⚡️🇬🇧 Britain has joined the blitz on Iran as it allows the US to use its airbases to stop the missile and drone strikes on allies in the Middle East.

The U.K. will allow Washington to use British bases to destroy Iran's missiles and its ability to fire them at Britain's allies in the gulf, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Sunday night.

"The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source in their storage depots or the launchers that are used to fire [them]," he said in a video posted on X. "The United States has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose. We have taken the decision to accept this request."

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🇺🇸 President Trump delivered a video update and called Iran to surrender

- Over the past 36 hours, the U.S. and its partners have launched "Operation Epic Fury", one of the largest, most complex, most overwhelming military offensives the world has ever seen.

- Trump went on to issue a direct warning to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and military leadership, urging them to surrender in exchange for immunity or face "certain death."

- Donald Trump vowed to "avenge" the deaths of 3 U.S. service members killed in action.

- The U.S. forces had struck "hundreds of targets" inside Iran, including key Revolutionary Guard facilities, air defense systems and naval assets.

- The U.S. "knocked out 9 Iranian ships "in a matter of literally minutes." Military operations, Trump added, would continue "until all of our objectives are achieved."

- The entire military command is gone.

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⚡️🇸🇦 Saudi Aramco shuts Ras Tanura refinery after drone strike

Saudi Arabia's state oil giant Aramco shut its Ras Tanura refinery following a drone strike, an industry source said on Monday, after Tehran launched strikes across the region. The Ras Tanura complex, on the kingdom's Gulf coast, houses one of the Middle East's largest refineries with a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) and serves as a critical export terminal for Saudi crude.

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🇰🇷🇸🇬 South Korea's Lee holds summit with Singapore's Wong on AI, tech cooperation

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong for a summit aimed at expanding cooperation in fields such as AI and nuclear energy. Lee and Wong announced the start of negotiations to upgrade the countries' existing free trade agreement, which took effect in 2006.

The countries also signed 5 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) for cooperation in fields such as small modular reactors (SMRs) for nuclear power generation, AI and other scientific fields such as quantum and space satellites. Other partnerships will include cooperation on investment between Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek and its asset management unit Seviora Group with state-run Korea Development Bank.

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⚡️🇨🇳 China declares support for Iran ‘defending its sovereignty.’

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi tells his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on a call that Beijing supports Tehran defending itself against US-Israeli strikes, as war spreads across the Middle East.

“Beijing cherishes the traditional friendship between China and Iran, supports Iran in defending its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and supports Iran in protecting its legitimate rights and interests,” - Wang told Araghchi.

China urged the US and Israel to immediately cease military operations, avoid further escalation of tensions and prevent the conflict from spreading to the entire Middle East region.

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↗️ Nvidia to invest $2 billion each in Lumentum, Coherent to bolster AI processors

Nvidia will invest $2 billion each in photonic product makers Lumentum and Coherent, as it looks to bolster its data center chips with technology that can better ‌cater to the growing need for faster AI processors. Shares of Lumentum were up 5%, while Coherent rose 9% in early trading after the announcement on Monday.

Nvidia has been seeking out new technology to help boost the speed of its chips, with photonics emerging as a popular choice for many chipmakers looking to cater to higher inference requirements. Monday's tie-ups include multibillion-dollar purchase commitments from Nvidia and future capacity and access ⁠rights to advanced laser and optical networking products from both Lumentum and Coherent.

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🆙 Starlink Mobile teases ‘5G speeds from space with 100x the data density’

Starlink posted on X that it is boasting about an incredible performance update on the way to mobile customers. The next-gen V2 satellites being launched by SpaceX would deliver “100x the data density of the current V1 generation satellites.”

The announcement will affect the Starlink Mobile service, which was previously branded as ‘Direct to Cell’ until recently. This service provides satellite-to-phone communications – data, voice, messaging – across 32 countries spanning 6 continents. When enough V2 satellites get into LEO position, these “cellphone towers in space” are going to boost the service quality significantly.

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🔥 CME says it captures over 75% of the crypto market cap with recent introduction of Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar futures

With the recent introduction of its Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar token futures, CME Group says it now provides access to over 75% of the crypto market capitalization. The world's largest derivatives marketplace is now looking to expand to round-the-clock cryptocurrency futures and options trading.

Building on the 2025 introduction of Solana (SOL) and XRP futures and options, the launch of Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar futures on February 9 further expands traders’ cryptocurrency choices. Available in large and micro sizes, these contracts are cash-settled against their respective CME CF Reference Rate, catering to both institutional and individual investor requirements. Additionally, they offer high capital efficiency, requiring less upfront capital than an equivalent spot position.

Although the broader market still tracks major cryptocurrencies, the distinct risk-return profiles of these relatively smaller assets provide new opportunities for portfolio diversification. As investors increasingly focus on protocol-specific value, these futures will be essential for price discovery and risk management within a secure, centrally cleared environment.

#Stellar

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⚡️🇺🇳 First Lady Melania Trump addresses U.N. Security Council, championing peace through education

First Lady Melania Trump opened today’s United Nations (U.N.) Security Council meeting. This marked the first time a sitting First Lady presided over the Security Council as its members contemplated technology, education, peace, and security.

Melania Trump stressed the imperative of respecting knowledge to foster durable peace. The American First Lady challenged the U.N. Security Council members to pledge to safeguard learning to build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education.

“Enduring peace will be achieved when knowledge and understanding are fully valued within all societies. Now is the time for our generation to elevate our children above ideology through access to wisdom,” - explained Mrs. Trump.

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❗️US State Department urges Americans to immediately leave over a dozen Mideast nations, including Israel

The US Department of State calls on Americans to immediately depart more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Israel.

Americans are urged to depart using commercial means from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, according to Mora Namdar, the State Department’s assistant secretary for consular affairs.

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💻 US scientists discover new silicon qubit that could power future quantum chips

A research team at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the US have identified a robust new qubit in silicon, dubbed the CN center, which could open the door to scalable silicon-based quantum processors and photonic chips.

Named the CN center, the qubit consists of a carbon-nitrogen defect built directly into silicon. Unlike the T center, this defect does not contain hydrogen and will, therefore, be more robust and easier to realize in actual devices. It represents an important step towards mass-producible, telecom-ready quantum devices that can be made with the same materials and fabrication tools as modern computer chips.

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💸🇪🇸 Amazon to invest additional $21 billion in Spain for data centres and AI

Amazon said it would invest an additional 18 billion euros ($21 billion) in Spain to expand its data centres and boost AI innovation, bringing its total investment in the country to 33.7 billion euros. David Zapolsky, Amazon's chief global affairs and legal officer, said the investment would support up to 30,000 jobs until 2035.

"With this investment, we make Spain the AI epicentre of our operations in Europe," he said.

Last year, Amazon announced that its cloud computing unit AWS would invest 15.7 billion euros in data centres in Spain's northeastern Aragon region, which would support the creation of an estimated average of 17,500 jobs per year at local companies through 2033.

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🇧🇷 China's Huawei and UK's Aggreko to develop storage system project in Brazil's Amazon

China's Huawei will sell batteries to British business Aggreko for a renewable energy project in Brazil's Amazon region, in what is expected to become the country's largest-ever energy storage system. Huawei's batteries will run alongside solar plants set up in microgrids across Brazil's Amazonas state, in order to diversify Aggreko's power supply in the region away from polluting thermal plants.

"It's an extremely disruptive project, the largest microgrid project currently in the Americas," Barbara Pizzolato, off-grid director at Huawei in Brazil.

Aggreko's project will cost about 850 million reais ($165.55 million) and take up to three years for full implementation, with the first plants coming online between 2027 and 2028. It's expected that the microgrids will supply energy to communities in 24 locations in Amazonas state, including in large cities such as Tefe, home to about 75,000 people.

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🔬 FDA-approved seizure drug may stop Alzheimer’s before it starts

Scientists at Northwestern University report that they have identified the location and timing of toxic protein buildup in Alzheimer’s patients. The team also found that an inexpensive drug already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can interrupt the process before the damage begins.

Amyloid-beta 42, known as particularly harmful fragment, accumulates inside synaptic vesicles, the small sacs neurons use to release chemical signals and communicate with one another. When the scientists treated animals and human neurons with levetiracetam, a widely prescribed anti-seizure medication, the drug blocked the formation of amyloid-beta 42. By preventing production of the peptide, levetiracetam stopped the chain of events that leads to amyloid plaque buildup.

However, people at high risk for Alzheimer’s might need to begin taking levetiracetam at early stages and this drug is cleared from the body relatively quickly. Now the scientists are now working to develop improved versions that would remain active longer and more precisely target the mechanism that blocks the formation of amyloid plaques.

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↗️ AI coding startup Cursor hits $2 billion annual sales rate

Cursor’s annualized revenue topped $2 billion in February, a figure that underscores the wide popularity of the AI coding assistant. About 60% of the revenue is coming from corporate customers.

At less than 5 years old, Cursor has become one of the fastest-growing startups of all time. Its product is now ingrained in the daily routine of software programmers at businesses ranging from tech companies like OpenAI to consumer brands such as Instacart, Spotify and Uber to organizations not generally associated with software, like AB InBev’s Budweiser beer brand.

Cursor was valued at $29.3 billion in November in a funding round, making it one of the most valuable AI startups in the US. The software has helped introduce a new style of programming known as vibe coding, where developers can create complicated software using relatively simple prompts, letting the AI do most of the work.

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🆕 AI data centers may not need constant peak power, study finds

The trial involving National Grid Plc., Nvidia Corp., Emerald AI and EPRI indicates AI data centers can quickly adjust their consumption when asked. At a London site, operators cut electricity use by roughly a third within about a minute of receiving a signal from the grid, without disrupting workloads. In one live test, an AI facility reduced demand by 10% for 10 hours.

Data centers may not require perfectly steady supply. Instead of acting as rigid, always-on loads, data centers could respond to grid conditions, easing demand during system stress or absorbing surplus renewable power. If operators agree to curb usage at peak times, networks may not have to be built to meet their theoretical maximum demand continuously. 🤔

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🧑‍⚖️ Washington state bill would ban employers from forcibly microchipping workers

The Washington State Legislature website describes House Bill 2303 as a law that prohibits employers from microchipping employees. Introduced earlier in the year by Dem. Reps. Brianna Thomas and Lisa Parshley, HB 2303 explicitly states that businesses “may not request, require, or coerce any employee to have a microchip implanted in the employee for any reason.”

The bill has officially passed through the House and a Senate committee with bipartisan support, and is now on its way to becoming a law. While there aren’t any known instances of the scenario (so far), a pair of lawmakers in Washington state hope to ensure it stays that way. HB 2303 currently states hypothetical corporate violators will receive a minimum fine of $10,000 for the first offense, followed by $20,000 charges for each additional infraction.

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