The top photos of the day by AP's photojournalists

June 9, 2025

From front-page news to powerful moments you may have missed, this gallery showcases today’s top photos chosen by Associated Press photo editors.

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A boy runs with a goat meant for sacrifice during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Muslim worshippers gather for Eid al-Adha prayer in the mixed Arab Jewish city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Nicole Scherzinger accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical for "Sunset Blvd." during the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

The cast and crew of "Maybe Happy Ending" accept the award for best musical for during the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Pilgrims light candles at the shrine of El Rocio near Aznalcázar, Spain, on Saturday June 7, 2025, during the annual pilgrimage in which hundreds of thousands of devotees of the Virgin del Rocio converge in and around the shrine. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus sits on the bench while waiting for the trophy ceremony after losing the final match of the French Tennis Open to Coco Gauff of the U.S. at the Roland-Garros stadium in Paris, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Coco Gauff of the U.S. celebrates as she won the final match of the French Tennis Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus at the Roland-Garros stadium in Paris, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Participants carry a large pride flag during the World Pride parade with the U.S. Capitol in the background, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Participants get covered with colored powder during The Color Run in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

A protester throws a scooter at a police vehical near the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A police officer fires a soft round near the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

A Palestinian girl runs past the ruins of destroyed buildings along the Gaza City shoreline on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza hold photos depicting the faces of Israeli hostages who are being held in the Gaza Strip, during a protest demanding their release from Hamas captivity, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A newly-ordained priest is thrown in the air during celebrations after the service in the Duomo gothic cathedral for the ordination of 11 new priests of the Ambrosian Church, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, June 7, 2025 (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

A family poses for photograph at a beach after Eid al-Adha prayers in Keta, Ghana, Friday, Jun 6, 2025 (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

Devotees pray during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)

Demonstrators gather during a protest against the new travel ban announced last week by President Donald Trump, at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Alfredo de Jesus Reynoso Gonzalez, 73, second right, and wife Vicenta Aguilar, left, greet their son, center, they are seeing for the first time in 22 years, and two grandchildren they were meeting in person for the first time, as they arrive from Guatemala for a visit, at Miami International Airport, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz hugs Italy's Jannik Sinner after winning the final match of the French Tennis Open at the Roland-Garros in Paris, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) questions a call during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series against the Indiana Pacers Sunday, June 8, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

An Ukrainian soldier reacts after returning from captivity after a POWs exchange between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A protester is detained by police in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

A police officer's face is covered in pepper spray outside the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)

People take cover as a fire work explodes during a protest near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Protesters confront police on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Washington. The Washington Monument is seen in background. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 11, 2026--

Torq, the established Agentic AI security operations pioneer, today announced it has closed a massive $140 million Series D funding round, propelling its valuation to $1.2 billion and total funding to $332M.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112510774/en/

Led by Merlin Ventures —a leading cybersecurity fund renowned for its deep access to the U.S. commercial and Public Sector markets—with participation from all existing investors, including Evolution Equity Partners, Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Ventures Partners, and Greenfield Partners, this capital injection is a definitive investment in the future of security. Torq is driving the industry’s critical shift: the complete transformation of the Security Operations Center (SOC) through battle-tested AI Agents at enterprise scale.

The new funds will accelerate the adoption of the Torq AI SOC Platform, the only end-to-end solution built on the pillars of advanced Hyperautomation, Alert Triage, and Fatigue Reduction to deliver full operational autonomy for global enterprises and government agencies.

“Torq is redefining security operations,” said Shay Michel, Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures. “They’ve fused automation and human judgment into a new AI SOC Platform built for asymmetric threats and real-world scale. This is why Merlin is leading the investment. Our focus now is speed—accelerating go-to-market, expanding across commercial and government markets, and building the next global category leader in AI security operations.”

Torq Delivers On the Promise of the AI SOC

“This funding accelerates our mission to define and dominate the AI SOC market. We are moving far beyond the constraints of legacy SOAR and SIEM, harnessing the Agentic AI Era to deliver outcomes our customers rely on,” said Ofer Smadari, CEO and co-founder, Torq. “Global enterprise adoption of our AI SOC Platform has validated our vision for the future of security operations. We have achieved tremendous revenue growth, with Fortune 100 customers adopting our AI Agents in their SOCs for everything from investigation to response. Our partnership with Merlin Ventures is the definitive signal that Torq is now ready to scale this massive customer success into the high-stakes Federal and Public Sector markets.”

The Growth Engine: Massive AI Agent Adoption

The primary driver behind Torq’s 2025 growth is the unprecedented adoption of its AI Agents across its global customer base. Unlike legacy security tools that require extensive professional services, Torq AI Agents are designed for self-service, enabling security teams to build and deploy sophisticated agents with minimal effort.

Today, Torq AI Agents are deeply embedded in the daily operations of Fortune 500 SOCs, managing millions of complex security tasks autonomously. This "bottom-up" adoption has transformed Torq from a specialized tool into the primary platform for the modern SOC.

“Torq delivers fast, measurable value to Valvoline’s SOC and eliminates the manual tasks that once consumed our analysts’ time,” said Corey Kaemming, CISO, Valvoline. “Within 48 hours of deployment, our team was using Torq’s AI SOC Platform for automating phishing triage, accelerating alert handling, and reducing response times across the board. The results were transformative. Analysts reclaimed hours of time, containment actions became automatic, and the security team evolved from reactive responders to proactive strategists. Torq took the vision that was in our heads and actually put it into practice. My team is in love with Torq.”

Strategic Expansion Into the Federal Market

Torq's partnership with lead investor Merlin Ventures has accelerated Torq’s traction within the U.S. Federal and Public Sector markets. With nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market, Merlin Ventures provides Torq with the strategic support and deep government relationships necessary to navigate complex compliance requirements, including FedRAMP, and rapidly scale the Torq AI SOC Platform to protect the nation's most critical infrastructure.

Explosive Growth and Enterprise Maturity Validation

The Series D affirms Torq’s proven market traction and maturity. In 2025 alone, the company delivered significant customer expansion, demonstrating that the Torq AI SOC Platform is built for complex, multinational security environments. Torq now protects hundreds of multinational enterprises, including Marriott, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Uber, and Virgin Atlantic.

Torq Leads the Shift To AI Agents: Autonomous Investigations and Advanced Automation

Torq is driving this transformation through its singular Agentic AI foundation. In 2025, Torq solidified its market lead by delivering the most advanced multi-agent security capabilities, backed by the strategic acquisition of RevRod. This proven platform empowers SOC teams through two critical product pillars:

“We’re always innovating our security operations approach at Virgin Atlantic and the Torq AI SOC Platform is driving significant benefits for us,” said John White, CISO, Virgin Atlantic. “Today, innovation stems from an AI-first approach, which Torq excels at. Torq is making our security operations simpler and more efficient, and providing us with complete coverage across our security stack. Torq is now our umbrella platform.”

About Torq

Torq is transforming cybersecurity with the Torq AI SOC platform. Torq empowers enterprises to instantly and precisely detect and respond to security events at scale. Torq’s customer base includes major multinational enterprise customers, including Abnormal Security, Armis, Check Point Security, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inditex (Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear), Informatica, Kyocera, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Telefonica, Valvoline, Virgin Atlantic, and Wiz.

About Merlin Ventures

Merlin Ventures is the venture capital affiliate of Merlin Group, a network of companies with nearly 30 years of success bringing technologies to the U.S. government market. Merlin Ventures rapidly scales visionary companies and introduces disruptive solutions designed to help enterprises address today's most critical cybersecurity challenges. Its unique business model combines robust infrastructure and capital, technical advisory and engineering advisory, market readiness acceleration, and deep-rooted government and industry relationships that enable its portfolio to rapidly grow and scale. Learn more at merlin.vc.

Torq Secures $140M Series D at $1.2B Valuation to Lead the AI SOC and Agentic AI Era