JERUSALEM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli government on Sunday approved a cut of 2.6 billion shekels (about 840 million U.S. dollars) from most ministries' 2026 budgets to fund urgent defense procurement, Israel's state-owned Kan TV News reported.The decision did not specify what military equipment or services would be purchased or detail the security needs behind the move.The cut was approved nine days before Israel's scheduled parliamentary elections.Government and security officials justified the timing by warning that delaying approval until a new government is formed could undermine Israel's ability to meet essential security needs.

A fatal traffic accident involving a tour bus and a truck on a toll road in Ngawi Regency, East Java Province, left three people dead and 19 others injured on Sunday.

An international team of researchers has discovered eruptions similar to solar storms near a giant black hole, the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) said Sunday.

by Geng Lingnan, Liu YangBANGKOK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China makes proactive efforts for maintaining a multilateral and rules-based trading system, and Chinese companies can play an important role in the diffusion of new technologies and in supporting their application through outbound investment, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has said.The IMF has welcomed China's proactive efforts for maintaining a multilateral and rules-based trading system, Thomas Helbling, deputy director in the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, told Xinhua in an interview on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group held in Bangkok, Thailand.Ultimately, it will be important that countries resolve underlying tensions and differences behind trade disputes. For a large economy like China, it will be important for it to take on a leadership role in resolving some of these differences, he said.Helbling also expects China to help deliver the benefits from new technologies to other countries through investment. Foreign direct investment by Chinese companies can play an important role in the diffusion of new technologies and in supporting their application in other countries, including in the digital and green energy sectors, he explained.Helbling said the IMF remains concerned about risks from greater geoeconomic fragmentation and geopolitical tensions, which could obstruct trade and lead to greater trade frictions and more inefficiencies in the global and regional economy, as well as lower growth.He stressed the IMF has long advocated that countries work toward resolution of the underlying issues behind trade tensions and toward an open, ideally multilateral trading system.Speaking of economic resilience in China, and in Asia overall, Helbling noted that the impact of the energy shock has been more muted than expected earlier in the year, adding that in China's case, the government has mitigated the impact on end-user prices and mobilized other en...