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• KOSME successfully raised $400 million through a social bond issuance, marking its first return to the global bond market in 10 years. • To secure funding, KOSME conducted a phased investor relations strategy, including non-deal roadshows from July 12 to 17 in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. • The capital is specifically earmarked to provide critical financial support and funding for small firms and startups.

• The European Union is revising its General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) to ease state aid rules, specifically prioritizing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), innovation, and social inclusion. • The move aims to simplify how member states provide subsidies to small media outlets without requiring lengthy approval processes from the European Commission. • This shift follows intense lobbying among EU capitals, with Denmark emerging as a leading advocate for extending these exemptions to the media sector to support local journalism.

Hundreds watched the 56-metre monument’s consecration, including anti-communist leader Lech WałęsaAn enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that is believed to be Europe’s tallest was inaugurated on Saturday in a small Polish village, in the presence of the anti-communist leader Lech Wałęsa.Hundreds of people took part in the consecration of the monument, which towers 55.6 metres (182ft) over Konotopie in central Poland, a village of fewer than 150 people. Continue reading...

• The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a final rule permanently ending beneficial ownership reporting requirements. • Under this new rule, U.S. companies and U.S. persons are no longer required to report beneficial ownership information as previously mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act. • FinCEN has further committed to deleting information that was already reported by U.S. persons prior to this rule change.

Disclosure comes after Conservative and Reform claims that French police refusing to intervene in crossingsThe French authorities have halted small boats at sea in the Channel on 10 occasions since the spring, officials said on Friday.Despite claims from the Conservatives and Reform that the French were refusing to intervene in small boat crossings, Maritime Prefect officers were using “intervention tactics” to board or control vessels at sea and take asylum seekers back to France. Continue reading...

• Novo co-founder Michael Rangel highlights how major Wall Street banks have effectively priced out approximately 36 million small businesses from essential financial services. • Despite the rise of fintech, Rangel notes that his own company still faces challenges in providing banking services to crypto-related firms due to systemic barriers. • The issue is critical as the solopreneur economy grows; Stripe research from June shows that 4 million Americans earned over $100,000 as solopreneurs in 2023, up from roughly 2 million in the early 2010s.

• DeepSeek has released V4-Flash-0731, a smaller model designed to enhance agent performance through advanced post-training techniques. • Despite its reduced size, the new model has reportedly outperformed DeepSeek's own flagship version while maintaining the same underlying architecture. • The release is significant as it provides open weights, allowing developers more flexibility and accessibility to high-performance AI agents.

Retired commander says policy lacks substance as party accused of trying to distract from Nigel Farage’s scandalsUK politics live – latest updatesA Reform UK proposal to use the military to stop small boats bringing migrants to the UK from France lacks substance, a former Royal Navy officer has said, suggesting the UK’s warships would be better used countering actual military threats.Reform’s political opponents have claimed its plans have more to do with distracting from the financial scandals surrounding its leader, Nigel Farage, than about solving the small boats issue, after the party proposed having the navy pick up people trying to make irregular Channel crossings and take them to France. Continue reading...

Labour say plan is a ‘desperate attempt to distract from sleaze’ while a retired commander says it ‘lacks substance’The leader of Restore Britain, Rupert Lowe, told the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, that if he was “prepared to work together around serious policies, serious reform and serious government, then so are we”.In a video posted on X on Sunday, Lowe said:I truly believe there could be sufficient common ground for our two movements to cooperate collectively, destroy the looming leftwing alliance that will finish off what hope remains for this country.In my view, failing to even try because of our own personal difficulties is simply not an option. Now is the time to put our differences aside and cooperate for the good of the country that we all love.Mass deportation of illegal migrants “including women and children”.Tougher rules on legal migration, a ban on halal and kosher slaughter, the burqa, cousin marriage and sharia courts.A referendum on the death penalty.Welfare cuts to fund “self-sufficiency”.The exclusion of former Tory ministers from any future cabinet. Continue reading...

Todd Blanche issues formal order terminating measure widely derided as a ‘slush fund’, in move that could clear path for his nomination as attorney generalActing US attorney general Todd Blanche issued a formal order late on Sunday terminating Donald Trump’s $1.8bn “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate his political allies, a move that follows weeks of negotiations with two Republican senators who were blocking his nomination to become attorney general.While Blanche has repeatedly said publicly that the fund was dead, the justice department had resisted formally confirming that in writing. That had drawn concern from lawmakers that it could be revived in some form, especially after Trump expressed continued support for the idea. Continue reading...

Prime minister says UK needs to ‘bring back that control’, but safe routes for refugees are necessary to tackle traffickingAndy Burnham has pledged to be “relentless” in tackling small boat crossings after tens of thousands of migrants entered Ceuta, a Spanish territory, but said “safe routes” for refugees were necessary to tackle trafficking gangs.Speaking during a visit to Dover, the prime minister said he had been assured by the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, that approximately 98% of the estimated 50,000 people who entered Spain’s north African territory of Ceuta last week have now been returned to Morocco. Continue reading...

Tariffs are annoying and disruptive, but this round is less impactful – and business owners are taking them in their strideRebounding from his defeat at the supreme court in February, Donald Trump has recently announced a new round of tariffs, invoking sections of various trade acts to levy amounts on industries and countries based on reasons ranging from “forced labor” to “excess capacity”.And how are small and medium-sized businesses in the US reacting? One word: snoozefest. Continue reading...

• Best Buy is transitioning toward smaller store formats and integrating new technology to drive growth under the leadership of incoming CEO Jason Bonfig. • The strategic shift comes as the company faces significant headwinds, including challenging sales figures and mounting margin pressures. • By optimizing its physical footprint, the retailer aims to reduce overhead costs while maintaining a competitive presence in the electronics market.

• London-based startup Inforcer has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Insight Partners to help small businesses manage AI and cybersecurity risks. • Since launching in 2023, the company has focused on product development, including a "Shadow AI" detection tool to identify unauthorized AI usage on corporate devices. • The funding follows rapid evolutions in cyber threats, prompting Inforcer to launch a real-time threat detection and response tool to mitigate security vulnerabilities.

Group of migrants found unresponsive off coast of Dunkirk while attempting to reach UKThree people have died while trying to reach the UK on a small boat after one of the busiest days for Channel crossings this year.The group of migrants were found dead on a boat off the coast of Dunkirk on Thursday morning, the French coastguard said. Continue reading...

Deaths expected as Kumamoto shook by 6.8-magnitude quake, knocking out power and damaging buildingsA 6.8-magnitude earthquake has shaken south Japan, leaving at least 50 people injured, with some trapped and presumed dead inside a partly collapsed shopping mall.The earthquake hit the Kumamoto prefecture on the southern Kyushu island late on Tuesday afternoon, knocking out power to thousands of homes and damaging roads, bridges and buildings. Continue reading...

Initiatives including cutting permits just to serve ice-cream amount to a sweeping program of deregulationRed Scare? The democratic socialist mayor of New York City spent this week talking about red tape.On Tuesday, Zohran Mamdani – the politician at the center of a revived rightwing panic about socialists and purported communists winning elections across America - posted a video on X of himself putting a sheet of paper with the phrase “RED TAPE” into a paper shredder. Other pieces of paper, with phrases like “cumbersome fees and fines” and “a permit you need just to serve ice-cream”, were shredded too. The video, set to Wu Tang Clan’s If Time Is Money, shows Mamdani joining a handful of city officials and small business owners throwing the resulting paper shreds into the air like confetti. Continue reading...

Landlords say high costs of running hospitality business outweigh potential savings of business rates discountOne of Andy Burnham’s first policy measures as prime minister is a 20% reduction in business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues.The policy, announced on Thursday, is part of a broader agenda to support the high street and will cost £100m. Continue reading...

A team of firefighters saved the pup from the water in a mission that utilized boats, trucks and a droneFirefighters rescued a small dog that had been missing for weeks after finding it swimming into the San Francisco Bay.The dog had gone missing over the Fourth of July weekend, according to the Menlo Park fire protection district. But someone called 911 on 16 July to say they had seen a dog enter the bay near the Dumbarton Bridge in East Palo Alto. Continue reading...

The R&B singer was found guilty of racketeering, sex trafficking and producing child abuse images, with his lawyer lobbying the US president for more than a yearR Kelly has formally appealed to the US president, Donald Trump, for a reduction of his 31-year prison sentence for racketeering, sex trafficking and child abuse images, in a filing to the Department of Justice.The 59-year-old R&B singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in 2021 of leading a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual activity and pornography, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2022 he was found guilty on three counts of child abuse images and three counts of child enticement and sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he is serving nearly entirely concurrently but for one additional year.Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html Continue reading...

Sotheby’s expects second man on moon’s marker, crucial to Apollo 11 return, to reach astronomical sumThe felt-tip pen Buzz Aldrin used to fix a broken circuit breaker and escape from the moon in 1969 is up for auction in New York on Wednesday.The dented silver plastic Duro Rocket pen – used by the second man on the moon to save Neil Armstrong and himself from being “stuck on the moon for ever” – has a sale price estimated by Sotheby’s at between $800,000 and $1.2m. The lucky bidder will get the broken piece of circuit breaker, too. Both come from Aldrin’s personal collection. Continue reading...

Government to launch campaign to help people cope with events such as weather emergencies or cyber-attacksThe British public should begin taking “small but important steps” to secure and protect water, power supplies and basic phone signal in case of further severe weather emergencies, national crises or cyber-attacks, Downing Street has said.Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told MPs “the risks we face from climate change cannot be underestimated”, and warned of the “significant and prolonged disruption to essential services” extreme weather events could cause. Continue reading...

• Microsoft is granting users greater control over AI features within Teams as AI-driven coding, dictation, and digital actors continue to reshape business operations. • New advancements in large language models (LLMs) are making AI-powered dictation more practical by allowing workers to speak naturally while the software automatically corrects grammar and formatting. • Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are being forced to seek new marketing strategies as the rising cost of Google Ads becomes unsustainable.

• The Indian stock market closed higher, with the Sensex gaining 521 points and the Nifty index finishing above the 24,400 mark. • Market growth was driven by the Realty sector, which rose 1.8%, along with gains in Consumer Durables (1.5%), Auto (1.3%), and Oil & Gas (1.1%). • Key gainers included HDFC Bank, Hindalco Industries, and ONGC, while the Media, PSU Bank, and IT sectors faced declines.

• Michelle Turner launched Here Now Health, a mental health platform for foster children, by leveraging AI tools to accelerate the transition from concept to operation. • The company demonstrates how non-AI businesses use the technology to lower entry costs and scale faster by automating tasks that were previously too expensive or time-consuming. • This trend highlights a shift where traditional service-based entrepreneurs use AI to increase efficiency and hiring capacity, contrasting with the broader narrative of AI-driven job losses.

Lawmaker’s exit gives voters choice between progressive Abdul El-Sayed and centrist Haley Stevens in must-win seatMallory McMorrow, a Michigan Democrat, has dropped out of a contentious US Senate primary campaign, setting up a straight fight between the party’s progressive and establishment wings – represented by Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, and Haley Stevens, a congresswoman.McMorrow’s retreat marks the end of a center-left bid to hold the seat being vacated this year by the Democrat Gary Peters. The three-way primary contest was a close one earlier in the campaign, but polls indicated that McMorrow’s support had plunged in recent weeks, as El-Sayed raced past her and Stevens to emerge as the frontrunner for the party’s nomination. Continue reading...

Michael Phillips says he suffers from micropenis – but he’s now fundraised enough to increase his member’s girthA US man who has staked the uncontested claim of having the smallest penis in the world says he has booked a procedure to enhance his member at least somewhat after soliciting the online public’s financial support for that purpose.In a brief interview on Saturday, 38-year-old Michael Phillips described himself as “really thankful and surprised” over the GoFundMe platform users who supported his campaign for help to pay for the procedure in question. Continue reading...

• Michelle Turner utilized AI tools to rapidly launch and scale Here Now Health, a mental health platform dedicated to supporting foster children. • The company leveraged AI to handle tasks that were previously too costly or time-consuming, allowing a traditional service provider to operate more efficiently. • This case highlights a shift where entrepreneurs use AI to lower barriers to entry and accelerate growth without being "AI companies" themselves.