Morning Brief, Tuesday 7 July

Hamas dissolved its Government Emergency Committee, the body that had run Gaza since the October 2023 attacks, and said Mohammed al-Farra had resigned to clear the way for a US-backed technocratic administration. The existing ministries and roughly 40,000 to 50,000 public employees will keep working for now, because nobody wants an administrative vacuum in a territory where daily life already runs on improvisation.

Ismail al-Thawabta framed the move as a formal start to transition.

The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza says it is ready to take over once it has one authority, one legal framework and control over armed force. That is the catch. Israel has blocked the committee from entering Gaza since January, Hamas has not promised unilateral disarmament, and the Interior Ministry will still handle security in areas Hamas controls.

The announcement nudges a stalled process, but it does not yet settle who polices Gaza, who pays its public workers, or who lets reconstruction materials through. Medics also reported an Israeli strike killed five people on Monday, while Hamas insists Israeli forces must halt attacks and withdraw before disarmament can move. A handover that leaves guns, borders and pay unresolved would change the sign on the door, not the power behind it.

Russian forces fired more than 60 cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, with Kyiv and its surrounding region taking the heaviest damage. Ukrainian officials reported at least 10 dead, with some accounts putting the provisional toll at 14, and said rescuers were searching a damaged nine-storey block in the Podilsky district. Russia's defence ministry described the operation as a massive strike in response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine's Patriot batteries had run out of ammunition, which left the country unable to intercept ballistic missiles. He urged partners to send supplies before the NATO summit in Ankara.

Ukraine also pressed its long-range campaign. Russian authorities claimed they had shot down 519 Ukrainian drones across more than 20 regions and occupied Crimea, while reports said a refinery in Yaroslavl Oblast and port infrastructure used for hydrocarbon exports were hit. Kyiv did not officially confirm those operations, a familiar silence in a war where both sides report damage and deny vulnerability.

Poland confirmed it had sent several PAC-3 MSE missiles for Patriot systems to Ukraine, triggering a domestic row over transparency and readiness. The government said NATO and the United States promised tenfold replacement within 24 hours if Poland faced a threat, while critics warned that reducing stocks weakened Polish skies. The ammunition fight will define whether NATO's promises can stop missiles before they become rubble rather than condolences.

NATO leaders gathered in Ankara with heavy security, banned public gatherings and a familiar problem: Donald Trump wants proof that allies are paying and obeying. European governments are preparing arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars, while the Netherlands alone plans more than €3 billion in announcements. Mark Rutte said European members and Canada lifted defence spending by $90 billion in real terms in 2025, taking the total above $570 billion.

The summit also arrives as the United States reviews its troop presence in Europe and has pulled some assets from NATO defence plans. Canada, meanwhile, chose Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems to build up to 12 conventional submarines, a decision billed as the largest defence order in Canadian history and a neat answer to Trump's tariff pressure and 51st-state taunts. Ottawa still buys most of its military kit from the United States, but this deal points north and east, toward Europe and the Arctic.

China added a Pacific jolt by test-firing a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine into international waters. Australia, Japan and New Zealand criticised the launch, while Russia defended China's right to test. Penny Wong linked the episode to China's rapid military buildup.

This is alliance politics with a shopping list: more money, fewer assumptions, and less patience for partners who ask others to guess their intentions.

Spain entered its second summer heatwave with Serradilla in Cáceres reaching 43.5°C and red alerts issued for Aragón, Catalonia and the Valencian Community. AEMET warned that temperatures could hit 42-44°C in parts of the eastern peninsula, while hundreds of weather stations recorded tropical nights. Warm nights matter because bodies recover poorly when the heat never really leaves.

France faced its third heatwave in six weeks after Santé publique France reported 2,025 excess deaths during the June heatwave week, a 29.1% rise from the previous week. The toll turned climate adaptation into a parliamentary fight, though a no-confidence motion failed after winning only 132 votes. France's politics cooled faster than its cities, which is precisely the problem.

Wildfire added the sharp edge. A blaze near Perpignan burned 4,600 hectares, forced more than 10,000 evacuations and closed the French side of a Tour de France stage to spectators so security staff could focus on the fire. Laurent Nunez warned that the work was far from done.

In Castellón, the Soneja fire burned about 181 hectares, drew roughly 300 personnel and forced Azuébar's 500 residents to leave. Heat, dry air and gusts turned local fires into regional stress tests, and Europe's adaptation gap is now measured less in policy papers than in evacuation buses and morgue ledgers.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's 17th Ebola outbreak has killed 506 people from 1,561 confirmed cases, according to data up to July 4. The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or treatment, and the World Health Organization declared the epidemic a public health emergency of international concern two days after Congolese authorities announced it in Ituri province.

The disease has spread into North Kivu and South Kivu, where armed groups control large areas and public-health teams operate with obvious limits. Lethality reaches 57.4% in North Kivu, far above the national average of 32.4%. Uganda has recorded 20 cases and two deaths, with 15 infections imported from DR Congo, so this is no longer a purely domestic emergency.

Frontline health workers in Ituri issued a 24-hour strike notice, demanding unpaid benefits and better conditions. They said they lacked adequate supplies and accused teams sent from Kinshasa of sidelining local workers. A walkout would hit contact tracing and clinical care for 628 people in isolation or hospital, just as officials still have not identified patient zero.

There is some scientific movement. The WHO has authorised the first molecular diagnostic test for Bundibugyo Ebola, and a trial of two antivirals began on July 2. But tools arrive slowly when the virus moves quickly. A virus without a vaccine is brutal; a response without paid workers is self-sabotage.

Samsung Electronics forecast second-quarter operating profit of 89.4 trillion won, a 19-fold jump from 4.7 trillion won a year earlier and above market estimates. Revenue likely rose to 171 trillion won, and the guidance marks a third straight quarter of record operating profit for the world's largest memory chipmaker. AI infrastructure has turned memory chips from a cyclical commodity into a bottleneck with pricing power.

Citi Research estimated DRAM contract prices rose about 44% quarter on quarter and NAND prices about 53%, as data-centre operators expand AI systems and manufacturers divert capacity toward high-bandwidth memory. That squeeze helps Samsung and hurts buyers of ordinary devices, from laptop makers to phone companies, which now compete with AI servers for supply.

Walmart moved in the opposite direction, cutting prices on thousands of items including ground beef, cherries and summer goods. Donald Trump claimed the retailer acted at his administration's request, but Walmart had announced the discounts before his post and did not mention the White House. Julie Barber called the cuts seasonal price investments.

Toyota also followed the incentives and tariff map, announcing a $3.6 billion San Antonio plant that will shift some Tacoma production from Mexico and create 2,000 full-time jobs. Consumers want relief, carmakers want shelter, and chipmakers have found the one shortage investors still applaud.