💊 Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna’s flu vaccine application

The vaccine maker Moderna said that the Food and Drug Administration had notified the company that the agency would not review its mRNA flu vaccine. Moderna had spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars testing its flu vaccine, enrolling 41,000 people and aimed at a market of adults ages 50 and older. The company concluded that its shot was superior to GSK’s product.

But Mr. Kennedy has scuttled the use of mRNA in vaccines and canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for research using the technology, claiming it is not safe or effective. During his first year as health secretary, he has quashed several projects involving the technology, including an effort by Moderna to develop a shot against bird flu. No country has approved an mRNA flu vaccine.

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⚡ US House passes Bill to require proof of US citizenship for midterm voters

U.S. House passes the SAVE America Act, requiring proof of citizenship to vote, in a narrow 218-213 vote. The bill now moves to the Senate.

Will the Senate finally be able to get this across the finish line? 🧐

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💸 Meta begins construction of $10 billion Indiana data center to boost AI capabilitie

Meta has announced that it’s breaking ground on a new 1 gigawatt data center project in Lebanon, Indiana, which Meta says “represents an investment of over $10 billion in data center infrastructure and the surrounding community,” one of its largest infrastructure investments to date. According to U.S. power grid operators, that is the equivalent of powering about 800,000 homes.

The project is Meta’s 30th data center initiative in the U.S., with several launching over the past year, as the company continues to push towards the next stage of AI development.

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🧑‍⚖️ US decides SpaceX is like an airline, exempting it from Labor Relations Act

The US labor board said SpaceX should instead be regulated under the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations at railroad and airline companies.

In January 2024, an NLRB regional director alleged in a complaint that SpaceX illegally fired eight employees. The complaint sought reinstatement of the employees, back pay, and letters of apology to the fired employees.

SpaceX responded by suing the NLRB, claiming the labor agency’s structure is unconstitutional. But a different issue SpaceX raised later - that it is a common carrier, like a rail company or airline - is what compelled the NLRB to drop its case. US regulators ultimately decided that SpaceX should be treated as a “common carrier by air” and “a carrier by air transporting mail” for the government.

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🪙 Stellar expands Asia Push with TopNod wallet integration

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced at Consensus Hong Kong that TopNod, a non-custodial wallet, will integrate with the Stellar network. The move is part of SDF’s broader push into Asia - a region where it faces stiff competition from Solana, TON, and XRP in the payments and tokenization markets.

TopNod’s wallet uses key sharding and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology to eliminate the need for seed phrases. The platform focuses on tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and stablecoins rather than speculative tokens.

In an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto, Stellar CBO Raja Chakravorti called Asia Pacific “a critical growth driver” and said SDF plans to build out anchor networks in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam over the coming year.

“We brought employees in the region focused on Singapore first, but we’ve really been focusing on expanding rapidly,” Chakravorti said, adding that more APAC financial institution partnerships would be announced over the next two quarters.

SDF has also partnered with MarketNode, a Singapore-based tokenization platform, and said it is in discussions with financial institutions about tokenizing money market funds in the region.

#Stellar

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🇰🇵 North Korea’s Kim positioning daughter as successor

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has entrenched his daughter as heir apparent ahead of a landmark party conference, a South Korean lawmaker said on Thursday after a briefing from Seoul's main intelligence agency. The Kim family has ruled North Korea with an iron grip for decades, and a cult of personality surrounding their "Paektu bloodline" dominates daily life in the isolated country. Kim's teenage daughter Ju Ae has long been seen as the next in line.

“In the past, the South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) described Kim Ju Ae as being ‘in study as successor’ but today the expression used was that she ‘was in the stage of being internally appointed ⁠successor’,” lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a closed-door briefing ‌from the NIS.

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🔥 SBI Trade VC Launches New Round of BTC, BCH, XRP, DOGE, XLM Lending Today

SBI Trade VC, a crypto exchange founded by Japanese financial giant SBI Group has spread the word about launching a new round of crypto lending today. The platform thus allows users not only to borrow crypto from it but also to lend it to others through staking.

According to the tweet, SBI Trade VC now allows users to stake seven coins, including Bitcoin, XRP, DOGE and XLM. Since December, SBI Trade VC has already announced several such lending rounds. Lenders will be entitled to receive “rental fees” regularly, depending on the asset they lend.

SBI Trade VC has launched the lending service despite the current bloodbath on the global cryptocurrency market, allowing those who hold on to their cryptos to make some additional passive income through DeFi.

#Stellar

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🇺🇸🇻🇪🇨🇳 US pushes for Venezuela investment, energy secretary warns about legitimacy of Chinese deals

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright pushed for expanded U.S. investments in Venezuela as part of the visit focused on energy policy, while warning about the legitimacy of Chinese businesses in the OPEC country. Wright said the U.S. is prepared to help boost oil, gas and power output in the country, following talks with interim President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.

"This year, we can drive a dramatic increase in Venezuelan oil production, in Venezuelan natural gas production and Venezuelan electricity production," Wright said during a televised briefing after the meeting. Venezuela is currently producing about 1 million barrels per day of crude.

The boost would lead to more job opportunities, higher wages and quality of life for Venezuelans, while providing benefits for the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, Wright said, adding that the U.S. wants to "set the Venezuelan people and the economy free."

Wright told reporters at a roundtable after meeting Rodriguez that legitimate deals by legitimate Chinese companies are fine in Venezuela, but U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to avoid "damaging" deals that Chinese enterprises have done in other countries in the region. China has already bought some of the crude offered by the U.S., he said.

#BRICS

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🤖 Waymo begins deploying next-gen Ojai robotaxis to extend its U.S. lead

Waymo said it has begun using its sixth-generation driverless system to provide robotaxi rides to employees on Ojai vehicles, which use a base model made by Chinese automaker Geely. By upgrading their driverless tech, and adding more vehicles to its fleet, Waymo aims to extend its U.S. lead and lock in loyal riders. The Alphabet - owned company said its sixth-generation Waymo Driver uses more cost-effective parts, and should be able to navigate through harsher weather conditions than previous generations.

Waymo is offering service on its Ojai vehicles to employees and their guests in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles first, before gradually expanding to new cities, with a goal to open to public riders later this year.

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🇺🇸 Immigration operation in Minnesota coming to an end

White House border czar Tom Homan said Trump had approved his request to conclude the operation, adding he would stay in Minnesota "a little longer to oversee the drawdown, to ensure its success".

“As a result of our efforts here Minnesota is now less of a sanctuary state for criminals,” Homan said at a news conference. “I have proposed and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude.”

Homan said Operation Metro Surge had resulted in many illegal immigrants who had committed violent crimes being detained for deportation. More than 4,000 undocumented immigrants had been arrested. Homan said that ICE has always had a presence in Minnesota and will continue to have one. 🙏

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🇪🇺🇨🇳 Europe losing ground to China

Speaking at the European Industry Summit in Belgium, Macron said Europe must pursue balanced and mutually beneficial trade partnerships, but stressed that trade policy must now serve as a strategic instrument to reduce reliance on China, particularly in critical raw materials and strategic inputs. Despite dozens of trade and mineral agreements, Macron warned that Europe remains “dangerously exposed,” calling for a shift from paper agreements to concrete projects.

"Over the past 20 years, China has grown by around 8% a year, the U.S. by 2%, and the EU on average only by 1%. We must close this gap," - said Germany's Merz.

#BRICS

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↗️ SoftBank books $4.2 billion gain on OpenAI bet, boosting its Vision Fund

SoftBank said it made a $4.2 billion gain on the value of its OpenAI investment in its fiscal third quarter, offsetting losses stemming from the share price declines of Coupang and Chinese ride-hailing app Didi. SoftBank’s AI push has involved a more than $30 billion investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI as one of its core companies. SoftBank owns approximately 11% of OpenAI.

In 2024, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said the world was a decade away from artificial superintelligence - or ASI - which he described as technology 10,000 times more intelligent than humans. Yoshimitsu Goto, chief finanical officer at SoftBank Group, said 60% of the company’s assets are now “ASI-oriented investments.”

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🇺🇸🇮🇷 Trump warns Iran of ‘very traumatic’ outcome if no nuclear deal

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran Thursday with “very traumatic” consequences if it fails to make a nuclear deal. Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for a result “over the next month” from Washington’s negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program.

“We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,” Trump told reporters.

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🥇Elon Musk leads Forbes 250 innovators list for scaling five multibillion-dollar firms

Elon Musk has been named the top innovator on Forbes’ annual 'Forbes 250' list, with the magazine citing his role in building or scaling five multibillion-dollar companies across different industries, a feat it described as historically unmatched. The ranking places Musk ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a list that spans technology, media, venture capital and manufacturing.

Our congratulations! 🎉👏

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🇺🇸🇹🇼 US, Taiwan finalise deal to cut tariffs, boost purchases of US goods

Trump administration officials signed a final reciprocal trade agreement that confirmed a 15% U.S. tariff rate for imports from Taiwan, while committing Taiwan to a schedule for eliminating or lowering tariffs on nearly all U.S. goods.

The document also commits Taiwan to significantly boost purchases of U.S. goods from 2025 through 2029, including $44.4 billion of liquefied natural gas and crude oil, $15.2 billion of civil aircraft and engines, $25.2 billion of power grid equipment and generators, marine and steelmaking equipment. It will optimize the Taiwan-U.S. economic and trade framework, build trustworthy industrial supply chains and establish a Taiwan–U.S. high-tech strategic partnership. 🤝

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