For a country that's home to killer spiders and venomous everything, not to mention one of history's most humiliating military defeats against [checks notes] flightless birds, we were a little shocked to see Australia's spymaster drop such a spicy threat assessment .
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DR CONGO
With the three fast-tracked Ebola vaccine candidates still months away (Oxford, IAVI, and Moderna), the World Health Organisation is now launching Congo clinical trials on whether the remdesivir antiviral or MBP134 antibody cocktail can help blunt the region’s fast-moving Bundibugyo strain outbreak. (WHO)
IRAN
The UN has halted its planned evacuation of over 11,000 sailors stranded in the Strait of Hormuz after a presumed Iranian drone or missile hit a Singapore-flagged ship transiting near Oman. The regime’s IRGC naval arm had just warned this Oman route was unauthorised. Oil prices spiked on the news but have since stabilised back around the $70 post-deal mark. (EuroNews)
JAPAN
PM Takaichi has unveiled an unprecedented $2.3T investment plan in combined public + private financing for the next 14 years, with nearly a third earmarked for AI and semiconductors alone. (Bloomberg $)
UKRAINE
President Zelensky has announced plans for a 40-day pressure campaign to get Russia to end the war. The Ukrainian leader declined to share any further details, but confirmed Ukraine just hit another two Russian oil refineries. (Independent)
NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang has commissioned its biggest-ever ship, a 5,000-ton destroyer the supreme leader claims will “put an end to over 70 years of [his navy’s] stagnation”. (CNN)
INDIA
Amazon has announced another $13B investment in India’s AI sector, bringing its cumulative announced injection to $48B through to 2030. It’s mostly going to expand AWS data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad. (TechCrunch)
IRAQ
Baghdad authorities have reportedly considered leaving OPEC+ if the cartel doesn’t significantly expand its production quotas. Key member UAE already just left the group of oil producing countries citing the same complaint. (Reuters)
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