🚗 Nuro is testing its autonomous vehicle tech on Tokyo’s streets

Nuro, the Silicon Valley-based startup backed by Nvidia, Uber, and SoftBank, is testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Japan.

Toyota Prius vehicles equipped with Nuro’s self-driving software — and human safety operators behind the wheel as backup — began testing on public roads in Tokyo. Nuro said testing in Japan introduces a number of new challenges and different driving styles and rules. For instance, vehicles drive on the left side of the road, and Tokyo’s streets have dense traffic. Road signs and lane markings are also different in Japan.

The company did suggest that there will be future expansions. The testing marks the first overseas expansion for the startup, which upended its business model two years ago.

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🇺🇳 Top UN Body condemns Iran attacks against Gulf neighbors

The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution denouncing Iran’s attacks on its Gulf neighbors, calling on Iran to halt strikes that have disrupted global energy markets.

The top decision-making body at the UN voted Wednesday in favor of a resolution that condemned the strikes carried out by Iran using missiles and attack drones against Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Out of the 15 member states on the Security Council, 13 voted in favor, with China and Russia abstaining.

The resolution, proposed by Bahrain on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, decried Iran’s retaliation against a number of civilian targets, including energy facilities, as a violation of international law. It also called for freedom of navigation in international shipping lanes, including the Strait of Hormuz.

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⚡🔥 Bitget Wallet integrates Stellar network for stablecoin payments

Bitget Wallet has announced an integration with the Stellar blockchain network as part of upcoming Onchain Payments Matrix initiative to expand its stablecoin payment infrastructure, covering crypto card, QR payments, bank transfers, and on- and off-ramp functionality. The rollout will proceed in phases, with regional availability dependent on local payment integrations.

The integration is designed to leverage Stellar's fast settlement times and low transaction costs to support cross-border transfers, merchant payments, and consumer cash-out scenarios within a self-custodial wallet environment. Beyond payments, users will gain access to the Stellar mainnet, enabling them to hold, swap, and transfer supported assets.

Bitget Wallet has also indicated plans to introduce automated XLM distribution to reduce onboarding complexity by helping users meet network activation requirements and to expand real-world use cases for USDC and other stablecoins on the Stellar network.

#Stellar

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🇺🇸 US starts unfair trade practice investigations in Trump’s tariffs revival

The United States on Wednesday said it was launching unfair trade practice investigations into 16 ‌key trading partners, part of an urgent effort by President Donald Trump's administration to restore tariffs recently struck down by the U.S. Supreme ⁠Court.

The probes are being conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the U.S. Trade Representative to impose tariffs or other retaliatory measures against trading partners determined to employ ‌unfair ⁠trade practices. The administration alleges the 16 all employ policies that disadvantage U.S. goods producers, resulting in all but one ⁠of them running substantial goods trade surpluses with the U.S.

“Our view is that key trading partners have developed production capacity that is really untethered from the market incentives of domestic and global demand,” - US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.

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⚡️🇺🇸Trump: "The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money."

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🇮🇳 India plans new $11 billion fund to support local chipmaking

India plans to unveil a more than 1 trillion rupee ($10.8 billion) fund aimed at bolstering domestic chipmaking, advancing its ambitious bid to become a global manufacturing hub by 2032. The fund will provide subsidies for chip design projects, manufacturing equipment and supply chain development, and may be launched in two to three months.

India is hoping to woo major chipmakers to the world’s most populous country with its engineering, design talent as well as subsidies in much the same way it’s helped Apple Inc. expand in the region. The US giant now assembles 25% of iPhones in the South Asian nation.

#BRICS

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🤖 Google is using old news reports and AI to predict flash floods

Flash floods are among the deadliest weather events in the world, killing more than 5,000 people each year. They’re also among the most difficult to predict. But Google thinks it has cracked that problem in an unlikely way — by reading the news. It’s the first time that the company has used language models for this kind of work.

Google researchers used Gemini to sort through 5 million news articles from around the world, isolating reports of 2.6 million different floods, and turning those reports into a geo-tagged time series dubbed “Groundsource.” With Groundsource as a real-world baseline, the researchers trained a model built on a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network to ingest weather global forecasts and generate the probability of flash floods in a given area.

Google’s flash flood forecasting model is now highlighting risks for urban areas in 150 countries on the company’s Flood Hub platform, and sharing its data with emergency response agencies around the world. The Southern African Development Community has already trialed the forecasting model and said it helped the organization to respond to floods more quickly.

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🇰🇷🇬🇭 South Korea and Ghana to expand cooperation on climate, tech and maritime security

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Ghanaian President John ‌Mahama signed 3 ​agreements, including a climate-change cooperation accord, ⁠a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on ​technology and digital innovation, and a ​separate maritime safety and security MOU between the Korea Coast Guard and the Ghana Navy.

Ghana holds significant reserves of bauxite, manganese, gold, ​lithium and ​nickel, ⁠and hopes to partner with South Korea to jointly ​explore the resources and strengthen ​value-chain ⁠cooperation. 🤝

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💡 Tesla obtains license to supply electricity in Britain

Elon Musk's Tesla can soon start supplying British homes with electricity after it was granted ​a licence on Thursday, bringing a new competitor into ‌the market at a time of heightened worries over rising bills. The country's energy regulator Ofgem said Tesla Energy Ventures, a unit of Tesla had ​now been approved as an electricity supplier.

The new licence positions ⁠Tesla for expansion ​in Britain, where it will look to use its solar ​energy and battery storage business to directly compete with existing household suppliers such as Octopus Energy, British Gas. Tesla Motors Limited, another ​subsidiary, already has an electricity generation licence in Britain.

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🤝 SEC and CFTC commit to work together on crypto policy and introduction of new products

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate crypto policy and broader financial market regulation.

🔥 The two agencies said the agreement will guide collaboration aimed at supporting lawful innovation while maintaining market integrity and investor protection.

🔥 Officials plan to work jointly on developing a federal, "fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto assets and other emerging financial technologies."

🔥 The SEC and CFTC also committed to coordinating efforts to remove regulatory obstacles to the lawful introduction of crypto asset products.

🔥 SEC Chair Paul Atkins said longstanding turf battles and overlapping rules between regulators have historically slowed innovation and pushed firms offshore.

🔥 CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agreement will help modernize U.S. regulatory frameworks and harmonize oversight across financial markets.

“By working together, we’ll eliminate duplicative, burdensome rules and close gaps in regulation for the benefit of all Americans and usher in a Golden Age of American finance,” - said CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig.

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🇨🇺🇺🇸 Cuban President acknowledges talks with the Trump administration

Facing a massive energy crisis and increasing protests on the streets, President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba on Friday announced that his government had been engaging in talks with the Trump administration, marking the first time the Caribbean country confirms such speculation.

“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions, through dialogue, to the bilateral differences between our two nations. The talks are also needed in part to determine the willingness of both sides to take concrete actions for the benefit of the people of both countries,”- said Mr. Díaz-Canel.

Cuba’s western region was hit by a massive blackout last week, leaving millions without power. The country which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand.

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🚕 Uber, Hyundai-backed motional relaunch robotaxi service in Vegas

Uber Technologies Inc. is relaunching a robotaxi service with the Hyundai Motor Co.-backed company Motional in Las Vegas, adding to the growing list of autonomous vehicles that are available to customers on its app. The vehicles will initially ​operate with a ​human safety operator ⁠behind the wheel, with a fully driverless service expected to be launched by late 2026.

Users requesting UberX, Uber Electric, Uber Comfort ​or Uber Comfort Electric may be matched with a Motional IONIQ 5 robotaxi, ‌with ⁠the option to switch to a conventional ride. Motional's IONIQ 5 is among the first SAE Level 4-capable autonomous vehicles certified under the U.S.'s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), according to Uber.

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⚡️🇺🇸🇨🇺 Trump has said a US-Cuba deal could be done easily

Donald Trump has said the U.S. is talking to Cuba, its leaders should ​agree to a deal and that could easily be done, ‌a White House official said on Friday, reiterating the U.S. president's previous remarks after Havana confirmed that negotiations were under way.

"As the President stated, ​we are talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal, ​which he believes 'would be very easily made'," the White House official said, on condition of anonymity.

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🧑‍⚖️ Adobe pays $75 million to settle US lawsuit over termination fees, subscription cancellations

Adobe said it ‌will pay $75 million to resolve a U.S. government lawsuit accusing the Photoshop and Acrobat maker of harming consumers by concealing hefty termination fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions. The company said it will also provide $75 million of free services to ​customers, in addition to making the $75 million payment to the U.S. ⁠Department of Justice. Court approval is required.

In a June 2024 complaint, the Justice Department and ​Federal Trade Commission accused Adobe of burying termination fees for its popular "annual paid monthly" ​subscription plan, sometimes reaching hundreds of dollars, in the fine print or behind text boxes and hyperlinks. They also said Adobe made cancelling subscriptions a hassle.

Adobe was accused of violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ ⁠Confidence Act, a 2010 law barring merchants from imposing charges, including for automatic subscription renewals, without disclosing material terms clearly and obtaining customer consent.

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🇺🇸 Trump signs orders aimed at easing mortgage access, home costs

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Friday aimed at making homeownership more affordable.

- One of the orders is aimed at easing access to mortgage credit and directs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to tailor mortgage rules to make it easier for smaller banks to “facilitate more affordable lending.” It also calls for bank regulators to revise guidance to focus on “prudent underwriting” and to support construction lending by community banks.

- The second order is designed to ease environmental rules to speed up development and infrastructure projects. It directs the Environmental Protection Agency and Army to review and revise “stormwater, wetlands, and other water-related permitting requirements” in a bid to lower costs and to “streamline Federal regulatory approvals and increase home insurability.”

It also directs agencies including agencies Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to eliminate “unduly burdensome rules and reform programs that constrain residential development and housing affordability.”

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