外媒每日新闻 Iran Missile Strike & KOSPI Meltdown Edition

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Trump at the White House on July 28, their first face-to-face meeting since the February U.S.-Israel joint strike on Iran triggered a new round of Middle East war. After the meeting, Netanyahu called it "one of the best conversations I've ever had with a U.S. president." The two leaders focused on the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and on implementing the Lebanon-Israel framework agreement. During ceasefire negotiations in April, Trump had made vulgar remarks about Netanyahu, calling him "a very difficult man to deal with," and relations had hit a low point. Analysts say the visit's main purpose was to demonstrate to Iran and others that there are no major disagreements between the U.S. and Israel. Netanyahu also attended the funeral of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.^[4]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Trump at the White House for over an hour on July 28, calling it a "good meeting" afterward. The two sides discussed licensing for Patriot air defense missile production and reviving diplomatic negotiations with Russia. Zelensky thanked the U.S. for its "steadfast support" on X, saying officials from both countries would arrange further discussions. Since Trump's return to the White House, U.S.-Ukraine relations have recovered from the tense February 2025 Oval Office confrontation. Trump praised Zelensky for "doing a fantastic job" when they met in Turkey earlier this month. Zelensky also attended Senator Graham's funeral and addressed Congress that evening to push for a procedural vote on a Russia sanctions bill.^[5]

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian by phone on July 28 to address the Caspian Sea ship attack. Kuleba emphasized that "any escalation steps must be avoided" and demanded Iran stop supporting Russia's war. Amir-Abdollahian confirmed the call, saying Kuleba assured him the attack was "unintentional" and Ukraine did not want tensions to rise. Iran said it does not seek escalation but made clear that any attack on Iranian citizens or interests is unacceptable and "compensation must be paid." On July 25, a Ukrainian drone strike hit an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea, killing one crew member and wounding another. Iranian lawmakers warned that "Ukraine will soon learn that Iran does not let actions go unanswered." Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also spoke with Kuleba the same day about shared challenges including the Iranian threat.^[6]

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on July 29 that it has filed "aiding terrorism" charges against Telegram founder Pavel Durov and issued an international wanted notice. The FSB said Telegram has failed to remove content used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies and "terrorist" organizations to plan attacks. The news was reported by multiple international media outlets including Al Jazeera and France 24. Durov's current whereabouts are unclear. Telegram has played a significant role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with both sides widely using the platform for communication and information dissemination. Durov was previously arrested and briefly detained in France.^[7]

U.S. stocks closed mixed on July 28, the eve of the Fed's rate decision, in a clear rotation trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.03% to 52,747.32, led by defense, energy, and consumer staples sectors as safe-haven flows poured into traditional blue chips. The S&P 500 edged up 0.21% to 7,428.78, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.22% to 24,876.91, dragged down by a selloff in AI chip stocks. Memory chipmakers Micron, SK Hynix, and ASML dropped over 4% each amid concerns that massive AI capital expenditure may not translate into near-term profits. Tesla fell 2.1%. European markets were modestly higher, with the Stoxx 600 up 0.18%. Treasury yields fell across the curve, with the 10-year yield dropping 5bp to 4.598% as oil's decline eased inflation fears.^[11]

Apple Inc. briefly crossed the $5 trillion market capitalization threshold on July 28, with shares touching an intraday high of $342.89, giving the iPhone maker a market value of approximately $5.04 trillion at its peak. Apple becomes only the second company globally — after Nvidia — to reach the $5T milestone. The stock has rallied nearly 20% over the past month and is up roughly 25% year-to-date. Apple reclaimed its position as the world's most valuable company, surpassing Nvidia. Investors are now focused on Apple's fiscal Q3 earnings report due after market close on July 30, which will be CEO Tim Cook's final earnings call before his planned departure. Apple also launched a new device rental program in the U.S. on July 28.^[12]

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton reported first-half 2026 revenue of €38.64 billion on July 27, a 3% decline year-over-year (2% organic growth), missing market expectations. Recurring operating profit came in at €8.69 billion. The luxury conglomerate cited the Middle East conflict as a key factor dampening high-end consumer spending in the region. Asian markets delivered stronger growth, providing some offset. The results add to signs of a broader slowdown in the luxury goods sector, with Kering's Gucci also reporting narrowing sales declines but still under pressure. LVMH shares have come under pressure as investors reassess luxury valuations amid geopolitical uncertainty and shifting consumer patterns.^[13]

A new United Nations report released on July 27 declared that the world has moved past a water crisis into "water bankruptcy," with Africa's utility numbers already showing the devastating impacts. The report highlights accelerating water scarcity globally, driven by climate change, population growth, and unsustainable water management practices. African nations face particularly severe challenges, with utility infrastructure failing to keep pace with demand. The warning comes amid growing recognition that traditional water crisis frameworks no longer capture the scale of systemic failure in water governance and supply systems worldwide, raising urgent questions about water access equity and economic stability in water-stressed regions.^[16]

New data confirmed on July 29 that South Korea's elderly population has surpassed 20% of the total, officially marking the country's entry into a "super-aged society." Concurrently, the working-age population fell below 70%, signaling profound demographic shifts. The transition is expected to constrain long-term economic growth, increase social security burdens, and force policy responses including immigration liberalization and accelerated automation adoption. South Korea's demographic trajectory is among the most extreme globally, and the trend mirrors challenges facing many East Asian nations as birth rates continue to decline and life expectancies rise.^[17]

Health authorities reported on July 27 that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has recorded 3,200 confirmed Ebola cases including 1,405 deaths, marking one of the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreaks in the country's history. The ongoing epidemic continues to challenge response efforts in the region, which has faced repeated Ebola outbreaks over the past decade. The high case fatality rate underscores the difficulties of containing the virus in areas with limited healthcare infrastructure, ongoing conflict, and population mobility. International health organizations continue to support response efforts including vaccination campaigns and contact tracing.^[18]

Chinese AI company Moonshot AI fully open-sourced Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter native multimodal Mixture-of-Experts model, on July 27. Weights were released on Hugging Face, GitHub, and ModelScope with full technical reports, along with three key infrastructure technologies: MoonEP, FlashKDA, and AgentEnv. K3 supports 1 million token context and native visual understanding. Within hours of release, it claimed the top spot on the AI Arena code evaluation leaderboard, becoming the first Chinese large model to achieve this ranking. The release narrows the gap between open-source and closed-state-of-the-art from 6-12 months to near zero.^[22]

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) 2026-07-28 specification was formally finalized on July 28 — the biggest revision since its November 2024 launch. The protocol becomes fully stateless, eliminating the initialize handshake and Mcp-Session-Id, adding required Mcp-Method/Mcp-Name headers, and introducing 6 breaking changes. Roots/Sampling/Logging enter a 12-month deprecation window. Meanwhile, Anthropic's secondary market valuation reached $1.2 trillion as the company prepares for an October IPO. Sam Altman acknowledged OpenAI "fell far behind Claude Code," while YC CEO Garry Tan's gstack configuration surpassed 112,000 GitHub stars.^[23]

#令和8年熊本地震 and #KumamotoEarthquake trended across Japan and globally after a magnitude 7 earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan. Users posted real-time footage of building swaying, train suspensions, and emergency evacuation alerts. The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings for coastal areas, though waves were later reported to be smaller than initially feared. The hashtags #緊急支援募金 (emergency relief fundraising) and #LINEヤフー基金 (LINE Yahoo Fund) gained traction as users shared donation links. Local officials reported multiple injuries and building damage, with rescue operations underway. The earthquake struck at a particularly sensitive time as Japan is still recovering from previous seismic events.

#Fauci, #FifthAmendment, and #PleadingThe5th trended on X as Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before a U.S. Senate committee regarding the COVID-19 pandemic response. The hearing featured intense questioning from Senators Rand Paul and Josh Hawley, with Fauci repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Clips of heated exchanges went viral, with users on both sides of the political spectrum weighing in. Supporters of Fauci argued the hearing was a political witch hunt, while critics said his refusal to answer questions raised suspicions about pandemic decision-making. The hashtag #RandPaul also trended as the Kentucky senator's confrontational style drew both praise and criticism.

#Apple5Trillion and #AAPL remained top trends on X as markets digested Apple's historic $5 trillion market cap milestone and looked ahead to the company's Q3 earnings report on July 30. The upcoming earnings call will be CEO Tim Cook's last before his planned departure, adding extra significance to the event. Users speculated about what Cook would highlight in his final earnings presentation, with many expecting him to emphasize Apple's AI strategy and the newly launched Apple Upgrade leasing program. The contrast between Apple's steady rise and Nvidia's recent pullback also fueled debate about which company's approach to AI is more sustainable.