July 2025

For years, Will Somerindyke sold weapons of war around the world: artillery shells to Ukraine, grenades to U.S.-backed rebels in Syria. With relationships with dozens of top military buyers, he quickly turned his company Regulus Global into one of America’s major international arms dealers. Now, as Silicon Valley investors swarm to back multi-billion dollar defense startups with increasing fervor, Somerindyke is looking to make the jump from munitions middleman to manufacturer. He’s been quietly working on Union, a new venture-backed startup he claims will modernize ammunition factories with autonomous robotics and precision machining. “I’ve been through a lot

Elon Musk fired Tesla’s head of operations in North America and Europe, amid declining sales in both regions and the electric vehicle brand’s falling popularity, according to people familiar with the matter. Omead Afshar, who started with Tesla as an engineer in 2017, had become one of Musk’s top lieutenants and was elevated to vice president to oversee business in the two key regions last October. He didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did Musk or Tesla. Afshar’s removal comes a few days before the end of the second quarter and follows news that Tesla’s

A pall of acrid smoke hung over Kyiv on Friday morning following a night of intensive Russian strikes that hit almost every district of the capital, according to Ukrainian authorities. The hours of darkness were once again punctuated by the staccato of air defence guns, buzz of drones and large explosions. Ukraine said Russia had fired a record 550 drones and 11 missiles during a long night of bombardment. The strikes came hours after a phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, after which the US president said he was "disappointed" that Putin was not ready