⚡️🇺🇸 Hawaii Taps Muni Market to Finish First US Driverless Rail Line

Hawaii’s capital is trading surfboards for light-rail trains as it bets on a new way to get around. 😁

Honolulu is selling about $196 million of municipal bonds this week, with about $9.4 million funding its Skyline rail system. The project, which has been in the works for more than 15 years, is slated be the first fully-automated, driverless light-rail system in the U.S. 🎉

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⚡️🤖 OpenAI launches ChatGPT desktop app for Linux

The new app, which is being released in preview, will give Linux users the ability to use ChatGPT, ChatGPT Work, and Codex on a number of different distributions. The distros will be supported include desktop variants of Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04 LTS, Debian 13, and Fedora 43 and 44.

“Linux has been one of the most-requested platforms for the desktop app, and this launch extends ChatGPT and Codex across every major desktop operating system,” — OpenAI said.

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🇧🇷 Brazil's largest lender Itaú is stepping deeper into the tokenization

Brazil’s biggest bank, Itaú Unibanco, has started working with digital-asset infrastructure provider OpenAssets on a tokenization pilot run by Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association ANBIMA.

The project will test how fixed-income securities and investment funds can be issued, traded and settled using distributed-ledger technology. The work will also examine the rules and technical standards needed for banks and asset managers to use such systems.

"Brazil has been one of the most forward-looking markets in finance and it is a natural place to move tokenization from exploration to production," — said Gabor Gurbacs, Chairman and CEO of OpenAssets. 🚀

#BRICS

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🤑 Barça Mobile Extends Telecom Services with an In-App Digital Wallet on Stellar, Wirex and Crossmint

New Era Visionary Group, the official telecom operator and partner of FC Barcelona, announces technology infrastructure partnerships with Wirex, Crossmint, and the Stellar Development Foundation for Barça Mobile. ⚽️

These collaborations support the development of a digital wallet within the Barça Mobile app, offering payments, rewards, and future digital utility for subscribers worldwide — including FC Barcelona fans, travelers, and mobile users seeking easy access to connectivity and digital services.

“By integrating wallet functionality directly into the Barça Mobile app, we are not launching a separate product or a new line of business. We are strengthening the foundation of our mobile telecom platform and creating a more seamless, globally connected experience for our users,” — said Ruslan Bîrlădeanu, CEO of New Era Visionary Group.

The partnership was originally published on August 5, 2026.

#Stellar

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⚡️🇨🇴 For those impacted by the devastating earthquake in Colombia, Starlink is providing free service through September 12 to new and existing customers.

"We are also deploying Starlink to support emergency response agencies and restore connectivity in the hardest-hit areas," — Starlink wrote.

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🤖 IBM and Together AI Sign Multi-Year Agreement to Scale Open-Source AI Inference with NVIDIA AI Infrastructure on IBM Cloud

Under a multi-year $240M agreement between IBM and Together AI, IBM is positioned to deploy a large cluster of NVIDIA HGX B300 systems on IBM Cloud with expected availability in Q1 2027. Together AI will use this cluster to provide open-source model inference.

❗️This deployment is the first dedicated, large-scale cluster built for inference on IBM Cloud using HGX B300 systems and NVIDIA Spectrum-XTM Ethernet networking.

The aim is to enable Together AI to deliver better performance and token economics to enterprises as they look to efficiently scale their AI deployments. Together AI is built on the principle that open-source models are essential for the future of AI and developers should be able to build using open, modular stacks.

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💊 New autism therapy shows surprising benefits

Researchers led by Director Eunjoon Kim of the IBS Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions have identified a potential new autism treatment target: restoring function of the glycine transporter Slc6a20a/SLC6A20 to boost NMDAR activity, a receptor linked to ASD, schizophrenia, and other neurological conditions that has proven difficult to treat consistently.

These receptors play a major role in communication between brain cells and are essential for learning, memory, and other cognitive processes. To explore whether the strategy might eventually have relevance for people, the researchers tested it in human brain models.

Using CRISPR gene editing, they created human cortical organoids with SHANK2 or SHANK3 mutations. Like the mouse models, these organoids showed reduced NMDAR activity. An ASO designed to target the human SLC6A20 gene restored NMDAR function to levels close to normal.

A single ASO dose remained effective for at least 8 weeks with no detectable adverse effects in treated mice. While focused on autism, the findings position SLC6A20 as a promising target for restoring NMDAR function — with potential applications for other disorders involving NMDAR hypofunction.

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🏆🇺🇸 U.S. Department of Commerce: "America is leading the world in quantum computing."

Secretary Lutnick visited IBM in Yorktown Heights, New York, to see that leadership firsthand. American innovation and the Commerce Department’s cutting-edge CHIPS deals are driving the industry forward.

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🇮🇷 Iran to Join New BRICS New Development Bank Soon

Iran will soon join the New Development Bank, the development lender established by the BRICS group of nations, ​central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said ahead of a BRICS finance meeting in India.

"The most important result of cooperation among BRICS member countries is the establishment of the New Development Bank, and our country will ​soon become a ​member of this ⁠bank," — Hemmati said.

Hemmati said Iran believed BRICS members ​could conduct trade using their national currencies and was seeking bilateral and trilateral monetary ​cooperation with other members.

#BRICS

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🏦 Bank of England Tests Stablecoin and Digital Pound Interoperability to Modernize Cross-Border Finance

By moving its digital pound exploration into Phase 2, the BOE is testing whether public stablecoin infrastructure and central bank money can coexist in a single payment flow for trade finance. The BOE has been experimenting with a CBDC and the distributed-ledger technology that forms the backbone of the blockchain since 2024.

At the heart of the experiment is the improvement of trade finance, which would particularly benefit small businesses, according to Otto Jacobsson, U.K. chapter lead at the Digital Assets Association. Trade-finance delays make it harder for those firms to prove creditworthiness and access funding.

“If these processes can become faster and more efficient, U.K. businesses could unlock working capital sooner and make it easier to finance international trade,”— Jacobsson said.

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⚡️🇺🇸 US Launches Effort to Speed Trade in AI Goods Between Allies

The Trump administration announced a new program aimed at accelerating shipments between the US and its closest trading partners of goods considered critical to developing AI.

The State Department will create a pilot platform in Panama intended to fast track trade in products essential to AI as part of Pax Silica, a US-led initiative created to strengthen supply chains between allies. The agency is committing up to $50 million in foreign assistance funding to develop and deploy the platform, which will use AI technology to speed the logistics process.

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🤑 NYU Abu Dhabi Receives Renewed Ripple UBRI Grant to Advance Blockchain Research and Education

NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) has received a generous renewed grant from Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), extending a long-standing collaboration to advance blockchain research, education, and innovation. The six-year grant will support work led by Professors Raša Karapandža and Yaw Nyarko, Co-Directors of NYUAD’s Center for Technology, Economics and Development (CTED).

🔜 The funding will accelerate research into how decentralized technologies can improve market efficiency, reduce barriers to trade, and support inclusive economic growth. Based at NYUAD and operating globally, CTED conducts research at the intersection of technology and economic theory, with projects spanning the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America.

🔜 A key outcome of the partnership is the Volta Initiative, a serverless mobile application built on blockchain infrastructure that supports trade among smallholder farmers in Ghana, demonstrating how decentralized technologies can drive real economic impact. 🚀

“NYU Abu Dhabi has become a cornerstone of UBRI’s work in the Middle East. Through hands-on integration with the XRP Ledger in Professor Karapandža’s courses and applied research initiatives like Volta, the team is equipping students and researchers to build, test, and deploy real-world blockchain solutions,” — said Lauren Weymouth, Senior Director of University Partnerships at Ripple.

#Stellar

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