July 21 — Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular briefing that China rejects Japan’s diplomatic protest alleging Chinese warships carried out live-fire training inside Japan’s claimed exclusive economic zone. Lin said China’s relevant

TASNIM NEWS reports explosions heard in Erbil, Iraq.

According to the latest federal lobbying disclosures, Anthropic's lobbying spending in the first half of 2026 has already exceeded its total spending for the entire previous year. Anthropic spent nearly $2 million on lobbying in the second quarter, focusing on issues such as export controls, cybersecurity, and AI safety standards. Anthropic's lobbying spending in the first half of this year has exceeded $3.5 million, significantly higher than its total spending of $3.1 million in 2025. The company also disclosed that its lobbying issues included Department of Defense procurement, funding for the Department of Energy's "Genesis Mission," and the application of artificial intelligence in the medical field. Anthropic's interactions with the Trump administration reached a key turning point last month when the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed export controls on the company, affecting its model services and prompting urgent negotiations between the two sides. The latest disclosures show that all major AI labs are closely monitoring government adjustments to AI safety standards and regulatory approaches. OpenAI also faced delays in the rollout of its latest models and set a new company record for quarterly lobbying spending, investing $1.2 million in the second quarter. The company disclosed its lobbying priorities, including copyright, cloud computing and infrastructure, cybersecurity, and privacy protection. Google's lobbying expenditures in the second quarter were $3.57 million, while Microsoft's were $2.69 million. Meta has long been the top spender on lobbying in the tech industry, and the second quarter of 2026 was no exception, with expenditures reaching $5.99 million. Meta has also been under scrutiny from both parties in the U.S. Congress over its inadequate online child protection measures, a long-standing controversy that is now conflicting with its goal of developing a chatbot business.