๐๏ธ Read More
The warning label got better marketing than the product.
Also available:๐ซ๐ท รdition franรงaise
Good morning!
A man paid to break things for a bank’s security desk spent a week trying to break the most feared model on the market, then told me what he found. Capable, quick, genuinely useful. Nothing to fear. That quiet verdict never makes the launch video, which arrived wrapped in benchmarks chosen the way an estate agent picks photographs, scoring beautifully on exams nobody sits and chores nobody assigns, while the maker let it be known the truly dreadful powers had been leashed for the good of mankind. A claim with the singular charm of being impossible to disprove. Beneath the mystique, one real talent survives. The model is unusually good at finding flaws in other people’s software, a trick that matters to almost no one outside offensive security. Such a capability is a lockpick, and lockpicks have a known protocol: trusted hands only. Anthropic already runs that protocol for its top tier, Mythos, kept from the public for a few approved partners. When a rival found a narrow way into the public model, the same opening that sits untouched in GPT-5.5, the company skipped its own list and pulled the global switch, going dark for every human on earth. Stagecraft dressed as prudence.
The stagecraft reached its finest hour once the lights went out. Ordered offline by a Friday letter from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, binding its own foreign staff as tightly as anyone abroad, Anthropic turned the blackout into a shop window. Anyone opening a chat now meets a tasteful notice that the model is currently unavailable, with a ‘read more’ inviting the curious to learn how dangerous their chatbot briefly was. Few houses get to sell menace as a feature and invoice it as an apology. The grammar of buttons and red telephones, lifted from the bomb, handled the rest, days after the firm filed to go public on a $965B valuation.
Across the Atlantic the blackout was a gift to every politician with a dormant opinion on sovereignty, though their grievance, flags aside, was the interruption of the dependency, not its existence. A former French minister mourned a continent renting its intelligence from a landlord free to change the locks, then prescribed Mistral and a fistful of national clouds. The Dutch contribution was more honest: a populist who skipped the homily and simply demanded his American chatbot back. None of it survives August, when the next model lands and the circus reopens with fresh benchmarks and the same warning that the end is near.
The model will be forgotten. The reflex built around it will not. An industry just watched a near-trillion-dollar fortune raised on the promise that a product might be too dangerous to sell, and drew the obvious lesson: fear scales, utility doesn’t. The next lab hauled offline by Washington will send a thank-you note.
๐๏ธ Top Story
- ๐ฌ๐ง Fleet Street Justice. The UK intercepted and boarded the sanctioned Russian oil tanker Smyrtos in the Channel, showing Moscow’s workaround tankers are now headline targets. (BBC)
- ๐ฎ๐น Exit Strategy. Far-right demonstrators filled Rome to demand mass ยซย remigrationย ยป of immigrants, as Casapound and allies push for expulsions and stricter assimilation rules. The rhetoric leaves little room for nuance. (Le Monde)
- ๐ท๐ด Tomac Out, Vestea In. With Eugen Tomac stepping aside, Adrian Vestea is tasked with forming a new pro-Western government amid Romaniaโs ongoing political turmoil. (Le Monde)
- ๐ช๐บ Cluster Luck. The officially opens accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova this week, moving both countries one step closer to membership after Hungary dropped its veto. (Le Parisien)
- ๐จ๐ญ Swiss Miss. Swiss voters rejected a plan to cap the population at 10M, choosing economic ties with the EU over anti-immigration fears and Brexit-style drama. (Cnbc)
- ๐ฒ๐ฉ Steel Nerves. Maia Sandu, the first woman to lead Moldova, faces Russian meddling with calm warnings and a steady hand that barely flinches. (Le Parisien)
- ๐บ๐ธ Flow State. Trump abandons his goal of regime change in Iran, instead celebrating the reopening of Hormuz and a return to pre-strike oil flows. (Washington Post)
- ๐บ๐ธ Stake Fight. President Trump is hosting a UFC event at the White House while holding shares in parent company TKO Group, raising fresh ethics questions about personal gain in public office. (New York Times)
- ๐ช๐จ Case Closed. Ecuadorian prosecutor Gloria Bravo, known for probing criminal networks in Manta, was assassinated in a city plagued by drug cartel violence. (Le Temps)
- ๐น๐ญ Royal Farewell. Thousands of mourners in Bangkok lined the streets to honor Princess Bajrakitiyabha, who died at 47 after years in a coma. (Spiegel)
๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom
- ๐ฌ๐ง Scroll Control. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will announce an Australia-style ban restricting teens under 16 from social media and late-night scrolling, citing child safety as his legacy project. (Financial Times)
- ๐ฌ๐ง Priority Boarding. With his defence secretary gone, Starmer doubles down on military spending as his main focus, making it clear he is not stepping aside. (The Guardian)
- ๐ฌ๐ง Phone Alone. Police stopped far-right activist Tommy Robinson at Heathrow after his Russia trip and seized his phones under counter-terrorism laws, leaving his messages on hold. (The Guardian)
- ๐ฌ๐ง Gift Wrapped. Nigel Farage has sharply reduced his press appearances after news broke of an undeclared ยฃ5M gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, now under parliamentary investigation. (Financial Times)
๐บ๐ธ United States
- ๐บ๐ธ Name Drop. After losing a legal battle, the Kennedy Center stripped Trump’s name from its building, ending a short-lived rebranding and reigniting partisan theatrics in DC. (Cnbc)
- ๐บ๐ธ Polling Place. Sarah Longwell, once a Republican strategist, now studies voter reactions and steers The Bulwark ๐บ๐ธ for the politically unmoored. (Wall Street Journal)
๐๏ธ Economy
- ๐ฌ๐ง Price and Prejudice. Lidl ๐ฉ๐ช now ranks fifth among UK supermarkets, thanks to shoppers choosing bargains over brand loyalty in a country squeezed by inflation. (Le Monde)
- ๐ฌ๐ง Agent Provocateurs. UK OnlyFans agencies control, threaten, and abuse creators while taking up to 70% of their earnings, exposing a pattern of exploitation the platform has failed to stop. (BBC)
- ๐ฌ๐ง Consulting the Oracle. KPMGโs โRedefining excellence in the age of agentic AIโ cited AI-powered transformations at UBS and NHS, but the stories were hallucinated by AI itself, not actual clients. (Financial Times)
- ๐ฉ๐ช Tank You. After Berlin buries the SCAF fighter jet project, Rheinmetallโs CEO openly questions whether the Franco-German future tank will survive, blaming Paris for the uncertainty.
- ๐ช๐บ Field of Greens. The European Commission proposes โฌ540M in aid for farmers hit by soaring fertilizer costs, hoping to keep harvests and tempers steady. (Boursier)
- ๐ช๐บ Rate Expectations. ECB officials say another interest rate hike in July is still on the table as inflation stays stubbornly high across the eurozone. (Boursier)
- ๐ณ๐ด Cold Call. Norwayโs Prime Minister publicly dares the EU to explain why US and Gulf gas are supposedly โsaferโ than Norwegian Arctic supplies, as Oslo lobbies Brussels to lift its Arctic drilling ban. (Financial Times)
- ๐บ๐ธ Peak Concern. Ken Warsh inherits a economy where the smooth path of falling rates now looks more like a steep and uncertain drop. (Bloomberg)
- ๐บ๐ธ Copperfield. Copper prices jumped after a US-Iran peace deal calmed markets and revived hopes for global growth, putting commodity bulls back in the spotlight. (Bloomberg)
- ๐ฏ๐ต Peak Performance. The Bank of Japan prepares to hike rates to levels last seen in 1995, hoping higher borrowing costs will tame inflation without stalling growth.
- ๐ธ๐ฌ Gold Standard. Singapore will launch a gold clearing system and central bank vault service this year, aiming to become Asiaโs premier precious metals hub as global banks sign on. (Financial Times)
- ๐ฆ๐ช Back to the Future. Dubaiโs streets are packed and schools are open again, yet the cityโs new normal comes with a side of anxiety after recent regional attacks. (Washington Post)
- ๐ฎ๐ฑ Boom Under Fire. Israelโs economy defies war logic with surging tech exports, a 100% stock market rally, and unemployment at 2.9%, all while missiles fly. (Les Echos)
๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom
- ๐ฌ๐ง Fiscal Frontline. Dan Jarvis urges the UK government to prioritize defence spending, stepping in after John Healey quit over Labourโs reluctance to fund military upgrades. (BBC)
- ๐ฌ๐ง Spring Backward. The UK economy shrank by 0.1% in April after a strong first quarter, marking its first contraction since August and ending the rebound narrative. (Wall Street Journal)
๐บ๐ธ United States
- ๐บ๐ธ Rust Belted. Polls show Trumpโs economic approval rating among blue-collar white voters has plummeted below 40 percent, leaving Republicans scrambling to patch up the cracks in their foundation. (New York Times)
๐ข Real Estate
- ๐ฉ๐ช Debt Revival. Germany’s property sector is once again facing a wave of debt troubles after a four-year lull, as refinancing pressures return to the spotlight. (Bloomberg)
- ๐บ๐ธ AI in the Sky. The Utah mega data centre, double Manhattanโs size, promises jobs but sparks a rare rural alliance against techโs land and resource grab. (Co)
- ๐บ๐ธ Main Street Malware. The FBI unveiled a 22,000 square-foot replica town in Huntsville, Alabama, where agents now practice fighting cybercrime in a world that looks suspiciously like ours, minus the actual neighbors. (TechCrunch)
- ๐ธ๐ฌ Flat Market. With developers holding back on new projects, Singapore’s new home sales dropped, giving the city-state’s real estate scene a rare quiet spell. (Bloomberg)
๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom
- ๐ฌ๐ง Buy British. Overseas buyers have spent ยฃ128B snapping up UK companies this year, pushing dealmaking to its highest level since 2007 and making London a bargain bin for global acquirers. (Financial Times)
๐บ๐ธ United States
- ๐บ๐ธ Gold Rush Hour. Juneau officials are pushing to demolish historic homes on Telephone Hill to build denser housing, sparking fierce resistance from preservationists and locals. (Wall Street Journal)
๐ On-chain
- ๐บ๐ธ Block Chained. Sam Bankman-Friedโs 25-year prison sentence for FTX fraud is upheld on appeal, leaving the crypto wunderkind with no exit strategy but time. (Le Monde)
- ๐ฎ๐ณ Zelle Out. US bank-owned Zelle will let users send money to India and is prepping a dollar-backed stablecoin for global payments, chasing remittance gold. (FinExtra)
๐ฑ Listed Markets
- ๐จ๐ญ Reply All. Palantir lost its lawsuit against Swiss magazine Republik, as Zurichโs court rejected nearly all its demands for published counterstatements, leaving the US tech giant footing most of the bill. (Financial Times)
- ๐บ๐ธ Trillion Dollar Baby. With SpaceX’s IPO sending shares up 20 percent, Elon Muskโs fortune rockets past $1T, making inequality look positively retro. (New York Times)
- ๐จ๐ณ Unfriended. Meta is unwinding its $2B acquisition of Chinese AI startup Manus after Beijing demanded a full separation on national security grounds, halting all data sharing between the companies. (TechCrunch)
- ๐ฐ๐ท Breaking Default. Major Korean broadcaster JTBC fails to meet debt obligations and is slapped with a junk rating, giving โbad newsโ a new meaning. (Bloomberg)
- ๐ฎ๐ท Crude Awakening. Oil prices tumbled nearly 5% after Pakistan announced a US-Iran deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with Trump declaring ยซย let the oil flowย ยป and markets bracing for more volatility. (BBC)
๐๏ธ Big Deals (M&A)
- Barclays ๐ฌ๐ง acquires GoHenry ๐ฌ๐ง from Acorns ๐บ๐ธ. Subject to regulatory approval and expected to complete Q4 2026 (GoHenry’s US operations remain with Acorns; 2M+ young users.
- Permira ๐ฌ๐ง acquires a majority stake in Carbon Disclosure Project ๐ฌ๐ง, a corporate environmental transparency non-profit.
- OVHcloud ๐ซ๐ท enters exclusive negotiations to acquire Gladia ๐ซ๐ท, an AI company.
- Ferretti ๐ฎ๐น weighs an offer to acquire all or part of The Italian Sea Group ๐ฎ๐น, struggling rival.
- Adyen ๐ณ๐ฑ acquires Orb ๐บ๐ธ for $335M (an all-cash reverse triangular merger. Orb is a San Franciscoโheadquartered enterprise billing platform founded in 2021).
- Belfius Insurance ๐ง๐ช acquires Insurlytech (Leocare) ๐ซ๐ท (bancassureur buys 100% of the parent of Leocare. Leocare (85 employees) will keep its brand, integration effective July 1.
- EQT ๐ธ๐ช looks to sell its minority stake in HMI Medical ๐ธ๐ฌ for about $600M, a deal in the healthcare sector.
- Eaton ๐ฎ๐ช merges its mobility business with Dana ๐บ๐ธ in a $5.1B deal, including debt.
- Daniel Kลetรญnskรฝ ๐จ๐ฟ is considering acquiring shares from Vanessa Gold ๐ฌ๐ง to become the largest shareholder in West Ham United.
- Paramount Skydance ๐บ๐ธ to acquire Warner Bros Discovery ๐บ๐ธ for $111B. Receives US Department of Justice antitrust approval, combining assets including HBO, CNN, CBS and Paramount Pictures.
- KKR ๐บ๐ธ launches Helix Digital Infrastructure ๐บ๐ธ, an AI infrastructure company with over $10B in committed capital from Kuwait SWF KIA, Nvidia, and Vistra.
- KKR ๐บ๐ธ acquires a majority stake in accounting firm Crowe ๐บ๐ธ for $3B.
- Elliott ๐บ๐ธ joins bidders including JD.com ๐จ๐ณ to acquire The Very Group ๐ฌ๐ง in takeover talks that could value it at $2.7B.
- Blackstone ๐บ๐ธ is in talks to acquire $2B-listed commercial REIT H&R REIT ๐จ๐ฆ
- Figure ๐บ๐ธ agreed to acquire Kiavi ๐บ๐ธ in a $717M deal, a blockchain-based lender buying a residential transition loan lender.
- L Catterton ๐บ๐ธ in talks to buy a stake in Hyrox ๐ฉ๐ช, Sky reports.
- Rox Capital Partners ๐บ๐ธ acquires Interstate Threaded Products ๐บ๐ธ, a Texas-based PE firm launching an industrial fastener platform with a specialty threaded fasteners manufacturer serving North American industrial markets.
- NTT Global Data Centers ๐ฏ๐ต seeks to raise $1B in fresh capital to fund data center projects in the US.
- AHS Properties ๐ฆ๐ช acquires ShangriโLa (Dubai hotel) ๐ฆ๐ช for $300M, Dubai luxury five-star hotel.
๐งณ Private Markets & VC
- ๐ซ๐ท Vive la Silicon. Arthur Mensch announces Mistral ๐ซ๐ท is considering making proprietary chips, signaling Europe’s AI ambitions go well beyond software. (Cnbc)
- ๐ฆ๐น Crystal Clear. Swarovski CEO Alexis Nasard bets on ยซย modern luxuryย ยป and celebrity tie-ins with Ariana Grande and Disney to restore the 131-year-old brand’s profits. (Bloomberg)
- ๐บ๐ธ Claude Out. Anthropic has blocked Mythos AI from using its models following a sweeping directive, turning off the taps with immediate effect. (Bloomberg)
- ๐บ๐ธ Access Denied. Anthropic shut down its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 A.I. systems for all customers after the Trump administration demanded a foreign access ban over security fears. (New York Times)
- ๐บ๐ธ Margin Call. Andrew Yang argues that lowering living costs is the real startup goldmine, launching Noble Mobile to prove profits and savings can coexist. (TechCrunch)
- ๐ป๐ช Oil Rushmore. US investment firms are scrambling to pour billions into Venezuelaโs oil sector after Trumpโs $100B call, with Lionheart Capital leading early moves to list Venezuelan oil assets on Nasdaq. (Financial Times)
- ๐จ๐ณ Rocket Envy. As SpaceX prepares for a historic IPO in the US, Chinaโs 600 private space firms watch closely, dreaming of their own launch window. (Les Echos)
๐บ๐ธ United States
- ๐บ๐ธ Frankly Forgiven. Charlie Javice, convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase by inflating her startup’s numbers, is now seeking a Trump pardon and a clean slate. (Cnbc)
Fundraising
- Prometheus ๐บ๐ธ (Physical AI): $12B (Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock)
- Mistral AI ๐ซ๐ท (AI): โฌ3B (rumored)
- Neura Robotics ๐ฉ๐ช (Robotics): $1.4B
- KOHO ๐จ๐ฆ (Fintech): $130M CAD (Mubadala, Savano Capital, Tobi Lรผtke, Michael Linford, Portage Ventures, Drive Capital, BDC Capital, HOOPP, Eldridge)
- Theker ๐ช๐ธ (Robotics): $85M (CRV, Samsung, Aglaรฉ Ventures, Inditex)
- Current ๐บ๐ธ (Fintech): $80M (Springcoast Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global Management, Avenir, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management, Sapphire Ventures, QED Investors, General Catalyst, Cross River)
- PhoenixAI ๐บ๐ธ (AI): $80M (Sky9 Capital, Atypical Ventures, Olive Technology Ventures)
- Endurance Energy ๐บ๐ธ (Geothermal): $54M (Founders Fund, Ascend, Construct Capital, Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital, Point72 Ventures, Riot Ventures, Voyager Ventures)
- Hypha (AI): $50M
- CameraMatics ๐ฎ๐ช (AI): โฌ49M (Blume Equity, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Goodbody Capital Partners)
- Dapple ๐บ๐ธ (AI infrastructure): $30M (The Raptor Group, Ion Pacific)
- Equal AI ๐ฎ๐ณ (AI): $30M (Prosus Ventures, Tomales Bay Capital, Think Investments, Valiant Fund, Sameer Nigam, Zubin Bharti Mittal, Anshu Sharma, Sandhya Devanathan, Sridhar Pinnapureddy)
- Atana Elements ๐บ๐ธ (Climate): $27.5M (Borusan Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital)
- Jedify ๐บ๐ธ (AI): $24M (Norwest, Snowflake Ventures, S Capital VC, Cerca Partners, Oceans Ventures)
- Orbio ๐ช๐ธ (HR): $21M
- SyntheticFi ๐บ๐ธ (Fintech): $13M (Y Combinator, Social Leverage, NextGen VP, The Compound Capital Fund)
- Corca Research ๐บ๐ธ (AI, Math): $7.8M
- ChatSee.ai ๐บ๐ธ (AI): $6.5M (True Ventures, First Rays Venture Partners, Seven Hill Ventures, industry veterans)
- Rejuvenate Bio ๐บ๐ธ (Biotech): $6M (VCapital, Merck Animal Health, Connecticut Innovations, Digitalis)
- Fearn ๐บ๐ธ (Legaltech): $5.5M (Kindred Ventures, a16z speedrun, Designer Fund, Essence VC)
- Chptr ๐บ๐ธ (Media): $5.5M (CityRock, Tribute Technology, iHeartMedia, Sinclair, Hearst)
Fund Watch
- Partners Group ๐จ๐ญ: $650M (5th real estate secondaries fund, first close)
- SparkLabs Group ๐ฐ๐ท: $600M
- Digital Asset ๐บ๐ธ: $355M (growth round led by a16zcrypto. Canton. Institutional onchain infrastructure)
- Jinger Zhao ๐บ๐ธ: $300M (z Star Research, Asia-focused quant hedge fund. Seed capital from Blackstone)
- Kos Biotechnology Partners ๐ฌ๐ท: $123M (inaugural global life sciences fund, life sciences VC. First dedicated life sciences fund in Greece)
- Fonds europรฉen d’investissement (FEI) ๐ช๐บ: โฌ25M (panโEuropean agri-food VC fund, seed & Series A)
๐IPO
- Flutter Entertainment ๐ฎ๐ช (Gaming): to delist from the London Stock Exchange and trade solely in New York.
- SpaceX ๐บ๐ธ (Aerospace): valued at over $2,000B after a record $75B IPO.
- Kardigan ๐บ๐ธ (Biotech): seeking to raise $373M at a $1.4B valuation in an IPO.
- Forbright ๐บ๐ธ (Banking): raised $140M at a $900M valuation in the first bank IPO this year.
- Minor International ๐น๐ญ (Hospitality): weighing a Singapore listing for its restaurant arm instead of Hong Kong.
- Kasapreko ๐ฌ๐ญ (Beverages): raised $148M in Ghana’s second IPO this year, more than double its IPO target.
๐งณ Debt
- Lloyds Banking Group ๐ฌ๐ง: plans to issue an SRT tied to $4.2B of SME loans.
- Bpifrance ๐ซ๐ท: issued โฌ750M inaugural European Secured Note maturing June 25, 2031.
- Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals ๐ณ๐ฌ: seeking $1B in a private debt placement.
โ Failures
- Prax Group ๐ฌ๐ง: administrators say the CEO ordered ยฃ334mn of fake invoices (โยฃ277mn still outstanding), triggering the group’s collapse.
- Shell France ๐ซ๐ท: announced its 14th layoff plan in ten years, with negotiations to finalise departure terms this week.
- Pleo ๐ฉ๐ฐ: laid off around 50 employees from its offering team as part of ongoing restructuring.
- JBS ๐ง๐ท: preparing to close its Souderton, Pa., beef plant that employs about 1,700 people and slaughters roughly 2,000 cattle a day.
- Geely ๐จ๐ณ: the automaker plans to shut some units to focus on its Hong Kong-listed arm, the chairman says.
- JoongAng Holdings ๐ฐ๐ท: the holding company filed for court rehabilitation amid a deepening liquidity crunch, with units Contentree JoongAng, JoongAng P&I and Megabox joining the filing.
๐ฏ For a Few More Minutesโฆ
- ๐ซ๐ท Tile and Error. From Paris to Hong Kong, Invader enthusiasts devote money and vacation days chasing down elusive mosaics for digital bragging rights. (Le Parisien)
- ๐ซ๐ท Work in Progress. French researchers dissect how video games turn jobs into playful chores, asking if players are just workers in digital disguise. (Le Monde)
- ๐บ๐ธ The Trillionaire Next Door. Elon Muskโs net worth hits $1.2T after SpaceXโs IPO, making him the worldโs first trillionaire and giving inequality critics a new milestone to highlight. (New York Times)
THE NEWSLETTER
Your daily market recap (usually), minus the boring parts.
Free ยท zero spam ยท unsubscribe in one click
