Baker Hughes: U.S. energy firms added drilling rigs for the sixth time in seven weeks.

On July 29, announced July 31 by the Guangzhou Housing Provident Fund Management Center, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhaoqing and Qingyuan signed the Guangzhou Metropolitan Area Housing Provident Fund Collaborative Development Cooperation Agreement and held their first joint meeting. The four cities agreed to cooperate across nine areas focused on efficient coordination, convenience for residents and firms, and risk control — notably mutual recognition of contribution records, mutual recognition and interoperability of cross‑city housing provident fund loans, cross‑region processing of service items, joint administrative enforcement, linked information checks and sharing, coordinated risk prevention, joint policy publicity, financial management research exchanges and party‑led business coordination.

India's foreign minister phoned Iran's foreign minister this evening, urged that attacks on commercial shipping and seafarers be avoided under any circumstances, and condemned any such attacks by any party.