Iran's foreign ministry said US aggressive actions against Iran, coupled with coarse rhetoric and malicious threats by US officials, are intended to express hostility toward the Iranian people for asserting their independence, lawful rights and human dignity.

Lighthouse Professional real-time data shows the film Kung Fu Women's Football has surpassed 900 million yuan in box office receipts as of 15:42 on July 16.

Hong Kong stocks closed higher. The Hang Seng rose 1.33% to 25,008.60 and the Hang Seng Tech climbed 1.98% to 4,834.44. Turnover was HKD 322.892 bln (previous session HKD 304.297 bln). The market opened strong—HSI and HSTECH were up more than 2% and 3% respectively in early trade—then pulled back in the afternoon, with the index hovering around the 25,000 level at close. Autos and internet/tech names led gains all day; new-consumer and livestock names were active. Pharmaceuticals diverged in the afternoon. The semiconductor chain weakened broadly, led by memory chips. Notable movers: BYD Co. (01211.HK) +4.60%, Pop Mart (09992.HK) +6.87%, Alibaba Group (09988.HK) +3.27%; Joinn Laboratories (06127.HK) -6.04%, WuXi AppTec (02359.HK) -1.88%, Montage Technology (06809.HK) -22.95%, GigaDevice Semiconductor (03986.HK) -8.68%.