Human Times

European Edition

25th July 2025

ANNOUNCEMENT

HR Summit

The Human Times has partnered with Forum Events to become the official Media Partner of the HR Summit in September 2025 and February 2026. As part of its ongoing commitment and investment in the HR community, The Human Times will extend its expertise to raising awareness of the HR Summit to our UK and EU audiences over the coming months and be on hand at both events. You can register to attend the HR Summit here.

HR Summit

Hilton London Canary Wharf, 24th September 2025

Radisson Blu Hotel Manchester Airport, 11th February 2026

Register Here

THE HOT STORY

UK employers 'fear hiring disabled workers'

Sir Charlie Mayfield, who is leading a review into UK workplace sickness, has said employers are "rationally" fearful of hiring disabled people due to the risk of employment tribunals. Appointed by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, Mayfield is exploring ways to help more disabled people stay in work amid rising long-term sickness rates. He cautioned against imposing new legal duties on businesses, suggesting fear of legal action deters inclusive hiring. Mayfield said current approaches create a "stand-off" between sick employees and employers, and called for more dialogue and practical solutions. Currently, 6.8% of working-age adults are out of work due to disability, up from 5.4% pre-pandemic.

The Times

RISK

Central banks 'risk being blindsided by climate-driven shocks to global labour markets'

A report published by the London School of Economics tells central banks to prepare for climate-driven shocks to global labour markets. The report says that climate change would lower labour productivity - particularly in agriculture, construction and other sectors exposed to heat - even under relatively optimistic scenarios in which global warming is limited to 1.5-2 degrees. The report by the Centre for Economic Transition Expertise (CETEx) calls on monetary authorities to pay greater heed to environmental risks including natural disasters and the consequences of the green transition. "Our research shows that central banks should seek to integrate environmental employment risks into their policies and operations," said Joe Feyertag, senior policy fellow at CETEx and author of the report.

Reuters

STRATEGY

Pepco's German unit files for insolvency

Pepco Germany, which operates 64 stores and employs around 500 people, has filed for insolvency proceedings in Berlin. The loss-making unit said it has experienced a number of challenges since entering the market in 2022. "We see good opportunities to realign the store network in Germany so that it can prosper, despite the challenging German retail market," commented chief restructuring officer Christian Stoffler.

Reuters

REGULATION

EU drops plan to charge big tech for digital rules compliance

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for technology, has said Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta Platforms and Microsoft will not be asked to pay the cost of monitoring their compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Virkkunen said that while the rules are under review, there are currently no plans to propose such a fee. “It’s always, of course, a possibility, but now we are not having any new proposal on that,” she said. The DMA aims to limit the power of designated “gatekeeper” companies and enhance consumer choice by imposing obligations on the tech giants.

Reuters

CYBERSECURITY

Public bodies in UK to be banned from paying data ransoms

The UK government has announced plans to ban public sector organisations, including local authorities, schools, and the NHS, from paying ransoms to cybercriminals. The ban will also to apply to firms operating critical national infrastructure. Other businesses, under the plans, will be required to inform the government if they are planning to pay a ransom. Security minister Dan Jarvis commented: "Ransomware is a predatory crime that puts the public at risk, wrecks livelihoods, and threatens the services we depend on. That's why we're determined to smash the cyber-criminal business model and protect the services we all rely on as we deliver our Plan for Change."

The Daily Telegraph

Daily Mirror

LEADERSHIP

Chief people officer captured in viral Coldplay concert clip resigns

A US tech company's chief people officer who was apparently caught on a big screen at a Coldplay concert embracing the company's CEO has stood down. Kristin Cabot is no longer with Astronomer and has resigned, the firm told the BBC in a statement. Her departure follows that of Andy Byron, Astronomer's former CEO, who left last week after the company announced he would be placed on leave and investigated. Co-founder Pete DeJoy, who assumed the role of interim CEO following Byron's resignation, commented on the controversies in a July 21 LinkedIn post titled "Moving Forward at Astronomer." He wrote: "The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name." The New York-based company commercialises open source software.

USA Today

BBC News

CNBC

TECHNOLOGY

Amazon acquires AI wearables start-up Bee

Amazon is set to acquire Bee, a San Francisco-based start-up that has developed an artificial intelligence-enabled bracelet capable of transcribing conversations, which it can then analyse and distil into summaries, to-do lists, or other tasks. Terms of the deal, which is still to close, have not been disclosed. Amazon spokesperson Alexandra Miller said that Bee is working to give customers more control over the device, which has a mute button but by default works as an ongoing AI transcriber of its user’s interactions. “We design our products to protect our customers’ privacy and security and to make it easy for them to be in control of their experience - and this approach would of course apply to Bee", she explained.

Bloomberg

CNBC

ECONOMY

German consumer sentiment falls heading into August

German consumer sentiment is set to decline heading into August, marking the second consecutive drop as households increasingly hold back on spending amid persistent economic uncertainty. The consumer sentiment index, published by the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions, unexpectedly fell to -21.5 points from -20.3 points the month before. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a slight rise, to -19.2. Economic expectations took a tumble after five consecutive increases, dropping 10 points to 10.1 points.

Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

US nuclear weapons agency breached in SharePoint hack

The National Nuclear Security Administration, the US agency responsible for maintaining and designing the nation’s nuclear weapons, was breached in the hack of Microsoft’s SharePoint document management software, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who said no sensitive or classified information is known to have been compromised. “On Friday, July 18th, the exploitation of a Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability began affecting the Department of Energy,” an agency spokesman said in an email. “The department was minimally impacted due to its widespread use of the Microsoft M365 cloud and very capable cybersecurity systems. A very small number of systems were impacted. All impacted systems are being restored.” The National Nuclear Security Administration is a semiautonomous arm of the Energy Department.

Bloomberg

Mali court rejects appeal to release four Barrick employees

A court in Mali has thrown out an appeal by Barrick Mining to release four local employees who were arrested last November. The appeal by the Canadian company, which has described allegations against the employees as baseless, was determined by the judge to be "unfounded," said Alifa Habib Kone, a lawyer for Barrick. The court's rejection of the appeal is the latest development in an extended standoff between Barrick and the Mali government over taxes and ownership of mining operations in the West African country.

Reuters

McKinsey bars China practice from generative AI work amid geopolitical tensions

McKinsey has instructed its mainland Chinese operation to refrain from projects related to generative artificial intelligence amid geopolitical tensions, excluding it from a potentially lucrative local market for consultants.

Financial Times

OTHER

UN court opens door for climate lawsuits

The International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, has found states could be legally pursued for failing to act on the “urgent and existential threat” of climate change. The decision, while non-binding, is expected to have far-reaching implications, especially for nations vulnerable to climate impacts. The ruling challenges developed nations' claims that existing agreements, like the 2015 Paris Agreement, are sufficient, asserting that broader international law mandates environmental protection. Campaigners and climate lawyers hope the decision will now pave the way for compensation from countries that have historically burned the most fossil fuels and are therefore the most responsible for global warming. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the opinion, saying: "This is a victory for our planet [and] for climate justice . . . The world must respond."

BBC News

Financial Times

Reuters

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