On the 17th, Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said the US violated the US‑Iran memorandum of understanding, rendering it effectively defunct. He accused US forces of mounting large-scale, hybrid strikes on infrastructure in southern Iran. Rezaei said Iran has already widened the scope of its response after recent US attacks and warned that continued US strikes over the coming days would prompt a shift from “deterrence and retaliation” to a “full offensive and destruction

Song Tao, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Communist Party Central Committee and of the State Council, met former Kuomintang chair Hung Hsiu‑chu and her delegation in Hangzhou on the 17th. Song conveyed Xi Jinping’s greetings and reiterated Beijing’s intent to rally Taiwanese compatriots to promote peaceful cross‑strait development and advance the cause of national reunification, urging cross‑strait youth to accelerate integration and safeguard the shared homeland so that the future of cross‑strait relations remains in Chinese hands. Hung thanked Xi for his greetings, said peace must be founded on national reunification, and called on youth on both sides to work together to promote integration and peaceful reunification.

CFTC: For week ended July 14, COMEX speculative net-long positions — gold +4,294 contracts to 119,147; silver -1,755 contracts to 10,377; copper +1,536 contracts to 61,932.