Paramount Skydance‘s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery hit its first official roadblock when a judge granted a temporary restraining order on the merger as part of a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general.

California District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín signed off on the order Monday after hearing arguments from both sides in an Oakland courtroom on Friday. The order puts a 14-day pause on anything moving forward with the merger.

Paramount didn’t immediately return a request for comment on Monday. Warner Bros. declined to comment.

Last week, a group of state attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit seeking to block the $110 billion acquisition due to antitrust concerns. The proposed deal would unite the storied film studios of Paramount and Warner Bros, the CBS broadcast network, a sprawling portfolio of pay TV networks that includes CNN, TNT, MTV and BET, and streaming services Paramount+ and HBO Max, under one roof.

The lawsuit said that the proposed deal would violate the Clayton Antitrust Act — a more than 100-year-old law that prohibits anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions. The lawsuit was brought by a group of states that also includes Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.

In Monday’s order, Martínez-Olguín said the coalition of state attorneys general presented “compelling evidence that the combined firm resulting from the transaction will possess substantial market share in the wide-release theatrical distribution market.”

Paramount’s lead trial counsel Jeffrey Kessler said on CNBC earlier this week that the TRO was filed after Paramount indicated its intention was to close the deal as early as July 22, when the company expects to have all regulatory clearances.

During Friday’s hearing, Paramount attorneys offered to delay the deal closing until mid-August to sidestep a temporary restraining order.

The states could seek another temporary restraining order after the 14 days, or a preliminary injunction, which would further delay the deal.

Another proposed media deal — the $6.2 billion tie up of broadcast station group owners Nexstar Media Group and Tegna — has been put on pause following a similar lawsuit and preliminary injunction that was granted by a U.S. court. A trial for the lawsuit, which is also being led by Bonta, is set to begin in mid-2027.

The Paramount-WBD deal has been under review by the European Union and the U.K., which provided a new provisional deadline of July 22.

The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice signed off on the tie-up in June, clearing it of federal concerns. It has also won approval from several global jurisdictions.

Paramount has said it’s on track to close the deal by the end of September.

If the deal were to be delayed beyond then, Paramount could face additional costs, namely a so-called ticking fee that kicks in if it’s not closed after Sept. 30. The fee would be an additional 25 cents paid to WBD shareholders per quarter until closing — which would equal about $650 million in cash value per quarter.

Paramount also agreed to a $7 billion breakup fee if the deal does move forward due to regulatory concerns.

Bonta called the merger unlawful and said it would “lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.”

The states that brought the lawsuit against the deal said they believe that the merged entity would control nearly one-third of films and nearly a third of basic cable TV programming.

Paramount has defended the deal as “pro-competitive.”

In court papers filed on Thursday, Paramount said the temporary restraining order “presents one of the weakest merger challenges in modern antitrust history.”

The company said the deal would “produce more high-quality content for consumers; it will incentivize investment in job-creating film production; it will stabilize basic cable television (which is gravely threatened by cord cutting); and it will increase the output of theatrical releases in a challenged entertainment landscape.”

— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten and Stephen Desaulniers contributed to this article.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing cancer care, with researchers developing tools that could help identify some of the deadliest cancers much earlier than doctors can on their own.

Dr. Peter A. Najjar, a surgeon and Johns Hopkins Health System’s clinical innovation vice president, joined FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” to discuss how artificial intelligence is already helping researchers improve cancer detection, speed up drug development and make patient care more efficient, while stressing that more real-world evidence is still needed before its full impact can be measured.

Najjar pointed to recent research involving pancreatic cancer, saying artificial intelligence models are helping researchers recognize patterns that would otherwise take physicians decades of experience to identify.

AI-powered analysis of CT scans is showing promise in helping doctors detect deadly cancers earlier, giving patients more treatment options. (gorodenkoff / Getty Images)

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer because it is often diagnosed after it has already spread beyond the pancreas. According to the American Cancer Society, the overall five-year relative survival rate is just 13%. But when pancreatic cancer is detected before it spreads outside the pancreas, the five-year survival rate increases to 44%.

The disease has claimed the lives of several well-known public figures, including Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died from a rare form of pancreatic cancer; actor Patrick Swayze, known for his role in “Dirty Dancing”; and beloved “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, underscoring the devastating toll of a disease that is often difficult to detect in its earliest stages.

“Researchers were able to identify signs of pancreatic cancer up to 16 months ahead of human readers,” Najjar said. “Detection always allows us more treatment options.”

Beyond early detection, Najjar said artificial intelligence is also accelerating drug discovery by allowing scientists to test potential treatments using computer models before moving into laboratory testing.

HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE

“Many cancer treatments are around figuring out which molecule binds to the right protein for a given cancer,” Najjar said, explaining that AI “dramatically speeds up drug development.”

While the technology has generated enormous excitement, Najjar cautioned against overstating its current capabilities.

“We absolutely need to move full speed ahead to bring this promise to our patients in the clinic,” he said. “But it is still very early days.”

For now, one of artificial intelligence’s most immediate benefits is improving the patient experience. Najjar said AI-powered medical scribes can organize records before appointments and automatically document visits, allowing physicians to spend less time typing and more time focused on their patients.

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Goalhanger, the independent British production company behind The Rest Is Football, has converted a 40-day World Cup experiment into a two-year deal with Netflix, in a move that offers a masterclass for any UK business looking to punch above its weight with a global partner.

The show, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, will return to Netflix for the 2026/27 Premier League season after a daily run filmed in New York during the 2026 FIFA World Cup made it one of the streamer’s hits of the summer.

The numbers explain why Netflix came back for more. The series appeared in Netflix’s Daily Top 10 TV chart every day of its 40-day run, peaking at No. 1 in the UK. The podcast itself, one of the world’s biggest sports shows, draws over 7 million monthly streams.

The extended deal takes the partnership through to the next Euros, held across the UK and Ireland in 2028. New episodes air on Netflix from August 2026, every Monday and Friday, with the three hosts appearing throughout the full 40 weeks of the Premier League and Champions League season.

A trial run, converted

For SME owners, the structure of the deal is as instructive as its scale. Goalhanger, which also produces The Rest Is History and The Rest Is Politics, used the World Cup as a proving ground, demonstrated demand with daily chart data, then negotiated a longer contract from a position of strength. Crucially, the company remains the producer, keeping control of the brand it built.

It is the same playbook behind Goalhanger’s new venture arm backing creator-led media businesses: own the intellectual property, own the audience relationship, and let the platforms compete for your content rather than the other way round.

Tony Pastor, Co-Founder of Goalhanger, said: “We launched The Rest Is Football after the last World Cup, and it’s incredible to see how far the show has come in such a short space of time. We began from such a strong position because Gary, Alan and Micah are genuinely close friends who talk about football together constantly. The aim was to capture that warmth, wit and energy, and make listeners feel part of the conversation.

“Netflix allowed us to preserve everything that makes the show special: sometimes serious, frequently hilarious, but always genuine and warm. We’re delighted that Netflix has enjoyed working with the show this summer and has chosen to extend the partnership for a further two years.”

Keeping the core business running

Notably, the podcast is not being sacrificed for the streaming deal. Goalhanger is running both in parallel, protecting the audience that made the show valuable in the first place, a discipline familiar to any founder who has diversified without abandoning their core revenue line. The show has form here, with record-breaking releases such as the Marcus Rashford interview drawing 1.4 million streams in 48 hours.

Gary Lineker said: “We had a brilliant time making the show during the World Cup, and the response was incredible, so it’s great to be back on Netflix every week throughout the Premier League season. The Rest Is Football podcast will continue across the week too, while the Netflix show gives us another chance to get stuck into the biggest stories. Expect plenty of opinions, plenty of laughs and, with Alan and Micah involved, probably a few arguments as well.”

The deal lands as linear television’s biggest names continue their flight to streaming and YouTube, with Ofcom’s Media Nations research charting the steady migration of UK viewing away from broadcast schedules. Netflix carried the show globally during the World Cup, included in all plans.

For Britain’s independent producers, the message is clear: build something audiences genuinely want, prove it with data, and even the world’s biggest platforms will come to you.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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I3 Broadband customers began reporting widespread connectivity problems starting around 9:50 a.m. Eastern time Monday, according to outage-tracking service Downdetector, marking the second time in recent weeks that the regional internet provider has experienced a notable spike in user-reported service disruptions.

Downdetector flagged the surge in complaints in a post on X shortly after 9:50 a.m., using the hashtag #I3BroadbandDown and asking affected customers to share details about how the outage was impacting their service. The post had accumulated more than 2,600 views within a short window, reflecting a meaningful level of customer concern surrounding the disruption.

A provider with a history of intermittent outages

Monday’s reported issues follow a similar spike in complaints recorded on July 10, when user reports on Downdetector first began surging around 11:34 a.m. Eastern time, according to community discussion threads tracking the earlier incident. That pattern suggests I3 Broadband has experienced at least two notable service disruptions within the span of roughly ten days, though the company had not issued public statements addressing either incident as of the time of this report.

Beyond these two more recent spikes, other outage-tracking platforms have documented a longer history of intermittent, localized service issues affecting I3 Broadband customers in various markets. User-submitted reports collected by tracking site Downhunter describe outages lasting anywhere from roughly an hour to nearly seven hours in different instances, with affected customers located in various towns served by the company, including reports from communities in Missouri and Illinois. One user reported an outage lasting close to seven hours, while separately raising questions about compensation for the extended service interruption.

What is known about I3 Broadband

I3 Broadband operates as a regional fiber internet service provider, delivering high-speed, multi-gigabit broadband connectivity along with home Wi-Fi and business connectivity services across select U.S. markets. As a regional fiber provider rather than a large national carrier, I3 Broadband’s infrastructure and customer base are more geographically concentrated than those of major national internet service providers, meaning localized outages can nonetheless affect a meaningful share of the company’s overall customer base within specific communities.

As of publication, I3 Broadband had not issued an official statement confirming the cause, scope, or expected resolution timeline for Monday’s reported outage. Outage-tracking services like Downdetector rely primarily on real-time, crowdsourced reports from affected users rather than direct confirmation from the companies involved, meaning the true scale of a given disruption can sometimes take additional time to become fully clear.

How outage tracking works

Services like Downdetector and similar platforms aggregate user-submitted reports and, in some cases, combine that data with proprietary web-scanning technology designed to actively test a company’s response times and service availability. This approach allows these platforms to detect potential issues earlier, sometimes before they become widespread enough to generate a large volume of individual user complaints. When report volumes exceed a service’s typical baseline for a given time of day and region, tracking platforms flag the activity as a potential outage, even in cases where the affected company has not yet issued any public acknowledgment of a problem.

What affected customers should do

Customers experiencing connectivity problems during a suspected outage are generally advised to first check whether the issue is isolated to their specific location or device, such as by restarting a modem or router, before assuming a broader service-wide outage is underway. If problems persist despite basic troubleshooting steps, customers are typically encouraged to consult the outage-tracking platforms directly or reach out to I3 Broadband’s customer service channels for updates on the scope and expected duration of any confirmed disruption.

For customers relying on stable internet access for time-sensitive needs, such as remote work obligations or scheduled video calls, repeated or extended outages can carry meaningful practical consequences, a concern echoed in past user reports describing missed appointments and video calls during previous I3 Broadband service disruptions.

A broader pattern among regional providers

Monday’s reported outage adds to a growing list of connectivity disruptions affecting regional and smaller-scale internet service providers across the country in recent months, as increasing reliance on high-speed broadband for remote work, video conferencing and everyday household needs has made even brief service interruptions increasingly disruptive for affected customers. Regional fiber providers like I3 Broadband, which serve more geographically limited markets compared with larger national carriers, can sometimes face particular scrutiny from their customer base during outages, given the more concentrated and interconnected nature of their service areas.

As of this report, I3 Broadband had not provided further public details regarding the specific cause of Monday’s outage or an estimated timeline for full service restoration. Customers experiencing ongoing connectivity issues are encouraged to monitor the company’s official communications channels, along with continued updates from outage-tracking services such as Downdetector, for the latest information as the situation develops. This story may be updated should I3 Broadband issue an official statement addressing the cause and resolution of Monday’s reported service disruption.

Melanie “Mel C” Chisholm, best known as Sporty Spice from the Spice Girls, has married model Chris Dingwall, wearing dresses designed by her longtime friend and former bandmate Victoria Beckham across two separate wedding ceremonies held on opposite sides of the world.

The couple first married in a legal ceremony in Australia, Dingwall’s home country, before holding a second ceremony at a friend’s lakeside property in Cumbria, England, on July 18. Both wedding looks were designed by Beckham, whose involvement came together through a chance dinner conversation just days before Chisholm departed for the Australian leg of the celebrations.

A last-minute favor between old friends

Beckham described how the dress arrangement came about in an interview with British Vogue published July 19. “I was actually having dinner with Melanie and asked her what she was up to,” Beckham said. “She very casually told me she was leaving for Australia in two days and getting married!”

According to Beckham, Chisholm had already ordered one of her designs for the occasion but ran into a last-minute problem. “When I asked what she was wearing, she mentioned she had actually ordered one of my dresses but that it didn’t quite fit, and she didn’t have time to get it altered before leaving,” Beckham said. “I happened to have that exact dress in my own wardrobe and offered to lend it to her.”

From a borrowed dress to a custom design

The dress that traveled to Australia with the couple was an ivory slip dress, which Chisholm wore for the Australian ceremony. When the time came for the second ceremony in Cumbria, Beckham took the opportunity to go further, transforming the simpler design into something more elaborate for what Chisholm described as a low-key, relaxed, romantic and chic lakeside celebration.

Reflecting on having Beckham’s design as part of her wedding, Chisholm offered a nod to a familiar wedding tradition. “Victoria’s dress was my something borrowed,” Chisholm said. “It was very special, having her there.”

How the couple met

Chisholm, 52, and Dingwall first connected on the dating app Raya roughly three years ago before meeting in person for their first date in Australia. Chisholm described an immediate connection between them. “The spark was immediate,” she said. “I was 49 when I met Chris and I was in a really good place. We had a date in Australia, and it’s been difficult to separate us ever since.”

Chisholm is also mother to a 17-year-old daughter, Scarlett Starr, from a previous relationship with ex-partner Thomas Starr.

A surprise proposal in Mallorca

Dingwall proposed to Chisholm while the couple was vacationing in Mallorca last July, a moment Chisholm said caught her completely off guard despite how naturally their relationship had developed. “It was beautiful, just the two of us,” she recalled. “He couldn’t believe I was surprised but I was floored.”

Even though she hadn’t anticipated the proposal in the moment, Chisholm said her decision to accept came easily. “I just knew immediately it was the right thing to do,” she said, reflecting on a broader sense of self-assurance she has found later in life. “I’ve had this awakening in my 50s—I’m very comfortable in my skin. I thought, you know what, this is a part of my story. When you’re my age you’re like… I actually want to experience all of the things.”

Part of a broader wave of 2026 celebrity weddings

Chisholm and Dingwall’s wedding joins a lengthy list of celebrity marriages that have taken place throughout 2026. Among the most high-profile was the wedding of pop star Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who married in a star-studded ceremony at Madison Square Garden on July 3, with roughly 1,000 guests in attendance, including officiant Adam Sandler, and custom Dior looks designed by Jonathan Anderson.

Other notable 2026 celebrity weddings included supermodel Paulina Porizkova’s marriage to television writer Jeff Greenstein in Italy, held in front of 100 close friends and family members three years after the couple matched on a dating app. The pair described their celebration in a statement to Vogue, saying they were warmed by feeling they had gotten exactly the wedding they wanted, and exactly the partner they had always dreamed of.

Additional celebrity unions this year included “The Vampire Diaries” alum Paul Wesley’s marriage to Natalie Kuckenberg, country singer Lainey Wilson’s wedding to former NFL quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges in Tennessee, and “The Boys” co-stars Jack Quaid and Claudia Doumit, who married in Australia and confirmed the news during a June appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

A relationship marked by longevity within the Spice Girls circle

Chisholm’s wedding also underscores the enduring friendship between the members of the Spice Girls, one of the best-selling girl groups in music history, more than two decades after the group first rose to global fame in the late 1990s. Beckham, who performed in the group as Posh Spice, has continued to build a prominent career as a fashion designer since the band’s height, making her direct involvement in Chisholm’s wedding wardrobe a meaningful full-circle moment linking the group’s pop culture legacy to Beckham’s ongoing work in the fashion industry.

With both ceremonies now complete, Chisholm and Dingwall’s wedding closes out a significant personal chapter for the Spice Girls star, whose international two-part celebration, spanning Australia and England, reflects both the couple’s transcontinental relationship and Chisholm’s continued close bond with her former bandmate more than 25 years after the group first became a global phenomenon.

North East Chamber of Commerce CEO John McCabe has written to Andy Burnham to congratulate him on his new role

The leader of the North East’s biggest business membership group has called upon new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to help unlock better outcomes for regional communities. North East Chamber of Commerce CEO John McCabe has sent a letter to Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP on behalf of members to congratulate him on his new role as UK PM.

And the letter urges the Government to commit to six practical actions to unlock the full potential of the North East and help build a stronger, fairer and more competitive United Kingdom.

The Chamber, which has 1,800 members, says the action points align with its Unlocking the North East Economy policy plan and are centred around skills, net zero and energy security, connectivity, exporting, healthier communities and inclusive growth.

In the letter, Mr McCabe tells how the Chamber welcomes the PM’s ambition to establish a ‘No. 10 of the North’ and hope it becomes a genuine gateway into Government for businesses, communities and leaders from every part of the North, building on the success of Darlington Economic Campus.

He says: “Working alongside North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, we have shown how business and devolved leaders can work together to unlock investment and deliver better outcomes for our communities. We encourage your government to build on this approach by giving mayoral combined authorities the long-term funding certainty and flexibility they need to drive investment, improve productivity and support good growth across every region.

“Businesses continue to face significant pressures following increases in employer National Insurance contributions, the National Living Wage, inflation and energy costs. More than ever, employers need confidence, certainty and stability to invest, recruit, innovate and grow.

“The North East is a region of ingenuity, creativity and resilience. We are home to world class advanced manufacturers, internationally successful exporters, pioneering clean energy industries, leading universities and Further Education colleges and ambitious entrepreneurs. We stand ready to work with your government to help deliver the good growth that you have rightly placed at the heart of your agenda.

“The North, including the North East, stands ready to play an even greater role in our nation’s success. Our employers want to work with your government to invest, innovate, trade and create opportunity. Together, we can unlock the full potential of our region, strengthen the wider North and build a more prosperous, inclusive and internationally competitive United Kingdom.”

Meanwhile, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness called upon the new Prime Minister to hand greater powers to regions, allowing local leaders can do more to tackle the cost of living, create jobs and improve opportunities for young people.

In a letter, Ms McGuinness says she wants greater devolution, to give regions the capability to deliver faster action and tangible results to help local people.

In the letter, she states: “The people of the North East are incredibly proud of their local identity. We have a strong record of working together to get things done. If the people here begin to see more of their hometown improving, their bills coming down and their children finding opportunity close to home, they won’t simply believe in devolution. They’ll believe politics can work again.

“You are the first prime minister in British history who genuinely believes in using devolution to tear down the barriers to local growth. If we get this right, we will finally show people what take back control looks like. The North East is ready to work with you on this.”

Shares of IREN Limited surged 17.02%, or $5.72, to $39.34 Monday morning, as the Australian AI cloud infrastructure company raised its year-end revenue target following a wave of new multiyear customer contracts, snapping a weeks-long losing streak for the volatile stock.

IREN, formerly known as Iris Energy and in the midst of transitioning from a Bitcoin mining company into a vertically integrated AI cloud infrastructure provider, said it now expects more than $4 billion in annualized run-rate revenue by the end of the year, up from its previous target of $3.7 billion. The company attributed the upward revision to new customer contracts secured with leading AI developers.

New contracts drive the upgraded outlook

According to reporting from Benzinga, the higher revenue target follows approximately $2.8 billion in new multiyear customer contracts, adding to what the company describes as a growing pipeline of demand that continues to exceed IREN’s currently available and planned data center capacity. IREN said it remains actively engaged across its 2026 and 2027 expansion pipeline as it works to scale infrastructure to meet that demand.

Notably, the newly announced contracts include customer prepayments covering roughly 45% of the associated GPU capital costs, a structure that helps reduce IREN’s near-term funding requirements as it continues building out its infrastructure footprint. The contracts carry a weighted average term of approximately four years, reflecting sustained long-term demand from both hyperscale cloud providers and enterprise customers seeking dedicated AI computing capacity.

A volatile stretch for the stock

Monday’s rally arrives after a particularly difficult period for IREN shares, which had finished lower in 19 of the previous 22 trading sessions amid a broader rotation out of AI infrastructure and so-called “neocloud” stocks. The shares had fallen roughly 17% just last week alone, part of a steeper decline that saw the stock drop more than 40% over the trailing month and nearly 19% over the trailing week, even as the stock remained up substantially, by as much as 147.89%, over the trailing 12 months.

Heading into Monday’s session, IREN’s 14-day Relative Strength Index had fallen deep into oversold territory at a reading of 30, according to Schaeffer’s Investment Research, a technical signal that some traders interpreted as suggesting the stock was due for a rebound, potentially amplified by a short squeeze among traders who had bet against the shares during the recent decline. Monday’s rally brought the stock’s year-to-date performance back to roughly breakeven, following a run earlier this year that had briefly pushed shares toward $70 before a sharp subsequent reversal.

A broader transformation into AI infrastructure

IREN’s strategic pivot from Bitcoin mining toward AI cloud services has been central to the stock’s dramatic swings throughout 2026. The company’s AI Cloud Services revenue grew 94.2% quarter-over-quarter during its fiscal third quarter, even as the company has deliberately wound down portions of its legacy Bitcoin mining operations to focus more heavily on AI infrastructure.

That transformation has been underpinned by several major partnerships and acquisitions. IREN has secured a $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft and a $3.4 billion, five-year contract with Nvidia covering deployment of Blackwell-generation GPUs through IREN’s AI Cloud platform. As part of that broader partnership, Nvidia also holds the right to purchase up to 30 million IREN shares at $70 per share. The company additionally closed its acquisition of Spain-based Nostrum Group, adding approximately 490 megawatts of secured grid power capacity along with a development pipeline and a data center team of more than 50 employees to IREN’s overall platform.

IREN has also continued to strengthen its leadership team amid the expansion, recently appointing Eric Hammersley as chief information security officer and elevating its chief capital officer to also assume the role of chief financial officer, expanding oversight of the company’s financial operations, reporting and strategic planning as it scales its infrastructure buildout.

Wall Street remains broadly bullish despite the volatility

Despite the stock’s sharp swings, several Wall Street analysts have maintained bullish outlooks on IREN. Jefferies initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating and a price target of $79, citing the company’s substantial powered land bank and vertically integrated GPU cloud strategy as key structural advantages within the broader AI infrastructure market. Macquarie has maintained an Outperform rating with a $90 price target, while Freedom Broker recently upgraded the stock to Buy with a $58 target. The average analyst price target across covering firms currently stands at approximately $79.11, implying substantial potential upside from Monday’s trading levels even after the day’s sharp gains.

As of June 30, IREN reported approximately $7.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, providing the company with meaningful financial flexibility as it continues funding its capital-intensive AI infrastructure expansion.

With IREN’s next scheduled financial update expected around August 27, investors are likely to continue closely monitoring the company’s progress toward its newly raised $4 billion annualized run-rate revenue target, along with further updates on its expanding data center capacity and additional customer contract announcements. Given the stock’s history of sharp swings tied to sentiment around the broader AI infrastructure trade, IREN shares are likely to remain a closely watched, high-volatility name within the sector heading into the second half of 2026.

UK businesses are being asked to cut the carbon footprint of workforce travel while the information they need to do it arrives after the room has already been booked, new research suggests.

Just one in four (24 per cent) UK business decision-makers can easily compare carbon data before booking workforce accommodation, according to workforce travel management platform Roomex. A further 33 per cent can see the information for only some of the available options, while 38 per cent receive it after the booking or not at all.

The findings, published in Roomex’s The Accommodation Visibility Gap report, point to a quietly absurd state of affairs: many firms are dutifully measuring accommodation emissions after employees have travelled, yet lack the data to reduce them at the moment it would actually make a difference.

For the trades, construction firms, engineers and field service businesses that keep mobile teams on the road, this is not a fringe concern. Workforce accommodation is essential or important to 71 per cent of organisations, enabling workers to reach sites, projects and customers.

Carbon rarely tops the checklist

The research is refreshingly honest about where carbon sits in the pecking order. Cost, location, availability or project urgency take priority over carbon impact in 85 per cent of organisations at least some of the time.

Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) say bookers need approval, or simply cannot select a lower-carbon option, if it costs more, is further from the worksite or both.

That will ring true for owner-managers already juggling tight margins. But the pressure to account for travel emissions is not going away. With tougher sustainability reporting rules approaching, larger customers are increasingly pushing carbon disclosure requirements down their supply chains, and smaller firms that cannot produce credible numbers risk losing out on contracts.

Keith Watson, president at Roomex, said: “Businesses are being asked to reduce the carbon impact of workforce travel without always having the information they need to do it. The research shows that carbon data is often missing, difficult to compare, or only available after accommodation has been booked. By that point, the decision has already been made.

“Businesses need clear, comparable carbon information while they are weighing up cost, location and availability. That allows them to choose a lower-carbon option where it works for the job.”

Measured after, decided before

The report calls on businesses to connect accommodation search, booking, approval and reporting data, so that carbon can be considered before a room is booked rather than only totted up afterwards.

The problem echoes a wider pattern. Research has repeatedly shown that most UK SMEs do not know their business carbon emissions, and the travel sector has only recently begun producing more accurate carbon calculations for journeysthat let firms compare options with confidence.

Hotel stays count as Scope 3 emissions under greenhouse gas accounting, and the government publishes official conversion factors for company reporting that include a figure per room per night. But averages after the fact are no substitute for comparable numbers at the point of booking.

Roomex helps businesses centralise workforce accommodation booking, improve cost control and bring reporting into one place. Through its partnership with SQUAKE, it also supports CO2e estimates for accommodation, allowing organisations to view carbon impact alongside the practical information used to manage stays.

For SME owners, the takeaway is simple enough. Nobody expects carbon to trump cost on every job. But if the data only turns up once the invoice does, greener choices were never really on the table.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

Driehaus Capital Management LLC is a privately held investment management boutique based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1982, the firm manages active equity and alternative investment strategies on behalf of institutional investors. To promote diversification, DCM offers strategies across: US Growth Equities, Life Sciences, International Growth Equities, Emerging Markets Equities and Global Equities. Note: This account is not managed or monitored by Driehaus Capital Management, and any messages sent via Seeking Alpha will not receive a response. For inquiries or communication, please use the firm’s official channels.