As Donald Trump turns 80, a collection of public figures offer a mix of sarcastic thanks, sharp criticism, and reflections on his resilience and impact on global politics, finance, and American society.
Anthropic's AI cybersecurity model, Mythos, is now accessible to India and ~150 organizations globally via Project Glasswing. This inclusion, unusual for a non-allied power, highlights India's strategic importance in AI and cybersecurity.
Shanghai's municipal government has announced plans to research and develop compute futures, a new financial derivative, as part of its strategy to become a global wealth management hub. This marks the first official mention of compute futures by Shanghai authorities.
A UK survey reveals over 40% struggle with mobile connectivity on the move, with 45% frustrated weekly. The UK's global ranking for mobile speeds has declined, despite high full-fibre coverage.
Singapore aims to become a hub for "physical AI" (robots and autonomous systems) by leveraging its stable regulations, digital infrastructure, and experience with robot deployment. The city-state announced the launch of a new research lab at the ATxSummit.
The Tor Project and Funding the Commons launched a Web3 crypto crowdfunding campaign on May 19 to support 10 nonprofit projects focused on privacy, censorship circumvention, and secure communications. The campaign uses quadratic funding to prioritize broad community participation and accepts Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Monero, and Golem.
African archipelago hopes startups, digital infrastructure and diaspora investment can transform its economyFor much of its history since its discovery by the Portuguese in the mid-15th century, the Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of west Africa served as a hub of the international slave trade, with Africans forcibly transported to marketplaces before being distributed across the Americas and Europe.Now, almost 150 years since slavery was abolished in Cape Verde, and just over 50 years since independence from Portugal, Pedro Fernandes Lopes wants the country to become a beacon for the free movement of human and financial capital across the African diaspora. Continue reading...
This could be due to adaptation to tax changes, as well as temporary internet disruptions and the population's desire to have a reserve of payment methods that are not dependent on the operation of digital infrastructure
TikTok is investing US$25 billion in data infrastructure projects in Thailand, the company’s biggest investment announced to date in Southeast Asia, as China’s technology giants continue expanding their footprint in the region. The investment would be used to install additional servers and expand data storage and processing infrastructure across Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao provinces to support rising demand for digital services, according to an announcement by Thailand’s Board of...
Partnership between top startup DeepL and Amazon comes amid concern about Silicon Valley’s monopoly over digital infrastructureAI companies in Europe risk losing their world-leading status in the field of machine translation, industry figures have said, after the decision by one of the continent’s leading startups to partner with Amazon’s cloud computing division provoked alarm.While businesses in the EU have generally lagged behind the US and China in AI adoption, a small group of European companies have cornered the global market for high-quality machine translations for professional use. Continue reading...
Southeast Asia to benefit significantly from Asian Development Bank's $70 billion new energy and digital infrastructure plan in Asia and the Pacific by 2035.
This opinion piece argues that India's cybersecurity approach is incomplete because it focuses on AI-powered defense while neglecting fundamental system design. The authors contend that security must begin with threat modeling and formal verification—mathematical proof that systems exhibit intended security properties—rather than merely detecting breaches. Three distinct threat model layers (design, use case, implementation) must be addressed separately. The article calls for mandating layered threat models, requiring implementation-level verification for critical systems, and building national capability in cryptography and formal verification as a strategic asset.
Startups across the Middle East and North Africa secured over $29 million in funding over the past week, with deals spanning AI, fintech, gaming, and digital infrastructure. Saudi Arabia's Signit raised $15M series A, Oman's Fascano closed $10M, Egypt's Sinai.ai got $1.45M pre-seed, and UAE's Ray raised $1.2M seed. Austria's Speedinvest launched a MEA-focused fund backed by Mubadala and Qatar Investment Authority, while VAST Data raised $1B at a $30B valuation.
Wall Street institutions are rapidly adopting perpetual futures contracts and tokenized real-world assets to operate in a 24/7 global economy. Industry experts explain that the elimination of contract expiry dates and atomic settlement are redefining market relevance, with crypto-native platforms increasingly leading price discovery during weekend geopolitical events. The IMF warns that while these technologies enhance capital efficiency, they eliminate temporal buffers and require CBDCs as a public anchor to prevent instant liquidity crises.
