Pentagon seeks to lend $5 billion to Fluidstack, an AI cloud startup

42 min agoRepublican lawmakers plan to bring the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act to the House floor next week to address electricity bill increases tied to data center expansion. Government officials nationwide face pressure to prevent data center power costs from being passed to households.

1 h agoAryna Sabalenka advanced to the US Open final on Thursday with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Jessica Pegula, extending her winning streak at Flushing Meadows to 20 matches. The top seed is bidding to become only the third woman to win three consecutive US Open titles, joining Chris Evert and Serena Williams.

1 h agoGlobal bond yields hit three-year highs and stock markets fell on Friday as oil prices climbed to a four-month peak, prompting investors to expect more aggressive interest rate increases from central banks. Brent crude jumped 6 per cent overnight to $109.97 a barrel, driven by restricted flows through the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi control of a Yemeni port threatening Saudi exports.

2 h agoA shortage of air traffic controllers forced Sydney Airport to restrict flight operations on Friday morning, causing cancellations and delays including six cancelled Qantas flights. The disruptions come as the airport faces scrutiny over six near-misses in recent weeks, with air traffic controllers on duty during a July incident flagged as facing high fatigue risk.

2 h agoA documentary by Oscar-winning Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday to a 25-minute standing ovation. The film NAZA draws on interviews with 24 Israeli military and intelligence whistle-blowers to examine how an AI system called Lavender was used to identify targets for assassination in Gaza.

2 h agoKevin Reddington asked the judge to declare Lindsay Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity after a jury deadlock forced a mistrial in the Massachusetts woman's murder trial. Eleven of 12 jurors were prepared to acquit Clancy, but one holdout prevented a unanimous verdict after more than seven days of deliberations.

3 h agoAt $19.3 billion, Oracle's first-quarter revenue exceeded the Street's $19.14 billion average forecast, lifted by robust enterprise appetite for cloud services. The company raised its full-year profit outlook and deployed 850 megawatts of data center capacity during the June-August period.

4 h agoThe Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital is negotiating a $5 billion loan to Fluidstack, an AI cloud-computing startup, to strengthen U.S. data center supply chains and manufacturing capacity for related components. Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that declared a national emergency and prohibited certain foreign equipment from U.S. electricity grids serving data centers.

5 h agoIran-aligned Houthis took control of the port city of Mocha on Thursday and pushed down the Red Sea coast toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world's most important shipping routes. Yemeni government military sources said the group had reached the Hanish Islands and gained further leverage over the waterway, which Saudi Arabia has relied on since the Iran conflict closed the Strait of Hormuz.

6 h agoPrime Minister Mark Carney announced the commitment following talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Calgary on Thursday. As Russia intensifies ballistic missile strikes, Kyiv faces acute shortages of US-made Patriot interceptors. Ottawa will channel the aid through a Pentagon programme enabling allied nations to rapidly transfer military equipment to Ukraine.