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On July 25th, the State Internet Information Office released its latest "National Informatization Development Report (2025)," which shows that by 2025, the added value of my country's core digital economy industries will account for over 10.5% of GDP, with digital industry revenue reaching 39.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%. The scale of digital consumption by Chinese residents will reach 25.3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%. Meanwhile, my country's network infrastructure will be upgraded. By the end of 2025, the total number of 5G base stations in my country will reach 4.838 million, with two-thirds of prefecture-level cities reaching gigabit city standards. The number of active IPv6 users will reach 869 million.

On July 25th, according to Ctrip's official WeChat account, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued an administrative penalty decision against Ctrip Group and put forward relevant rectification requirements. Ctrip fully accepts and resolutely complies with these requirements and will strictly implement all rectification measures. This penalty serves as a profound wake-up call and lesson for Ctrip. Under the guidance and supervision of the SAMR, Ctrip will earnestly fulfill its platform responsibilities, proactively respond to concerns from all parties, and has already formulated a relevant rectification plan, willingly accepting public supervision. Ctrip Group announced nineteen rectification measures in five areas: immediately ceasing exclusive cooperation practices and protecting hotel operators' autonomy; ceasing unreasonable "lowest price across the entire network" demands and protecting hotel operators' pricing autonomy; safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of hotel operators, continuously listening to merchants' opinions and demands, and constantly optimizing the business environment for merchants; strengthening consumer rights protection and continuously improving service guarantee levels; and strengthening compliance construction and establishing a sound long-term mechanism.

On July 25th, Austrian Minister for Europe, Integration and Family Affairs, Claudia Bauer, stated in an interview that she opposes a "fast track" for Ukraine's EU accession, arguing that Ukraine's accession must follow normal procedures. Bauer stated that Ukraine's agricultural structure differs significantly from that of existing EU member states, and its accession would have a major impact on the EU, thus requiring careful consideration. She also stated that all countries applying for EU membership should follow the same rules and meet the accession requirements through reforms and practical performance.

Emergency services say the Russian attack on Komme, Ukraine, has killed three people.

According to Al Jazeera: Israeli forces launched a raid on Tubas in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers drove numerous military vehicles into the city, and infantry units were deployed across several city blocks, conducting large-scale searches of residential areas. Israeli forces withdrew from the city after nearly three hours; no arrests have been reported so far.

On July 25th, Dalian City introduced a new policy of temporary interest subsidies for housing provident fund loans. For second-home housing provident fund loans approved between July 24, 2026, and December 31, 2027, a subsidy of up to 15% of the actual interest will be provided for a maximum period of three years, specifically to reduce the repayment pressure on those seeking to upgrade their homes. Nationwide, nearly 90 cities have successively introduced various housing subsidies and loan burden reduction measures this year, continuously enriching the toolbox of local policies to stabilize the housing market. However, Dalian's approach of providing financial subsidies for second-home housing provident fund loans is a relatively rare exploration in recent times.

Russian Ministry of Defense: Russian air defense systems shot down 328 Ukrainian drones overnight.

On July 25th, Nvidia (NVDA.O) CEO Jensen Huang made his first appearance on Elon Musk's social media platform X. His first tweet was a letter co-signed by Nvidia, emphasizing the importance of open-source AI models. Musk retweeted the post, saying, "Huang is right, I fully support him."

Kuwait Petroleum CEO: We welcome Blackstone, Brookfield and KKR as long-term investors in the Peregrine Project.

Samsung Electronics and Broadcom have signed a memorandum of understanding covering collaboration in memory chips, foundry services, and advanced packaging up to $200 billion by 2030. Samsung Electronics will partner with Broadcom to develop Broadcom's next-generation AI accelerator based on Samsung's HBM technology. Samsung Electronics will provide sub-2nm foundry processes and advanced packaging solutions.

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun unveiled his vision for "Physical AI" at the San Francisco AI Summit.

SK Group and NVIDIA have deepened their strategic partnership, covering AI factories and next-generation storage technologies.

On July 25, European Central Bank Chief Economist Lane commented on the new US tariffs imposed on some trading partners, saying that the European economy relies mainly on domestic demand, and while trade between the US and Europe is important, it is "not the dominant issue." Lane stated that "the US is not the dominant force in international trade," and that Europe trades with the entire world, not just the US.

July 25 - Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been embroiled in another money scandal. The party's branch in Fukuoka Prefecture is accused of demanding large sums of money from members aspiring to become the prefectural assembly speaker and deputy speaker. One former speaker revealed that he was asked to pay 20 million yen (approximately 830,000 yuan).

July 25th - According to data from Maoyan Professional Edition, the movie "Kung Fu Women's Soccer" has grossed over 1.8 billion yuan in 15 days since its release.

On July 25th, Cheng Hehong, Chief Counsel and Director of the Legal Affairs Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), pointed out at a seminar on cutting-edge practical issues in the trial of securities and futures crimes that my country's capital market criminal rule of law construction has achieved remarkable results and played an important role. The high-quality development of the capital market cannot be separated from the protection of criminal legislation and the judiciary. He stressed the need to deeply understand the characteristics of securities and futures crimes, including their large number of participants, high level of professionalism, high degree of concealment, frequent cross-market linkages, prominent new types of crimes, and the intertwining of administrative and criminal attributes. He further emphasized the need to increase the punishment for securities and futures crimes, improve market operation mechanisms, strengthen daily supervision and enforcement, intensify the crackdown on serious securities and futures crimes, deepen the connection and coordination between administrative enforcement and criminal justice, promote the improvement of criminal legal systems adapted to the characteristics of the capital market, and deepen professional research on the overall characteristics of securities and futures crimes, jointly consolidating the legal foundation for the high-quality development of the capital market.

July 25th - Oxford University announced on the 24th that the world's first clinical trial of its candidate vaccine against the Bundibugyo Ebola virus has completed the vaccination of the first volunteer. This also marks the first time the candidate vaccine ChAdOx1 BDBV has been administered to humans.

On July 25th, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) imposed administrative penalties on Trip.com Group Co., Ltd. for abusing its dominant market position and engaging in monopolistic practices, with fines and confiscations totaling 5.179 billion yuan. This serves as a warning to all platform companies that whether it's a simple and direct "choose one of two" approach or a more complex and hidden "technology + ecosystem + behavior" composite monopoly, none can escape the sword of anti-monopoly. Regulatory authorities will not allow any form of abuse of market dominance to exclude or restrict competition. The Trip.com monopoly case is another significant landmark case in the normalized anti-monopoly supervision of the platform economy. It is the first case of a new type of monopolistic behavior and a typical example of in-depth rectification of "involutionary" competition, promoting win-win development for platform companies and operators/workers within the platform. It is of great significance for promoting the innovation and healthy development of my country's platform economy and high-quality economic and social development.