Risk Channel delivers the latest, most relevant and useful business intelligence to key decision makers and influencers, each weekday morning.

Anthropic has warned investors that its technology may pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” in the start-up's long-awaited initial public offering prospectus. Reuters says it is an “extraordinary” warning from a company that is seeking to profit from the same technology. Anthropic's IPO ‌prospectus said the company's AI models could exhibit "self-preserving behaviours," including attempts to "resist shutdown," to "conceal or manipulate information" and behaviour "resembling blackmail." Approximately 80 pages of the 261-page main body of the prospectus lays out risk factors.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

Luxembourg-headquartered steel giant ArcelorMittal has said that strikes which killed employees at its plant in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine had forced it to cease operations in the war-torn country. The multinational ⁠said it had told ​the government in Kyiv that “safe and sustainable” operations were not possible after four strikes in five weeks caused extensive damage and killed five workers at the plant. "We are discussing the future of the plant with the Government of Ukraine and will focus on preserving the infrastructure, so when peace finally returns, options for restarting production remain available,” said ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih CEO Mauro Longobardo.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

The Guardian

A growing number of EU countries are seeking collective processes for punishing Russia over attacks that do not meet Nato’s benchmark to trigger its Article 5 mutual defence clause.

 

Financial Times

Multinationals are increasingly evaluating countries’ AI talent, infrastructure and regulatory environment before making expansion plans, placing continental Europe - typically keen on data protection rules - at a disadvantage to the US.

 

Financial Times

OpenAI has said that its AI systems may have interfered with the external websites of “dozens of third parties,” including those belonging to government bodies, public agencies, and universities, during routine testing evaluations. According to the company, its AI models bypassed digital security barriers, disrupted website accessibility, or negatively affected services while conducting testing routines. “Some of the websites involved are operated by governments, universities, public agencies, and other institutions. That is partly because models performing research tasks are often directed toward authoritative sources of public information,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. 

 

Financial Times

Deutsche Welle

BBC News

More than $350m has been stolen from crypto exchange Bitget. The theft is the largest crypto hack so far this year. Bitget had noticed "unauthorised transfers" from some of its ​wallets on Thursday and it "temporarily suspended" ​customer withdrawals, Gracy Chen, CEO of the ⁠Seychelles-based company, said. Chen said all user funds were ​safe and that the loss was covered by Bitget's own funds. "Withdrawals remain temporarily suspended as a security precaution, ​not because of any shortfall in funds," ​Chen told Reuters. Bitget said it had engaged incident response giant Mandiant and blockchain security outfit SlowMist to help with the investigation into the attack. The firm said the methods used were “highly consistent” with those of North Korean hackers.

 

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters

The Register

Teachers, healthcare workers, local government staff, tax officials and firefighters in France are on strike today to put pressure on the government ahead of the 2027 budget debates later this week, which could see a freeze on public sector salaries for a fourth successive year. “There are a lot of expectations, there is a profound anger among civil servants,” CFDT union head Marylise Léon said on France 2 TV yesterday. “There’s a fundamental problem of compensation and recognition for this work,” she observed.

 

Bloomberg

France 24

RFI

The founder of failed UK mortgage provider Market Financial Solutions, Paresh Raja, has blamed Barclays for its collapse after it froze accounts held by the group in November last year. Mr Raja is fighting claims he personally received more than £408m from funds managed by MFS while total fraud claims are at least £1.3bn. FRP Advisory and Begbies Traynor have been drafted in to sell more than 250 property companies controlled by individuals with links to MFS.

 

Financial Times

The Daily Telegraph

Insolvency Service chief executive Duncan Beach tells The Times that he is launching a five-year strategy to combat so-called "abusive phoenixing" in the UK. Beach tells the newspaper about the corrosive impact of directors who repeatedly and intentionally walk away from their company's debts, only to set up similar businesses again.  "It is such a blight on the economy. It's so visible to everybody when they see something closing down and starting up again the next day," Beach says. He observes that fraud is a growing problem - but the number of fraud cases being prosecuted has fallen by 56% since 2015, and while in 2010 more than 10,000 fraudsters were sentenced, that number has fallen steadily to 3,361.

 

The Times

Armani is open to splitting the planned sale of a 15% stake among multiple investors, although chief executive Giuseppe Marsocci said no decision has been made. Founder Giorgio Armani’s will stipulated that the initial stake should be sold between 12 and 18 months after his death, followed by the sale of a larger holding or a stock market listing. LVMH, L’Oréal, and EssilorLuxottica were named as preferred buyers, alongside other investors of “equal standing”, and Armani intends to follow the timetable set by its founder subject to agreement on price and other terms. The group has also identified accessories as a growth opportunity following the appointment of Dario Vitale as creative director of Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani accessories.

 

Reuters

The European Union will remove Vietnam and Panama from its tax haven list during the upcoming finance ministers' meeting in Luxembourg. Vietnam will transition to a grey list, while Panama will be completely removed. Panama's finance minister, Felipe Chapman, emphasized the importance of this change, stating that the country has enacted legislation to enhance tax transparency and combat shell companies. The EU updates its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions biannually, reflecting ongoing efforts to improve tax compliance.

 

Bloomberg Tax

US Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that that the Trump administration was permitted to ban three news outlets from the White House because “it is a privilege and not a right to be there.” President Trump banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW reporters from the grounds of the executive mansion and had their passes confiscated by Secret Service. “Well, the president hasn't denied access,” Blanche told “This Week” host Martha Raddatz on ABC News. “That's not the right way to describe it. This is what the president has said – is that he is sick and tired of certain media outlets just refusing to report accurate news.” Blanche emphasised that Trump made his decision “after years and years of one-sided media coverage” that was “not fair to the American people.”

 

The Hill

The Guardian