China foreign minister Wang Yi met Kazakhstan foreign minister Koshyrebayev in Beijing on July 13. Wang pledged Chinese support for Kazakhstan’s chosen development path and offered to deepen bilateral exchanges, governance-experience sharing and pragmatic cooperation to expand their permanent comprehensive strategic partnership. China welcomed Kazakhstan’s accession to the International Mediation Institute, praised its constructive role in the China–Central Asia mechanism, the Shanghai Cooperati

After U.S.-Iran fighting resumed, several ships have completed dark transits of the Strait of Hormuz by switching off AIS transponders while visible traffic has fallen sharply. Bloomberg-cited Kpler preliminary data show six bulk commodity carriers that crossed the strait last Sunday had AIS turned off. Over the past three days dark transits outnumbered visible passages; AIS tracking showed no recorded transits early Monday. Some vessels reappeared on both sides of the strait after last publicly reporting positions on the opposite side, consistent with transit with AIS disabled. Visible passage along the southern Oman-coast route has effectively stopped since last Wednesday; Iran-designated northern safety corridor still saw a small number of vessels through last Saturday. Iran has recently attacked ships using the Oman route, including vessels that had switched off transponders, which appears to have reduced activity on that corridor.

Bank of East Asia wealth management strategist Chen Weicong said tech firms’ higher AI spending and rising energy and memory production costs have weakened earnings recovery for heavyweight tech and consumer names, prompting a cut to this year’s Hang Seng earnings forecast and a target reduction from 29,000 to 27,100. The implied P/E on the forecast is about 10x, slightly below the 10-year average of ~10.5x, making valuations increasingly attractive and recent overselling a buying opportunity. He expects a short-lived phase rebound in H2; the July Politburo meeting could be a catalyst if it signals further growth-stabilizing policies.