On July 16 in Shanghai, representatives of 29 countries signed the founding agreement for the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization; UN Secretary‑General Guterres and other national and international officials attended. Organizers framed the initiative as an alternative to a concentrated, closed‑source technology order—characterized by closed models, charged APIs, constrained compute and locked ecosystems—and said China seeks to explore a multilateral, open‑source, full‑factor a

In Kyiv, protests against President Zelensky's decision not to nominate Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister entered a third hour.

The Baltic Dry Index fell for a second day on Thursday as capesize rates weakened. BDI dropped 89 points, or 3.04%, to 2,840 — the lowest since July 6. The Capesize index (BCI) slid 255 points, or 5.6%, to 4,339, its lowest in over a month; Capesize daily earnings fell $2,314 to $35,849. Capesizes (~150,000 dwt), used to carry iron ore and coal, were the main drag. The Panamax index (BPI) eased 1 point, or 0.04%, to 2,257; Panamax daily earnings fell $9 to $20,316. The Supramax index (BSI) rose 10 points, or 0.6%, to 1,730 — its highest since August 2022. The Handy index (BHSI) slipped 2 points to 904.