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The Bifrost subsea cable system has been certified as Ready for Service, paving the way for commercial data traffic between Singapore and the western United States.

Stretching more than 20,000 km, Bifrost charts a novel route via Indonesia—across the Java Sea and Celebes Sea—enabling the first direct subsea connection between Singapore and the U. S. West Coast. Its design supports over 260 Tbps of capacity, and the round-trip latency between Singapore and the U. S. is projected at under 165 milliseconds, approximately 10 ms faster than many alternative routes.

Keppel Ltd holds five of the total 12 fibre pairs in Bifrost, through a 40-60 joint venture with private fund co-investors. The cable system’s landing stations include Grover Beach, Winema, Guam, Singapore, and branching units to Jakarta, Manado, and Davao in the Philippines.

Manjot Singh Mann, CEO for Connectivity at Keppel, described Bifrost as a “landmark project” that will “bolster digital connectivity between Southeast Asia and the USA” and reinforce Singapore’s status as a regional digital hub. Alcatel Submarine Networks handled the cable’s construction; its CEO, Alain Biston, noted that reaching readiness reflects “the hard work of ASN teams working hand in hand with our client.”

In the Philippines, Converge ICT serves as the landing party at Davao. Dennis Anthony Uy, Converge’s CEO, said that the cable will “not only boost the company’s international bandwidth capacity, but for the Philippines, it will mean redundancy and diversity in network infrastructure.”

The significance of Bifrost lies not only in its raw capacity and speed but also in route diversification. By crossing via Indonesia, the cable offers an alternate path independent of existing transpacific systems, lowering the risk of congestion or outages on established corridors. Analysts view its timing as aligned with surging demand for bandwidth, driven by growth in AI workloads, real-time applications, cloud services, and digital transformation across Asia.

Bifrost enters a competitive environment of subsea infrastructure expansion. Projects such as Echo, Apricot, Hawaiki Nui, and others vie for roles in connecting Asia with the Americas and the Pacific islands. Echo is expected to link Singapore to Guam and onward to Eureka, California. Apricot, largely intra-Asia in scope, is ramping up deployments across Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Market commentators point out that Bifrost’s success will hinge on uptake from global cloud providers, telcos, and hyperscalers. Keppel’s stake reflects a confidence in long-term returns. Some financial analyses anticipate internal rates of return exceeding 30 percent, with projected revenue from operational and maintenance fees per fibre pair exceeding S$200 million over 25 years.

Because Keppel and its partners delayed the original launch schedule, the push to achieve RFS signals a resolve to catch up with escalating infrastructure demand.

Brazil has become Latin America’s dominant crypto market after logging $318.8 billion in cryptocurrency transaction volume between July 2024 and June 2025, accounting for about one-third of the region’s total crypto activity. That figure represents a year-on-year surge of 109.9 per cent, according to the 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency report by Chainalysis.

No other country in Latin America comes close to Brazil’s scale: Argentina recorded $93.9 billion, Mexico $71.2 billion, Venezuela $44.6 billion, and Colombia $44.2 billion. The region as a whole pushed close to $1.5 trillion in crypto flows over the three-year span from mid-2022 to mid-2025, underscoring the growing importance of digital assets in Latin America’s financial ecosystem.

Stablecoins now dominate Brazil’s market, making up over 90 per cent of all transactions. This shift suggests that crypto is being used increasingly as a means of payment, remittance and hedge against currency volatility, rather than purely for speculative trading. Institutional and retail transfers both contributed to the growth, with institutional transfers alone more than doubling within the year.

Brazil’s regulatory framework has evolved in tandem. The 2022–2023 Brazilian Virtual Assets Law established compliance obligations for virtual asset service providers and made the central bank the authority for anti-money-laundering oversight in the crypto sector. Authorities are now finalising consultations that could yield further rules by end-2025.

Mainstream financial institutions are leveraging this clarity. Banks such as Itaú and digital platforms like Nubank and Mercado Pago are bridging traditional finance with crypto offerings. Global stakeholders have taken notice: in May 2024, Circle launched USDC services in Brazil to facilitate lower-cost and instant transfers.

Brazil’s ranking in the global crypto adoption picture has also strengthened. In Chainalysis’s 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, Brazil advanced to fifth globally, climbing from 10th in 2024. The methodology change that year introduced a new institutional activity sub-index and removed the retail DeFi sub-index, giving greater weight to large transfers while maintaining focus on broad adoption.

Brazil’s digital payments infrastructure—anchored by the Pix instant payments system—has eased the on-ramp to crypto. More than half of financial transactions in Brazil are now conducted over Pix, enabling users to move funds into crypto platforms seamlessly. Surveys suggest that between 18 and 19 per cent of Brazilians hold cryptocurrency, a rate second only behind Argentina in the region.

Still, challenges remain. Brazil’s macroeconomic environment is volatile: inflation pressures, depreciation of the real, and tax burdens could suppress retail demand. The central bank’s Drex project—a blockchain-based settlement platform—is under trial and could support on-chain finance, but integration with existing systems is complex. Some analysts warn that regulatory overreach or tax crackdowns may stifle innovation.

Jeddah — King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has initiated the KAUST Mathematics Competition, a national contest designed to identify and nurture top mathematics talent among students in Grades 8 through 11 across Saudi Arabia. The competition invites both Saudi nationals and residents studying in the Kingdom’s schools to test themselves on challenging topics such as algebra, number theory, combinatorics and geometry.

Phase One of KMC will take place as a two-hour elimination exam at eight regional centres. Students in the junior stream will face 24 multiple-choice questions, while those in the senior stream will tackle 30 multiple-choice items. From that round, the top 200—split evenly between junior and senior tracks—will advance to the final phase. That final round, conducted at KAUST over three days in April, will require written answers to six problems. KAUST will bear the costs of travel, lodging and meals for finalists. The participation fee is set at 100 Saudi riyals per student.

KAUST’s rationale for KMC aligns with its broader talent development mission: to foster advanced thinking skills and attract gifted students into STEM pathways. The competition also offers attractive incentives: cash awards, enrolment in KAUST Academy programmes, and a prize for first-place winners in each track — admission to a summer mathematics camp hosted jointly by KAUST and the University of Cambridge.

KAUST’s pre-university programmes, especially its Science Research School Initiative, already train middle and high school students for international Olympiads. SRSI’s mandate includes preparing students in mathematics, chemistry, physics, informatics and biology through intensive on-campus training. Students in grades 6 to 12 benefit from the training, and many go on to represent Saudi Arabia in global contests. KAUST also partners with other institutional programmes focused on gifted education.

The decision to launch KMC complements an existing competitive ecosystem. The KFUPM Mathematics Olympiad, for instance, has long been held for secondary school students at multiple centres across the country. That contest historically serves as a pipeline to select candidates for the International Mathematical Olympiad. Meanwhile, Saudi youth continue to perform strongly at regional contests: in the 29th Junior Balkan Mathematical Olympiad held in North Macedonia, six Saudi students won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

By K Raveendran It was a week of contradictions for India’s image on the world stage, marked by a curious interplay of critique, affirmation, and manoeuvring. Rahul Gandhi, in his address at Columbia University, painted a picture of India that was dark and distressing, describing the country’s democratic decline in sweeping terms. At the same […]

The article A Week Marking The Worst And Best For India On Global Stage appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture tied to Donald Trump’s family, has announced it will issue a debit card enabling users to spend digital assets as conventional currency, with a pilot slated next quarter and full deployment targeted by late 2025 or early 2026.

At Singapore’s TOKEN2049 conference, CEO Zach Witkoff stated that the underlying aim is to “bridge crypto assets with everyday spending,” forecasting that the card could go live in the fourth quarter or first quarter of 2026. Co-founder Donald Trump Jr. joined the presentation, underscoring the project’s ambition to integrate cryptocurrency more deeply into consumer payments.

Beyond payments, World Liberty is advancing a plan to tokenise real-world commodities, aiming to use blockchain infrastructure to trade assets like oil, gas, timber and cotton. Witkoff described these as “really interesting” domains for on-chain trading, pointing to what the company sees as excess transactional inefficiency in traditional markets. The firm also launched its governance token, WLFI, earlier this month, and has introduced USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by U. S. Treasuries and other cash equivalents to cut dependency on conventional banking rails.

World Liberty has secured a high-profile institutional backer: the UAE-based Aqua 1 Foundation invested USD 100 million in WLFI tokens, becoming the venture’s largest public investor. The strategic pact aims to fuel World Liberty’s expansion in South America, Europe and Asia, and to jointly incubate blockchain initiatives.

The governance token WLFI currently is non-transferable, granting holders voting rights rather than direct tradeability; World Liberty has said it is “working behind the scenes” to make WLFI transferable in the future. A large portion of WLFI’s supply remains held by the Trump family and affiliated entities.

The stablecoin USD1 gained traction after a major crypto exchange deal: World Liberty was among the early adopters when the funds backed by an Abu Dhabi entity were routed through USD1 to a major crypto platform, helping to elevate USD1’s market position in the stablecoin ecosystem.

Regulatory and ethical concerns already shadow the venture. Critics argue the project blurs lines between private enterprise and public office, noting that much of the Trump family’s wealth could become entangled with policy outcomes. Donald Trump Jr. has dismissed conflict-of-interest allegations as “complete nonsense,” but scrutiny over the convergence of politics and crypto is intensifying.

WLFI has exhibited wide volatility since launch, riding speculative momentum across global exchanges. Meanwhile, competing crypto card offerings already exist, with established fintechs and digital-asset platforms offering crypto-linked cards in partnership with Visa and Mastercard. Witkoff contends World Liberty’s version will differentiate through tighter integration with its stablecoin and tokenisation strategy.

Tesla has launched sales of its Cybertruck in Qatar, bolstering its Middle East expansion as the electric carmaker seeks growth beyond saturated U. S. and Chinese markets. The announcement was made via its social media channel on 3 October, following its earlier push into Saudi Arabia this year.

Underlining its Gulf ambitions, Tesla has already made the Cybertruck available in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and now Qatar joins as one of the first markets outside North America to offer the pickup. The company plans to support local sales with online ordering, pop-up showrooms, Supercharger stations, and service centres.

Tesla does not provide regional breakdowns for Cybertruck deliveries, but a U. S. recall filing notes that 46,096 units had been built between November 2023 and early 2025. Analysts say the Qatar move is timely, given Tesla faces weakening demand and intensifying rivalry in its core markets.

Qatar, meanwhile, has signalled ambition in building an EV framework. The country is working toward installing 1,000 public charging stations by 2025 and targeting 4,000 by 2035. A partnership between Tesla, the utility Kahramaa, and real estate projects like Doha Festival City aims to deploy Superchargers capable of delivering 250 kW charging, enabling about 200 miles of range in 15 minutes.

Tesla’s introduction in Qatar is part of a broader Gulf strategy that seeks to replicate its Saudi model—offering multiple variants of the Cybertruck tailored to regional conditions. For example, orders in Saudi Arabia include both All-Wheel Drive and Cyberbeast trims, with the Saudi AWD variant priced starting at around 434,990 Saudi Riyal.

However, Tesla is also reshaping its product line due to weak uptake. It has dropped the standalone rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck variant from its U. S. configurator, leaving only two higher-end models in the lineup. This shift signals that Tesla is consolidating its offerings to better match market demand.

Competition in the Gulf is mounting. Chinese manufacturers BYD and Zeekr are pushing aggressively into the region, and the U. S. EV maker Lucid—backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund—poses a formidable local rival.

Tesla’s Q3 performance provided a temporary boost: the company reported record global deliveries, partly driven by a rush before the U. S. EV tax credit expired on 30 September. Yet analysts anticipate a steep drop in Q4 sales given the expiration of that incentive.

Tesla’s entry into Qatar underscores its strategic pivot toward markets where expansion potential remains, even as challenges loom in technology adaptation, climate conditions, and consumer uptake.

Bitwise has launched a new exchange-traded product on Deutsche Börse Xetra under the ticker AVNB, offering regulated exposure to Avalanche’s native token AVAX along with integrated staking rewards.

The ETP is physically backed and domiciled in Germany, aiming to deliver price-tracking performance plus yield, while eliminating the need for investors to manage staking infrastructure or custody themselves. Staking rewards are credited daily and automatically reinvested. The product references the “CF AVAX Staked Return Index” as its benchmark.

Bitwise positions the AVAX staking ETP as part of its growing European suite of institutional crypto products. Earlier offerings in its staking line-up include Ethereum and other digital assets. The firm emphasizes that this launch addresses demand from institutional and professional investors seeking yield-bearing digital asset exposure within regulated frameworks.

Under the terms, the ETP carries a total expense ratio of 0.85 per cent annually. Bitwise retains roughly one-third of the staking rewards generated, as a staking service fee to cover operational costs including validator services and infrastructure. The remainder is passed to investors, net of protocol fees and slashing risk.

Bradley Duke, Head of Europe at Bitwise, stated that AVNB “opens the door for investors to access price movements in AVAX coupled with staking rewards through an exchange-traded total return product.” He noted that its regulated structure and transparency aim to bridge the traditional capital markets with crypto infrastructure. John Wu, President of Ava Labs, welcomed the development, saying that offering access through established market systems expands participation in Avalanche’s ecosystem.

Avalanche has gained traction as a scalable, energy-efficient layer-1 blockchain capable of supporting subnetworks tailored for compliance, governance and performance. Its adoption extends across tokenisation, decentralised finance, gaming and payment systems. The ability to stake AVAX is an integral feature of the network’s consensus, making yield products a natural extension for investors.

Samsung is deepening its collaboration with Coinbase to integrate cryptocurrency services directly into its Wallet app. Users with Galaxy devices in the U. S. will now be able to make crypto purchases using Samsung Pay, and enjoy enhanced access to Coinbase’s premium offerings.

Wallet users will gain special access to a three-month subscription to Coinbase One, and early users may receive a $25 credit after placing their first trade. The alliance bridges Samsung’s digital wallet ecosystem with Coinbase’s crypto infrastructure to simplify onboarding for mainstream consumers.

The rollout begins with U. S. Galaxy customers, where Samsung says more than 75 million device owners could benefit. Samsung executives have signalled plans to extend the integration to other markets globally.

This isn’t the first foray for the two companies. The integration was first announced in July, enabling Samsung Pay within the Coinbase app, allowing users to fund crypto purchases without leaving the app or switching payment methods.

Under the new details, Samsung Wallet becomes a conduit not just for payments and identity, but also crypto trading, staking, and portfolio oversight. The partnership emphasises security, leveraging Samsung’s Knox platform and tokenisation to protect user assets and data.

Shan Aggarwal, Coinbase’s Chief Business Officer, said the tie-up aligns with the firm’s mission to bring “more than a billion people on chain” by meeting them on devices they already use. Drew Blackard, Senior Vice President at Samsung, noted that Galaxy users already rely on their phones for payments, identity verification and digital storage—and crypto access is a natural extension.

The push is part of Coinbase’s broader strategy of embedding crypto capabilities across consumer channels. In August, the company disclosed $1.5 billion in Q2 revenue and underscored its ambition to become what it calls “the everything exchange” — a unified gateway to trading, payments, and on-chain finance.

In parallel, Coinbase has struck partnerships with financial institutions. Notably, it is collaborating with JPMorgan Chase to let customers link their bank accounts to Coinbase wallets, enabling crypto trading and the conversion of credit card points into digital assets.

Industry observers view the Samsung integration as one of the most ambitious consumer-level crypto distribution moves to date. By embedding exchange functionality directly into a widely used mobile wallet, Coinbase and Samsung seek to lower structural barriers that often frustrate new crypto users.

That said, challenges remain. The U. S. regulatory environment around crypto remains volatile, with the SEC and other agencies scrutinising exchanges, token listings, and taxation. Skeptics warn that bundling crypto into everyday apps could expose users to market risk without full awareness.

Meanwhile, the phased rollout in the U. S. and Canada will test adoption rates, user behaviour, cross-border compliance, and competition from rival wallets like Apple Pay or Google Wallet, some of which may pursue their own crypto plans.

Oil prices are sliding as traders cite mounting unsold Middle Eastern crude and weakening demand from key importers. This shift raises prospects of a global oversupply even as OPEC+ debates its next policy move.

Estimates from trading houses place unsold crude cargoes for November loading in the Middle East between 6 million and 12 million barrels. These volumes represent a departure from usual patterns where discount-seeking buyers quickly absorb surplus cargoes. Market participants point to a combination of subdued Chinese demand and logistical bottlenecks as contributing factors.

Spot premiums on benchmark grades such as Oman, Dubai and Murban have plunged below $2 per barrel, reflecting the discounts sellers are forced to offer to entice buyers. One trading analyst noted that the drop in premiums signals heightened desperation amid a buyer’s market for Middle Eastern crude.

China, a traditional backstop for surplus exports, is showing signs of pulling back. In May, China recorded a crude surplus of 1.4 million barrels per day—indicating that imports significantly outpaced refinery throughput. That accumulated surplus suggests refiners are prioritising inventory building over active processing, perhaps in anticipation of future market volatility.

Iran adds another layer of complexity. Tanker-tracking firms estimate that between 23 million and 33 million barrels of Iranian crude are currently held in floating storage. While Iran’s oil minister has denied any unsold inventory, satellite and maritime data paint a different picture. Analysts say the discrepancy reflects the country’s use of ship-to-ship transfers and “ghost fleet” operations to obscure the origin and movement of crude, especially in shipments headed for China.

These movements coincide with a broader recalibration in OPEC+ strategy. Some member states, notably Iraq, have increased destination-free exports, signalling an intent to saturate markets and regain influence with trading partners. Iraq’s shipment of Basrah Medium crude is projected to rise significantly in the coming month, following a period in which pledged output increases by coalition members have lagged deliveries.

Many analysts believe that OPEC+ will proceed cautiously in its production decisions. A sudden output cut might stoke accusations of market manipulation, while continued supply expansion could exacerbate falling price trends. Ahead of its upcoming meeting, the group faces the dilemma of balancing the need to safeguard revenue against the risk of triggering a price collapse.

Meanwhile, U. S. domestic supply is contributing to uncertainty. The Energy Information Administration reports that U. S. output has strengthened marginally, offset by curtailed imports of Russian crude under tightened sanctions. But some industry observers warn that U. S. production may have peaked. One petroleum engineer pointed to a 12 percent decline in output from October 2024 to June 2025, citing state-level data that may undercut EIA projections.

Oil futures reflect growing anxiety. Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate have posted their steepest weekly drops since June, falling over 8 percent in some benchmarks amid concerns that global inventories will build significantly. Traders increasingly view OPEC’s next move as critical in determining whether markets stabilise or cede ground to excess supply.

In this environment, floating storage becomes a more active tool. The accumulation of oil held offshore is not just a symptom of imbalance but a way to temporally manage supply pressure. Floating oil reserves enable sellers to delay deliveries until market conditions improve—or until buyers return.

Refiners in Asia and Europe are approaching capacity constraints. Some are cutting processing rates or entering maintenance periods, reducing appetite for new crude. Because many surplus cargoes are being offered on destination-free terms, they face competition across regions—and the lack of clear demand is forcing suppliers to lengthen delivery offers or scale back premiums.

If the pricing squeeze deepens, some producers may respond by cutting output unilaterally. Others might seek to promote further cooperation on coordinated supply restraint, though such moves carry reputational risk if markets judge them as manipulative. Meanwhile, importers in developing markets—particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia—could benefit from cheaper crude. But those gains may not offset pressure on oil-producing economies that rely heavily on export revenue to fund budgets and social programmes.