Syrian state TV, citing sources, said Israel struck an air force base in northwest Syria.

Rapid rises in US Treasury yields are a key risk to Asia's AI-led stock rally, underscoring tech firms' sensitivity to higher financing costs. In the past five years, during the 20 weeks when the 10-year Treasury yield rose at least 20 bps in a single week, the MSCI Asia Pacific index fell in 17 of those weeks, with an average decline of 1.7%. With investor concern about US fiscal health pushing global bond losses wider, the transmission from bond volatility to Asian markets has strengthened, Vantage Global Prime analyst Hebe Chen said, adding that Taiwan and South Korea are increasingly linked to the US tech cycle and cross-border flows. Recent Asian gains have been concentrated in tech and AI — the segments most exposed to rising capital costs, higher discount rates, FX swings and global macro stress.

On Aug 18 Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular briefing that China opposes broadening the concept of national security to restrict or suppress normal international education and research cooperation. The comment followed reports that Australian foreign minister Penny Wong asked the Australian National University and the University of Queensland to terminate cooperation agreements with Shandong University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.