🛰🇺🇦 Starlink Mobile is now providing data in Ukraine with Kyivstar and VEON

VEON Ltd. a global digital operator and the parent company of Kyivstar Group Ltd., today announced that Kyivstar customers in Ukraine can now access satellite-ready apps, even where there is no terrestrial coverage or during prolonged power outages. Starting with Viber, WhatsApp and Google Maps, Kyivstar customers with a compatible smartphone can now message and find their way with data connectivity from Starlink Mobile.

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❤️ Microsoft debuts Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with new jade green color and Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 chips

Microsoft has quietly updated its consumer-oriented Surface lineup with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 chips. These three systems are on sale from Microsoft's website today. All of the systems will have options between 10-core Snapdragon X2 Plus or 12-core Snapdragon X2 Elite processors, and range from 16GB to 64GB of RAM.

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🤑 Squid adds Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin for cross-chain swaps

Squid, a cross-chain infrastructure platform, has integrated Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, allowing users to swap into and out of RLUSD across blockchains and digital assets "in a single transaction." 🎉

Squid said the integration connects RLUSD to more than 100 blockchains and over 20,000 supported tokens through its routing layer. Users can swap assets such as USDC, USDT, ETH, and XRP directly into RLUSD without manually bridging assets, wrapping tokens, or completing multiple transactions.

❗️Squid said its integration sits above those underlying transfer mechanisms, enabling users to swap into and out of RLUSD regardless of how the token is issued on a particular chain.

"We allow fast, cheap movement via intents and swaps to and from any coin across all supported chains," — Squid's pseudonymous co-founder Fig said. "We are also developing payment widgets and SDKs [software development kits] for payments and trading that will be used by Ripple developers and partners."

Squid said developers can also access RLUSD through its tools, enabling cross-chain payments, treasury management, and DeFi applications. 🚀

#Stellar

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⚡️🇷🇺Putin hosts leaders of Southeast Asia at Russia-ASEAN summit

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is hosting leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at a summit that opens Wednesday, seeking to bolster business and other ties with members of the regional bloc.

The two-day Russia-ASEAN summit, which is held in Kazan, is set to consider ways to expand Russia’s “strategic partnership” with ASEAN that includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇨🇳China Plans Mechanism to Evaluate AI Impacts on Job Market

The nation will research the establishment of a survey system on the implications of AI on employment, conduct analysis on impacts, and continuously track how the technology is creating and replacing jobs over the next five years, according to an announcement from the State Council.

At the same time, Senior Chinese officials stressed Beijing’s plans to share AI globally and safely.

“China is accelerating the establishment of a global AI cooperation organization, and welcomes all parties to join,” — Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, said. He emphasized the tech should serve the needs of humans.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇷 The U.S., Iran and the mediators are discussing holding the signing of the memorandum of understanding remotely as early as Wednesday, rather than in-person on Friday

❗️Trump: The Iran deal will be signed over the next 48 hours

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🚕 Uber will bring its premium robotaxi service to Houston in 2027

Uber plans to launch a premium robotaxi service in Houston by mid-2027, making it the second U.S. market under its partnership with EV maker Lucid and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro. Uber says it will eventually take the robotaxi program to “dozens of cities” in the coming years.

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🤖 Two Stanford grads raise $11M to build a noninvasive wearable for hormone tracking

Stanford graduates Jenny Duan and Abhinav Agarwal want to solve two hard problems: create a good-looking wearable and measure hormones to help women understand their health better. The pair is building a startup called Clair Health to track energy levels, hormonal fluctuations, and how to navigate those changes.

The company has raised $11.6 million in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures. Clair Health’s device has 10 biosensors, including a novel biomagnetic sensor for hormonal insights. It has trained its own AI to analyze voice-based biomarkers.

“What we found is that in women’s health and in the current state of apps, women can’t communicate a large amount of symptoms because the apps are built for only specific ones. With our voice stack, we are giving our users a way to communicate their own problems in their own way,” — Duan said.

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⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇷 US-Iran Deal Takes Effect as Both Sides Say Memorandum Signed

US and Iranian officials signed an interim peace deal electronically on Wednesday evening, according to a US official and Iranian state media. The deal is now in effect, the US official said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei confirms the US-Iran memorandum of understanding has been officially finalized and electronically signed by Presidents Pezeshkian and Trump, making the agreement fully formal and binding.

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🤖 US startup starts work on ‘first utility-scale quantum computer’ in Australia

American startup PsiQuantum has begun construction on a facility in Moreton Bay, Australia, where it plans to build and deploy what it calls the world’s first utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Unlike many quantum computing efforts that remain focused on laboratory-scale systems, PsiQuantum is pursuing a photonics-based approach designed to scale using existing semiconductor manufacturing processes and optical networking technologies.

“Building a quantum computer that solves real world problems is one of the great engineering challenges of our time. For decades, quantum computing has held the promise of transforming what humanity can achieve through computation, and today in Australia we are beginning to turn that promise into reality,” — said Victor Peng, CEO of PsiQuantum.

The company believes fault-tolerant quantum computers could eventually tackle problems beyond the reach of conventional computing systems. Potential applications include drug discovery, materials development, energy research, logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, and financial modeling.

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🤖 Chinese automaker Seres has unveiled its first humanoid robot Xiaosai for inspection and production roles.

The robot is designed with visual recognition, autonomous greeting, and voice interaction capabilities.

#BRICS

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🇺🇸 Illinois Gov. Pritzker signs 0.2% crypto tax

Governor JB Pritzker signed the Digital Asset Tax Act, enacting a 0.2% charge on the value of digital asset transactions or services provided to Illinois customers, as part of the state’s FY2027 budget planning.

❗️The tax is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, and will primarily target service providers like exchanges, custodians, and brokers that must now collect and remit the tax, not unlike sales taxes.

Several industry groups, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, Digital Chamber, and Illinois Blockchain Association, alongside other crypto representatives, have strongly opposed the law.

"This will create an unprecedented tax regime that disproportionately burdens Illinois residents for simply using digital assets and will drive innovation and builders out of the state," — the CCI wrote on X.

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🧠 Your brain can keep improving into your 90s, study finds

"Every brain is as unique as a fingerprint and has potential for growth," — Lori Cook, director of clinical research at the Center for BrainHealth, said. "This study challenges the prevailing narrative of inevitable cognitive decline, suggesting instead that brain health can be proactively cultivated at any age."

A three-year study from The University of Texas at Dallas' Center for BrainHealth suggests that aging does not necessarily lead to cognitive decline. The research, published in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, found that brain health and mental abilities can continue to improve throughout life, challenging common assumptions about aging.

The study analyzed data from 3,966 adults aged 19 to 94 who participated in The BrainHealth Project. Over three years, participants completed short daily training activities lasting five to 15 minutes. Researchers measured brain health using the BrainHealth Index, which evaluates clarity, emotional balance, and connectedness to people and purpose.

Results showed positive improvements across all age groups, including participants in their 80s. The strongest predictor of progress was engagement, while factors such as age, gender, and education level had little impact on whether individuals experienced gains in brain health.

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🤑 deJTRSY and deJAAA on Stellar are now available on Sushi, one of DeFi’s most established liquidity venues.

Stellar users can access tokenized US Treasuries and AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) via Sushi, broadening institutional exposure to blockchain-based yield products. On Sushi, deJTRSY and deJAAA can be traded, supplied as liquidity, and integrated across Stellar DeFi.

#Stellar

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💫 NASA picks Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for Mars mission, setting up a race with SpaceX

NASA has selected Relativity Space—a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year— to build a spacecraft to house a suite of scientific instruments, launch it into space, and fly it to Mars.

Aeolus, as the mission is dubbed, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, winds, and temperature in its atmosphere. The agency said that data will make it safer for landers and, someday, astronauts, to visit the surface of the Red Planet.

“Public-private partnerships like this are a force multiplier for science,” — said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. 🤝

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