Our roundup also includes company treasuries holding 3.2% of all bitcoin, an independent PCAOB given a lifeline by the Senate and poor data quality hampering central bank decision making.
United States
AI
Amazon CEO expects to reduce its “total corporate workforce” as it gains efficiency from deploying AI across the company.
In the meanwhile Anthropic has released research that suggests AI models will resort to blackmail given sufficient autonomy and obstacles to their goals.
Crypto
About 130 listed firms now hold (subscription) more than $87 billion of bitcoin. This represents 3.2% of the cryptocurrency.
Data/Cybersecurity
16 billion login credentials from various sites have been leaked online according to a cybersecurity outlet.
ESG
A series of solar company bankruptcy announcements (subscription) in the US reflect a continuing shift away from renewable energy sources.
Healthcare
Eli Lilly will aquire Verve Therapeutics, a pioneering gene editing medicine company, in a deal valued at $1.3 billion as consolidation in the pharma sector continues apace.
Regulation
The plan to fold the the PCAOB into the SEC has been dealt a blow by the Senate parliamentarian who determined that including the proposal in a wider bill violates rules around budget reconciliation.
Technology
Meta plans to introduce advertising and subscriptions on WhatsApp in an attempt to monetize its hugely popular messaging app.
President Trump has postponed a planned US ban on TikTok for a third consecutive time.
Africa
Swissaid has published a report that suggests 321 to 474 tonnes of gold are produced in Africa every year without being declared. This is an astonishing figure.
China
Corporate bond defaults in China fell to near zero (subscription) in 2025 signalling a move away from global norms and towards “stability”.
EU
The EU plans to relax (subscription) M&A rules for defence companies, but also “give reassurances about their compliance with environmental standards” in order to attract investment into what is now deemed a critical sector.
The European Commission has imposed binding commitments on Chinese online market place AliExpress and signalled that it will continue to monitor its compliance with these. Any breach of the commitments will be a considered a brech of the Digital Services Act and will result in fines against the company.
The Czech President has told the FT (subscription) that he believes China and Russia can be considered “to be on a par when it comes to state-sponsored hacking and espionage.”
France
The French AMF has published the findings of its review of “employee knowledge within asset management companies” noting significant disparities and persistent shortcomings.
Hong Kong
The HKMA and the People’s Bank of China have announced the launch of Payment Connect, which links the Chinese mainland Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS) and HK’s Faster Payment System (FPS) in order to better support cross-boundary payments.
India
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced a series of regulatory reforms aimed at easing compliance burdens, expanding access and aligning Indian capital markets with global standards.
Amazon has announced that it will invest a further $233m in its India business, focusing on operations inrastructure, new delivery network tools and employee safety and well-being pograms.
International
According to the FT the world’s central banks are struggling with poor data quality from national statstical agencies when making key decisions.
The IFRS Foundation has announced a review of its IFRS 16 Leases standard.
Ireland
AIB has returned to full private ownership after the Irish government sold the last remaining shares purchased to keep the bank afload during the 2008 financial crisis.
Malaysia
Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak has been discharged (subscription) but not acquitted of money laundering charges by the country’s High Court.
Russia
A court in Russia has approved the expropriation of Moscow’s second-largest airport as the process of seizure of companies by the state continues. The return of investors to the country is becoming ever more difficult to envision.
Spain
A Spanish government report blamed state-owned grid operator and private generators for the blackout that affected the country as well as Portugal in April.
Switzerland
Inside Paradeplatz, a popular financial blog, was raided (subscription) by Swiss officials and police over suspected violations of the country’s strict banking secrecy laws.
UK
BT plans to cut (subscription) more than 40,000 jobs with AI presenting an “opportunity for BT to be even smaller by the end of the decade”.
UK patients will be granted direct access (subscription) to clinical trials via the NHS app acording to health secretary Wes Streeting.
The failure by UK institutions to collect ethnicity data on grooming gangs was termed a “bloody disaster” by the author of an authoritative report on the subject.
In further good news (subscription) for the pharma sector in the UK Queen Mary University will invest £750m (£1bn) to develop a large biomedical campus in London.
