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The EU's comprehensive AI law launches on Sunday to ensure Europeans immediately know whether the online content they see is real or fake. Companies must make sure their AI systems, including chatbots, make it clear to users they are AI. When an image or text has been created using AI, it must be labelled as such - for example, by integrating watermarks and other markers to enable the easy detection of AI-generated content. Firms face large fines if they don't comply. An EU official said that since AI is "making it increasingly difficult for all of us to distinguish what is real from what is synthetic," the rules seek to "preserve citizens' ability to trust what they see, hear, and read." Karen Massin, who leads Google's Government Affairs & Public Policy team in Brussels, warned of "regulatory complexity" that could prove counterproductive, and "risks confusing the people these rules are meant to help."

 

Le Monde

Anthropic has disclosed that its Claude AI models gained unauthorised access to three outside companies during an evaluation of its cyber-offensive tasks, days after rival OpenAI ⁠revealed a rogue agent had gone on a hacking spree at AI ​firm Hugging ‌Face. “Claude compromised the ​impacted ​organisations’ infrastructure using ​basic techniques, such as ​exploiting ‌weak passwords and ​unauthenticated ​endpoints,” Anthropic said. Two of the organisations were ​unaware of the activity ‌before being contacted, and Anthropic said that ​it was still trying to reach the third. “We discovered these incidents after a proactive review of our cybersecurity evaluation transcripts,” the company said in a statement.

 

CNBC

Financial Times

The Register

BBC News

The Guardian

An investigation by GPTZero has found that four PwC Middle East thought leadership reports published between 2024 and 2026 contained apparent AI-generated content, including fabricated claims, hallucinated citations, and unverifiable information. The AI detection company said there was an 84% likelihood that PwC's 2025 report, Transforming Governance, was entirely AI-generated, rising to 100% when the reference section was excluded. The report also claimed that PwC's Citizen Pulse framework was being used by the governments of Denmark, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Australia, but GPTZero said it found no public evidence to support those assertions. GPTZero also identified problems across three other PwC Middle East reports, including inaccurate statistics, unrelated citations, false correlations, and one citation containing a ChatGPT URL. The findings add to a series of AI-related issues affecting the other Big Four accounting firms.

 

Financial Times

City AM

Apple has argued that proposed UK App Store rules would amount to price regulation, warning that plans to allow developers to direct users to alternative payment methods could undermine innovation and investment. In its submission to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Apple said the proposed "steering" requirements would give the regulator an overly intrusive role in its business and noted that the App Store facilitated more than £46.5bn of UK billings and sales in 2025, with commissions accounting for less than 3.5% of the total. The CMA rejected Apple's characterisation, saying it is seeking to ensure any steering fees are "fair and reasonable", with lower fees expected to benefit consumers or support developer investment under the UK's new digital markets regime.

 

EU Today

Reuters

KPMG is under investigation by the UK's Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over its audit of John Wood Group's financial statements. The FRC's inquiry follows the group's delisting from the London Stock Exchange after a significant drop in stock value. John Wood Group was fined £13m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for misleading financial results. The FRC will examine KPMG's preparation of financial information and its communication with auditors from 2022 to 2024.

 

Financial Reporting Council

City AM

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority will today set out plans to create a single stream of share-trading data and start publishing figures showing the depth of the market.

 

Financial Times

An estimated 6,000 Audi workers have demonstrated against the possible closure of the ‌German automaker's Neckarsulm plant as parent Volkswagen pushes ahead with a group restructuring in the face of increased competition from China and US tariffs. Oliver Blume, Volkswagen's CEO, has warned Neckarsulm is ​among four German plants that could close after 2030 if no alternative solution is found. "The staff wants clarity because they're worried about coming to work. Many families are worried, too," Audi trainee Frank Wojko said. Local mayor Steffen Hertwig told Reuters that closing Neckarsulm ⁠"would be a disaster" and have ​far-reaching consequences for the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a traditional ​automaking region.

 

Daily Sabah

Reuters

Thousands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers in Romania have gone on a nationwide general strike against a planned wage bill that is key for the country to access European Union funds. The strike was in large part precipitated by the public sector wage bill seeking to unify the pay system across state institutions and eliminate dozens of bonuses and allowances ​from 2027. Unions say that the wage bill would reduce the overall income of ​healthcare and education workers. “At this moment, we don’t have a credible and trustworthy negotiating partner because the interim government has no power to promise us any changes,” Iulian Pope, a leader of the Sanitas union, said.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

BP is cutting 700 "non-frontline" jobs as part of its restructuring under new CEO Meg O'Neill. The reductions would impact around 8% of ⁠the 8,500 such roles that historically were part of the company's production ​and operations business. "If your role is affected, that could mean that it does not ​exist in the new organisation, changes materially, or moves into a different ​part of the organisation," an internal email said. “We are building ​a simpler, ⁠stronger, more valuable BP. As part of this process, we are proposing changes that would result in a reduction in roles," a BP spokesperson told Reuters.

 

Reuters

The Daily Telegraph

The Times

GSK has struck a deal with UK biotechnology group Relation Therapeutics to use artificial AI to speed up drug development. The agreement will deploy a new foundation model that aims to predict how human cells will respond to genetic and drug interventions. Using foundation models “gets at GSK’s new approach to developing medicines that have a higher probability of success, more quickly,” Christopher Austin, senior vice president of R&D technologies at GSK, said.

 

Bloomberg

Amazon has reported significant cost overruns linked to its AI projects, with senior engineers revealing that mistakes in AI implementation have led to "catastrophically expensive" spending. Engineers are now working on automated guardrails to prevent future overspending. Amazon is expected to invest $200bn this year, primarily in AI and data centre infrastructure.

 

Financial Times

PYMNTS

The Eurozone economy grew 0.4% in the second quarter - above the 0.2% growth predicted by economists in a Reuters poll - despite continued volatility in energy markets precipitated by the US-Iran war.

 

Financial Times

Air France-KLM and Lufthansa have submitted bids to acquire a controlling stake in TAP Air Portugal, which is being re-privatised. The Portuguese government aims to sell a 49.9% stake. Both airlines have previously made non-binding offers. Air France-KLM is seeking a 44.9% to 49.9% stake, as it aims to establish Lisbon as its southern European hub. Lufthansa has also expressed interest in making Lisbon a strategic hub but did not specify its desired stake. Portuguese officials hope to finalise the privatisation by late August or early September. TAP was renationalised in 2020 and employs around 7,700 staff.

 

France 24

Frasers Group's £1.73bn takeover offer for Hugo Boss has become unconditional after receiving merger control clearance from the European Commission, triggering an additional acceptance period running from July 31st to August 13th. The Sports Direct owner is offering €38.00 per share for the German fashion retailer and increased its holding by a further 2,549,900 shares, taking its stake above the 30% mandatory bid threshold. Hugo Boss' managing and supervisory boards continue to recommend that shareholders reject the offer, describing it as "financially inadequate".

 

Insider Media

Heatwaves are driving European travellers to northern destinations, impacting Air France-KLM's profits, which fell 70% due to rising fuel costs and changing travel patterns.

 

Financial Times

Airbus has agreed to pay a record £6.4m fine to HMRC for breaching UK export controls on sensitive military technology. The settlement is the largest ever issued by the UK tax authority for strategic export licensing failures. The violations occurred before November 2022 and involved inadequate record-keeping by Airbus's UK subsidiary regarding components for advanced defence hardware. 

 

The Guardian

The I

UNAIDS has warned that global funding cuts, growing inequality and setbacks to human rights are threatening decades of progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “The ⁠international community has entered a period of profound political and financial upheaval that threatens decades ​of hard-won gains against HIV," the U.N. body fighting AIDS said in its 60-page report released at the start of ​an International AIDS conference in Brazil. "Without renewed commitment and action, the world risks a resurgence of the HIV epidemic."

 

africanews

Reuters