CHINA met Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Shanghai on July 17.

SoftBank Group plans to issue about ¥60bn (≈$369m) of bonds to Japanese institutional investors this month, offering roughly ¥50bn of 3-year and ¥10bn of 5-year tranches in the week of July 27, according to lead underwriter Daiwa Securities. The move underscores growing financing needs; SoftBank earlier raised ¥678bn via retail subordinated notes and tapped US and European bond markets in April. Renewed market concern over AI investment returns has weighed on semiconductor-related names including Arm and pressured SoftBank shares, which have slipped from early-June highs after reports an OpenAI IPO may be delayed. SoftBank has been considering using its OpenAI stake as collateral for margin loans and has scaled planned financing down from $10bn to about $6bn.

CENTCOM said at 9:40 p.m. ET it completed a large-scale strike on Iran using fighters, drones and warships, firing precision-guided munitions at dozens of Iranian military targets, including coastal surveillance and air-defence sites, military logistics infrastructure and facilities tied to maritime combat capability. CENTCOM said the action — the sixth consecutive night of strikes — is intended to further degrade Iran’s military capacity and hold it accountable for recent attacks on commercial vessels. More than 50,000 U.S. service members are deployed in the Middle East and remain on high alert.