a routine annual military exercise conducted in accordance with international law, and that relevant nations had been notified in advance. Japan, Australia, and New Zealand expressed "serious concern," with New Zealand's Foreign Minister noting the missile splashdown zone lies within the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone. Japan's government said it had strongly urged China to reconsider. The US called on China to engage in arms control dialogue, while the Kremlin expressed support for Beijing, stating China "does not threaten any country."^[2]

NATO leaders from 32 member states gathered in Ankara on July 7-8 for a pivotal summit dominated by President Trump's insistence that European allies increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. European nations increased defense spending by over $139 billion last year, but Trump's demands far exceed current commitments. The summit is expected to pledge €70 billion in military aid to Ukraine for 2026. Meanwhile, deep divisions persist between the US and Europe over the Iran nuclear issue, raising fears of potential transatlantic trade friction. European officials expressed concern that Washington's approach to Tehran could trigger a broader trade conflict. The STOXX 600 index fell 0.38% amid summit jitters.^[3]

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka signed a mutual defense treaty called the "Pacific Peace Alliance" in Suva on July 6, stipulating that an armed attack on either party would be considered a threat to the entire region, triggering a joint response. The two nations also signed an economic treaty, the "Vuvale Alliance," with Australia committing AUD 1 billion to Fiji over the next decade. AP/Washington Post reports noted this is the first mutual defense treaty in Fiji's history, and Australia's fourth such agreement following pacts with the US, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, explicitly aimed at countering China's growing influence in the Pacific. China's Foreign Ministry responded that China "does not engage in geopolitical games."^[4]

Days after Putin and Trump's 85-minute phone call on July 4 (US Independence Day), which Russian officials described as "pragmatic and constructive," the battlefield situation has only intensified. On July 6, Vyshneve, a satellite town of Kyiv, was hit by the largest airstrike since the full-scale war began in 2022 — a massive warehouse complex caught fire and triggered multiple secondary explosions, damaging dozens of buildings. Russia claimed the "complete liberation" of Luhansk (denied by Ukraine), while Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery approximately 2,500 km from the border. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that US-Russia working-level contacts are "almost daily." Trump's envoys Witkoff and Kushner are planning a visit to Moscow.^[5]

Cuban President Díaz-Canel warned that the US embargo, in place for over 60 years, has reached a "critical level" and constitutes a "genocidal" threat, as the UN General Assembly convened a special session on July 7 to debate the issue. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning stated that Beijing "consistently opposes illegal unilateral sanctions without basis in international law" and urged Washington to immediately end the blockade. The session comes amid broader Latin American discontent with US trade policy.^[6]

The China-Russia "Joint Sea-2026" bilateral naval exercise officially opened on July 6 at a naval port in Qingdao, Shandong Province. A joint command headquarters has been established with mixed naval formations from both countries. Participating vessels will conduct joint reconnaissance, air defense and anti-missile drills, and live-fire exercises in the waters and airspace near Qingdao. After the exercise concludes, some vessels will proceed to the Pacific Ocean for a joint maritime patrol. Bloomberg, CGTN, and Xinhua all reported on the drills. Japan, Australia, and New Zealand expressed concern.^[7]

SpaceX was officially added to the Nasdaq 100 index on July 7, just weeks after its landmark June IPO that valued the company at approximately $1.4 trillion — roughly 77 times trailing 12-month revenue of $18.7 billion. The inclusion marks the fastest-ever addition to the index since its inception. Analysts note the addition will trigger significant passive fund inflows and further concentrate the index around mega-cap technology and space companies. Meanwhile, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said there is an "over 80% probability" that Tesla and SpaceX could merge within the next year, which would create a vertically integrated platform spanning AI, energy, transportation, and satellite connectivity.^[9]

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix officially launched its US listing plan on July 6, seeking to raise approximately $28 billion through an ADR issuance (reduced from an original $29 billion target), under the ticker symbol "SKHY." The offering is expected to begin on July 10 with official Nasdaq listing on July 29. The deal would mark the largest foreign company ADR offering in US history and one of the top three IPOs globally by size. The move reflects the strategic importance of memory chips in the AI infrastructure boom, as demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators continues to surge.^[10]

Goldman Sachs released a landmark report on July 6 forecasting cumulative global AI infrastructure investment — encompassing computing, data centers, and power — of approximately $7.6 trillion from 2026 to 2031. Annual spending is projected to surge from $765 billion to $1.64 trillion over the period. The report noted that AI is transitioning from pure software hype into a tangible hardware race, penetrating manufacturing, energy, logistics, defense, and life sciences. Power has emerged as the newest bottleneck for AI expansion, with data center grid connection queues stretching 8-12 years in some regions.^[11]

Seven major OPEC+ producers agreed to increase August daily output by 188,000 barrels per day, marking the fifth consecutive monthly increase. Saudi Arabia simultaneously cut its official selling prices. Meanwhile, US Energy Department data for the week ending July 3 showed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell by 6.2 million barrels to 319.5 million barrels — the lowest level since April 1983. WTI crude stood at $68.55 per barrel and Brent at $71.99, both edging lower.^[12]

USD/JPY reached 162.17, maintaining its lowest level in nearly 40 years (since 1986). Despite the Bank of Japan's June rate hike to 1%, short-selling pressure has not abated. Goldman Sachs raised its one-year target to 165 in a July research note. The yen's weakness has mixed effects: while boosting Japanese export competitiveness, it significantly increases import costs and domestic inflation. Meanwhile, South Korea's CPI rose 3.2% YoY in June — a two-and-a-half-year high — keeping expectations alive for a July rate hike by the Bank of Korea.^[13]

The US announced it is postponing the implementation of 25% tariffs on Japanese and South Korean industrial goods to August 1. Japan and South Korea are urgently consulting on countermeasures. While the US had previously reached a 15% tariff agreement with South Korea, no deal has been reached with Japan yet. Trade uncertainty is weighing on East Asian export-dependent economies, adding pressure to regional supply chains already strained by geopolitical tensions and the AI hardware race.^[14]

The "Trionda" smart football used at the 2026 FIFA World Cup — which sends 500 data signals per second to referee computers and can detect offsides as small as 10 centimeters via embedded chips — has triggered intense debate on social media. Large numbers of fans have accused the technology of "destroying the soul of football," arguing that the beautiful game has been reduced to cold data competition. FIFA estimates 2026 World Cup revenue will reach $13 billion, with global advertisers spending $10.5 billion. The tension between technological precision and traditional football culture has become a defining narrative of the tournament.^[16]

Deutsche Bank predicts the Federal Reserve may raise rates twice in 2026 (25 basis points each in September and December). While US rates don't directly dictate Chinese mortgage rates, they indirectly constrain Beijing's monetary policy space, potentially limiting future mortgage rate cuts. A strengthening US dollar has pushed up costs for Chinese travelers studying abroad or vacationing overseas. CME futures show a 74.3% probability the Fed holds rates steady in July, but a 57% chance of a September hike. Fed Governor Christopher Waller stated the central bank "will not artificially maintain low rates to accommodate government fiscal deficits," sending a hawkish signal.^[17]

TeraWulf announced a 20-year AI data center lease with Anthropic expected to generate approximately $19 billion in contract revenue, with an IT load capacity of 401 megawatts. The deal underscores how frontier AI companies are locking in long-term energy and campus assets to secure compute capacity. Separately, reports indicated Anthropic is also planning massive data center leases in Europe and Australia, seeking at least 1.4 gigawatts of capacity in Australia alone with construction costs potentially reaching $15 billion. The race for AI compute infrastructure has become one of the largest capital deployment cycles in corporate history.^[19]

According to a SemiAnalysis report, NVIDIA's Kyber NVL144 rack architecture — showcased just three months ago at GTC — has been delayed by over a year to 2028 due to PCB midboard manufacturing challenges. The 4-chip version of Rubin Ultra has reportedly been cancelled, with performance expectations halved. NVIDIA has not commented on the report, and the analyst community remains skeptical of SemiAnalysis's motives. Separately, ICML 2026 opened in Seoul, where NVIDIA highlighted its Nemotron, Cosmos, and BioNeMo open models as emerging research infrastructure for the academic community.^[20]

SAP completed its acquisition of open-source data lakehouse query engine Dremio (financial terms undisclosed), filling a key capability gap in its Business Data Cloud platform. The deal highlights a critical shift in enterprise AI competition: the battleground is moving from model development to governable, queryable data infrastructure. With Snowflake, Databricks, and Microsoft Fabric all competing in this space, the race to build the definitive enterprise data layer for AI workloads is accelerating. Industry observers expect further consolidation in the data infrastructure sector throughout 2026.^[21]

Anthropic released two significant outputs: (1) A case study detailing how the government of Alberta, Canada, used Claude Code to scan 466 million lines of code and identify vulnerabilities, marking a significant adoption of coding AI for legacy system security auditing in government settings; (2) A research paper on "Global Workspaces in Language Models," exploring Claude's internal reportable, manipulable shared representations that could be used to audit role drift and model internal states. The research represents progress toward making AI systems more interpretable and auditable.^[22]

Cristiano Ronaldo's fifth — and almost certainly final — World Cup concluded with Portugal's elimination. In the post-match press conference, the 41-year-old legend stated: "I leave with 1,000% clear conscience." The moment generated enormous emotional resonance across social media, with fans sharing compilations of his World Cup career spanning two decades. The hashtag #RonaldoWorldCupFarewell trended in over 60 countries on X/Twitter. During the group stage alone, Weibo generated 1,295 trending topics with 520 billion total views related to the World Cup.

Norway striker Erling Haaland has become the breakout star of the 2026 World Cup on social media — not just for his goals, but for his signature "man bun" hairstyle. The distinctive look has triggered a wave of memes, imitation photos, and cosplay on X/Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, making it one of the most recognizable cultural symbols of the tournament. Haaland's combination of on-field dominance and off-field charm has made him the most universally liked player of the competition.

President Trump's visit to Scotland during his trip to Europe for the NATO summit sparked massive social media discussion. CNN reported protests at the US Consulate in Edinburgh, with Scottish citizens voicing opposition to various administration policies. Videos and photos of the protests trended on X/Twitter, while supporters countered with pro-Trump hashtags. The visit highlighted the deep political polarization that now accompanies nearly every presidential foreign trip, with social media amplifying both criticism and support in real time.

The World Cup Round of 16 match between the United States and Belgium generated enormous social media buzz not primarily for the football, but due to the controversy surrounding Folarin Balogun's red card and President Trump's public intervention in the matter. Many users on X/Twitter questioned whether political interference was undermining the integrity of the World Cup. Earlier, Uzbek referee Tantashev's controversial decisions in the France vs Paraguay match also triggered heated social media debate. Belgium led 2-1 at halftime.