Raises

• NASA plans to deorbit the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years, intending to let the massive structure crash into the ocean. • A leading ocean conservation organization has raised serious concerns, arguing that the impact could negatively affect ocean health and marine ecosystems. • The controversy highlights a critical gap in international law regarding the environmental impact and regulation of space debris entering Earth's atmosphere.

• New York-based company Attention has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round announced on June 23, 2026. • The investment round was led by RTP Global and included participation from several of Attention's own customers. • The funds will be used to develop an AI system designed to actively run revenue teams rather than simply recording their activities.

• Major AI-driven tech stocks, including hyperscalers like Microsoft and Alphabet, are experiencing a slump as investors question the timeline for returns on massive AI investments. • The decline follows a period of aggressive spending where companies utilized significant cash reserves to fund AI infrastructure and expansion. • This market shift highlights growing nervousness among investors regarding whether the high capital expenditures will translate into sustainable profit growth.

Trump-admiring Abelardo de la Espriella has vowed to ‘disembowel’ the left and kill criminals like ‘rats and cockroaches’When more than 20 women accused a Colombian evangelical pastor in 2012 of sexually abusing them, the defendant’s lawyer sought to discredit the allegations by telling the court that they were “trepadoras” – a pejorative term meaning social climbers.He ultimately secured his client’s acquittal – although the case remains under review by the supreme court – but footage of the remark resurfaced during Colombia’s presidential campaign, sparking outrage among many progressive voters. Continue reading...

• Cyber warfare startup Twenty has successfully closed a $100 million Series B funding round led by Accel. • This latest investment brings the company's total funding to $138 million, providing significant capital to expand its operations. • The funding is critical as the company scales its cybersecurity capabilities to address evolving threats in the cyber warfare landscape.

• European leaders at the G7 summit in Evian and VivaTech conference in Paris are discussing technological sovereignty. • The talks come after a U.S. directive banned foreign nationals from using Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models on national security grounds. • The move has raised concerns among European leaders about reliance on U.S. technology and potential threats to their own technological development.

• The Pentagon has renamed the Indo-Pacific Command shortly before the G7 Summit, sparking concerns regarding the stability of India-US relations and future trade ties. • Pentagon officials claim the renaming is a primarily administrative move designed to restore historical military traditions rather than a strategic shift. • Geopolitical observers are questioning if the timing sends a specific message ahead of critical discussions between Prime Minister Modi and Donald Trump.

• Chinese AI startup DeepSeek raised over 50 billion yuan (approximately $7.4 billion) in its first external funding round. • The investment values the company at more than $50 billion, marking a massive scale-up for the artificial intelligence firm. • To maintain founder control, the company utilized an unusual limited partnership structure for the funding arrangement.

• Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has raised over 50 billion yuan ($7.40 billion) in its first external funding round. • The investment has propelled the company's valuation to over $50 billion, making it one of the largest fundraising events in the global AI sector. • A unique investment structure was utilized during the round to ensure the company's founders retain operational and strategic control.

• Shiv Sena (UBT) has alleged a shift toward authoritarianism in India, claiming that democratic structures are currently under significant strain. • Through the publication Saamana, the party highlighted three primary drivers of this decline: the rise in political defections, the centralization of power, and the systematic weakening of the opposition. • These allegations matter as they reflect the growing political tension and the perceived erosion of checks and balances within the country's governance.

• AI startup ContraVault has raised $3.1 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Chiratae Ventures, with additional participation from Titan Capital. • The company provides AI-driven tools to streamline the tender bidding process for businesses in high-stakes sectors, including construction, energy, power, defense, and aerospace. • This investment is critical for the startup to scale its operations, enhance product development, and grow its internal team.

Country follows ECB in increasing borrowing costs, but US Fed and Bank of England expected to hold ratesBusiness live – latest updatesThe Bank of Japan (BoJ) has raised interest rates to a 31-year high, as it tried to dampen inflationary pressures created by the Iran war.Policymakers in Tokyo raised the BoJ’s short-term policy rate by a quarter of one percentage point, to 1% from 0.75%, and warned that companies were passing on rising oil costs to each other at a “relatively fast pace”. Continue reading...

• Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar defended India's decision to continue purchasing Russian oil during a visit to Finland, rejecting Western criticism of the move. • Jaishankar challenged global double standards by highlighting European arms sales to Pakistan while the West pressures India over its energy ties with Russia. • He emphasized that conflicts in Ukraine and Iran create global ripple effects, destabilizing international trade networks, economies, and geopolitical security.

Agents seized phones and laptops of Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a group that does voter registration workThe FBI raided the office of a voting rights group in Ohio on Thursday, prompting immediate concerns the Trump administration is cracking down on such organizations ahead of the midterm elections.FBI agents raided the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a grassroots group that does voter registration work, said Prentiss Haney, a board member of the group. Agents seized computers and phones, he said, and also showed up at homes of people affiliated with the group throughout the state and interviewed them. Continue reading...

Former defence secretary’s accusation, that PM lacks impetus and is easily swayed by chancellor’s demands, is familiar territoryOne of the most scathing accusations made by John Healey in his resignation letter on Thursday was that the prime minister lacks the authority to stand up to his chancellor.“You have been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats,” the former defence secretary wrote. Continue reading...

European Central Bank increases main deposit rate to 2.25%, with two further rises expected by next springBusiness live – latest updatesThe European Central Bank has raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 in response to higher inflation caused by the war in Iran.The ECB raised its main deposit rate from 2% to 2.25% and financial markets are pricing in two more rises by next spring. Continue reading...

Rights groups and some locals worry that program to ‘track illicit activity’ could become a data collection projectThe Great Lakes have rarely ever been considered a hotbed of illicit drug activity or center for illegal immigration.But that hasn’t stopped US government agencies and the company behind surveillance sailing drones from treating the region as such. The US Coast Guard recently announced it has launched an armada of at least six sailing drones in the Great Lakes this summer in an attempt to, in part, “track illicit activity”. Continue reading...

• Creator Fund has raised $56 million specifically to support scientific founders across Europe in transitioning breakthrough research into viable startups. • The fund has already quietly completed 11 initial investments targeting innovators in the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Hungary. • This initiative matters as it bridges the gap between academic discovery and commercial application, providing critical early-stage capital to deep-tech entrepreneurs.

• A Security, a startup founded by Israeli cybersecurity veterans, has emerged from stealth after raising $37 million in funding from Lightspeed and Cyberstarts. • The company's autonomous platform is designed to identify and remediate exploit paths, preventing AI-enabled hackers from chaining vulnerabilities into full-scale breaches. • The founding team includes former experts from Check Point Software, Hunters, the IDF’s Unit 8200, and Sygnia, bringing specialized experience in red-team operations and AI engineering.

Lincoln Folo has been tasked with helping rebuild after two federal election defeats. Follow liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning and welcome to the live blog for Sunday 7 June. I’m Josh Taylor and I’ll be bringing you the news for today.The Liberals have appointed a new top strategist as the new federal president, Tony Abbott, begins to make his mark on the party. Continue reading...

Former figures at regulator voice disquiet after series of provocative interviews by recently departed chairRegulators are not generally known for courting controversy. When the day job involves making delicate, legally fraught decisions, they tend to be a circumspect bunch.However, since stepping down as chair of Ofcom, one of Britain’s most scrutinised watchdogs, the Conservative peer Michael Grade has been doing his best to buck that stereotype. “I’m free of the shackles,” he recently said. Continue reading...

• Anthropic secured a $65 billion funding round on May 28, 2026, lifting its post-money valuation to $965 billion as the AI startup nears a potential public listing. • The Series H round was co-led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue, and D1 Capital Partners, with participation from major institutional and strategic investors. • The deal underscores how aggressively capital is still flowing into frontier-model companies, even as the sector faces mounting scrutiny over valuations, compute costs, and commercialization timelines.

• Tensormesh said on May 27 it raised $20 million from Nvidia, AMD and CoreWeave, along with Valley Capital Partners and Laude Ventures, to improve AI inference efficiency. • The startup is launching Tensormesh Inference, a software-as-a-service product built around KV caching to reduce redundant computations in large language model workloads. • The round is notable because major AI infrastructure players backed a company focused on a core performance bottleneck, signaling demand for lower-cost, faster model serving.

• Five European companies secured a total of €1.2 billion in funding last week across Poland, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. • The investments highlight a strategic push for European autonomy in space technology to reduce reliance on U.S.-based infrastructure. • Norway saw its largest-ever AI infrastructure investment in Narvik, leveraging the region's cheap power and natural cold for efficient cooling.

• The United States has paused its participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, the long-running U.S.-Canada military consultation forum, according to a CSIS analysis published this week. • CSIS says the pause comes about six weeks before the mandatory USMCA joint review, which makes the timing politically sensitive for both countries. • The analysis warns that while the short-term operational impact may be limited, a prolonged pause could erode planning culture and political trust on Arctic and continental priorities.

• RISC-V pioneer SiFive raised $400 million in an oversubscribed Series G funding round led by Atreides Management with backing from Nvidia, valuing the company at $3.65 billion. • The funding enables SiFive to expand into AI data centre CPUs through Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem, positioning the company to compete in high-performance AI infrastructure. • The investment reflects growing demand for specialized processors tailored to AI workloads and data centre operations beyond traditional CPU architectures.

• Bucharest-based DesignVerse, an AI-driven startup modernizing aviation infrastructure software, secured €4.6 million ($5.5 million) in seed funding. • The funding follows a successful software upgrade project with EUROCONTROL, Europe's air traffic management organization, enhancing enterprise tools across the continent. • This investment highlights growing demand for AI innovations in aviation, positioning DesignVerse to expand its platform amid digital transformation in the sector.

As Keir Starmer’s leadership totters, investors warn a Labour leadership contest ignoring public finances and market realpolitik could be disastrousA rise in borrowing costs and warnings to avoid a “Liz Truss moment”. As Keir Starmer faces a potential leadership challenge, the spectre of the bond market looms large.Amid febrile conditions in Westminster, the prospect of Britain switching prime ministers for a sixth time in seven years has fuelled a sharp sell-off in the market for UK government debt. Continue reading...