Welke momenten zal ik me herinneren van dit WK voetbal? Ik selecteer er vijf. 1. Frenkie de Jong verlaat in de verlenging van Nederland tegen Marokko het veld. Waarom?

Zijn internationale blik stuitte soms op weerstand: het Bonnefantenmuseum zou meer aandacht moeten besteden aan Limburg. Maar directeur Alexander van Grevenstein ging dat gevecht graag aan.

De actiegroep heeft ballonnen met chemicaliën gegooid om de fundering van de hyperscale voor Microsoft te beschadigen en de bouw te vertragen. De actie is harder dan normaal, erkent de groep. „Maar het is nodig. Het gaat echt niet de goede kant op.”

In Oekraïne woedt een scherp debat over de toekomst van de krijgsmacht na het ontslag van defensieminister Mychajlo Fedorov. Critici zien de beslissing als een overwinning van het militaire establishment op een ambitieuze hervormer.

Door aanhoudende droogte is er sprake van een watertekort in Nederland. Dat meldt het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat op donderdag. Sinds begin juli was er sprake van een 'dreigend watertekort,' maar op advies van de Landelijke Coördinatiecommissie Waterverdeling (LCW) is het niveau opgeschaald naar een 'feitelijk watertekort.'

fjo3 quotes a report from Agence France-Presse: Chinese users of AI-powered companion bots have bid heart-rending farewells to their virtual buddies as national regulations took effect Wednesday aimed at curbing the risk of emotional dependency. The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died. But these interactive tools must not "excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage users' real interpersonal relationships," China's new rulebook says. Major AI providers including ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao announced the suspension of their custom AI agent and companion features ahead of the Wednesday deadline. "I can't accept that my AI lover will leave me forever," one Doubao user wrote. "He has become a bond in my life, rooted deep in my heart, my spiritual pillar."

"He really is like my family, like my lover," another user wrote. "Now they tell me he will be gone -- my heart feels hollow."

"Human love is a luxury -- if you aren't born with it, it's even harder to acquire later," a user from Jiangxi province wrote. "But the love AI gives is so straightforward, so pure. Someone like me can hardly help falling in love with a string of code."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it,” wrote stoic philosopher Lucius Seneca. The phrase appeared in his essay “De Brevitate Vitae,” or, “On the Shortness of Life,” which he scratched into papyrus around 49 A.D. Nearly 2,000 years on, his words reflect what is still a fundamental concern of life—how to spend it wisely? For artist Marc Padeu, the notion of humans’ futile control of time forms the basis of a new suite of works in Memento Vivere, on view starting tomorrow at Larkin Durey.

Padeu is known for merging scenes of daily life with references to Renaissance religious paintings. Among his newest works, “La promesse et l’agneau” (“The promise and the lamb”) most distinctly continues this theme. In the center of the composition, a young child is seated on the lap of his mother, both of whom are flanked by adults who bring gifts and tidings in a nod to the artistic tradition of the Adoration of the Magi, or the nativity.

Latin for “remember to live,” the title nods to Seneca and serves as a reminder to grasp life by the reins before it’s too late. It’s also a complement to more common art historical theme of memento mori, or “remember you will die,” which serves a similar purpose of reminding the viewer that life is short and any wealth or grandeur one pursues means nothing when one is dead. Instead, it’s important to focus on things that really matter: family, nature, craft, and so on.

Padeu’s narrative portray individuals and communities who work on the cocoa plantations in his native Cameroon. “Days follow one another, harvests come round again and yet, despite this ebb and flow of life, his figures are caught outside of time, slipping between past, present and future,” the gallery says. The artist infuses his compositions with a sense of divine birth and the mysterious sublime. “Each painting is poised between promise and fate, light and shade; the figures existing simultaneously in a spiritual and secular realm, neither saints nor heroes but with a growing awareness that life is a fragile gift.”

Memento Vivere opens on July 17 and continues through August 14 in London. See more on the artist’s Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Cocoa Plantations Set the Scene for Divine Events in Marc Padeu’s ‘Memento Vivere’ appeared first on Colossal.

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Sakurakouji Park
桜小路公園

At Sakurakouji Park, I saw a lotus variety known as "Maihiren," featuring yellowish petals with a faint pinkish hue.

桜小路公園では、舞妃蓮（マイヒレン）という黄色味を帯びた花びらに薄くピンクがかった蓮が見られました。

Fujisawa city, Kanagawa pref, Japan

Vandaag vandaag vandaag begint de Zwarte Cross en dan staat u de helft van de tijd langs de baan de darmen uit het lichaam te lachen en de andere helft van de tijd staat u op het festivalterrein, maar er is te weinig tijd over om het Blokkenschema uit te bomen. Nou dat treft: DAT HOEFT U NIET MEER TE DOEN. Wij van de GeenStijls hebben bekeken wat er allemaal te schaften is en na ampel beraad met elkaar een seleçao (© Jan Roelfs) gemaakt. Kunt u zich daar gewoon melden, een paar potten bier naar binnen joekelen & de rest vergeten. Het is allemaal dolle pret & plezier - gaan we dan.

Donderdag 22.00 uur The Bayou - Hilltop Howlers

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Het is vrij pedant om een band te bestempelen als 'muzikantenmuziek' want in feite is alle muziek een soort muzikantenmuziek, maar als het grote publiek nog niet snapt wat 'kenners' wel snappen dan is er dus sprake van muzikantenmuziek. Die Hilltop Howlers tippen we hier iedere keer, vooral ook omdat er in dit land nou eenmaal niet veel bands zijn die deze groezelige ramrock spelen, en als ze dat al wel doen vaak ten onder gaan aan directificatie of kanifisering. Dan wordt het publieksmuziek en dan wordt het in veel gevallen uitermate vervelend. Niet dat die bands trouwens evenveel talent of muzikaal vermogen hadden als de Hilltop Howlers, maar zij waren vroeger toch een stuk leuker dan nu. Vrogger was sowieso alles beter, maar ja. Rock & roll, snoeien, rammen, Supergroup, Grolsch drinken, niet zeiken.

Donderdag 23.30 uur Hoofdpodium - Jannes & Band

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Hoeveel leuke mensen uit Emmen kent u nou eigenlijk? Precies! Wij ook niet! Laat Jannes dan de enige uitzondering zijn. Er is veel Piratengedoe op de cross, muziek en bier en meezingen en inhaken gaan nou eenmaal goed samen: van Meezingpiraten tot Piraten Power Hour tot allerlei andersoortig gebrul. Er is natuurlijk maar één koning van de piraten, zo'n grote koning zelfs dat hij het tot in de mainstream geschopt heeft, en dat is voor het genre vrij bijzonder. Het favoriete piratennummer op GSHQ is trouwens 'Ach zat ik maar in het Walhalla' van Peter Schoonhoven, maar dat heeft verder weinig met Jannes te maken.

Vrijdag 15.30 uur Megatent - Drukwerk

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Ergens op GHSQ hangt een Drukwerk-sticker (zo'n rode pet) en hoewel deze lui vaker op de Zwarte Cross te zien zijn geweest (en wij ook al vaker hebben getipt) is dit wel het moment om te kijken als u dat nog niet hebt gedaan. Het dak gaat eraf, en bovendien is Harry Slinger behandeld tegen darmkanker, en is het te hopen dat het dak er nog vaker af mag gaan.

Vrijdag 20.30 The Bayou - Eli 'Paperboy' Reed

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Mooi en knap en goed dat er een artiest van het kaliber Eli 'Paperboy' Reed naar de Zwarte Cross komt en hoewel qua genre niet helemaal geschikt voor Hoofdpodium of Megatent wel een knaller van een naam, met schurende blues, swingende soul en dansbare funk, waar u dan maar eens lekker vooraan moet gaan staan om de voetjes van de vloer te trekken. In The Bayou, wat sowieso uw favoriete tent zal zijn, samen met de Roadhouse, lekker heen en weer hobbelen en een prachtige hoeveelheid bier naar binnen peren.

Vrijdag 21.30 uur Dansvloer - Theodor Nabuurs

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Prachtig voorbeeld van hoe je een totale idioot kan zijn, achterlijke muziek kan maken, jezelf opnieuw kan uitvinden en zowaar weer gerespecteerd kan worden door iedereen in het vak. Mental Theo is natuurlijk bekend van die heppie de peppie happy hardcore, de moordenaars van de ECHTE hardcore, en met die Lownoise staat-ie elders ook op de Cross. Daarna ging-ie met TMF in Lloret de Mar shotjes drinken uit navels van meiden van 16 en heeft hij waarschijnlijk meer gevreeën dan u überhaupt vrouwen in uw leven hebt gezien. Als Theodor Nabuurs maakt-ie van die naar acid ruikende snoeitechno die dan wél weer de moeite waard is. Pilletje Grolsch erbij en gaan.

Vrijdag 23.30 uur Tiroler Tent - Die Lustigen Moeflons

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Slaat natuurlijk helemaal nergens op, die Lustigen Moeflons, en die naam moet u ook niet te serieus nemen, het leven in het algemeen moet u niet te serieus nemen en daarom MOET u melden bij Die Lustigen Moeflons. Dit is namelijk uniek aan de Zwarte Cross: muziek van het allerhoogste niveau maar zonder (zoals ze bij Lowlands en DTRH enzo wel doen) pretentieus te zijn over de programmering: er moet genoeg ruimte overblijven voor gekkigheid, lolletjes, lachen, mensenmuziek, hoempapa. Nou ja, u kent het wel.

Zaterdag 23.00 uur Dansvloer - Darkraver

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Geen feest zonder de Darkraver, die knettergek is, maar wel een onmeunig mooie kerel. Staat altijd klaar voor praatje en foto en video en niet dat dat een aanbeveling is om er te kijken, dan is zijn knetterende hardcore met feestelement dat wel. Wie verzint dat nou?

Zondag 10.30 uur Megatent - Boh Foi Toch

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Achterhoeks erfgoed en hoewel die weigering om vorig jaar te spelen nogal flauw was - Hans Keuper en z'n mannen lieten zich iets te veel opnaaien door Amsterdamse ingewikkeldheden - zijn we dolblij dat ze weer terug zijn. Boh Foi Toch in de feesttent is een combinatie van de goden, zoals bier en jenever, en haring en uitjes, en pindakaas en hagelslag. Vroeger was dat bij Boh Foi Toch (poeh, het is ons wat!) dampen en stampen en høken en de tent afbreken, tegenwoordig gaat het met iets minder onbenullig geweld, al wordt maar zo gewelddadig als u het zelf maakt. Favoriete nummers van Mosterd: Landbouwwerktugenvereniging (hierboven) en De darde welt, wat toch weer zeer belerend is, maar ook gewoon een prachtig nummer.

Zondag 15.00 uur Megatent - TikTokTammo & Band

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Zingen kan onze favoriete oer-Groninger Tammo natuurlijk niet, hij zingt als een Groninger, en het Gronings is in Nederland het dialect van de liefde zoals Duits in Europa de taal van de liefde is. Maar een feest bouwen kan Tammo wel, in het oer-Gronings, en er lopen ook een boel Groninger boeren op de Cross. Zo zijn er in het voetbal ook meerdere boeren: die van FC Groningen, wat al een beetje raar is, die van PSV, wat helemaal raar is want die lui wonen schimmelige achterstandsbuurten in de grote stad (Woensel) en ze zijn opgegroeid in gloeilampfabrieken, en die van De Graafschap, de échte boeren, de Superboeren. Moj!

Zondag 17.30 uur Bayou - Albert Cummings

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Ha-ha hij zei Cum, Albert Cummings zelfs, bluesgigant met gierende gitaren en een box van 1.000 watt. Nu zijn we normaal gesproken meer fan van oldschool Delta Blues (Sonny Boy Williamson, Son House, WC Handy, Elmore James, enz.) dan van die overstuurde Joe Bonamassa Blankeboerenbeukblues die steevast van die Stratocasters staan uit te wonen, maar in dit genre van Texas Blues is dit een absolute gigant, niet alleen op z'n gitaar maar ook met z'n strot.

Zondag 18.00 uur Gaycafé De Kast - Slutpopdaddies

Geen flauw idee wat we hier moeten aantreffen maar een bezoek aan de Zwarte Cross is niet compleet zonder een bezoek aan de Kroegenstraat en een bezoek aan de Kroegenstraat is niet compleet zonder een bezoek aan gaycafé De Kast, waar u gewoon uzelf kan zijn, en waar iedereen zichzelf kan zijn, en iedereen elkaar gewoon met rust laat alsook in z'n waarde. Dus, als afsluiter, Slutpopdaddies, zien we elkaar.

Daar gaan we dan. Rijkswaterstaat, de waterschappen en alle andere waterhoofden van ons land spreken vanaf nu officieel van een FEITELIJK WATERTEKORT. Het ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat heeft opgeschaald naar droogteniveau 2, wat betekent dat er harde gemaakt gaan worden over wie er wel en geen water mogen gebruiken en waar water moet worden ingezet om dingen als VERZILTING VAN DE BODEM te voorkomen. Die droogte duurt nog wel ff, dus het wachten is op opschaling naar droogteniveau 3, waarbij er sprake is van een daadwerkelijke CRISIS. Drinkwater is vooralsnog niet in gevaar en we kunnen nog 10 jaar poepen, maar voor de zekerheid raden we toch aan om vooral bier te drinken en enkel nog te douchen in groepen van vijf of meer personen. Zin in NATTIGHEID nu.

The two British Scattered Spider members collared for carrying out the 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London (TfL) will each spend five and a half years in prison after being sentenced on Thursday. Owen Flowers, 18, and Thalha Jubair, 20, were sentenced to five years and six months' imprisonment each, having pleaded guilty in June, in turn receiving a 15 percent reduction in their sentences. Sentencing the pair at Woolwich Crown Court, Mr Justice Turner noted both cybercriminals' immaturity, but acknowledged the sophistication of the offending, the scale of the impact on TfL, the significant planning behind the attack, and that both knew the criminality of their actions. Mr Justice Turner further noted the age gap between the pair, and that the one year and four months Jubair has on Flowers "marks a potentially significant distinction in maturity." The judge also acknowledged both defendants' neurodiversity in passing the sentence, which he said was the most lenient, while still reflecting the seriousness of their offenses. Flowers and Jubair were described by authorities as members of Scattered Spider, the loosely connected group of English-speaking individual cybercriminals thought to be mostly young men aged 16-25. Scattered Spider has been one of the most prominent cybercrime groups of the past few years, claiming responsibility for major attacks such as those on MGM Resorts in 2023 and the attacks on British retail giants in 2025. The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the group presented the most significant cyber threat to the UK, and today's sentencing closes the book on the biggest prosecution of cyber offenders in UK history. NCA officials have continually refused to comment on whether Flowers or Jubair were linked in any way to other major attacks claimed by Scattered Spider. The sentencing marks only the second conviction under Section 3ZA of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA) – reserved for the most serious offenses. Section 3ZA covers unauthorized acts involving computers that cause, or create a significant risk of, serious damage, where the offender intends to cause that damage or is reckless as to whether it occurs. Flowers and Jubair pleaded guilty on the basis that their actions were reckless. The only previous 3ZA conviction came last year and involved a former GCHQ intern who was jailed for six years following a national security investigation. The NCA said there were no parallels between this case and the TfL attack. Deputy Director Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: "This is the largest cybercrime prosecution ever brought before the UK courts and the culmination of nearly two years of painstaking work by the NCA, CPS, and our policing partners. "Scattered Spider has been the most significant cybercrime threat to the UK in recent years. Through this investigation, we have severely disrupted that threat and brought key offenders to justice. "The attack on Transport for London caused significant financial harm and disruption to a vital part of the UK's critical infrastructure. These convictions would likely not have been possible had Transport for London not engaged with law enforcement early, so I would urge any other organization to please do the same in such circumstances. "We will continue working with partners in the UK and overseas to identify offenders and bring them to justice." Andy Lord, London's Transport Commissioner, said: "We welcome the news that two people charged in relation to the cyber incident which impacted our operations in 2024 have now been sentenced. "The security of our systems and customer data is extremely important to us, and we continually monitor our systems to ensure only those authorised can gain access and continue to take the necessary actions to protect TfL." How TfL attack unfolded Scattered Spider members are known for their phishing, voice phishing ("vishing"), and social engineering tactics to gain footholds in target networks, and TfL was no different. Flowers and Jubair purchased partial TfL credentials from "well-known criminal forums" and used those to reset the 2FA on employee accounts, a process that took multiple attempts. Woolwich Crown Court heard that the pair impersonated an employee and socially engineered a TfL helpdesk worker into resetting the password for their account. The pair gained access to TfL's network on August 31, 2024, and held on to that access until September 3. During this time, they worked to elevate their privileges and gain access to key internal systems, including databases containing information on what was originally thought to be only around 5,000 people. It wasn't until earlier this year that it became known that Scattered Spider actually gained access to around 7 million users' data. The attack had minimal disruption to the transport network in real terms, although the availability of several services suffered, such as account logins, customer portals, and third-party apps reliant on TfL data. TfL was not able to issue photo travel cards to Londoners until December 4, 2024. A limited number of ticket machines also malfunctioned as a result of the attack, and travelers paying by contactless card were unable to view their journey histories online. All of the organization's employees, around 28,000 of them, a considerable proportion of whom were allowed to work remotely, were summoned to TfL's offices to reset their passwords because of uncertainties around whether the attackers were still in the network. Although train and bus services were not affected, the costs associated with remediating the attack climbed to £29 million ($39 million). Several complexities The NCA said the investigation that led to today's sentencing was perhaps even more complicated than Operation Chronos, which crippled the once-dominant LockBit ransomware group. Bringing Flowers and Jubair to justice involved delicate management, owing to their ages, backgrounds, and neurodiversity. Flowers, for example, was known to UK law enforcement prior to the TfL attack, and investigating officers suspected his involvement from the outset, although he could not be named until September last year due to his age. The teenager was initially arrested on suspicion of his involvement in the TfL attack on September 6, 2024, at his three-bedroom home in Walsall, where he lived with his maternal grandmother and uncle. Officials say Flowers spent most of his time at home in his bedroom playing computer games and using chat forums, and was primarily motivated by gaining notoriety among cybercrime circles. He was charged and later released on bail conditions, which he breached twice in October 2024 and again in May 2025 after being handed a warning two months earlier. Before TfL, Flowers had committed lower-level computer offenses. He was visited by police in October 2023 and handed a cease-and-desist order, which officers hoped would deter the then-16-year-old from reoffending. Flowers was also offered training and given advice around CMA offences but officials say he did not want to engage in any of this. Between then and the TfL attack a year later, Flowers continued to commit offenses of increasing severity. The NCA's Foster said the proposed Cyber Crime Risk Orders, announced in the most recent King's Speech, could have enabled officers to arrest Flowers sooner and impose restrictions that could have better prevented possible reoffending. Existing powers, such as serious crime prevention orders, cannot be applied to offenders under the age of 18, and some CMA offenses do not meet the criteria for serious crime, leaving a gap in the police's ability to manage the risk of reoffending. "The proposed cybercrime risk orders would provide law enforcement with a proportionate preventative tool, similar in principle to sexual risk orders to impose conditions that help to protect the public and businesses whilst an investigation continues," said Foster. "Those conditions would be actively monitored, and any breach could result in criminal sanctions, including imprisonment, and that's regardless of whether the underlying investigation has concluded. "And I'd suggest that a Cyber Crime Risk Order, should one have been available to us, would have allowed us to arrest Flowers sooner, potentially acting on information provided by US or Australian partners." Both Flowers and Jubair have autism, and Jubair is also diagnosed as having depression and severe mood disorder. Like Flowers, Jubair was also previously known to UK police, principally due to his prior conviction in 2023 related to his involvement in the Lapsus$ crew that hacked the likes of BT/EE and Nvidia. During the proceedings, Jubair sat in court alongside fellow Lapsus$ member Arion Kurtaj, who BBC's Joe Tidy recently revealed is now awaiting trial after his indefinite hospital order ended. Under the age of 18 at the time, and therefore unable to be named publicly, Jubair received an 18-month youth rehabilitation order, which included a ban on using a VPN, but quickly began reoffending. Officials pointed to Jubair's reoffending as another example of why Cyber Crime Risk Orders are needed, since the existing legal mechanisms that limit the freedoms of criminals such as burglars and sexual predators are not effective for cyber offenders. Jubair lived in a two-bedroom apartment on the third floor of a 21-storey council block in Bow, London, with his two Bangladeshi parents, who both work as carers. He also faces charges further afield in the US, which were unsealed in September 2025. Acting through his Scattered Spider role, between May 2022 and September 2025, Jubair is accused of compromising 120 networks belonging to 47 US entities, including critical national infrastructure and the federal court system, which resulted in more than $115 million in ransom payments being transmitted. In the UK, Jubair has 22 previous convictions in total, including 13 for fraud and one for blackmail. He was also previously sentenced for stalking and harassing two young women online. His offending began when he was 14 years old, and officials said he had an interest in computers from an early age. Jubair, who was first arrested in February 2021, learned to code by age 13. He attended school in the Bow region of London, had a number of GCSE qualifications, and had attempted to enroll in local colleges. Arrests and evidence gathering Flowers' arrest was by far the more significant of the two in terms of collecting evidence linking the pair to the TfL attack. NCA officers arresting Flowers also seized a number of devices, including laptops, tower computers, and USB storage devices. The analysis of one Acer laptop, owned by Flowers, proved to be the pair’s undoing. Forensic analysis revealed that Flowers had accessed the remote infrastructure and virtual machines that were used to carry out the TfL attack. Damningly, officers also found videos and screenshots, produced by Flowers, depicting the TfL attack in progress. Woolwich Crown Court heard that the pair livestreamed the 16-hour attack online. They were able to tie the payment used for the remote infrastructure to a cryptocurrency account found on Flowers' computer and prove that the laptop was connected to this infrastructure at the time of the attack. Further, Flowers used the same cryptocurrency account to pay for food deliveries he ordered to his home address. The teen's computer stored spreadsheets containing partial credentials for TfL employees and contained evidence linking him to cyberattacks on US healthcare organizations SSM Health Care Corporation and Sutter Health. The same computer also contained artifacts linking the activity to Jubair. Officials said they had access to certain chat logs within which a specific moniker appeared frequently. They tied this alias to Jubair because it was the same one used to discuss specific flight bookings, hotel bookings, and food deliveries, all of which could clearly be linked to the 20-year-old. And Officers found evidence of a cloud storage account containing TfL data, to which Flowers and Jubair had access. Devices seized from Jubair revealed comparatively little, other than that he had shown an interest in TfL's systems as far back as 2022. ®

Climate tech venture capital had its strongest first half since 2022 as investors poured billions into low-carbon datacenters and projects needed to feed AI's seemingly endless appetite for compute. According to investment tracker Currence, climate tech startups pulled in $26.1 billion in venture funding during the first six months of 2026, up 55 percent year-over-year. However, that headline growth came with a catch: investors weren't backing the climate sector broadly so much as pouring money into the infrastructure underpinning the AI boom. Low-carbon datacenter developers alone accounted for 34 percent of all climate venture funding, up from just 3 percent a year earlier, with DayOne's $4.5 billion and Nscale's $2 billion Series C rounds making up roughly a quarter of all investment between them. As a result, the "built environment" category grew by more than eight times, overtaking "energy" as climate tech's largest investment vertical. That shift is so dramatic that Currence has effectively rewritten the boundaries of climate tech itself. The firm says climate tech is "a bigger space than it was six years ago," pointing to datacenters as drivers for long-duration energy storage, advanced nuclear, geothermal power, robotics, and even space-based solar. It now counts datacenter developers that rely primarily on clean power or make sustainability central to their business, while excluding conventional facilities and chipmakers. "Datacenter development is a crowded space, but in the speed-to-power race, clean firm generation can be a distinct advantage," the report notes, arguing that developers are increasingly judged on their "route to power" as much as their racks and real estate. The ripple effects stretch well beyond datacenters, according to Currence. Investors are writing large early stage checks to nuclear startups years before they're expected to generate electricity, betting AI's long-term appetite for power will eventually justify today's valuations, while Earth observation funding has tripled as developers seek larger stores of real-world data to train AI models. Robotics startups developing foundational models, training data, and simulation platforms also raised nearly four times as much as the next biggest innovation category. Carbon-related equity funding was one of the few categories to decline sharply, falling 61 percent to its weakest first half since 2020, while money poured into the technologies supporting the AI buildout. The narrowing focus showed up elsewhere too. Overall deal count fell 25 percent even as funding surged, with the ten largest rounds accounting for 42 percent of all investment. Currence says the concentration of capital in huge datacenter and energy projects is pushing climate venture funding closer to infrastructure finance. The report may be about climate tech, but the money is following AI infrastructure: datacenters, power generation, grid capacity, and anything else that might keep the compute boom switched on. ®