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The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that the 32 largest U.S. banks remain well capitalized and are capable of withstanding a severe economic downturn while continuing to lend, after its annual stress tests showed the sector could absorb more than $700bn in hypothetical losses and still remain above minimum capital requirements. Under the test scenario, banks faced a global recession featuring 10% unemployment, a one-third decline in real estate prices, and significant financial market turmoil. The banks' aggregate common equity tier one capital ratio fell from 12.8% to 11.2% during the simulated downturn, a decline of 1.6 percentage points, but remained comfortably above regulatory minimums. The hypothetical losses included roughly $200bn from credit cards, $160bn from commercial and industrial loans, and $75bn from commercial real estate, although stronger net interest income helped offset some of the impact.

 

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CNBC

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Anthropic has accused Alibaba of conducting the largest known attempt to gain unauthorized access to its Claude AI model, alleging the Chinese technology group used 25,000 fraudulent accounts to generate more than 28.8m interactions with the chatbot in breach of its terms of service. In a letter to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Anthropic claimed the campaign targeted Claude's advanced capabilities, including software engineering and complex reasoning, and urged Congress to tighten restrictions on Chinese AI firms' access to advanced U.S. technology and penalise alleged AI model distillation. Alibaba has not responded to the latest allegations but has previously denied links to China's military.

 

Nikkei Asia

Bloomberg

CNBC

Financial Times

Tata Electronics has detected a recent "cybersecurity incident" after researchers said ransomware group World Leaks posted purported component design and specification papers of Apple and Tesla - both customers ‌of the Indian company. "A few weeks ago, Tata Electronics identified a cybersecurity incident on some of our systems. Our response protocols were deployed immediately, and the incident has had no impact on our operations across businesses, which remain unaffected," a Tata Electronics spokesperson said.

 

Reuters

A new European Central Bank study has found that, despite rapid investment in AI, the technology has had only a limited impact on overall U.S. employment and wage growth so far. While AI is reshaping parts of the labor market, fears of widespread job losses and falling wages have yet to materialize at an economy-wide level. The research shows that employment has shifted away from occupations with a high risk of AI substitution, such as economists and graphic designers, toward lower-risk roles, including electricians and high school teachers. Between 2019 and 2025, high-risk occupations saw employment decline by more than 4%, while low-risk occupations recorded growth of 13%.

 

Reuters

Meta is pausing an internal program that tracks ​employee mouse movements and digital activity for AI training amid reports that sensitive employee data, intended to monitor digital interactions within Meta's internal systems, was accessible to all Meta ​workers. "We have carefully designed this program ​with privacy safeguards and while we have no indication at this time that ​any data was improperly accessed by Meta employees, we're pausing it while we investigate," said Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton. The tool - Model Capability Initiative (MCI) - was launched in April.

 

Business Insider

Reuters

Alibaba has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense, seeking removal from a blacklist of companies alleged to have ties to the Chinese military, arguing that the designation was made without sufficient evidence and is causing reputational and financial harm. The Chinese ecommerce group told a California court that its inclusion on the Pentagon’s so-called 1260H list was “arbitrary and capricious”, claiming the department failed to consider evidence disproving any links to the People’s Liberation Army or China’s military-civil fusion strategy. Alibaba was added to the list alongside several prominent Chinese companies, including electric vehicle manufacturer BYD. While the blacklist does not immediately impose sanctions, Alibaba said the designation increases the risk of state-level divestment mandates affecting its New York Stock Exchange-listed shares and raises the prospect of future punitive measures. Some U.S. lawmakers have previously advocated delisting Chinese companies included on the list.

 

Financial Times

Global Times

New York Times

South China Morning Post

The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that Falun Gong practitioners cannot sue Cisco for allegedly aiding the Chinese government's surveillance and torture of the spiritual movement. The decision limits the ability of foreigners to hold U.S. corporations liable in U.S. courts for aiding and abetting alleged human rights violations overseas. “In truth this class is a null set. And because courts cannot create new rights of action to remedy violations of internal law, there is necessarily no liability for aiding and abetting such violations,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority. The lawsuit, initiated in 2011 by Chinese nationals and a U.S. citizen, accused Cisco of knowingly providing technology that facilitated the persecution of Falun Gong members. Although a federal judge dismissed the case in 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit revived some claims in 2023, leading to Cisco's appeal to the Supreme Court.

 

The Hill

Law

U.S. News

The Supreme Court has ruled that ExxonMobil can sue Cuban state-owned enterprises in U.S. courts for property seized after Fidel Castro's rise to power.  At issue was whether the 1996 law known as the Helms-Burton Act removes the shield from lawsuits in American courts that typically cover foreign countries and state-owned businesses. The justices reversed a lower-court ruling that found that the Cuban state-owned companies are immune from lawsuits in U.S. courts. “Today’s decision is a critical moment in a 60 year effort to be compensated for what the Cuban government illegally seized,” Exxon said in a statement. “It reflects two things: the merits of our argument and the fact that our company will fight a good fight for as long as it takes.”

 

Bloomberg Law

The Baltimore Sun

Law

U.S. News

Workday is facing a lawsuit which claims its AI-powered human resources software discriminates against job applicants in ways which violate California ​law and a federal ban on discrimination against workers with disabilities. U.S. ‌District Judge Rita Lin in San ‌Francisco rejected California-based Workday's claim that the state's anti-discrimination laws do not apply when it ⁠screens people based ⁠outside California who are applying for employment in other states and countries.

 

U.S. News

U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders say they have reached a bipartisan agreement on legislation requiring social media platforms to provide safeguards and tools for children and parents. Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in a statement: “We worked across the aisle for many months and have now found common ground on policies to significantly improve the digital environment for kids . . . Through empowering parents, establishing safety as a default, strengthening privacy for children and teens, increasing transparency around data brokers, and holding Big Tech accountable, the KIDS Act delivers the 21st century protections parents have demanded and our kids deserve.” The agreement does not include a "duty of care" provision; such language would require companies to design social media platforms with children's safety in mind.

 

Energy & Commerce Committee Democrats

Punchbowl News

The Hill

Reuters

U.S. employers are expected to face another year of historically high healthcare cost increases in 2027, with group medical expenses projected to rise 9% for the second consecutive year, according to a new analysis from PwC. The report attributes the sustained increase to several factors, including providers' growing use of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered revenue management tools, rising reimbursement demands from hospitals and health systems, increasing prescription drug spending, higher utilization of behavioral health services, and escalating payment disputes under the No Surprises Act. PwC noted that healthcare providers are increasingly using AI-driven documentation tools that can capture more detailed patient information, potentially resulting in higher reimbursement rates. At the same time, hospitals continue to face elevated labor, drug, and supply costs, prompting many to seek higher payments from insurers. The findings are based on surveys and interviews with actuaries from 27 U.S. health plans covering more than 103m employer-sponsored members.

 

CFO

Charles Schwab is partnering with Cboe Global Markets to introduce all-or-nothing options contracts that allow ​customers to place yes-or-no wagers on the ‌performance of the S&P 500. The brokerage ​will make binary options, which pay a set ​cash settlement or nothing at all depending ⁠on performance of index, available to customers in ​the coming months.

 

Wall Street Journal

A UN report reveals that, for the first time in 30 years, government forces rather than armed groups are responsible for the majority of grave violations against children in conflict zones. Israel topped the list countries responsible for violations, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan. Vanessa Frazier, the UN's special representative for children and armed conflict, said the report's findings were indicative of “a worrying shift” and “a deeper erosion of respect for international law.” The report found 38,558 verified grave violations against 24,174 children during 2025, the highest number since the UN's mandate on children and armed conflict was created in December 1996.

 

Arab News