THE HOT STORY

BMW prepares for talks with staff following profit warning

BMW is said to be preparing for talks with staff representatives after the German carmaker issued a profit warning last week and said ‌it would accelerate efficiency measures. "We are initially working on viable solutions, through dialogue and with a sense of responsibility toward our employees," a works council spokesperson said. Reuters notes that unlike Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, BMW has not yet announced sweeping redundancy programmes.

Reuters

WORKFORCE

Euro-area pay growth is set to accelerate

The European Central Bank’s wage tracker forecasts that salaries will grow by an annual 2.6% in in the third and fourth quarter - stronger than the projection for the first six months, but below the 5.2% peak of two years ago. “This increase over the course of the year reflects the fading mechanical downward effect of large one-off payments that were made in 2024 but not in 2025,” the ECB said. Bloomberg notes that policymakers are currently particularly attentive to salaries because they want to prevent an energy-induced inflation surge from becoming entrenched in wages and companies’ selling prices.

Bloomberg

TECHNOLOGY

AI use in UK hits 'tipping point'

Maureen Costello, Google Cloud's vice president for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa, has told Reuters that AI adoption has reached a "tipping point" in the UK, as companies move from experimentation to large-scale deployment and begin to see returns. Google research suggests that AI could boost productivity by about 20%, effectively giving business owners "a day back" each ⁠week, Costello said, but there needs to be investment in skills, leadership engagement and trust. "Technology is only half ⁠of the answer - people are the other half," Costello said. "Leaders can't sleep at the wheel, they need to get hands-on and understand how to apply this in their organisations."

Reuters

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Rise in burnout-related absenteeism strains tight Dutch labour market

International staffing company Randstad has reported a rise in Dutch workers leaving jobs due to stress and burnout, particularly women and younger employees. The healthcare, education, and engineering sectors are said to be feeling the strain most acutely. “With burnout, you are often at home for as long as half a year,” the company noted in describing the pattern among younger workers. Randstad Netherlands CEO Jeroen Tiel said the broader economic impact is significant. “It erodes the labour productivity that we so urgently need, and it also chokes sectors that are dealing with acute shortages. Work pressure and job satisfaction are also suffering,” he said.

NL Times

WORKPLACE

Special Report : Women in Business

A series of FT reports looks at issues including: why the Nordic region’s famously generous family-friendly policies are making no impact; the value of menstrual leave and fears over unintended consequences.

Financial Times

LEGAL

EU Parliament urged by Hungary to drop lawsuit over funds release

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar is to request that the European Parliament (EP) withdraws its 2024 lawsuit against the European Commission regarding the release of EU funds to Hungary. The EP initiated the lawsuit after the Commission unblocked €10.2bn ($11.71bn) in December 2023, while it ⁠was seeking to persuade Budapest to lift its veto on €50bn ($57.38bn) in aid for Ukraine. "This lawsuit could have a major impact on Hungary's EU funds," ⁠Magyar said in a Facebook post. "I will ask the president (of the EP) to withdraw the lawsuit, or at least request the suspension of proceedings so that ⁠EU funds due to the Hungarian people are not jeopardised because of the ⁠decisions of the previous government." His administration aims to unlock an additional €16.4bn ($18.82bn) in EU recovery funds, crucial for revitalising Hungary's stagnant economy.

U.S. News

ECONOMY

Exports fall by £74bn since Brexit

The UK has lost £74bn in goods exports since Brexit, according to the Resolution Foundation. The decline, which represents a 20% drop in goods exports from 2019 to 2024, is the sharpest among G7 nations. Key sectors like cars and pharmaceuticals have suffered the most. Sophie Hale, research director at the Resolution Foundation, said: "The UK has lost ground in exactly the goods the world is buying more of." A British Chambers of Commerce survey shows that 54% of UK exporters believe the post-Brexit trade agreement has hindered their sales to the EU, while just 16% said the trade agreement has helped them to increase their exports.

The Times

INTERNATIONAL

Australian court bans ex-Star CEO for six years over money laundering failures

A court in Australia has banned former Star Entertainment CEO Matthias Bekier from managing companies for six years and fined him A$700,000 ($494,620) over failure to handle ‌money laundering risks at the casino operator. The judgment comes months after the Federal Court found Bekier and former chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin breached their duties by failing to sufficiently address risks at the company. Much of the judgment was devoted to the pair's self-serving statements which referred to the distress of the case but not the failings that brought it about. "Although both contraveners relied upon evidence of reputational harm, professional consequences and, in Ms Martin's case, physical and psychological conditions, there was very little evidence demonstrating developed insight into the seriousness of the contraventions themselves," Justice Lee said.

ABC News

Reuters

US central bank urged to strengthen how it protects employees

The Inspector General (IG), the Federal Reserve’s internal watchdog, is urging the central bank to strengthen how it protects employees and information during periods of international travel where foreign intelligence agencies might ‌be operational. The IG said the Fed currently lacks a formal program to prepare staff for international travel and does not make checks after staff trips to investigate whether anything suspicious has occurred. The central bank does not have ⁠a program to track employee foreign travel or to share risk assessments, and it does not have the tools to make sure staff comply with foreign travel rules, the watchdog said.

Reuters

China issues five-year employment plan

China has published its next five-year ‌plan for implementing the "employment-first strategy." The plan issued by China's State Council, the cabinet, said China would stabilise jobs in labour-intensive sectors including light manufacturing, textiles, foreign trade and construction, and grow employment in services including ‌elderly ⁠care, childcare, tourism, and catering. The country will also adapt to the development of AI to promote employment and entrepreneurship, and explore new forms of ⁠human-machine collaboration, the plan said.

Reuters

OTHER

States - not armed groups - are top killers of children in war, UN says

A UN report reveals that, for the first time in 30 years, government forces rather than armed groups are responsible for the majority of grave violations against children in conflict zones. Israel topped the list countries responsible for violations, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar, Somalia, and Sudan. Vanessa Frazier, the UN's special representative for children and armed conflict, said the report's findings were indicative of “a worrying shift” and “a deeper erosion of respect for international law.” The report found 38,558 verified grave violations against 24,174 children during 2025, the highest number since the UN's mandate on children and armed conflict was created in December 1996.

Arab News

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