Penelope

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇦🇪 The 82nd Airborne is running Hormuz shipping out of a command center in the UAE, and the way it works looks a lot like the shadow fleets the US sanctions Reports say ships gather off the Emirati coast each day, switch off their tracking beacons, and follow secret coordinates through the strait with checkpoints named Alpha, Bravo, Charlie while US jets, drones and warships move a protective "bubble" along with them. Once they reach the Gulf of Oman they unload onto other tankers and head back for another run. It's working: exports hit about 80% of prewar levels last week, up from half that in July. The catch is who's willing to do it... Most private shippers still refuse, so it's mostly state-owned tankers making the same trip over and over again, which one Western official called "a de facto shadow fleet." At least 25 ships were hit this month, two sank, and Iran is now aiming for engine rooms. The real question is next week: can the same jets and ships keep that bubble up while they're also bombing Iran, because Tehran's answer to any strike will land on these tankers first. Source: Washington Post / Writer: Daniel

🇺🇸 Nvidia wants to buy Hugging Face, and the U.S. government has questions. Hugging Face is the go-to site for sharing AI models, and Nvidia agreed to buy it for $12.9 billion. That’s caught the Justice Department’s eye, with officials asking whether the deal would hand Nvidia a key AI gateway to use against rivals, insiders say. It’s part of a wider probe that began under Biden and carried on under Trump, looking at Nvidia’s deals and whether it leaned on customers. That includes whether Nvidia offered more AI chips to customers who also bought its other products. Still, a probe doesn’t mean wrongdoing, and Nvidia says Hugging Face will keep working with all kinds of providers. With the deal not closing until 2027, more questions could come. Source: Reuters / Writer: Daniyal