🤝 OpenAI clinches AWS deal in bid to win government contracts

OpenAI signed a deal to work with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to sell its AI products to the U.S. government for classified and unclassified work. The deal could unlock more enterprise contracts, since companies often see government contracts as a stamp of trust and reliability.

The tie-up also expands OpenAI’s federal footprint well beyond its Pentagon deal, positioning the company to serve multiple government agencies through AWS’s existing cloud infrastructure. AWS, a major cloud provider to U.S. agencies, has agreed to distribute OpenAI products across its public-sector customer base.

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⚡️🇨🇴🇪🇨Colombia accuses Ecuador’s forces of bombing across joint border

Colombia and Ecuador traded accusations over alleged bombing along their chaotic joint border, raising tensions that were already high due to a trade war. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that a bomb had been dropped from an aircraft close to the frontier, and that he had asked US President Donald Trump to intervene to rein in his Ecuadorian ally.

“Bombs have appeared, one bomb dropped from an aircraft, very close to the Ecuador border,” - Petro said at a a cabinet meeting late Monday.

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa rejected Petro's claims, saying Ecuador's armed forces were combating criminals within its own territory, bombing hideouts for groups that infiltrated from Colombia.

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🆕 Google’s Personal Intelligence feature is expanding to all US users

Google announced today that it’s expanding Personal Intelligence, its feature that allows its AI assistant to tailor its responses by connecting across your Google ecosystem, such as Gmail and Google Photos, to all users in the U.S. Previously only available to paid users, Personal Intelligence is available today in the U.S. for AI Mode in Search and it’s starting to roll out in the Gemini app and Gemini in Chrome for free-tier users.

“Whether you’re looking for a specific brand of sneakers you previously purchased, or planning a family getaway based on your hotel confirmations and past travel memories, Personal Intelligence helps you find exactly what you need without having to give all the context,” - Google explained in a blog post.

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🇺🇸🇮🇪 Trump meets with Irish Prime Minister at White House to celebrate St. Patrick's Day

President Donald Trump met with the Taoiseach of Ireland, Micheál Martin, at the White House on Tuesday morning as part of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Here are some takeaways from the meeting:

❗️The Strait of Hormuz: "Well, we don’t need too much help, and we don’t need any help, actually."
❗️Trump on Macron: "He’ll be out of office very soon."
❗️The Middle Eastern countries: "Qatar has been great. The UAE has been absolutely great. Saudi Arabia has been terrific. Bahrain has been very good. The Middle Eastern countries have been very strong in their support."
❗️Trump on Iran: "We can knock out their electricity in a matter of minutes if we wanted to. There’s nothing they can do about it. If we left right now, it would take them 10 years to rebuild. But we’re not ready to leave yet. We’ll be leaving in the near future — in pretty much the very near future. Iran is just a military operation to me."
❗️Trump on Joe Kent: "When somebody is working with us that says they didn't think Iran was a threat — we don't want those people."
❗️Cuba: "Cuba right now is in very bad shape. They’re talking to Marco. And we’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon."
❗️Trump on Europe: "Bad things have happened to Europe, very bad things, and you better do something about immigration, and you better do something about energy, or you won't have a Europe."
❗️President Trump won't rule out leaving NATO following most of America's allies refusing to help secure the Strait of Hormuz against Iranian aggression - says he doesn't need Congressional approval to pull out of the alliance.

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🇨🇺🇷🇺 Cuba’s worst fuel crisis in decades may get relief from Russia

A tanker carrying Russian crude appears headed to Cuba as the country seeks a reprieve from a fuel shortage. Data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler Ltd. shows a tanker carrying more than 700,000 barrels of Russian crude is expected to arrive in Cuba by the end of the month.

Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a total collapse on Monday leaving the island’s 10 million residents in the dark. The Russian oil would be a test of the US embargo on the island and it’s unclear if any vessels will be able to deliver crude. The arrival of the tanker could be the first major fuel delivery to Cuba after a lengthy halt, but the crude would need to be refined before it can be used.

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❌ Rural Ohioans seek to ban data centers through constitutional amendment

Residents in rural Ohio are pushing a constitutional amendment to ban large data centers over 25 megawatts, citing concerns about energy use, water consumption, and lack of transparency around proposed projects.

"My biggest concern is because I love Adams County," Nikki Gerber told. "What it feels like they are doing is just taking advantage of the unzoned rural areas of Ohio, where they can go ahead and put in whatever they want."

Nikki Gerber and a handful of residents from Adams and Brown counties gathered about 1,800 signatures in eight days to start the ballot process. They submitted those petitions to the Ohio attorney general’s office on Monday. That’s the first step before supporters can begin collecting signatures statewide.

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🆕 Senator Tim Scott says market structure negotiations are advancing

The Senate's stalled crypto market structure bill is making progress behind-the-scenes, the chairman of the body's Banking Committee said Tuesday.

Senator Tim Scott, who heads the banking panel overseeing the market structure bill, said at the Digital Chamber's DC Blockchain Summit that lawmakers may see a new draft of at least stablecoin language as soon as this week. Stablecoin yield has been the most publicly debated issue in the market structure bill, but lawmakers have remained engaged, Scott said.

"I believe that this week we will have the first proposal in my hands to take a look at," he said. "If that actually happened before the end of this week, and I think that it will, we'll at least know that the sketch looks like the person. If that's the case, I think we're gonna be in much better shape."

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🤖 Nvidia has received orders from Chinese customers for H200 GPUs

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed the company has received export licenses for multiple Chinese customers, has purchase orders in hand, and has restarted H200 manufacturing, marking the first time its China supply chain has been back in motion since export restrictions froze shipments over a year ago.

“Nvidia has received purchase orders from many customers in China, and we're in the process of restarting our manufacturing… our supply chain is getting fired up,” - said Jensen.

The H200 is Nvidia's Hopper-generation accelerator featuring 141GB of HBM3e memory. It sits below the current Blackwell architecture but remains roughly six times more powerful than the H20, the downgraded chip Nvidia originally designed to stay within earlier export limits. The H200 is what Chinese hyperscalers have been waiting patiently for.

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🇺🇸 US to sell oil and gas leases in Alaska petroleum reserve for first time since 2019

The U.S. government on Wednesday will hold a sale of oil and gas drilling rights in Alaska's National Petroleum ​Reserve for the first time since 2019. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management is offering 600 tracts covering 5.5 million acres (2.2 million ​hectares) to oil and gas companies.

The sale is ​the first of at least five mandated by President Donald Trump's ​One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he signed into law last year. His administration has sought to expand domestic oil and gas production and reverse Biden-era ​restrictions on drilling in the Alaska reserve. Alaska state officials and some native groups support oil and gas ⁠drilling ​because it contributes to tax revenue ​and creates jobs.

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⚡️🇺🇸 U.S. suspends oil shipping rules to ease gas price pressures

The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it would temporarily relax a maritime law that restricts the way oil is shipped within the U.S., as it seeks to stem the rise in fuel prices resulting from the war in the Middle East. The Jones Act dictates that only ships made in the U.S. can transport cargo between U.S. ports.

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🔥 Inside the Shift: The New Language Running Money

It’s deeper than that, somewhere in how the system actually works. Piece by piece. And when the foundation starts moving, everything built on top eventually follows. At QSI Media we look at these layers — the ones that don’t get explained directly but shape the direction of the entire system. And that’s usually where it gets interesting...

Check out our new video and put your reactions ❤️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91Bk0aMFcQw

#Stellar

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🔋 World’s first quantum battery prototype built, charges faster as it gets larger

Researchers at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University in Australia, along with those at CSIRO, have built the world’s first quantum battery prototype. Their rapid charging rates as the battery gets larger suggest it can serve as an important tool to replace chemical batteries being used today.

The team’s battery consists of a multi-layered organic microcavity made from several materials that can trap light. The battery is charged wirelessly by using a laser, and the team used advanced spectroscopy techniques to confirm its charging behavior. Quantum batteries would work best for quantum computers and help them scale, too.

“My ultimate ambition is a future where we can charge electric cars much faster than petrol cars, or charge devices over long distances wirelessly,” - said James Quach, a researcher at CSIRO.

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⚡️ SEC approves Nasdaq rule change for tokenized securities trading

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Nasdaq’s long-awaited rule change, allowing tokenized versions of stocks and ETFs to trade alongside traditional shares on the exchange.

❗️Stocks from the Russell 1000 and ETFs tracking major indices such as the S&P 500, to be represented and traded as tokenized assets on Nasdaq.

❗️ Tokenized securities must remain fully fungible with their traditional counterparts, sharing the same ticker, CUSIP, and shareholder rights.

❗️ Investors in tokenized shares will retain standard protections, including voting rights, dividend access, and claims on residual assets.

❗️ The system operates through a pilot program led by the Depository Trust Company (DTC), which will handle post-trade settlement and tokenization processes.

❗️Settlement will continue on a T+1 basis, aligning tokenized trading with current market standards.

This development marks a significant step towards integrating blockchain technology into traditional financial markets. The rule change will allow Nasdaq to list and trade securities that are represented as digital tokens on a blockchain, potentially increasing efficiency and transparency in the trading process.

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🇲🇽 Mexican banks are working to boost digital payments in tech push

Mexican regulators and banks are seeking to boost the volume of payments sent digitally and curb consumers' preference for cash, according to Emilio Romano. The central bank is preparing to publish protocols to drive the adoption of payments sent by mobile phones, and authorities are studying measures that could include eliminating cash payments for some services and products, such as gas stations and toll roads.

“First, we digitalize, and then we fiscalize,” - said Emilio Romano, head of Asociacion de Bancos de Mexico.

Mexico, where roughly 85% of small transactions are done in cash, has lagged behind other Latin American countries in having consumers sign up for banking services, largely due to concerns about taxation, and easing concerns about how the government assesses income will help.

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🆕 The new BMW i3 has more range than any Tesla

The first all-electric BMW 3 Series is here with an ultra-fast charging speeds. The electric sedan capable of accepting up to 400 kilowatts of power from a potent enough DC fast charger.

BMW says the first version to hit the American market, the all-wheel-drive i3 50 xDrive, will go a manufacturer-estimated 440 miles on a full charge. It replicated EPA testing procedures to come up with that. That’s more than any new Tesla on sale today, including the 363-mile Tesla Model 3 Premium Rear-Wheel Drive and the larger, 410-mile Tesla Model S.

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🇬🇧 UK to examine labelling AI content among wider copyright reforms

Britain plans to consider requiring labels on AI-generated content to protect consumers from disinformation and deepfakes. Technology minister Liz Kendall stressed the need to strike the right balance between protecting the creative industries and allowing the AI sector to innovate. ​

"The government would take time to get this right," - said Kendall.

The next phase of the ​government's work on copyright and AI would also look at the harms ⁠posed by digital replicas without consent, ways for creators to control their work ​online and support for independent creative organizations.

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⚠️ The FTC warned a massive group of U.S. auto dealers that hidden fees have got to go

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending letters to 97 auto groups nationwide, warning them that the prices they advertise must be the total price — including all mandatory fees — that consumers will be required to pay.

Examples of illegal pricing practices include:
▪️ advertising a price that does not reflect all required fees,
▪️ advertising a price that reflects rebates or discounts not available to all consumers,
▪️advertising a price that fails to take into account the amount of an additional required down payment,
▪️ conditioning the advertised price on consumers using dealer financing,
▪️ requiring consumers to buy additional items not reflected in the advertised price, and
▪️ advertising unavailable or nonexistent vehicles.

The letters are part of the FTC’s ongoing work to ensure price transparency across multiple markets, including rental housing, ticketing and hotels, grocery and delivery services, and auto sales and leasing. To help support affordability in the marketplace, the agency is dedicated to ensuring that consumers only pay the advertised price for products and services, and are not subject to undisclosed fees, hidden charges or other illegal conduct.

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🤝 Google ties data center to 20-year power deal, solar investment

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is moving ahead with plans for a major data center in Michigan that features a 20-year electricity contract requiring it to cover the full expense of adding a haul of new clean power. The project expects to use as much as one gigawatt of electricity, with service starting in December 2027 and reaching full load in late 2028.

Google said it’s evaluating a site in Van Buren Township near Detroit. The data center operations will be served by 2.7 gigawatts of new resources, including solar, storage and demand flexibility. Google's contract with DTE requires approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission and includes a commitment to fully cover the costs of new renewable energy and battery storage.

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