Trending on X, 10 PM: The MongolZ, Yelets and Berezniki, heat meters, Nömrög, Development Bank case, Tom Cruise

These are the topics Mongolian users discussed most on X between 18:15 and 22:15 on October 25 (Ulaanbaatar time), ranked by engagement. Posting and engagement were relatively light on a Sunday evening, and only 9 topics could be verified against news sites, so we did not pad the list to 10. Topics from earlier roundups appear only where there is a new development. Posts with unverified information or unsupported accusations against named people were left out. Post metrics are as of 22:30.

1. The MongolZ lose 0-2 to Vitality (new development)

The PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 match between The MongolZ and Vitality, previewed in earlier roundups, drew the most engagement in this window. According to HLTV.org, France's Vitality won 2-0, taking Inferno 13-6 and Cache 13-3. The MongolZ opened Inferno with a 5-0 lead, but Vitality star ZywOo turned the match around, finishing the series with 35 kills and a 1.98 rating. Vitality move to 2-0 and are one win away from the playoffs, while The MongolZ drop to 1-1 and await their next match. The MongolZ had beaten Aurora 2-1 in their opening game.

Read more in our separate report:

2. Ukraine strikes military-linked plants in Russia's Yelets and Berezniki

A Mongolian-language post on a missile strike on the Energiya plant in Yelets, Russia's Lipetsk Oblast, spread widely in this window. According to Current Time and the Kyiv Independent, Lipetsk Governor Igor Artamonov confirmed an attack on the city's industrial zone, saying a security guard at one enterprise was killed and a female paramedic was injured. The governor did not name the target, but Ukrainian monitoring channels and OSINT analysis by the outlet ASTRA identified it as Energiya, Russia's largest maker of electrochemical power sources. The plant produces batteries for drones, air defence missile systems, aircraft and ships, and is under sanctions imposed by the US, the EU, the UK, Japan and other countries.

Earlier, Ukrainian monitoring channels reported a drone attack on the Avisma titanium plant in Berezniki, Perm Krai. Perm Governor Dmitry Makhonin said five employees were injured but the facility continued to operate normally. Ukraine had not officially commented on the strikes.

Read more in our separate report:

3. A heat meter brings one user's heating bill down to 2,074 tugriks

One user's experience with a heat meter drew strong engagement. User @ADelgersaikhan wrote that they had a meter installed in early September, before the heating season began, and that their heating bill for September 15 to October 25 came to 2,074 tugriks, compared with roughly 100,000 tugriks a month before. The user noted that apartments without meters are billed a flat rate based on floor area, so residents pay the same even in warm months such as May and September. Replying to others, the user said an online request to the city heating company UB Dulaan produces technical conditions within a week, after which an installation company fits the meter. These figures reflect one user's own experience; results may vary with a building's insulation and usage.

4. Nömrög fire: Xinhua says Chinese firefighters guided wild animals to safety (new development)

China's state news agency Xinhua posted a video saying that as grassland fires spread from eastern Mongolia toward the Chinese border on October 9-15, some wild animals crossed into China, and firefighters from Inner Mongolia guided them safely out of the fire zone. Chinese media reported that thousands of firefighters and rescuers in Inner Mongolia worked to keep the fire from entering Chinese territory.

HuffPost Japan, meanwhile, highlighted KDDI's October 23 explanation. According to KDDI, employees of its Mongolian subsidiary Mobicom visited the protected area on October 6-8 at the request of the border port authority, to attend the launch of a network and check service quality on site, and smoke came from the vehicle they were travelling in. Some local reports suggested the staff may have planned to fish for an endangered species, but KDDI said it had confirmed that the employees had committed no other legal violations. The Mongolian government is considering identifying those responsible and seeking compensation for the damage.

5. Development Bank case: Supreme Court declines review, case goes back to first-instance court

The Supreme Court's October 23 decision not to review the so-called Development Bank case involving N. Altankhuyag and others resurfaced on X. According to iKon.mn and Time.mn, the court's criminal chamber found that because the appeals court had overturned the first-instance verdict, the case had not been finally decided and there were no grounds for a supervisory review. The case will therefore be retried at first instance. Some users read this as clearing the way for N. Altankhuyag to run in the 2027 presidential election, but the case remains unresolved.

6. Tom Cruise to receive AFI Life Achievement Award

News that the American Film Institute will give Hollywood actor Tom Cruise its 52nd Life Achievement Award circulated among Mongolian users. According to AFI, the 64-year-old actor will receive the award at a gala at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 24, 2027. Cruise, star of "Top Gun", "Mission: Impossible" and "Jerry Maguire", has three Oscar nominations as an actor and received an honorary Oscar in 2025.

7. Ushakov: Russia ready to resume Russia-US-Ukraine talks after November 4

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia is ready to resume trilateral talks with the United States and Ukraine after November 4, Russia's National Unity Day, RIA Novosti and the Kyiv Independent reported. He said the first meeting would be preliminary, a kind of trial run, and warned against high expectations. The remarks came on the same day Ukraine struck Russian defence plants.

8. Tobacco law: stockpiling and talk of Kazakh cigarettes (new development)

Users discussed what happens before the amended Tobacco Control Law takes effect. Some said people have started stockpiling flavoured and unflavoured cigarettes ahead of price rises, while others wrote that unflavoured Kazakh cigarettes will be sold freely under the new law. According to the State Great Khural, the law passed on October 16 takes effect on January 1, 2027, banning flavoured tobacco and e-cigarettes. A companion law raises excise tax on cigarettes in stages, from 836 tugriks per 20 in 2026 to 2,000 in 2027 and 8,000 by 2031. The interim trade agreement between Mongolia and the Eurasian Economic Union took effect on July 22, 2026; when the draft was debated, MP O. Nominchimeg called for removing the clause scrapping tobacco duties, warning that Kazakhstan could come to dominate Mongolia's tobacco market.

9. US cuts staff at several Middle East embassies (new development)

A post saying the United States is pulling diplomats out of the Middle East spread on X. According to AP and ABC News, the US is reducing staff at its embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates because of increased threats from Iran, though those posts remain open. Earlier, non-essential staff and their families were ordered to leave Saudi Arabia. Axios reported that a US intelligence memo warned of "advanced" Iranian plots to kill US officials abroad. The post's claim that troops are being withdrawn from some military bases has not been verified.

Methodology: We ranked posts from about 200 major news and influential accounts found through X search, plus more than 50 keyword searches, by an engagement score (likes + 2× reposts + views/100), and checked the facts against news sites. Posts that could not be verified or that carried a risk of defamation were left out. Views expressed by individuals on X do not represent the position of egov.mn.