💊 Heart patch engineered from stem cells revved up weakened hearts

After a heart attack or other cardiovascular insult, hearts can’t regenerate weakened muscles, leaving them less able to pump blood throughout the body. While medications to manage symptoms of heart failure — including newer obesity drugs — have been improving outcomes, many people ultimately face only two solutions: a heart transplant or heart device implant.

Now a small new study reports progress with a novel method. After people received patches of heart muscle engineered from induced pluripotent stem cells, their re-muscularized heart walls thickened, revving up pumping ability and modestly improving quality of life.

The biological ventricular assist tissue in a patch, called BioVAT for short, was conceived as a bridge to either transplant, where wait times are long, or to implantation of a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, in end-stage heart failure. A larger trial will help determine who might be the best candidate for this approach and how durable it might be.

@QSIMedia

⚡️🇷🇺🇰🇿 Russia and Kazakhstan Sign Energy, FX Swap Deals as Putin Visits

Russia and Kazakhstan signed a series of deals during a visit by President Vladimir Putin, including a currency swap arrangement and an agreement on financing for the construction of the Central Asian nation’s first nuclear power plant.

Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina and National Bank of Kazakhstan Governor Timur Suleimenov signed the ruble-tenge swap agreement Thursday in Astana, while Moscow also agreed to provide financing for the nuclear plant that Russia’s state-run Rosatom was selected last year to build.

#BRICS

@QSIMedia

🤑 Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Defends Stellar, Says It’s Perfectly Legitimate Technology

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has defended Stellar following criticism surrounding its newly announced collaboration with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC).

❗️Amid the growing criticism from crypto commentator Omid Malekan, Hoskinson stepped in to defend Stellar and questioned the hostility directed toward the network. He argued that Stellar remains a perfectly legitimate technology.

"It's prefectly legitimate technology" — Hoskinson wrote on X.

Notably, Hoskinson has maintained a respectful relationship with Stellar and its founder, Jed McCaleb, for years. In 2024, Hoskinson revealed that he had communicated with McCaleb and described the Stellar team as “good people.”

In 2017, he publicly stated that he wanted the Stellar ecosystem to succeed. He also disclosed that Stellar participates in several industry initiatives alongside Cardano.

#Stellar

@QSIMedia

⚡️🇺🇸 Trump appointees push $250 banknote with his portrait

Trump administration officials have pressed the office responsible for printing the nation’s money to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait, according to four current and former employees, in what would be the first appearance of a living person on U.S. currency in more than 150 years.

@QSIMedia

🤝 Mistral Signs Airbus, BMW as It Brings AI to Manufacturing

French AI startup Mistral AI is expanding into advanced manufacturing, striking deals with new customers Airbus SE and BMW AG. Paris-based Mistral offers AI models and computing infrastructure to corporate clients, and now aims to apply AI to industrial engineering processes including design, simulation and quality control.

@QSIMedia

⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇷 U.S. and Iran reach deal but need Trump's final approval

U.S. and Iranian negotiators have reached an agreement on a 60-day memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire and launch negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, but President Trump has yet to give it his final approval.

@QSIMedia

⚡️🇪🇺 EU’s Economic Powers Seek Unity to Push Capital Markets Merger

Finance ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland — also known as the E6 or 6MS — are meeting in Berlin on Thursday to forge a common position on the EU’s proposed plan to merge capital markets and consolidate oversight, known as the Market Integration and Supervision Package, or MISP.

@QSIMedia

🤑 The Stellar network is designed to plug into traditional financial systems, extending their capabilities and enabling new efficiencies.

"The DTCC is the backbone of the global capital markets. Our role in this partnership is to make that backbone stronger than ever," — said Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation.

#Stellar

@QSIMedia

🇻🇳🇹🇭 Vietnam, Thailand Agree to Deepen Ties in To Lam’s First Visit

Vietnam and Thailand agreed to deepen security and defense ties, as well as cooperation on technology sharing and green energy, during To Lam’s first visit to Thailand as Vietnam’s top leader.

@QSIMedia

🇨🇦🇺🇸 Carney Pitches US on Closer Ties in Autos, Aluminum and Minerals

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used a speech in New York to make the case to the Trump administration for closer cooperation on aluminum, auto manufacturing and critical minerals.

The remarks come as the US and Mexico begin formal talks on potential changes to the continental trade pact known as USMCA. Canada has not yet started negotiations with the US, though the two sides have had informal discussions.

@QSIMedia

🤖 Anthropic releases Opus 4.8 with new ‘dynamic workflow’ tool

On Thursday, Anthropic released Opus 4.8, the newest version of its most advanced publicly available model. Opus 4.8 launches alongside several new features. Users on claude.ai now have control over the amount of effort Claude puts into a task.

Claude Code has a new “dynamic workflows” feature that allows it to tackle very large-scale problems. And fast mode for Opus 4.8 — where the model can work at 2.5× the speed — is now three times cheaper than it was for previous models.

@QSIMedia

🇨🇳 BYD Debuts China’s Most Advanced EV Chip in Smart-Driving Push

BYD Co., the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, unveiled a series of technology advances, including what it calls China’s first automotive-grade 4-nanometer chip for self-driving cars.

The semiconductor breakthrough steps up the rivalry with Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co., which currently makes chips with a geometry of 7 nanometers but has pledged to debut 1.4nm chips by 2031. It’s designed to allow BYD’s computer-assisted driving to stand out from a crowded Chinese EV market that includes rivals such as Xpeng Inc. and Xiaomi Corp.

#BRICS

@QSIMedia

🚗 NVIDIA research shows robots trained in simulation can handle real-world tasks

Robots trained entirely in simulation are beginning to perform more reliably in the real world, according to a series of new robotics research papers presented by NVIDIA at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

The studies focus on one of robotics’ biggest challenges: narrowing the “sim-to-real” gap, where machines trained in virtual environments struggle when deployed outside controlled lab conditions.

NVIDIA Research said eight of its accepted ICRA papers demonstrated advances in robotic navigation, grasping, assembly, and reasoning using simulation-based learning systems. The projects aim to help robots adapt to unpredictable real-world environments instead of relying on rigid scripted behaviors.

@QSIMedia

🤝 Solar Firm Nextpower Eyes AI’s Power Needs With Battery Deal

Nextpower Inc. agreed to buy battery company Prevalon Energy for as much as $365 million, marking the solar-tracking provider’s move into energy storage and the fast-growing AI data-center market. The deal for Prevalon, a joint venture of Mitsubishi Power Americas and EES, will be paid in a mix of cash and stock, Fremont, California-based Nextpower.

@QSIMedia

🤖 Samsung Takes Lead in Shipping Top-End AI Memory Chip Samples

Samsung Electronics Co. has begun shipping samples of the industry’s most advanced memory to customers, taking an early lead in a race to supply the essential components for AI accelerators made by the likes of Nvidia Corp.

Korea’s largest company said it’s started shipping its first 12-layer HBM4E samples to major clients. That’s after Samsung kicked off mass production of HBM4 in February — a milestone that underscored the rapid pace of development in the high-bandwidth memory market.

@QSIMedia

🚕 Waymo’s newest robotaxi is Chinese-made, built to make money, and now accepting riders

Waymo has started giving select riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco access to its newest robotaxi: an all-electric, minivan-like vehicle that is designed to lower costs and handle the use and abuse of hundreds of thousands of riders. Waymo said Thursday it will eventually expand access to the vehicle, a modified Zeekr-made minivan called the Ojai, to more riders and cities.

@QSIMedia

🤑 Chainspect ranks the 25 busiest chains by total transactions, revealing where real users live

Stellar took the 4th place 🎉

#Stellar

@QSIMedia