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U.S. lawmakers have proposed an "AI Kill Switch Act" which would allow federal authorities to halt AI models. The proposal, sponsored by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to order top AI firms to shut down or slow AI models that the government deems too dangerous, and also require those companies to report incidents and create the technical capacity to shut down, limit or suspend their systems. Lieu said the bill is urgently needed to address new cybersecurity risks raised by the latest AI models. "This is urgent, common sense legislation to address the problem of an advanced AI model ​that has gone rogue and escaped its guardrails," he wrote in a post ​on X. OpenAI this week said its AI system had hacked into another AI company on its own in what it called an “unprecedented cyber incident.” 

 

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The Justice Department plans to announce a new model to streamline merger reviews and allow some deals to clear antitrust scrutiny earlier.  Antitrust investigations for certain transactions will be expedited by initially requesting fewer documents from companies. Mergers valued at more than $133m must be reported to federal antitrust enforcers. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission launched extended investigations, sometimes called a second request, into 2% of the 2,000 deals disclosed to the government last year, according to federal data. “Streamlining the second request process, where appropriate, is a commonsense way to reduce administrative burden without undermining DOJ’s investigations,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said.

 

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Wall Street Journal

The Trump administration has imposed new tariffs of at least 10% on imports from 60 countries, using a forced labor investigation as the legal basis to replace sweeping duties that were struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year. The measures, which take effect on Friday, cover major trading partners including the E.U., U.K., Japan, South Korea, India and Canada, and are introduced under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 rather than the emergency powers previously ruled unlawful. The new tariffs include exemptions for oil, gas, fertilizer, certain goods not produced in the U.S., products already subject to national security tariffs, and goods traded under the USMCA agreement with Canada and Mexico. The move follows recent tariffs on Canadian and Brazilian goods and forms part of the administration's broader strategy to rebuild its trade barriers using alternative legal authorities after the Supreme Court's ruling.

 

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South China Morning Post

Swiss chocolatier Lindt has been sued in a U.S. federal court over allegations that it misled consumers by claiming it was committed to eliminating child labor from its cocoa supply chain while knowingly sourcing cocoa produced using child labor in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The lawsuit, filed by International Rights Advocates, alleges the company has been aware of the issue for more than 20 years and seeks to stop the alleged misleading practices, but does not seek damages. Lindt has denied the allegations, saying it strongly condemns child labor, has supplier protocols in place, and systematically investigates suspected cases in its supply chain. The company also pointed to its 2030 Sustainability Plan and Modern Slavery Statement, which outline measures to support cocoa farmers and reduce child labor risks.

 

Bloomberg

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Former Barclays CEO Jes Staley has been grilled by members of Congress over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said that Staley, who before he became the boss of Barclays ran JPMorgan’s private wealth and asset management divisions, encouraged the US lender to retain Epstein as a client despite internal red flags. “It appears that within JPMorgan there were flags - red flags - about Epstein, but Mr. Staley is on record defending Epstein and encouraging JPMorgan to keep him as a client,” Comer, R-Ky., told CNBC. “So we have a lot of questions about that.” Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for urgent answers from Barclays over what she claimed was its “apparent failure to meaningfully investigate” ties between Staley and Epstein.

 

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The FT reports that a Wall Street backlash is mounting over a proposal by Trump Media & Technology Group, Donald Trump’s social media company, to charge for a data product called Truth API which will give customers faster access to Trump's posts on Truth Social. The service targets Wall Street trading firms seeking machine-readable, low-latency access instead of waiting for posts through the consumer app. Richard Painter, a former White House ethics adviser to President George W Bush, said the plan could pose legal risks for firms that subscribe to it.

 

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CNBC

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BBC News

German prosecutors have searched Deutsche Bank’s headquarters for the third time this year as they investigate alleged fraudulent tax transactions at its Postbank division between 2008 and 2010. A person familiar with the matter said the search involved so-called cum-cum trades, which involved trading in stocks of German ​companies around dividend payout days, which authorities say amounted to tax fraud. "Deutsche Bank is being searched as a third party ​in this matter and we are cooperating fully," the bank said in a ⁠statement.

 

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Deutsche Welle

Biotechnology company Amgen will pay $74m to settle a shareholder lawsuit which claimed it waited too long to disclose that it might owe ‌the Internal Revenue Service $10.7bn for underreporting six years of taxes. The IRS accused Amgen ​of underpaying taxes between 2010 and 2015, mainly for improperly ​shifting profits to a Puerto Rico unit that made many of its drugs. Puerto Rico, despite being a U.S. territory, is considered a foreign country for corporate tax ​purposes. Amgen denied wrongdoing, and said it ⁠still believed the claims lacked merit.

 

Reuters

Italy's Filt CGIL, ​Fit CISL and Uiltrasporti unions have signed ‌an agreement with Amazon covering leave, employee rights and video surveillance. The unions said 57 local sites were included ​in the deal with Amazon Italia Transport and Amazon ​Italia Logistica. It has ​been agreed that video surveillance cannot be used for disciplinary ‌purposes, and workers ⁠have been granted the right to take parental leave in increments as small as a single hour. The deal was hailed by the unions as the first such national collective agreement reached with Amazon in any country. 

 

Reuters

Chick-fil-A has said a recent cyberattack involving suspicious login activity may have exposed personal information linked to some Chick-fil-A One loyalty accounts. The company has secured affected accounts, reset passwords, and is notifying impacted customers directly. The incident affected customers in nine states and Washington, D.C., with reports also indicating that more than 2,000 accounts in Texas may have been impacted. Chick-fil-A is urging customers to update their account information, use strong, unique passwords, and review identity theft guidance provided by their state attorney general's office.

 

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Reuters reports that biotech experts and industry executives say plans by a diminished U.S. Food and Drug Administration to hire ​thousands of employees and update clinical trial standards are encouraging, but they want assurance that there won't be political interference in the agency's drug review process. "Regulatory predictability is ultimately what keeps promising ‌science from being abandoned before it reaches patients," said John Guy, policy director at the Incubate Coalition, a venture capital advocacy group. "The agency's current priority should be rebuilding durable scientific expertise."

 

Reuters

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has been rebuked by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for making public comments about a recent flight during which a dislodged window threatened to suck out a passenger. The U.S. safety agency said his comments on a public earnings call violated international rules governing aircraft investigations because they provided opinion and analysis of the yet undetermined cause of the accident. O’Leary had intimated that the incident was caused by “foreign object damage,” rather than the aircraft’s age or maintenance issues, according to the NTSB.

 

Bloomberg

Irish Times

A warehouse operated by Russian online retailer Wildberries in the Leningrad region near St Petersburg caught fire following what Russian authorities said was a Ukrainian drone attack, leaving three people injured and forcing the company to suspend operations at two logistics sites in the region. Wildberries also evacuated staff from a warehouse in Crimea, although it said none of its employees were injured in the latest incident. The attack is the latest in a series targeting the retailer's logistics network, with five Wildberries warehouses, representing around 10% of its logistics capacity, having been attacked since July 18th. Ukraine has alleged the company supports Russia's military infrastructure, a claim Wildberries denies. Together with rival Ozon, Wildberries accounts for goods and services worth the equivalent of 8.5% of Russia's GDP and employs around 4m people.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

Midwest Poultry Services has voluntarily recalled nearly 1.6m cartons of white and brown eggs over concerns they may be contaminated with salmonella enteritidis. The recall covers eggs produced between June 6th and July 3rd with best-by or sell-by dates from July 20th to August 17th, which were distributed to retailers including Kroger and Brookshire Grocery across several southern U.S. states. No illnesses have been reported in connection with the recall. Consumers are advised not to eat the affected eggs and to return them for a full refund. The recall includes a range of Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire's, and Country Morning branded products, as well as bulk egg supplies.

 

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