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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing a new policy that would allow crypto companies to offer blockchain-based ​stocks. Crypto sector advocates say blockchain-based instruments that track traditional equities have the potential to revolutionize stock markets by enabling shares to ‌be traded round the clock and settled instantly, boosting liquidity and reducing transaction costs. SEC chair, Paul Atkins, could announce an "innovation exemption" soon, Reuters reports. He has said this would allow companies to experiment with new digital asset business models without needing to comply with all of the SEC's disclosure and investor-protection rules.

 

Reuters

The General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), France’s domestic intelligence service, has ditched AI data tools from Palantir in favor of domestic provider ChapsVision to avoid “strategic dependency”, French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu has said. “We must use our own AI models; we cannot accept new strategic dependencies in ‌the digital sphere,” Lecornu posted on social media. “We cannot rely on tools developed by foreign powers. France must have its own tools.” The DGSI has worked with Palantir since 2016; it renewed its contract in December 2025, which was due to run until 2028.

 

Euractiv

Politico

The Guardian

Reuters reports that the U.S. has held off adding China’s AI startup DeepSeek, ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China's top memory chipmaker, and more than 100 other companies flagged as national security risks to a trade blacklist, according ‌to sources. DeepSeek, CXMT and other companies were approved by an interagency committee in 2025 for addition to the Commerce Department's Entity List.

 

Reuters

Crypto exchange Binance is poised to ‌lose permission to serve European Union clients from next month because its licence application is about to be rejected, Reuters reports. Under new EU rules, called MiCA, crypto companies have until the end of this month to obtain a licence to enable ​them to continue servicing clients throughout the 27-nation bloc. Binance's application, which was made to Greece's market regulator, is to ​be turned down, two people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

 

Reuters

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which seeks to unify state-level insurance rules, is examining credit risks linked to data center projects, which are increasingly showing up in insurers’ investment portfolios.

 

Financial Times

FulcrumSec, a cyber extortion group that first emerged in October 2025, claims to have stolen more than a terabyte of data from Novo Nordisk and has said it is ‌exploring selling parts of the data after unsuccessfully demanding $25m from the Danish pharmaceutical giant. The data is said to include company source code, proprietary information on ​released and unreleased drugs, trial data, employee, doctor and patient data. A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said the company "is aware of claims that data allegedly copied ⁠externally without authorization from our systems has been published online. We take this matter seriously and maintain continued operations of our main platforms. ​We are in contact with the relevant authorities."

 

Reuters

Starbucks Korea will close all of its stores nationwide at 3 p.m. on June 22nd to allow employees to participate in mandatory history and social sensitivity training after a marketing campaign sparked accusations that it mocked victims of South Korea’s 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising. The controversy centered on a promotion for “SS Tank” tumblers that branded May 18 as “Tank Day,” a date that coincides with the anniversary of the military crackdown in Gwangju, in which troops, tanks, and helicopters were deployed against protesters. The campaign also used a slogan that critics linked to the cover-up of the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Starbucks Korea’s parent company, Shinsegae Group, canceled the promotion within hours, dismissed the chain’s chief executive, issued a public apology, and announced company-wide training aimed at preventing similar incidents in the future.

 

The Seattle Times

Trading platform Robinhood is to cut 10% of its full-time ​workforce, or about 290 roles, as it seeks to ‌operate more efficiently by flattening organizational layers. “Robinhood's ‌business has never been stronger,” CEO Vlad ⁠Tenev said in a note to employees shared on social media platform X, adding: “We cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization. We must be a lean, hyper-focused team.” The Menlo ‌Park, California-based company had about 2,900 full-time employees as ‌of December 31, a regulatory filing showed.

 

CNBC

A former Citigroup executive claims in a lawsuit that she was dismissed after ‌raising regulatory and compliance questions. A source familiar with the case said the concerns involved a request to open a bank account connected to President Donald Trump. The heavily redacted complaint, filed in ​Brooklyn federal court, was filed anonymously, using the pseudonym Jane Doe. The plaintiff, a former managing director in Citi's wealth management division, ​claimed she had identified deficiencies in Citi's ​internal controls for risk management, anti-money laundering, reputation risk, and data compliance. Citigroup has denied the allegations in the ​lawsuit and said it had "absolutely zero merit."

 

Financial Times

Reuters

The Department of Justice is asking a Mississippi federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the NAACP against xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence lab that is now owned by SpaceX. In its motion to intervene, the DOJ accused the NAACP of threatening “American national, economic, and energy security” by seeking to shut off power supply needed for AI development. The suit filed in April by the NAACP claimed that xAI violated the federal Clean Air Act by using dozens of methane gas-burning turbines to power its AI data centers without proper permits or pollution controls. “There is no moral or legal precedent for this,” said Laura Thoms, the director of enforcement for Earthjustice, which is representing the NAACP. “This isn’t about national security; it’s a desperate attempt to protect wealthy tech companies from obeying the laws meant to protect people from pollution.”

 

AP News

CNBC

New York Times

The Guardian

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has told attendees at ​the VivaTech technology conference in Paris that artificial intelligence will not replace humans; rather, it will lead to labor shortages. "I ​know there's a lot of concern that many people have, including many smart people, that AI ​is going to make humans redundant and so on," Bezos said. "I totally disagree with this point of view. And I think, in fact, AI is going to create a labor shortage." Bezos observed that people have "endless" ‌things ⁠to do, and are currently limited by barriers that he said AI would lower.

 

Reuters

The Federal Reserve has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.5%–3.75%, but policymakers have signaled that their next move is increasingly likely to be a rate hike rather than a rate cut, marking a significant shift at Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as Fed chair. The clearest indication came from the Fed’s latest economic projections. Nine of 19 officials now expect at least one rate increase before the end of 2026, compared with none in March, while only one official expects a rate cut, down from 12 previously. The decision to hold rates steady was unanimous. The change reflects a stronger-than-expected U.S. economy. Inflation has accelerated this year, driven by higher energy prices following the Iran conflict and robust demand linked to artificial intelligence-related investment. Meanwhile, the labor market has remained resilient despite earlier concerns about slowing employment growth. Although the Fed’s policy statement offered little guidance on future moves, emphasizing only that it “will deliver price stability,” investors interpreted the projections as a more hawkish stance.  

 

Bloomberg

CNBC

Washington Post

Wall Street Journal

The United ‌Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that almost all of the world's children are exposed to at least one climate hazard. UNICEF's Children's Climate Risk Report says as many as 1.1 billion children globally were exposed to at least three overlapping climate risks that could overwhelm governments ​and social services. "It's not just the exposure to the single hazards like floods or droughts ‌or ⁠heat waves and extreme heat that children face, but it is the exposure to multiple hazards," explained Rohini Sampoornam Swaminathan, UNICEF statistics manager.

 

Reuters

UNICEF

The Guardian