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US regulators have fined UBS a record $125m over the Swiss bank's failure to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls despite being sanctioned for similar shortcomings in 2018. The US ​Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said UBS Financial Services (UBSFS) admitted ​to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to implement and maintain an anti-money ⁠laundering program and by failing to file suspicious activity reports.  The settlement - the largest civil fine ever against a broker-dealer for violating the main US anti-money laundering law - resolved related accusations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial ​Industry Regulatory Authority. "Today’s historic action against UBSFS should send a clear message ​that recidivist financial institutions will face severe repercussions,” FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said. 

 

Financial Times

Reuters

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

Research by Adclear has found that 89% of the most-viewed Instagram and TikTok posts from crypto influencers breached or risked breaching UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) financial promotion rules, with many omitting required risk warnings or failing to disclose paid promotions. The findings come as the FCA prepares to introduce a mandatory crypto regulatory regime, requiring firms to meet financial resilience, capital and stress-testing standards. Adclear said influencers should improve compliance ahead of the tougher rules, which come into force in October. FCA research shows that social media remains a major source of crypto investment information for consumers.

 

FT Adviser

Wildfires and heatwaves sweeping France and Spain and other parts of Europe have already cost more than €3bn this year, far outstripping European Commission estimates, according to FT analysis.

 

Financial Times

Russian online retailer Wildberries said yesterday morning that a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at one of its warehouses in Russia's Vladimir region, with employees safely evacuated and logistics operations redirected to other facilities to minimise disruption to deliveries. Regional authorities said one man suffered a non-life-threatening head injury and a nearby resident sustained a minor leg injury, while firefighters continued to tackle the blaze. Wildberries said its warehouses have been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks in recent weeks. 

 

Reuters

UK hiring declined in the first half of 2026, with job postings down 11% since the start of the year and 32% below pre-pandemic levels, according to Indeed. Graduate vacancies fell to their lowest level for this point in the year since 2020, while summer job postings hit a four-year low, highlighting ongoing challenges for younger workers. Advertised wage growth also slowed to 3.9%, the weakest since early 2022. Meanwhile, the data shows that demand for AI skills reached a record high, with AI-related tools mentioned in 9.4% of UK job adverts. "The UK's labour market is under sustained ​pressure. Hiring demand is falling across most parts of ​the economy, while posted wage growth is gradually cooling," ⁠Indeed senior economist Jack Kennedy said.

 

Reuters

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 scrutinising 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 US 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

A survey of nearly 3,900 companies by Source Global Research has found widespread scepticism about AI in consulting, with 70% of clients saying they would not trust a report prepared using AI and 32% saying its use would undermine their confidence in a consultancy. Clients with direct experience of AI tools were even more negative, with 77% viewing AI as a bubble compared with 55% of those without such exposure. More than three-quarters of UK consulting firms are using AI to carry out work, according to a survey by the Management Consultancies Association, while the Big Four of Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC have significantly cut back their graduate recruitment schemes as they invest billions in AI technology.

 

The Daily Telegraph

The World Health Organization has accused major ultra-processed food companies of delaying anti-obesity measures by suing governments over health policies. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 235 lawsuits between 2010 and 2025 delayed reforms, increased healthcare and legal costs, and deterred countries from adopting measures such as warning labels, marketing restrictions and junk food taxes.

 

The Guardian

Apple has launched a new legal challenge against the UK’s latest attempt to create “backdoor” access to encrypted customer data, a year after the government agreed to drop a previous order.

 

Financial Times

Swiss-Dutch multinational chemical company DSM-Firmenich has launched a restructuring programme aimed at reducing annual costs by €100m. The company, which employs over 28,500 people globally, has not disclosed the specific locations of job cuts. "It is a global cost-cutting program, but exactly where and how many jobs will be affected still has to be discussed with employee representatives," said a company spokesperson, who added that some positions will also be eliminated through natural attrition. Ed Leunissen, a board member at the CNV trade union, said he is not convinced the job cuts are justified. "I always have mixed feelings when a company posts strong profits but still decides to eliminate jobs," he observed. "It doesn't always have to be about constant growth, but we're seeing that mindset more and more."

 

NL Times

Foreign bidders are wooing investors in London-listed companies with a growing number of too good to refuse “bear hug” offers, in a tactical shift that underscores the appeal of UK groups.

 

Financial Times

An Italian study of more than 5,000 school pupils, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, has found that children who opened their first personal social media account by the age of 11 or 12 had fallen behind by the equivalent of about six months of schooling by the time they sat national tests at 15 or 16, relative to peers who opened their first account at the age of 14 or 15. Professor Marco Gui said that while "most research on social media and minors has looked at mental health as an outcome, we looked at academic performance and we found clearer signs of this negative effect." Prof. Dennis Ougrin from Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the research, noted that "While the findings do not prove that social media alone causes poorer academic performance, they suggest that earlier, largely unsupervised use is associated with differences in later attainment, particularly in mathematics and language. The study also points towards plausible mechanisms, such as frequent phone checking and reduced attention, rather than simply screen time itself."

 

The Times