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Russian gold is pouring into Hong Kong at a record pace, highlighting how Western sanctions have rerouted bullion bound for London toward China and other Asian markets. 

Hong Kong imported 112.7 tonnes of Russian-origin gold in the first seven months of 2026, according to precious metals investment firm BullionVault's analysis of data from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. 

Imports have already surpassed the record 92.1 tonnes imported during all of 2025, and compares with just 3.3 tonnes in 2021, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The surge underscores how Russia's gold trade has been rerouted since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shut its producers out of major Western markets, analysts told CNBC.

Russian bullion accounted for almost 15% of Hong Kong's non-monetary gold imports in the first seven months of this year, up from just 0.6% in 2021. 

"Hong Kong has emerged as an important hub for Russia-China trade since the full-scale invasion," said Vita Spivak, senior consultant at Gatehouse Advisory Partners. "Most gold goes to Mainland China as it hasn't placed sanctions on Russian gold," she told CNBC.

"For bullion specifically, Hong Kong also offers advantages beyond sanctions circumvention. It provides direct access to the world's largest gold-consuming market," Spivak highlighted.

The London Bullion Market Association suspended all six Russian gold and silver refiners from its Good Delivery lists in March 2022. The U.S., U.K. and other Western countries subsequently imposed restrictions on Russian gold, effectively closing off markets that had previously been major destinations for the country's bullion. 

Before the war, Russia's gold industry had become heavily dependent on London. Russian gold exports to the U.K. between 2019 and 2021 were equivalent to around two-thirds of the country's mine production, according to data from BullionVault. 

"The fact that Hong Kong's official data clearly shows a steep rise in imports of Russian gold reflects the kind of support and bilateral trade for which Putin has repeatedly thanked Xi," said Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVault.

"Russian exports of gold to the UK and other Western-sanction nations of course collapsed," Ash added.

Behind the rush

Hong Kong is a natural alternative. The city has long served as a gateway for bullion into mainland China, the world's largest gold consumer, and it is rapidly expanding its storage, clearing and trading infrastructure. 

"Hong Kong has always been an important entre-pot for gold going into China," said Rhona O'Connell, head of market analysis for EMEA and Asia at StoneX. While Shanghai has taken market share in recent years, Hong Kong is now in "a race with Singapore for hub supremacy and is about six months ahead in terms of infrastructure," she said. 

Historically, Hong Kong was the main gateway for China's gold imports, but Beijing has since opened other import hubs including Shenzhen and Beijing, reducing the city's share, according to S&P Global.

The Russian flows are arriving just as China itself is in the midst of a broader gold buying spree.

China has designated gold a "strategic mineral" and has promoted physical bullion as a store of value for households, while the People's Bank of China has continued adding to its reserves. 

S&P Global data showed that China's official gold holdings rose by more than 40 tonnes in the first half of 2026, more than double the amount purchased a year earlier.

"We do know that whether it's the PBOC or if it's the Chinese consumers, they've all been buying quite a bit of gold," Charles Chang, Greater China country lead for corporates at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC in an interview.

"In times of high uncertainty, consumers tend to want to protect their savings, and they find gold as one vehicle for that," he said. %!s()

The first season from PK Studio Productions centers on Mosleh as Parmiss Mansour, the grad student who falls for Nava (Amanda Wear) and deals with coming out, including to her overbearing traditional Muslim family.

“What excites me about Pass the Salt is getting to add a perspective we rarely get to see within the comedy landscape: a queer Middle Eastern and more specifically Persian woman at the center of a romantic comedy. At its heart, Pass the Salt is simply a love story about two women from different backgrounds trying to figure out their relationship, while navigating their families, expectations and some overbearing parents,” Mosleh tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The Pass the Salt leads — Mosleh, Wear, Adam Fox and Nathaniel Vass — will return for the second season, as will Valeh Ashraf, Moheb Jindran and Babak Haleky. Negotiations on international sales are underway, with initial deals expected shortly.

The early second season renewal for Pass the Salt follows the breakout success of another TV series set around Canadian queer life, Heated Rivalry, which streams in Canada on Crave and stateside on HBO Max in the U.S. market. More gay, lesbian and trans comedies and rom-coms have followed, including Slo Pitch, a mockumentary about a determined coach leading their ragtag LGBTQ+ softball team on and off the field and executive produced by Elliot Page that launched on Crave last month.

The second season renewal for Pass the Salt signals the boom in Canadian queer comedies and dramas are accelerating after earlier success with Sort Of, a CBC/HBO dramedy about a gender fluid millennial who is in transition in every aspect of their life, and Schitt’s Creek, the CBC/Netflix comedy where Dan Levy played a pansexual character.

“Canada has a remarkable history of allowing queer stories to be specific, while will being universal. Shows like Schitt’s Creek, Sort Of and now Heated Rivalry have shown that audiences will embrace Canadian queer stories when creators are given the freedom to tell them authentically,” Mosleh added.

Based in Vancouver and Los Angeles, Mosleh has directed series for Hallmark, A&E, Lifetime and TF1. Her acting credits include Christmas With the Singhs and 12 Dares of Christmas TV movies, the Cast Away The Clouds feature drama and The Last of Us drama.

Mosleh is represented by Paradigm and Pacific Artists Management.

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However, just as the resolution has drawn international criticism, it has also proved internally controversial with four of the party’s five members in parliament opposing it.

Israel on Monday banned party leader Zack Polanski from the country just a day before the politician faces a by-election as he runs in the London constituency that former Prime Minister Keir Starmer represented.

Zionism emerged as a political ideology in the late 19th century. It called for the creation of a Jewish homeland at a time of rising anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews in Europe. Theodore Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist considered the father of political Zionism, originally proposed an independent and colonial Jewish state in either Palestine or Argentina.

Here’s what we know about what the Greens have said:

What is the resolution?

The Greens endorsed the motion to equate Zionism with racism by a vote of 1,022 to 813.

In addition, the party restated its “commitment to Palestinian liberation” and called for the “establishment of a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine”.

The party also recommitted to its support of Palestinians’ right of return as well as to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel.

“The real, material, manifestation of Zionism has been the historic and ongoing dehumanisation, displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement and destruction of Palestinians,” a Green Party statement said.

A  significant number of party members, including four of its five MPs, were against parts of the resolution, exposing divisions within the party.

Codeputy leader Rachel Millward said in a post on X that while the party is committed to “stop the genocide”, the term Zionism means “different things to different people, … so I personally do not think the policy helps us do the work we all want to”.

Meanwhile, Polanski, who is Jewish and was away campaigning during the vote, told journalists afterwards that if Zionism equates to the displacement of Palestinians, “that is clearly racist.”

Polanski said he, however, did not support the reference to a single Palestinian state and external entities should not decide what a future state would look like.

How has Israel responded?

Israel has accused the party of legitimising “terrorism”, and senior officials equated it to anti-Semitism.

“The Greens have adopted not only the green of Hamas, but also its ideology: the elimination of the State of Israel through armed struggle,” the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on social media.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said it would “deliberately endanger Jews and Israelis everywhere”. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the party was “racist”.

The Green Party has rejected equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism and reiterated its stance against “any form of discrimination or harassment”.

“We know there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people,” Polanski and other senior party members said in a statement on Sunday.

Has Zionism been equated to racism before?

Yes. In 1975, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution that “determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”.

The vote was sponsored by the Soviet bloc and the Arab League. It passed after 72 countries, largely from the Middle East and Africa, voted for it. Israel and 34 other countries – chiefly from the West – were against it. Thirty-two other countries abstained.

Just a year before, at the 1974 General Assembly, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had given his “olive branch” speech at the General Assembly.

About the same time, African countries opposing the apartheid regime in South Africa, which was increasingly allying with Israel, had resolved separately that the Israeli government was “racist” and both had an “imperialist origin.”

Also, in 1975, at the first international women’s conference, held in Mexico City, attendees decided there would be no international peace outside the “elimination of foreign occupation, Zionism, apartheid” and all other forms of “racial discrimination”.

However, the General Assembly vote proved controversial. Chaim Herzog, then-Israeli ambassador to the UN and later president, told the assembly in a speech that it was “based on hatred, falsehood and arrogance” and proceeded to rip up copies of the resolution in front of the audience.

The US too accused the UN of making “anti-Semitism international law”.

In December 1991, the US, under President George HW Bush, stepped up a campaign to revoke the resolution with Bush declaring at the UN that equating Zionism with racism “is to reject Israel itself” and to “challenge its right to exist”.

Israel also insisted it would not participate in the Madrid Peace Process to continue negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders if the resolution was not cancelled.

After much pressure from the US, an overwhelming majority of countries voted for its revocation – 111 to 25, including European and African countries.

Who else equates Zionism with racism?

Jewish Voice for Peace, the American anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian advocacy group, has also named Zionism as a movement that creates a “racist hierarchy with European Jews at the top”.

In a February statement, the group reiterated its stance against what it called the “colonial ideology” of Zionism’s founders.

Similarly, in the United Kingdom, an employment tribunal in 2024 backed anti-Zionist activist and professor David Miller, who was earlier sacked from his post at the University of Bristol in 2021 for his views that the movement was “inherently racist”. %!s()

Channelling New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for publicly owned grocery stores, Chandler-Mather, the boss of the party’s thinktank, the Greens Institute, wants to use new forced divestiture laws to take over major supermarket sites and three distribution centres.

The government would fund another 424 new supermarkets and 10 distribution centres, taking about 20% of the market share of commercial operators for the new non-profit network.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here

Chandler-Mather says the new stores – dubbed Fair Go Grocers – would save consumers as much as 22% on the average shop, or $60 per week for a four-person household. Heavy discounts would be put in place for essentials including fruit and vegetables, bread, milk and meat.

A statutory authority would be established to set prices each month, as well as minimum wholesale rates for suppliers. Its members would include experts in supermarket operations, nutrition and food science, and farming.

The federal government would pay for capital costs including land, construction, and acquisition, and stores would be located in areas of the highest need.

After an initial $25.1bn price tag over five years, Chandler-Mather says the stores would be self-funded and not require additional taxpayer cash.

By comparison, the federal government currently spends about $24bn each year on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

“Kids are going to school hungry, families are skipping meals, people are cutting back on essentials, all because Labor has allowed Coles and Woolworths to jack up prices for extra profit, regardless of the human consequences,” Chandler-Mather said.

“Just like healthcare and education, food is essential to life. And just like Medicare and public schools, it’s time we had a public option for food.”

The proposal is similar to Mamdani’s plan for five city-owned and subsidised grocery stores, one in each of New York City’s boroughs, opening by 2029. Last month a local business group sued the Democratic Socialist mayor, arguing existing small grocery stores would be unable to compete.

The New Zealand Greens have a plan to nationalise 120 supermarkets and establish a new publicly owned chain called KiwiMark.

The Greens Institute commissioned pollsters YouGov to test public support for the proposal last month, with background on Mamdani’s plan for government-owned stores that cut out profits made by private corporations.

Voters were asked: Would you support or oppose publicly owned supermarkets being tried in Australia? A total of 84% said they strongly supported or somewhat supported the idea, while 16% somewhat or strongly opposed the idea.

Support was strongest among voters aged 25-34 (88%), among Greens voters (96%) and women (88%).

Newly elected Greens leader David Shoebridge, under pressure to spur enthusiasm and attention for the party, has welcomed the proposal, saying the Greens should be focused on improving the material conditions of individuals, the environment and community.

“A publicly owned supermarket with cheaper food is wildly popular, because it makes people’s lives better,” he told Guardian Australia.

“Of course this is the sort of policy that we should be discussing right now.”

Shoebridge said Mamdani’s message about the government needing to address the needs of citizens was working.

“When I talk to people, I hear about the dread they feel heading down the supermarket aisle, the shopping trolley feels like pushing a boulder up to the checkout,” he said.

“While 99% of us are paying more for food, and many are making decisions about enough food or some other essentials, the 1% who own Coles and Woolies are laughing.”

The competition watchdog has brought cases against both Coles and Woolworths over false or misleading representations about in-store discounts, and a report released last year found they were among the most profitable grocers in the world.

The Greens allege Labor’s new laws banning supermarkets from excessive pricing are ineffective and have not resulted in lower costs for consumers. %!s()

Say hello to the new Marvel Comics app

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The Marvel comics library is getting an all-new comics app thanks to Webtoon, the digital comics platform that's home to series like The Witcher, Critical Role, and Overwatch. The new app, known simply as the Marvel Comics app, will be the new home for more than 35,000 digital comics from Marvel's library, including titles from Star Wars and 20th Century Studios (e.g., Aliens, Predator, and Planet of the Apes). The app will replace the existing Marvel Unlimited app, which is being retired.

The app will also expand to include other brands from the Walt Disney Company, including content from Pixar and Disney Animation.

Marvel and Webtoon announced the new platform on Monday and plan to launch the Marvel Comics app on Nov. 16.

Webtoon promises a "faster, more intuitive, and personalized reading experience, all in one convenient subscription" with its new Marvel Comics app. Subscriptions start at $9.99 per month or $69.99 per year. That's comparable to the current Marvel Comics subscription service, Marvel Unlimited.

What's new in Webtoon's Marvel Comics app

Image: Marvel, Webtoon

In a news release, Webtoon and Marvel outlined the new app's features. The Marvel Comics app will be available on mobile devices and web browsers and will offer "personalized discovery tools including a dynamic cover-scroll interface, personalized recommendations, and an updated smart panel feature for smooth reading on mobile devices." A Pull List feature will surface new issues from the series, characters, and creators that readers follow. Readers can browse upcoming releases and manually add issues to their Pull List.

Marvel Comics fans who currently subscribe to the Marvel Unlimited service will be able to transfer their reading history to the new Marvel Comics app.

A base subscription to the Marvel Comics app costs $9.99 per month or $69.99 per year, and readers will get new issues as soon as three months after print. The app's Ultimate tier costs $12.49 per month or $99.99 per year, and offers new issues as early as one month after print. Founder Member pricing, a limited-time offer, costs $59.99 for the first year of the Ultimate annual plan. That offer will be available for pre-registration at marvel.webtoon.com starting Monday and on site at New York Comic Con 2026. %!s()