Germany intends to block Chinese state-owned Cosco from acquiring an 80% stake in Hamburg logistics firm Zippel over national security concerns.

A government memo reportedly warned the deal could create strategic dependencies that China could use as political leverage. Germany’s Economy Ministry is reviewing the transaction, including concerns over Zippel’s software systems and sensitive data.

Germany’s antitrust authority had already cleared the deal in February, saying national security was outside its remit.

Source: Handelsblatt

Trump meets with AI company CEOs at the White House.

Trump on AI:

We’re going to be signing a document today renaming artificial intelligence to superintelligence officially.

Trump:

You’re going to see data centers are going to be very popular.

Trump on AI:

There is a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation.

Q: Who should be held accountable when AI agents commit a crime?

Trump: It’s not AI, it’s SI.

Q: Are you concerned at all that your continued support of data centers could hurt Republicans in the midterms?

Trump: I just have to do what’s right.

Trump on Iran:

I don’t know if they’re going to give up yet, but they will give up.

Trump on Iran:

We took more oil out of the Strait of Hormuz over the last couple of days than at any point in history.

Trump on North Korea:

Kim Jong Un is a friend of mine. He likes Trump, and I like him.

Trump on North Korea:

Kim Jong Un has a large nuclear capacity. You know why? Because they had presidents that didn’t do what I did.

Q: What more can you tell us about the incident at the airbase in the UK?

Trump: I’m just disappointed that they caught terrorists and then they sort of let them go.

How do you give bail to terrorists? So I don’t know.

Trump:

This guy is a monster, and nobody knows.

Trump on North Korea:

As long as I am around, Kim Jong Un is going to be fine. You know why? Because he respects me, and he likes me.

Bill Gates on AI:

AI has crossed the threshold that its ability to empower a bioterrorist to kill hundreds of millions exists today.

The ability to do a cyberattack that scrambles all the bank accounts, shuts down the electric grid — that exists today. And we know that’s the case.

And the reason that exists is because somebody with ill intent can take the AI and cause it to do those things.

Bill Gates on AI:

It’s fair to say that outside of the industry, the awareness of the dangers of AI is extremely low. And you can say that of academia, you can say that of think tanks, you can say that of policymakers, politicians.

And part of the reason that I’m speaking so loudly, as loud as I can, is that you can’t rely on the industry to self-regulate here. I mean, it’s just insane.

The only question in my mind is: do we wait until a cyberattack causes massive damage and a bioattack causes massive damage, and then the monitoring safeguards are required in these models to minimize the chance of that happening many, many more times?

Or can we be wise enough to put these things in and require these things to be put in before millions of deaths?

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson:

The nightmare scenario, heaven forbid the Democrats take control of the House. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body.

They will do nothing all day, every day, every hour of the day, but go after the president, his family, his cabinet, donors in the party, the big figures in business and industry.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš:

We have to fight to make Europe competitive, so that we don’t sometimes have the feeling that we are heading toward the fall of the Roman Empire.

None of us would want that.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:

I want an arms race in Israel that is even bigger than what the army wants. I am convinced that we have to be much stronger.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:

If we become an empire of sophisticated armaments and sell to the whole world, the world will need us.

The State of Israel has to be an asset in the eyes of the world in order to preserve its standing.