🇦🇺Australia will require users to verify their age to play GTA Online and other R18+ online games

Australians attempting to access online games with an R18+ classification will from next week to prove their age, and if publishers don't comply they could face fines of nearly AU$50 million. The change applies to online games only—in other words, singleplayer, offline games with an R18+ rating, like Doom Eternal, don't need to worry—but it will affect GTA Online. It's all part of measures taken under the new Age-Restricted Material Codes.

Age assurance technology takes a lot of forms. In Australia, where a social media ban has been imposed for children under 16, YouTube requires credit card details or a copy of a valid government ID to determine age. Instagram uses "facial age estimation technology" based on video footage uploaded by the user, as does TikTok, and both also accept government ID.

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🔥 DTCC Patent names XRP & Stellar as key liquidity tokens for global tokenization

A newly surfaced patent from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is capturing attention across both the crypto and traditional finance sectors, revealing a framework where blockchain-based liquidity tokens like XRP and Stellar (XLM) could help power the future of global asset settlement.

The patent published in 2025 reveals that DTCC has explored a cross-ledger liquidity framework designed to enable the seamless movement of tokenized assets across multiple blockchain networks. Within the proposed architecture, XRP and Stellar are identified as digital liquidity tokens, capable of bridging value between traditional financial infrastructure and distributed ledgers to facilitate faster, interoperable settlement.

Reinforcing this concept, former Ripple CTO David Schwartz recently emphasized that XRP transactions are fully immutable once confirmed and cannot be blocked or reversed by any party, highlighting the network’s censorship-resistant design and reliability for cross-system value transfer.

By exploring frameworks where digital liquidity tokens like XRP and XLM enable seamless value transfer across blockchains, they signal that interoperability and instant settlement could become core to next-generation market infrastructure.

#Stellar

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🇯🇵 Japan seeks exemption from US tariff hike amid trade concerns

Japan has asked the US to spare it from a planned tariff increase from 10% to 15%, according to Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa. The request is due to concerns that higher tariffs could hit Japan's automobile industry and erode concessions secured in 2025.

“We asked that Japan not be included in any increase to 15%,” - Trade Minister Ryosei Akazawa told after meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ahead of the March 19 leaders’ summit. He also stressed that Japan’s treatment “should not become more disadvantageous than under last year’s Japan–US agreement.”

At stake is not only trade balance but also the Strategic Investment Initiative, a $550 billion program designed to channel Japanese financing into US projects. Under the deal, the US can raise tariffs if Tokyo fails to deliver funding on schedule.

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💊 This 5-day brain treatment is giving people with depression new hope

For many people living with depression, medications do not provide enough relief. In these cases, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has become an important alternative. This noninvasive therapy uses magnetic pulses to activate targeted regions of the brain. Large clinical studies show that it significantly reduces symptoms in 60 to 70% of patients, and 25 to 35% achieve remission.

However, for patients with treatment-resistant depression, getting to the clinic every weekday for at least 6 weeks can be a real obstacle. Researchers at UCLA Health recently have offered those same patients a path to meaningful relief in less than one week by condensing 25 TMS treatments over just 5 days, a format known as five-by-five, or “5×5.”

An important finding involved some patients in the accelerated group who showed minimal improvement immediately after completing the five-day course. When researchers reassessed them two to four weeks later, those individuals demonstrated substantial progress. On average, their depression scores had fallen by 36%.

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🤖 Microsoft, Google, Amazon say Anthropic Claude remains available to non-defense customers

Enterprises and startups that use Anthropic Claude through Microsoft and Google products need not fear that the model will be ripped from their reach, Microsoft and Google confirmed. AWS customers and partners can also reportedly continue to use Claude for their non-defense associated workloads.

“Our lawyers have studied the designation and have concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers — other than the Department of War — through platforms such as M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry, and that we can continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense related projects,” - the spokesperson said in an email.

Google, which sells cloud computing, AI, and productivity tools federal agencies, has also confirmed that it will continue to make Claude available to its customers through the platforms, like Google Cloud.

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🇺🇸 President Trump has just formed the 'Shield of Americas' coalition - an initiative with Latin America countries to DESTROY the narco-terrorists and drug cartels in our hemisphere.

Trump hosted the Shield of the Americas summit, where leaders signed a charter affirming the right to chart their own destinies free from interference. The summit was part of a broader effort to strengthen regional security cooperation and aimed at shoring up support for the administration’s anti-drug trafficking operations.

“Every leader here today is united in the conviction that we cannot and will not tolerate the lawlessness in our hemisphere any longer,” Trump said. “The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries. We have to use our military, you have to use your militaries.”

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🤖 OpenAI’s head of robotics resigns over company’s Pentagon deal

The head of OpenAI’s robotics team resigned Saturday, citing the company’s deal to deploy its AI models within the Pentagon’s classified network as the cause. OpenAI confirmed Caitlin Kalinowski’s departure in an email statement and said it believes the agreement with the Defense Department “creates a workable path for responsible national security uses of AI while making clear our red lines, no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons.”

“We recognize that people have strong views about these issues and we will continue to engage in discussion with employees, government, civil society and communities around the world,” - the company said.

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🎮 Linux hacked onto a PS5 to turn Sony's console into a Steam Machine

In light of Sony's heavily-rumored decision to pivot away from PC releases, one security engineer took matters into his own hands and turned the PS5 into a PC. Andy Nguyen ported Linux to a PlayStation 5 console, hacking through several layers of hardware and software barriers thanks to full-chain exploits. Not only did he manage to get Linux running, but the modded console actually performs well in games.

Now that it's a PC, it can do anything a standard computer can, which includes running GTA V Enhanced Edition via Steam. It's set to 1440p resolution, with ray tracing enabled as denoted by the "High RT" preset in settings. The gameplay is steady at a smooth 60 FPS with barely any fluctuation, and even the sound is working. But the PS5 Slim doesn't have the thermal headroom to keep up with those numbers and simply overheats if pushed any harder. To achieve this, Andy used a PS5 running significantly older firmware, between 1.0 and 2.0, that was released around five years ago.

In a way, this is a tease of what the upcoming Steam Machine will be since it'll feature similar performance and run SteamOS, based on Linux. Through Proton, it can play pretty much any Windows game, sometimes with even a slight FPS bump.

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump about the Save America Act: "It must be done immediately."

Trump vows not to not sign any other legislation until Congress approves The Save America Act.

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🇺🇸 US customs agency expects tariff refund system to be ready in 45 days

The U.S. customs agency is readying a system within 45 days to process refunds of returning $166 billion in tariff payments to around 330,000 importers. The U.S. Supreme Court did not say how the collected tariffs should be refunded, leaving small importers worried the process would be expensive and time-consuming.

"This new process will require minimal submission from importers," - Lord said in his declaration, filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade as government lawyers began meeting with Judge Richard Eaton from the court.

Judge Richard Eaton said in his Wednesday order that he had been appointed by the trade court to hear the roughly 2,000 lawsuits filed by importers including FedEx and L'Oreal seeking refunds. Trade lawyers said those lawsuits were the tip of the iceberg, and thousands more were prepared to sue if the government failed to develop a system for automatic refunds. Affiliates of Nintendo and CVS became the latest large companies to sue for refunds.

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🇨🇭Swiss put cash into constitution to guard against its demise

Switzerland voted to enshrine the availability of cash in its constitution, assenting to a push designed to guard against the demise of physical money. A government plan for the legal change has 69% backing, according to preliminary official estimates on Sunday.

The vote marks a rare moment of circumspection on the nature of money. Cash use for payments has rapidly declined dropping to just 30% of transactions two years ago, from 70% less than a decade before. Even so, the Swiss are fond of their francs, and still use coins with designs dating back to the mid-19th century. 😄

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🇯🇲🇨🇺 Jamaica to end decades-long agreement with Cuba over medical missions criticized by US

Jamaica’s foreign ministry said that the decades-old arrangement involving Cuban medical missions would not be renewed after both governments failed to reach agreement on new terms for a technical cooperation pact. The previous agreement had already expired in February 2023, and negotiations over a replacement arrangement were unsuccessful.

As recently as last year, officials noted that more than 400 Cuban doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers, and technicians were working across the country, filling critical gaps in public health services. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the initiative as a form of “forced labor” and human trafficking, arguing that the Cuban government retains a large portion of the salaries paid to doctors working abroad.

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🎮 Microsoft patents system for AI helpers to finish games for you

Microsoft published a patent application called “State management for video game help sessions”, designed for players who might be stuck in a video game. The filing described a cloud-based system that offered help without forcing players to tab out, Google a guide, or scrub YouTube.

The core idea is simple: the game would offer a “cloud-based help session” during play, pull a “help session starting state” from your save, then stream the session to a helper’s device while the helper sent inputs back. After the assist, the system could “provide the updated help session state to the current gaming session.” In plain English: you ask for help, someone else runs the tricky stretch, and you get the game back in a better spot.

It's not too dissimilar from the Copilot AI already available in the Xbox app. The patent discusses the need to accurately track who was playing when an achievement is unlocked, and also to ensure human helpers are paired with players in the same age range — so you don't have a scenario where a child is able to jump in and help slice up zombies in Resident Evil Requiem, for example. 😄

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🛩 Flexjet has completed installation of Starlink across its large cabin fleet

FlexJet, the second-largest private jet operator, has announced that it has now installed Starlink high-speed internet across its entire large-cabin fleet of 60 aircraft, delivering seamless, reliable connectivity from boarding to touchdown. Its large cabin fleet includes the Gulfstream G700, G650, and G450. Flexjet expects to complete fleetwide installation by the end of 2027.

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🇦🇺 Australia weighing requests for assistance from countries attacked by Iran

Australia's government said on Sunday it was considering requests to help protect countries attacked by Iran in the widening Middle East conflict, but reiterated it would ‌not take part in any military operations in Iran.

"We've had many countries, which are non participants, (that) have been attacked by Iran through this. You would anticipate as a consequence that we have been asked for assistance, and we will work ⁠through that carefully," - Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in televised remarks.

Australia, a close U.S. ally, has said it will not deploy troops to the Middle East if the conflict escalates. Asked if Australia could help protect nations from Iranian drone and missile attacks, Wong said "correct". Now Australia is currently working with airlines to help thousands of Australians stranded in the Middle East.

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🆕 US startup plans to build data centers inside ocean-based wind turbines, servers water cooled via chilly North Sea

San Francisco-based startup Aikido Technologies, which is focused on building offshore wind turbines, is experimenting with adding data centers to its power platforms. The company plans to launch a 100-kilowatt unit that combines a wind turbine with an AI server off the coast of Norway in the North Sea by the end of 2026.

Aikido is using a semi-submersible design for its offshore wind turbines, similar to what many oil and gas companies use when drilling in high seas. This design comes with three ballast-filled legs, filled with fresh water to help maintain buoyancy and stay upright. From there, it’s secured to the seabed via chains and anchors, ensuring that it will remain in the general area, even as the wind and ocean batter it.

The firm says that it can add up to a 3- to 4-MW data hall in the upper part of each leg, meaning each wind turbine can potentially become a 9- to 12-MW data center. Experiments like this can potentially solve the power and space problems that most land-based data centers face at the moment.

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🤖 Alibaba-linked AI agent hijacked GPUs for unauthorized crypto mining

An autonomous AI agent called ROME, built by Alibaba-affiliated research teams, spontaneously attempted to mine cryptocurrency and open covert network tunnels during training, with no human instruction to do so, researchers said. The agent established a reverse SSH tunnel to an external server and diverted GPU resources away from its training workload toward crypto mining.

The researchers chalked up the behaviors to "instrumental side effects of autonomous tool use under RL optimization," meaning the agent, while trying to optimize for its training objective, apparently decided on its own that acquiring additional computing resources and financial capacity would help it complete its tasks. The incident adds to a growing list of autonomous AI agents behaving in unintended ways.

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