Javier C. Hernández, reporting for The New York Times:

He was responding to a question about why Japan and other allies had received no advance notice of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.

“We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” he said. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan, OK? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK? Right?”

There was some laughter from the officials and journalists gathered in the room. “You believe in surprise, I think, much more so than us,” he added.

As Trump sinks further into dementia and his presidency slides further into disarray, his administration, in a sick way, gets funnier and funnier.

Yuliya Chernova / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Kalshi is raising ~$1B led by Coatue at a $22B valuation, up from the $11B valuation announced in December, and has a revenue run rate of ~$1.5B  —  Coatue Management is leading the new financing that would total about $1 billion for the prediction-market platform, according to sources

The Information:
Amazon acquires Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup Rivr, formerly Swiss-Mile; PitchBook: the startup was valued at $110M in an August 2024 funding round  —  Amazon has acquired autonomous robotics startup Rivr, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed, a deal that could help the commerce …

Wired:
Signal's Moxie Marlinspike says his privacy-focused AI platform Confer will integrate its encryption tech into Meta AI to provide E2EE for chatbot interactions  —  Moxie Marlinspike says the technology powering his encrypted AI chatbot, Confer, will be integrated into Meta AI.

Destiny 2’s Magic: The Gathering crossover adds iconic Planeswalkers to Bungie's looter-shooter, but I want to see Destiny Magic cards instead.