Germany’s unemployment numbers rose this month, as major firms intensify plans to rejig their workforces in an uncertain economic environment, the Wall Street Journal reported. Seasonally adjusted jobless claims climbed by 34,000 in May, accelerating from the 6,000 increase in April, according to data from Germany’s Federal Employment Agency published Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected a smaller increase of 14,000. Germany’s adjusted unemployment rate, however, held at 6.3%, matching consensus.

Russia’s successes on the front lines in Ukraine are a big reason why Vladimir Putin isn’t yet ready to sign up to President Trump’s peace efforts. Some of his neighbors fear the success of the war machine now driving its economy means he never will, the Wall Street Journal reported. In the early stages of the war, the Russian president put the country on a footing for a long conflict. Putin retooled the economy to churn out record numbers of tanks and howitzers, while using sizable signing bonuses of up to a year’s salary to raise a massive army.

Yurtel, based in Corsham, Wiltshire, has revealed that it has gone bankrupt, meaning that all bookings will not be fulfilled after it ceased trading on May 8, the County Gazette reported. Yurtel have previously supplied accommodation for people who visit Glastonbury Festival since 2005, prices for hospitality tickets and accommodation packages from the Yurtel company ranged from £10,000 up to £16,500 for this year's festival.

French inflation cooled more than expected this month, opening the door to an expected European Central Bank interest-rate cut next week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 0.6% higher on year in May, down from 0.9% in April, according to EU-harmonized figures published Tuesday by France’s statistics agency Insee. The print gives the first indication of inflation among major eurozone economies. German and Spanish inflation data due on Friday are also expected to have shown declines in May.

Ownership of The Daily Telegraph, the storied British newspaper long considered close to the country’s Conservative Party, is poised to change — again, the New York Times reported. RedBird Capital Partners, an American investment firm, said on Friday that it had reached an agreement in principle to buy control of the newspaper’s parent company, Telegraph Media Group, at a valuation of 500 million pounds, or about $675 million.

Swedish automotive battery maker Northvolt, which declared bankruptcy in March, plans to wind down its remaining battery cell production in the Nordic country by the end of June, its trustee said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in Sweden on March 12, making it one of the country's largest corporate failures and effectively ending Europe's best hope of developing a rival to challenge China.

When Builder.ai was seeking an emergency loan in 2024, the start-up gave lenders a revenue forecast that proved to be four times its actual sales, Bloomberg News reported. A group of creditors, led by Israeli firm Viola Credit, were originally told that Builder.ai projected sales of US$220 million (S$284 million) for 2024, the people said. The company later disclosed that the actual revenue amount for the year turned out to be about US$50 million. That revelation was one of the factors that ultimately led the lenders to seize most of the UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) start-up’s cash.