Financial Times:
Sources: Stockholm-based AI-powered app builder Lovable is set to raise $150M+ led by Accel at a ~$1.8B valuation, as VCs rush to back “vibe coding” startups  —  Two-year-old group nears more than $150mn in new funding as investors swarm around AI coding businesses

Wall Street Journal:
Chinese AI models from DeepSeek and others are becoming more popular worldwide; Sensor Tower: ChatGPT has 910M global downloads compared with DeepSeek's 125M  —  Chinese AI models are becoming more popular worldwide, testing American superiority  —  Chinese artificial-intelligence companies …

George Hammond / Financial Times:
VC firms Thrive Capital and General Catalyst deploy private equity's “roll-up” strategy; Khosla Ventures, Bessemer, 8VC, and others are also exploring roll-ups  —  Thrive Capital's backing of Savvy Wealth is part of growing effort to fund groups that go on to buy similar companies

Bloomberg:
Internal emails and audit reports warned that the Schengen Information System II, used by EU border forces, was rife with software and security vulnerabilities  —  An information-sharing system used by EU border forces to flag illegal immigrants and suspected criminals in real time was rife …

Danielle Popov / South China Morning Post:
TikTok launches TikTok Shop in Japan, marking the e-commerce platform's 17th market, following launches in the US, the UK, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and more  —  TikTok has launched its e-commerce platform in Japan, enabling users to directly buy products featured in videos …