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Aisha Down / The Guardian : Source calls UK- and OpenAI-touted plans in 2025 for Stargate's ~£20B Cobalt site a PR stunt; OpenAI and Nscale failed to visit Cobalt or lodge planning forms   —  Exclusive: £20bn of ‘potential’ £30bn AI investment touted by UK ministers appears to have been hypothetical

Marcel Thee / Nikkei Asia : Indonesia's enforcement of social media restrictions for under-16s has been patchy, with tech companies ignoring the rules and youth still accessing platforms   —  JAKARTA — Andreas Humala, a multimedia lecturer at the London School of Public Relations in Jakarta, recently overheard …

Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., is facing a misdemeanor hit-and-run charge after authorities say he struck a parked vehicle in Napa County, California, on Friday, and drove away before his own car became disabled. The Napa County Sheriff's Office said the crash happened Friday afternoon in Yountville, just over an hour north of San Francisco. A witness reported seeing a brown convertible hit an unoccupied parked vehicle before continuing north. Deputies later found the damaged convertible partially blocking a nearby roadway and identified the driver as Paul Pelosi, 86. During the investigation, Pelosi allegedly told deputies he knew he had hit something but did not know what it was, according to the sheriff's office. He continued driving until his vehicle became disabled, investigators said. PAUL PELOSI HAMMER ATTACKER GETS LIFE SENTENCE ON STATE CHARGES, ON TOP OF 30 YEARS AFTER FEDERAL TRIAL Authorities said alcohol was not a factor ...

Katherine Bindley / Wall Street Journal : How some high-income families use AI-powered private schools and tutors, such as Alpha School, to teach their children life skills and tailor their curriculum   —  People who can afford to send their grade-school kids anywhere are choosing new alternative education

Bloomberg : A look at the quant fund frenzy in China, as assets under management have more than doubled to ~$384B in less than a year amid rapid AI adoption   —  Quant funds in China have become so popular that they are being deluged with investors' money.  —  Ubiquant, one of the top players …

President Donald Trump on Friday announced full executive pardons for six people he claims were "persecuted" by the Biden administration for simply "fixing their car." In a Truth Social post Friday afternoon, the president took aim at federal prosecutions he characterized as part of the "Weaponization and Stupidity" of the prior administration, saying, "I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!" The pardons align with Trump’s broader push to defend the "right to repair." Earlier in the week, he signed a presidential memo designed to make it easier for Americans to repair their own vehicles by protecting self-repair rights and opening up options for aftermarket parts. FORMER INDIANA REP STEPHEN BUYER RECEIVES FULL PARDON FROM TRUMP FOR 2023 INSIDER TRADING CONVICTION "It came to my attention because I noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car," Trump said during an Oval Office news conference. "We rule by com...

Jeremie Eliahou Ontiveros / SemiAnalysis : Meta could use its compute for its own models, ad scaling, SpaceX-like neocloud deals, and hosting 3rd-party models; it may be close to an Anthropic deal   —  Zuck Takes Plan B?  SpaceX 2.0, Bedrock 2.0, MSL Isn't Giving Up, Scaling RecSys by 10x... ClusterMAX ranking coming soon?

M.G. Siegler / Spyglass : Meta getting into the cloud business has been inevitable for a long time, as it seeks to diversify beyond ad revenue and monetize its AI buildout   —  Their need to diversify the business meets the AI build out concerns...  Meta has a problem.  Well, two of them, actually.

Bloomberg : Sources: ElevenLabs held early talks with investors on a secondary share sale for staff that would value the startup at ~$22B; it was valued at $11B in February   —  ElevenLabs has held early talks with investors to let employees sell shares in a secondary offering that would value …

A Senate Republican revealed that even if President Donald Trump’s flagship election integrity legislation had the votes to pass, there’s not enough time to actually have it take effect for the upcoming midterm elections. The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act has increasingly become a problem for congressional Republicans desperate to move onto other must-pass legislation. But Trump has consistently demanded they find a way to pass it, particularly in the Senate, by any means necessary. But Republicans aren’t unified behind the bill, and Democrats unanimously despise it. Even if it got 60 votes, which is an unlikely scenario, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., contended it wouldn’t have an impact in time for November. GOP INFIGHTING OVER TRUMP'S VOTER ID BILL ERUPTS AS TOP SENATOR CALLS STRATEGY 'FANTASY' "Unless they do the work to get to the 60 votes, they know it’s dead, and so all this is theater," Tillis told the Raleigh, North Carolina-based...

Cate Lawrence / Tech.eu : UK-based StirlingX, which develops secure data intelligence systems for defense and critical infrastructure, raised a $20M Series A, following a $11M seed   —  The UK company, which develops secure data intelligence systems for defence and critical infrastructure, will use the funding …

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito warned that the court's ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which upheld birthright citizenship for most people born in the United States, threatens America's national security by extending citizenship to children born to illegal aliens and temporary visitors, including "birth tourists." "This is one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court, and in my judgment, the Court has made a serious mistake," Alito wrote in his dissent. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down President Donald Trump's executive order, issued on his second day in office, restricting automatic United States citizenship for people born in the United States whose parents did not have permanent legal status in the country. Alito railed against the majority's ruling in a forceful dissent, arguing the justices misinterpreted the 14th Amendment. He wrote that only people who owe their full allegiance to the United States, a...

Tom Warren / The Verge : Sources: Microsoft has been working on a disc-to-digital feature for Xbox One and Xbox Series X that will let users digitize their physical game collections   —  Microsoft's disc-to-digital feature could be essential for next-gen Xbox consoles. … Microsoft will likely soon follow Sony …

The House floor remained effectively shut down Tuesday after more than a dozen House conservatives continued their blockade in protest of the stalled SAVE America Act. The group of holdouts, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., blocked a procedural vote, effectively freezing legislative business for the foreseeable future, after forcing GOP leaders to punt several votes last week. The hardball tactics have forced the chamber into legislative paralysis as House Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., races to advance several legislative priorities before the July 4 recess. Lawmakers voted 198-224 against advancing a spate of legislative items — including a must-pass defense bill that will be paired with the SAVE America Act — with 14 Republicans voting "no." 'AS LONG AS IT TAKES': TRUMP ALLIES FREEZE HOUSE FLOOR TO PRESSURE SENATE ON VOTER ID BILL The GOP holdouts included Luna and Reps. Max Miller, R-Ohio, Eric Burlison, R-Mo., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Andy Harris, R-Md., R...

Financial Times : A study of 22K US companies shows those spending most heavily on AI are adding workers faster than peers, but most gains are among tech companies and startups   —  Study of 22,000 US companies challenges fears that generative AI will trigger broad job losses

Former President Barack Obama took aim at the Founding Fathers ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, saying they held a "deep flaw" for their ties to slavery despite being "geniuses."  "I think sometimes we get confused in thinking that these two stories are separate. They're intertwined, right? Which is why it's possible for me to be a great admirer of George Washington, and also acknowledge he was a slaveholder," said Obama in an interview Sunday with MSNOW. The 44th president's appearance comes as most Americans prepare to celebrate the nation's 250th birthday on Saturday with patriotic events across the country, while Obama is using the milestone to deliver a more cautionary message about the state of American democracy. OBAMA KNOCKS FOUNDERS AT PRESIDENTIAL CENTER DEBUT BEFORE AMERICA’S 250TH: ‘FELL TERRIBLY SHORT’ "That does not negate [Washington’s] greatness, it simply acknowledges that there's a profound deep flaw in thes...

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE : Baz releases Baz Planner, which uses four specialized AI agents to analyze code at the planning stage, and extends its seed funding by $9M to $17M   —  Agentic coding startup Baz Technologies Inc. said today it's launching a new platform that sits between developers and the code bases they're working …

Marton Eder / Bloomberg : Letter: Austria is pushing the EU to consider hosting Anthropic within its borders, highlighting EU efforts to boost bloc independence from US and Chinese tech   —  Austria is pushing the European Union to consider hosting Anthropic PBC within its borders to counter US efforts to block foreigners …

Qianer Liu / The Information : Sources: Baidu's chip unit Kunlunxin Technology plans a Hong Kong IPO at a $50B target valuation, asking investors to buy chips worth 3-7x their IPO investment   —  In China, chip companies may have found a new clientele for their semiconductors: IPO investors.

Jackson Chen / Engadget : Australian government says it plans to double the maximum penalty for any social media company breaking its minimum age law and grant more powers to enforcers   —  The fine can now potentially hit 99 million AUD, or $68 million.  —  After becoming the first in the world to implement …