Amazon hasn't yet released a full list of what's coming to Prime Video in June, but we do know what original titles are slated to premiere throughout the month. Prime original action comedy Deep Cover (June 12) has a stacked cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, and Sean Bean. In the film, Howard plays an improv comedy teacher who recruits two of her students (played by Bloom and Mohammed) to infiltrate London's gangs by pretending to be criminals. Countdown (June 25) is a new crime thriller series from Chicago Fire showrunner Derek Haas. An LAPD detective is recruited to a secret task force to investigate the murder of a Department of Homeland Security officer. And We Were Liars (June 18) is a psychological thriller series based on the titular novel by E. Lockhart, the plot of which follows the wealthy Sinclair family and the events of summer on their private island. Finally, there's sports doc American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans (June 12), which chronicles the journey to bring the American stock car Chevrolet Camaro to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Here are the originals coming to Prime Video in June.What’s coming to Prime Video in June 2025 Available June 12American Thunder: NASCAR to Le MansDeep CoverAvailable June 15The Chosen: Last SupperAvailable June 18We Were LiarsAvailable June 23Head Over HeelsAvailable June 25CountdownAvailable June 27Marry My Husband

/May 30, 2025/4:28 p.m. ETTrump Attacks Harvard With Social Media Screening for All VisasThis pilot program will soon be expanded across the country.Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesThe Trump administration has begun carrying out its expanded vetting for student visa applicants, surveilling their social media accounts to make sure they aren’t posting anything in support of Palestine, which the administration considers antisemitic. This vetting will start with Harvard visa applicants but is expected to be adopted nationwide.Secretary of Stato Marco Rubio sent a cable to all U.S. embassies and consulates on Thursday ordering them to “conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose.” That would apply not just to students but also to faculty, staff, and researchers visiting the university.The Trump administration is taking particular interest in people who have their social media accounts on “private,” an obvious, ominous crossing of boundaries.The State Department has ordered officers to examine “whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to ‘private’ or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicant’s credibility.”This is yet another instance of Harvard serving as a test subject for the administration’s larger crackdown on free speech and international students at American universities. Trump has already revoked billions of dollars in research funding from the Massachusetts school, and even banned it from admitting any international students at all, although the latter policy was temporarily revoked by a judge. Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:53 p.m. ETStephen Miller Grilled on Musk’s Drug Use as Wife Lands New GigTrump’s chief adviser seems desperate to avoid questions on Elon Musk. Does that have anything to do with his wife’s new job? Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesStephen Miller had a dismissive response Friday to new reports of Elon Musk’s drug use during Trump’s campaign last year. CNN’s Pamela Brown asked the far-right Trump adviser if there was “any drug testing or requests for him to drug test when he was in the White House given the fact that he was also a contractor with the government.”  A chuckling Miller ignored the question and said, “Fortunately for you and all of the friends at CNN, you’ll have the opportunity to ask Elon all the questions you want today yourself,” before he then segued into the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. “The drugs I’m concerned about are the drugs that are coming across the border from the criminal cartels that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Miller said. Perhaps Miller laughed instead of answering because his wife, Katie Miller, has left her job as adviser and spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency to work full-time for Musk and his companies. Miller has probably had enough of Musk, as he has also been subtweeting the tech oligarch, trying to refute Musk’s criticisms that the Republican budget bill would raise the deficit. “The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill and does not fund the departments of government. It does not finance our agencies or federal programs,” Miller said, in a long X post earlier this week. Is there bad blood between Miller and Musk that has now spiraled because Miller’s wife is working for the tech oligarch and fellow fascism enthusiast? Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:19 p.m. ETOld Man Trump Repeatedly Fumbles in Weird Speech Praising Elon MuskDonald Trump couldn’t keep some of his words straight as he marked the supposed end of Elon Musk’s tenure at the White House.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesHours after reports emerged Friday that Elon Musk had been under the influence of heavy drugs during his time advising the president, Musk and Donald Trump stumbled and fumbled their way through a White House press conference recognizing the end of the tech billionaire’s special government employee status.The wildly unusual joint conference featured Musk’s black eye, a giant gold key that Trump said he only gives to “very special people,” cringe-worthy regurgitations by Musk of Trump’s take on his Pulitzer Board defamation suit, and claims that Musk’s unpopular and controversial time in the White House was not quite over.But as Trump continued to praise Musk and his time atop the Department of Government Efficiency, the president’s verbal gaffes became more apparent. He claimed that DOGE had uncovered $42 million in wasteful spending, referring to expenditures related to Uganda, which Trump pronounced as “oo-ganda.” The 78-year-old also mentioned he would have Musk’s DOGE cuts “cauterized by Congress,” though he quickly corrected himself by saying they would be “affirmed by Congress,” instead. Trump’s on-camera slippage has gotten worse in recent weeks: Earlier this month, Trump dozed off while in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That is despite the fact that the president received a clean bill of health in a medical report released in April that described Trump as being in “excellent health,” including neurological functioning.Musk, meanwhile, refused to acknowledge emerging reports of his alleged drug use. But the news of White House drug use under Trump’s helm is nothing new: In fact, if the reports prove true, it would be little more than a return to form. Last year, a report by the Department of Defense inspector general indicated that the West Wing operated more like a pill mill than the nation’s highest office. Common pills included modafinil, Adderall, fentanyl, morphine, and ketamine, according to the Pentagon report. But other, unlisted drugs—like Xanax—were equally easy to come by from the White House Medical Unit, according to anonymous sources that spoke to Rolling Stone.While other presidents were known to take a mix of drug cocktails to fight off back pain (like JFK) or bad moods (like Nixon), no previous administrations matched the level of debauchery of Trump’s, whose in-office pharmacists unquestioningly handed out highly addictive substances to staffers who needed pick-me-ups or energy boosts—no doctor’s exam, referral, or prescription required.“It was kind of like the Wild West. Things were pretty loose. Whatever someone needs, we were going to fill this,” another source told Rolling Stone in March 2024.Meanwhile, pharmacists described an atmosphere of fear within the West Wing, claiming they would be “fired” if they spoke out or would receive negative work assignments if they didn’t hand pills over to staffers.Read more about the press conference:Trump and Elon Musk Have Ominous Warning About Future of DOGEMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:00 p.m. ETElon Musk Gives Strange Excuse for Massive Black EyeMusk showed up a press conference with Donald Trump sporting a noticeable shiner.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesElon Musk sported what looked like a black eye during his DOGE goodbye press conference with President Trump on Friday. When asked about it, he blamed the bruise on his 5-year-old son punching him in the face. “Mr. Musk … is your eye OK? What happened to your eye; I noticed there’s a bruise there?” one reporter finally asked near the end of the press conference.“Well, I wasn’t anywhere near France,” Musk said, in a weak attempt at a joke regarding footage of French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife slapping him in the face.“I was just horsing around with [my son] little X and said, ‘Go ’head and punch me in the face,’ and he did. Turns out even a 5-year-old punching you in the face actually does—”“That was X that did it? X could do it!” Trump chimed in. “If you knew X …”“I didn’t really feel much at the time; I guess it bruises up. But I was just messing around with the kids.”Musk chose an impeccable time to show up to a press conference with a black eye. Earlier in the day, The New York Times reported on Musk’s rampant drug use on and off the campaign trail, as the world’s richest man frequently mixed ketamine and psychedelics and kept a small box of pills, mostly containing Adderall. The shiner only adds to speculation around his personal habits.More on that Times report:Elon Musk Was on Crazy Combo of Drugs During Trump CampaignMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/2:51 p.m. ETTrump and Elon Musk Have Ominous Warning About Future of DOGEElon Musk’s time as a government employee has come to an end, but his time with Donald Trump has not.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesDespite the fanfare over Elon Musk’s supposed departure from the Department of Government Efficiency, Donald Trump says that the billionaire bureaucrat isn’t really going anywhere.“Many of the DOGE people are staying behind, so they’re not leaving. And Elon’s not really leaving. He’s gonna be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It’s his baby, and he’s gonna be doing a lot of things,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office Friday.The press conference was held to mark the end of Musk’s time as a so-called “special government employee,” a title that allowed him to bypass certain ethics requirements during his 134-day stint in Trump’s administration. The president made sure to give Musk a gaudy golden key—what it actually unlocks went totally unaddressed—to make sure he could get back into the White House. “This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” Musk said, promising that DOGE’s “influence” would “only grow stronger” over time.Earlier Friday, the billionaire bureaucrat shared a post on X asserting that the legacy of DOGE was more psychological than anything else. Surely, it will take longer than four months to forget the image of Musk running around with a chainsaw. Read more about Musk:Elon Musk Was on Crazy Combo of Drugs During Trump CampaignMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/1:21 p.m. ETDem Governor Vetoes Ban on Surprise Ambulance Bills in Shocking MoveThe bill had unanimous support in both chambers of the state legislature.Michael Ciaglo/Getty ImagesColorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would ban surprise billing by ambulance companies, over the unanimous objections of both chambers of the state legislature. Why would Polis veto a bill that’s popular with everyone, even Colorado Republicans? The governor wrote in his veto statement that drafting errors in the bill made it “unimplementable” and estimated that it would make insurance premiums go up by as much as $0.73 to $2.15 per person. “I am committed to working with proponents and sponsors to protect Coloradans from surprise bills, but I encourage all parties to work towards a more reasonable reimbursement rate that mitigates premium impacts and nets a better deal for Colorado families,” Polis wrote. In Colorado, if legislators in both chambers repass the bill with a two-thirds majority, they can override the governor’s veto, especially considering that the bill passed with the support of every single legislator. But the legislature adjourned on May 7, meaning that the bill has to be passed again when the legislature reconvenes in January.  For some reason, ending surprise ambulance billing nationally is not the slam-dunk issue it should be. Congress ended most surprise medical bills in 2020 but exempted ground ambulances from the bill. Was Polis’s veto due to badly drafted language and a (seemingly modest) price hike in insurance premiums, as he said, or was it for a different, more nefarious reason? We might not know unless and until the bill is reintroduced next year. More on surprise ambulance bills:Congress Doesn’t Care About Your Surprise Ambulance Bill Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/12:21 p.m. ETTrump’s Pardons Since Jan 6 Spree Show an Infuriatingly Corrupt TrendSince his January 6 pardon spree, Donald Trump has tended to grant clemency a little closer to home.Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesA good chunk of the white-collar criminals pardoned by Donald Trump after his massive “Day One” pardoning spree either have a political or financial tie to him.The president has issued 60 pardons since he offered political forgiveness to some 1,600 individuals charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But out of those subsequent 60 unrelated to the attack, 12 people—or roughly one in five—were already in Trump’s orbit, according to ABC News.They included several politicos, including former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on several counts of corruption, including for an attempt to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after he left the position for the White House; former Republican Representative Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud; former Nevada gubernatorial candidate Michele Fiore, who allegedly stole public funds intended to commemorate a slain police officer; and former Tennessee state Senator Brian Kelsey, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud in 2022.Trump also pardoned major financiers of his presidential campaigns. Trevor Milton, the founder of the Nikola electric vehicle company, donated nearly $2 million toward Trump’s 2024 campaign. Imaad Zuberi, who has donated to both parties, issued “at least $800,000 to committees associated with Trump and the Republican Party,” ABC reported.Others helped Trump advance his retribution campaign against his political enemies, or helped advance his own image in the broader Republican Party. Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, both former business partners of Hunter Biden, accused the younger Biden of leveraging his father’s name and influence in order to conduct business overseas. Archer had defrauded a Native American tribal entity, while Galanis was serving time for multiple offenses. Trump also forgave Todd and Julie Chrisley—reality TV stars known for their show Chrisley Knows Best who were sentenced to a combined 19 years on fraud and tax evasion charges—after their daughter Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.Speaking to press Friday after her parents’ release, Savannah Chrisley said that the “biggest misconception right now is I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon—,” but she couldn’t finish her sentence before Todd interjected: “That’s something I would have done,” he said.Read who else Trump is thinking of pardoning:Trump Considering Pardons for Men Who Tried to Kill Gretchen WhitmerMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/12:04 p.m. ETTrump Knew He Was Deporting Innocent People to El Salvador All AlongMany of the people deported to El Salvador have no criminal record, and Donald Trump knew it.Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s administration was well aware that many of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it shipped off to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador had no criminal records at all, according to a Friday report from ProPublica.  While Trump officials claimed that the deportees were brutal gang members and “the worst of the worst,” only 32 of the deportees had actually been convicted of crimes, and most of them were minor offenses such as traffic violations, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security reviewed by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and a team of journalists from Venezuelan media outlets. One of the men, 23-year-old Maikol Gabriel López Lizano, faced a misdemeanor charge after he was arrested in 2023 for riding his bike and drinking a can of beer.Little more than half of the deportees, 130 of the 238, were charged only with violating U.S. immigration laws. Twenty of them had criminal records from other countries. The U.S. government data showed that 67 individuals had pending charges, with only six being for violent crimes. In several cases, the government data about the pending charges differed from what ProPublica was able to find. In some cases, the men had actually been convicted, and in one, the charges had been dropped. But in many cases, these individuals were remanded to a foreign prison before their criminal cases were ever resolved. The Trump administration has touted allegations of gang affiliation as a justification for denying the deportees their due process rights. But none of the men’s names appeared on a list of roughly 1,400 alleged Tren de Aragua members kept by the Venezuelan government, ProPublica reported. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan tried desperately in March to downplay reporting that many of these individuals did not have criminal records. “A lot of gang members don’t have criminal histories, just like a lot of terrorists in this world, they’re not in any terrorist databases, right?” Homan said on ABC News. But the methods the government relies on to classify individuals as gang members—such as identification of gang-affiliated tattoos—have been disproven by experts. Not only were many of the men who were deported not proven gang members, they weren’t even criminals, and by denying them the right to due process, they were remanded to a foreign prison notorious for human rights abuses without ever getting to prove it. Trump has continued to pressure the Supreme Court to allow him to sidestep due process as part of his massive deportation campaign, claiming that the judiciary has no right to intrude on matters of “foreign policy.” But immigrants residing on U.S. soil—who are clearly not the bloodthirsty criminals the administration insists they are—are still subject to protections under U.S. law. Read more about the deportations:Trump Asks Supreme Court to Help Him Deport People Wherever He WantsMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/11:41 a.m. ETJoni Ernst Stoops to Shocking Low When Told Medicaid Cuts Will KillSenator Joni Ernst had a disgusting answer when confronted by a constituent at her town hall about Trump’s budget bill.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesRepublican Senator Joni Ernst had a particularly unhinged response to questions from her constituents at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, on Friday.Ernst was asked about the GOP’s budget bill kicking people off of Medicaid, and her condescending answer quickly became callous and flippant as the Iowa politician smirked at the audience.“When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid, 1.4 million, they’re not eligible, so they will be coming off, so—” Ernst began, before an audience member shouted, “People are going to die!”“People are not—well, we all are going to die,” Ernst responded, as the audience drowned her in loud protests.What was Ernst thinking with that answer? Almost every Republican town hall this year has gone badly for the politician holding it, thanks to President Trump upending the federal government, and Ernst surely knew that choosing death over Medicaid wouldn’t go over well with the crowd. Earlier this week in Nebraska, Representative Mike Flood was heckled after he admitted that he didn’t read the budget bill.Ersnt’s town hall wasn’t even the first one in Iowa to go badly for a Republican. On Wednesday, Representative Ashley Hinson was met with jeers and boos, with audience members in Decorah, Iowa calling her a fraud and a liar. But at least Hinson had the good sense not to seemingly embrace death over a vital, lifesaving government program. More on Trump’s bill:Here Are the Worst Things in Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/11:35 a.m. ETKetanji Brown Jackson Blasts “Botched” Supreme Court Ruling on TPSSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a scathing disssent, called out the rest of the court for allowing Trump’s harmful executive order to stand.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson thinks the Supreme Court “botched” a decision to allow the Trump administration to revoke the Temporary Protected Status protections of about 500,000 Haitian, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan immigrants.Jackson and fellow liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor were the only two dissenters.“The Court has plainly botched this assessment today. It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm,” Jackson wrote in the dissent. “And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives of and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”TPS is a long-standing program that allowed those 500,000 immigrants to stay in the U.S. after they fled violence and risk in their home countries. After the Supreme Court’s ruling, all of them are at high risk of sudden deportation. “It is apparent that the government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage,” Jackson wrote.Read the full dissent here.View More Posts

Editor's take: The University of Arizona could become the birthplace of the world's first petahertz-speed transistor. If successful, this research work could mark the dawn of a new era in computing, where the speed of light, rather than electricity, sets the pace for innovation. A team of scientists has unveiled a breakthrough that could one day propel computers to operate at speeds millions of times faster than today's most advanced processors. The discovery, led by researchers at the University of Arizona and their international collaborators, centers on harnessing ultrafast pulses of light to control the movement of electrons in graphene – a material just one atom thick. The research, recently published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that electrons can be made to bypass barriers almost instantaneously by firing laser pulses lasting less than a trillionth of a second at graphene. This phenomenon, known as quantum tunneling, has long intrigued physicists, but the team's ability to observe and manipulate it in real time marks a significant milestone. Mohammed Hassan, an associate professor of physics and optical sciences at the University of Arizona, explained that this advance could usher in processing speeds in the petahertz range – over a thousand times faster than the chips powering today's computers. Such a leap, he said, would transform the landscape of computing, enabling dramatic progress in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and space research to chemistry and health care. Hassan, who previously led the development of the world's fastest electron microscope, worked alongside colleagues from the University of Arizona, the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Their initial focus was studying how graphene conducts electricity when exposed to laser light. Typically, the symmetrical structure of graphene causes the currents generated on either side to cancel each other out, resulting in no net current. However, the team made a surprising discovery after modifying the graphene samples. They observed that a single electron could "tunnel" through the material – and that this fleeting event could be captured in real time. This unexpected result prompted further investigation and ultimately led to the creation of what Hassan calls "the world's fastest petahertz quantum transistor." // Related Stories To achieve this, the scientists used a commercially available graphene phototransistor, enhanced with a special silicon layer. They exposed it to a laser switching on and off at an astonishing rate of 638 attoseconds – each attosecond being one quintillionth of a second. The result was a transistor capable of operating at petahertz speeds, a feat previously considered far beyond reach. Unlike many scientific breakthroughs that require highly controlled laboratory environments, this new transistor functioned in everyday, ambient conditions. This opens the door for the technology to be adapted for commercial use and integrated into future generations of electronic devices. Hassan and his team are now working with Tech Launch Arizona to patent and commercialize their invention. Their next goal is to develop a version of the transistor that operates using standard, commercially available lasers, making the technology more accessible to industry partners.

Saudi Arabia’s (KSA’s) attempt to turn from one of the least to most developed data markets in the world has advanced with measures it and the US have taken to encourage investors to build artificial intelligence (AI) datacentres in the country. KSA came closer to finalising plans to treat foreign computer systems as “data embassies”, reassuring firms their customer data would be safely stored in the authoritarian Gulf monarchy. Meanwhile, the US scrapped export controls on its most advanced AI chips, which had threatened to stop KSA from ever realising its plan to become a global leader in AI. Those legal preparations bore fruit this week before either was actually enacted, when Nvidia, whose advanced AI chips are the subject of US export controls, said it had done a deal to ship 18,000 of them to the Saudi state-owned Public Investment Fund. The chips were the first stage in a plan to install “several hundred thousand” Nvidia Grace Blackwell AI chips in five years, consuming 500MW of energy. Political analysts and industry insiders said, before KSA’s plans unfurled this week, that its proposed Global AI Hub Law would allow KSA to get banned AI chips that both it and foreign firms would need to build AI systems in the country. The draft law offers to give foreign computer systems embassy status, so their operators answered only to the laws of their home nations. It would forbid the Saudi state from intruding. KSA concluded a public consultation on the law the day after an Investment Summit, at which US president Donald Trump and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud signed a broad economic partnership and presided over $600bn of trade deals, the White House said in a statement. They had done $300bn of deals when the conference opened, and aspired to $1tn, the prince told the conference on Tuesday. The deals encompassed defence, energy, tech and health. The audacity of KSA’s ambition was made apparent by data that in February, according to Computer Weekly analysis, showed how among 20 of the most notable data markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Saudi capital Riyadh had the second-least of all operational, planned and unfinished datacentres, above only Athens. With 125MW of computing capacity then planned in Riyadh, it was barely 5% of the forecast size of EMEA market leader London, and not 15% of the size of its rival and neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, according to numbers published by commercial estate agent Cushman & Wakefield. The largest datacentre investment deal apparent, among those announced at the Forum, was Saudi firm DataVolt, investing $20bn in the US. Read more about US and Saudi agreements On Monday, the US scrapped the AI Diffusion Rule, by which former president Joe Biden had blocked exports of powerful AI chips to all but a handful of countries because, US AI tzar David Sacks told the conference, it stopped US technology proliferating around the world and stifled strategic partners such as KSA, when it was supposed to hinder AI development in only a few countries. The US had decided instead to model AI policy on Silicon Valley’s software ecosystems, where firms became dominant by publishing application programming interfaces (APIs) that others could use to build on their technology. “They’re able to build these ecosystems without even having any lawyers involved,” said Sacks. “There’s no need for a contract. You just publish an API. In a similar way, the US needs to encourage the world to build on our tech stack. “President Trump said ‘the US has to win the AI race’. How do we win the AI race? We have to build the biggest partner ecosystem. We need our friends like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and other strategic partners and allies, to build on our tech. “We want our technology to spread,” he said. “We want people to use it. We want to become the standard.” KSA’s attempt, meanwhile, to encourage foreign firms to build AI datacentres in the country by allowing their home nations to retain sovereignty over their data was widely commended as a strategic masterstroke. “It’s still an immature market, but the opportunity is huge,” said Stephen Beard, a real estate deal-maker for Knight Frank in Dubai. KSA could be a top-seven datacentre market in a decade. His firm estimated US cloud computing firms had recently committed to $9bn of investment there by 2027. Knight Frank alone was handling $7bn of datacentre deals for firms attracted by the local market opportunity, in a country with 20% lower power costs than the UK, a large, growing population and a non-democratic government able to digitise rapidly without the inconvenience of parliamentary process. President Trump commended KSA’s ruling family for that in a speech in Riyadh this week. “The AI Hub law is optically a fantastic move,” said Beard. “It should go some way to appeasing investors’ concerns. But we are talking about Saudi Arabia. Who decides the law in Saudi Arabia? Any developer looks for a higher return because of the macro risks.” But computer firms would invest there to serve KSA. The idea of KSA becoming a “super-hub” was flawed. Munir Suboh, a lawyer at Taylor Wessing in Riyadh, said the law would give KSA an “unprecedented advantage” over other countries which hesitate to cede sovereignty over foreign facilities. Contrast Saudi Arabia's attempt to make life easier for foreign investors with Europe’s regulatory preoccupation with imposing safety standards. “Traditionally, cross-border data transfers require compliance with multiple data localisation regulations, especially in data-heavy industries,” said Oliver Subhedar, a commercial dispute lawyer with Burlingtons. KSA is seeking a comparative advantage over other states by regulating datacentres themselves.” KSA would slash the cost of risk and compliance for multinationals that ordinarily had to accommodate a host of different regulations around the world, said Jade Masri, managing director of investment advisory R Consultancy in Dubai. That would cut capital costs for investors. “Hyperscalers need this law to import data into KSA to run large language models and generate meaningful AI,” said Amrik Sangha, a consultant with Gateley in Dubai. But KSA needed to address the question of “grey” fibre optic cables that would carry foreign data transfers “without monitoring”, he said. Grey, or “dark”, cables are private, point-to-point communications lines not reliant on local connections. Notwithstanding the unexpected US U-turn, Juliana Rordorf, Middle East director for political consultancy Albright Stonebridge Group, said the law might influence the global debate about data localisation, as well as AI export controls. Neighbouring Bahrain has had a data embassy law since 2018, while UAE, whose datacentre market and planned construction dwarfs that of KSA, recently made bilateral data embassy agreements with France and Italy. Such a law has even been mooted as a way to encourage investors deterred by Europe’s onerous data protection rules, having been pioneered in Estonia, and aped in Monaco, as a means of securing government backup datacentres in Luxembourg, because they otherwise had nowhere to put them safely.

Thank you for joining! Access your Pro+ Content below. 20 May 2025 Tackling the UK’s cyber threats In this week’s Computer Weekly, we report from the National Cyber Security Centre’s annual update on the state of UK security and examine the emerging threats. The chief data officer of Standard Chartered bank discusses preparing for artificial intelligence. We also look at the networking implications of GPU-based AI datacentres. Read the issue now. Features in this issue UK critical systems at risk from ‘digital divide’ created by AI threats by  Bill Goodwin GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre warns that a growing ‘digital divide’ between organisations that can keep pace with AI-enabled threats and those that cannot is set to heighten the UK's overall cyber risk UK at risk of Russian cyber and physical attacks as Ukraine seeks peace deal by  Bill Goodwin UK cyber security chief warns of ‘direct connection’ between Russian cyber attacks and physical threats to the UK Standard Chartered grounds AI ambitions in data governance by  Aaron Tan The bank’s group chief data officer, Mohammed Rahim, outlines how the bank is modernising its data infrastructure and governance practices to support its AI initiatives View Computer Weekly Archives Next Issue  More CW+ Content View All E-Handbook Top 10 ASEAN IT stories of 2019

Home Trump Is the US’s New AI Salesman in the Middle East. A Smart Move or Desperation? News Trump Is the US’s New AI Salesman in the Middle East. A Smart Move or Desperation? 5 min read Published: May 18, 2025 Key Takeaways The US has signed a deal with the UAE to build the largest AI data center outside of the US. UAE will also be able to acquire 500K advanced NVIDIA AI chips every year from 2025. Saudi Arabia AI firm HUMAIN announced a partnership with NVIDIA to build 500 MW of AI factories in the next five years. Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East has turned out to be quite fruitful for both parties. The US has signed a new deal with the UAE, wherein ‘the Middle East powerhouse’ will build a 10-square-mile AI facility in Abu Dhabi with a power capacity of 5 gigawatts. Remember, this kind of power can support 2.5 million Nvidia B200 chips. The facility will be built by Emirati government-backed AI company G42. This is the same company in which Microsoft invested $1.5 billion last year. However, the US seems to be cautious about the deal and would control a large part of the facility, even after it’s operational. Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, said that American companies will operate the data center and offer cloud services through the Middle East. This agreement would also allow the UAE to import 500K advanced Nvidia AI chips every year starting as early as 2025. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also accompanied Trump on his visit. Additionally, the agreement requires the UAE to reposition their national security regulations with the US, considering the country’s strong trading ties with China. This is important to prevent any diversion of US technology to other countries, specifically China. Recently, during Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the country unveiled HUMAIN, an AI firm that is part of the country’s public investment fund. HUMAIN recently announced a landmark deal with NVIDIA, planning to build AI factories with a total capacity of 500 MW in the next 5 years, which will run on millions of NVIDIA GPUs.  These AI data centers will become launchpads for training and deploying AI models on a larger scale. Saudi Arabia wants to become an international AI powerhouse to drive the next wave of AI development in the Middle East, and its partnership with NVIDIA might just be the beginning. AI Shaping Geopolitical Ties The Middle East has been trying to ramp up its AI investments and efforts in recent years. For instance, the UAE hired Eric Xing, a pioneer AI researcher, in 2020 to lead the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Following this, Saudi Arabia roped in Jürgen Schmidhuber, another AI pioneer, to head its King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. However, the quality of AI research from these countries has been subpar so far when compared to China and the US. This is largely due to restricted access to advanced computing resources. That could quickly become a thing of the past, though, thanks to the new deal with the US. The Middle East seems to be standing at an important crossroads. While it needs to maintain its trading ties with China, it cannot sever US relations owing to the latter’s AI supremacy. As of 2023, China accounts for around 11% of the UAE’s total exports, valued at $41.8 billion. At the same time, it also accounts for 20% of the country’s imports at $77.42 billion.  A powerhouse like the UAE is not dumb enough to ditch China to please the US. Therefore, this deal will be a meticulously planned affair from both countries. While the US will ensure the AI chips do not end up in China, the UAE will be cautious not to ruffle China. Trump Exploring New Markets The US has also shown a lot of trust in the Middle East with this deal. Earlier, such deals were blocked by the US administration, citing the Middle East’s close connections with China. However, Trump has been quick to realize that he needs to tap the potential of the ‘oil money’ to stamp America’s authority over artificial intelligence. Another reason behind the US’s interest in the Middle East could be that it has blocked the Chinese market for manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD. In fact, a new law is under discussion that could require US companies to introduce location tracking in exported AI chips so that they do not end up in the hands of their Chinese counterparts. These strict measures will eventually lead to a total loss of Chinese markets. Also, note that China contributed 13% of Nvidia’s total revenue for the year ended January 2025. So, the US-Middle East deals could also be a desperate move by the former to find new markets for its huge AI production units. Also, Trump doesn’t seem to have many options. After exiling the Chinese markets, the Middle East is the biggest emerging AI producer and consumer globally. Other strong candidates like India haven’t shown much interest in AI technological developments, at least not until the time of writing. What’s more, the South American market may not be enough to cover for loss in Chinese revenue. So, in all probability, it seems like the US needs this deal more than the Middle East. The Middle East, on the other hand, also seems to be in the mood to redefine traditional partnerships through strategic investments and diplomatic tools, creating a win-win situation for both parties. Mohammed Soliman, a senior at the Middle East Institute, said that this shift will improve the country’s technological partnership with the US. However, this does not mean that the UAE is abandoning China – it’s just recalibrating its tech strategy to prepare for the future. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. 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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman supports Trump's AI deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Sean Gallup/Getty Images 2025-05-18T16:09:34Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Trump struck some major AI tech deals on his Gulf tour this week. The deals have alarmed some lawmakers who worry the technology could fall into the wrong hands. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called those critics "naive." President Donald Trump went to the Gulf this week and struck some deals that AI companies in Silicon Valley are excited about.Lawmakers, on the other hand, are less excited.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called those critics "naive" in an X post on Saturday."This was an extremely smart thing for you all to do and i'm sorry naive people are giving you grief," Altman said on X, responding to David Sacks, Trump's AI czar and a former PayPal executive.In his own X post, Sacks said he was "genuinely perplexed" how anyone could see Trump's AI deals in the Gulf as anything but "hugely beneficial for the United States."Among the deals announced during Trump's tour was a partnership between chipmakers Nvidia, AMD, and Humain, a new Saudi AI company launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to bring billions in chips and hardware to the kingdom. Amazon Web Services also announced a $5 billion plan to build an "AI Zone" in Saudi Arabia. The UAE announced a new AI campus.OpenAI, too, is ramping up investment in the Middle East. The company this week announced plans for a new data center in the UAE. It may end up as one of the largest in the world, and is another sign that the tech industry is eyeing the region as a new AI hub.In Washington, however, these deals have drawn critics from both sides of the aisle who worry the emerging technology could end up in the wrong hands.During a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said the chip deal was "dangerous because we have no clarity on how the Saudis and Emiratis will prevent the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government, the Chinese manufacturing establishment, from getting their hands on these chips."The Republican-led House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, meanwhile, said in a post on X that "Reports of new U.S. chip deals with Gulf nations — without a new chip rule in place — present a vulnerability for the CCP to exploit."The competition between the United States and China to dominate AI technologies has ramped up in recent years. The US has tightened export controls on advanced chips and manufacturing tools to curb China's progress, while also boosting domestic production. China, meanwhile, has accelerated investment in its own AI companies and sought suppliers outside the United States. Recommended video

The final episode of Saturday Night Live's 50th season began with a cold open featuring, what else, a sketch about Donald Trump. Cast member James Austin Johnson fired up his spot-on impression to recap Trump's recent trip to the Middle East. And the sketch hit the points you might expect. Most notably, it touched on the $400 million plane gifted by Qatar and Trump's seeming adoration of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.The sketch is pretty funny and centers on how much Trump seemed to be enjoying himself during his trip away from the States. And we won't spoil the end, but it takes a turn you might not see coming before we get the "Live from New York..." Tim Marcin Associate Editor, Culture Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).

Watching the behavior of our tech overlords has answered questions I’d never thought to ask. How do you NDA an army of baby mamas? Is there anything more embarrassing than impersonating Benson Boone? (Also, who is Benson Boone?) And now, the latest: how long after a sovereign ruler of a repressive state murders one of your columnists should you make a deal with him? The answer, it turns out, is a little over six years.In October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a writer for the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, was killed and dismembered with the approval of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (better known as MBS) after Khashoggi entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get paperwork for his upcoming marriage. His body has never been found. On May 13th, Bezos’ Amazon announced it would work with Humain, MBS’ AI company, to build an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia — and the two companies will spend more than $5 billion in the process.Saudi money is old news in the tech industry — the Public Investment Fund has sloshed into lots of startups, either directly or via intermediaries such as SoftBank. Morally bankrupt moneygrubbers such as Andreessen Horowitz have been wooing Saudi funds for a while. (Perhaps that’s the real reason they endorsed the Saudis’ preferred candidate?) This isn’t the first deal for Amazon, either. In March, Amazon pledged to invest $5 billion to build data centers in a country that’s scrambling to look futuristic. In 2024, Saudi Arabia said it wanted to build an AI-powered economy. There’s a fancy website for Project 2030, which I guess is meant to distract us from all the oil money. That date isn’t a coincidence — many projections say that’s when oil production will peak and then decline. Regardless of when the actual peak occurs, a global shift away from petroleum threatens Saudi Arabia’s wealth. That’s why the country is behaving like a dipshit startup.Take Neom, billed as the city of the future, vaporware at a previously unimagined scale that also served as a “key tool” for MBS to consolidate power, according to Ali Dogan, a researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin. Khashoggi’s murder was a blow to the project, as luminaries such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and former US energy secretary Ernest Moniz suspended their involvement. A number of companies publicly renounced Saudi money — at least, for a while. Does the freedom to assassinate count as one of the personal liberties Bezos claims to treasure?Neom is moving down the entirely predictable vaporware path. It keeps getting delayed and downsized, which makes sense because it’s no longer the city of the future and a spectacular investment opportunity once it’s built — it’s just another city. But, according to Saudi officials, we won’t have to worry about that for another 50, or possibly 100, years. In the meantime, though, contracts! Investment! AI!Look, I don’t expect ethics out of Altman or any of his ilk. But for basic reasons of maintaining employee morale, I would hesitate to invest in a state that literally murdered one of my contractors. And didn’t merely murder him — but dismembered and then disappeared him. An opportunity the state had only because Khashoggi wanted to get married. Murder is bad enough, but every single detail makes it worse.Lately, it seems Bezos has been dismantling the Washington Post, one of the US’ premier journalistic institutions — putting British failure machine Will Lewis, known for his role in the UK phone-hacking scandal, in charge. Last year, the Post didn’t endorse a candidate in the US presidential race for the first time since 1960, resulting in more than 200,000 canceled subscriptions. Its stars have been fleeing in droves. (Ann Telnaes, who was driven to quit the Post after a cartoon making fun of Bezos was killed, recently won a Pulitzer Prize for her work. Oops!) Now, after all Bezos’ posturing about the free press, he’s cutting deals with people who murder journalists for saying inconvenient things. But maybe we should have seen that coming when he banned op-ed writers from opposing “free speech and the markets.” Does the freedom to assassinate count as one of the personal liberties Bezos claims to treasure?It’s all so spineless. I mean, we already know that MBS may have hacked Bezos’ phone, but I guess that’s water under the bridge. Or maybe not. Maybe MBS got something real good in that hack. Impossible to say whether this is motivated by kompromat or greed, I suppose. But whatever the motive, we know one thing: it takes five years for Bezos to go from posting his photo op with the headstone of a murdered reporter to making billion-dollar deals with his killer.See More:

Saudi Arabia unveiled a series of blockbuster AI partnerships with US chip makers, cloud infrastructure providers, and software developers this week, signaling its ambition to become a global AI hub. Leveraging its $940 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF) and strategic location, Saudi Arabia is forming partnerships to create sovereign AI infrastructure including advanced data centers and Arabic large language models. Google, Oracle, and Salesforce are deepening AI and cloud commitments in Saudi Arabia that will support Vision 2030, a 15-year program to diversify the country’s economy. Within that, the $100 billion Project Transcendence aims to put the kingdom among the top 15 countries in AI by 2030. The deals announced during this week’s US-Saudi investment summit in Riyadh include a $20 billion commitment from Saudi firm DataVolt for AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the US and an $80 billion joint investment by Google, DataVolt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber in technologies across both nations, according to a White House fact sheet The Riyadh summit, attended by US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, drew tech luminaries including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su. AI factories Humain, an AI company backed by PIF, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, was at the center of much of the deal-making. Nvidia said it will supply Humain with hundreds of thousands of its most advanced GPUs over the next five years with which the company will build “AI factories” with a capacity of up to 500 megawatts. The first of those will contain 18,000 Grace Blackwell GB300 systems, it said. AMD announced a five-year, $10 billion collaboration with Humain to deploy up to 500 megawatts of AI compute in Saudi Arabia and the US, aiming to deploy “multi-exaflop capacity by early 2026.” AWS, too, is expanding its data centers in Saudi Arabia to bolster Humain’s cloud infrastructure. Saudi Arabia has abundant oil and gas to power those data centers, and is growing its renewable energy resources with the goal of supplying 50% of the country’s power by 2030. “Commercial electricity rates, nearly 50% lower than in the US, offer potential cost savings for AI model training, though high local hosting costs due to land, talent, and infrastructure limit total savings,” said Eric Samuel, Associate Director at IDC. Located near Middle Eastern population centers and fiber optic cables to Asia, these data centers will offer enterprises low-latency cloud computing for real-time AI applications. Late is great There’s an advantage to being a relative latecomer to the technology industry, said Eric Samuel, associate director, research at IDC. “Saudi Arabia’s greenfield tech landscape offers a unique opportunity for rapid, ground-up AI integration, unburdened by legacy systems,” he said. Arun Chandrasekaran, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said the investments signify Saudi Arabia’s “ambition to become a central hub for AI development, rivaling established tech centers in the US and China.” Other analysts weighed in on Saudi Arabia’s goals. Neil Shah, vice president research at Counterpoint Research, said the push could make it the next “oil hub” for AI, serving both local and global needs, while Amandeep Singh, practice director at QKS Group, said, “This isn’t just about money. It’s a strategic play to become a long-term AI power and a neutral meeting point for global AI.” Despite the vast political and financial resources in play, though, the analysts forecast challenges ahead when it comes to attracting top talent, reducing reliance on Western chips, and building data governance trust. While Saudi Arabia is a lucrative new market for companies such as Nvidia and AWS, “They must navigate questions of control and compliance,” said QKS Group’s Singh. Aligning with Saudi Arabia’s push for digital sovereignty requires a delicate balance between Western regulations, export restrictions, and the Kingdom’s drive for independence. Political risks IDC’s Samuel noted that initiatives like Humain can foster trust and alignment with national priorities, but added, “With the right oversight and governance, political risks can be managed and long-term AI development secured.” Building a real AI power bloc in the Middle East is still a tough climb, the analysts said. “Saudi Arabia’s ambition needs more than just cash to turn into real influence in the region,” said Singh. “They need shared tech foundations, common AI standards across countries, and everyone to agree on policies — and we’re not quite there yet.” Making strong partnerships with other companies and countries will be key for Saudi Arabia to turn its big investments into lasting global influence, the analysts said, making sure its AI plans become more than just a showpiece. Turning Saudi Arabia’s AI ambition into real regional power won’t be easy. “Money alone won’t get you there — you need shared foundations, aligned policies, and buy-in from the neighborhood,” said Singh.