Ukraine

• Having captured the last major Ukrainian-held city in Luhansk, Russian forces escalated their shelling of Bakhmut, which the NYT called “an apparent prelude to an offensive into the province of Donetsk.”

Russia

• Relatives of prisoners serving in St. Petersburg prisons say the FSB (Federal Security Service) and Wagner group offered their incarcerated family members amnesty and 200,000 rubles (around $3,500) in exchange for six months of “voluntary” military service in Ukraine clearing mines and cleaning up the destruction Russian forces left in their wake. If they die in the course of their “volunteer” work, their families are supposed to receive 5 million rubles (around $80,000).

China

• An anonymous post in a hacker forum offered to sell the personal information of up to one billion Chinese citizens for 10 bitcoin – worth roughly $200,000. The sample data posted in that forum seemed legitimate; if the rest of the 23 terabyte trove is legit too, it would be one of the largest data leaks on record.
• Reuters reported that China is planning to announce a new $75 billion infrastructure fund in the third quarter. The fund will probably focus on next-generation infrastructure like 5G, data, and artificial intelligence since those make a higher return than investments in traditional infrastructure projects like roads, railways, and airports these days.

Afghanistan

• China’s Ambassador to Afghanistan gave a press conference with the Taliban’s acting minister for disaster management, and used the occasion to announce $8 million in earthquake relief aid. While that’s not a huge amount of funding, analysts are reading the joint appearance as proof that China has no qualms about doing business with the Taliban.

DRC

• Presidents Tshisekedi of DRC and Kagame of Rwanda plan to meet in Angola today. It will be the first time they’ve met face to face since the resurgence of violence in eastern DRC that DRC blames on Rwanda.
• Tensions are extremely high: Pres. Tshisekedi told the Financial Times there’s “absolutely no doubt Rwanda is backing the March 23^rd Movement” (M23: the rebel group terrorizing eastern DRC) and warned that the “possibility [of war between Rwanda and DRC] cannot be ruled out. If Rwanda’s provocation continues, we will not sit and do nothing about it. We are not weak.”
• A temporary court administrator once again ordered the world’s second-largest cobalt mine – Chinese-owned Tenke Fungurume – to suspend marketing, production, and exports over a dispute between the Chinese 80% co-owners and state-owned Gecamines, which owns the other 20%. The Chinese co-owners insist they haven’t received any letters from the administrator and are operating as normal.

Guinea

• Guinea’s junta once again halted the giant Simandou iron ore project after Rio Tinto and its Chinese-backed (would-be) partner consortium – Winning Consortium Simandou – failed to agree on a joint venture by the government’s deadline.
• The government previously halted work on the project back in March, but seems more serious now: it criticized the current operators for a “lack of willingness” to work together on transport infrastructure and threatened to open discussions with new partners to replace them.

Other News

• Over 40 years after poachers killed the last rhino in Mozambique, park rangers reintroduced 19 black and white rhinos to Zinave National Park. They plan to move over 40 rhinos to Mozambique in the next two years – and hope that poachers won’t kill the newcomers.
• Even though Turkey had agreed to drop its objection to Sweden and Finland joining NATO if they toughened their stance against Gulenists and Kurdish rebels they’re harboring in asylum, Turkey is now saying it will block the bloc’s enlargement unless Sweden extradites 73 Kurdish asylees for trial in Turkey. Sweden is unlikely to do that.