“It’s the first thing I read every morning.” — Annie Lamont, co-founder of Oak HC/FT, a leading venture capital firm.
1. Global bonds sold off sharply on Wednesday, extending a rout that is raising borrowing costs to multi-decade highs as the Middle East conflict pushes up energy prices, playing into investor fears about inflation and ballooning government debt. Sovereign yields are a reference point for asset prices across financial markets and the higher price of money means higher mortgage rates for consumers and tough choices for government spending as funding costs climb. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes rose to a near three-year high of 4.81%, and a further climb toward 5% is likely to unsettle already jittery stock markets. (Source: reuters.com)
2. Russia has been secretly helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles in one of the most significant known transfers of strategic military technology from Moscow to Tehran. The multiyear covert programme, codenamed C430L, has enlisted some of Russia’s most experienced missile specialists to help Iran develop a new class of weapon capable of threatening US aircraft carriers and other warships in the Middle East. An FT investigation uncovered the programme, which began in 2023 and continued into the US-Israeli war against Iran, through leaked Russian correspondence, travel records and analysis of military patents. The main purpose of C430L is to help Iran to develop a ramjet propulsion system, an engine that allows a cruise missile to sustain flight at several times the speed of sound. Missile and military experts said the technology was almost certainly intended for anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles. “This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades,” said Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iranian missiles and senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research, a UK-based weapons-tracing organisation. “A programme like this would require political clearance from the very top in Russia.” (Source: ft.com)
3. In a joint appearance at a regional security meeting, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support in wartime and urged that their nations work together to oppose U.S. sanctions. Putin, in turn, said that his country was trying to help Tehran in its war with the United States. “During this difficult period, we are striving to provide you with the necessary assistance — as we have discussed — and are supplying you with essential goods,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin account. The meeting in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) highlighted the increasingly close military and political alliance between Moscow and Tehran. (Source: washingtonpost.com)
