Good morning. Markets closed out the first half of the year on a weak note yesterday, with both benchmark indices ending lower for a second straight session. It was also a heavy news day elsewhere: a ransomware leak pulled back the curtain on Apple's manufacturing operations in India, and the US Supreme Court handed down two major rulings on the same afternoon. Here is what is worth your time today.
In today's newsletter: a ransomware group dumps Apple's iPhone 18 Pro secrets from a Tata Electronics plant, the Supreme Court rules Trump cannot end birthright citizenship, and Israel strikes south Lebanon just days after signing a ceasefire framework.
Sensex 76,478.67 DOWN 0.33% |
Nifty 50 23,865.75 DOWN 0.34% |
USD/INR 94.65 RUPEE DOWN 15P |
Brent Crude $74.01 UP 0.14% |
Both indices closed out H1 CY26 sharply lower than where they started the year, with West Asia tensions weighing on the growth and inflation outlook heading into the second half.
Hackers Dump Apple's iPhone 18 Pro Secrets From a Tata Electronics Plant
The ransomware group World Leaks has published more than 630 gigabytes of confidential data stolen from Tata Electronics, one of Apple's key manufacturing partners in India, spilling over 200,000 files onto the dark web.
The dump includes detailed component-to-supplier mappings and prototype photographs of the unreleased iPhone 18 Pro, naming vendors behind the processor, battery and camera hardware, alongside images stamped early 2026 that appear to show durability testing at a Tata facility.
Apple and Tata have not responded to requests for comment on the leak, and neither company has confirmed the authenticity of the files.
Tata Electronics has become central to India's pitch as an alternative to China in Apple's supply chain, now assembling a meaningful share of iPhones domestically under the PLI scheme. A breach this size, on the eve of a new flagship launch, is exactly the kind of story that gives global brands pause about how much trust to place in Indian contract manufacturing just as that trust is being built.
Reuters reported it was unable to independently verify from the leaked photos alone that the devices shown are actually the iPhone 18 Pro. The component tables and vendor names are the more damaging part of the leak regardless of whether the photos check out.
Supreme Court Rules Trump Cannot End Birthright Citizenship
The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Tuesday that the Constitution guarantees automatic citizenship to virtually all children born in the United States, striking down President Trump's January 2025 executive order that sought to strip citizenship from children born to undocumented parents.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion in what amounted to a sharp rebuke of the president, with only Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining him from the court's conservative bloc while three other conservative justices dissented.
The ruling closes out one of the most closely watched legal fights of Trump's second term and reaffirms a 128-year-old reading of the Fourteenth Amendment that his administration had tried to unwind on day one.
Days After a Ceasefire Framework, Israel Strikes South Lebanon Again
Less than a week after Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington, Israeli forces carried out a demolition operation in the town of Markaba in south Lebanon on Tuesday, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.
The same report said Israeli forces fired artillery at the town of Beit Yahoun and set fire to homes there and in Aita al-Jabal, underscoring how quickly ground activity has resumed despite the diplomatic breakthrough just days earlier.
The episode is a reminder that framework agreements in this region tend to be the start of implementation fights, not the end of them, and this one is being tested before the ink has dried.
Breaking.exe
Apple's CCI pushback. In a filing this week, Apple accused India's Competition Commission of "copy-pasting" rivals' claims against it in the long-running App Store antitrust probe, arguing investigators leaned on submissions from Match, PhonePe and Paytm rather than independent analysis. A closed-door hearing is set for July 21. |
Agentic AI funding. Bengaluru's Kapture CX, an agentic AI platform that raised $10 million in a pre-Series B round led by Bajaj Finserv Ventures, is already profitable and counts Tata Group and Reliance companies among its enterprise clients, a rare combination for an India AI startup at this stage. |
IT stocks sink. The Nifty IT index fell more than 2% to a three-year low, with TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech and Wipro all hitting fresh 52-week lows on fears that AI productivity gains will pressure legacy service pricing rather than boost revenue growth. |
Pangaea Revisited
Campaign finance overturned. In a separate 6-3 ruling the same day, the Supreme Court struck down decades-old limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with individual candidates, overturning a 2001 precedent and clearing the way for far more party money in US elections. |
Hormuz traffic resumes. Mediators including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Qatar's prime minister in Doha for the next round of Iran talks, as at least 32 vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz in 24 hours, a sign shipping is cautiously picking back up. |
Khamenei's funeral set. Iranian authorities laid out a multi-day funeral schedule for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei from July 4 to 9, spanning Tehran, Qom and Mashhad in Iran and Najaf and Karbala in Iraq. |
Also, Also, Also
New HDFC Bank chairman. India's largest private lender named former finance secretary Rajiv Kumar as part-time chairman, pending RBI approval, months after his predecessor's abrupt exit raised governance questions at the bank. |
Honeymoon murder bail upheld. The Meghalaya High Court upheld bail granted to Sonam Raghuvanshi, the prime suspect in her husband Raja Raghuvanshi's killing on their honeymoon last year, dismissing the state's appeal. |
Serena's Wimbledon run ends. Serena Williams, playing her first singles match in nearly four years, lost in three sets to 20-year-old Maya Joint in the first round at Wimbledon, fighting off a match point in a second-set tiebreak before falling 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3. |