The main events by the morning: July 18

• LUKOIL's oil supplies to Hungary have been suspended due to tougher sanctions from Ukraine. However, countries are looking for a solution to the problem. According to Bloomberg, Hungarian energy company Mol Nyrt and LUKOIL are trying to find a way to circumvent Ukraine's restrictions, which last month effectively completely banned oil supplies to Hungary.

• The Investigative Committee has opened a case against investors who earned more than 150 million rubles on fictitious transactions in order to buy back American shares at a discount. According to RBC, a group of investors manipulated the prices of foreign shares by deceiving a trading robot owned by the financial company W-Imperial Holding Corp. The company acted as a market maker under an agreement with broker Freedom Finance.

• The head of the Israeli Defense Ministry announced the IDF's readiness to launch an offensive in Lebanon. According to the minister, Israel is approaching «a decision-making crossroads,» but everything depends on the actions of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. «We are fighting a limited war in the northern region. We use a small part of the IDF forces, but everything can change in a second,» said Yoav Galant.

• If Trump wins, the United States will not fight unnecessarily. This promise was made by Trump's vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance. He also noted that a Trump presidency would mean the end of «freebies» for those allies who do not invest in common security and «betrayed the generosity of American taxpayers.»

• According to the results of the first five months of 2024, Russia set a record for exports of aluminum wire to China. According to customs data, exports amounted to $4.5 million during this period.