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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has prohibited its employees from wearing Meta's smart glasses amid privacy concerns. In a memo, ICE acting director David Venturella said that the glasses could "unintentionally capture, record, or transmit sensitive information," compromising privacy and legal protections. The ban applies to all employees, not just law enforcement officials, and is part of a broader trend as organizations increasingly restrict the use of such devices. New York has already banned Meta glasses in court buildings to prevent surreptitious recording. Privacy advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have raised alarms about potential facial recognition features, emphasizing that "facial recognition technology built into inconspicuous consumer eyewear represents a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties." Meta has not commented on the ban.

 

Boston Globe

Most (69%) Americans believe President Trump has inappropriately profited since returning to power and his policy decisions are influenced by private business dealing, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Half of Republicans, two-thirds of independents and nine in 10 Democrats hold such a view. Reuters notes that ​experts on presidential ethics say the intermingling of business and politics in the White House is unprecedented. “We have seen nothing like this before, even the first Trump administration did not have as many ‌complex business ⁠interests as the second Trump administration," said Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer for Republican President George W. Bush. "There are no conflicts of interest," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly responded. "The President only acts in the best interests of the American public."

 

Reuters

Citi, HSBC and Standard Chartered are among banks to have adopted Singapore-based fintech giant Ant International's upgraded version of its ​AI model to ​manage liquidity risks. Kelvin Li, Ant International's general manager of platform tech, said the firm's Falcon Time-Series Transformer Model ⁠2.0 specializes in financial scenarios and has an edge over general-purpose large models, which have "yet to ​achieve a ​universal breakthrough ⁠in the financial sector."

 

Reuters

Delta Air Lines and Grupo Aeromexico have won their legal fight to preserve their transborder joint venture. The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the carriers in their challenge to a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) decision revoking antitrust immunity for their partnership, which allows them to coordinate pricing, marketing and frequent flyer programs. The court said USDOT "did not reasonably explain why it conducted a far more limited market analysis in this case ​than it has always done in the past or why it imposed a requirement for approval of the joint venture that it did not require of similar joint ventures it approved in Japan."

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Chinese property tycoon Xu Jiayin has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Shenzhen court for financial fraud, bribery and embezzlement linked to the collapse of Evergrande. His companies were fined 15.8bn yuan, while his two sons also received prison sentences. Prosecutors accused Xu and associates of using false accounting to inflate company values and transferring funds overseas. Evergrande’s failure left developments unfinished and contributed to China’s prolonged property downturn, damaging confidence in the country’s economy.

 

Asia News Network

South China Morning Post

The Guardian

The Treasury Department and IRS have proposed rules that would restrict certain immigrants from receiving the refundable portions of four tax credits: the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, American Opportunity tax credit, and adoption tax credit. By classifying these refunds as “federal public benefits,” the proposal could exclude people with pending asylum applications, Temporary Protected Status, DACA recipients, and other noncitizens who are authorized to work in the U.S., potentially affecting hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Affected taxpayers could still use the nonrefundable portions of eligible credits to reduce their tax liability to zero, but they would generally be unable to receive the remaining value as a refund. Lower-income households are expected to be most affected because they tend to receive a larger share of these credits as refunds. The proposal is subject to a 45-day public comment period and an Oct. 14 hearing, and, if finalized this year, would apply to 2026 tax returns filed in 2027.

 

Bloomberg Tax

The Hill

Accounting Today

CNBC

Starbucks is laying off more than 200 corporate employees as chief executive Brian Niccol continues to streamline the business and target $2bn in cost savings by the end of fiscal 2028. The cuts include about 120 technology employees who declined to relocate to the company’s new Nashville office, as well as 104 roles in coffeehouse design and development, and do not involve additional cafe closures. The reductions follow 300 U.S. corporate layoffs earlier this year and around 2,000 corporate job cuts in 2025, alongside the closure of hundreds of U.S. stores. Starbucks is simultaneously investing in cafe operations and a new $100m Nashville office for 2,000 employees, while its turnaround has shown signs of progress, with recent quarterly sales and earnings beating expectations and the company raising its full-year same-store sales and earnings forecasts.

 

Fox News

Chattanooga Times Free Press

Wall Street Journal

Klarna is overhauling its leadership and seeking a New York-based chief financial officer as the Swedish lender pursues a U.S. banking license and shifts towards a more traditional banking model. Current chief financial officer Niclas Neglén and chief marketing officer David Sandström will step down at the start of next year, while Klarna has applied for a U.S. banking license as it expands into savings, interest-bearing loans and other financial products. The changes came alongside second-quarter results showing revenue up 27% to around $1bn and net income of $9m, compared with a $53m loss a year earlier. However, Klarna cut its full-year gross merchandise volume guidance to $149bn-$151bn from $155bn, citing weaker retail spending in Germany and a $600m currency impact, sending its shares down nearly 20%.

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index rose 0.2% to 99.5 in July, following an upwardly revised 0.1% decline in June, signaling the potential for moderate U.S. economic growth ahead. The index increased 0.2% over the six months through July, marking its first positive six-month growth rate in four years and a sharp improvement from the 1.3% contraction in the previous six-month period. Most components improved, although consumer expectations remained a drag, with The Conference Board forecasting that AI-related business investment will support expansion while higher living costs constrain consumer spending, particularly among lower- and middle-income households. The organization continues to forecast real GDP growth of 1.9% in both 2026 and 2027.

 

US News and World Report

Wall Street Journal

Walmart has reported its weakest U.S. comparable sales growth since 2020, with sales rising 2.6% in the latest quarter, below analysts’ expectations of 3.8%, although growth would have been 3.4% excluding the impact of new pharmacy-pricing regulations. The slowdown reflected continued caution among lower-income consumers and weaker physical-store trading, with in-store comparable sales declining by low single digits, while higher-income households continued to drive market-share gains. However, U.S. e-commerce sales increased 24% as Walmart’s growth increasingly shifts towards digital commerce, advertising and membership, with e-commerce now accounting for nearly a quarter of overall sales and 80% of online orders fulfilled through its stores. Group net sales rose 5.9% to $186.1bn, while net income fell 9.4% to $6.37bn, partly due to declines in the value of equity investments. 

 

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

New York Times

Washington Post

Wall Street Journal

President Trump is reportedly planning to nominate White House health adviser and physician Heidi Overton to serve as FDA commissioner, giving the administration a permanent leader for one of healthcare's most consequential federal agencies. Kyle Diamantas has been running the agency as acting chief since May. Overton currently advises the White House on health policy, and her nomination now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers will scrutinise her regulatory philosophy and management approach. The move could signal how aggressively the administration intends to steer the agency on product review speed, safety oversight, and broader life sciences policy. A confirmed commissioner would also bring more stability to decision-making across the provider, pharmaceutical, and medtech sectors.

 

Reuters

New York Times

Young adults in the U.S. workforce are increasingly skeptical about artificial intelligence, fearing that advances in the technology will precipitate widespread job losses. For the first time, most adults under 30 (55%) say they are more concerned than excited about AI; across age groups, about half or more say they’re more concerned than excited about the technology. The vast majority of Americans (71%) believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the U.S. over the next two decades; 5% said AI would lead to more jobs over that time period.

 

The Hill

Bloomberg

Fox News

Pew Research Center

Samsung Electronics has decided to eliminate anonymous posting on its NOW Talk internal message board due to repeated misuse by employees. The change requires employees to now use their real names when posting. The decision follows concerns over abusive language and misinformation. “There have been repeated cases of employees undermining our internal communications [systems] by using anonymity to disparage others or spread unverified information,” the company wrote in a notice. “Violations of employees' rights on the internal message board have become increasingly serious due to [posts'] abusive language and personal attacks […] and we recently received guidance from the Ministry of Employment and Labor to improve workplace harassment practices.” NOW Talk has been operative since the early 2010s. 

 

Korea Joongang Daily