🏚️ Demolition Daydream
We build fast, and promise even faster tear-downs.
Good morning!
Section 9(g)(3) of the Housing Act of 1937 runs one sentence and has capped American public housing for 27 years. No housing authority may spend its federal capital or operating funds on a unit that pushes its stock above the count recorded on October 1, 1999. The author was Lauch Faircloth, a North Carolina hog farmer who lost his Senate seat two weeks after the bill was signed. The cap proved more durable than the career. Public housing has fallen from 1.4M units in 1994 to 835K in 2022, and the survivors carry a $70B repair backlog. Forgetting how to build is the flattering explanation.
The wartime program remembered as the lost golden age carried the same veto in its own text. The Lanham Act of October 1940 capped costs at $3.5K per family unit by 1941 and delivered 191K permanent homes plus 437K temporary ones. Lanham himself wrote in the clause the industry cared about: everything built had to be sold off or demolished once the war ended, so that not one net public unit survived the peace. The entry fee was set by the real estate and homebuilding lobbies, paid up front, in 1940. Washington built at extraordinary speed, having promised in advance to tear it down.
The current promise became law on July 11, 2026, by 85-5 and 358-32. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is the first comprehensive housing statute since 1990, with 40-odd supply-side provisions. Three months earlier, the same administration asked Congress for 13% less for the federal housing department, $10.7B below the current year, a 60-month lifetime cap on rental assistance and a ban on new rent vouchers in the 2027 budget year. Canadian softwood now arrives taxed at roughly 36%. Net migration ran at 2.7M in the year to July 2024, 1.3M in 2025 and a projected 321K this year, in trades where one worker in three is foreign-born. The order has been placed, the timber taxed and the crews sent home. A working group will duly be convened on the mystery of the underperforming supply chain.
None of which makes the deregulation camp the villain. Zoning binds, and the act's modular chapter is a serious answer in a country that factory-builds 3% of its homes against Sweden's 80%. The state as developer is no magic wand. Ottawa launched Build Canada Homes in September 2025 with $13B; Parliament's budget officer scores that at 26K homes over five years against a target near 500K. Ottawa's instrument disappoints. Washington's is not allowed out of the drawer. Estimates of the American shortfall start at 4M homes, and more than 200K families sat on the Chicago public housing waiting list in 2023. None of them is waiting for a rediscovered idea. They are waiting for one sentence, drafted by a man who had already been voted out, that nobody with a lobbying budget has ever asked to see repealed.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇩🇪 Gone with the Wind. Hendrik Holt, the so-called wind farm fraudster, vanished after an unescorted prison leave in Berlin, leaving German authorities scrambling for answers and suspects. (Alto)
- 🇮🇹 Yacht Diplomacy. Tilman Fertitta, the US ambassador to Italy and Texas billionaire, is making waves by flaunting his luxury lifestyle, splitting Italian opinion in the process. (Washington Post)
- 🇨🇾 Deep Trouble. A ferry en route from Kyrenia to Turkey capsized with 267 aboard, resulting in 6 deaths and frantic rescue efforts for the missing. (Libé)
- 🇪🇺 Frozen Assets. Hungary’s new government races to unlock €10B in funds before Monday’s deadline, hoping to prove it has broken with Orban-era corruption. (Les Echos)
- 🇮🇸 Cold Shoulder. Icelandic voters have rejected reopening EU membership talks, prioritizing sovereignty and fisheries over closer European ties in a decisive national snub. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Credential Crisis. The Treasury barred reporters from Bloomberg 🇺🇸 and the New York Times 🇺🇸 from the G20 Finance summit, drawing sharp criticism about transparency and press freedom. (Le Figaro)
- 🇻🇪 Jail Mail. Nicolas Maduro, detained in Brooklyn since January, shares new prison photos and a defiant message on social media, insisting he remains strong. (Le Parisien)
- 🇨🇳 Mute Point. After the deadly Himalaya flood, Chinese authorities clamp down on independent reporting in Tibet, leaving only state-approved updates and a global information blackout. (El Pais)
- 🇰🇵 Kim Kong. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ousts his defense minister and reorganizes the military command, keeping the power game strictly personal. (Le Parisien)
- 🇰🇭 Temple Run. Thailand and Cambodia clash over a disputed border zone, with Angkor-era ruins caught in the crossfire and heritage left in ruins. (Le Figaro)
- 🇮🇷 Strait to the Point. The US launched its first strikes on Iran in weeks, hitting rocket launchers on Larak Island and killing two people, prompting Tehran to vow a “decisive response” and fire missiles at US bases in Jordan. (Bbc)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Exit Strategy. Milo Yiannopoulos, once a loud voice for the American far-right, is sent packing to Britain after a visa overstay and missed court date. (New York Times)
- 🇬🇧 Capital Gains. Sir James Cleverly quits the shadow cabinet to launch his London mayoral bid, accusing Prime Minister Andy Burnham of treating the city as a "cash cow" and vowing to challenge Sadiq Khan. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Break Point. After U-turning on early release to keep PC Harper’s killers jailed, ministers face warnings that one crisis could tip UK prisons into chaos. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Return to Sender. The Trump administration is appealing a federal judge's freeze on its plan to restrict mail-in voting, pushing the battle toward the Supreme Court just in time for the midterms. (New York Times)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇩🇪 Coal Calling. CDU deputy Sepp Müller urges Germany to run coal plants full-time to counter soaring gas prices, promising lower bills and fuller reserves, while the SPD calls the plan a climate and price setback. (Die Zeit)
- 🇵🇱 Deficit League. Prime Minister Donald Tusk touts Poland’s economic boom, but his new budget admits to a 6%+ deficit and rising debt, making Warsaw a fiscal champion in more ways than one. (Les Echos)
- 🇪🇺 Sleeping Beauty. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen calls out €10T in idle household savings, insisting Europe must wake this fortune for its own companies. (Le Figaro)
- 🇪🇺 Driven to Compete. European carmakers urge Brussels to set local content rules and emissions targets as Chinese brands grab 10% of the market in record time. (Les Echos)
- 🇺🇸 Rate Expectations. Fed chair Kevin Warsh signals a likely interest rate hike in September, publicly challenging Trump's golden-age economic narrative while the president remains silent. (Libé)
- 🇺🇸 Terms and Conditions. With over half of Americans now wary of AI and social media, Meta 🇺🇸 agrees to a $17B settlement while data centers become the new political battleground. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Alphabet Soup. economists cannot agree if the post-pandemic economy is K-shaped, C-shaped, or E-shaped, as Wall Street and policymakers debate which letter best captures widening or narrowing inequality. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Word Play. Gabriel Perez, once in charge of Trump’s teleprompter, is fined $172K for betting on presidential speech content before the public heard it. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Space Jam. Donald Trump unveils a plan to open Mars to private companies and aims for 1,000 rocket launches a year by 2030, promising "superiority" in orbit and on the runway. (Les Echos)
- 🇺🇸 Tank Empty. The Cushing, Oklahoma oil storage hub can hold 90M barrels but currently holds just 22M, leaving the with its thinnest buffer in years as global tensions rise. (New York Times)
- 🇨🇦 Trade Winds. Canadian GDP rose 3.3% last quarter, thanks to a surge in exports that did most of the heavy lifting for the economy. (Bloomberg)
- 🇻🇪 Deal or No Deal. Trump touts a historic oil agreement with Venezuela worth $100B, while Maduro's government insists it is about rebuilding, not surrendering, the industry. No one can quite agree on what was actually signed. (El Pais)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Armed Donations. Reform UK faces scrutiny as Nigel Farage’s top donor, Christopher Harborne, holds major interests in both crypto and global arms industries. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Rate Race. NHS leaders warn that ADHD and autism service costs in England have surged up to tenfold in some areas, overwhelming local budgets. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Case Closed. Again. Trump’s lawyers tried once more to transfer his New York conviction to federal court, but the judge shut the door and called the delay out. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Rate Expectations. Trump’s costly policies and global conflicts drive up borrowing costs and prices, putting his economic record on trial as midterms approach. (New York Times)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇺🇸 Park Place. The Trump administration is considering handing part of Yosemite National Park to private developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital, sparking outrage from environmentalists and Democrats who see public land up for grabs. (France Info)
- 🇸🇬 Auto Estate. In Singapore, a new car like a BMW X5 can cost $352,000, putting vehicles in the same league as real estate. (Wall Street Journal)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Desk to Dorm. In a rush to claim tax breaks, NYC developers have turned 74 office buildings into housing so far in 2024, as the city bets big on conversions. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Lease of Legends. A handful of young New Yorkers have landed rent-stabilized apartments, enjoying rare housing security while their peers face record-high rents. (Wall Street Journal)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇩🇪 Bit by Bit. Berlin faces a €2M bitcoin ransom demand after hackers stole city data in a ransomware attack, with officials refusing to pay up. (Libé)
- 🇺🇸 Token Gesture. Digital asset firms like Hyperliquid and pump.fun have poured $640M into buybacks in 2024, aiming to boost confidence as crypto prices lag. (Financial Times)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇫🇷 Quantic Leap. French quantum computing startup Pasqal soared up to 73% on its Nasdaq debut before settling at a 40% gain, cashing in $360M to boost production. (Le Parisien)
- 🇪🇺 Code Red Tape. Siemens CEO Roland Busch warns the that excessive AI regulation could slow innovation, urging Brussels to speed up approvals before the technology leaves lawmakers behind. (Die Zeit)
- 🇪🇺 Wire Fraudless. Investigators uncovered a 532-member WhatsApp group that used hawala to transfer vast sums for criminals and extremists, bypassing banks entirely. (Bbc)
- 🇺🇸 Hit Parade. Sony Music and Warner Chappell are suing Anthropic for allegedly pirating thousands of songs to train its AI, calling it a “brazen campaign” of copyright theft. (TechCrunch)
- 🇨🇳 Charge Wars. BYD 🇨🇳 saw its shares slide in Hong Kong after first-half profits fell 20.5% amid brutal price battles and sluggish demand in China, despite overseas strength. (Cnbc)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Brexhausted. Nissan’s Sunderland plant faces a long recovery as it seeks a deal with China’s Chery to offset post-Brexit struggles and underused lines. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Board Games. Cevian Capital proposes UK companies pay non-executive directors more, but in shares not cash, hoping skin in the game will finally mean brains in the boardroom. (Financial Times)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Pill Payback. Walmart 🇺🇸 will pay $50M to settle claims its pharmacies ignored red flags and fueled the opioid crisis by filling suspicious prescriptions. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Pump and Circumstance. Trump-endorsed Freedom Fuel stations sold gas at steep discounts, but a distributor alleges $4M of that fuel was never paid for. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Bank Shot. Delaware Life, owned by Dodgers boss Mark Walter, faces a sales freeze at two banks while regulators investigate its $20B asset disclosures. (Cnbc)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- David Beckham 🇬🇧 is linked to a potential acquisition of FC Nantes 🇫🇷. Reports mention at least three offers on the table, including a €100M proposal and two backed by British pension funds.
- Air Marketing 🇬🇧 acquires Cleverep 🇪🇸, a Barcelona-based firm specialized in B2B commercial prospecting using data, artificial intelligence and email campaigns.
- Airbus 🇫🇷 explores sale of Airbus US space systems 🇺🇸, US unit with a Florida factory, the Arrow family of small satellites and ~200 employees on Florida’s Space Coast.
- Allianz 🇩🇪 considers a £5B takeover of AA 🇬🇧. Breakdown recovery group's private equity owners in talks, with EQT also a bidder.
- Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena 🇮🇹 acquisition of Banca Generali 🇮🇹 : submitted a "non solicited" offer. Assicurazioni Generali will examine it. Generali holds just over 50% of Banca Generali.
- Dcoop 🇪🇸 in talks to acquire Deoleo 🇪🇸, a deal under negotiation (Deoleo has ~14% US market share).
- Kiwa Group 🇳🇱 acquires CSA Group's testing, inspection and certification unit 🇨🇦 for $2.1B in cash, a global testing and certification deal expected to close before end of 2026.
- Aon 🇮🇪 acquires USI 🇺🇸 from KKR 🇺🇸 for $17B including debt, insurance broker deal that could be announced as soon as Monday.
- Anthropic 🇺🇸 planned a $7bn takeover of MatX 🇺🇸, then walked away and discussions shifted toward a partnership.
- Stripe 🇺🇸 and Advent International 🇺🇸 abandon acquisition of PayPal 🇺🇸. Joint $60.50-per-share offer had valued the target at ~$53B.
- SoftBank 🇯🇵 in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies 🇳🇴 at a $6B valuation. OpenAI-backed humanoid robotics startup.
- Itochu 🇯🇵 set to take Dentsu Soken 🇯🇵 private in a $1.3B deal
- Sony 🇯🇵, Amazon 🇺🇸, Apple 🇺🇸, Netflix 🇺🇸 are speculated potential suitor for Imax 🇨🇦.
- Indian billionaire 🇮🇳 taps $700M private credit to acquire Megha 🇮🇳.
- Valterra Platinum 🇿🇦 is said to have approached rival Northam 🇿🇦.
🇺🇸 United States
- Inspirit Equity 🇺🇸 acquires Valiant O&M 🇺🇸 and launches Vulcan Government Services as an independent provider of facility operations, maintenance, and logistics to U.S. government agencies.
- FTV Capital 🇺🇸 invests in Kingsview Partners 🇺🇸 (growth investment in the integrated wealth management platform and national independent RIA (15,000+ households, >$10B AUM). Expected to close Q4 2026. Three FTV partners to join Kingsview's board).
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇨🇭 Red Card. Michel Platini calls for Gianni Infantino to leave the FIFA presidency, accusing him of breaking football’s rules and failing as the sport’s guardian. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Space Invader. OpenAI plans to end its model partnership with Cursor now that SpaceX owns it, saying Musk’s track record makes compliance a cosmic question mark. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Silicon Appetite. Andreessen Horowitz unveils its $1.1B Machine Age fund, shifting focus from software to the hardware bottlenecks throttling AI’s growth. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🌍 Rocket Returns. Global space tech startups have raised a record $20.3B in 2026 so far, with SpaceX 🇺🇸 leading the charge through its historic $1.8T IPO and a wave of mega-rounds fueling the sector’s gravity-defying momentum. (Crunchbase)
- 🇺🇸 Loan Wolf. Guggenheim Partners, led by Mark Walter, props up its own $1.2B loan by buying the debt through an affiliate, after prices plunged below 70 cents. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Interest Rising. The spike in global bond yields since February means G7 nations now pay billions more to finance debt, with the footing most of the bill. (Financial Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Liquid Assets, Solid Problems. UK investment trusts like Gore Street Energy Storage Fund face mounting pressure from Saba Capital to wind up, as the illusion of easy liquidity meets harsh reality and deep share price discounts. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Alt-Net Losses. Aberdeen’s £200M investment in Airband vanishes as the broadband provider folds, leaving lenders and investors with little more than a cautionary tale. (Financial Times)
Fundraising
- Samsung Biologics 🇰🇷 (Biotech): $2.2B
- Owner 🇺🇸 (AI): $240M (Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Meritech, Redpoint, Headline, Jack Altman)
- Xanadu 🇨🇦 (Quantum): $195M (Government of Canada)
- Quaise Energy 🇺🇸 (Geothermal): $180M (Nabors Industries, Prelude Ventures, JERA Co., Idemitsu Kosan)
- USD.AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $100M (Bullish)
- HubX 🇹🇷 (AI): $75M (Point72 Private Investments)
- Helcim 🇨🇦 (Fintech): $53M CAD (BDC Growth Venture Fund, Curql, Gold House Ventures, Headline, Aquiline, Information Venture Partners, Vesey Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, Alberta Accelerate Fund)
- Faro Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $37.3M (Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, S32, Ankona Capital, General Catalyst, Northpond Ventures, Polaris Partners)
- Yardstik 🇺🇸 (Fraud prevention): $30M (Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, MissionOG, Crosslink Capital, Grotech Ventures, Great North Ventures)
- Metriport 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $26M (Matrix, ARTIS, Y Combinator)
- Arintra 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $25M (Define Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Yale New Haven Health Center for Health Care Innovation, Endeavor Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Counterpart Ventures, Ten13, Spider Capital)
- Transfyr 🇺🇸 (AI): $25M (General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Breakout Ventures, Factory, Neo, SV Angel, MVP Ventures, Underscore VC, Lyda Hill, angels)
- Outer Bio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $23M (Wing Ventures, Initialized Capital, Hawktail)
- Retro 🇺🇸 (Photo-sharing): $21M (Thrive Capital, Dylan Field, Scribble Ventures, Box Group, Imaginary Ventures, Coalition, Conviction, Copper, Positive Sum, various angels)
- SiFly Aviation 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $20M (Shield Capital, Qudit, BBK Capital, Alumni Ventures)
- Lupin Dental 🇫🇷 (Robotics): €15M (Fynveur, Invus, existing shareholders, new private investors, Bpifrance)
- Atorie 🇺🇸 (Fashion): $9.5M (a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Lightspeed Ventures’ Jeremy Liew)
- Revier Therapeutics 🇩🇪 (Biotech): €6M (KHAN Technology Transfer Fund II, High‑Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), VORNvc, private investors through Revier Invest Heidelberg)
- Teragen Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $6M (BEVC, Energy Capital Ventures, AP Ventures, AIC Ventures, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), UntroD Capital Asia)
- ÄIO 🇪🇪 (Biotech): €1.94M
- Clementine 🇳🇱 (HealthTech): €1.7M (Healthy.Capital)
- Ponda 🇬🇧 (Biomaterials): €1.6M
- Nanolope 🇩🇪 (Energy): €800k (IBB Ventures (pre-Seed Fund B#), business angels, industry experts)
Fund Watch
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) 🇺🇸: $1.1B (The Machine Age Fund, hardware for AI. Chips to data centers)
🔔IPO
- Pasqal 🇫🇷 (Quantum): started trading on Nasdaq (PSQL) with about $360M in cash to accelerate global deployment.
- Shein 🇨🇳 (E-commerce): heading to a Hong Kong IPO at about $26.5B valuation, down from a $100B peak.
- Longsys 🇨🇳 (Semiconductors): seeking to raise HK$6.28B ($801M) in a Hong Kong IPO, with upsize to $1.06B and implied market value up to $24.9B.
- Jio Platforms 🇮🇳 (Telecom): targeting a 377 billion rupee (~$3.9B) IPO via up to 270M shares, backed by Meta and Google.
🧳 Debt
- Veolia 🇫🇷: raised €1.15B in two senior tranches (€650M (4y, 3.678%) and €500M (8y, 4.088%)).
- Neocloud Lambda 🇺🇸: raised $1B in private short-dated debt to buy Nvidia AI chips to lease to Microsoft.
🇺🇸 United States
- Civitas Capital Group 🇺🇸: closed a $104M senior construction loan to finance The Summit, a 164‑unit Class A multifamily in Avon, CO.
❌ Failures
- LIV Golf 🇺🇸: may file Chapter 11 in September, with PIF offering a DIP under $100M while BC Partners may back an up-to-$300M asset deal.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Phoenix firm 🇬🇧: the recruiter’s new business went into liquidation after falling behind on repayments following a buyback that erased almost £3M of debt.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇫🇷 Bone Voyage. A team from the Association géologique auboise discovered a giant pliosaur vertebra in the drained Lac d’Orient, unearthing a piece of Jurassic traffic from 110 million years ago. (Le Parisien)
- 🇦🇹 Diamond Daylight. Thieves walked into Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, smashed a display, and vanished with a 600-diamond Van Cleef & Arpels necklace worth $4M. The international manhunt sparkles with urgency. (Bbc)
- 🇺🇸 High Stakes. British No. 1 Katie Boulter complains about the persistent smell of cannabis on Open courts, joining a growing list of players distracted by New York’s legalized haze. (Ouest-France)
