Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

👀 OpenAI targets Anthropic with a privacy-first system for monitoring AI misuse.
📺 Amazon brings Alexa+ to all compatible Fire TV devices free of charge.
💵 U.S. national debt tops $40T just five months after passing $39T.
🎓 PayPal & Venmo will let some college students pay their tuition bills.
🏚️ Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan sentenced to life as property empire collapses.

TECHNOLOGY

• OpenAI targets Anthropic with a privacy-first system for monitoring AI misuse (WSJ)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Axios}}

  • Private Safety Processing, previewing with select customers, scans for abuse while retaining none of their data.

  • The service extends Zero Data Retention by tracking inputs and outputs across multiple sessions rather than a single session.

  • It counters Anthropic's July policy of retaining covered-model data for 30 days, a move that unsettled enterprises.

• Amazon brings Alexa+ to all compatible Fire TV devices free of charge (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!, Mashable}}

  • The rollout automatically covers all U.S. Fire TV devices, with no Prime membership or app required.

  • Alexa+ previously cost $19.99 per month for non-Prime users and shipped only with newer hardware.

  • Amazon says Alexa+ users hold nearly twice as many conversations as they did with original Alexa.

• The singularity isn't the real reason Stripe spent $7.5B on OpenRouter (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, Axios}}

  • Stripe confirmed the acquisition Wednesday, with sources telling the New York Times the price hit $7.5B.

  • That marks a steep jump from OpenRouter's $1.3B valuation in May, with founders reportedly taking $1.5B.

  • Investors receive the remaining $6B, and Stripe reportedly outbid rival suitors, including Databricks, for the startup.

BUSINESS

• U.S. national debt tops $40T just five months after passing $39T (AP)
  ^{_{More: NY Times, Washington Post, NPR}}

  • The Treasury Department reported the milestone Wednesday, with spending outpacing revenue by over $2T annually.

  • Bipartisan Policy Center president Margaret Spellings called the current fiscal trajectory plainly unsustainable, even in optimistic scenarios.

  • The deficit widened after the Supreme Court struck down many Trump tariffs, triggering $100B in refunds.

• PayPal & Venmo will let some college students pay their tuition bills (Washington Post)
  ^{_{More: Business Wire, TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • PayPal announced Wednesday that students and families can now settle tuition through its platforms.

  • Partners Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, and TouchNet collectively serve thousands of colleges and universities.

  • Nelnet's president framed the addition as offering more flexibility and less friction around affordability.

• Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to 500 U.S. cities (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Business Insider}}

  • The 2026 target lifts Prime Air's footprint roughly sixfold, with 11 new locations launching soon.

  • Sites include Tolleson, Arizona, where two drones struck a crane boom in October 2025.

  • Amazon emphasized its Detect-and-Avoid system, onboard cameras, and sensors after several earlier drone incidents.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan sentenced to life as property empire collapses (BBC)
  ^{_{More: SCMP, CNN, Bloomberg}}

  • Hui pleaded guilty in April to embezzlement and corporate bribery and lost all personal property.

  • Shenzhen's court fined his former companies 15.82B yuan, or roughly $2.35B, for concealing debt and falsifying records.

  • His two sons and other executives received terms ranging from 22 months to 18 years.

• North Korea dismisses reduced U.S. drills, saying their aggressive nature remains unchanged (AP)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, NBC, CNN}}

  • Kim Yo Jong said the exercises stay provocative despite Trump cutting their duration and size.

  • She pointed to other joint drills this year and Seoul's push for nuclear-powered submarines.

  • She denied any communication between the leaders, contradicting Trump's claim that Kim responded to him.

• Russian ballistic missiles kill 12 in Kyiv & cut power to districts (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: AP, Yahoo!, The Hill}}

  • More than 30 people were injured in Thursday's early morning strikes on the Ukrainian capital.

  • Seven died in Solomianskyi district, where fire destroyed the upper floors of a nine-story block.

  • Mayor Vitali Klitschko called for Friday to be observed as a day of mourning.

FUTURISM

• Google adds interactive AI study tools across Search & Gemini for students (CNET)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Firstpost}}

  • New features include AI-generated visuals, 3D simulations, a student hub, and customized practice quizzes.

  • Search can build interactive tools on demand, such as a pH scale explainer within AI Overviews.

  • The push positions Gemini against OpenAI and education startups such as Knowt and Gauth.

• Waymo opens its cheaper next-generation Ojai robotaxi to riders in three cities (Engadget)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!, Tech Buzz}}

  • All riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco can now be matched with the Ojai.

  • Roughly 300 Ojais operate commercially today, with launches in Denver, Las Vegas, and San Diego planned this year.

  • Built by Geely's Zeekr, the minivan runs Waymo's sixth-generation driving system and Google's Gemini assistant.

• Retro gadgets are back as tech firms blend nostalgia with modern features (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!}}

  • People are rediscovering older devices, from boom boxes to instant cameras that develop photos in hand.

  • Smartphones and laptops cannot replicate the imperfect, tactile charm these gadgets offer their users.

  • Tech companies are responding with retro-inspired designs that pair nostalgic looks and modern functionality.

• Hunting for AI roles eats hours across careers pages, internal referrals, group chats, and a dozen overlapping boards*

  • The Athyna AI Job Board does the watching for you and matches openings to your profile in the background.

  • When a role hits a 75% matching index or higher, we notify you with details and a direct apply link.

CONTENT

• Whatnot's Grant LaFontaine on turning live shopping into entertainment & community (a16z)

  • The co-founder traces Whatnot's path from Pokémon card sales to a global live commerce platform.

  • He frames the marketplace as a digital shopping mall that blends discovery, entertainment, community, and commerce.

  • Users average roughly 95 minutes per day, with most not buying anything on any given day.

• Onton's Zach Hudson on why black-box models fail at product search (This Week in Startups)

  • Frontier models pass PhD-level exams but struggle to find products matching a shopper's personal style.

  • Onton's neurosymbolic Ontology 1 learns your taste over time rather than relying on keywords and tags.

  • Spacium's Ashi Dissanayake argues orbital refueling, not launch capacity, is now space's real bottleneck.

• Elif Shafak & Robert Macfarlane on turning emotion into language (David Perell)

  • Elif Shafak has written 21 books, 13 of them novels, and leads the Royal Society of Literature.

  • Robert Macfarlane writes about the natural world in a poetic style infused with wonder.

  • The two friends discuss listening, rhythm, boredom, the limits of reason, and finding the big in the small.

EXTRAS

• Researchers say OpenAI mistakenly cut their access to its cyber program (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: CryptoRank, Times Now}}

  • Researchers reported Wednesday that ChatGPT's Cyber page said their identity could not be verified.

  • Trusted Access for Cyber gives vetted researchers advanced models with fewer cybersecurity guardrails than usual.

  • OpenAI confirmed the revocations stemmed from an error, and Anthropic runs a comparable verification program.

• T-Mobile cut a cable to force Chinese hackers out of its network (Bloomberg)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, Yahoo!}}

  • Bloomberg reported that T-Mobile staff physically severed a cable to a compromised system in 2024.

  • Salt Typhoon, a Chinese state-backed group, hit hundreds of telecom, internet, and data center firms.

  • Victims included AT&T, Verizon, Viasat, Charter, and Windstream, with officials' phone records as the apparent target.

• Prince Harry & Meghan plan to move back to Britain with children (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: CNN, NY Times, BBC}}

  • Reports on Wednesday said the couple will relocate from California for an extended period this month.

  • Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, are set to begin school in Britain in September.

  • The move comes six years after they stepped down from royal duties and left for the U.S.

AND MORE

• Bitcoin & Ether rally as Trump presses Congress to pass Clarity Act.

• Cognition's CEO denies a report that SpaceX tried to acquire the startup.

• Explore all the tools and more here to outperform the competition.*

• Gwyneth Paltrow is reportedly to host a dinner honoring OpenAI's Sam Altman.

• Chip shortage squeezes Chinese phone brands in India as Apple & Samsung gain.

• Sports bettors are now wagering on the Little League World Series.

• China's tax crackdown pushes wealthy investors to reassess their offshore trust structures.