Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has refused to apologise to a rape crisis centre which criticised him for describing rival airlines as “high-fare rapists”.

Speaking to journalists, O’Leary said some people were “desperate to get to Ryanair’s low fares because they can’t afford to fly with the high-fare rapists around Europe”.

O’Leary doubled-down on his choice of words when asked about them at the time, and later refused to apologise when the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) wrote to him asking for apology, in a letter seen by the BBC.

Ireland’s deputy premier Simon Harris said it was “clearly an inappropriate use of language” and that O’Leary “should have moved to rectify it”.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told UK radio outlet LBC that victims of rape are “not going to be rushing to book tickets with him, let’s be honest”.

O’Leary made the comments on Thursday while talking to journalists ahead of Ryanair’s yearly meeting with shareholders.

Asked by a reporter from the Press Association whether the language was appropriate, he said: “Absolutely.”

“British Airways, Lufthansa, and everybody else’s high fares, I’ll happily offend them on a regular basis,” he added.

Asked whether it would offend sexual assault victims, he said rape was “a terrible crime”.

Following O’Leary’s comments, the DRCC’s chief executive Rachel Morrogh wrote to O’Leary accusing him of trying to get a headline with his comments.

She said the DRCC had received calls from rape victims who were “upset and distressed because of what you said”.

She offered O’Leary training on the impact of sexual violence and urged him to apologise.

“I can’t imagine you would ever use the term so flippantly again if you truly understood [what] it was like to survive rape,” she wrote.

In response, O’Leary said: “I am quite clear that no remarks of mine could possibly trivialise the heinous crime of rape.”

He added that as he had not “trivialised the heinous crime of rape” he would “not be issuing any apology or accepting your offer of training”.

It is not the first time O’Leary has offended people while talking about his business.

In 2004, he reportedly called the owners of Stansted Airport “a bunch of overcharging rapists”, external in a row over airport charges.

He has also previously called some of his own staff “lazy bastards” and once said to passengers looking for a refund “we don’t want to hear your sob stories”.

In June, he said the airline would “reluctantly” stop charging parents to sit next to children after a watchdog investigation was opened, but insisted its previous policy complied with laws.

Cayman International, a global compliant RWA (Real-World Asset Management) platform, officially announced the completion of its strategic equity investment in Plato-PGM Resources, a South African local mining company, acquiring a 30% stake in the mine project.

Platto-PGM Resources is located in the Bushveld metallogenic belt of Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is a medium-sized, producing platinum group metal (PGM) mine in the region, not a leading international mining company. Its business registration, mining rights, and environmental permits are all publicly verifiable. This acquisition signifies that Cayman International has formally incorporated precious metal physical minerals into its platform’s underlying asset pool, extending its offline physical business footprint to the African continent. This forms a diversified physical asset matrix encompassing “real estate – precious metals – mineral resources – fund revenue rights,” providing a solid foundation for its ecosystem with real mineral physical assets and supporting the implementation of its 2027 global 28-country expansion strategy.

I. Target Mine Introduction: Plato-PGM Resources

The mine is located in the core metallogenic belt of the Bushveld Complex in Limpopo Province, northeastern South Africa. This region is the world’s richest area for platinum group metals (PGMs), concentrating nearly 88% of global PGM, palladium, and rhodium reserves. These minerals are widely used in new energy catalysis, industrial manufacturing, and high-end jewelry, representing strategic rare minerals with long-term, inelastic demand.

Platto-PGM is a privately held limited mining company registered with the South African CIPC. It is a regionally-sized producing mine with complete and valid mining rights, engaging in underground mining, ore beneficiation, and primary ore processing. It produces PGM raw materials, primarily platinum and palladium, supplying global smelting and trading channels.

• Resource Endowment: Sufficient proven recoverable PGM ore reserves. The mine is in a stable production phase with a continuous and stable cash flow.

• Operating Model: The existing South African mining management, mining technology, and production team will be retained to manage daily mining, beneficiation, and safe production.

• Project Positioning: A mid-sized regional physical mine, not a major international listed company, with traceable official records, suitable as the underlying physical asset of RWA.

Cayman International, as a 30% strategic shareholder, enjoys a corresponding proportion of mineral revenue dividends, asset appreciation rights, and voting rights on major matters. It does not take over the mine’s daily operations but focuses on capital planning, asset management, RWA asset tokenization, and global resource integration.

II. Core Reasons for this 30% Strategic Shareholding

1. Expanding Real Physical Assets and Strengthening the Foundation of the RWA Ecosystem

Cayman International’s existing assets include real estate, precious metals, funds, and engineering revenue rights. This investment in a platinum group metals mine adds underground mineral resources as a physical asset. The mine possesses proven underground mineral reserves, continuous raw ore production, and stable trade cash flow, making it a core, real physical asset. In the future, the mine’s revenue rights can be made into asset-anchored NFTs, allowing global investors to share in the appreciation and dividend income of the physical minerals, further strengthening the “physical asset-based” ecosystem.

2. Establishing a Physical Footprint in Africa to Complete a Comprehensive Global Offline Footprint: Cayman International has already established platforms in seven countries: China, Russia, the United States, Dubai, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and France. South Africa is a core economic and resource-rich country in Africa. By acquiring stakes in mature, operating mines, Cayman International can establish a physical presence in Africa at low cost, avoiding the need to build mines from scratch. This completes a crucial segment of its global offline footprint, serving as a pivotal point to expand into multiple African markets and support its goal of a global presence in 28 countries by 2027.

3. Platinum Group Metals are Globally Strategic and Scarce Resources with Counter-cyclical Value: Platinum, palladium, rhodium, and other platinum group metals are key raw materials for hydrogen energy and new energy vehicle catalytic materials. Global supply is highly concentrated in South Africa, ensuring long-term rigid industrial demand. Physical mineral assets can hedge against financial market fluctuations, enrich Cayman International’s ecosystem asset reserves, and enhance the overall ecosystem’s resilience. Unlike purely online digital projects, this approach ensures that physical industries safeguard the ecosystem.

4. The joint venture/equity participation model offers controllable risks and complies with South African mining regulations.

South African mining regulations promote the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) system, encouraging foreign investment in local mining through equity participation, but discouraging wholly foreign-owned mines. Choosing a 30% stake allows for the retention of the local mining team for operations, mitigating heavy operational risks related to mining, labor, and the environment. Furthermore, the equity structure offers flexibility, allowing for future strategic adjustments such as additional investment or the introduction of more institutions to participate in the project.

5. Leveraging the technical capabilities of Singapore’s RedDuck Tech to streamline the RWA (Resource-Based Asset) chain.

Utilizing the previously acquired Singapore RedDuck Tech technology team, on-chain notarization of mine revenue, output, and shipment records can be achieved. Mine profit-sharing rights can be tokenized using RWA, mapping the value of physical mines to the on-chain ecosystem. This connects real-world mining assets with on-chain products, expanding new application scenarios in the RWA sector.

III. Post-Equity Investment Plans and Future Development

1. Compliant Mine Operation and Optimization: Under the regulatory framework of the South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), and in conjunction with the existing management team, optimize the ore processing process, reasonably improve production efficiency, implement mine environmental remediation and community labor programs, and ensure long-term stable and safe production of the mine.

2. Exploring RWA Tokenization of Mineral Assets: Establish a complete ledger of mine production, shipments, revenue, and dividends. Combine this with RedDuck Tech’s RWA underlying protocol to explore on-chain confirmation of mine revenue rights and develop mineral revenue-anchored NFTs, allowing the global community to share the revenue generated by the physical mine.

3. Building a Physical Business Base in Africa: Use the Plato-PGM physical mine as a window to the African business, connecting with local African institutions and industry resources, researching regulatory and industry opportunities in other African countries, and paving the way for the launch of more regional sites in Africa. 4. Mining Revenue Supports the Cayman Global Ecosystem

30% of the mine’s profit-sharing revenue is used partly for mine reinvestment and partly to flow back into the Cayman international ecosystem for technological upgrades, global market development, and community incentives, thus realizing the return of tangible industry revenue to the global ecosystem.

5. Strict Compliance with All Local Mining Regulations

Mining production, equity changes, tax payments, mineral trading, and environmental governance all comply with South African DMRE (Mineral Resources and Energy Department), CIPC (Commercial and Industrial Corporation), SARS (Science and Technology), and BEE (Beneficial Economic Empowerment) laws. All procedures are complete and compliant, ensuring that cross-border investment rights are protected by local laws.

IV. Industry Perspectives and Analysis

Overseas Mining and RWA Industry Analyst Commentary:

“Most RWA project assets are concentrated in financial products, lacking tangible assets like underground minerals. Cayman International, through its stake in a South African platinum group metals (PGM) mine, has incorporated rare strategic minerals into its asset pool. Combined with its previous acquisition by a Singaporean technology company, it has built a complete ecosystem barrier consisting of self-developed technology, multi-country platforms, real estate, funds, and physical mines. The physical mines generate continuous cash flow, providing strong underlying credit support for the entire platform.”

Resources form the foundation, physical assets connect globally.

This strategic stake in South Africa’s Plato-PGM Resources PGM mine is a key step in Cayman International’s global physical asset layout. Through a 30% strategic shareholding, it completes the landing of physical mining assets in Africa, enriches the RWA physical asset matrix, and enables its offline physical business to cover more continents.

Leveraging the proprietary technology capabilities of Singapore’s RedDuck Tech and its existing business network across seven countries, Cayman International continues to steadily advance its ambitious strategy of covering 28 countries globally by 2027, adhering to its foundation of real-world assets and maintaining its leading position in the global RWA market.

Cayman International, a leading global compliant RWA (Real-World Asset Digitization) platform, officially announced the completion of its strategic acquisition of 100% of Singapore’s top blockchain technology company, RedDuck Tech.

This cross-border technology acquisition marks Cayman International’s achievement of independent control over its underlying technology, self-developed contract security, iterative upgrades of its RWA system, and self-built global on-chain ecosystem. This solidifies its technological barriers in the industry, making it one of the few leading RWA platforms globally with a complete self-developed underlying technology and a full-chain asset security system.

I. Introduction to the Acquired Target | Singapore’s RedDuck Tech

RedDuck Tech, headquartered in Singapore’s Marina Bay Science Park, is a long-established leading DeFi underlying technology developer, smart contract security auditer, and on-chain financial system architecture service provider in Southeast Asia.

The company has been deeply involved in blockchain underlying R&D for eight years, focusing on:

1. Development of the underlying protocol for RWA tokenization of physical assets

2. DeFi liquidity mining, LP pool algorithms, and automatic dividend system construction

3. Multi-level contract security architecture and vulnerability interception system

4. Chainlink oracle data interaction and on-chain mapping technology for physical assets

5. Development of a global multi-language, multi-regional distributed trading ecosystem. The company has won numerous awards, including the NEAR Global Hackathon Award and the Kyiv Global Technology Summit Technology Innovation Award, and has been recognized by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. It has long provided underlying technical support to leading global Web3 projects and traditional financial institutions, and is a Singapore-recognized compliant fintech key R&D enterprise.

II. Core Strategic Significance of this Acquisition

1. Completely Achieve “Technological Autonomy and Control,” Saying Goodbye to Outsourcing Dependence

After the acquisition, Cayman International will fully own the core technology R&D team and all underlying code copyrights in Singapore.

From smart contracts, dividend mechanisms, LP market manipulation algorithms, NFT asset ownership confirmation, and on-chain clearing systems, all aspects will be independently developed, iterated, and maintained.

Completely resolves common pain points in the industry such as code outsourcing, vulnerability issues, system lag, inability to upgrade, and limited backend functionality.

2. Comprehensive Upgrade of RWA Asset On-Chain Technology System

Based on RedDuck’s mature on-chain mapping protocol for physical assets, Cayman International’s four major physical assets—real estate, precious metals, futures funds, and international engineering revenue rights—will achieve higher precision, greater transparency, and more real-time on-chain ownership verification and data traceability.

Ensuring that every NFT, every parent asset, and every LP shareholder pool data is fully verifiable on-chain, tamper-proof, and publicly available in real time.

3. Strengthening a Top-Tier Global Security System

RedDuck’s exclusive multi-layered smart contract defense architecture will be fully integrated into the Cayman International ecosystem:

• Automatically intercepting malicious attacks

• Mitigating flash loan vulnerabilities

• Eliminating contract overflow and permission risks

• 24/7 on-chain risk control monitoring

Combined with existing CertiK and Beosin dual audits, Cayman International has officially formed a triple security barrier of self-developed technology + dual audits + multi-layered risk control, achieving a global top-tier financial security standard.

4. Empowering Synchronous Iteration of Global Platforms in Seven Countries

With the full launch of branches in seven countries—China, Russia, the United States, Dubai, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and France—

the RedDuck technical team will provide the seven regional sub-platforms with:

Customized localized system adaptation, multilingual ecosystem optimization, upgrades to compliant node systems in various countries, and development of a globally unified asset interoperability protocol.

This lays an absolutely solid technical foundation for a global 28-country layout, open-source NFT trading, and global equity interoperability by 2027.

5. Significantly Enhanced Mother Coin Value and Deflationary Model Stability

This technological upgrade will optimize the original LP joint market manipulation algorithm, automatic deflationary burning mechanism, and static dividend computing power model,

making the coin price increase logic more solid, the circulation model healthier, the user reward mechanism more intelligent, and the long-term compound interest stronger.

III. Industry Evaluation: A Complete Reshaping of the RWA Sector’s Technological Landscape

An industry fintech analyst stated:

“This round of Cayman International’s acquisition of a top-tier Singaporean technology team is the most crucial technology acquisition event in the RWA sector in 2026.

Most RWA platforms only have asset packaging capabilities, lacking underlying technological strength;

Cayman International has achieved a four-dimensional closed loop of physical assets + compliance licenses + self-developed technology + global ecosystem, officially widening the generational gap with its peers.”

IV. Future Strategic Planning

Cayman International stated that this acquisition is not the end, but a new starting point for the era of self-developed technology.

In the future, relying on its Singapore R&D center, the company will continue to implement:

1. Upgrade of the global RWA asset unified on-chain protocol

2. Development of DAO autonomous governance system technology

3. Construction of a cross-chain asset interoperability ecosystem

4. Iteration of the AI-powered quantitative trading system

5. Self-developed upgrade of the global node computing power system

With technology as the foundation, physical assets as support, compliance as a barrier, and a global market, the company will continue to lead the trillion-dollar RWA market.

Technology as the foundation, ecosystem for the future!

Through this cross-border technology acquisition, Cayman International has officially established:

Independent and controllable underlying technology

World-class security system

Industry-leading RWA token technology

A globally iterative ecosystem architecture

From “leveraging external resources for development” to a new era of “technology-led, self-developed leadership,”

accelerating towards becoming the world’s leading compliant RWA physical asset digitization platform!

In today’s slightly unexpected acquisition news, the world’s largest mod-sharing platform just bought SteamDB. Nexus Mods announced that it had acquired the Steam-focused independent database in a news post on its website, where it called SteamDB “one of the most trusted resources in PC gaming.”

SteamDB was launched in 2013 by two people who go by the names of Marlamin and xPaw as little more than a hobby, but as it grew in size it became more difficult to maintain. Nexus Mods said it started talking to xPaw when the programmer — who had eventually assumed sole responsibility of managing the site — started looking for someone who could give it “the resources, development capacity, and long-term stability” he was struggling to provide alone.

Nexus Mods says it shares a lot of the same values as SteamDB, both of which were primarily built to serve a large community of hardcore PC gamers. SteamDB logs player charts, price history, updates and other data for the entire Steam catalog, and the ability to better track which version of a particular game players are installing mods into was especially appealing to Nexus Mods. Updates are notorious game-breakers when mods are involved and SteamDB’s enormous amount of historical data should prove beneficial for ongoing development.

SteamDB will keep its current name and won’t change much in the short-term, so you can continue to use it as you do now. The main changes, Nexus Mods says, will be behind the scenes, as a dedicated team will eventually transition into managing the database, improving its “infrastructure, security, and scalability.” SteamDB has also traditionally relied on donated Steam keys for tracking game files, and while it will still lean heavily on its community going forward, Nexus Mods will also start funding keys itself.

In his own separate statement on SteamDB, xPaw reassured the community that it was in good hands with Nexus Mods, and said the aim was to invest in and help it survive rather than “change what makes the project special.” He also pointed to the rise of AI in a post-COVID world contributing to the end of “the internet we once loved”, and with it his own passion for continuing.

“I have full confidence the team will be able to continue improving the project for gamers, developers and publishers alike,” xPaw said in a statement. “I will be helping the team ensure a smooth transition in the coming months. This project has occupied my whole adult life. Thank you to everyone who has used SteamDB, contributed to it, reported bugs, shared it with others, or simply found it useful.”

As the digital economy continues to advance and deepen, data, as a new factor of production, is increasingly becoming an important foundation for promoting high-quality economic and social development.

However, the rapid growth of data does not necessarily mean that the value of data elements can be unlocked automatically. In the process of digital transformation, a number of important issues require continued exploration, including how data resources can be efficiently aggregated, how data circulation processes can be reliably verified, how data rights and interests can be protected in accordance with laws and regulations, and how multiple stakeholders can establish secure and efficient mechanisms for collaboration. Addressing these issues is essential to advancing the market-oriented allocation of data elements and promoting the secure and efficient circulation of data.

In line with the development of data infrastructure and the broader direction of promoting compliant and efficient data circulation and utilization, PiX, a digital application within the PiBank Protocol ecosystem, is exploring innovative approaches centered on trusted data spaces, rule verification, and multi-party collaboration. It is committed to developing secure, trusted, and efficient mechanisms for data circulation and utilization, while exploring sustainable pathways for unlocking the value of data.

Advancing the Market-Oriented Allocation of Data Elements

Building a Trusted Foundation for Data

In response to the needs of data infrastructure development, PiX is exploring transparent, secure, and traceable technical and procedural mechanisms to strengthen trusted verification throughout the data circulation process and provide technical support for the compliant and efficient circulation and utilization of data.

Enhancing Multi-Party Collaboration Mechanisms

Through standardized and digitalized rule-verification mechanisms, PiX aims to reduce the costs of collaboration and trust among different participants. Under the principles of legal compliance, security, and controllability, it seeks to facilitate more efficient data exchange and business collaboration among multiple stakeholders.

Unlocking the Value of Data

Focusing on the integrated application of data across the real economy and the digital economy, PiX is exploring ways in which trusted data can be circulated and utilized across different business scenarios, enabling compliant and trustworthy data to better support industrial digitalization, business innovation, and the broader development of the digital economy.

Committed to Long-Termism and Compliance-Driven Development

As reforms in the market-oriented allocation of data elements continue to deepen, technological innovation must remain grounded in real-world application scenarios and contribute to deeper integration between the real economy and the digital economy.

PiX places legal compliance, security, trustworthiness, and practical application value at the core of its development. With an emphasis on building robust underlying mechanisms and creating long-term value, PiX continues to explore practical approaches to the secure, efficient, and trusted circulation of data elements.

Looking ahead, PiX will continue to leverage the PiBank Protocol ecosystem to advance innovative practices in data circulation and utilization, trusted data spaces, and multi-party collaboration mechanisms. It will also actively work with industry and ecosystem partners to explore a broader range of real-world application scenarios and accumulate practical experience that contributes to the high-quality development of the digital economy.

About PiX

PiX is a digital application initiative within the PiBank Protocol ecosystem, focused on trusted data collaboration, rule verification, and multi-party connectivity.

Computing power is the underlying foundation of the Web3 world, but most current computing power-related crypto projects suffer from significant shortcomings: highly centralized token distribution, with large amounts of tokens held by early teams and institutions easily causing secondary market sell-offs; projects only have on-chain concepts, lacking real mining farms and hardware assets, resulting in a lack of cash flow support; economic models lack protection against market downturns, making liquidity extremely vulnerable to collapse during bear markets; tokens rely solely on mining output, lacking real business consumption, leading most participants to engage with a short-term speculative mindset.

To address these industry pain points, APEX Vertex, leveraging the underlying infrastructure of the Turing public chain, has partnered with a German multinational digital technology asset management group holding EU MiCA qualifications, and collaborated with the DGK Paraguayan clean energy hydropower mining farm to build a complete computing power economy that integrates on-chain and off-chain elements. The institutional partners plan to invest tens of billions of dollars, providing support to the project from multiple dimensions, including compliance licenses, capital reserves, global mining farm industry channels, and cryptographic contract technology.

Blackhole mining is the core innovative mechanism of the APEX ecosystem. Unlike traditional mining that only produces tokens, blackhole mining encapsulates token production, fund allocation, blackhole burning, and risk protection within a single smart contract. Every user’s mining investment is automatically allocated in three stages by the contract: a portion goes into the DEX liquidity pool to directly purchase tokens, with the vast majority of these tokens permanently burned, continuously compressing the total circulating supply; a portion is allocated to the market capitalization reserve pool, automatically supporting the secondary market during market downturns; and the remaining portion is used to incentivize early ecosystem contributors. The total token supply is 21 million and will never be increased, eliminating unlimited inflation at its source.

The project is equipped with a comprehensive risk control mechanism: a six-tiered slippage system dynamically adjusts based on U-pool liquidity changes, with slippage profits pooled in the reserve pool; two risk trigger thresholds are set, automatically compressing computing power output when liquidity drops significantly, and triggering reserve fund buybacks in extreme market conditions to hedge against market sell-offs and subsequent crashes. Meanwhile, a 200% principal return exit mechanism is implemented to constrain overall ecosystem bubbles and prevent large investors from engaging in unlimited arbitrage.

In terms of application implementation, APEX has established twelve major ecosystem sectors, extending beyond mining. On-chain application for physical mining machine rights, AI computing power leasing and trading, computing power NFT minting and circulation, RWA computing power asset token issuance, privacy communication services, and computing power track project incubation are all settled using APEX tokens. The real cash flow generated by offline mining farms continuously supports the on-chain ecosystem, while on-chain tokens provide an outlet for asset securitization of physical computing power, forming a two-way cycle between on-chain and off-chain.

In terms of development path, the project is progressing in three phases: ecosystem foundation building, explosive expansion, and full-domain autonomy. It continues to expand clean energy computing power parks in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, increasing the physical computing power base; it is gradually upgrading the DAO governance system, delegating decision-making power for ecosystem iteration, fund allocation, and computing power expansion to all network nodes. APEX hopes to break free from the predicament of simply hyping up crypto projects and explore a feasible path for the Web3 transformation of physical computing power.

Minimalist retractable door handles became a signature feature of electric vehicles (EVs), but the controversial designs are now at the centre of China’s biggest car recall, affecting more than 4 million vehicles.

The recall, which includes 2.98 million Chinese-made Teslas, follows safety concerns that the hidden door handles are difficult to locate and open in emergency situations.

Other brands affected by the recall include Chinese carmakers XPeng, Xiaomi and Geely.

Made popular by multi-billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla, hidden door handles are designed to tuck seamlessly within the car’s door panel and only extend outwards when an owner approaches their vehicle.

The design came under scrutiny after two fatal crashes in China involving Xiaomi EVs, in which power failures were suspected to have prevented doors from being opened.

Tesla said in a statement on Friday that it was recalling some of its Model 3, Y, S and X vehicles due to door handles that are “difficult to identify and operate because their colour is similar to the interior trim”.

This could hinder occupants or rescuers from quickly opening the doors in an emergency, such as during a “severe collision causing the vehicle’s low-voltage system to fail.”

Tesla said it will place warning labels on the recalled vehicles and issue a software update to automatically lower a vehicle’s windows after a collision.

It is not clear if the affected firms plan to make a similar recall for the rest of the world.

The BBC has contacted Tesla, XPeng, Xiaomi and Geely for comment.

The use of the hidden handle design has “snowballed” after Chinese brands were quick to copy the “sleek” look of Tesla’s Model S sedan since 2014, said Tu Le, the founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

The use of warning labels and a software update is more of a “band-aid” than a lasting solution for the issue, he added.

In February, Chinese authorities announced a ban on hidden door handles.

Under new rules due to take effect on 1 January 2027, cars will only be allowed to be sold in China if they have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of their doors.

Tesla’s door handles were also involved in a probe by US safety regulators after reports that they suddenly stopped working, leaving children trapped in the cars.

In July, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggested creating a new formal safety standard for all carmakers.

The BBC has contacted the agency for comment.