🇺🇸 Trump posted on Truth Social.

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🧑‍⚖️ Class-action price-fixing lawsuit targets hard drive component makers as costs skyrocket

A class-action lawsuit was filed against nearly every major hard drive suspension assembly maker, alleging that said companies' price-fixing efforts resulted in higher drive prices for resellers and end users. The documents were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and name two groups of defendants, one related to TDK Corporation and the other to NHK Spring.

The assemblies produced by these firms are reportedly found in 97% of worldwide HDDs, so it's reasonable enough to assume drives from all major HDD brands are covered by this lawsuit — to wit, Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba.

The price-fixing scheme allegedly ran from January 2003 to December 31, 2016, raising hard drive manufacturing prices, which were then passed on to customers. Should the lawsuit succeed, U.S. resellers and end users who purchased hard drives or computers including them could be eligible for monetary compensation.

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🇯🇵🇨🇳 Japan’s Akazawa Says He Spoke Briefly With China Commerce Minister

Japanese Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao had a brief chat on Friday, the first ministerial-level exchange of words between the two nations since a diplomatic standoff started in November.

#BRICS

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🇭🇰 Hong Kong’s First Astronaut Joins Mission to China Space Station

Hong Kong’s first astronaut, a former police officer with a doctorate in computer forensics, will join a Chinese mission to its space station on Sunday, in what the city’s Chief Executive John Lee described as a “historic moment.”

Lee congratulated Lai Ka-ying, a payload expert born and raised in the city, in a statement on Saturday, saying her selection to join the Shenzhou-23 crew was not only “affirmation of her own capability, but also a testimony to the country’s high recognition of Hong Kong’s I&T talent, development, and achievements.”

#BRICS

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🇧🇩 Bangladesh Central Bank Launches $5 Billion Fund to Spur Growth

Bangladesh’s central bank unveiled a 600 billion-taka ($5 billion) package to boost economic growth, revive shuttered factories and support small businesses. Some 410 billion taka will be raised from banks with excess liquidity at a 10% interest rate, while the remaining 190 billion taka will come from Bangladesh Bank’s own reserves, Governor Mostaqur Rahman said.

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🚀 SpaceX just launched Starship V3 — its most powerful megarocket yet — into space for the 1st time in spectacular Flight 12 test

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump says that after a call with relevant leaders "An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization," with details of the deal to be "announced shortly."

"Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened," — Trump said.

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🌍 Starlink, in collaboration with Brazilian non-profit Redes do Futuro, is connecting 140 schools across Brazil’s remote Amazon region to reliable high-speed internet.

More than 14,000 students now have access to online learning tools, unlocking a world of possibility and potential 👏

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🤖 Audi enthusiast upgrades 2001 A4 gear shift with old smartwatch in 3D-printed housing

The project started as just a bit of digital bling for the gear stick, but inspired by fellow Redditor comments, Desmontei vibe coded a WearOS app to add gear indicator and media control gestures to the repurposed digital dial. The watch face was secured to the gear stick very carefully, using a 3D-printed mount with tight tolerances.

The video shows how the smartwatch display is changing to match the current gear stick selection. Desmontei’s repurposed TicWatch Pro 3 also doubles as an intuitive media controller. It can change tracks in Spotify with back, forward, and pause swipes on the screen.

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🇪🇺 ECB rebuffs proposals to boost euro stablecoins as too risky

The European Central Bank warned European Union finance ministers that proposals to issue more euro stablecoins could reduce bank lending and make ​controlling interest rates harder.

📑 Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel prepared a paper for the EU's top financial policymakers that ‌called for easing liquidity requirements for crypto issuers and potentially giving them access to ECB funding. The aim would be for Europe to grow a stablecoin market now dominated by dollar‑based tokens.

❗️The Bruegel economists warned that more stringent EU regulation on stablecoins compared to the U.S. risked pushing activity ​outside the bloc and increasing "digital dollarisation".

The pushback lands as the European Commission reviews its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), in force since 2024, which requires stablecoin issuers to hold a large share of reserves in bank deposits and other liquid assets.

➡️ By contrast, the U.S. GENIUS Act, adopted in 2025, imposes lighter requirements, designed to support the global role of the dollar by ​promoting regulated dollar‑backed tokens.

The debate comes amid a broader ​push to strengthen Europe’s payments autonomy, including plans for a digital euro later this decade — an initiative that has itself faced resistance from banks worried it could shift deposits away from them.

EU ​finance ministers said at the meeting they would continue their work on the digital euro, which the ECB aims to launch in 2029.

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🤖 Micron's Virginia fab begins producing America's most advanced DRAM memory

Micron announced this week that it has begun manufacturing 1α (1-alpha) DRAM at its Manassas, Virginia, facility. This action brings the company's most advanced DDR4-compatible process technology to U.S. soil for the first time. The expansion, which Micron says will quadruple DDR4 wafer output at the site, represents a $2 billion-plus investment supported by $275 million in finalized CHIPS and Science Act funding, and production is expected by the end of the year.

The company is the only manufacturer of memory in the United States, and the Manassas fab specifically serves long-lifecycle customers in the automotive, defense, aerospace, industrial, networking, and medical device sectors.

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🤑🤑 A United Nations Capital Development Fund webinar has outlined a vision for a new international payments system, and Ripple and Stellar sit at its core.

In this video both networks are “directly mentioned and clearly shown in the international payments diagram as central parts of the global payments network.”

📑 The presentation describes an open, regulated payment inter-network designed to connect every major financial network on the planet. It places XRP alongside SWIFT, Visa, and Mastercard as equal participants in this global infrastructure.

“It’s not a new system, but it connects existing systems,” — the speaker said.

➡️ The goal is to build a system in which a payment initiated on any network should reach any other network, regardless of which platform processes it.

Ripple and Stellar were named directly alongside traditional financial giants. It’s not as alternatives, but as equal participants in the same infrastructure.

❗️The webinar describes payments “to anyone, anywhere, on any network.” Ripple and Stellar are already in the roadmaps for the next phase of global finance.

#Stellar

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🇦🇲🇪🇺 Armenia, EU to introduce visa-free regime within two years

“The issue of visa liberalization between Armenia and the EU will be resolved in no more than two years...” — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

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🇮🇳🇺🇸 India Calls US ‘Reliable’ Energy Partner as It Seeks More Fuel

India sees the US as a “significant and reliable” energy partner, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said after meeting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called ties between the two nations as “one of the most important” globally.

Both nations are “strategically aligned on energy,” Rubio told reporters in New Delhi during a joint press briefing with Jaishankar on Sunday. The two sides want “a world that can not just produce, but deliver the energy resources that are necessary to power a modern economy.”

#BRICS

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🇧🇾🇫🇷 Lukashenko and Macron Hold Rare Phone Call

French President Emmanuel Macron and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko held a rare phone call on Sunday. The leaders discussed relations between Belarus and the European Union as well as regional issues during the call, which was initiated by France.

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