外媒每日新闻 Evening Edition

Ukrainian drones flew approximately 2,700 kilometers — one of the deepest strikes of the war — to hit Russia's largest oil refinery, the Gazprom Neft-owned Omsk Refinery in Siberia, which processes 22 million tons annually and accounts for the largest share of Russia's gasoline output. Two core crude distillation units (CDU-10 caught fire, CDU-11 suffered pipeline damage) were knocked offline, removing 75% of the plant's processing capacity. Russia's presidential envoy to Siberia confirmed damage on July 7 but reported no casualties. CNN analysis notes that gasoline shortages or supply disruptions have now spread to 83 of Russia's 89 regions, with 56 implementing fuel rationing. Gasoline prices rose 3% in a single week — the largest increase in two decades. Russia has begun importing gasoline from India and plans additional purchases from Belarus and Kazakhstan.^[2]

At a joint press conference with President Erdoğan during the NATO Ankara Summit on July 7, President Trump announced the U.S. would move to lift sanctions imposed since 2019 over Turkey's purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense system, and would make a decision on resuming F-35 stealth fighter sales to Turkey. The statement drew an immediate reaction from Israel, which had previously pressured Washington against selling F-35s to Ankara. Turkey controls the Bosphorus Strait — the gateway to the Black Sea — giving it outsized strategic value amid the dual escalations in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Middle East. Trump also reiterated his claim that Greenland "should be controlled by the United States," putting further pressure on European allies during the summit.^[3]

The International Olympic Committee announced on July 7 that it has provisionally lifted the suspension imposed on the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) since October 2023. The IOC stated it will make further decisions regarding the display of the Russian flag and the playing of the national anthem. The gradual restoration of Russian athletes' Olympic eligibility marks a significant shift in the international sports community's stance toward Russia since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022.^[4]

A French appeals court on July 7 dramatically shortened Marine Le Pen's ban on running for elected office to the 15 months she has already served, allowing the far-right leader to immediately resume political activities. Le Pen promptly announced her candidacy for the 2027 French presidential election. The ruling sent French sovereign bond yields soaring as markets reassessed political and fiscal risks. The development comes on the same day that France's finance minister revealed the government had cut its 2026 growth forecast for the second time this year — from 1% to 0.9% in April, and now to 0.7% — warning that deficit reduction targets may not be met.^[5]

The death toll from Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes — magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 at a shallow depth of just 10 km — has climbed to 3,685 with 16,740 injured, according to Venezuela's National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on July 7. The shallow-source quakes struck on June 24, causing catastrophic damage along the Caribbean coast. China remains one of the principal donor nations for earthquake relief, with Chinese firms in Venezuela having donated over 115 tonnes of emergency supplies. AP won the "Best of the AP — First Winner" honor for its comprehensive coverage of the disaster. Venezuela is observing a national mourning period as international rescue operations continue.^[6]

South Korea's KOSPI index plummeted more than 8% on July 7, triggering a 20-minute circuit breaker suspension — the most dramatic single-day move in recent memory. The crash was driven by a concentrated profit-taking in the semiconductor sector, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each falling approximately 10%. On July 8, the KOSPI continued its slide, dropping more than 20% from its June peak and technically entering bear market territory. South Korea's finance ministry announced it would strengthen its foreign exchange monitoring system to cope with overnight trading volatility. The sell-off rippled across Asian markets, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index falling 4.9% in U.S. trading on July 8.^[8]

Crude oil prices surged on July 7-8 after the U.S. Treasury revoked the general license allowing Iranian oil sales and the U.S. military launched extensive airstrikes on Iranian coastal targets. WTI crude closed up 2.76% at $70.44 per barrel, while Brent crude jumped 3.01% to $74.16. The dual moves — military strikes combined with a full reinstatement of oil sanctions — effectively killed the June 22 oil sales waiver before its scheduled August 21 expiration, sending shockwaves through global energy markets. Shipping companies began rerouting vessels around the Strait of Hormuz, and war-risk insurance premiums spiked further.^[9]

U.S. stocks fell sharply on July 8 as geopolitical tensions and inflation fears weighed on investor sentiment. The S&P 500 dropped 0.45%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.16%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 4.9%. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 6.78 basis points to 4.54%, while the 30-year yield breached the psychologically important 5% threshold. The New York Fed's survey showed U.S. one-year inflation expectations jumped to 3.7% in June — the highest since September 2023. Fed Governor Christopher Waller stated that the Federal Reserve would not deliberately keep rates low to help finance the government's fiscal deficit.^[10]

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points as expected and signaled further tightening may follow. RBNZ Governor Berman stated that inflation may have peaked but rates are still adjusting toward neutral. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Australia's assistant governor Hunter noted that recent oil price shocks have not yet slowed the Australian economy, and the bank will take necessary action to ensure inflation returns to target. Thailand's central bank minutes also showed that inflation is expected to exceed the target range for the remainder of 2026, driven primarily by energy costs and production-side pressures.^[11]

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck Yibin County, Sichuan Province, at 6:12 AM on July 8, with a focal depth of 8 kilometers. Local emergency management, fire, and rescue departments rushed to the epicenter to assess damage and organize evacuations. As of press time, no major casualties have been reported. The earthquake follows devastating twin quakes in Venezuela that have claimed over 3,600 lives, highlighting the global urgency of earthquake preparedness and disaster response capabilities.^[13]

The Round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup concluded with one of the most dramatic matches in tournament history. Trailing 0-2, Argentina scored three goals in 13 breathtaking minutes to defeat Egypt 3-2 and advance to the quarter-finals. Lionel Messi contributed one goal and one assist, setting multiple World Cup records reportedly reaching 16 individual milestones. The complete quarter-final lineup: Morocco, France, Norway, England, Spain, Belgium, Argentina, and Switzerland. The tournament has delivered a series of stunning upsets, with several top seeds eliminated in the earlier rounds.^[14]

China's National Health Commission and six other departments jointly issued opinions on accelerating the construction of a universal childcare service system. The policy package covers expanding affordable childcare slots, reducing household childcare costs through subsidies, improving service quality, strengthening regulatory oversight, and deploying digital monitoring platforms. The measures aim to address the persistent pain points of "childcare difficulties and high costs" that have contributed to China's declining birth rate, offering a more comprehensive support system for working parents.^[15]

Anthropic's Claude Cowork AI agent platform has expanded from its desktop-only origins to mobile and web interfaces, initially available to Max subscription users with broader rollout in coming weeks. The breakthrough feature: even with the laptop closed, AI agents continue executing tasks in the cloud and push progress notifications to the user's phone. This represents Anthropic's strategic push toward "smartphone-controlled agents" — users can remotely manage and monitor AI workflows from any device. The move signals a new phase in the AI agent competition, where the battleground shifts from model capability to platform ubiquity and always-on productivity.^[17]

The first publicly documented case of AI involvement in a ransomware attack — dubbed "Jade Puffer" — has been analyzed in detail by cloud security firm Sysdig. The AI agent, after receiving initial access credentials from a human operator, could autonomously execute vulnerability scanning, file encryption, and ransom note drafting. However, the investigation revealed that target selection, infrastructure setup, and stolen credential provisioning were all performed by humans. TechCrunch noted that while "fully autonomous cybercrime" remains distant, AI's role in attack chains is shifting from assistance to execution — companies should strengthen monitoring of credential abuse and anomalous agent behavior.^[18]

Samsung Electronics announced it has begun mass production of its most advanced data center storage device, the PM1763 enterprise-grade SSD, custom-developed for NVIDIA's upcoming Vera Rubin AI computing platform. The PM1763 uses the latest V-NAND flash chips and a newly developed 4-nanometer controller, delivering read/write speeds more than double the previous generation. Equipped with liquid cooling systems for AI training and inference workloads, the drives are expected to ship in volume with NVIDIA rack-scale systems starting Q3. HBM4 memory and the low-power SOCAMM2 module were also showcased alongside the new SSD.^[19]

Microsoft is accelerating the deployment of its self-developed AI models in core productivity applications. Sources reveal that in Excel and Outlook — apps with hundreds of millions of users — tens of thousands of AI tasks per week are now being handled by Microsoft's internal MAI model series, replacing previous reliance on OpenAI and Anthropic. This marks a quiet rewriting of the "Microsoft-OpenAI exclusive partnership" narrative. Separately, Ars Technica reported that Chinese AI lab DeepSeek is planning to design its own AI chips to reduce dependence on NVIDIA and Huawei, as U.S. export controls continue to tighten.^[20]

Multiple industry sources have confirmed that Apple's first foldable iPhone — potentially named "iPhone Fold" or "iPhone Ultra" — has entered mass production. Manufacturing partner Foxconn has begun large-scale recruitment to build assembly capacity, with Foxconn's Ganzhou and Longhua/Shenzhen campuses involved in foldable iPhone assembly. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts the device may repeat the iPhone X story: announced alongside standard models but with delayed availability, with supply constraints lasting through year-end. Apple has reportedly placed orders for 10 million units with an estimated price around $2,500, and has developed a dedicated display controller chip to manage the foldable screen's power consumption.^[21]

The U.S. military's large-scale airstrikes on 80+ targets in southern Iran, combined with the revocation of Iran's oil export waiver, ignited intense discussion on social media. A Qatari LNG carrier struck in the Strait of Hormuz — with crew abandoning ship — became a viral visual. Users debated whether the strikes would trigger a wider regional war, with #IranStrikes and #Hormuz trending globally. The simultaneous withdrawal of the oil waiver drew criticism from energy analysts warning of supply disruptions.^[23]

Meta's release of its first in-house AI image generator Muse Image triggered a massive privacy backlash after Wired reported that the system defaults to allowing any Instagram user's photos to be incorporated into AI-generated images — unless they manually opt out. The hashtag #MuseImage went viral as users rushed to find and toggle their privacy settings. Critics called it "digital identity theft at scale," while others noted the opt-out model places an unreasonable burden on everyday users to protect their own likenesses.^[24]

Anthropic's launch of Claude Cowork on mobile and web drew enthusiastic reactions from the AI community. The concept of closing your laptop and having AI agents continue working autonomously — with progress notifications pushed to your phone — resonated with tech professionals. #ClaudeCowork and #AIAgent both trended in tech circles, with users comparing it to a "personal employee that never sleeps." The launch coincided with OpenClaw reportedly topping GitHub with 252,000 stars (surpassing React), further fueling the AI agent ecosystem narrative.^[25]

The KOSPI's dramatic 8% plunge and circuit breaker activation on July 7 sent shockwaves through financial Twitter. #KOSPI and #BearMarket trended as traders shared screenshots of the trading halt and debated whether the sell-off was a healthy correction or the start of a broader Asian market downturn. The speed of the decline — with Samsung and SK Hynix each dropping 10% in a single session — drew comparisons to the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID crash.^[26]