🇰🇷 South Korea Eyes Growth Fund From Chip Tax Windfall

South Korea plans to create an investment fund using tax revenue from its burgeoning semiconductor industry to finance long-term economic growth.

In a senior-level meeting of the government and the ruling party, Kang Hoon-sik said the additional revenue from the country’s chip industry should be invested for future growth.

@QSIMedia

🇨🇦🇯🇵 Canada and Japan join hands to reduce dependency on Chinese rare-earth minerals

At a trade mission to Tokyo, Canadian and Japanese companies signed more than CA $1 billion in commercial deals and announced their plans to possibly stockpile critical minerals.Three hundred members and nearly 180 companies and organizations were present at Canada’s biggest-ever mission to Asia-Pacific.

Canada and Japan are considering joint stockpiling of critical minerals such as graphite and gallium. Canada’s International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu confirmed the news at the trade mission. Teaming up with Japan would ensure security and safety in light of any disruptions or shortages, as both countries depend on China for these critical minerals. 80% of Japan’s rare earth minerals come from China.

@QSIMedia

🤑 Travala announced XRP can be used for over 2.2 million hotel bookings worldwide

Travel platform Travala has announced that its users can now book accommodation at more than 2.2 million hotels worldwide using XRP.

The company views this move as a significant step forward for the everyday use of cryptocurrencies in payments, positioning XRP as a viable option for travel expenses.

➡️ Travala is a platform focused on enabling cryptocurrency-based travel bookings.

According to the platform, users will be able to make instant hotel reservations, bypassing banks and relying solely on crypto for confirmation and payment.

❗️Travala pointed out that XRP’s use in hotel bookings aligns with the asset’s original focus on fast value transfer, providing travelers with a seamless and efficient payment experience.

This marks an expansion of XRP’s reach beyond traditional trading platforms into the broader consumer travel and hospitality market.

Travala stated that, with the addition of XRP, the total number of travel products available for crypto payment on their platform now exceeds three million worldwide. 🚀

#Stellar

@QSIMedia

⚡️🤖 Alibaba Gets Reprieve From Lobbying Ban Tied To Pentagon’s Curbs

A federal judge ordered the Pentagon to give Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. a reprieve from a law that caused all of its lobbyists to drop it while she considers its constitutionality in a case set to test the ability of the US government to restrict Chinese companies’ activities.

Washington’s most powerful lobbying firms rushed to cut ties with Chinese tech giants including Alibaba as a new US law took effect last week targeting companies allegedly aiding the Chinese military.

@QSIMedia

🔠🔠🔠🔠- Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Assets, Nadine Chakar


“All right, your time is up, guys.
Like, just get in there.
The water feels good.

🔠🔠🔠 🔠🔠🔠🔠

🔠🔠🔠🔠 🔠🔠

🦶 🦶 🦶 😂

and get going.
This technology is moving too fast.”

“Like, I’ve worked in institutions all my life where I was told there’s no benefit in being a first mover — we just wanna be a quick follower.
And there’s some merit in that, but the time 🔠🔠🔠
has come to be a first mover.
The technology is moving too fast.

Like, if you sit by the sideline for any longer, it’s gonna be really hard to catch up.
⚡️Just get in there — again, the water’s really good. 💦 💧 💦💦



Stellar 🏦 on 📱

📆 Posted on 03.July

x dot com/stellarorg/status/2073045186733646146?s=46

⚡️ President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday

Trump arrives in Turkey on Tuesday, when he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before a summit with the full defense alliance the next day, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

@QSIMedia

🔝🤑 Mind blowing numbers from Electric Capital. Stellar is the fastest growing dev ecosystem of any major chain 🎉

According to data Stellar's full-time developer count has grown +35% in the space of just one year.

#Stellar

@QSIMedia

🧠 Australia Joins Brain-Computer Interface Race With Less-Invasive Brain Tech

The University of Melbourne startup Fluent develops a new device designed to transform how people with speech impairments communicate. Many people with motor neuron disease and multiple sclerosis gradually lose the ability to speak, making communication increasingly difficult.

Fluent is developing a different approach from many existing BCI systems. While invasive BCIs require brain surgery to implant electrodes inside the skull, Fluent’s device is designed to sit beneath the scalp but outside the skull, offering what the company hopes will be a safer and more accessible alternative.

The research suggests that signals captured by the device are comparable whether electrodes are placed beneath or outside the skull. If validated through further testing, this could represent a significant advance in BCI development, as invasive systems have historically captured higher-quality brain signals and outperformed non-invasive approaches.

@QSIMedia

🤖 Hyundai Motor Showcases Humanoid at World Cup in Robotics Push

Hyundai Motor Co. showcased its Atlas humanoid robot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, highlighting its technical progress on football’s biggest stage as the South Korean automaker gears up for mass production and factory deployment.

@QSIMedia

🇦🇺🇫🇯 Australia-Fiji Sign Security Deal, Expand China Containment

Australia and Fiji signed a mutual defense treaty and a new agreement to develop ties. The Ocean of Peace Alliance says the nations will ‘act to meet the common danger’ in the event either country is attacked.

It is Fiji’s first military alliance and Australia’s fourth, alongside the U.S., New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, reinforcing Canberra’s push to curb China’s influence in the Pacific.

@QSIMedia

⚡️🤑 UNDP and Stellar Development Foundation extend partnership to scale proven digital payment solutions

The United Nations Development Programme and the Stellar Development Foundation have signed a new agreement that carries their joint work on blockchain-based digital payments into its next phase, moving from a set of proven pilots toward a standing capability that UNDP country offices can draw on as a regular part of how they deliver programmes.

➡️ Coordinated by the UNDP Alternative Finance Lab (AltFinLab) at the Istanbul Regional Hub, the agreement shifts the focus from testing the technology in specific contexts to putting in place the institutional conditions under which it can be used at scale.

❗️The decision to scale follows sixteen months of joint work, during which the two partners researched the use of digital payments across seventeen countries, consulted UNDP country offices and stakeholders, and implemented live pilots🔣in Haiti, Syria, Kenya, Guatemala, and The Gambia, with two further solutions developed to a working prototype in Colombia and Papua New Guinea.

➡️In parallel, the Sustainable Development Goals Blockchain Accelerator, strategically led by UNDP AltFinLab, matched a cohort of payment solutions built on the Stellar network with real UNDP programme challenges, producing a portfolio of graduated solutions with documented pathways to scale within existing country office programmes.

😄These pilots produced concrete evidence rather than promising projections.

Earlier in 2026, UNDP featured part of this work in the report New Tech, New Partners: Transforming Development in the Digital Era, which set out why reliable digital payment infrastructure matters for financial inclusion, for remittances, and for reaching people in fragile and conflict-affected settings that traditional financial systems sometimes fail to reach.

🎯 The new agreement turns these results into a capability that does not depend on any single project or funding cycle.

The two partners will establish the governance, onboarding, and safeguards🔣that allow UNDP to adopt digital payments responsibly, move validated solutions from the existing pipeline into active use, extend the same infrastructure across different categories of UNDP programming – from humanitarian response to social protection and financial inclusion.

The Stellar Development Foundation will provide technical advisory support and coordination across the Stellar ecosystem, including expertise on the network and its protocols, and engagement with the solution providers operating within the UNDP pipeline, while UNDP will retain responsibility for delivery and implementation.🚀

‼️ The agreement runs through 2027 and will conclude with a consolidated evidence base, a scaling playbook, and a formal handover, so that the capability outlasts the partnership that created it.

#Stellar

@QSIMedia