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By Poppy McPherson and Karen Lema MANILA (Reuters) -As Chinese ships fired water cannons at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea in November 2021, Beijing's then-ambassador to Manila asked Filipinos on Facebook to share their favorite things about China.  Among the hundreds of gushing responses were three from a young man named “Vince Dimaano.” His comments – like many responding to the Chinese embassy’s posts – weren’t genuine. They came from fake accounts paid for by the diplomatic mission, according to internal documents from a Manila-based marketing agency.  The firm, InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, waged a cyber campaign paid for by China to weaken support for Philippine government policy and to sow discord over Manila’s security alliance with the United States, according to a review of the documents and the fake Facebook accounts, as well as interviews with two former company employees and two Philippine officials.  The Chinese-owned company also used the fake profiles to amplify anti-American content created by Filipino writers, including some who had received money from Beijing, Reuters found. InfinitUs and its owner Paul Li did not respond to questions. The company has previously denied any involvement with “illicit digital activity.” A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters that Beijing doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Allegations of Chinese influence campaigns made by some Filipino politicians “have failed and instead have backfired,” the spokesperson said.  The explosion of social media has turbocharged influence operations in the Philippines, according to Jonathan Malaya, until recently a senior official with the Philippine National Security Council. Manila is of increasing strategic importance to Washington and Beijing due to its proximity to Taiwan. China’s leaders have asked their military to be ready to seize the democratically governed island by 2027.  InfinitUs first came under the spotlight at an April Senate hearing, when then-Majority Leader Francis Tolentino accused it of using fake accounts to boost the embassy’s profile and conduct an “influence operation” against the Philippines. Tolentino produced a copy of a check from the embassy to InfinitUs and highlighted posts by accounts that Reuters later identified as inauthentic, but he did not elaborate further.  The scope of InfinitUs’s activities went beyond the pro-China propaganda that Tolentino alleged, Reuters reporting revealed. Its work included disparaging the U.S.-Philippine alliance and Western-made COVID vaccines. The news agency also uncovered that InfinitUs had created Ni Hao Manila, a media outlet designed to look Filipino-run, according to the former employees.  InfinitUs employees used accounts masquerading as pro-Beijing Filipinos to attack the U.S. and abuse a prominent nationalist lawmaker, the profiles and company records show. The documents include an August 2023 contract tasking InfinitUs with “guiding public opinion” on Facebook and X, as well as work-progress reports created for the embassy. Reuters identified at least ten Facebook accounts that were part of what InfinitUs called an “army” in the documents. The platform’s owner Meta did not comment on the influence campaign but confirmed the accounts violated policy and removed them after being alerted by the news agency.  “ARMY ALWAYS SUPPORTS THE ADVOCACIES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHINESE AMBASSADOR’S PAGE,” read one work-progress report, referring to the troll army.  “Army propagated the special video explainer about the cons of the Typhon missile of the US being deployed (sic) the Philippines,” said another report from November 2024.  The accounts also promoted pro-China content featuring Filipino media personalities. They include Rommel Banlaoi, a Chinese-educated counter-terrorism scholar whose 2022 nomination to be deputy national security advisor was successfully opposed by security officials.  Banlaoi was among dozens of prominent Filipinos who have received awards from the Association of Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) since 2021. The organization was re-established by ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that the U.S. previously accused of "co-opting subnational governments."  The embassy-funded awards came with thousands of dollars – multiples of the average Philippine monthly wage – APCU told Reuters.  Banlaoi did not respond to questions. Asked about Reuters’ findings, Malaya – the Philippine official – said the government was aware “third-party proxies” echoed Chinese talking points that were then circulated by fake accounts “in an attempt to give it virality.”    “The end goal (of China) is to make the Philippines compliant,” Tolentino told Reuters.  The Philippines lacks robust foreign interference laws, though lawmakers are working on modernizing and expanding the rules so they also punish spreading disinformation. Potential penalties include heavy fines.  The activities of the InfinitUs-controlled accounts fit China’s foreign influence playbook, said Bethany Allen of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank, who has studied such information campaigns and reviewed Reuters’ findings.  X and YouTube host many accounts “which promote ‘happy nice China’ content (and sometimes more directly political content),” she said in an email, adding that they usually did not disclose affiliation with Beijing despite likely being funded by the CCP.  YouTube owner Alphabet and X did not return requests for comment.  CHINA, U.S. WAGE INFORMATION WAR  Both China and the U.S. have engaged in infowars over the Philippines. Reuters revealed last year the U.S. had operated a program during the pandemic to undermine Chinese vaccines in the Philippines, including through fake social-media accounts.    The Chinese embassy said at that time that Washington should “stop slandering and smearing other countries."   The U.S. has more recently slashed funding for programs aimed at countering Beijing’s propaganda. In April, the State Department shuttered an office that had worked closely with Manila to counter Chinese influence campaigns after Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused it of censorship and wasting funds.  Manila had contributed to a database on Chinese operations run by the office, according to a Philippine official familiar with the matter. A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that Manila and Washington continue to cooperate against “malign CCP activities.” “Operations that undermine democratic discourse or spread discord are unacceptable” and foreign interference in the Philippines must be challenged, the spokesperson added.  The White House said in a statement that its effort to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse has not hindered U.S. influence.” TROLL ARMY   Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has, since taking office in 2022, forged closer security ties between Washington and Manila, a former colony that remains a key node in America’s Indo-Pacific defense strategy.  The Philippines also maintains extensive cultural and economic links with neighboring China.     Marcos Jr, who succeeded the pro-Beijing Rodrigo Duterte, has said that Manila would inevitably be pulled into any conflict over Taiwan.
  Manila has also taken a more assertive stance in its territorial dispute with Beijing, which claims almost the entire South China Sea. China has frequently disrupted – sometimes violently – operations of Philippine vessels in Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Marcos Jr’s foreign policy marked a sharp departure from his predecessor. While Duterte cozied up to China, Beijing rapidly militarized reclaimed islands in disputed waters and conducted aggressive maneuvers at sea. As China’s image in the Philippines suffered, its Manila mission turned to Infini…

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Poppy McPherson and Karen Lema MANILA (Reuters) -As Chinese ships fired water cannons at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea in November 2021, Beijing's then-ambassador to Manila asked Filipinos on Facebook to share their favorite things about China.  Among the hundreds of gushing responses were three from a young man named “Vince Dimaano.” His comments – like many responding to the Chinese embassy’s posts – weren’t genuine. They came from fake accounts paid for by the diplomatic mission, according to internal documents from a Manila-based marketing agency.  The firm, InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, waged a cyber campaign paid for by China to weaken support for Philippine government policy and to sow discord over Manila’s security alliance with the United States, according to a review of the documents and the fake Facebook accounts, as well as interviews with two former company employees and two Philippine officials.  The Chinese-owned company also used the fake profiles to amplify anti-American content created by Filipino writers, including some who had received money from Beijing, Reuters found. InfinitUs and its owner Paul Li did not respond to questions. The company has previously denied any involvement with “illicit digital activity.” A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters that Beijing doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Allegations of Chinese influence campaigns made by some Filipino politicians “have failed and instead have backfired,” the spokesperson said.  The explosion of social media has turbocharged influence operations in the Philippines, according to Jonathan Malaya, until recently a senior official with the Philippine National Security Council. Manila is of increasing strategic importance to Washington and Beijing due to its proximity to Taiwan. China’s leaders have asked their military to be ready to seize the democratically governed island by 2027.  InfinitUs first came under the spotlight at an April Senate hearing, when then-Majority Leader Francis Tolentino accused it of using fake accounts to boost the embassy’s profile and conduct an “influence operation” against the Philippines. Tolentino produced a copy of a check from the embassy to InfinitUs and highlighted posts by accounts that Reuters later identified as inauthentic, but he did not elaborate further.  The scope of InfinitUs’s activities went beyond the pro-China propaganda that Tolentino alleged, Reuters reporting revealed. Its work included disparaging the U.S.-Philippine alliance and Western-made COVID vaccines. The news agency also uncovered that InfinitUs had created Ni Hao Manila, a media outlet designed to look Filipino-run, according to the former employees.  InfinitUs employees used accounts masquerading as pro-Beijing Filipinos to attack the U.S. and abuse a prominent nationalist lawmaker, the profiles and company records show. The documents include an August 2023 contract tasking InfinitUs with “guiding public opinion” on Facebook and X, as well as work-progress reports created for the embassy. Reuters identified at least ten Facebook accounts that were part of what InfinitUs called an “army” in the documents. The platform’s owner Meta did not comment on the influence campaign but confirmed the accounts violated policy and removed them after being alerted by the news agency.  “ARMY ALWAYS SUPPORTS THE ADVOCACIES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHINESE AMBASSADOR’S PAGE,” read one work-progress report, referring to the troll army.  “Army propagated the special video explainer about the cons of the Typhon missile of the US being deployed (sic) the Philippines,” said another report from November 2024.  The accounts also promoted pro-China content featuring Filipino media personalities. They include Rommel Banlaoi, a Chinese-educated counter-terrorism scholar whose 2022 nomination to be deputy national security advisor was successfully opposed by security officials.  Banlaoi was among dozens of prominent Filipinos who have received awards from the Association of Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) since 2021. The organization was re-established by ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that the U.S. previously accused of "co-opting subnational governments."  The embassy-funded awards came with thousands of dollars – multiples of the average Philippine monthly wage – APCU told Reuters.  Banlaoi did not respond to questions. Asked about Reuters’ findings, Malaya – the Philippine official – said the government was aware “third-party proxies” echoed Chinese talking points that were then circulated by fake accounts “in an attempt to give it virality.”    “The end goal (of China) is to make the Philippines compliant,” Tolentino told Reuters.  The Philippines lacks robust foreign interference laws, though lawmakers are working on modernizing and expanding the rules so they also punish spreading disinformation. Potential penalties include heavy fines.  The activities of the InfinitUs-controlled accounts fit China’s foreign influence playbook, said Bethany Allen of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank, who has studied such information campaigns and reviewed Reuters’ findings.  X and YouTube host many accounts “which promote ‘happy nice China’ content (and sometimes more directly political content),” she said in an email, adding that they usually did not disclose affiliation with Beijing despite likely being funded by the CCP.  YouTube owner Alphabet and X did not return requests for comment.  CHINA, U.S. WAGE INFORMATION WAR  Both China and the U.S. have engaged in infowars over the Philippines. Reuters revealed last year the U.S. had operated a program during the pandemic to undermine Chinese vaccines in the Philippines, including through fake social-media accounts.    The Chinese embassy said at that time that Washington should “stop slandering and smearing other countries."   The U.S. has more recently slashed funding for programs aimed at countering Beijing’s propaganda. In April, the State Department shuttered an office that had worked closely with Manila to counter Chinese influence campaigns after Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused it of censorship and wasting funds.  Manila had contributed to a database on Chinese operations run by the office, according to a Philippine official familiar with the matter. A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that Manila and Washington continue to cooperate against “malign CCP activities.” “Operations that undermine democratic discourse or spread discord are unacceptable” and foreign interference in the Philippines must be challenged, the spokesperson added.  The White House said in a statement that its effort to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse has not hindered U.S. influence.” TROLL ARMY   Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has, since taking office in 2022, forged closer security ties between Washington and Manila, a former colony that remains a key node in America’s Indo-Pacific defense strategy.  The Philippines also maintains extensive cultural and economic links with neighboring China.     Marcos Jr, who succeeded the pro-Beijing Rodrigo Duterte, has said that Manila would inevitably be pulled into any conflict over Taiwan.
  Manila has also taken a more assertive stance in its territorial dispute with Beijing, which claims almost the entire South China Sea. China has frequently disrupted – sometimes violently – operations of Philippine vessels in Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Marcos Jr’s foreign policy marked a sharp departure from his predecessor. While Duterte cozied up to China, Beijing rapidly militarized reclaimed islands in disputed waters and conducted aggressive maneuvers at sea. As China’s image in the Philippines suffered, its Manila mission turned to Infini…

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Poppy McPherson and Karen Lema MANILA (Reuters) -As Chinese ships fired water cannons at Philippine vessels in the South China Sea in November 2021, Beijing's then-ambassador to Manila asked Filipinos on Facebook to share their favorite things about China.  Among the hundreds of gushing responses were three from a young man named “Vince Dimaano.” His comments – like many responding to the Chinese embassy’s posts – weren’t genuine. They came from fake accounts paid for by the diplomatic mission, according to internal documents from a Manila-based marketing agency.  The firm, InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, waged a cyber campaign paid for by China to weaken support for Philippine government policy and to sow discord over Manila’s security alliance with the United States, according to a review of the documents and the fake Facebook accounts, as well as interviews with two former company employees and two Philippine officials.  The Chinese-owned company also used the fake profiles to amplify anti-American content created by Filipino writers, including some who had received money from Beijing, Reuters found. InfinitUs and its owner Paul Li did not respond to questions. The company has previously denied any involvement with “illicit digital activity.” A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told Reuters that Beijing doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Allegations of Chinese influence campaigns made by some Filipino politicians “have failed and instead have backfired,” the spokesperson said.  The explosion of social media has turbocharged influence operations in the Philippines, according to Jonathan Malaya, until recently a senior official with the Philippine National Security Council. Manila is of increasing strategic importance to Washington and Beijing due to its proximity to Taiwan. China’s leaders have asked their military to be ready to seize the democratically governed island by 2027.  InfinitUs first came under the spotlight at an April Senate hearing, when then-Majority Leader Francis Tolentino accused it of using fake accounts to boost the embassy’s profile and conduct an “influence operation” against the Philippines. Tolentino produced a copy of a check from the embassy to InfinitUs and highlighted posts by accounts that Reuters later identified as inauthentic, but he did not elaborate further.  The scope of InfinitUs’s activities went beyond the pro-China propaganda that Tolentino alleged, Reuters reporting revealed. Its work included disparaging the U.S.-Philippine alliance and Western-made COVID vaccines. The news agency also uncovered that InfinitUs had created Ni Hao Manila, a media outlet designed to look Filipino-run, according to the former employees.  InfinitUs employees used accounts masquerading as pro-Beijing Filipinos to attack the U.S. and abuse a prominent nationalist lawmaker, the profiles and company records show. The documents include an August 2023 contract tasking InfinitUs with “guiding public opinion” on Facebook and X, as well as work-progress reports created for the embassy. Reuters identified at least ten Facebook accounts that were part of what InfinitUs called an “army” in the documents. The platform’s owner Meta did not comment on the influence campaign but confirmed the accounts violated policy and removed them after being alerted by the news agency.  “ARMY ALWAYS SUPPORTS THE ADVOCACIES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE CHINESE AMBASSADOR’S PAGE,” read one work-progress report, referring to the troll army.  “Army propagated the special video explainer about the cons of the Typhon missile of the US being deployed (sic) the Philippines,” said another report from November 2024.  The accounts also promoted pro-China content featuring Filipino media personalities. They include Rommel Banlaoi, a Chinese-educated counter-terrorism scholar whose 2022 nomination to be deputy national security advisor was successfully opposed by security officials.  Banlaoi was among dozens of prominent Filipinos who have received awards from the Association of Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) since 2021. The organization was re-established by ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that the U.S. previously accused of "co-opting subnational governments."  The embassy-funded awards came with thousands of dollars – multiples of the average Philippine monthly wage – APCU told Reuters.  Banlaoi did not respond to questions. Asked about Reuters’ findings, Malaya – the Philippine official – said the government was aware “third-party proxies” echoed Chinese talking points that were then circulated by fake accounts “in an attempt to give it virality.”    “The end goal (of China) is to make the Philippines compliant,” Tolentino told Reuters.  The Philippines lacks robust foreign interference laws, though lawmakers are working on modernizing and expanding the rules so they also punish spreading disinformation. Potential penalties include heavy fines.  The activities of the InfinitUs-controlled accounts fit China’s foreign influence playbook, said Bethany Allen of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank, who has studied such information campaigns and reviewed Reuters’ findings.  X and YouTube host many accounts “which promote ‘happy nice China’ content (and sometimes more directly political content),” she said in an email, adding that they usually did not disclose affiliation with Beijing despite likely being funded by the CCP.  YouTube owner Alphabet and X did not return requests for comment.  CHINA, U.S. WAGE INFORMATION WAR  Both China and the U.S. have engaged in infowars over the Philippines. Reuters revealed last year the U.S. had operated a program during the pandemic to undermine Chinese vaccines in the Philippines, including through fake social-media accounts.    The Chinese embassy said at that time that Washington should “stop slandering and smearing other countries."   The U.S. has more recently slashed funding for programs aimed at countering Beijing’s propaganda. In April, the State Department shuttered an office that had worked closely with Manila to counter Chinese influence campaigns after Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused it of censorship and wasting funds.  Manila had contributed to a database on Chinese operations run by the office, according to a Philippine official familiar with the matter. A State Department spokesperson told Reuters that Manila and Washington continue to cooperate against “malign CCP activities.” “Operations that undermine democratic discourse or spread discord are unacceptable” and foreign interference in the Philippines must be challenged, the spokesperson added.  The White House said in a statement that its effort to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse has not hindered U.S. influence.” TROLL ARMY   Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has, since taking office in 2022, forged closer security ties between Washington and Manila, a former colony that remains a key node in America’s Indo-Pacific defense strategy.  The Philippines also maintains extensive cultural and economic links with neighboring China.     Marcos Jr, who succeeded the pro-Beijing Rodrigo Duterte, has said that Manila would inevitably be pulled into any conflict over Taiwan.
  Manila has also taken a more assertive stance in its territorial dispute with Beijing, which claims almost the entire South China Sea. China has frequently disrupted – sometimes violently – operations of Philippine vessels in Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Marcos Jr’s foreign policy marked a sharp departure from his predecessor. While Duterte cozied up to China, Beijing rapidly militarized reclaimed islands in disputed waters and conducted aggressive maneuvers at sea. As China’s image in the Philippines suffered, its Manila mission turned to Infini…

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -Space tech firm Firefly Aerospace will acquire national security technology company SciTec for about $855 million, the company said on Sunday, just months after its Nasdaq listing, honing its portfolio at a time when U.S. military and civil programs are receiving increased investor interest. The deal, which will be funded through a combination of $300 million in cash and $555 million in Firefly shares, is set to close by the end of the year, Firefly said. In August, Texas-based firm Firefly secured a valuation of $9.84 billion after its shares surged 55.6% in their Nasdaq debut, marking the largest U.S. listing this year by a space tech firm. Firefly's acquisition of Princeton, New Jersey-headquartered SciTec will enhance its space services by integrating SciTec's defense software analytics into its systems, the company said. SciTec's core capabilities, which encompass missile warning, tracking and defense, intelligence, surveillance, among other elements, will bolster Firefly's existing launch, lunar, and in-space services. Once the deal closes, SciTec will be operated as a Firefly unit under Jim Lisowski, its current CEO, Firefly said. Rising geopolitical tensions and deteriorating international relations have put a spotlight on space and defense contractors. The deal would help Firefly strengthen its position as a space tech firm boosting its lucrative military-space prospects. Firefly has come a long way from a tumultuous past, including a bankruptcy in 2017 and the ouster of its CEO last year. In September, Firefly said its Alpha rocket booster was destroyed in a testing mishap. The incident was another interruption to Firefly's business just weeks after it closed an investigation into the failure of its Alpha rocket, which put a satellite owned by Lockheed Martin in a shallow orbit in late April, implying a mission failure. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft and Chizu Nomiyama)

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(Reuters) -Space tech firm Firefly Aerospace will acquire national security technology company SciTec for about $855 million.  The deal, which will be funded through a combination of $300 million in cash and $555 million in Firefly shares, is set to close by the end of the year, Firefly said. In August, Texas-based firm Firefly secured a valuation of $9.84 billion after its shares surged 55.6% in their Nasdaq debut, as investors continue to pour capital into companies aiding expansion of the U.S. space and defense program.. Firefly's acquisition of Princeton, New Jersey headquartered SciTec will enhance its space services by integrating SciTec's defense software analytics into its systems, the company said. SciTec's core capabilities, which encompass missile warning, tracking and defense, intelligence, surveillance among other elements, will bolster Firefly's existing launch, lunar, and in-space services. Once the deal closes, SciTec will be operated as a Firefly unit under Jim Lisowski, its current CEO. Rising geopolitical tensions and deteriorating international relations have put a spotlight on space and defense contractors. The deal would help Firefly strengthen its position as a space tech firm boosting its lucrative military-space prospects. Firefly has come a long way from a tumultuous past, including a bankruptcy in 2017 and a CEO ouster last year. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft and Chizu Nomiyama )

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -Space technology firm Firefly Aerospace said on Sunday that it will acquire national security technology company SciTec for about $855 million in a cash and stock deal. (Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, reported record third-quarter revenue on strong demand for artificial intelligence products, though it missed the market forecast and offered caution about exchange rates. Revenue for Nvidia's biggest server maker and Apple's top iPhone assembler jumped 11% from the same quarter last year to T$2.057 trillion ($67.71 billion), Foxconn said in a statement on Sunday. While that was below the T$2.134 trillion LSEG SmartEstimate, which gives greater weight to forecasts from analysts who are more consistently accurate, Foxconn said the result was better than expected. On a U.S. dollar basis, Foxconn said third quarter revenue rose 16.1% on year. The Taiwan dollar has strengthened some 8% so far this year against the greenback. Strong AI demand led to robust revenue growth for its cloud and networking products division. Smart consumer electronics, which includes iPhones, posted a slight revenue decline, affected by exchange rates, the company said. September revenue rose 14.2% on year to T$837.1 billion, a record for that month. Operations are expected to "maintain sequential quarterly growth as AI server shipments continue to ramp up in the fourth quarter" and due to the traditional peak season ahead of year-end holidays in major Western markets, the company said. "However, the impact of the global political and economic situation and exchange rate fluctuations will need continued close monitoring," it added, without elaborating. Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry, does not provide numerical forecasts. It will report third quarter earnings on November 12. Foxconn's shares have risen 23% this year, outperforming the 16% rise for the Taiwan market. The stock closed up 0.44% on Friday ahead of the revenue data release, compared with a 1.45% gain for the benchmark index. ($1 = 30.3800 Taiwan dollars) (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and Nvidia's biggest server maker, reported on Sunday that its third-quarter revenue jumped 11% year on year. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)

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(Reuters) -Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, hit a record high on Sunday and was up nearly 2.7% at $125,245.57 at 0512 GMT. Bitcoin's previous record was $124,480 in mid-August, buoyed by friendlier regulations from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and strong demand from institutional investors. The cryptocurrency had risen on Friday for an eighth straight session, bolstered by recent gains in U.S. equities and inflows into bitcoin exchange-traded funds. In contrast, the U.S. dollar retreated on Friday, posting multi-week losses against major currencies, as uncertainty surrounding a U.S. government shutdown clouded the outlook and delayed key data releases, such as payrolls, critical for gauging the economy's direction. (Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jamie Freed)

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(Reuters) -Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, hit an all-time on Sunday and was up by around 2.68% at $125,245.57 at 0512 GMT. (Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; editing by Lincoln Feast)

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