Hey Boyan,
So, regarding the format, yes, it has to be exactly like that, without the EST just the numbers.
About the news, indeed the EA gets information online for the news. The way it behaves it is exactly as you said, it will not open trades during these times and also it will close trades if there are any open before the news.
Regarding the risk for XAUUSD, yes that is exactly as you said but since it is only 1% risk, you can place a bigger SL than 50 pips because the risk is low and because XAUUSD price is a lot different than forex pairs. If you set the risk higher, you can also set the pips higher or if you have a account with a bigger amount, I guess you can do 1% risk and have also greater pips in SL.
I see, probably there is a limitations.
Hope this helps!
If you have any more questions, let me know!
Kind Regards,
Nikos