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David Cendon Garcia / EU-Startups : Germany-based Makersite, which helps clients like Microsoft improve product sustainability during the design process, raised a €60M Series B   —  Stuttgart-based Makersite has secured €60 million in Series B funding to enhance its customer offering and scale both its technology …

Ellie Wolfe / The Baltimore Banner : The Johns Hopkins University Press will license its authors' books to train AI models, citing concerns that “the window may be closing” for making AI deals   —  The Johns Hopkins University will license its books to train proprietary large language models, an advanced form …

Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg : A look at the tensions between Meta, Apple, and Google on whether apps or app stores should check if a user is a minor, as states work on age verification bills   —  Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience.  Share your feedback  —  The biggest tech companies are warring …

Bloomberg : Sources: KKR is in talks to buy ST Telemedia Global Data Centres in a deal that could value the Asian digital infrastructure provider at more than $5B   —  KKR & Co. is in talks to buy ST Telemedia Global Data Centres in a deal that could value the Asian digital infrastructure provider …

Financial Times : Sources: Anthropic is in talks to raise $3B to $5B, including from Middle Eastern investors, in a round that could more than double its valuation to $150B+   —  Rival to ChatGPT maker OpenAI has so far shunned Gulf sovereign investors that ‘enrich dictators’

The Pentagon has suspended participation in all think tank events until further notice, departing from a history of dialogue with Washington’s civilian national security realm. The move is an attempt "to ensure the Department of Defense is not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums and events that run counter to the values of this administration." "Going forward, no DOD official will attend events by America Last organizations that promote globalism and hate (President Donald Trump)," Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson wrote on X.  In the future, the Defense Department (DOD)’s Office of Public Affairs will conduct a "thorough vetting" every time an official is invited to a conference to decide whether the event advances Trump’s agenda. HEGSETH ORDERS SWEEPING ARMY OVERHAUL AND CONSOLIDATION AIMED AT COUNTERING CHINA AND GOLDEN DOME CAPABILITIES Such security events often are funded by foreign governments or defense contractor...

Victoria Song / The Verge : Core Devices CEO says the company has recovered the Pebble trademark, allowing it to rename its new smartwatches as Pebble 2 Duo and Pebble Time 2   —  We were always going to call them Pebbles anyway. … Good news for Pebble fans.  Not only are the Pebble watches coming back, they'll also officially be called Pebble watches.

EXCLUSIVE : After scoring a victory in her effort to undo the Biden-era expansion of clean water regulations that led to outrage from farmers and homesteaders, Senate DOGE Chairwoman Joni Ernst put forward permanent policy exclusions Thursday to prevent future Democratic administrations from "overreach." "If you try to navigate a wastewater treatment pool, you’ll be up a creek without a paddle," Ernst, R-Iowa, said, mocking what she and many heartland landowners see as federal overreach into clearly unnavigable waters. Rainwater pools, farm runoff, small property ponds, and other ephemeral or seasonal water bodies – like prairie potholes and temporary channels – were suddenly subject to federal regulation, not local farmers or landowners. "WOTUS regulatory uncertainty has threatened the livelihoods of hardworking Iowa farmers, small businesses, and landowners for far too long and I was thrilled to join EPA Administrator (Lee) Zeldin in announcing that the T...

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch : Google launches Web Guide, an AI-powered Search Labs experiment that organizes Google Search results by grouping pages related to specific aspects of the query   —  Google on Thursday is launching a new AI-powered feature called Web Guide for organizing Google Search results.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard doubled down at a White House press briefing Wednesday, alleging the Obama administration promoted a "contrived narrative" that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.  "There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false," Gabbard said. "They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true it wasn't." Gabbard’s comments come amid the declassification of a trove of documents from the U.S. intelligence community that claim the Obama administration politicized intelligence, and that U.S. intelligence organizations did not have direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to support Trump’s election in 2016.  OBAMA DENIES TRUMP...

Google DeepMind : Google DeepMind unveils Aeneas, an AI model for contextualizing ancient Latin inscriptions, to help historians interpret and restore fragmentary texts   —  Introducing the first model for contextualizing ancient inscriptions, designed to help historians better interpret, attribute and restore fragmentary texts.

Emma Roth / The Verge : Amazon is acquiring Bee, which sells a $50 device that resembles a Fitbit, is always listening, transcribes conversations, and serves up daily AI summaries   —  Bee is a Fitbit-like device that transcribes your conversations and serves up daily summaries. … Amazon is acquiring Bee, a startup that puts AI on your wrist.

President Donald Trump claimed that former President Barack Obama was the "ringleader" of Russiagate, calling for him to be criminally investigated amid new claims that members of his administration allegedly "manufactured" intelligence that prompted the Trump–Russia collusion narrative. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently declassified documents revealing "overwhelming evidence" that claimed that after Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, then-President Obama and his national security team allegedly laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe. OBAMA ADMIN 'MANUFACTURED' INTELLIGENCE TO CREATE 2016 RUSSIAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE NARRATIVE, DOCUMENTS SHOW Gabbard said the documents revealed that Obama administration officials "manufactured and politicized intelligence" to allegedly create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential...

Lauren Goode / Wired : Source: OpenAI's $40B round announced in March is reopening on July 28; SoftBank's commitment could be cut to $10B if OpenAI does not restructure by end of 2025   —  OpenAI, which recently announced a $40 billion round of financing, is seeking funding from new and existing investors to fulfill the deal.

Lawyers for Harvard University and the Trump administration sparred in federal court in Boston on Monday over the administration's decision to slash roughly $2.6 billion in federal research funding for the university – the latest in a series of high-stakes court clashes that have pitted the Trump administration against the nation's oldest university.  Harvard sued the Trump administration in April over the funding freeze, which it described in its lawsuit as an unlawful and unconstitutional effort to assert federal "control" over elite academic institutions, according to a filing submitted to U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs.  The Trump administration, for its part, has accused Harvard of "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," and refusing to comply with demands from a federal antisemitism task force sent to the university earlier this year. Both sides have asked Burroughs, an Obama appoi...

President Donald Trump lashed out at former President Joe Biden after an off-duty Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer was allegedly shot in the face by an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal rap sheet in New York City. "Last night, in New York City, an incredible CBP Officer was shot in the face by an Illegal Alien Monster freed into the Country under Joe Biden," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. "He was apprehended at the Border in April 2023 but, instead of being deported, was RELEASED." The suspect was identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as 21-year-old Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, a Dominican national. DHS confirmed that Nunez was arrested by Border Patrol near San Luis, Arizona, in April 2023, but was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.  The agency also told Fox News that Nunez has an active warrant for kidnapping in the state of Massachusetts, in addition to prior felony arrests. During a press ...

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal : Mustafa Suleyman, who is in charge of Microsoft's efforts to commercialize AI, says he is focused on “humanist superintelligence” to solve hard social problems   —  Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman is focused on solving social problems rather than racing for superintelligence