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• Asia Pioneer Entertainment Holdings Limited (APE) is expanding its casino tourism services across Asia to revitalize the gaming and entertainment markets in Macau and Hong Kong. • APE has partnered with Germany-based CountR GmbH to implement "smart CountR" casino payment technology, moving beyond the supply of traditional gaming equipment. • This strategic shift aims to accelerate resort growth by integrating modern digital payment solutions to enhance the guest experience and operational efficiency.

• Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information announced new AI collaborations with Google and OpenAI to accelerate real-world deployment and strengthen the country’s applied AI ecosystem. • The initiative includes a National AI partnership with Google and an “OpenAI for Singapore” memorandum of understanding, alongside work focused on embodied AI and manufacturing use cases. • The government said the effort is meant to bolster Singapore’s position as a regional hub for AI innovation and to support practical deployment in industry and public services.

• Venezuela’s National Assembly approved a reform on 9 May 2026 to expand the Supreme Tribunal of Justice from 20 justices to 32, saying the change would speed up judicial work. • The Judicial Nominations Committee was installed on 19 May 2026 to fill 24 vacancies on the court, according to the International Commission of Jurists. • The ICJ said the appointment process “must be carried out in compliance with the rule of law,” warning that judicial independence is at stake.

• The Crunchyroll Anime Awards will celebrate its 10th anniversary on May 23, 2026, in Tokyo with an expanded roster of celebrity presenters. • The awards ceremony marks a significant milestone for the annual celebration of anime industry achievements and fan-voted categories. • The expanded presenter lineup reflects growing international recognition of anime as a major entertainment medium in Asia and globally.

• RISC-V pioneer SiFive raised $400 million in an oversubscribed Series G funding round led by Atreides Management with backing from Nvidia, valuing the company at $3.65 billion. • The funding enables SiFive to expand into AI data centre CPUs through Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem, positioning the company to compete in high-performance AI infrastructure. • The investment reflects growing demand for specialized processors tailored to AI workloads and data centre operations beyond traditional CPU architectures.

• Uber’s India data-centre bet is being framed as part of a broader tech and cost strategy, with the company weighing infrastructure choices as AI-driven risk rises. • The coverage notes that about 90% of advanced AI users are trimming some form of business process outsourcing spend, underscoring how automation is reshaping enterprise budgets. • The development matters for India’s enterprise-tech ecosystem because it links cloud infrastructure demand with the rapid adoption of AI tools and changing outsourcing patterns.

• A growing measles outbreak in South Carolina, reported in recent days, has seen case numbers rise amid low vaccination rates in certain communities. • Public health officials note multiple exposures and urge unvaccinated individuals to seek MMR shots immediately. • The outbreak underscores U.S. vulnerabilities with national MMR coverage at 92.7%, below herd immunity thresholds, risking wider spread.

• Chinese semiconductor equipment makers CCtech and Nextool Technology are deepening presence in SEA's OSAT centers as Malaysia and Singapore emerge as packaging and testing hubs. • Expansion driven by global supply chain shifts, southbound strategies, surging AI demand, and power electronics growth. • The moves signal a new upcycle for test and packaging equipment amid regional semiconductor boom.

• Crossfin is broadening its investment focus into emerging markets outside South Africa following successful exits from Retail Capital, Adumo, and iKhokha. • The firm maintains a strong emphasis on Africa but has established a presence in Mauritius with backing for three businesses. • In 2025, Crossfin launched a Singapore-based investment vehicle targeting opportunities in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regions.

• Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle announced recent research findings on May 6, 2026, addressing multiple areas including improved outcomes for stem cell transplants and newly explored connections between solar jetlag and liver cancer development. • The research represents efforts to expand the range of cancer treatment targets beyond conventional approaches, with implications for patient outcomes across multiple cancer types. • These findings contribute to the broader understanding of both cellular and environmental factors influencing cancer development and treatment efficacy, potentially informing new therapeutic strategies.

• Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary To Lam in April 2026, marking To Lam's first international trip in his new role and signaling Beijing's emphasis on party-to-government relations with Hanoi. • The two countries signed 32 bilateral agreements, more than double the 14 agreements reached during To Lam's 2024 visit, covering trade, investment, and strategic cooperation across multiple sectors. • Beijing is leveraging Vietnam's socialist governance model as common ground for deepening ties, while also pursuing enhanced regional connectivity through infrastructure projects like Malaysia's East Coast Railway Line to bind Southeast Asia closer to China.

• UBS has strengthened its Southeast Asia wealth management presence through strategic appointments, including Vivian Li as senior client advisor in its global wealth management team. • The expansion reflects UBS's commitment to capturing high-net-worth client growth across Southeast Asian markets amid intensifying competition. • These moves position UBS to deepen regional client relationships and expand its private banking footprint in a key growth market.

• Pinecone launched a new cloud region in Singapore to serve the Asia-Pacific market, expanding its AI knowledge infrastructure capabilities across the region. • The Singapore region deployment positions Pinecone as a key provider for enterprise AI applications requiring low-latency data access and localized infrastructure in Southeast Asia. • This expansion reflects growing demand from regional organizations for specialized AI infrastructure and vector database services supporting advanced analytics and machine learning workloads.

• Google, Microsoft, and xAI joined OpenAI and Anthropic in providing the US Commerce Department pre-release access to evaluate their AI models, creating the first voluntary oversight mechanism for all five major frontier AI labs. • The Commerce Department announced the expansion on Tuesday, establishing a framework with no statutory authority and fewer than 200 staff members to address national security concerns before public model releases. • The Mythos crisis forced the US government to confront the absence of formal mechanisms to evaluate powerful AI models that could threaten national security before public deployment.

• ReN3, an enterprise agentic AI work productivity platform, announced a US$5 million seed funding round to expand operations across Southeast Asia, focusing on accuracy and deployment flexibility for regional enterprises. • The funding will support ReN3's growth in the region as it positions itself as a solution for enterprise productivity automation through agentic AI technology. • The investment reflects growing venture capital interest in AI-powered enterprise solutions targeting the Southeast Asian market, where digital transformation adoption is accelerating.

• DeepInfra, a Palo Alto-based AI infrastructure company, secured $107 million in Series B funding to expand its global AI inference cloud platform. • The funding will be used to enhance the company's cloud infrastructure capabilities and support for AI model deployment across regions. • DeepInfra competes in the rapidly growing AI infrastructure market alongside companies like Together AI and Replicate, addressing demand for cost-effective inference services.

• Singaporean semiconductor and electronics firms are accelerating plans to open or expand manufacturing and R&D facilities in the United States, driven by surging global demand for AI chips and US incentives to onshore critical supply chains. • Reports indicate that several Singapore‑listed chip‑assembly and test companies are evaluating sites in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico, where state and federal subsidies could cover up to 40% of capital expenditure under the US CHIPS Act framework. • Industry executives told local media that geopolitical pressure on Taiwan and China is prompting customers to diversify production away from high‑risk hubs, turning Singapore‑based firms into key intermediaries in global AI hardware networks.

• HitPay aims to capture more tourist spending by enabling small businesses to accept foreign digital wallets via Singapore's unified QR system. • The strategy targets the growing influx of international visitors seeking seamless payment options. • This move enhances competitiveness for SMEs in tourism-heavy sectors, potentially increasing transaction volumes significantly.

• President Donald Trump signed a comprehensive executive order significantly expanding U.S. sanctions against Cuba, targeting individuals, entities, and sectors linked to the Cuban government. • The new measures focus on key economic areas including energy, defense, financial services, and security sectors, with secondary sanctions allowed on foreign entities conducting business with targeted Cuban organizations. • The escalation reflects Trump's intensified pressure campaign against the Cuban government and signals broader shifts in U.S. foreign policy toward adversarial regimes.

• Y Combinator's security startup cohort has expanded to 103 funded companies, reflecting accelerating investment in cybersecurity solutions amid rising threat landscapes. • The proliferation of YC-backed security startups demonstrates investor conviction that emerging cyber threats create durable market opportunities and venture-scale business potential. • This growth underscores the strategic importance of security infrastructure across enterprise and consumer markets, with founders addressing gaps in traditional defense mechanisms.

• The Justice Department announced an expanded criminal investigation into fundraising and expenditure patterns of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and related political action committees, focusing on compliance with federal campaign finance and foreign‑donor laws. • Investigators are examining at least a dozen large donations that may have been routed through shell corporate accounts or foreign‑linked entities, according to law‑enforcement officials briefed on the probe. • White House spokespeople framed the action as part of “routine post‑election review,” while Trump allies accuse the department of partisan bias and warn that any charges could ignite a political firestorm ahead of the 2026 midterms.

The Israeli military began carrying out strikes in eastern Lebanon on Monday, expanding the scope of its bombing campaign during a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

• NATO announced Friday the deployment of 5,000 additional personnel to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, citing concerns over Russian military buildups near the Ukraine border and increased reconnaissance flights in NATO airspace. • The alliance activated contingency protocols allowing individual member states to request reinforcements without full consensus; Poland alone will receive 2,500 troops, primarily from the United States and Germany. • Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned the deployment as "provocative" and pledged countermeasures, while NATO Secretary-General stated the move was "defensive and proportional" to regional security threats.

• The United States announced Friday a temporary suspension of certain oil-sector sanctions against Venezuela pending the outcome of renewed diplomatic negotiations scheduled to begin Monday in Mexico City, marking the first high-level talks in 18 months. • State Department officials stated the measure aimed to create "negotiating space" for discussions on political prisoners, election transparency, and humanitarian access, with hopes of establishing a pathway toward normalized relations. • Venezuela's government welcomed the development but demanded complete lifting of financial sanctions, which have contributed to severe shortages of food and medicine affecting 28 million citizens, according to UN estimates.

• OpenAI and Microsoft announced an expanded cybersecurity partnership aimed at combating emerging cyber threats in the AI era. • The two companies plan to deploy advanced artificial intelligence tools to enhance security capabilities across their platforms. • This collaboration reflects the growing recognition that AI-powered security solutions are essential to address increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

Residents waking to find line has moved overnight and they are now in free-fire zone as army takes more territoryIsraeli forces have been moving an agreed truce line in Gaza westwards over the six months since the ceasefire, expanding their zone of control and making the state of limbo ever more dangerous for Palestinians.The “yellow line” agreed in the US-brokered ceasefire in October was supposed to be temporary pending further Israeli withdrawals, but the partially observed truce has stalled after its first phase amid disagreements over the disarming of Hamas, and continued Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Continue reading...

• SpaceX's Starlink division announced commercial availability of direct-to-cell satellite service to US carriers including T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T beginning May 1, 2026, expanding beyond its existing emergency SOS functionality. • The service enables SMS and data connectivity in rural and remote areas where terrestrial networks are unavailable, with initial pricing set at $5 per month for basic coverage and $15 monthly for premium data tiers. • Industry observers note this development challenges traditional carrier infrastructure investments and could accelerate satellite communications adoption, though regulatory approval from the FCC is still pending final confirmation.

• Databricks announced a Series H funding round of $10 billion at a $43 billion valuation on April 18, led by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, to accelerate development of its AI and data platform. • The funding will support expansion of Databricks' lakehouse architecture, which integrates data warehousing and data lakes, and fund aggressive hiring in engineering and sales across North America. • The round positions Databricks as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies and signals strong investor confidence in the competitive data infrastructure market dominated by Snowflake and others.