Top stories today:

1. New TikTok ban bill passes in House, exp. to become law this week
2. $95B Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid approved by House
3. Tesla expected to report 1st sales drop since Covid on Tue
4. Bitcoin halving raises fees, as Runes token protocol launches
5. Llama 3 70B running at 284 tokens/sec., $0.79/1M tokens on Groq

0. Data and calendar

1. New TikTok ban bill passes in House, expected to become law this week, as TikTok preps to challenge it

84% of the House voted in favor:

• 360 days (90 of which subject to a presidential waiver) for ByteDance to divest TikTok, or else face a ban.

  • Vs. 180 days in the previous bill.

• “We will move to the courts for a legal challenge,” wrote TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, in a memo to TikTok’s U.S. staff.

  • First Amendment arguments would likely be the main reason.

• TikTok’s general counsel is expected to step down, even as the company denies it is doing so immediately.

3. $95B Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid approved by House

• Ukraine aid was passed with 71% support, by 311-112.

  • All no’s came from GOP.

• Israel bill had 84% support.

• Taiwan bill 89%.

• New sanctions on Iranian oil were also included in the package.

The $61B for Ukraine was overwhelmingly for military spending

• Zelensky thanked the U.S., saying it will “save 1,000s and 1,000s of lives.”

• Russia warned that the aid package would lead to the “deaths of even more Ukrainians.”

4. Tesla expected to report 1st sales drop since Covid on Tue, as price cuts continue

• Expected -42% YoY net profit, to $0.49 in EPS.

• Autonomous robotaxi being prioritized vs. the cheaper, ~$25K EV.

• Tesla cut the price of its Y model in the U.S. by $2K, and Full Self-Driving software by $4K.

  • In China, the 3, Y, S and X models had its prices cut by ~$2K.

Elon called off a visit to India, citing “very heavy Tesla obligations”

5. Bitcoin halving raises fees, as Runes token protocol launches

• Friday 8:09 PM ET: halving occurred.

• 3.125 BTC mined per ~10 minutes, from 6.25 before that.

• The Runes protocol allows for more cost-efficient fungible tokens on Bitcoin, similarly to the ERC-20 protocol on Ethereum or SPL on Solana.

  • The previously available BRC-20 was inefficient, usually requiring 2 transactions for a sale.

6. Llama 3 70B running at 284 tokens/sec., $0.79/1M tokens on Groq

The best open model and the best cloud inference provider:

7. NYT top news source of Trump's 12 jurors in NY criminal trial

NYT also did the analysis, of course:

Opening statements are set to start today

8. Interesting videos, posts, and memes

9. Other headlines

AI

• Apple's LLMs likely to be on-device.

• OpenAI calls Elon's lawsuit "revisionist history,” hearing on Apr. 24.

• U.S. pushing Big Tech alliance with UAE on AI.

Tech

• Salesforce abandons pursuit of Informatica: sources.

• Tencent stock +5% as blockbuster game debuts earlier.

• Ultra VIP events mixing tech CEOs, celebrities, athletes: a look at.

Biotech

• Novo Nordisk's huge Ozempic success: a look at.

• Parkinson's analyzed by SENS damage repair view of aging.

Business

• JP Morgan closes historic Wall St. branch.

• Chipotle raised prices 6 times since 2021, yet customers still love it.

Crypto

• Shiba Inu raises $12M to launch Layer 3 blockchain.

• Telegram to support USDT stablecoin.

• Grayscale to launch Bitcoin Mini Trust with 0.15% fee.

• IRS shares draft of new 1099-DA form that will be soon required.

• Jack Dorsey-backed Bitcoin miner Gridless operates in Africa.

• FTX investors settle with SBF to pursue celebrity promoters.

U.S. politics

• FISA surveillance program reauthorization passes Senate, heads to Biden.

  • Reason: “could force workers, custodians to become spies.”

• Trump at 44% on Betfair, Biden 43%.

World

• IDF intel chief announces resignation over Oct. 7.

• Israel asks U.S. for more tank ammunition, tactical vehicles.

• Hamas explores moving political HQ out of Doha, perhaps to Oman.

• Blinken to pressure China over Russia support in visit this week.

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