🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 "Ukraine is struggling to ship grain via the Black Sea as Moscow steps up strikes on commercial vessels in retaliation for a week of heavy attacks by Ukraine on Russian shipping.

Russian drone attacks on the port of Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest seaport, have caused storage capacity to drop by a third, according to maritime security company Ambrey, while shipowners are refusing to send ships into the area for fear of being struck. Some traders have paused buying in Odesa, according to analysts...

As a result, she said, domestic purchase prices at Ukrainian ports have “vanished”, and shipowners are no longer providing freight quotes...

Some ships have paused outside Ukrainian waters to reassess the risk of Russian drone and missile attacks, while insurance premiums have soared, according to Pavel Sosnovsky, analyst at Ukraine-based International Seaborne Market (ISM). “Several underwriters have suspended war risk cover for voyages to Ukrainian ports altogether.”

https://archive.fo/20260716200426/https://www.ft.com/content/5c64e7a5-fe26-4f14-8d77-1d0f1d8a30d3

🇵🇰🇰🇼⚡️ — Pakistan is negotiating an expanded defence pact with Kuwait in exchange for energy cooperation and investment, according to Reuters.

➡️ The talks are still at an early stage and could be affected by the U.S.-Iran tensions.

➡️ Kuwait is seeking expanded military cooperation, including aircraft, drones, air defence systems, and other capabilities, though Pakistani officials said deploying combat troops is not currently being considered.

🇺🇸 Tucker Carlson on Trump:

I don't think Trump is the most powerful man in the world.

Many presidents have, to varying degrees, resisted attempts to control them from outside and he didn't.

So he's weak.

Source: Bloomberg

🔗 Clash Report (@clashreport)

🇮🇱 Netanyahu seeks extended security for family in case of election loss

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed to extend security protection for his wife and sons in order to shield his family in case he loses the upcoming election, sources told Haaretz, with Netanyahu also requesting that his own security be extended for the rest of his life, per Ynet.

Shin Bet chief David Zini agreed to Sara Netanyahu's request for lifelong protection after the agency was pressured into changing its professional opinion, according to Israel's Channel 13, which said the agency also recommended extending the sons' security by five years – regardless of whether the threat level continues to justify it.

The extension requires approval from the Ministerial Committee on Shin Bet Affairs, chaired by Netanyahu himself.

A senior official in Naftali Bennett's Together party said the decision would not be binding if the opposition wins, and would be revoked by the next ministerial committee unless immediate threats to the family are demonstrated.

🔗 The Cradle

🇮🇱 The Israeli Parliament voted to dissolve itself ahead of the scheduled general elections

The motion was passed by a 62-0 vote. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and coalition lawmakers voted in favor of the dissolution.

🔗 https://thecradle.co/articles-id/38860

🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 — The U.S. military bombed at least seven bridges around the city of Bandar Abbas, which the U.S. considers a hub for IRGC operations in the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reports.

🇨🇳🤖🇺🇸 China just erased America's AI lead

A Chinese moonshot — literally and figuratively — has caught up to models that defined the U.S. frontier just weeks ago, at a substantially lower price.

Kimi K3, a massive new model by Beijing-based Moonshot AI, threatens the foundations of America's AI boom. Its release Thursday dazzled developers, jolted Silicon Valley and reset the AI race overnight.

Kimi immediately vaulted into the top tier of global AI, beating Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol in front-end coding tests by AI evaluator Arena.

In Arena's broader text ranking, Kimi finished ahead of Anthropic's Opus 4.8 — the company's flagship model until Fable 5 arrived in June — while costing 40% less.

Unlike the premium U.S. models it's challenging, Moonshot plans to release Kimi as an open-weight model on July 27 — allowing companies and governments to customize and run it on their own systems.

Even as Chinese open-weight models have gained momentum, U.S. AI leaders and policymakers took comfort in estimates that China remained six to 12 months behind the American frontier.

As recently as April, the U.S. government's AI testing center assessed that Chinese firm DeepSeek's newest model lagged about eight months behind the leading American systems.

Kimi's arrival suggests that cushion may have collapsed far faster than expected. "The entire game has changed. I expect this will trigger some code red for some," AI analyst Kim Isenberg predicted.

Kimi does not have to be the world's single best model to upend the market.

For companies, governments and developers, a model that performs near the frontier, costs 40% less and can be customized or run in-house may be the more attractive option.

Its very existence puts pressure on the pricing power of U.S. labs, the enormous valuations built around their technological edge, and the case for spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ever-larger data centers.

🔗 https://www.axios.com/2026/07/17/china-ai-kimi-k3-open-source-anthropic-opus

🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸🇧🇭 Satellite imagery from July 17 shows two apparent strikes at Bahrain's NSA Sheikh Isa military facility. The damage follows Iranian claims that the base was targeted during retaliatory strikes.

🔗 Soar (@SoarAtlas)