The European Union bans Russian LNG imports on 1st January 2027. In the first half of this year the EU bought a record 9.97 million tonnes of it, up 16% on the year, equal to roughly 97% of everything the Yamal plant produced in that period. The regulation imposing the ban also carries a carve-out. Its stated purpose, written into the Official Journal, is to avoid "any increase" in the export revenues Russia derives from those transfers. Not to reduce them. To avoid an increase. Article 3ra(6) entered force on 24th July. It permits EU operators to keep transferring Russian LNG to non-EU buyers, and to keep purchasing it for that purpose, under contracts signed before 24th February 2022 that run longer than a year and have not been amended since. Each operator is capped at whatever volume it moved in 2025. The mechanism underneath deserves more attention than the headline. Sanctions on Russia expire unless every member state votes to renew them, which is why the six-month rollover has been a recurring hostage negotiation since 2022. This exemption runs the other way. It lasts until 25th July 2027, then renews automatically for successive one-year periods unless the Council decides otherwise. Council decisions on sanctions require unanimity. So the sanction needs unanimity to survive, and the carve-out needs unanimity to die. One member state can collapse the ban. One member state can also keep the exemption alive indefinitely. The exception is structurally more durable than the rule it was carved out of. It arrived by the same route. Greece delayed adoption of the package until protections were included for its shipping industry, per Financial Times reporting picked up across European outlets. Euronews reported that other member states were aghast at reopening a text that had already become EU law, and feared the precedent it would set. Concentration is what gives it force. One company, Dynagas, operates five of the fifteen specialised Arc7 icebreaking carriers built for Yamal, vessels that cannot be casually replaced. The research group Urgewald calculates it moved 2.35 billion euros of Russian LNG to EU customers in the first seven months of this year, and carries roughly 22% of all Russian LNG exports. Then there is geography, which nobody legislated. Yamal sits in the Arctic. Rerouting its cargoes east becomes significantly more expensive when the Northern Sea Route is closed by ice, typically December through June. The import ban starts on 1st January, inside the ice window. For half of each year the cheap route for that gas points at Europe, and from January Europe is closed to it as a destination but not as a carrier. The disclosure regime is unusually sharp. Operators must report their 2025 transfer volumes to national regulators by 25th August, then file quarterly data identifying vessel, ports, buyer, destination, cargo value and gross revenue. That is a commercial map of the Russian LNG trade sitting inside member state files. The test is clean. After 1st January, EU imports should fall hard. If EU operator transfers fall with them, this reading is wrong. If imports drop while transfers hold near their 2025 cap, the ban will have changed where the cargo lands without changing who carries it, who earns the freight, or what Russia is paid. Europe spent four years learning to buy less Russian gas. It has now written into law the conditions under which its own companies keep selling it.

“Once again he has shown what a complete footballer he is. The recognition he should have had, he is getting now.” - Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente. Lamine Yamal receives most of the attention in Spain’s attack. But Mikel Oyarzabal, who has cultivated a hugely effective career in the peripheral view of most football fans, was once again the difference in Spain in their 3-0 win over Austria — their first win in the knockout stage at a men's World Cup since 2010. Since the start of 2025, Oyarzabal has 16 goals for Spain, with Erling Haaland the only European player with more across the same period (24). It would be wise for opposition defences in future, starting with Portugal, to pay closer attention to the 29-year-old. @lauriewhitwell

2025 hack: "ask the AI how to prompt the AI" 2026 hack: at the end of every session, tell your agent "write down what you learned so next time you don't need me" it saves it as a skill, and reads it before the next task I now have one for rendering videos .. one for reading my Sentry errors .. one for my posting queue .. and one that writes like me each week, the agent needs me a little less not sure what I'll do soon 👀

2025–2026, imo, is the period that showed the clearest value of tokens backed by real revenue and real value capture. Thousands of projects disappeared when attention and liquidity moved elsewhere. But protocols with real products, real users and real revenue are still here. And more importantly, some of them are finding ways to return that revenue to the token. Look at the current numbers: – @HyperliquidX $HYPE: ~$60M holder revenue in 30D, with most trading fees flowing into HYPE buybacks – @CantonNetwork $CC: ~$49M in 30D, with network fees used to burn CC – @trondao $TRX: ~$24M in 30D, with network fees continuously burning TRX – @Pumpfun $PUMP: ~$24M returned to holders in 30D through token buybacks – @uniswap $UNI: ~$16M in 30D, with protocol fees now flowing into UNI buyback/burn – @ponsdotfamily $PONS: ~$15M in 30D, with a large part of revenue used for buyback and burn – @aeroxyz $AERO: ~$14M in 30D, with trading fees distributed to veAERO voters – @LaunchOnSF $STONK: ~$10M in holder revenue, mainly through market buybacks – @PancakeSwap $CAKE: ~$5M in 30D, with revenue from multiple products used to buy back and burn CAKE – @Aster_DEX aster-2:native: ~$4.6M in 30D, with most platform fees currently used to buy back ASTER For me, the more interesting model is: Real users → real fees → real revenue → real token capture. I think this will become one of the metrics worth watching much more closely in the next phase of the market. NFA.

2025 was the perp DEX volume war. 2026 is the perp DEX product/infrastructure war. I filtered the most important updates so you can save time researching every perp DEX yourself. This should help you quickly see who is building what, how they differ, and which DEX fits your needs best. Perp DEXs used to compete mainly on volume, liquidity, fees, and execution. This year, the battle is expanding across several new product layers. ❯ Permissionless markets @HyperliquidX is pushing this through HIP-3, letting builders deploy their own perp markets and choose the oracle, leverage, and market parameters. @standx_official is taking a similar direction with Universal Markets, with more focus on community liquidity for new markets. ❯ TradFi / RWA markets @variational_io stands out with Swaps, bringing TradFi liquidity and financing logic into onchain derivatives. @edgeX_exchange, @OstiumLabs, @tradexyz, @OndoPerps, and @gmtrade_xyz are expanding across equities, FX, and commodities. The battle here is around pricing, liquidity, and funding for global markets. ❯ Productive margin @grvt_io, @extendedapp, and @Aster_DEX are making collateral more useful. The same balance can earn yield, act as margin, and support multiple markets. ❯ Privacy @paradex, @Aster_DEX, and @hibachi_xyz are turning private execution into a core trading feature. Position data, wallet activity, order flow, and trading intent can all gain an extra privacy layer, especially for whales and institutional flow. ❯ Emerging challengers @pacifica_fi, @nadoHQ, and @perpltrade are the names I’m watching here. Strong distribution, chain-native communities, and a clear product wedge can help newer venues capture market share quickly. If I had to simplify it: Hyperliquid: permissionless markets Variational / edgeX / TradeXYZ / Ondo Perp: TradFi & RWA GRVT / Extended / Aster: productive margin Paradex / Hibachi : privacy Pacifica / Nado / Perpl: emerging challengers 2026 is turning the perp DEX market into a race around specialization. Market leaders can keep scaling liquidity and distribution, while challengers can own specific niches. The next perp winner may win a specific market first.

2025 vs. 2026: from rookie to agile runner. #humanoidrobots# have leveled up fast. 🤖✨ The second World Humanoid Robot Games will kick off in #Beijing# today. Watch the robot athletes shine!

2025. Eric Swalwell tells Charlamagne that the Chinese spy scandal was all BS and that Republicans lie about him because he is a white Christian. 🤣 No one enjoys being lied to more than Charlamagne the Clown.