🔵 Oops, Wrong Button
Congrats, you’ve adopted an AI.
Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française
Good morning!
A novel philosophical category has quietly emerged in the digital age: the compulsory option. Meta AI, the chatbot nobody requested, materialised on WhatsApp screens worldwide with the confidence of a parking ticket on a windshield. When users ask how to remove it, the bot itself delivers the punchline: it cannot be disabled, but its use is entirely optional. The distinction belongs in a philosophy seminar, not a messaging app. The presence is not optional; only the interaction is. That the feature has no off switch, no settings toggle, no uninstall path is not a bug but a business model. Meta AI crossed 1B monthly active users by May 2025, doubling from 500M in roughly eight months. Impressive, until one notices only about 40M of those are daily active users, a ratio of 4%. Which means the other 960M « users » are mostly people who accidentally tapped a glowing blue circle while trying to message their mother.
Meta is hardly alone in this particular brand of digital home invasion. Google has been threading Gemini into Gmail with the subtlety of a foghorn. A class action filed in late 2025 alleges Google silently switched Gemini’s « Smart Features » to default-on across Gmail, Chat, and Meet accounts, allowing AI to process private communications without consent. Users who attempt to disable Gemini discover that doing so also kills unrelated features like automatic inbox sorting and spelling correction, a design choice that resembles less a product decision and more a hostage negotiation. The message from Mountain View is clear: the AI stays, or nobody gets spell check. Mark Zuckerberg, for his part, told shareholders his goal is to build « personal superintelligence for everyone in the world. » The world, evidently, was not consulted.
The deeper absurdity is that none of these uninvited assistants solve the problems that would justify their intrusion. Inboxes remain catastrophic. Calendar conflicts multiply. The transcription tool that once did one thing well now offers two AI chat modes, three summary formats, and zero improvement to the transcript. Meta is pouring between $64B and $72B into AI infrastructure, and the flagship consumer product of that investment is a chatbot that can generate stickers. Meanwhile, the « leave me alone » button, the single feature with genuine mass-market demand, remains conspicuously absent from every roadmap. A product that logs silence as consent and irritation as engagement does not need users, only a denominator. It is not that these tools will never be useful. It is that cramming them into every pocket before they are wanted, then calling the result a billion users, is not innovation. It is just counting the people who couldn’t find the exit.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇬🇧 Exit Strategy. UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy and her department have quit X, declaring the platform toxic for democracy and shifting official comms elsewhere. (Financial Times)
- 🇫🇷 Licence to Fumble. French authorities detain a Belarusian accused of spying on a military drone plant for Russia, but his performance was more rookie than ruthless. (Le Monde)
- 🇪🇺 Euro Vision. Christine Lagarde refuses to rule out quitting the ECB to weigh in on France’s 2027 presidential election, promising to defend Europe’s role on the campaign stage. (Libé)
- 🇪🇺 Spy Hard. Stelios Kouloglou, a former MEP who sat on the EU’s Pegasus inquiry, learned his own phone was infected by Pegasus three times during his mandate. Citizen Lab revealed the irony in a new report, because sometimes the watchdog gets bitten. (Le Monde)
- 🇪🇺 Drone Alone. A new report finds Russia has conducted 144 drone incursions over a dozen European countries, exposing NATO’s struggle to counter unmanned threats far from Ukraine. (New York Times)
- 🇻🇦 Holy Orders. The Vatican has excommunicated the leaders and followers of a hardline breakaway Catholic sect, escalating the church’s deepest internal rift in decades. (Washington Post)
- 🇦🇷 Asset Management. Argentina’s top aide Manuel Adorni steps down as investigators question how his official salary funded luxury homes and eye-catching credit card bills. (Le Figaro)
- 🇨🇳 Skyfall. Officials confirm the pilot who crashed into Beijing’s tallest building had suicidal intentions, injuring 13 and exposing gaps in the city’s famed security. (Ouest-France)
- 🇮🇷 Toll Story. Iran and Oman are negotiating a new payment scheme for ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, ending decades of free passage and setting a global precedent for energy transit fees. (El Pais)
- 🇨🇩 Spread Sheet. DR Congo’s Ebola death toll rises past 400 as the virus reaches Kisangani, highlighting how fast a crisis can travel. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 One-Man Band. Party officials are told to brace for backlash as Andy Burnham faces no rivals for Labour leader, leaving members feeling sidelined. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Sorry State. Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued a formal government apology for the forced adoption of 185,000 babies from unmarried mothers between 1949 and 1976, calling it a “stain on our history” and pledging new support for those affected. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Power Cut. Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, admits Labour failed to prepare for government before its landslide win, leaving the party scrambling once in office. (Bbc)
- 🇬🇧 Last Orders? Keir Starmer considers changing licensing rules so pubs can stay open for England’s late-night World Cup match against Mexico after public backlash. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Paddle Damage. Three-time Olympic canoeist David Hearn faces felony charges for allegedly ripping up sealant at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, a Trump-era renovation project. (Wall Street Journal)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇬🇧 Audit and Error. Forvis Mazars and a partner are fined £600K by the UK regulator for “pervasive” audit failings at Studio Retail, which collapsed soon after their sign-off. (Financial Times)
- 🇩🇪 Early Check-Out. Germany’s coalition scraps the popular retirement at 63 scheme, sparking outrage from unions who see a hard-earned exit slammed shut. (Les Echos)
- 🇮🇹 Work in Progress. Italy celebrates a historic drop in unemployment to 5%, but a growing number of people are leaving the workforce entirely. (Le Figaro)
- 🇸🇰 Power Nap. Slovakia finally launches a new nuclear reactor after a 39-year construction saga, proving atomic energy can outlast almost any political cycle. (Bloomberg)
- 🇪🇺 Alphabet Soup. The serves Google 🇺🇸 another helping of regulation, proving Brussels still sets the menu for Big Tech’s operations. (Bloomberg)
- 🇯🇵 Fan Service. Japan’s $25B consumer market thrives on intense fan devotion, where collectors and superfans turn passion into a booming business. (Bloomberg)
- 🌍 Rocket Horn. Turkey is building a $350M satellite launch base in Somalia, aiming for independent access to space and a bigger slice of the global space economy. (Le Monde)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Rates Expectations. Andy Burnham says a Labour government would slash business rates and cap key living costs, betting his leadership on a cheaper Britain. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Click Baited. A quarter of UK adults have lost money to online scam ads, with Revolut 🇬🇧 warning that trust in digital shopping is evaporating fast. (FinExtra)
- 🇬🇧 AI of the Storm. Andy Burnham’s push for a more interventionist UK AI strategy faces backlash from tech leaders who warn it could drive founders and investors away. (Sifted)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Buy Now, Risk Later. The private credit industry is doubling down on consumer loans and Buy Now, Pay Later schemes, embracing “shadow banking” at a time of growing uncertainty. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Growth Pause. The economy added just 57,000 jobs in June, while previous months’ numbers were cut, leaving job-market momentum in question. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Kid Vantage. The Treasury will launch Trump Accounts for children on July 4, letting families invest in State Street, BlackRock, and Vanguard ETFs with a $1,000 head start for newborns. (Cnbc)
- 🇨🇦 Crude Awakening. Canada moves to build a new Alberta-to-Pacific pipeline, hoping to escape US market dominance and rebrand itself as an “energy superpower.” (Financial Times)
- 🇨🇦 Maple Output. Canadian factories expanded for another month in June, with new orders and rising production fueling optimism and inflation warnings. (Wall Street Journal)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇬🇧 Wharf Intelligence. Brookfield plans to build AI data centers in London’s Canary Wharf, betting the UK’s financial hub can become an AI infrastructure powerhouse. (Cnbc)
- 🇫🇷 Room Service. Paris wins a major court victory over Airbnb rentals as the Cour de cassation upholds new rules targeting thousands of illegal tourist flats. (Le Parisien)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Serverless. Blackstone’s QTS has scrapped its $400B Virginia data centre project after fierce local protests, proving even AI’s appetite can hit a hard stop. (Financial Times)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇬🇧 Stack and Ruin. Stack BTC, the bitcoin firm promoted by Nigel Farage, has lost over 15% of its asset value, prompting experts to warn investors about crypto treasury companies. (The Guardian)
- 🇺🇸 Stable Genius. Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase launch Open USD as stablecoins multiply, but regulators and critics warn their benefits may not match the hype. (Financial Times)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇸🇪 Chart Attack. Spotify 🇸🇪 is taking on prediction markets after discovering attempts to rig its song charts, proving music manipulation is not just a genre. (Bloomberg)
- 🇪🇺 Quantum Leap of Faith. Finnish quantum firm IQM went public on Nasdaq via a $1.9B SPAC, but shares slumped after the company admitted the tech’s future is still uncertain. (TechCrunch)
- 🇪🇺 Fine by Me. Google 🇺🇸 must pay a €4.1B antitrust penalty after the EU’s top court rejected its appeal, cementing the bloc’s crackdown on tech giants’ dominance. (Le Figaro)
- 🇺🇸 Neutrality Pending. Google and Amazon’s greenhouse gas emissions have soared since 2019, driven by AI growth, putting their carbon-neutral promises on indefinite hold. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Buy High, Sell Low. Tesla reported Q2 deliveries of 480,126 vehicles, smashing analyst forecasts, but shares still dropped 6% as investors found new reasons to worry. (Cnbc)
- 🇺🇸 Pay Per View. Meta will now charge $19.99 per month for unlimited use of the Conversation Focus feature on its Ray-Ban smart glasses, a function that was previously free. (Bbc)
- 🇺🇸 Artificial Interest. Meta and SoftBank are racking up billions in debt to fuel their AI ambitions, revealing just how risky the tech arms race has become. (Bloomberg)
- 🇰🇷 Chip Shot. South Korean stocks jumped 5% as AI-fueled turbulence gave way to a sharp rebound, giving traders a much-needed breather. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Stock to the Moon. Trump insists Musk will send SpaceX stock his way, proving that in politics, gravity is strictly optional. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Sub Plots. Jersey Mike’s and Cumberland Farms join a growing list of companies preparing for IPOs, proving Wall Street’s appetite is back on the menu. (Bloomberg)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- Ben Francis 🇬🇧 in talks to buy back part of General Atlantic 🇺🇸’s stake in Gymshark 🇬🇧. General Atlantic invested £200mn for 21% in 2020, Gymshark revenues £647mn and pre-tax profit fell from £11.8mn to £6.9mn.
- Abivax 🇫🇷 announces exercise of overallotment for ADS offering 🇺🇸, bringing gross proceeds to $920M and estimated net proceeds to $874.1M (€767.1M).
- Renk Group 🇩🇪 nears deal to buy David Brown Defence 🇬🇧
- Quantum Systems 🇩🇪 weighs merger with Stark 🇩🇪 after co-founder Florian Seibel floated reuniting the two businesses. Stark was valued at €3.2B.
- Yara 🇳🇴 acquires Gulf Coast Ammonia 🇺🇸 for $1.3B, an ammonia production facility in Texas City, Texas.
- Lockheed Martin 🇺🇸 is the frontrunner to buy Ultra Maritime 🇬🇧 for $3.5B, ongoing talks for the Advent-owned naval undersea defence tech group.
- Peak Rock Capital 🇺🇸 acquires Asembia 🇺🇸, a technology-enabled specialty pharma commercialization services provider (completed acquisition).
- Monomoy Capital Partners 🇺🇸 acquires Jiffy Lube International, Inc. 🇺🇸 for $1.3B, quick-lube and automotive service franchisor across North America.
- Copper Sky Capital 🇺🇸 acquires a stake in Etched 🇺🇸 in a $120M Series A.
- INPEX 🇯🇵 acquires TotalEnergies 🇫🇷’s 85% stake in Block 2E (8.5% net in the Marjoram gas field off Malaysia) for $350M.
- Persistent Systems 🇮🇳 acquires Nagarro 🇩🇪 for €1.27bn, creating combined revenues of nearly $3bn. Financed via a €1.4bn bridge facility from Barclays.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇬🇧 Loan Wolf. Atom Bank, with the UK’s biggest app-bank loan book, finds itself undervalued and overlooked while payments-focused rivals eye IPO glory. (Financial Times)
- 🇫🇷 Frozen Assets. French authorities seized €45.5M from Santé Cie, the Ardian-owned healthcare group, amid a criminal probe, sending its €820M loan price tumbling by 50 percent overnight. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Checkout Time. Apollo Global Management is struggling to sell Heritage Grocers Group as Trump-era immigration raids and food aid cuts drive away core customers and crush sales. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Panic Yield. Blue Owl 🇺🇸 faces withdrawal requests up to 38 percent on its private credit funds, as investor anxiety proves far stickier than executive optimism. (New York Times)
- 🇰🇷 Penalty Pending. The Financial Supervisory Service in South Korea is moving forward with sanctions against MBK Partners for its role in the Homeplus case. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Fee for All. Travel app Hopper 🇨🇦 will pay $35M to settle FTC claims it misled users with hidden charges and sneaky pre-selected fees. (TechCrunch)
Fundraising
- Baseten 🇺🇸 (AI): $1.5B (Altimeter Capital, Conviction, Spark Capital, Sands Capital, Wellington Management, IVP, Greylock, 01A, Blackbird, Durable Capital Partners, Verified Capital, Battery Ventures, D. E. Shaw Ventures, existing investors)
- Quantum Systems 🇩🇪 (Defense): $1.2B (Blackstone, Noteus Partners, Airbus, Advent, BOND, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Wellington Management, A.P. Moller Holding, Elephant Lake Ventures, Balderton, HV Capital)
- AppsFlyer 🇺🇸 (Adtech): $1B (Moloco, Google, Meta, Unity)
- Groq 🇺🇸 (AI): $650M (Disruptive, Infinitum)
- Dominion Dynamics 🇨🇦 (Defence): CA$139M
- Video Search Startup 🇺🇸 (Video search): $100M (Amazon, VCs)
- TwelveLabs 🇺🇸 (AI video): $100M (NEA, NAVER Ventures, Index Ventures, Radical Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, Quadrille Capital, Red Bull Ventures, Amazon)
- Addi 🇨🇴 (Fintech): $85M (Citius, BTG Pactual, GIC, Monashees)
- Venice.AI 🇺🇸 (AI): $65M (Dragonfly, Coinbase Ventures, F-Prime, North Island Ventures, Morgan Creek)
- Stathera 🇨🇦 (Semiconductors): $55M (Maverick Silicon, BDC Capital, Celesta Capital, MediaTek Innovation Fund, TXC Corporation, Ultratech Capital Partners)
- Elixir Aircraft 🇫🇷 (Aviation): €45M (SPI, Innovacom, Odyssée Venture)
- CarbonSix 🇰🇷 (Robotics): $40M (DSC Investment, LB Investment, IMM Investment, Korea Development Bank, SV Investment, Cortenti, ASQ, Foothill Ventures, Storm Ventures, Zeitgeist Capital, Xquared, CarbonBlack Fund)
- OXMIQ 🇺🇸 (AI chips): $35M (Fundomo, Samsung Catalyst Fund, MediaTek, AM Intelligence Labs, Pegatron Venture Capital, CDIB-TEN, Darwin Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Intel Capital)
- 10Beauty 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $23.5M (Story Ventures, Karlie Kloss, Sara Foster, Erin Foster, Bethenny Frankel, Victoria Beckham)
- LinqAlpha 🇺🇸 (AI): $22M (AVP, Atinum Investment, GFT Ventures, SBI Investment, Z Venture Capital, Betatron Venture Group, East Ventures, SV Investment, Samsung Securities, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mirae Asset Capital, NH Investment & Securities, Shinhan Venture Investment, Hana Ventures, NuVentures)
- Talp 🇹🇷 (AI): $20M (Formus Capital, Sunshine Lake Ventures, Aito Capital, a16z Scout Fund, angel investors)
- StirlingX 🇬🇧 (Data intelligence): $20M (Ventura Capital, RCM Private Markets Master Fund managed by Rokos Capital Management US (LP))
- Pie 🇺🇸 (AI): $19.5M
- Telum Therapeutics 🇪🇸 (Biotech): €18M (AMR Action Fund, Inveready, Invivo Partners, CDTI)
- Alva Industries 🇳🇴 (Mobility): €16M (Nysnø Climate Investments, Sandwater, Emerald Technology Ventures (on behalf of Nabtesco Technology Ventures), Statkraft Ventures, EnvisionTech)
- Luxonis 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $14M (Denali Growth Partners, Taiwania Capital)
- Queue 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $12.6M
- KredosAi 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $7M (BMW i Ventures, Motley Fool Ventures, Walter Ventures, Okapi Venture Capital, StartFast Ventures, SaaS Ventures, Stout Street Capital)
- Hypefy AI 🇭🇷 (Martech): €6.3M (AYMO Ventures, Interactive Venture Partners, Oktogon Ventures, Euroventures)
- Lucida AI 🇬🇧 (Edtech): £5.3m
- Graph Therapeutics 🇦🇹 (Biotech): $5M (Daphni, SquareOne, Merantix Capital, NAVEC Investment Management, FFG, AWS)
- Materna Medical 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $5M (InnovaHealth Partners, Wavemaker360 Health, Band of Angels)
- HousApp 🇳🇱 (Proptech): €4.3M (Arches Capital, Antler, angel investors)
- Dawnguard 🇳🇱 (Cybersecurity): €2.8M (BNVT Capital, Curiosity VC, eCAPITAL)
- Digiclean 🇸🇪 (Manufacturing): €2.5M
- Flyboard 🇪🇸 (Voice AI): €1.9M (b2ventures, Kfund, Yellow)
Fund Watch
- Hayfin 🇬🇧: €15B+ (Direct Lending Fund V, 5th direct-lending/private-credit fund, closed)
- Marlinspike Partners 🇺🇸: $127M (Disruptive Technology Fund II, early-stage dual-use tech for national security & advanced manufacturing)
- Orbit Capital 🇨🇿: €107M (Growth Debt Fund II, venture debt for CEE scaleups)
🔔IPO
- Novarion DMX Construction 🇷🇴 (Construction): planning an AeRO IPO to raise up to 17 million lei.
- Jersey Mike’s 🇺🇸 (Restaurants): targeting a $10B–$12B valuation in its IPO and plans to use proceeds to pay down part of its $2.1B debt.
- Genneia 🇦🇷 (Energy): files for a US IPO, the first Argentine company to seek a US listing since 2019.
- SBI Funds 🇮🇳 (Asset management): launching a $1.2B India IPO July to test investor demand.
- Carlsberg 🇮🇳 (Brewing): said to file for an India IPO to raise $700M.
- ShareChat 🇮🇳 (Social media): seeking to raise $400M an IPO next year after turning operationally profitable.
- Apollo Minerals 🇦🇺 (Mining): direct listing on Euronext Growth Paris at €0.0315 valuing the company at €39.5M.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇬🇧 Paper Chase. A volunteer at the UK National Archives uncovered a rare 1776 Declaration of Independence copy, the only one of its kind outside the US, after centuries in obscurity. (Bbc)
- 🇳🇱 Bone Identity. Maastricht officials admit the skeleton found under a church may or may not be d’Artagnan: more tests, more mystery, no closure yet. (Libé)
- 🇪🇺 Spy Games. Greek journalist and former MEP Stelios Kouloglou, who investigated spyware abuse, was himself hacked with Pegasus while serving on the PEGA committee. The watchdog became the watched. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Family Unfair. Four members of the Siders family in Ohio were arrested after authorities discovered 16 children, aged 1 to 18, living for years in a filthy 13 m² room with no schooling or medical care. Prosecutors called the conditions « pure evil » and charged the adults with 17 counts of child endangerment. (Le Parisien)
- 🇺🇸 The Great Wall Street. Guo Wengui, once a Beijing power player and now a New York inmate, is sentenced to 30 years for orchestrating a massive fraud targeting hundreds of investors. (Le Monde)