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• President Trump has threatened "decapitation" strikes against Iran, stating the country is on its "very last chance" to reach a deal. • In response to a Houthi-declared blockade, six Saudi-operated tankers have been diverted around Africa to ensure safe passage. • Iran's Foreign Ministry is currently in negotiations with Oman to establish a temporary safe route for maritime vessels.

• European venture capital funding rebounded by 27% to €44.1 billion in H1 2026, though the overall number of deals plummeted to a six-year low. • Artificial intelligence dominated the landscape, absorbing 60.3% of all VC deal value, while seed-stage deal counts dropped by 44% in Q1. • The UK led the region with €18.7 billion across 423 deals, significantly outpacing Germany (€6.3 billion) and France (€6.0 billion).

• The Supreme Court questioned the Bihar government on Thursday regarding the tenure of Panchayati Raj minister Deepak Prakash, who remains in office despite not being elected to the state legislature. • The court highlighted a potential violation of Article 164(4) of the Constitution, which mandates that ministers must be elected to the legislature within six months of their appointment. • This legal challenge matters as it addresses the constitutional validity of allowing unelected individuals to hold ministerial power beyond the prescribed legal timeframe.

• AI startup funding reached $510 billion in the first half of 2026, already surpassing the total investment recorded for the entire year of 2025. • The investment surge is primarily driven by a focus on critical infrastructure, semiconductor chips, robotics, and enterprise-level AI solutions. • This boom is fueled by growing commercial demand as businesses integrate AI tools into sectors such as healthcare, finance, cybersecurity, and manufacturing.

• Six European deep tech scale-ups, including France-based Vsora, have been selected for investment through the European Innovation Council (EIC) STEP Scale Up programme. • Vsora is specifically highlighted for its development of ultra-high-performance AI inference technology designed for edge computing and data centres. • The selection process was highly competitive, with 24 companies submitting proposals and 17 advancing to interviews with a panel of independent experts.

Australian government insists legal costs should be paid by former senator as FoI fight escalatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe government will insist Rex Patrick pays up to $150,000 to cover its legal costs if he loses a fight to access documents about the Aukus agreement, escalating a battle in which several crossbench MPs have swung behind the former senator.The transparency campaigner has used freedom of information laws to seek details on where nuclear waste from the submarine fleet will be stored, and won an administrative appeal on the matter in May. Continue reading...

Authorities say the killings fit the definition of family annihilation, one of at least eight in the US this yearAuthorities in Michigan have identified a man they say fatally shot his wife and six children on Friday in a mass murder that fits the definition of a family annihilation.Citing autopsy results, the Ottawa county sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday that Kristopher Karolkiewicz; his wife, Amanda; and their six children, age five to 15, all died of gunshot wounds before their bodies were found in their burning home in Grand Haven Township. The agency noted that Kristopher Karolkiewicz shot himself to death. And they said that the fire at the home on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan was evidently set intentionally in multiple parts of the house after the killings, though officials were still investigating the blaze’s point of origin. Continue reading...

• UNESCO has identified six World Heritage sites at risk due to conflict, insecurity, and environmental pressures. • The Palestinian site is under threat from the ongoing Middle East conflict, development, and plans for a national park that may divide the property. • South Sudan's Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape, home to the world's largest terrestrial mammal migration, is also at risk due to humanitarian crises.

Six migrants from Honduras and Mexico – including 14-year-old boy – were found dead in May near US-Mexico borderSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email A US attorney announced a federal indictment on Friday against 11 people in the smuggling deaths of six migrants whose bodies were found in a rail cargo container in Texas in May.The six people were found dead in a rail yard shipping container in Laredo, on the US-Mexico border. They were from Honduras and Mexico and included a 14-year-old boy, all part of a human-smuggling effort on a freight train, authorities said. Continue reading...

• The BSE Sensex plummeted over 500 points and the NSE Nifty50 closed below 23,900, reflecting a sharp downturn on Dalal Street. • The decline was primarily driven by crude oil prices hitting a six-week high, alongside escalating geopolitical tensions and currency weakness. • These factors are critical as rising oil costs threaten to increase inflation, impact fiscal health, and raise business operational costs.

Whales flown to US aquariums after long-running saga in which Marineland had threatened to euthanise cetaceansSix beluga whales have at last left Marineland, the embattled Canadian marine park in Niagara Falls that previously threatened to kill its own animals, and are arriving at US aquariums this week.While the whales’ journey into the US marks the end of their long and controversial saga of captivity in Canada, advocates say the new conditions, though superior to Marineland, could bring continued challenges. Continue reading...

• JioStar is significantly expanding the "Bigg Boss" franchise by launching versions in six different languages. • The expansion features a high-profile lineup of hosts and stars, including Salman Khan, Mohanlal, and Sourav Ganguly. • This strategic move represents a major bet by JioStar to capture a broader regional audience within the $2.83 trillion global entertainment industry.

• Chinese AI startup Moonshot is planning an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong stock exchange, with a listing potentially occurring within the next six months. • The company has officially distributed shareholder resolutions to investors to secure the necessary approval for the public listing process. • Moonshot is currently finalizing a fundraising round that could value the three-year-old AI pioneer at over $30 billion.

• Moonshot AI is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong within the next six months, targeting a valuation between $20 billion and $30 billion. • The company's Kimi K3 model has reportedly outperformed U.S. rivals, sparking a sell-off in American tech and semiconductor stocks as investors question U.S. dominance in AI. • The market shock also triggered a decline in Bitcoin prices, reflecting a broader "risk-off" sentiment across digital assets following the AI development shift.

The dual national, who missed six weeks of school, is latest of several children affected by recent Home Office policyA British girl was prevented from returning to her school in the UK for six weeks after a trip to see her grandmother in Italy because of the Home Office’s new rule requiring dual British nationals to have a British passport to get back into the country.The 15-year-old, who was stranded in Rome in April, is just the latest of a number of children and young adults hit by a new Labour government rule that came into force in February. Continue reading...

• A historic agreement signed in Brussels on July 14 removes border checks for Schengen area travelers between Spain and the British enclave of Gibraltar. • The deal effectively ends more than a century of restrictive border controls between the two territories. • This move aims to streamline travel and enhance regional mobility by integrating the border into the Schengen framework.

• India’s second Digital Threat Report for the BFSI sector reveals that six out of seven emerging cyber threats predicted last year have already become fully operational. • Attackers are leveraging artificial intelligence, stolen identities, and manipulated payment workflows to create fraudulent activities that closely mimic legitimate transactions. • This trend highlights a critical escalation in the sophistication of cyberattacks targeting banks and financial institutions, making detection significantly more difficult.

• NATO leaders are convening for a summit in Ankara to address critical security challenges and alliance cohesion. • The agenda focuses on six key issues, including defense spending targets, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and Middle East security following tensions with Iran. • A primary point of concern is the impact of U.S. policy shifts under President Trump and how they may alter the alliance's strategic direction.

The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in JanuaryCuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said.The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before US president Donald Trump imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. Continue reading...

• Government officials are convening for a performance review meeting to analyze the socio-economic situation of June and the second quarter of 2026. • The agenda focuses on critical financial metrics, including the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital and state budget-related tasks from the first six months. • The session aims to evaluate the progress of national target programmes to ensure alignment with government goals.

Up to 30 million people expected to attend delayed events for Ali Khamenei, killed at start of war with US and IsraelThe funeral of the former Iranian supreme leader has begun as the gates of the sprawling Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran let in thousands of mourners early morning who had been waiting through the night to enter the grounds.Iran is staging mass funeral processions for Ali Khamenei – whose ⁠37-year reign was brought ⁠to an ​end in February by the first airstrike of the war launched by the US and Israel. Continue reading...

Ceremony for Ali Khamenei intended to be epic display of national power. Plus, the expected wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce pays dividend to good causesGood morning. Final preparations are under way for Ali Khamenei’s six-day funeral. The farewell to the former supreme leader is expected to draw millions in Iran. Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack on the country in February, and the funeral is intended to be an epic display of personal mourning, national power, resilience and social cohesion.Iran’s first vice-president, Mohammad Reza Aref, who is the lead funeral organiser, described the ceremony, which begins on Saturday in Tehran and will end with Khamenei’s burial on Thursday in Mashhad, as “the most important event of this century” and the most attended event since the 1979 revolution. The scale of the funeral has been conceived to relay political and religious messages of resistance to the rest of the world. At the request of Iraqi politicians, Khamenei’s body will also be carried through the Iraqi Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf.Will Ali Khamenei’s successor take part? Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, is not expected to make an appearance at his father’s funeral. He was severely injured in the same US-Israeli strike that killed his father and also killed Mojtaba’s wife and his 14-month-old daughter. The extent of Mojtaba’s injuries is unknown and he has so far issued only written statements, including one that distanced himself from the ceasefire negotiations but sanctioned their continuance. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, threatened to kill him this week, saying he was marked for death.Why is Trump so unhappy with Nato? Aside from the failure of countries such as the UK and France to join in with the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump has long complained that Europe does not spend enough on defence. Under pressure from the US, Nato leaders agreed at a gathering last year to boost defence-related spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. Continue reading...

Huge scale of funeral for supreme leader across five cities is intended to relay message of resistance to rest of the worldIn the small hours of Friday the police roadblocks, stalls, posters and army vans were starting to appear across Tehran as millions of Iranians prepared to attend the long-delayed six-day funeral ceremony for Ali Khamenei’s, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 turbulent years.Killed in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack on the country in February, the funeral is intended to be an epic display of personal mourning, national power, resilience and social cohesion. Small groups of mourners carrying flags were gathering along the roads festooned with the red fist, the symbol of the funeral alongside the slogan “We must rise”. At a ceremony dedicated to the families of martyrs, Khamenei’s coffin was displayed. Continue reading...

• A YouGov poll of 6,156 adults across six major European economies—France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland—reveals broad public support for carbon pricing. • The survey was commissioned by a coalition of civil society organizations, including E3G, WWF, and Carbon Market Watch, to advocate for a green industrial transition. • These findings challenge political calls to weaken the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) by demonstrating that citizens support climate action and industrial renewal.

• Indian shuttler Dhyan Santosh secured a major victory by upsetting sixth seed Punnatat Prempunpong at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships. • The match took place as part of the competitive circuit reported in ESPN's Indian sports updates on July 1, 2026. • This win highlights the rising competitiveness of young Indian athletes heading into a critical sporting year.

• The Athletic has re-ranked the 48 World Cup teams following the conclusion of day 20, with Mexico now climbing into the top six. • Sweden has emerged as a notable success story, rebounding from a winless qualifying campaign to secure a spot via play-off victories over Ukraine and Poland. • Under manager Graham Potter, Sweden has maintained positive momentum with a 5-1 win against Tunisia and a draw with Japan.

• Japan's manufacturing sector expanded for the sixth consecutive month in June, according to the latest S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). • The PMI rose to 54.8 in June from 54.5 in May, aligning with previous preliminary flash estimates. • This growth is significant as any reading above the 50.0 threshold indicates sector expansion, while readings below signal contraction.

• Frontline medics warn that the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could take another six months to bring under control. • The WHO's Africa response lead has critically rated containment efforts as a 3-4 out of 10, highlighting significant lags in the response. • Separately, the FDA approved Capvaxive on June 18, 2026, for children aged 2-17 with chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.