CCTV reports Li Qiang presided over a State Council executive meeting to study the current foreign-trade situation and work on building China into a strong trading nation.

A Europe-wide heatwave forced EDF to curtail nuclear generation after river water temperatures rose above safe cooling limits, driving French nuclear output to a near nine-month low. RTE data show average nuclear generation fell below 33 GW on Sunday, the lowest since Oct. 5 last year. Air temperatures have eased from last week’s peak, but river cooling lags, and a potential repeat heat spell next week risks further restrictions. Supply concerns pushed French July power futures up as much as 27% on Monday to €81.01/MWh (about $92.42), the highest near-month level since January.

The New York Times reports a multibillion-dollar US–Kazakhstan agreement opened access to one of the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten deposits for a group of US investors close to President Trump and Commerce Secretary Lutnick. In September Lutnick met Kazakhstan’s president in New York; Trump joined by phone and, the paper says, helped persuade Kazakhstan to allow a little-known US company to develop the deposit. Weeks later investors in Dominari Securities — based in Trump Tower and partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — acquired a 20% stake in an entity tied to the Kazakh project.