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Former FBI employees involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Florida. Their lawyers revealed this development as they sought clarification from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon regarding an order that restricts the release of information. The subpoenas are part of a broader conspiracy probe examining claims of a "deep state" conspiracy against Trump. The investigation has primarily focused on former officials linked to Trump's 2016 campaign and the FBI's search of his Mar-a-Lago estate. The lawyers for the subpoenaed employees expressed concerns about potential contempt of court if they testify, stating, "Clients seek to confirm that they can freely discuss non-public information related to their work." The Justice Department is also considering offering immunity to some witnesses.

 

The Baltimore Sun

U.S. News

Lawmakers and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials are said to be concerned about American pharmaceutical companies' increasing reliance on conducting early clinical trials in China, observing a lack of transparency and a need to ensure medical innovations are kept on shore. “We obviously have a relationship with China, we're going to continue to have a relationship with China, but the way we've conducted business with China has been really on their terms,” said John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, during an event organized by U.S. biopharmaceutical publication Endpoints News. Such rhetoric could prompt firms to “double click a lot more when evaluating China-origin target assets,” said Xianfeng Morgan Xu, a partner at U.S. law firm Foley Hoag.

 

South China Morning Post

U.S. business activity accelerated to its highest level in more than five years in September, with the S&P Global Composite PMI rising to 58.4 from 56.0 in August, driven by strong expansion across both manufacturing and services. New orders increased to 58.2, their highest level since March 2022, while work backlogs reached their highest since May 2022, pointing to growing capacity constraints as companies also reported difficulties finding suitable staff. Supply chain pressures intensified, with supplier delivery delays becoming the most widespread since July 2022, largely reflecting disruption linked to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. These constraints, alongside robust demand, pushed the input prices index to 66.4 from 59.9, its highest reading since October 2022, adding to concerns about persistent inflation. S&P Global said the PMI data were consistent with the U.S. economy growing at an annualized rate of around 5%, while further cost pressures could emerge from record-high diesel prices.

 

Reuters

The Labor Department reported on Thursday that new unemployment benefit claims fell to 197,000 in the seven days to September 19th, the lowest level since mid-July and down from a revised 198,000 the previous week, indicating that layoffs remain historically low. The four-week average declined to 202,250 from 204,000, while continuing claims, reported with a one-week lag, increased 2,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 1.719m. Economist Eliza Winger said that the latest data points to "stable labor-market conditions," adding: "The few industries that are shedding workers appear focused on efficiency gains, while we’ve yet to see signs that higher interest rates are driving layoffs, even in the most rate-sensitive sectors of the economy.”

 

Bloomberg

PBS News

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Swiss lawmakers have rejected a key compromise proposal to dilute new capital requirements for UBS. Switzerland's upper house of parliament voted in favor of tougher capital ​rules that the Zurich-based lender estimates could require it to hold about $18bn in additional capital. Lawmakers supported a proposal that would ​require the Zurich-based lender to back its foreign units with 90% Common Equity Tier 1 ⁠capital. UBS had favored a proposal that would allow the bank to use 50% CET1 capital and 50% Additional Tier ​1 (AT1) capital, which is cheaper to hold. It said the decision would result in an excessive tightening of Swiss capital requirements if confirmed at the conclusion of the parliamentary process. 

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reportedly preparing to revisit its 2021 tobacco application rules to make it faster and more flexible for products including flavored vapes and nicotine pouches to gain authorization, potentially by simplifying scientific evidence requirements and shortening review times. The move is intended to expand legal access to products the Trump administration considers less harmful alternatives for adult smokers and follows industry complaints over lengthy approval processes. However, public-health groups and lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns that greater availability of flavored products could encourage youth vaping, while critics have argued that regulators should instead focus on enforcement against illicit products.

 

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

Anthropic has built a wet ​lab in the San Francisco Bay Area to do physical biology work as the startup pushes its AI ambitions into the world of drug science, according to two people familiar with the matter. Reuters reports that "at a time when fears of AI are gripping the public," the company has said it wants to unlock treatments for rare diseases, and its biology work has gone beyond "in silico" ‌or computer evaluations. Anthropic's head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, said: "We believe that to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work . . . We absolutely are doing that today, and I would describe our approach as being typical of what you would see in most biotech companies, where there's some amount of that that we're doing in our own facilities and some amount of that that we're working with external partners on."

 

Reuters

Amazon plans to invest $3bn in its Indian quick-commerce business by 2030, according to sources, as it seeks to catch up with established rivals in the rapidly growing fast-delivery market. The company is expected to invest $1bn by the end of 2027 and another $2bn by 2030, expanding its network of neighbourhood warehouses from around 750 stores to a targeted 1,300 by April next year, while improving inventory technology, artificial intelligence-driven demand forecasting and product selection. Amazon said its quick-commerce business has exceeded $1bn in annualised gross sales over the past three months, although it currently holds just 6.2% of the market.

 

Reuters

Oracle’s planned Project Jupiter AI data-center campus in New Mexico is facing power, permitting and infrastructure challenges after the company made substantial commitments to expand computing capacity for OpenAI. Oracle signed a lease with “hell-or-high-water” terms, leaving it responsible for rent regardless of whether sufficient power is secured. It has now issued a force majeure notice allowing full rent payments to be deferred for up to three years, although the lease would be extended accordingly. The project, backed by $18bn of construction financing from around 20 banks and about $3bn of Blue Owl equity, has encountered resistance over its power plans and difficulties securing permits for a proposed gas pipeline. Some lenders are showing unease, while S&P Global Ratings downgraded Oracle’s credit rating in July. Oracle maintains that “Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule” and says it remains committed to New Mexico.

 

Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to receive a share of any increased revenue if Pfizer is able to charge higher drug prices overseas, according to the “most favored nation” contract published by the consumer watchdog organization Public Citizen, which it obtained after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The agreement applies to medicines already on the market. The contract says the funds will be used “for the purpose of lowering costs for U.S. patients and taxpayers.”

 

Bloomberg

Board members from HSBC will convene in London instead of Dubai later this month amid concerns over safety as the U.S.-Iran war continues to roil executive travel to the region. 

 

Financial Times

The State Department has directed its diplomats in the International Organizations Bureau to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" in all communications. The change was precipitated by President Donald Trump's remarks at the U.N. General Assembly, where he said: “The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake and it is not fake. It's actually amazing.” Michael Drager, deputy assistant secretary of state, communicated the directive in an email, writing that "we will be using 'SI' in all remarks, positions and press elements moving forward." While the order was issued for this bureau, it remains unclear if other departments will adopt the new terminology.

 

U.S. News

Jay Jones, an unemployed copywriter from the Chicago area who calls himself “The Profiler,” has made it his mission to expose fraudulent job advertisements and recruiter profiles targeting increasingly desperate job seekers. After encountering a fake résumé writer during his own job search following a 2023 layoff, Jones began investigating recruitment scams and says he has since helped remove nearly 60,000 fake jobs and flagged around 7,000 scam profiles, primarily on LinkedIn. The scams range from mass-produced recruiter profiles and AI-tailored job offers to hijacked, verified accounts that impersonate recruiters at legitimate businesses.  LinkedIn says its automated systems prevent nearly all scams from reaching users, including blocking close to 90 million fake accounts before they went live in the second half of 2025. However, the company acknowledges that scammers continually adapt to its defenses.

 

Wall Street Journal

In California, pesticide safety regulations are under scrutiny as nearly 18,000 regulatory actions were taken from 2020 to June 2025, with fewer than 30% resulting in fines. Many farmworkers reported health issues due to pesticide exposure, yet fear of retaliation prevents them from reporting violations. “Yes, there are laws,” said Jesus, a farmworker, “but unfortunately, at times the law favors the powerful.” The California Department of Pesticide Regulation acknowledged the need for improved enforcement and proposed new regulations to increase fines for health-impacting violations. However, these proposals face opposition from agricultural groups who argue for maintaining local discretion in enforcement. Labor advocates stress the need for stronger enforcement to protect vulnerable communities, particularly in rural areas.

 

Los Angeles Times