💻 Microsoft Launches AI That Works Like an Executive Assistant

Microsoft Corp. launched new AI software designed to function like an always-active executive assistant, the latest evolution of its workplace AI efforts. Scout, a new AI assistant meant to bring the power and flexibility of OpenClaw into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Scout is based in the cloud, but operates across the desktop and web browser also, so it’s easy to connect to inboxes, calendars and other systems. Scout will come with prepackaged skills for calendar management and drafting meeting agendas, among others.

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🇨🇳 China’s Solar Industry Launches Space Alliance

Chinese solar manufacturers and research institutes launched an alliance to promote solar energy in space, a potential new avenue for growth in an industry beset by terrestrial overcapacity.

A total of 13 founding members, including GCL Technology Holdings Ltd. and Trina Solar Co., inaugurated the Space Energy Development Alliance at the world’s largest solar fair in Shanghai. Shi Zhengrong, founder of Suntech Power Holdings Co. and once the world’s first solar billionaire, is also among the participants.

#BRICS

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🇰🇭🇹🇭 Cambodia Seeks Rare UN Ruling in $300 Billion Thai Energy Spat

Cambodia has initiated rare United Nations compulsory conciliation proceedings against Thailand to resolve a decades-long maritime border dispute, after talks collapsed over an area both countries say holds $300 billion worth of oil and gas.

“We have taken this step to protect Cambodia’s sovereignty and maritime rights in accordance with international law. Both Cambodia and Thailand stand to gain from a fair and lasting settlement agreed with the guidance of the international expert conciliators,” — Hun Manet said.

The Cambodian government delivered formal notices to Thailand and the UN Secretary-General to launch the process under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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❤️ Microsoft debuts Surface RTX Spark Dev Box — Nvidia-powered mini-PC helps devs get ready for an agentic Windows

With the company pushing Windows as a platform for agentic AI with Nvidia's new processor, the Surface-branded mini PC is set to run sustained workloads with a 100W thermal envelope — more than you can get in a laptop.

Microsoft says that includes "long-running training jobs, agentic AI pipelines and local model fine-tuning."

Nvidia states that the RTX Spark can deliver up to one petaflop of AI compute with 128GB of unified memory and can run models with up to 120 billion parameters locally.

The system will come set up for developers, with Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot, and other applications preinstalled. Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) with support for Nvidia's CUDA technology will also come out of the box, along with PowerShell7.

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🤑 Stellar CEO says Clarity Act would help, but tokenization isn't dependent on it

⚪️Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon said said the GENIUS Act gave financial institutions confidence that the U.S. government intends to support the industry through a clearer regulatory framework.
⚪️She noted that firms such as Franklin Templeton were already building tokenized products before recent legislation, citing the firm's money market fund on Stellar.
⚪️While she said passage of the Clarity Act would benefit the industry, Dixon argued that tokenization adoption is unlikely to be derailed if the bill stalls.

🤪 Stellar is positioning its technology stack around compliance, privacy and scalability for large financial institutions.

➡️Dixon said Stellar has maintained 99.99.99% uptime and processes billions of transactions each quarter.
➡️She emphasized that compliance tools were built into the network’s architecture, reducing the need for custom smart contracts to issue assets.
➡️Stellar is also developing privacy features using a composable model that allows institutions to tailor controls to specific assets and use cases.

🔄 Massive transaction volumes remain a key test for blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

🟠DTCC processed $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year, highlighting the scale traditional market infrastructure already supports.
🟠Dixon acknowledged that tokenized settlement volumes will ramp up gradually rather than reaching peak scale immediately.
🟠She said maintaining reliability and avoiding network outages are critical requirements for institutional adoption.❗️

🤝 Dixon expects tokenized assets to be distributed across multiple public blockchains rather than concentrated on a single network.

⚫️She rejected the idea that one blockchain will dominate all institutional tokenization activity.
⚫️Instead, Dixon said a handful of networks will likely capture most real-world asset issuance based on their technical strengths.
⚫️She argued that open public blockchains will ultimately outperform closed alternatives because they evolve rapidly through global developer participation.

📱 Watch the full video on YouTube

#Stellar

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🤑 Mastercard expands settlement capabilities to include stablecoin, intraday, holiday and weekend options

Mastercard today announced plans to expand its settlement capabilities with additional intraday, weekend and holiday card settlement, supporting both fiat currencies and on-chain card settlement using regulated stablecoins.

🔄 Together, these enhancements will give issuers and acquirers greater flexibility in how they settle card-based transactions across Mastercard’s global payments network, helping improve liquidity management and expanding choice in how money moves.

❗️Mastercard will support settlement using regulated stablecoins including Circle’s USDC, which is already supporting early on-chain settlement flows in select markets, as well as Paxos-issued stablecoins including PYUSD, USDG and USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD and SoFi’s SoFiUSD. These stablecoins will be enabled across a range of supported blockchain networks including Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo and XRPL.

“Mastercard’s move into on-chain settlement is a landmark validation that blockchain technology is ready for the world’s most critical payment infrastructure,” — said Jack McDonald, senior vice president, Stablecoins, Ripple.

“RLUSD’s inclusion in Mastercard’s global settlement network reflects growing demand for trusted, regulated stablecoins built for real-world financial use cases on public blockchains like the XRP Ledger. We’re excited to support the next evolution of faster, more flexible, always-on settlement,” — he added. 🤝

#Stellar

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⚡️🇪🇺 Europe Unveils Sweeping Tech Sovereignty Plan to Boost Chips, AI

The European Union unveiled a sweeping plan to expand its domestic technology supply chains, targeting greater independence from the US and Asia in semiconductors, AI and cloud computing. The European Commission announced a raft of measures to boost so-called tech sovereignty and encourage the use of local products over foreign alternatives.

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🇨🇳 China Picks State Firm to Help Coordinate Mining Deals Abroad

China has chosen a new state investment company to help coordinate its overseas metals and mining deals, and counter mounting geopolitical risks that threaten its ability to secure resources.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the government’s economic planning agency, will take the lead on strengthening oversight of investment decisions. State-owned Guangyan International Investment Co. will offer support on compliance and financing, as well as industrywide planning of outbound deals.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇺🇸 Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump will attend the NATO leaders’ meeting in Ankara in July.

“We’ll be there in Turkey to talk about all of these topics, the president himself will be attending the next NATO meeting of heads of state,” — Rubio said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also said on Tuesday that Trump is expected to attend the upcoming NATO summit scheduled for July 7–8 in Ankara.

“As far as we know, yes, he plans to attend,” — Fidan said when asked whether the US President would travel to Ankara.

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⚡️🇺🇸 Scott Bessent backs summer push for Clarity Act, says bitcoin reserve moving at 'deliberate speed'

Bessent said the department is moving at a "deliberate speed" to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve. Bessent also pressed lawmakers to "get behind" the Clarity Act and said he wants that legislation passed this summer.

"It's very necessary to bring U.S. best practices onshore, and we work tirelessly in terms of custodying these assets and making the U.S. the innovation capital of the world," — he said.

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⚡️🇺🇸 President Donald Trump Says He’ll Attend G-7 Summit in France This Month.

The annual meeting is scheduled for June 15-17 in Évian-les-Bains, France.

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🤖 Majorana 2 quantum chip unlocks 1,000x stability, keeps qubits alive 20 seconds

Microsoft has unveiled Majorana 2, its next-generation quantum chip, claiming a 1,000-fold improvement in qubit reliability and a faster path toward a commercially useful quantum computer. The new chip was developed with the help of Microsoft Discovery. Microsoft now expects to achieve a scalable quantum computer by 2029.

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