🍏 Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman. John Ternus to become Apple CEO

Apple announced that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors and John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, 2026. The transition, which was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors, follows a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process.

Tim Cook joined Apple in 1998. He became CEO in 2011 and has overseen the introduction of numerous products and services, including new categories like Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple Vision Pro, and services ranging from iCloud and Apple Pay to Apple TV and Apple Music.

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🇧🇬 Bulgaria's Kremlin-friendly ex-president wins election in landslide

Pro-Russian former President ​Rumen Radev has won Bulgaria's parliamentary election by a landslide, crushing long-dominant political forces and possibly pushing the ‌EU and NATO member state closer to Moscow. Radev's Progressive Bulgaria party had 44.6% of the vote after all ballots were counted, suggesting it could rule alone.

Both the EU and Russia welcomed Radev's victory. The Kremlin said it was encouraged by Radev's desire to resolve issues with Russia through pragmatic talks.

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🇬🇧 UK gas-investment firm weighs bitcoin mining

Reabold Resources, an investment company focused on developing European gas projects, said it is considering establishing a gas-powered bitcoin mining station in northern England. The London-based company is exploring the potential to deploy a small power plant as a pilot for future data-center developments that are “crucial to the future U.K. economy.”

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🤑 Ripple is introducing a multi-phase roadmap to prepare the XRP Ledger (XRPL) for a post-quantum future, with a target for full readiness by 2028.

The cryptography most blockchains rely on today can be broken by sufficiently advanced quantum computers, including the algorithms that secure wallets, sign transactions, and protect digital assets. At RippleX, the team has been working ahead of this curve, and here's what that means for XRPL.

🛡 Where XRPL already has an advantage:

🟠At the account level, XRPL supports native key rotation, which means users can move away from potentially vulnerable keys over time without needing to change their underlying accounts.🔣That gives account owners a practical path to respond as risk evolves, rather than value being locked to a single key pair.

🟠XRPL’s seed-based key generation enables deterministic derivation of new keys.🔣This allows users to securely generate and manage new key material, which is essential for any coordinated upgrade or transition.

📌 Ripple's multi-phased roadmap in four phases:

➡️Phase 1: Post-quantum recovery (Q-Day readiness). If classical cryptography breaks at any point, Ripple will activate the contingency plan to allow for safe migration to PQC.🔣XRPL would enforce a hard shift: classical public-key signature standards are no longer accepted by the network, and funds must move to post-quantum secure accounts.

➡️Phase 2: Proactive planning and experimentation (1st half of 2026). Assessing the full impact of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) on XRPL and expanding experimentation with industry-standard, NIST-recommended algorithms, a de facto global standards body for cryptography and cybersecurity.

🤝 The collaboration with Project Eleven to accelerate early experimentation. They are building a proof-of-concept hybrid post-quantum signing implementation (including validator-level testing, Devnet benchmarking, and a post-quantum custody wallet prototype) to harden XRPL infrastructure against future quantum threats.

➡️Phase 3: Exploration of post-quantum primitives (2nd half of 2026). The integration of candidate post-quantum signature schemes alongside existing elliptic curve signatures, starting on Devnet for application developer testing.🔣Running these in parallel allows developers to evaluate performance, usability, and system impact without disrupting the current network.

➡️Phase 4: Full transition for PQ signatures (targeting 2028). A new amendment to the XRPL ecosystem for native post-quantum cryptography and transitioning the network to PQC-based signatures at scale.🔣The focus here is making PQC production-ready, tightening performance, throughput, minimizing overhead, and ensuring validator operators are able to meet XRPL’s bar for reliability and fast deterministic settlement.

❗️Every decision is being evaluated against XRPL's real-world performance requirements, because quantum-resistant cryptography only matters if the network stays fast and reliable. Ripple is building this transition to be as seamless as possible for every holder, institution, and developer who depends on XRPL.

XRPL isn't starting from zero. The architectural foundations are already in place, the cryptographic expertise is already at work, and the roadmap is already in motion. 🤪

#Stellar

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🔋 Google rolls out Gemini in Chrome in 7 new countries

Google announced that it’s making its Gemini in Chrome feature available in multiple countries in APAC new markets, including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam. The company is rolling this feature out to both desktop and iOS.

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🇨🇳 China’s CATL Debuts EV Battery With Speedy Six-Minute Recharge

CATL, the world’s largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer, showcased its latest “Shenxing” lithium-iron-phosphate battery that recharges from 10% power to 98% in just six minutes — a development that brings EV charging closer to the speed of filling up the tank of a gasoline vehicle.

#BRICS

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🧠 First-in-human study confirms safety of graphene-based brain interface

Graphene is often hailed as a “wonder material” made of a single layer of carbon atoms. With its flexibility, it wraps around the brain’s microscopic folds like high-tech cling film. Graphene is enabling higher resolution of neural function-specific biomarkers, safer, and more intelligent BCI systems.

The first-in-human study recruited ten participants, eight of whom underwent surgery using the graphene interface, according to INBRAIN Neuroelectronics. The device performed well throughout these procedures with no failures or safety issues, allowing researchers to collect complete, high-quality datasets about protecting vital functions, such as speech and movement.

This study marks an important step for the field of neurotechnology. INBRAIN aims to commercialize next-generation BCI systems that improve surgical accuracy and offer new treatment pathways for neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s or epilepsy.

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🤑 Why now and why Stellar? At Stellar House CDMX, James Bachini gave his answer.

#Stellar

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🇨🇱🇺🇸 Chile and U.S. sign agreements on mining and security, in Santiago

Chile and the United States are to ‌sign mining and security agreements, with the security deal including $1 million in funds from the U.S. The security agreement will add to an ​existing cooperation deal on both countries' narcotics control policies.

"The agreement aims to strengthen institutional capacity to address threats ​such as drug trafficking, cybercrime, and money laundering through technical cooperation, training, and support for interagency coordination," — Chile's Public Security Minister, Trinidad Steinert said. 🤝

The security agreement will allow the ⁠purchase of equipment such as vehicles or computers for investigating complex crimes. Chile's government also is aiming to speed up mining permit approvals to help unlock an investment pipeline worth more ⁠than $100 ​billion.

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😺 OpenAI unveils new Images 2.0 model that’s better at charts and diagrams

ChatGPT Images 2.0 is set to roll out Tuesday through OpenAI’s flagship chatbot and Codex AI coding assistant. The new model will let users create accurate, complex charts and scientific diagrams. It can also spit out visuals that more faithfully reflect a slew of styles and render text in multiple languages.

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🤝 SpaceX has deal for right to acquire Cursor for $60 Billion

SpaceX said it has an agreement giving it the right to acquire AI startup Cursor for $60 billion later this year or to pay $10 billion for the companies’ work together.

“SpaceXAI and Cursor are now working closely together to create the world’s best coding and knowledge work AI,” - SpaceX saying, announced the deal in a post on X.

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📆 Reminder: Our next Q&A + Meet & Greet Call is coming up!

Have you already watched the video and prepared your questions? If not, there’s still time — come ready to share, ask, and explore 💬💫

🎓 On top of answering any basic questions you may have, there will be our first online study hall session, where we will discuss any lessons or big takeaways you’ve learned from studying the Mini Proofs video #1 on Tokenization.

🔘 Wednesday, April 22 @ 3pm CDT / 10pm CET / Midnight GST / 6am AEST 🌐

❗️ For beginners: Access to the channel will be available only after finishing the course and passing the test in → @QSITrainingBot. Here you will find a link to Q&A + Meet & Greet Call in Zoom.

Your involvement matters — don’t miss it! 🚀
We’d love to see you there 💙

#Stellar

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🇪🇺 OpenAI has hired its first managing director to oversee operations in Europe

Emmanuel Marill will be OpenAI’s top executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the company said on Wednesday.

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🇰🇷🇻🇳 South Korea, Vietnam sign 12 MOUs as Lee urges broader cooperation 🤝

Vietnam and South Korea signed a range of agreements spanning security, tech innovation and the development of nuclear power plants, underscoring deepening industrial ties.

The two sides agreed to back greater participation by Vietnamese firms in South Korea’s production networks, part of a broader push to build a more self-reliant and resilient economy, General Secretary and President To Lam said after talks with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Hanoi.

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🤑🎬 Inside the hunt for Satoshi: Filmmakers chase crypto’s biggest mystery

A new documentary digs into Bitcoin’s origins, reframing the search for Satoshi Nakamoto as both a technical investigation and a deeply human story. Part investigative thriller and part human portrait, the film confidently identifies the person behind Bitcoin and the ideas that defined it.

⚡️ The documentary comes out today at findingsatoshi.com.

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🇨🇳 China’s 360 Hunts Software Flaws With AI, Echoing Mythos

Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 Digital Security Group has unveiled an AI-driven "Vulnerability Discovery Agent" that has identified nearly 1,000 previously unknown software vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities were found in widely used products, including Microsoft Office and the open-source AI framework OpenClaw.

A large Chinese cybersecurity firm is positioning itself as a competitor to Anthropic's Mythos. Earlier this year, 360 also introduced an AI tool designed to expedite the creation of exploit chains, essential for system compromises. This move underscores 360's strategic focus on leveraging AI to enhance cybersecurity capabilities.

#BRICS

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🤖 Ping Pong Robot Uses Agentic AI to Beat Expert Human Players

Scientists at Sony AI have developed a table tennis robot, dubbed “Ace,” with enough speed and precision to beat even some expert ping pong players in the latest matchup between biological and AI. The resulting system can autonomously locate a ping pong ball in space, determine the correct technique needed to return it to an opponent’s side and repeat the process until a play is over.

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