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A raven has landed with your weekly intelligence briefing. We've sifted through the global noise to bring you only what matters. Prepare for this week's essential developments—distilled, unbiased, and delivered in one swift flight.
Trump Begins Asia Tour with Trade Deals and Ceasefire Ceremony 🇺🇸 🌏
President Donald Trump arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Sunday.
He was greeted at the airport by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
The visit served as the first destination on his scheduled three-country Asia tour.
Trump attended events occurring on the sidelines of the 47th Asean Summit.
He and PM Anwar Ibrahim signed a critical minerals deal.
The trade deal focused on enhancing America’s access to rare earths.
Malaysia committed to not banning or imposing quotas on critical mineral exports to the U.S.
Trump oversaw the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia.
Trump is also slated to attend a working dinner with ASEAN leaders.
This marks the first stop on an Asian tour that also includes Japan and South Korea, where he is expected to meet with the Chinese leader, Xi. To further discuss and negotiate a trade deal in the midst of their trade war.
Source: The Straits Times, NBC, and The Guardian.
Raven Bites🐦⬛
News/Events/Politics
Over $100 million worth of jewels stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. Veteran detectives who have probed similar cases said French investigators have a lot of evidence (DNA) to work with. (more)
Japan’s parliament on Tuesday elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister, and she underlined her commitment to boosting Japanese defense as she prepared to host visiting U.S. President Donald Trump next week. (more)
Left-wing independent Catherine Connolly has won Ireland’s presidential election in a landslide victory against her center-right rival. (more)
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has said the United States government is “fabricating” a war against him as Washington sent the world’s biggest warship towards the South American country. (more)
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the U.S. vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”. (more)
The main Palestinian factions have said they have agreed that an independent committee of technocrats would take over the running of Gaza after Hamas said it had received “clear guarantees” from mediators that “the war has effectively ended”. (more)
Timor-Leste has joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the bloc’s 11th member state in a move Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao hailed as a “dream realised”. (more)
Vladimir Putin has said Russia will never bow to U.S. pressure but conceded new sanctions could cause some economic pain, as China and India were reported to be scaling back Russian oil imports after Washington targeted Moscow’s two largest producers. (more)
Economics/Business/Crypto
President Donald Trump slaps an extra 10% tariff on imports from Canada in retaliation for what he says is a misleading TV ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. (more)
The consumer price index in the U.S. showed a 0.3% increase on the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%, both lower than expected.(more)
The U.S. could substantially slash tariffs on Indian exports as the two countries near a trade deal that could see New Delhi cutting oil purchases from Russia. (more)
President Donald Trump signed a pardon Wednesday for convicted crypto executive Changpeng Zhao, who founded the Binance crypto exchange. (more)
Technology
OpenAI released Atlas, an artificial intelligence-powered web browser. Atlas looks and feels similar to existing browsers, but is built around OpenAI’s generative chatbot ChatGPT. (more)
Samsung has unveiled its Galaxy XR headset that runs on Google’s Android XR operating system and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 platform costing $1,800. It’s available now in the U.S. and Korea. (more)
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that it’s designating Apple and Google with strategic market status in their respective mobile platforms. The decision, which affects the companies’ operating systems, app stores, browsers, and browser engines, will enable the regulator to take targeted actions to enhance competition in the space. (more)
Palantir said it had struck a partnership with Lumen Technologies that will see the telecommunications company using the data management company’s AI software to build capabilities to support enterprise AI services, spending over $200 million over the course of several years. (more)
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