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Bloomberg reports that the U.S. government may have to pay millions of dollars in legal bills to successful challengers of the Trump administration's executive actions and policies. Attorneys have sought fees exceeding $100,000 in at least 10 cases over the past year, totalling more than $2.5m, according to a Bloomberg analysis of court records. Federal agencies can be required to pay attorneys’ fees when they lose in court under the Equal Access to Justice Act of 1980, which entitles “prevailing parties” to recoup legal expenses if the government’s position wasn’t “substantially justified.” Steven Brown, a Houston-based lawyer who is seeking more than $180,000 in fees in lawsuits contesting the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel foreign students’ legal status, observed: “It’s important that when the government can’t justify itself, courts can award costs.”

 

Bloomberg

Apple has introduced limits on the number of software vulnerability reports researchers can submit after a surge in AI-generated security findings overwhelmed its review system. The company said it introduced submission caps and a 30-day cooling-off period in June to manage a rise in low-quality reports, while continuing to use AI internally to help triage submissions. The move follows claims from Italian cyber security start-up Bynario that it identified more than 50 bugs in the latest Mac operating system using OpenAI's ChatGPT in just three weeks, including a critical privilege escalation vulnerability. Bynario said it was initially unable to report all of its findings because of Apple's new submission limits, although Apple has since confirmed it is reviewing the company's reports.

 

Digital Trends

Financial Times

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have jointly announced proposed changes to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The legislation, which was passed in 1977 to combat discriminatory redlining, requires regulators to document how well banks do in lending to low-to-middle income neighborhoods. The most notable aspect of the overhaul is a reduction in the number of banks that will need to fully comply with the law. Jesse Van Tol, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an umbrella group for community development groups that often receive money from banks under the CRA, lamented: “CRA was created to work for low-to-middle income people. A lot of these changes are going to discourage banks from making grants, particularly in rural areas, where I expect there will be significant drops in activity.”

 

ABC News

Bloomberg Law

A U.S. federal appeals court has revived parts of consumer litigation against major drugmakers and retailers, allowing claims to proceed over over-the-counter decongestants marketed as "maximum strength" despite containing oral phenylephrine, an ingredient the FDA concluded is no more effective than a placebo. The court also reinstated claims involving brand-name drugs approved through the FDA's New Drug Application process, ruling manufacturers could have updated product labels to reflect evolving scientific evidence. However, the court dismissed most state law claims, finding they were preempted because manufacturers complied with FDA labeling requirements, and rejected a civil racketeering claim. The litigation, involving companies including Procter & Gamble, Haleon, Bayer, GSK, Kenvue, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Target, and Costco, returns to the district court after the FDA proposed removing oral phenylephrine from over-the-counter oral cold medicines in 2024.

 

US News and World Report

A report from the Center for Law and the Economy has raised concerns that AI shopping assistants from Amazon and Walmart do not consistently provide or verify 'Made in USA' product information, potentially limiting consumers' ability to identify domestically manufactured goods. The study found the chatbots often gave inconsistent responses to similar queries and highlighted misleading country-of-origin claims on both platforms. Amazon rejected the findings, saying it does not intentionally withhold origin information and is improving Alexa’s capabilities. The report comes as U.S. regulators step up scrutiny of online marketplaces over inaccurate 'Made in USA' claims and consider stricter verification requirements.

 

The Wall Street Journal

A new Accenture report warns that CFOs are increasingly confronting rapidly rising AI costs as organizations scale their use of generative AI, with token consumption emerging as a major and often poorly understood expense. Accenture's Chief AI and Data Officer, Lan Guan, said many finance leaders lack visibility into what is driving token usage across their organizations, leaving them with unexpectedly large cloud computing bills even when AI initiatives are delivering business benefits. The report notes that Goldman Sachs expects global AI-related spending to exceed $800bn in 2026, while only 23% of executives surveyed by Accenture reported widespread, sustained business value from AI deployments. Accenture recommends that companies treat "tokenomics" as a core financial discipline by improving visibility into AI usage, optimizing workloads across different AI models, and embedding cost management into everyday operations. The firm argues that finance, technology, and cybersecurity teams must work together to monitor AI consumption and prevent efficiency gains from leading to uncontrolled increases in usage and spending. 

 

Fortune

Employers who are concerned about applicants using stolen or fabricated identities to boost their chances of getting a job are verifying applicants' identities throughout the hiring process by taking biometric scans of their faces and scrutinizing email histories. More than a third of about 1,230 headhunters and hiring managers surveyed by hiring software firm Greenhouse say they now spend half their time filtering for “spam and junk” job applications. “Technologies are now being used that draw from well-tested, decades-old cybersecurity used in places like airports and voting and military and government applications to the ordinary business of applying to a job,” Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait said. Almost a quarter (23%) of U.S. companies polled by background-check provider Checkr said hiring fraud had cost them more than $50,000 in the past year because of delayed projects, compliance issues and rehiring costs.

 

Bloomberg

Unilever has agreed to protect the employment terms of workers in its European and U.K. food unit until at least mid-2029 after the planned 2027 completion of its $65bn ​merger of the business with U.S. spice maker McCormick. The two year agreement, which will govern the treatment and pay of European employees regardless of ​changes in business conditions, is twice as long as is usual for such deals and goes beyond the protection that is typically afforded under European Union and British ​legislation, under which employee contracts and collective agreements can be renegotiated one year after merger deals. A Unilever spokesperson said: "We have made good progress over the past few weeks and have agreed commitments in Europe regarding the protection of employees’ terms ​and conditions and consultation timelines."

 

Reuters

Flight attendants at Calgary-based carrier WestJet are now on strike after ‌talks fell through with Canada's second-largest airline. Approximately 250,000 travellers, according to the airline, have had their flights cancelled on a three-day holiday weekend in Canada, and more passengers ​will be affected depending on how long the work stoppage lasts. The challenge is the latest by cabin crews across North America to the industry's pay structure. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) wants cabin crew to be paid from the time ⁠they check in to when they clock out, which is not currently ​the case.

 

Reuters

U.S. employment costs increased at a steady pace in the second quarter, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the Employment Cost Index rising 0.9% from the previous quarter and 3.4% from a year earlier, indicating that labor costs are not adding significant inflationary pressure to the economy. However, after adjusting for inflation, both overall compensation and wages declined over the year, suggesting workers' purchasing power has weakened despite continued nominal pay increases. The report showed wages and salaries for civilian workers rose 0.9% during the quarter and 3.2% year over year, while private-sector employer spending on health benefits increased 6%, outpacing wage growth. The data support the Federal Reserve's assessment that the labor market remains broadly balanced as policymakers continue to monitor inflation and employment trends ahead of the July jobs report.

 

Bloomberg

U.K. drugmaker AstraZeneca is in talks to combine with U.S. rival Bristol Myers Squibb in a deal that would create one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical groups, valued at nearly $400bn.

 

Financial Times

The co-founder of AI startup LemonLime has apologized after offering instant job interviews to networking event attendees who agreed to get inked with a company logo. Jordan Zietz, posting on LinkedIn, said the idea was to “meet exceptional people, and find out which of them are just as crazy as we are,” adding that he had brought a tattoo artist along to the event. Seven people, he wrote, took him up on the offer. The Wall Street Journal reports that “online outrage erupted almost instantly.” Mark Pincus, the former CEO of game company Zynga, observed: “It’s novel, but I don’t like it . . . You’re asking somebody to get the tattoo before we even know if we’re going to hire them - that’s not OK.” 

 

Wall Street Journal