US–China trade resilience: Citi says its North America–China corridor kept growing as mainland firms hedge risks and lean on global institutions, with a 44% year-on-year revenue jump in H1. Iran sanctions hit finance: The US moves under “Operation Economic Outcast” to cut an Egyptian state bank unit off from the US dollar system, targeting alleged Iranian shadow-banking links. US “Economic D-Day” pressure: Trump’s new sanctions push threatens banks, airports and intermediaries that provide “lifelines” to Iran, while China is left in a more diplomatic lane ahead of a planned Trump–Xi summit. Space tech momentum: China’s Wenchang is betting on rockets plus tourism and an aerospace ecosystem; meanwhile, reusable rocket milestones (land-based booster recovery) signal cheaper access that could feed Hong Kong’s space ambitions. Hong Kong AI in infrastructure: PolyU and China Southern Power Grid use AI to improve transformer fault diagnosis from dissolved gas signals, boosting fault recognition and cutting severity errors. Hong Kong public-sector AI: Cyberport’s DELF 2026 wrapped with 4,000+ participants on AI, immersive tech and robotics, while Hong Kong continues expanding AI use across 1823 services and GenA.I. Sandbox++ for finance. Health tech caution: A Hong Kong wearable-device story highlights how smartwatches can flag issues like irregular heart rhythms, but shouldn’t replace medical advice. Cybersecurity & influence: X says it found a Chinese bot network of about 200,000 accounts tied to influence operations. Tokenized finance: Mirae Asset tokenizes a Hong Kong covered-call ETF share class with Citi and OSL, pushing blockchain-based trading for fund holdings.