🚨 Israel’s national security minister urges immediate resumption of Gaza war

National Security Minister and Netanyahu ally Itamar Ben-Gvir has called on Israel’s PM to resume full-scale military operations, citing alleged ceasefire violations by Hamas.

💬 “I call on the prime minister to order the IDF to fully resume military operations in the Strip in full force. The false illusions that Hamas will change its position or even adhere to the agreement it signed are proving dangerous to our security, as expected,” Ben-Gvir wrote on his Hebrew-language social media.

Hamas earlier denied allegations, made by the US, that it violated the ceasefire, urging Washing ton ‘stop echoing the rhetoric of the occupation’ and focus on preventing new violations.

Israel carried out air strikes in Rafah in southern Gaza, ostensibly ‘in response’ to Hamas.

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🔥 Witkoff reportedly pressed Zelensky to accept reality: Donetsk is Russia

During Friday’s Trump-Zelensky meeting, the US special envoy “pressed” the Ukrainian delegation to relinquish claims on the Donetsk region, given its mostly Russian-speaking status, sources told WaPo.

🗣 During Friday’s meeting with Zelensky, Trump ducked a question about Ukraine’s return to its 1991 borders, saying “you never know, do you. You just never know with war – war and peace, you never know.”

In June, President Putin demanded that Ukrainian forces completely withdraw from whatever areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson and Zaporozhye are still under their control among Russia’s conditions for a peace deal.

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🇨🇳 China pauses local tech giants’ stablecoin plans

📑 The People’s Bank of China and Cyberspace Administration of China has stepped in to stop tech and ecommerce giants including Alibaba’s Ant Group and Jindong Shangcheng from getting involved in a pilot stablecoin program in Hong Kong, or issuing other virtual assets like tokenized bonds, sources told FT.

The intervention reportedly came in the wake of apprehensions about giving corporations a free hand to issue currencies, and concerns that private stablecoins could challenge the Chinese central bank’s e-CNY digital renminbi initiative.

👉 Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority began accepting applications for a stablecoin issuance pilot program in August. The same month, former People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan called for caution amid “the risk of stablecoins being excessively used for asset speculation, as misdirection could trigger fraud and instability in the financial system.”

Touting the already cost-effective nature of existing payment systems, Zhou called for a “careful assessment of the true demand of tokenization as a technical foundation” before stablecoins’ rollout.

A tale of two systems

Chinese authorities’ rethink of private stablecoins comes following last week’s news that a cabal of US, European and Japanese banks including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and MUFG are working on a 1:1 reserve-backed form of digital money using blockchain for payments, stock, bond and fund issuance and trading.

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🔥 From Alaska to Hungary: US ramps up prep for Putin–Trump summit

The US is planning more lower-level meetings with Russia ahead of the Putin–Trump summit in Hungary than those held before the Alaska talks, the WSJ reports.

In the run-up to the Hungary summit, US administration officials point to Trump’s “hesitation to push Putin,” the news outlet adds.

📲 Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump earlier held their eighth telephone conversation since the beginning of the year.

The two-and-a-half-hour call wrapped up with an agreement to begin preparing for a new summit, which is expected to take place in Budapest. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that after Trump proposed the Hungarian capital, Putin immediately supported the idea.

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🚨 Trump: Gaza deal would have been impossible if 'we had not destroyed Iran's nuclear capability'

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🚨 Trump: 'Democrats are kamikaze pilots right now'

They have no future, he added.

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🇷🇺💵 Russia’s reserves thrive on gold

The soaring price of gold has increased Russian reserves by $142 billion in just two years, Central Bank data shows.

Here are the details:

🟠 Russia’s gold reserves value: reached $282B in the year to September 2025

🟠 Currency reserves: $431B (+0.6%)

🟠 Gold price: $1,800 -> $4,300 per ounce

Gold has become the main source increase in Russian currency reserves.

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🚨🇮🇱🇵🇸 IDF strikes ‘dozens’ of Hamas targets in Gaza Strip

Israel has accused Hamas of “blatantly violating the ceasefire agreement this morning”.

💬 “The IDF struck and dismantled six kilometers of underground terrorist infrastructure, using over 120 munitions. The underground site was used by the terrorist organization to advance attacks against the State of Israel”, the IDF said in a statement.

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🛤🇮🇷 $3B Tehran-Qom-Isfahan rail line will turn Iran into transit mega power

Once finished, the project will link the International North-South Transport Corridor, stretching from Russia to the Gulf of Oman and India via Iran and Azerbaijan, and the New Silk Road East-West corridor from China to Europe via Central Asia, Iran and Turkiye.

The 410 km rail corridor promises:

🟠 high-speed rail travel at speeds of 250-300 km, cutting travel times to less than 2 hours and providing an alternative to highway-based travel (30% or more of travelers are expected to make the switch)
🟠 to carry up to 8M passengers in its first year, and up to 20M a year after that

🟠 to decongest highway networks and cut pollution and traffic accidents

🟠 to stimulate regional economic development along the routes

🟠 to advance Iran’s domestic knowhow in high-speed rail engineering, from track laying and electrification to signaling

🟠 to serve as a test case for more high-speed rail along other routes, including Tehran-Mashhad and Tehran-Tabriz

A PressTV analysis the Qom-Isfahan portion of the new line is 75% complete, and that China is involved in financing, tech transfer and providing project management experience.

If everything goes to plan, the new rail line could be completed as soon as mid-2028.

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🇷🇺🇺🇸 Russian special presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev announces challenge for best AI video of the Russia–Alaska tunnel

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🚨🇷🇺 Russian forces raise flag in Poltavka settlement after intense battles

Russia’s Battlegroup Vostok liberated a fortified area of more than 12 square kilometers and cleared over 500 buildings during the capture of Poltavka in the Zaporozhye region.

The Russian Defense Ministry released footage showing soldiers raising the tricolor flag in the village, confirming its liberation.

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