🙃 Bless This Mess
World’s tallest church, world’s shabbiest eviction notice.
Good morning!
Every centenary wheels out the same anecdote, the one about Gaudí run over by a tram in 1926 and taken for a tramp, refused a ride to hospital by cabbies who saw only the rags. A hundred years of retelling have buffed the story to a relic and skipped the only part that still bites: the man died penniless and unrecognised, while the church he left a quarter-built has become one of the most bankable addresses in Catholicism. On the anniversary itself, Pope Leo XIV arrives to bless a 100-tonne cross of steel and glass, German-made, now crowning the Tower of Jesus Christ at 172.5m and knocking Germany's Ulm Minster into second place after five centuries on top. Gaudí set his spire half a metre below Montjuïc so that no work of man might look down on the work of God. A delicate scruple, from a man whose finished masterpiece would look down on the neighbours twice over.
The detail the liturgy will skip this evening: the site spent 136 years as the busiest unlicensed building in Europe. From 1882 to 2018, the most visited monument in Spain stacked its parabolas on a plot no town hall had ever cleared for construction, while no inspector ever asked to see the paperwork. The reckoning came to €36M, payable to Barcelona in instalments over a decade, the going rate for a century of freelance urbanism. The model needs no mortgage: 4.9M visitors filed through in 2024 and left €134M behind them, gate receipts a mid-table football club could only pray for. Any developer in the Eixample who tried the same trick would have been padlocked by lunchtime.
The piece still missing is a staircase. Gaudí's Glory façade was meant to pour down a 60m flight of steps vaulting clean over Mallorca Street, and to build it the foundation must flatten two residential blocks and move out the families inside them, in buildings raised, unlike the basilica, with permits in perfect order. Hundreds of flats, as many as 3,000 people, instructed to give up homes they bought and paid for so that a doorway can have its approach. The residents' proof that the steps were never the plan meets the foundation's proof that they were: a 1907 newspaper clipping against a 1975 ministry document, the architect's real drawings having burned in 1936. Two camps litigating the wishes of a dead man from the ashes of his own archive, with €150M to €200M and several hundred leases riding on the answer.
Strip away the cranes, the cardinal and the castellers, and the tallest church on earth is the longest property deal in history, halted at the final step by the same zoning code that binds every block around it. The residents across Mallorca Street did each thing the basilica never bothered with. They asked permission. They were granted it. They paid. And a century after a pauper died unrecognised in the gutter beneath his own cathedral, they are the ones being told to make way.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇬🇧 Streets of Rage. Belfast faces a new wave of anti-immigrant unrest as a knife attack by a Sudanese resident sparks riots, arson, and citywide disruption. (El Pais)
- 🇬🇧 Unfriended. The US government urges Britain to drop plans for a social media ban on under-16s, calling it a blunt tool that hits American tech firms hardest. (The Guardian)
- 🇩🇪 Punch Line. Political violence in Germany hit a record high in 2025, with attacks on party members and politically motivated crimes surging amid deepening polarization. (El Pais)
- 🇪🇺 Heat New World. The Copernicus institute warns that extreme weather is now "the norm" in Europe, as May sets new records and early heatwaves become routine. (Le Temps)
- 🇺🇸 Return Fire. Following the downing of a Apache helicopter, American forces struck Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Iranian attacks on interests in Jordan and Bahrain. (Financial Times)
- 🇵🇭 Shock Value. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake has rocked Mindanao, leaving at least 37 dead and hundreds injured, with officials warning the toll could rise as aftershocks continue. (BBC)
- 🇲🇲 Draft and Furious. Myanmar’s military is turning forced conscription into a numbers game, tipping the balance against rebels who are now losing ground across the country. (BBC)
- 🇵🇰 Collateral Damage. Islamabad’s latest airstrikes on Afghan border villages left 13 civilians dead, including 11 children, as both governments trade accusations. (Ouest-France)
- 🇮🇷 Victory Parade. Negotiators in Washington and Tehran keep circling a truce, but neither side will sign unless it looks like a home-team win, so the standoff drags on. (New York Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Whip Lash. Starmer plans to force ministers to resign if they support Andy Burnham’s leadership bid, risking a mass exodus from his own government. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Union Jacked. The TUC, GMB, and Unison have rejected Nigel Farage's invitation to affiliate with Reform UK, accusing the party of pretending to champion workers while opposing new employment rights. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Primary Colors. Graham Platner, a political newcomer with a tax-the-rich pitch and lingering controversies, won Maine’s Democratic Senate primary and will face GOP Sen. Susan Collins in November. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Double Occupancy. Bill Pulte will keep his housing agency job while taking over as acting director of national intelligence for Trump, who seems to prefer loyalty over credentials and controversy over consensus. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 House Call. Bill Gates is set to testify about his Epstein connections, prepping with help from Jake Greenberg, who until recently led the House’s Epstein inquiry. The revolving door spins again. (New York Times)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇪🇺 Steel Trap. The EU's incoming quota system on Ukrainian steel threatens to cripple the country's top industry, just as Kyiv needs every euro for defense. (The Guardian)
- 🇪🇺 Hike and Seek. BNP Paribas expects the ECB to deliver a minimum of two rate hikes, keeping markets guessing how far the tightening will go. (Bloomberg)
- 🇨🇺 Fuel Disclosure. Cuba is set to receive its largest US fuel shipment since the Cold War embargo, marking a rare thaw in decades of trade restrictions. (Bloomberg)
- 🇨🇳 Rate Race. China’s producer prices climbed faster in May as Middle East conflict pushed energy and commodity costs higher, giving factories a new inflation headache. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇨🇳 Deep Data. China has launched the world’s first wind-powered underwater datacentre off Shanghai, promising lower energy and water use for AI’s growing demands. (The Guardian)
- 🇨🇳 Déjà Vu. The EU watches its trade gap with China balloon once more, as Chinese demand for European goods continues to fade. (Bloomberg)
- 🇦🇪 Risky Business. Dubai’s reliance on trade and tourism faces a harsh reality check as regional conflict with Iran exposes the city’s economic soft spots. (New York Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Platform Shoes Off. No 10 says it will press ahead with a crackdown on tech platforms targeting under-16s, despite the US embassy’s public disapproval. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Margin Call. Seven in 10 UK importers and exporters say ongoing Iran war disruptions could push them into bankruptcy, as supply chain chaos and rising costs bite. (Co)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Executive Privilege. San Francisco voters rejected a union-backed tax hike on companies where CEOs earn over 100 times the median worker salary, keeping pay gaps untaxed for now. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Flat Rate. The U.S. trade deficit barely moved in April, offering little proof that Trump's tariffs are shifting the economic balance. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Trust Issues. The Social Security retirement trust fund may run dry by late 2032, leaving retirees with just 78% of promised benefits unless Congress intervenes. (Cnbc)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇺🇸 Rent Now, Pay Later. fintechs like Affirm 🇺🇸 and Esusu are rolling out “rent-split” loans to cash-strapped renters, turning housing insecurity into their latest growth market. (Financial Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Flexible Interest. The FCA’s plan would let banks offer mortgages to people with variable incomes or foreign earnings, promising a little less rigidity and a little more reality. (FinExtra)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Spring Loaded. home sales jumped 3.2% in May as lower mortgage rates and more listings finally tempted buyers back into the market. (Wall Street Journal)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇺🇸 Snitch to Trade. Prediction platform Kalshi 🇺🇸 now demands employment verification and offers whistleblower tools, hoping to curb insider trading before it happens. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Token Gesture. Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. pocketed about $500M from a Trump-backed crypto venture while regular investors watched their stakes evaporate by over 90%. (Cnbc)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇬🇧 Screen Test. Paramount’s $110B move to acquire Warner is under UK scrutiny, because even studios need to audition for approval. (Bloomberg)
- 🇮🇹 Monte Rush More. Intesa Sanpaolo’s Messina braces for a fierce contest as Monte dei Paschi becomes the prize everyone suddenly wants to carve up. (Bloomberg)
- 🇳🇱 Peak Cheap. ASML 🇳🇱 hits record share prices, but remains a bargain compared to rivals, proving that even market darlings can be undervalued. (Bloomberg)
- 🇪🇺 App Chat. The has ordered Meta to restore free access for rival AI assistants on WhatsApp, overturning Meta's paywall in the name of competition. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Beta Blocker. Apple’s new Siri AI wowed analysts but failed to boost its stock, as investors waited for a concrete launch timeline and real impact. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 IPOcalypse Now. SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI are set to unleash a record $225B in new equity this year, threatening to end two decades of stock scarcity and forcing investors to reshuffle their portfolios. (Financial Times)
- 🇹🇼 Chip Happens. Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest chipmaker, warns inflation is driving up costs and does not rule out raising prices for its advanced semiconductors. (BBC)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Barrel Roll. Cracker Barrel 🇺🇸 delivers an unexpected profit and raises its annual outlook, rebounding after a rough patch of customer backlash and branding missteps. (Wall Street Journal)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- VodafoneThree 🇬🇧 tables a bid for TalkTalk 🇬🇧's consumer business, which has 1.75mn customers and is valued at about £200-300M.
- GSK 🇬🇧 to buy Nuvalent 🇺🇸 for $10.6B, paying $124 a share (US cancer specialist with late‑stage lung cancer drugs).
- Wayve 🇬🇧, Uber-backed, eyes a stake sale on the UK’s New Private Market.
- Barclays 🇬🇧 invests in CommonAI 🇬🇧, joining its newly launched High Assurance AI programme to develop AI systems for high-risk environments in financial services.
- Janus Henderson 🇬🇧 acquires Rantum Capital 🇩🇪.
- Hg 🇬🇧-backed PE fund administrator Gen II 🇺🇸 is exploring a $6B sale.
- SIAEC 🇫🇷 et SAE 🇸🇬 créent un joint-venture de maintenance à Singapour.
- PAI Partners 🇫🇷 drops out of bidding for a 50% stake in Nestlé 🇨🇭's $5.8B water business.
- Magna 🇳🇱 acquires Forrez 🇧🇪, the largest Belgian tyre distributor for trucks and the agricultural sector.
- Roche 🇨🇭 licenses a blood-cancer drug from Nurix Therapeutics 🇺🇸 for up to $2.3B.
- Nestlé 🇨🇭 acquires Yfood 🇩🇪. Munich startup known for ready-to-drink meal replacements, now ubiquitous in supermarkets.
- Toloka.vc 🇺🇦 invests in Tonik Financial Pte. Ltd. 🇸🇬 as part of a pre-Series C financing round.
- Hubbell Incorporated 🇺🇸 acquires NSI Industries 🇺🇸 for $3.0B. Branded electrical products manufacturer.
- Nvidia 🇺🇸 acquires Kumo AI 🇺🇸, an AI startup using graph neural networks for automated predictive models.
- Thoma Bravo 🇺🇸 acquires Kneat 🇮🇪 for C$650M, cash-only deal in enterprise digital validation software for life sciences. Kneat to become privately held.
- Ingredion 🇺🇸 acquires Tate & Lyle 🇬🇧 in a $3.6B cash deal at a 60% premium, both food ingredients firms.
- Incyte 🇺🇸 acquires Vega Therapeutics 🇺🇸, the blood disorder-focused subsidiary of Star Therapeutics, in a $2B deal.
- Johnson & Johnson 🇺🇸 to acquire cancer biotech Firefly Bio 🇺🇸 for $1B cash.
- Carlyle 🇺🇸 agrees to acquire Chungjo Nais 🇰🇷 for $700M, a home appliance rental platform.
- Beacon 🇨🇦 to buy Main Street software 🇺🇸 after raising a $225M Series C.
- Weston family 🇨🇦 and Sigma Healthcare 🇦🇺 in talks to acquire Boots 🇬🇧 for $10B.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇫🇷 Bond Voyage. A new bond backed by French SME loans aims to kickstart a fresh segment in France's debt market, inviting investors to chart unfamiliar territory. (Bloomberg)
- 🇪🇺 Guided Missed. The ECB quietly grounded Revolut 🇬🇧's "self-guided missiles" last year, halting new launches in Europe over concerns about its rapid-fire product approvals. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Fanbase Value. Elon Musk is counting on his legion of retail loyalists to fuel SpaceX’s $75B IPO, aiming for the trillionaire club with crowd enthusiasm. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Mythos Busters. Anthropic opens its most advanced AI, Mythos, to the public but keeps key features locked away for cybersecurity and bio-risk reasons, just in time for IPO season. (Libé)
- 🇺🇸 Loan Arrangers. Blackstone acquires a wave of SRTs as banks rush to transfer credit risk, making Wall Street’s safety net a private equity profit center.
Fundraising
- Moonshot AI 🇨🇳 (AI): $2B
- ICEYE 🇫🇮 (Space): €450M (General Atlantic, Solidium, Tesi, Varma, Ilmarinen, Lifeline Ventures, Nokia, Qatar Investment Authority, TCV)
- Helion 🇺🇸 (Fusion): $465M (Thrive Capital, Alta Park Capital, Anti Fund, BoxGroup, Lux Capital, Peak XV Partners, Bill Ford, Capricorn Technology Impact Funds, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mithril Capital, Good Ventures Foundation, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, university investment fund)
- Generalist 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $400M (Radical Ventures, NVentures, Bezos Expeditions, Fei-Fei Li, Eric Yuan, 8VC, Union Square Ventures, Hanabi Capital, Norwest, Boldstart Ventures, Spark Capital, NFDG, Naval Ravikant)
- OQC 🇬🇧 (Quantum): €299M
- Isar Aerospace 🇩🇪 (Aerospace): €270M (Island Green Capital, Molten Ventures, HV Capital, Lakestar, UVC Partners)
- PhysicsX 🇺🇸 (Industrial AI): £225M
- Focused 🇩🇪 (Fusion): $240M (RWE, SPRIND, European Innovation Council Fund, Prime Movers Lab)
- Beacon Software 🇨🇦 (Software): $225M
- Standard Bots 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $200M
- Morpho 🇫🇷 (Fintech): $175M
- Factorial 🇪🇸 (HR): $150M (General Catalyst, Atomico, Four Rivers)
- ETGT Medical Technologies 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $100M
- CeQur 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $100M
- Ona Therapeutics 🇪🇸 (Biotech): €74.2M (Columbus Venture Partners, Mérieux Equity)
- Wordsmith 🇬🇧 (Legal): €60.2M (Highland Europe, Index Ventures)
- PointFive (Cloud): $60M
- Alta Ares 🇫🇷 (Defence): €50m (Air Street Capital, Cherry Ventures, OTB Ventures, Harpoon Ventures)
- Augusta Labs 🇵🇹 (Healthtech): €50M
- Stepful 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $55M (Oak HC/FT, Foresite Capital, Hearst Ventures)
- Semble 🇬🇧 (HealthTech): €34.7M (Revaia, Partech, Mercia Ventures, Octopus Ventures)
- Evotrex 🇺🇸 (Mobility): $30M
- Sandstone 🇺🇸 (LegalTech): $30M (Lightspeed Partners, Sequoia)
- EDGE Markets 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $29M
- Fuse Energy 🇬🇧 (Energy): €25M (20VC, Collaborative Fund)
- Encosa 🇩🇪 (Energy storage): €25M
- Earlytrade 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $25M
- Unastella 🇰🇷 (Aerospace): $24M (Altos Ventures, Korea Development Bank, Strong Ventures, Hana Ventures)
- Airspeed 🇬🇧 (Sales): $20M (£14.9M) (DN Capital, Vi Partners, Framework Venture Partners, Atlassian Ventures)
- Board 🇺🇸 (Gaming): $20M (Union Square Ventures, Biz Stone, Tim Ferriss, Scott Belsky, Michael Mignano)
- Rem3dy Health 🇬🇧 (Nutrition): £14M (Suntory, Estrella Galicia, Apollo Hospitals)
- NewOrbit 🇬🇧 (Space): $18.5M
- GR3N 🇨🇭 (Cleantech): €15.5M (360 Capital, VP Textile)
- Reel 🇩🇰 (Energy): €15M (Future Energy Ventures, UVC Partners, Transition Ventures, The Footprint Firm, angel investors)
- fonio.ai 🇩🇪 (AI): €14.6M
- Ilant Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $15M
- Golden Analytics (Unknown): $14M
- Flok Health 🇬🇧 (Medtech): £9.5m
- GALVANY 🇩🇪 (Energy): €10M
- Finovox 🇫🇷 (Fintech): €8.2M
- Companion.energy 🇧🇪 (Energy): €7.8M (Realyze Ventures, Pi Labs)
- Folio Photonics 🇺🇸 (Data storage): $8M (Material Impact, The O.H.I.O. Fund)
- Skyfora 🇫🇮 (Climate): €6.5M (Eviny Ventures, Ugly Duckling Ventures, LUMO Labs, EIC - European Innovation Council Fund, Business Finland)
- Lexful (Documentation): $7M
- Kodesage 🇭🇺 (AI): €5.67M (VentureFriends, Portfolion, Christian Szegedy, Mario Götze)
- Rejuvenate Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $6M
- Reset 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $6M
- Camphouse 🇸🇪 (Proptech): >50M SEK
- Zaro 🇬🇧 (Enterprise AI): $5.1M (Cherry Ventures, Thomas Wolf, GitHub chief Thomas)
- Orbital 🇺🇸 (Space): $5M (a16z Speedrun)
Fund Watch
- Benchmark 🇺🇸: $2B (two funds. Includes first growth fund)
- Blackstone 🇺🇸: $2B+
- Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. VI 🇺🇸: $1.2B (SPAC merger valuing Quantum Space, spacecraft startup led by ex‑NASA chief Jim Bridenstine)
- Revego Fund Managers & H1 Holdings 🇿🇦: $807M (Africa renewables fund, merger to create large South African renewables vehicle)
- Merantix Capital 🇩🇪: €103M (new AI fund to back ~40€pean startups, half seed, half via venture studio)
- Liqid 🇩🇪: $115M (3rd VC fund-of-funds)
- Pitchdrive 🇧🇪: €60M (Fund IV, pre-Seed fund for AI-native early-stage startups. Co-founder Capital model, privately backed)
- Creator Fund 🇬🇧: $56M (first European fund, pre-seed VC for scientific founders)
- Vinyl Equity 🇺🇸: $20M (growth round led by Jump Capital. Infrastructure for modern capital markets and corporate transactions)
- Rethink Ireland 🇮🇪: €1.5M (Skills for Tomorrow Fund, workforce-skills fund for marginalised communities)
🔔IPO
- Bending Spoons 🇮🇹 (Software): has filed for a US IPO, amount not disclosed.
- Parabilis 🇺🇸 (Biotech): raised $745M in a IPO and placement.
- Quantum Space 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): going public in a $1.2B SPAC deal.
- Breeze Airways 🇺🇸 (Airlines): targeting a 2027 IPO. Valuation and fundraising details not disclosed.
- ERock 🇺🇸 (Energy): raised $600M in its IPO.
- Perplexity AI 🇺🇸 (AI): plans a 2028 IPO, CEO says the timeline remains unchanged despite others filing.
- Apotex Health 🇨🇦 (Pharmaceuticals): raised C$1.3B ($932M) in a Toronto IPO, the largest in Canada since 2021.
- Go 🇯🇵 (Transport): priced its Japan IPO at the top of a marketed range to raise $550M for a $1.2B market cap.
- PLDT 🇵🇭 (Real estate): seeking up to $400M from a REIT listing.
- Zepto 🇮🇳 (Rapid commerce): filed for a $1B India IPO.
- Carlsberg 🇮🇳 (Beverages): preparing to file for a $700M IPO of its India unit.
🧳 Debt
- Europlasma 🇫🇷: issued 600 convertible bonds to raise €3M, closing its €30M bond program.
- Basque Region 🇪🇸: raising €500M in bonds to fund its industrial investment strategy.
- Universal Music Group 🇳🇱: seeking to raise $1.2B in a bond sale.
- Resand 🇫🇮: expanded Norion Bank loan facility to €25M to scale foundry sand regeneration and recycling.
- Cipher Digital 🇺🇸: raised $810M in junk bonds to fund a Texas data centre Amazon will lease for 15 years.
- Amazon 🇺🇸: raised C$10B in the largest-ever Canadian-dollar bond sale.
- Blue Owl 🇺🇸: raised $500M in an investment-grade bond sale after earlier limiting redemptions.
- Comvest Credit Partners 🇺🇸: closed a $428M CLO.
- Hut 8 🇨🇦: closed a $4.25B offering of 6.129% senior secured notes due 2042 to finance the Beacon Point data center.
- Brookfield 🇨🇦: secured £325M financing for 30 Fenchurch Street.
- Panda bond issuers 🇨🇳: sold 26.64B yuan (US$3.7B) of panda bonds in May, a record for the month.
- Tencent 🇨🇳: seeking to raise $4B in a dollar and offshore yuan bond sale.
❌ Failures
- Neosfer 🇩🇪: after 13 years, Commerzbank is closing its in-house VC unit at the end of June.
- First Brands 🇺🇸: collapsed auto-parts supplier can try again to seek court approval for a creditor vote on a plan to raise money via lawsuits against its executives and lenders.
- Innovative Chemical Products Group 🇺🇸: creditors led by American Industrial Partners are negotiating a debt-for-equity swap with Audax-backed owners.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇬🇧 Circle of Trust. The Magic Circle rejects D4RYL the robot magician's bid for membership, insisting that real wonder still requires a human touch. (New York Times)
- 🇬🇧 Hammer Horror. Anita Manning's Great Western Auctions withdrew a human skull from sale after experts called the auction of body parts unethical and unacceptable. (BBC)
- 🇺🇸 Jackpot Denied. A 69-year-old woman banned for life from Pennsylvania casinos snuck in, hit the jackpot, and was promptly ejected by police without her winnings. (Ouest-France)
- 🇺🇸 Agent of Influence. Eileen Wang, former mayor of Arcadia, pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent for China after a brief stint in office, leaving the city with more questions than answers. (New York Times)
- 🇨🇦 License to Ill. Canadian police accuse former Air Canada pilot Geoff Wall of faking credentials and flying hundreds of flights without proper certification. (New York Times)
