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Daniel Boffey / The Guardian : Iran targeting commercial datacenters in the UAE and Bahrain signals a new frontier in asymmetric warfare and raises doubts over the Gulf as a global AI hub   —  Iran's targeting of commercial datacentres in the UAE and Bahrain signals a new frontier in asymmetric warfare

PALM BEACH, FLA - British opposition leader Nigel Farage is taking aim at his country's prime minister for not supporting the U.S. in its military strikes against Iran . "I think not to support America when it asks for support is a pretty extraordinary thing to have done.," Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said in an exclusive interview Saturday with Fox News Digital. President Donald Trump has blasted Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially blocking the U.S. from using British military bases, specifically Diego Garcia — a strategic base located on an Indian Ocean island — for strikes against Iran during Operation Epic Fury. Starmer later permitted the use of the bases for "defensive strikes" after Trump's complaints.  Starmer hasn’t spoken to Trump since they connected on a call last weekend, after the U.S. and Israel launched their strikes on Iran. The British prime minister has made clear his country would not be joining ...

Nancy Scola / Politico : Leading the Future, a pro-AI PAC backed by Palantir-cofounder Joe Lonsdale, hit pro-regulation Democrat Alex Bores with attack ads over Bores' work for Palantir   —  NEW YORK CITY — Alex Bores had known for a while that a political operation called Leading the Future, funded …

President Donald Trump said Saturday that the "hatred" between Russia and Ukraine is getting in the way of reaching a peace deal in that conflict, where the death toll is getting worse.  Trump, speaking at the Shield of the Americas Summit in Doral, Fla., told world leaders assembled there that, "The hatred between Putin and his counterpart is so great."  "It's so great that, you know, Ukraine, Russia,  you'd think there would be a little bit of camaraderie, [but] there’s not. And the hatred is so great. It's very hard for them to get there. It's very, very hard to get there. So we'll see what happens," Trump said. "But we've been close a lot of times and one or the other would back out."  "But we're losing, you know, they're losing, you know, doesn't really affect us very much because we've got an ocean separating....

Wall Street Journal : How prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket are aggressively targeting college students through fraternity partnerships and student influencers   —  Kalshi and Polymarket pour money into deals with social-media influencers and students, who try to parlay rumors, insider information into cash; 'We know this shouldn't be allowed'

Brody Ford / Bloomberg : Sources: Oracle plans thousands of job cuts as soon as this month as part of its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort   —  Oracle Corp. is planning to ax thousands of jobs, among its moves to handle a cash crunch from a massive AI data center expansion effort.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered one of his bluntest defenses yet of President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran Tuesday, sharply rejecting criticism and describing the regime as "lunatics" as he argued the president acted at the right moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. "Let me explain to you guys this in simple English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics," Rubio told reporters. FETTERMAN ‘BAFFLED’ BY LACK OF SUPPORT FOR TRUMP’S IRAN STRIKES AND DEATH OF ‘EVIL’ LEADERS "They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons," Rubio said. "This is the weakest they’ve ever been. Now is the time to go after them." Rubio said Trump made the "right decision" to dismantle Iran’s military capabilities before they could shield a nuclear program. "The president made the decision to go after them, take away their missiles, take away their navy, take away their drones … so that they can never h...

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg : Epic and Google propose a settlement that would have Google share its Play Store app catalog with rivals and offer a registered app store program for Android   —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Epic Games Inc. proposed a new settlement Wednesday to resolve a long-running antitrust case between the two companies.

Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg : Sources: Anduril is seeking to raise about $4B in a round co-led by Thrive Capital and a16z, which could nearly double the startup's valuation to ~$60B   —  Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz are co-leading a fundraising round for Anduril Industries Inc …

David Heaney / UploadVR : ByteDance shares details about its “Project Swan” headset, set to launch this year with a 4,000-PPI micro-OLED display, and unveils Pico OS 6, its new XR OS   —  ByteDance's Pico announced the key display and compute specs of its “Project Swan” headset, coming later this year …

President Donald Trump said he authorized the strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before Tehran could act on alleged plots against him, telling ABC: "I got him before he got me. They tried twice … I got him first." The president’s blunt remark appears to link Khamenei’s killing to previously reported Iranian-backed assassination plots targeting Trump during the 2024 election cycle — plots that U.S. prosecutors tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Khamenei marked the most dramatic escalation in years of tensions between Washington and Iran. Iranian state media confirmed the longtime supreme leader’s death after coordinated strikes targeted senior regime figures and key facilities around Tehran, Iran.  Trump has framed the strike as both a strategic blow to the Iranian regime and a personal reckoning with a government he says sought his life. US SURGES FORCES TO MIDDLE EAST AS PENTAGO...

New York Times : A profile of Palmer Luckey and his startup Anduril, which has more than $6B in global contracts, had roughly $2B in revenue last year, and is valued at ~$31B   —  Within minutes of arriving at a security conference with U.S. defense and intelligence officials in December …

Meir Orbach / CTech : Israel-based Guidde, which is developing a platform to accelerate the adoption of AI in organizations, raised a $50M Series B round led by PSG Equity   —  The Israeli startup's platform turns employee workflows into structured knowledge for automation.  —  Guidde, a startup developing …

New York Times : Sources describe in detail the failed talks between Anthropic and DOD, and how officials at agencies, including the CIA, still hope for a peace agreement   —  The Pentagon and Anthropic were close to agreeing on the use of artificial intelligence.  But strong personalities, mutual dislike and a rival company unraveled a deal.

Kohei Fujimura / Nikkei Asia : Chinese matchmaking apps like Wanmei Qinjia, which has 50M users and lets parents look for spouses for their children, surge as marriage rates continue to fall   —  DALIAN, China — Apps that enable parents to search for spouses for their unmarried children have become increasingly popular in China …