Articles by Khal
Latest from Khal
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Bernie Sanders vows legislation to stop Flock AI surveillance expansion
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pledged to introduce legislation targeting Flock Safety, warning that the company's 120,000-plus AI cameras are pushing the US toward a surveillance state. The move adds prominent bipartisan opposition to the surveillance platform.
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Google's WikiSkill framework boosts AI agent performance across five benchmarks
Google Research introduced WikiSkill, a framework that enables AI agents to learn from experience and retain knowledge across iterations using a persistent wiki-style knowledge base, achieving average performance gains of 12.0 points across five distinct benchmarks.
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Europe's Gas Storage Gaps May Boost Oil Demand This Winter
Europe faces below-seasonal natural gas storage levels ahead of winter, raising concerns about potential fuel switching to crude oil and heightened energy market volatility. Gas prices could exceed 100 euros per megawatt-hour for the first time since 2019.
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Ethereum ETF's $10B launch was mostly Grayscale conversions
US spot Ethereum ETFs launched with $10.36 billion in assets, but filing data shows 98.7% came from converting Grayscale's existing trusts, not fresh institutional demand.
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Coinbase stock tokens drive $125M DEX volume on Base, fuel token launch speculation
Coinbase-issued stock tokens generated $124.8 million in decentralized exchange volume on the Base platform, primarily through NVIDIA and Alphabet tokens. The surge has lifted market odds for a Base token launch by end-2026 to 13% YES.
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Lazarus Group moves $19.4M Bitcoin from dormant wallets
North Korea-linked Lazarus Group transferred 244 BTC worth $19.42 million from inactive wallets, signaling renewed activity but posing minimal direct price risk due to Bitcoin's trading volume and platform security measures.
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Iran strikes trigger 25% oil surge, strain developing economies
Military strikes on Iran in February 2026 have triggered a cascade of energy shocks across global markets, from crude price spikes to depleted reserves and soaring inflation in Asia. Brent crude has risen 25% since the conflict began, while tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed by half.
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NYSE American proposes extended trading hours for equity options
NYSE American filed a proposal with the SEC on June 5 to extend options trading hours, adding a 7:30–9:25 a.m. early session and a 4:00–4:15 p.m. late session for roughly 100 of the most liquid options classes. The move follows Cboe's SEC approval in May but faces infrastructure hurdles at the Options Clearing Corporation.
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Ripple removes 10K lines of XRP Ledger code ahead of AI-audited lending launch
Ripple is recommending removal of over 10,000 lines of dormant XChainBridge code from the XRP Ledger while its new Lending Protocol V1.1 undergoes an AI-only security review via Sherlock's Audit Engine.
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BLS revises payrolls higher for first time since 2022, signaling stronger labor market
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released preliminary 2026 benchmark estimates on August 28, marking the first upward payroll revision since 2022 and suggesting actual employment was stronger than monthly surveys indicated.
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Ethereum ETFs record strongest day in 10 months with $225.8M inflow
U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs pulled in $225.8 million on Thursday, marking their best day in a decade and extending a nine-session buying streak that's accumulated $1.42 billion.
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Harness Raises $240M Series E at $5.5B Valuation Led by Goldman Sachs
Harness raised $240 million in a Series E round led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, pushing the AI-native software delivery platform to a $5.5 billion valuation. The funding reflects growing enterprise demand for automated deployment, security, and compliance solutions.
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Arthur Theate to return to Bologna on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt
Bologna has agreed to bring Belgian centre-back Arthur Theate back on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt with a €15 million buy option, reuniting the 25-year-old with the Serie A club where he first made his name in 2021-22.
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Global semiconductor sales hit $792 billion in 2025, strongest year since 1984
Global semiconductor sales surged to $792 billion in 2025, a 25.6% increase from 2024, marking the industry's strongest growth since 1984. US-headquartered firms now control 53.4% of the market, a share unseen since the mid-1980s, driven largely by AI chip demand.
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UK Crypto Millionaires: 240 People Claimed Over Half of £1.38B in Gains
HMRC's first official breakdown of crypto taxation shows 240 individuals declared more than £1 million each in capital gains during 2024-25, representing just under 2% of the 17,600 total crypto taxpayers but accounting for over half of all declared gains.
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Solana traders raise $150K for 64-year marmot study after NSF cuts
An independent group of Solana crypto traders created a meme coin to fund a 64-year-old wildlife study in Colorado after the National Science Foundation declined the research team's funding request. The effort raised more than $150,000 for the yellow-bellied marmot project.
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HMRC reports 240 UK crypto investors declared over £1 million in gains each
HM Revenue and Customs released 2024-25 tax data showing 240 individuals reported more than £1 million each in crypto capital gains, while 17,600 filers disclosed £1.38 billion in total gains. The agency sent 81,000 warning letters to suspected tax dodgers and will begin receiving automatic data from crypto exchanges in 52 jurisdictions starting May 2027.
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Glamsterdam upgrade: 174M fixable transactions, 2.7M potentially broken
Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade, scheduled for Q4 2026, could affect 177 million transactions through repricing. Most failures are fixable with higher gas limits, but roughly 2.7 million transactions may require code changes or migration.
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Shein prices Hong Kong IPO at $26.5 billion valuation
Shein priced its Hong Kong IPO at HK$48.56 per share, valuing the fast-fashion retailer at approximately $26.5 billion and raising about $1.7 billion, though the valuation marks a sharp decline from its $100 billion peak in 2022.
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Google Android 17 Hides Website Names From Network Observers
Google's Android 17 activates Encrypted Client Hello by default, scrambling the Server Name Indication field so network nodes can't read which sites users visit—though the feature only protects traffic to sites that have adopted the standard.
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BlackRock, Bitwise slash Bitcoin ETF conversion minimums for smaller holders
BlackRock cut its Bitcoin-to-IBIT conversion floor from $25 million to $1 million, while Bitwise dropped from $100 million to $3 million. The moves follow SEC approval of in-kind ETF conversions and reflect growing institutional appetite for self-custody Bitcoin.
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Anthropic plans shareholder sales at IPO with extended lockup periods
Anthropic is considering a hybrid IPO structure that permits existing shareholders to sell stock during the offering while imposing longer-than-usual post-listing restrictions on additional sales, a strategy that differs from comparable tech debuts.
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SK Hynix CEO Predicts Historic 2027 Memory Shortage Amid AI Surge
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung says the memory semiconductor market shows no meaningful slowdown signals, but projects 2027 will be the worst year in the industry's history from a supply perspective as AI demand outpaces production.
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US Treasury auctions $92B in 3-month bills August 31
The US Treasury will auction $92 billion in 3-month bills on August 31, with settlement on September 3, temporarily draining market liquidity before expanded bond buyback operations begin September 10.