🚀 Starlink Hits New Highs in the U.S.: its median download and upload speeds climb and its latency declines.

Ookla Speedtest data from the second half of 2025 indicates that Starlink dramatically improved its download speed performance across all 50 states compared to the second half of 2024. In fact, Speedtest users on Starlink are now able to get median download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps in every state but Alaska.

Much of the reason behind Starlink’s performance improvements is due to SpaceX’s acceleration of its satellite launches and its new Generation 3 (V3) satellites that are more powerful than earlier versions. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is able to add dozens of new satellites to the constellation. In February 2026, Starlink had more than 10,000 satellites in orbit. The more satellites a constellation has, the more capacity it has to handle subscribers and the faster speeds it can deliver to more places. 🌍

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🇪🇬 Egypt Opens High-Speed Monorail Linking Cairo to Desert Capital

Egypt opened the first phase of a showpiece monorail project, part of a $4.5 billion plan to connect Cairo with its satellite cities and a new capital in the desert. A 16-stop section that links the new administrative capital to the outskirts of eastern Cairo began accepting regular passengers on Wednesday, the latest mass transit service introduced in Africa’s largest metropolis.

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📱 Samsung is officially done selling TVs and home appliances in China

Samsung's official home page in China now greets visitors with a notice stating that the company has decided to cease sales of all home appliances in mainland China, including TVs and monitors. This decision comes in response “to the rapidly changing market environment.”

Samsung will continue to provide after-sales service, “in strict accordance with the Consumer Rights Protection Law,” for customers who have already purchased a Samsung home appliance.

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🤖 SpaceX files for $55 billion semiconductor fab in rural Texas for Musk's Terafab

SpaceX has filed a property tax abatement application in Grimes County, Texas, for a semiconductor fab that would cost $55 billion in its initial phases and up to $119 billion if all planned expansions are completed.

The filing, posted on the county government's website ahead of a public hearing, describes the project as a "multi-phase, next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing and advanced computing fabrication facility" to be built at the Gibbons Creek Reservoir site, roughly 90 miles northeast of Austin.

The county's Commissioners Court will hold the public hearing at 9:00 a.m. on June 3 at the Grimes County Justice & Business Center in Anderson, Texas, where it will consider the abatement agreement. Residents have expressed frustration over the lack of communication from county officials about the project.

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💸 Thailand Clears $29 Billion Investments Led by TikTok Project

Thailand approved 958 billion baht ($29 billion) of investment projects, led by TikTok System (Thailand) Co.’s planned expansion of data infrastructure as the country pushes to become a regional hub for AI and cloud services.

TikTok’s 842 billion-baht project will add servers and expand data storage and processing facilities across Bangkok and the neighboring provinces of Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao, according to a statement Wednesday from the Board of Investment. The plan also includes digital literacy and e-commerce training programs.

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🤝 Anthropic Signs Computing Deal With SpaceX to Meet AI Demand

Anthropic PBC has signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bolster computing resources and meet surging demand for its Claude artificial intelligence software.

Anthropic plans to access more than 300 megawatts of computing capacity from a large SpaceX data center in Memphis known as Colossus 1. Anthropic said the partnership would “substantially” increase its computing resources and enable it to raise usage limits for its AI products.

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🔋 Google updates AI search to include quotes from Reddit and other sources

Google is updating search to refine its AI experience by adding additional context to links, like excerpts from web forums and blogs, as well as a feature that highlights links from a user’s news subscriptions.

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🇺🇸 Trump Tariff Refunds Start Hitting Importers’ Bank Accounts

The Trump administration has begun paying out refunds for the $166 billion in global tariffs that the US Supreme Court declared unlawful earlier this year. Some of their clients have received money in their bank accounts as of Wednesday — the company’s payment included interest.

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🤝 Meta-Backed Scale AI Wins $500 Million Defense Department Deal

The Pentagon awarded a $500 million contract to Meta Platforms Inc.-backed Scale AI to help sift through data and assist in decision-making, the latest step in the US military’s effort to rely more on artificial intelligence.

The agreement is a five-fold increase of a $100 million deal the company received in September 2025. The Pentagon was “pushing the limits” on the original contract, Dan Tadross, who leads Scale AI’s public sector business, said.

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🇺🇸 Rubio Discusses the Middle East With Pope After Trump Dispute

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican. Rubio and the pope spoke about “topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere.”

“The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity.” - the State Department said.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 Trump’s Summit With Xi Is On Despite China’s Iran Concerns

President Donald Trump is forging ahead with plans to hold a summit with counterpart Xi Jinping next week in Beijing. The leaders are slated to meet May 14-15 for a sit-down.

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⚡️Southeast Asia Boosts Maritime Ties to Avoid Hormuz-Like Crisis

Southeast Asian nations agreed to boost cooperation and create a center for maritime issues, which the Philippines said could help avert a situation in the South China Sea similar to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will set up “a central repository for maritime issues and maritime policy” that will guide the 11-member bloc, according to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who hosted this week’s summit. Manila has offered to host the center.

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🚗 Nvidia CEO Says He Would Join Trump’s China Trip If Invited

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said he would gladly join President Donald Trump on an upcoming visit to China if invited, signaling that the leader of America’s most valuable company has yet to receive an offer to go.

“If invited, it would be a privilege — it would be a great honor to represent the United States and to go to China with President Trump,” — Huang told. “We should let the president announce whatever he decides to announce.”

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🤝 Sony Partners With TSMC in Effort to Rein in Chipmaking Costs

Sony Group Corp. plans a new joint venture with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as the first step toward what it called a fab-light approach to semiconductor production.

The Japanese company’s chip arm Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp. and TSMC are partnering to develop and build next-generation image sensors for robots and cars. The project will get its start in Kumamoto, where TSMC has set up its own chip fabrication plant, and may expand further if the Japanese government provides backing.

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🛸 Pentagon releases UFO files on new website

The Trump administration on Friday launched a new website that will house a collection of “new, never-before-seen” files about UFOs, according to the Pentagon.

The initial set of files housed on the site will include those containing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire U.S. government. The materials have been reviewed for security purposes, but many have “not yet been analyzed for resolution of any anomalies,” the Department’s statement read.

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🤑 One Year In: How Ripple's $25 Million Education Commitment Is Reaching Every Corner of America

Last spring, during Teacher Appreciation Week, Ripple announced a $25 million donation to DonorsChoose and Teach For America — two organizations that have spent decades proving that when teachers have what they need, students succeed.

The majority of the $25 million was delivered in RLUSD, Ripple's U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, making this one of the largest stablecoin grants to nonprofits in history, and a practical demonstration that crypto-native philanthropy can operate at real scale.

The partnership was recognized at the Anthem Awards, where it won the Community Voice Award and a Bronze for Best Education Initiative, and was nominated for Best Education Initiative at the Halo Awards.

By the numbers, in just a year:
🟠$15M donated to DonorsChoose
🟠48,108 classroom projects funded
🟠All 50 states reached
🟠86% of projects at low-income schools

Employees directed $25,700 to projects of their choosing including donating science supplies, art materials, books, and classroom furniture. Every dollar landed somewhere a Ripple employee decided it should go.

Employee impact:
🟠$25,700 directed to classroom projects
🟠378 projects funded
🟠336 schools served
🟠360 teachers supported

Perhaps most exciting for Ripple: the partnership launched a Blockchain Bootcamp series at U.S. high schools, bringing hands-on crypto and blockchain education to students who will graduate into a world where digital assets are part of everyday finance.

By the numbers:
🟠$10M committed to Teach For America
🟠2,300 new teachers supported with stipends
🟠141,600 students reached by first-year corps
🟠270,600 students received financial literacy resources

Teachers supported, bootcamps launched, students learning, the result of two organizations that knew exactly how to put resources to work, and a team at Ripple that believed education is one of the most powerful investments Ripple can make.

#Stellar

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⚡️🇺🇸 US Prepares AI Security Order That Omits Mandatory Model Tests

The Trump administration is preparing to order US agencies to partner with artificial intelligence companies to protect networks from AI-enabled cyber attacks, though the directive would stop short of requiring government approval for cutting-edge models.

A draft executive order from President Donald Trump would revamp existing cybersecurity information-sharing programs to include AI companies and address threats posed by the emerging technology.

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🆕 SEC chair Atkins signals new rules for onchain markets, AI-driven finance

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency is considering new rulemaking for onchain trading systems, crypto vaults and blockchain settlement infrastructure as finance is increasingly driven by blockchains and AI.

Atkins argued that existing securities regulations do not neatly fit blockchain protocols that combine multiple market functions into a single piece of software. Framing the effort as part of a broader shift to AI-driven, automated finance, he said the SEC should clarify how it views hybrid traditional–decentralized market models through formal rulemaking rather than enforcement.

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