Hello. Iran's clerical leadership chose confrontation over compromise in appointing Mojtaba Khamenei as the Islamic Republic's new Supreme Leader. Concern is growing for the safety of the Iranian women's soccer team and an oil surge threatens inflation shock. 

Plus, how an Indian cement cartel came unstuck.

When India's largest oil explorer opened a tender for a cement order in 2018, it sensed something was off by the competing bids coming in: all of them were exactly 7,000 rupees per tonne.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation queried the bids and got a wry reply from an executive at India Cements. Seven was his "lucky number", he explained. Suspicious, ONGC quietly lodged an antitrust case against three Indian cement companies.

The ‌details of the case were outlined in a confidential investigation report following a five-year probe. The report found the Indian cement firms' bid rigging, discussed supply patterns and made an effort to oust foreign bidders.

The world's largest urban coffee plantation, located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, welcomed some ‌1,500 new coffee plants as researchers prepare to study their capacity to resist climate change and pests.

Over the years, the institute began to investigate other factors affecting coffee plants, like soil and climate, and now its range of varieties grown side by side under the same conditions shows how different ⁠plants handle pests, disease and climate pressures.