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Apple is reportedly in talks to source memory chips from Chinese semiconductor manufacturers ChangXin Memory Technologies and Yangtze Memory Technologies for devices sold in China, as it seeks to ease the impact of a global memory shortage that has driven up component costs and forced price increases across its product range. The discussions are said to be ongoing and no agreement has been reached. Both companies are on a Pentagon blacklist of entities alleged to support China's military, raising the prospect of political opposition in Washington despite there being no formal requirement for Apple to obtain approval. According to the report, chief executive Tim Cook has appealed to Trump administration officials in an effort to mitigate any political fallout. Apple currently sources memory chips from Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology, all of which are struggling to meet surging demand.

 

The Japan Times

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A preliminary report from the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, which has been described as the first global independent ​assessment of AI's risks and opportunities, has said developments in the technology are outpacing scientific understanding and government policy, and there are no guarantees that it will not cause ‌catastrophic harm. "AI capabilities ​are outpacing both scientific understanding and governments’ ability to adapt," said Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the panel. "With growing evidence of deceptive AI behavior, science currently cannot guarantee that as capabilities continue to ⁠increase, AI will not cause catastrophic harm, either on its own or due to malicious users." AI's task complexity is doubling every four to seven months, potentially allowing systems to complete work that takes humans days or ‌weeks, the report notes.

 

Euronews

Reuters

The Guardian

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new guidance warning that AI companies whose chatbots are designed to produce responses aligned with "ideological objectives" could violate federal consumer protection law. The agency said AI developers that train models to avoid responses deemed discriminatory toward certain groups may, in some cases, run afoul of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive business practices. The FTC also said complying with Colorado's AI anti-discrimination law could potentially conflict with the FTC Act, reflecting the Trump administration's broader scrutiny of perceived political bias in AI systems. The proposal is open for public comment through July 31, after which the agency will consider whether to adopt the policy. The guidance is the latest effort by FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson to use the agency's consumer protection powers to address concerns raised by conservatives over alleged ideological bias in technology platforms. 

 

Reuters

The U.S. government is in advanced talks with AI companies to create voluntary standards for the release of new models. The guidance could be announced as soon as next week.

 

Financial Times

Elon Musk has denied a Wall Street Journal report which said that SpaceX showed investors and other stakeholders a prototype for a handset-like device designed to reshape how humans interact with AI ahead of its blockbuster IPO. "Utterly ‌false," Musk wrote in a post on X, without elaborating. The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that Musk has in the past weighed building a smartphone due to frustration over how Apple controls distribution of third-party apps such as X. “The idea of making a phone makes me want to die,” Musk said last year. “But if we have to make a phone, we will.”

 

Reuters

The Verge

Cryptocurrency companies have spent $189m ​so far - more than one-third of all corporate money - to influence the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, according to a report from Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization. Companies in the AI, big tech and ​online betting sectors have also contributed heavily, the report said. "The big ​takeaway is that corporate money is playing a bigger role than ever in our elections, and it's only expanding," observed Rick Claypool, a ​research director at Public Citizen.

 

Reuters

The U.S. economy added just 57,000 jobs in June, well below economists' forecasts of 115,000, signaling a slowdown in hiring after stronger gains earlier this spring. The Labor Department report also found that unemployment rate unexpectedly edged down to 4.2%, largely because the labor force shrank by 720,000 people during the month, pushing the labor force participation rate down to 61.5%, its lowest level since March 2021. Healthcare and social assistance accounted for most of the month's job gains, while leisure and hospitality shed 61,000 positions, and previously reported payroll growth for April and May was revised down by a combined 74,000 jobs. The weaker-than-expected employment report also reduced market expectations for a near-term Federal Reserve interest rate increase, even as wage growth remained modest at 3.5% year over year and inflation continued to outpace earnings. The Labor Department's weekly jobs report, published separately, found that the number of filings for unemployment benefits in the seven days to June 27th fell by 1,000 to 215,000. Analysts had expected 225,000 new applications. The four-week moving average fell 2,500 to 222,000, while the total number of filings, reported with a one-week lag, rose 2,000 to 1.81m.

 

AP News

CNN

CNBC

Wall Street Journal

New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell 1.3% in May, reversing part of April's 5.3% gain, as a sharp drop in commercial aircraft orders outweighed continued strength in other manufacturing sectors. Orders for commercial aircraft fell 51.8%, with Boeing receiving 27 orders in May compared with 136 in April, while demand for computers and electronic products, machinery, primary metals, and fabricated metal products remained strong, supported in part by investment in artificial intelligence. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a key measure of business investment, increased 1.4%, indicating that underlying business spending remained resilient despite the broader decline in factory orders.

 

Reuters

U.S. lawmakers has launched national ⁠security ⁠investigations into whether drugmakers Merck and AbbVie have ⁠been involved in clinical trials in China that helped Beijing's military capability. Lawmakers led by Republican Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, chair of ‌the China Select Committee, called on the drugmakers to provide ‌by July 17 details of due diligence, data protection processes and other standards at their trial sites in China, particularly in the Xinjiang region - home to the Turkic Uyghur people - and ⁠at military hospitals. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021 does not specifically address clinical ⁠trials, ⁠but it reflects best practices to help ensure operations do not involve forced labor, the lawmakers said. "Through a combination of regulatory reforms, state subsidies, and (at best) questionable ethics, China ​has transformed itself into the cheapest and ⁠fastest place in the world to run early-stage human drug trials," they observed.

 

U.S. News

A federal lawsuit filed by California drivers accuses major gas chains, including Walmart and 7-Eleven, along with technology company Kalibrate, of colluding to keep gas prices artificially high using AI software. The lawsuit, which tests California's updated antitrust law, claims that Kalibrate's program encourages gas stations to share private pricing data, leading to price-fixing. “The quintessential image of price fixing is a secret deal made between competitors over cigars in a smoky back room,” attorneys wrote in the complaint. “But as technology has advanced, so too have the mechanisms available to competitors to fix prices without the cigars, the smoke, or even the room.”

 

Los Angeles Times

World Cup fans have sued StubHub, saying the resale ​platform had failed to deliver expensive tickets for the tournament purchased on the ‌secondary market. In a proposed class action filed in Manhattan federal court, fans claimed they "did not get what they paid for" ​because StubHub never delivered their promised tickets. "[Fans] were lied to and purchased World Cup tickets for large sums of money - only to incur tremendous financial losses . . . This is a new low for a sports ticketing industry that has been rampant with consumer protection issues time and time again to the detriment of the fans who make sports special," the complaint said. StubHub said: “Our singular ⁠goal is to get fans into events, and if anything goes wrong, ​our FanProtect Guarantee provides replacement tickets or a full refund."

 

CBC

Reuters

A Swedish court has ordered Google to pay around SKr14.3bn ($1.5bn) in damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison website owned by Klarna, after ruling that the technology giant unfairly favored its own shopping comparison service in search results. Including interest, the award totals around $2bn, making it the largest competition damages award in Swedish legal history, although substantially below the SKr78bn originally sought. The case stems from a long-running dispute over Google's search practices, which the European Commission first ruled against in 2017. PriceRunner argued that Google's preferential treatment of its own shopping service significantly reduced traffic to rival comparison websites, resulting in lost profits across the U.K., Sweden and Denmark. Google said it disagrees with the ruling and is reviewing its legal options.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

A new KPMG survey has found that while 72% of executives say they have a strong understanding of their companies' sustainability strategies, only 19% report using robust financial valuation methods to quantify sustainability's impact on value creation and future performance. Surveying more than 2,000 senior executives across 19 countries, KPMG found that 60% of companies incorporate sustainability risks and opportunities into financial planning and 50% have embedded sustainability into their business strategies, but many lack the tools and frameworks needed to connect sustainability with financial outcomes. The report found the banking and capital markets sector leads in applying advanced valuation techniques at 33%, followed by energy and natural resources and automotive, both at 31%, with KPMG warning that companies unable to quantify sustainability risks and opportunities risk mispricing investments and missing long-term value creation opportunities.

 

ESG Today

Women taking weight-loss drugs are more likely to land a job, according to research by Harvard University economics professor Rebecca Diamond, who found that the employment rate for women who weren't working before taking the medicine rose after about eighteen months. Those women who were already working weren’t more likely to get a better job, she said. “What does not change for women is equally informative. The arrangements that do not respond are the ones already in place, where any first impression occurred long ago and where weight is one characteristic embedded in a much richer stock of information,” Diamond concluded. Single women taking the medication were also more likely to get married or start living with a partner, the research found.

 

Bloomberg