⚡️🧑‍⚖️ Senate passes landmark housing affordability bill after bipartisan breakthrough

The Senate passed a bill aimed at lowering housing costs on Monday after a major breakthrough and rare bipartisan consensus that comes as affordability remains top of mind for voters heading into the midterm elections.

🗳 In an 85-5 vote, the Senate approved the legislation along wide bipartisan margins. It now heads to the House for approval.

The bill, known as the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, aims to increase housing supply and bring down costs, including by limiting institutional investors from purchasing certain single-family homes.

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🤝 Microsoft and Chevron plan one of the largest gas-powered data center projects in US

Microsoft and Chevron announced plans on Monday to develop a 2.67-gigawatt natural gas power plant in West Texas to serve the tech company’s AI and cloud data centers.

Under the 20-year power purchase agreement, the plant will provide dedicated electricity to a Microsoft-operated data center. Two large GE Vernova turbines will generate most of the power, with a Caterpillar subsidiary Solar Turbines providing the rest. Microsoft will buy power from the power plant for 20 years.

The project will be “among the largest co-located natural gas power and data center developments in the U.S.,” Chevron said in a press release.

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⚡️🇮🇳🇨🇳India and China Say Ties Are Moving Toward Improvement

India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a BRICS security officials’ meeting in New Delhi, with both sides noting progress in improving relations.

The talks on Monday were “constructive and forward-looking,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.

#BRICS

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⚡️🤑 Ripple Secures Preliminary MiCA CASP License, Enabling Full-Scale Payments Services Across Europe

Ripple today announced it has received preliminary approval for its Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation. 🎉

✅ The preliminary approval, in the form of a ‘Green Light Letter,’ is subject to final conditions.🔣 It will enable Ripple to scale regulated cryptoasset services to financial institutions and businesses across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.

The CASP license, combined with Ripple’s existing EU Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence, will mean that European banks, fintechs and corporates can access Ripple’s full cryptoasset and stablecoins payments infrastructure - collect, exchange and pay out - through a single integration for the first time.❗️

The licence also positions Ripple to expand into broader cryptoasset activities in the region, as it continues to meet growing European demand for digital assets services and infrastructure.

“Financial market infrastructure is moving onchain - from cross-border payments and settlement to collateral management and tokenised assets - and banks and fintechs are actively building the digital asset capabilities they need to remain competitive. With our growing European presence, regulatory track record and institutional-grade infrastructure, we’re ready to meet the moment and support that transition at scale,” said Cassie Craddock, Managing Director, UK & Europe at Ripple.

➡️ Upon full approval, these combined CASP and EMI licenses will make Ripple fully MiCA-compliant. This follows Ripple’s receipt of its EMI license and Cryptoasset Registration from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority in January 2026.

Ripple holds more than 75 regulatory licences globally, making it one of the most licensed crypto companies in the world. 🚀

#Stellar

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🤖 Prosus Develops OpenClaw Rival to Address Privacy Concerns

Prosus NV has developed its own version of the artificial intelligence agent OpenClaw to get around European concerns over data privacy, and will start rolling it out this week.

Euro Beinat, head of data science and AI for the Amsterdam-listed firm, said its ToqanClaw platform shares many features with OpenClaw — the popular digital assistant that can handle complex tasks such as travel bookings – but brings them into a more secure environment.

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🔥 Franklin Templeton launched new crypto division after acquiring 250 Digital

Franklin Templeton, a global investment leader, announced the completion of its acquisition of 250 Digital, an active cryptocurrency investment management firm led by crypto industry veterans Christopher Perkins and Seth Ginns.

The acquisition includes the 250 Digital investment team and all liquid cryptocurrency strategies previously run by CoinFund. Franklin Templeton will invest in these strategies as part of the agreement.

❗️ Its new unit, named Franklin Crypto, will focus on serving sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors seeking exposure to digital assets.

⬇️ Franklin Templeton is now positioning itself as a full-fledged player in the crypto space. According to their statement, the firm is actively pursuing crypto strategies based on technologies such as XRP Ledger, Stellar, Polygon, and Aptos.

The new division builds upon an existing set of digital asset capabilities within Franklin Templeton, including a fully dedicated digital asset unit for fundamental research, active portfolio construction, and institutional risk oversight.

The closing of this transaction reflects Franklin Templeton’s long-term commitment to building infrastructure across the digital asset landscape, and its conviction in the technologies it believes will define the next generation of institutional investing. 🚀

#Stellar

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🇭🇺 Hungary Approves Anti-Graft Law to Satisfy EU Funds Criteria

Hungary’s parliament approved comprehensive anti-corruption legislation to meet a key demand of the European Union for the release of funds the bloc had been withholding under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rule.

New Premier Peter Magyar’s lawmakers backed the law in a vote on Tuesday. The legislation seeks to root out graft by strengthening rules for how politicians declare their assets, expanding the powers of the anti-corruption Integrity Authority and boosting the transparency of public procurements.

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🇲🇽🇧🇷Pemex and Petrobras to Team Up on Oil and Refining Projects

The national oil companies of Mexico and Brazil agreed to work together to discover, produce and refine oil as both Latin American energy giants push to expand their reserves. 🤝

Petroleos Mexicanos and Petroleo Brasileiro SA signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to begin joint cooperation on exploration and production, including in shallow and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in refining, natural gas, petrochemicals and other areas, the chief executives of both companies said in an event in Rio de Janeiro.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇺🇸 The U.S. House Financial Services Committee announced on Tuesday that it will hold a hearing on the CLARITY Act on July 17 in New York.

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🔥 New DeFi Education Fund coalition seeks to harden crypto against cybersecurity threats

The DeFi Education Fund is launching a cryptocurrency cybersecurity coalition as part of a wider effort to bolster its defense against bad actors across the blockchain.

❗️On Tuesday, the DeFi Education Fund alongside the Security Alliance (SEAL) and Asymmetric Research debuted the Open Protocol Security Coalition, or OPSeC, which it says will hold educational events geared toward lawmakers, as crypto bills make their way through Washington.

⬇️ Many best practices and resources exist, but the new coalition will strengthen those, said Amanda Tuminelli, CEO and Chief Legal Officer of DeFi Education Fund, in a statement.

"OPSeC is about amplifying access to these resources and bringing together industry experts so that we can ensure that security remains at the forefront of onchain software development and that teams of every size have access to excellent cybersecurity tools," Tuminelli said.

"The DEF team is honored to play a role in amplifying the amazing cybersecurity expertise that already exists, and we look forward to introducing policymakers to OPSeC team members and resources."

🎯 OPSeC says its first goal is to create a free "central hub" that will include resources and best practices.

Organizations that join OPSeC will also sign a pledge to commit "cybersecurity resources to the coalition effort," in part through tapping team members to share best practices and bringing forth new ideas. 🚀

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💊 Pathway Labs Announces World's First FDA Clearance for Multicondition AI in Cardiology

Pathway Labs announced its public launch of EchoNext, the world's first FDA-approved AI detection tool that reads standard 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) to flag high risk structural heart diseases for patients. Receiving FDA clearance for six indications, Pathway Labs also announced its partnership with OpenEvidence to make EchoNext available on the AI platform regularly used by over half of US clinicians.

EchoNext detects heart conditions that clinicians cannot, including right and left-sided heart failure, valve disease, severe hypertrophy compatible with infiltrative cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary hypertension, enabling earlier detection of diseases that usually go undetected until a patient is already symptomatic. The model was trained on more than 700,000 ECG-echocardiogram pairs across NewYork-Presbyterian's healthcare system and identified structural heart disease more accurately than cardiologists, including cardiologists using AI assistance.

EchoNext has shown robust performance in a range of studies representing over 20 hospitals and 500,000 patients in the United States and Canada.

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🇨🇳🤖 The fourth China International Supply Chain Expo kicked off this week in Beijing and features its first-ever AI zone.

The event brings together companies such as Nvidia, Intel and Alibaba, alongside displays of robots, processors and AI-powered consumer products.

#BRICS

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🔥 Fed Governor Waller: "dollar backed stablecoins may create a new channel linking global liquidity demand directly to US Treasury markets".

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🇳🇱 The Netherlands joins Pax Silica alliance and boosts cooperation on AI and chips

Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sjoerd Sjoerdsma announced that the Netherlands is joining the Pax Silica alliance. Mr Sjoerdsma signed the declaration formalising the Netherlands’ membership of the alliance in the presence of US Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.

"The Netherlands plays a unique, leading role in the global chip industry. Pax Silica presents opportunities for the Dutch economy and will strengthen the Netherlands’ trading position," said Mr Sjoerdsma commented.

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🇺🇸 US President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to look into gasoline prices, which he says aren’t falling fast enough.

“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” he said in a post on Truth Social. “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”

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🔋 CATL Sees Its Sodium Batteries in at Least 10,000 EVs This Year

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. expects 10,000 to 20,000 electric vehicles to carry its sodium-ion batteries this year, a senior official for the Chinese company said. CATL has developed the batteries to perform in temperatures as low as -20C or -30C.

“We came up with a novel design which can perform at that kind of extreme condition,” he said at the World Economic Forum in the Chinese city of Dalian.

#BRICS

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⚡️🤑 SDF Becomes Founding Contributor to Legal Context Protocol

As AI agents start moving money at scale, enforceable terms and a clear path to recourse can't be bolted on after the fact. They have to be there from the start. SDF is proud to be a founding contributor to the Legal Context Protocol, a new open standard from ADRorg and industry leaders that brings trust, consent, and dispute resolution to agentic commerce. 🚀

The American Arbitration Association (AAA), together with Integra Ledger, and a coalition of industry leaders, today launched the Legal Context Protocol (LCP), a new open standard that makes legal terms, consent, and dispute resolution discoverable and verifiable when AI agents transact on behalf of people and organizations.

Joining the AAA and Integra Ledger as founding contributors are Google, IBM, Circle, Wayfair, Stellar Development Foundation, Ava Labs Inc., UiPath, Cardano, Hedera, Crossmint, Pinata, Aptos Foundation, Baselayer, Trinsic, First Person Cooperative, Sei Labs, and Mysten Labs, the original contributor to Sui.

#Stellar

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump Cancels Signing Of Major Housing Bill

President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a bill signing for major bipartisan legislation on housing affordability, saying he wouldn’t back the law until Congress passes his elections bill. Trump was scheduled to sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing bill on Wednesday afternoon, which passed both chambers with wide bipartisan support.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social.

Trump announced the cancellation as Speaker Mike Johnson and top House leaders held a news conference touting the bill. The bill is the product of almost a year of back-and-forth between all four congressional corners and aims to increase affordability by boosting housing supply and home ownership.

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😺 OpenAI unveils its first custom chip, built by Broadcom

On Wednesday, OpenAI unveiled its first custom-built inference processor, designed and manufactured in collaboration with Broadcom. Named Jalapeño, the new processor was designed specifically for the unique needs of OpenAI’s inference systems. OpenAI’s own AI models assisted in the development of the chip, the company said.

While the chip is still being tested, OpenAI says early results show significantly better performance-per-watt than current state-of-the-art alternatives.

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