Eve of Ceasefire, US Military Fires on Iranian Vessel | Rewire News Morning Brief

Eve of Ceasefire, US Military Fires on Iranian Ship | Rewire News Morning Update

With the ceasefire expiring tomorrow, the US military shelled and seized an Iranian cargo ship today, prompting a threat of retaliation from Tehran. The ripples of the war are spreading simultaneously towards the financial and technological fronts.

1 | US Military Fires on and Seizes Iranian Cargo Ship Touska, Oil Prices Surge 7% Overnight as Ceasefire Deadline Approaches

The USS Spruance destroyer issued a six-hour warning to the Iranian cargo ship Touska in the Gulf of Oman, which refused to halt. The US military then fired upon the engine room and Marines boarded the ship for seizure. This marks the first time the US has fired on a vessel since blockading Iranian ports and the first ship seizure since the blockade began.

In the early hours of Monday, the Iranian Joint Military Command responded, calling the US military's actions "armed piracy" and stating that the armed forces "will retaliate soon." Meanwhile, Trump announced that envoys Vechkov and Kushner flew to Islamabad on Sunday for a final round of negotiations before the ceasefire expires on April 21. The previous marathon talks lasted 21 hours and reached a deadlock on the issue of the Hormuz passage and the nuclear problem.

The market reacted faster than the statements. WTI surged 7% to $89.74 on Sunday night, Brent rose 5.8% to $95.59, nearly erasing all the losses from Friday's "Strait Reopens" news. Energy Secretary Wright admitted on the same day that US gasoline prices may not drop below $3 per gallon until 2027. From blockade to firing, the escalation ladder jumped several levels in a single day. Tomorrow is a turning point. (Continued from yesterday's report)

(Source: Axios / Fortune / Al Jazeera / CNBC / NPR / CNN)

2 | NSA Bypasses Pentagon Ban to Deploy Anthropic Mythos, the Real Arbiter of AI Militarization Is Not the Department of Defense

The NSA is utilizing the Anthropic supermodel Mythos Preview, despite the Pentagon categorizing Anthropic as a "supply chain risk." This label was previously only used for foreign adversaries, making Anthropic the first US company to bear it.

The conflict originated from a $200 million Pentagon contract last July. Anthropic requested the US military commit to not using its technology for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance, while the Department of Defense demanded unrestricted use for all lawful purposes. After negotiations broke down, Defense Secretary Hegesys announced the ban in February. On April 8, Anthropic's request for a temporary lifting of the ban was rejected by the appeals court.

However, cybersecurity needs are more urgent than bureaucratic structures. Apart from the NSA, the Commerce Department's AI Standards and Innovation Center is also testing Mythos' ability to identify unknown software vulnerabilities, with a briefing requested by a congressional committee. Last Friday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with White House Chief of Staff Wales and Treasury Secretary Bessemer. The front door is blocked, but the backdoor and side doors are simultaneously open. The actual needs of various agencies are bypassing political decisions from the Pentagon.

(Source: Axios / RedState / CNBC / Implicator.ai)

3 | Google Partners with Marvell to Develop Inference Chip, Shifting from Broadcom's Sole Supply to Three-line Parallel Development

Google is in talks with Marvell for two new chips. One is a memory processing unit to work with the TPU, and the other is a new TPU designed for inference. The goal is to complete the memory processing unit design by 2027 and hand it over for trial production. No contract has been signed yet.

The timing is noteworthy. Just a few days ago, Broadcom secured an extension of its TPU agreement until 2031. Google is not switching suppliers but creating competitive tension among manufacturing suppliers. The self-developed ASIC market is expected to grow by 45% in 2026, reaching $118 billion in 2033. Marvell's stock price has already risen by 50% this year, with a 30% increase in April alone.

Taking a broader view, there is a bigger trend. Google is diversifying its TPU supply chain, OpenAI has invested in Cerebras to secure non-NVIDIA computing power, and Microsoft is betting on its self-designed Maia chip. AI inference is replacing training as the main computational cost, and the power dynamics of the chip supply chain are being actively reshaped by the buyers. The era of a single supplier is ending, not because the suppliers are bad, but because the buyers are unwilling to risk relying on just one.

(Source: Reuters / The Information / The Next Web / WCCFTech / Yahoo Finance)

4 | UAE Seeks Currency Swap with Federal Reserve, Redefining Middle Eastern Alliance

UAE Central Bank Governor Balaram met with officials from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department in Washington last week, proposing to establish a currency swap mechanism. A formal application has not yet been submitted, but the signal has been sent.

Since the start of the war on February 28, over 2,800 missiles and drones have hit the UAE, causing damage to its energy infrastructure. The interruption of oil shipments through the Hormuz Strait cut off dollar revenue sources. The official explanation is that they have "avoided the worst economic consequences," but the act of actively seeking a financial safety net from the United States itself indicates that the UAE's confidence in its financial hub status is wavering.

The underlying logic of the Gulf ally relationship has always been "security for oil for dollars." When war threatens both security and oil routes, the cost of this exchange system suddenly rises. The UAE's plea is not a sign of weakness but a reminder to Washington that the ally relationship comes with a price, a price that is being recalculated in the face of war.

(Source: Fortune / WSJ / Bloomberg)

Also Worth Knowing ↓

Vercel development platform hacked, third-party AI tool OAuth used as entry point. Attackers infiltrated Vercel's internal systems through Context.ai's OAuth permissions, leading to the exposure of records of 580 employees. ShinyHunters claims to be selling data and API keys. Vercel has advised customers to rotate their keys. The AI toolchain is becoming a new entry point for supply chain attacks.

(Source: The Verge / BleepingComputer)

Kraken's parent company Payward acquires Bitnomial for $550 million, securing the first fully stacked crypto CFTC license in the U.S. Bitnomial spent a decade obtaining the DCM, DCO, and FCM licenses, all acquired by Kraken in one go. The transaction implies a total valuation of Payward at $20 billion. The compliance derivatives' entry barrier has just been shortened by a decade.

(Source: Finextra / CoinDesk)

Blue Origin's New Glenn successfully reuses a rocket for the first time, but a customer satellite ends up in the wrong orbit. AST SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 was placed in a lower-than-expected orbit. Rocket reusability is a milestone, but for the customer, the mission is only half accomplished. Bezos's reusable rocket challenge against SpaceX still requires more success.

(Source: TechCrunch / The Verge)

The federal government launches a formal investigation into the mysterious disappearance and deaths of several top scientists. Energy Secretary Wright confirms that the scientists involved are from the nuclear security and space sectors, with the Energy Department taking the lead and multiple agencies coordinating. "We have not found anything alarming yet." The very existence of the investigation itself is already alarming.

(Source: Fortune)

German Chancellor Merkel calls for easing EU regulations for industrial AI. With the EU AI Act's high-risk provisions set to come into effect in August, Merkel is pushing a "modernization agenda" to reduce bureaucratic costs by 25% using AI for visa and export document approvals. European AI regulation is transitioning from a one-size-fits-all approach to industrial exemptions.

(Source: Reuters / BABL AI)

Palantir Issues Manifesto Denouncing "Wokeness" and "Cancel Culture". The company's collaboration with ICE and its stance on "defending the West" have increasingly shaped its ideological direction. The defense tech firm is transitioning from a quiet Pentagon contractor to an outspoken participant in the culture wars. (Source: TechCrunch)