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Automakers have pulled several electric models from the U.S. market even as quarterly EV sales have risen. Q2 2026 U.S. consumer EV purchases have reached 247,226 vehicles, a sequential rise driven by higher fuel prices, new low-cost entrants and state rebates. Manufacturers and startups are responding with cheaper models, but many legacy brands have cancelled or delayed U.S. EV projects.
Apple has filed a federal lawsuit accusing OpenAI of a coordinated misappropriation of trade secrets as it pursues a hardware push. The suit centers on a former Apple engineer who allegedly accessed confidential Apple files after joining OpenAI, with Apple seeking remedies and a discovery-led process.
Chip shortages are pushing up RAM/NAND costs and pricing, pressuring low-end smartphones as memory chains shift toward AI data centers. Early data show India, then global markets, feeling the squeeze while premium devices hold steadier.
The latest wave of open-weight AI models from Chinese labs is expanding rapidly, offering cheaper, customizable options that are challenging premium, closed models. OpenRouter shows Chinese models occupying top spots for weekly token usage, while industry players push open-weight strategies to reduce costs and speed deployment. Analysts say most routine corporate AI work can be handled by these cheaper models, with premium providers reserved for the toughest problems.
X has rolled out a small tweak to its feed algorithm to boost posts visible to mutual followers, aiming to make replies more meaningful and help communities form around shared interests. The change follows recent steps to reward original content and improve creator tools, with rival Threads implementing similar features.
The slice of stories shows how drones and autonomous systems are transforming warfare. Ukraine’s use of unmanned boats, ground vehicles and motherships is driving NATO Europe to rethink procurement, industrial bases and battlefield strategy.
Google has rolled out Android 17 changes, starting with Pixel devices, under the Epic settlement. The update introduces a two-part fee structure, a 10% service fee on the first $1 million, and allows external checkout options. Australia, Japan, and Korea will join later in the year, with further global expansion planned.
Slate Auto has unveiled a bare‑bones two‑seat electric pickup with a $24,950 base price and a two‑row SUV conversion starting at $29,950. The company has raised the base EPA range estimate to about 205 miles, is taking preorders with a $300 deposit, and plans production to begin in late 2026 with direct online sales.
Toy Story 5 has opened to record franchise returns, grossing roughly $312m worldwide and dominating ticket sales. Low‑budget horror films made by online creators — notably Obsession, Backrooms and Iron Lung — have posted surprise gains. By contrast, DCilms' Supergirl has underperformed, opening far below studio expectations and drawing poor reviews.
Recent data shows a sharp rise in home battery installations across several states, driven by high electricity prices and policies that reward rooftop solar plus storage. Utilities and tech firms see these distributed assets powering a future grid and supporting data centers, AI workloads, and virtual power plants. Major players are expanding partnerships to coordinate thousands of home batteries for grid needs.
Major tech firms have announced widespread workforce reductions while reporting record AI spending and rising head counts at heavy AI adopters. Oracle, Microsoft, Meta and others have cut roles and cited AI-driven change even as studies from Ramp/Revelio, SignalFire and Draup show engineering hires and entry-level roles growing at AI‑intensive firms and job listings shifting toward judgment and AI-tool fluency.
TechCrunch and other outlets report a wave of AI agents moving into consumer tools. OpenClaw launches on iOS/Android; Acti unveils an agent-enabled keyboard; OKX launches AI agents marketplace; Meta exploring Arena-style prediction markets; Bloomberg/Times detail Kalshi and Polymarket stakes.
Sony has announced it will stop producing physical PlayStation game discs from January 2028. New titles will be sold via the PlayStation Store or as retailer-issued download codes; games releasing before 2028 remain unaffected. The move follows years of rising digital sales and has provoked consumer backlash over ownership, preservation and the second‑hand market.
Bending Spoons has begun trading on Nasdaq with a valuation around $25.5-25.7 billion and raised about $1.68 billion. The Milan-based group acquires and rebuilds aging digital brands such as Eventbrite, Evernote, Meetup and AOL, then holds them to drive growth through AI-enabled features, pricing, and tighter operations. Revenue in Q1 2026 reached $601 million with $27.5 million net income as it scales its portfolio and expands its multi-brand strategy.
South Korea has accelerated its semiconductor push, pledging hundreds of trillions of won in memory fabs and AI data centers. President Lee Jae-myung frames the plan as national survival, aiming to double memory capacity within five years. Samsung and SK Hynix pledge multi‑trillion investments, with broader plans to build new fabs and hubs in the southwest.
The US Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, and Anthropic has begun restoring access. Mythos 5 has been cleared for a vetted group of US organisations; Fable 5 — redesigned with stronger safeguards — is being redeployed more broadly after testing and coordination with government officials.
WhatsApp has begun reserving usernames to replace phone numbers for contact, a move the company frames as a privacy feature. Several countries are scrutinising the plan as regulators warn of potential rises in fraud and impersonation. The rollout is to be gradual this year, with high-profile handles reserved to prevent abuse.
SK Hynix has raised $26.5bn by selling 177.9m American depositary receipts at $149 each, in the largest-ever US share sale by a foreign company. Its ADRs have begun trading on Nasdaq under temporary ticker SKHYV and will convert to SKHY; the company is using proceeds to expand fabs, packaging and EUV capacity as AI-driven memory demand surges.
Solar generation has surpassed coal in the US grid, led by rooftop and utility-scale projects, signaling a growing dominance of renewables. The Energy Information Administration data show renewables outpacing coal in total power delivery, with solar near the gap but not yet yearly total. The trend continues as demand climbs and permitting hurdles persist.
TikTok is expanding beyond social video to include shopping, travel bookings, and payments, signaling a move toward a “super app” model. Separate microdrama deals show investors betting on AI-assisted, mobile-first storytelling as a growing entertainment niche, while studios and networks explore vertical formats and creator-owned IP.
OnePlus has announced it will stop launching new phones in Europe and North America and will focus new device rollouts on India and China. The company has said existing phones will keep receiving software support, but OxygenOS will be replaced globally by Oppos ColorOS with the Android 17 update.
Lime has priced its IPO at $25 per share and sold 6.68 million shares, valuing the company around $1.66 billion. Trading has begun on Nasdaq under the ticker LIME, with the stock showing initial strength amid a volatile market for micro-mobility firms.
Tech giants Google and Amazon have released sustainability reports showing rising energy use tied to AI expansion. While they claim progress on decarbonization, Scope 3 emissions and data-center activity are pushing overall emissions higher, prompting calls for tighter funding of clean energy and reforms to energy strategy.
Base44 is releasing Base 1, its own large language model to power vibe-coding tools. The move seeks to reduce reliance on frontier models, optimize latency and costs, and offer unique UI generation. The company says it will open access to a new model this summer as it expands its data-driven design stack.
OpenAI has proposed that the U.S. government take roughly a 5% stake in the company and has discussed a plan for other leading AI firms to give similar stakes to a government-backed vehicle. The talks have taken place with Trump administration officials and would likely require congressional approval. (Updated Wed, 08 Jul 2026 07:15:26 +0100)
WeWard has launched Walking Mode, a feature that locks social apps until users meet a walking goal. The feature aims to promote activity and reduce screen time. Venus Williams funds the project, with the app reporting 30 million users in 29 countries and a 25% increase in walking time on average.
Citizen Lab has found that Stelios Kouloglou's iPhone was infected with Pegasus at least three times in 2022–23 while he served on the European Parliament's PEGA committee investigating spyware. Researchers say they have high confidence in the forensic evidence but do not attribute responsibility; the findings have prompted calls in Brussels for stronger limits on spyware.
Security researchers warn that JadePuffer marks a new phase in cybercrime: an AI agent autonomously conducts a ransomware campaign, breaching servers, encrypting data, and generating its own ransom note. The development is accelerating, with multiple outlets detailing the role of LLMs in orchestrating these attacks, and officials urging stronger defenses.
Global funds are increasingly turning to alpha-capture programs, blending internal and external ideas to fuel investing engines as AI narrows edge opportunities. Firms like Citadel, Point72, Millennium, and Marshall Wace are expanding partnerships with external managers, while some are building their own human PM teams to trade across sectors.
OpenAI has shut Atlas, its AI-powered browser, and is redistributing its browser-like capabilities into the ChatGPT desktop app and a Chrome extension. The move follows leadership direction to trim side projects while preserving browsing intelligence within ChatGPT. Atlas-related tasks will now be handled inside Chrome and the desktop app, offering users in-page summaries, questions about pages, and task automation.
Meta has released Muse Spark 1.1, a more capable agentic and coding-focused model, with public API access and aggressive pricing. The upgrade aims to close the gap with OpenAI and Anthropic, offering pricing at $1.25 per million input tokens and $4.25 per million output tokens, and promising stronger performance on coding tasks and multi-task workflows.
Federal and local probes have produced new findings and warnings about autonomous vehicles. The NTSB has reported that a Tesla driver manually overrode Full Self-Driving before a June crash that killed a 76‑year‑old in Katy, Texas. NHTSA has issued a directive demanding AV developers fix cases where driverless cars enter or block emergency scenes; Waymo and California regulators are under pressure over several incidents.
Ocado has announced a planned leadership transition with co-founder and CEO Tim Steiner set to step down in 2028. A successor will be identified by the start of the 2028 financial year, with Steiner remaining as a founder adviser through 2029. The move follows pressure from shareholders after a slump in Ocado’s share price and ongoing restructuring.
Menlo Ventures has backed Anthropic since 2023, turning a $4.1 billion pre-money valuation into a potential multi-billion-dollar windfall as Anthropic prepares to go public. The investment has reshaped Menlo, contributing to a new $3 billion fund and elevating Anthropic as a major challenger to OpenAI in AI safety and capability.
Enterprises are shifting from chasing the top model to integrating best-fit open-weight options, aiming to cut costs while preserving performance. Open-weight models are gaining traction as a flexible backbone for task-specific systems, with large labs facing pressure as organizations route work to cheaper, capable engines.
Anthropic has released Claude Reflect to web and mobile for users with memory enabled, allowing them to review 1, 3, 6 or 12 months of Claude activity, usage patterns, and task types. Prompts about mindful AI use and optional quiet hours accompany the rollout, which is in beta for Free, Pro, and Max tiers.
Meta has discontinued Muse Image, its Instagram-linked AI image generator, following privacy concerns. The feature, which automatically enrolled public accounts for image generation, is no longer available. The move comes after swift criticism from creators, unions and privacy advocates, who argued the feature violated consent and risked non-consensual image manipulation.
Leverage ETFs tracking Samsung and SK Hynix have tumbled since late May listings, while a new wave of anti-Elon funds seeks to exclude Musk-associated companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, from Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 exposures.
Paralives, an indie life-sim from Alex Masse, has gained traction since Steam early access in May 2026, selling 250,000 copies in a day and drawing attention as a potential ethical alternative to EA’s The Sims amid industry consolidation and AI costs. The creator aims for bold customization and performance improvements to appeal to fans seeking creativity over realism.
News organisations have filed a sanctions motion accusing OpenAI of concealing searchable training datasets and millions of ChatGPT logs that could show whether the company used copyrighted journalism. Depositions have revealed OpenAI held large, de‑identified log samples and internal tools to detect regurgitation; plaintiffs say the sample OpenAI produced was unusable.
Scottish Enterprise has awarded a £3m package to ReVentas to scale its plastic recycling technology and pilot facility in Livingston, advancing Scotland’s circular economy goals.
JAXA has flown the RV-X, lifting it 11 metres and landing it upright 16 metres away at Noshiro, marking Japan’s first successful launch and landing of a rocket. China’s Long March-10B has achieved a sea-based net catch on its maiden flight, signaling a major step toward reusable launch technology. The stories show growing momentum in global efforts to reduce space-launch costs and expand access to space.
The European Commission has found that Meta breached the Digital Services Act by failing to assess the risks of Instagram and Facebook's 'addictive design'. Brussels has told Meta to disable autoplay and infinite scroll by default, add effective screen-time breaks and make recommendations less engagement-driven. Meta has disagreed and will respond before a final decision and possible fines.
Apple has filed a federal lawsuit accusing OpenAI, its hardware arm io Products and two former Apple engineers of misappropriating confidential hardware designs, supplier details and manufacturing techniques to speed OpenAI’s push into consumer devices. Apple has asked the court for injunctions, return of materials and unspecified damages.
California has led 11 other state attorneys general in filing a federal lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing the combination will raise prices, cut content and reduce competition in theatrical film distribution and basic cable. The states are seeking to stop the companies from closing the transaction while the case proceeds.
Three cybercrime operatives face US charges for operating two “bulletproof” web hosts tied to ransomware, phishing, and intrusions against dozens of American targets; authorities say over $62 million flowed to criminals.
Independent reports Aldi and Lidl are launching affordable ice cream makers on July 16, priced at £69.99, undercutting Ninja’s premium model. Aldi’s Ambiano uses “smoothify” technology; Lidl’s SilverCrest Freezy offers seven presets. Both are limited Specialbuys, with stock likely to vanish quickly. Competitors and other budget options are highlighted in IndyBest reviews.
Advertisers say Meta’s AI features in ad tools are often buggy and misrepresent creative assets, forcing brands to double check outputs. The issue spans multiple campaigns and clients, with some tools accidentally turning on and altering ads without consent.
The latest coverage shows Meta’s AI-enabled glasses are under scrutiny for privacy risks even as retailers push to mainstream wearables. Reports highlight incidents of harassment, bystander recording, and regulatory probes surrounding NameTag and other features.
Emergent has raised $300 million in a Series C, valuing the Bengaluru-based AI coding startup at $1.5 billion. The round, led by Creaegis and joined by Claypond and Sentinel Global, comes as India accelerates its AI ambitions amid growing investor interest and a larger ecosystem.