Booming

• Fox and Telemundo have broken viewership records during the World Cup group stage, signaling a massive surge in soccer's popularity within the US. • Fox Sports reported that 84 million Americans tuned into its coverage through June 25, while Telemundo noted that its viewership is pacing at more than double that of the 2022 Qatar tournament. • This growth highlights a historic peak in audience engagement for the sport, positioning both networks as major financial and strategic winners.

Spending on government contracts with tech firms that use AI-powered tools to track immigrants has soared to record levels under Trump 2.0, report saysA new report sheds light on the unprecedented growth of the US government’s immigration surveillance arsenal, revealing fresh details about how spending on technology and AI tools to find and track migrants has soared to record levels during Donald Trump’s second term.The report, released this week, analyzed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) contracts with 11 companies the authors said provide surveillance tech. They found the money awarded to these firms doubled from 2024 to 2025, to just over $310m – and in 2026, that number soared to a record $513m. Continue reading...

• Google's Sean Downey and YouTuber Adam W discussed the surge in creator ad spending during Business Insider's CMO Insider breakfast. • The experts advised marketers to stop attempting to control every word of a campaign, suggesting that relinquishing creative control to creators leads to better results. • This shift matters as brands move away from traditional corporate scripting to leverage the authentic voice and influence of social media personalities.

• The hyperscale data center market is experiencing an accelerated growth phase fueled by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and public cloud services. • This surge is primarily driven by an increase in global data traffic and the massive computational requirements needed to train and deploy AI models. • The trend is significant as it forces a shift in infrastructure design to accommodate higher power densities and specialized hardware like GPUs.

• Only 19 venture-backed European startups went public in 2025, according to data from PitchBook. • This stagnation in the IPO market has triggered a liquidity crisis, forcing founders and investors to keep companies private for longer periods. • To combat this, participants are increasingly turning to Europe's emerging secondary market, which is currently valued at $226 billion.

Inquiry into black market hears cost of destroying vapes has also soared, with some requiring manual dismantlingFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPolice are struggling to store a growing wave of illegal cigarettes and vapes seized from criminals, with secure facilities at capacity and the high cost of destroying illicit products becoming prohibitive.The Australian federal police (AFP) has been spending as much as $13 a kilogram for vapes to be destroyed, with some companies requiring the cartridge, battery and heating element to be manually dismantled. Continue reading...