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APAC Edition
18th July 2025
 
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THE HOT STORY

China prison sentence for Astellas Japanese employee

The Nikkei newspaper has reported that a court in Beijing has sentenced a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma to 3-1/2 years in prison. The man had been detained since March 2023 on suspicion of spying and had been indicted about a year ago. When asked a question about a Chinese court sentencing an employee of a Japanese pharmaceutical company to prison for espionage, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that the country's judicial authorities handle cases in accordance with the law.
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LEGAL

Samsung boss cleared of fraud by South Korea's top court

Samsung boss Lee Jae-yong has been cleared by South Korea's top court of fraud charges, concluding a years-long legal battle over his role in a 2015 merger deal. Lee, the grandson of Samsung's founder and the de facto head of the company since 2014, had been accused of using stock and accounting fraud to try to gain control of the firm. In its final verdict, the Supreme Court in Seoul upheld a not guilty verdict, after Lee was acquitted of all charges in two earlier trials. "Today, the Supreme Court has clearly confirmed through its final ruling that the merger of Samsung C&T and the accounting treatment of Samsung Biologics were lawful," said Samsung's lawyers. Prosecutors accused Lee and his advisors of inflating the value of his pharmaceutical firm, Samsung Biologics, through fraudulent accounting.
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CYBERSECURITY

Taiwan chip industry targeted by Chinese-linked hacking groups

Chinese-linked hackers are increasingly targeting Taiwan's semiconductor industry and investment analysts as part of a series of cyber espionage campaigns, according to researchers from cybersecurity firm Proofpoint. Mark Kelly, a threat researcher, observed: "We’ve seen entities that we hadn’t ever seen being targeted in the past being targeted," as he highlighted the growing sophistication and frequency of these attacks amid rising tensions over semiconductor negotiations between Beijing and Washington.
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STRATEGY

Harvey expands with Indian base

Legal AI firm Harvey will open a new office in Bengaluru later this year, aiming to bolster its engineering, sales, and operations teams. The move supports Harvey's strategic push for global expansion and enhanced client delivery. The India hub is expected to fuel innovation and strengthen its competitive position in the legal tech market. Meanwhile, Law.com reports on how, in a rapidly evolving legal landscape, A&O Shearman has not only co-developed agentic AI tools with the Harvey platform but has also revamped its business model to remain competitive amid AI disruption. 
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REMUNERATION

Meta offers mega pay for AI talent

Bloomberg reports that Meta Platforms has made record-breaking compensation offers to attract artificial intelligence experts to its "superintelligence" team, including a package exceeding $200m for ex-Apple engineer Ruoming Pang. These multi-year offers combine base salary, cash bonuses, and heavily performance-tied Meta stock. Apple reportedly did not counter due to internal pay norms. Meta’s AI recruitment push also includes former GitHub chief executive Nat Friedman and Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, now Meta’s Chief AI Officer via a $14.3bn equity deal. Offers rival chief executive pay at major banks and are structured to reward long-term loyalty and Meta stock performance. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said some employees received $100m signing bonuses but stayed due to OpenAI’s innovation culture. Nonetheless, Meta has hired over 10 OpenAI researchers along with talent from Anthropic and Google. 
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ECONOMY

World risks up to $39 trillion in economic losses from destroying wetlands, report says

A report from the Convention on Wetlands says the destruction of the world's wetlands, which support fisheries, agriculture and flood control, may mean the loss of $39tn in economic benefits by 2050. "The scale of loss and degradation is beyond what we can afford to ignore," said Hugh Robertson, the lead author of the report, which calls for annual investments of $275bn-$550bn to reverse the threats to the remaining wetlands, and said current spending was a "substantial under-investment."
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CORPORATE

Alimentation Couche-Tard drops $46bn pursuit of 7-Eleven owner

Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard has abandoned its ¥6.77tn ($45.8bn) bid to acquire Seven & i Holdings, accusing the Japanese parent company of the 7-Eleven brand of a “persistent lack of good faith engagement." In a letter to the Seven & i board on Wednesday, Couche-Tard added that directors "have engaged in a calculated campaign of obfuscation and delay, to the great detriment of 7&i and its shareholders." In a statement, Seven & i said it regretted Couche-Tard’s decision to walk away, but said many of the reasons given were inaccurate and unacceptable. "We remain fully committed to our standalone value creation plan, which we have been pursuing in parallel," it added. Seven & i, whose first foreign chief executive Stephen Dacus was appointed in May, has been under intense pressure to improve its recent earnings performance. "We are very disappointed in what appears to be a lack of willingness to engage from Seven & i," said Manoj Jain, co-founder of Hong Kong-based Maso Capital, a Seven & i shareholder. "We believe there is significant value to be realised in a combination and have expressed this view to the management and the board."
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INTERNATIONAL

Work-from-home ban relaxed for US federal employees for religious reasons

The Trump administration has said federal staff can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious fasts and prayers, after previously mandating that workers report to offices full time. Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor urged agencies to "adopt a generous approach" to allowing employees to work remotely before and during religious holidays, advising that workers who want to take breaks during the workday while they are fasting should also get permission to work from home. Agencies seeking to deny a request to work remotely for religious reasons must justify it with "evidence of significant operational impact," Kupor said.

Greek port workers block arms shipment to Israel

Workers at Greece's Piraeus Port have halted a shipment of military-grade steel destined for Israel as they protest against the ongoing violence in Gaza. Markos Bekris, president of the ENEDEP union, said: "We will not let the port become an outpost of the US, NATO or the EU," as he highlighted a commitment to preventing the transport of what the union deems deadly cargo. Since October 2023, Israel's offensive has resulted in over 58,000 Palestinian deaths, predominantly women and children, alongside widespread destruction and humanitarian crises. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials for war crimes, and Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

Irish debt office to review security protocols following phishing attack

The Irish state agency that manages debt and the sovereign wealth fund is to review security protocols after losing €5m ($5.9m) in a scam. The phishing attack at Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) was discovered last week after staff at the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), a sovereign development fund that the debt office also manages, voiced concern about a payment made to what they thought was an investee company. NTMA chief executive Frank O'Connor explained that it was found that a fraudulent payment request from a third party, designed to look like a legitimate request from the existing investee company, had been received at the time of an expected drawdown of funds.

More than half of UAE employees check work emails during leave

According to a survey by Robert Walters, over 54% of professionals in the UAE and Middle East check work emails during annual leave, and only 22% feel refreshed upon returning to the workplace. Jason Grundy, managing director of Robert Walters Middle East, said: “Annual leave should provide professionals respite and a chance to reset – it shouldn't cause them to become more stressed than before they went away.” The study highlights that 65% of employees experience anxiety when returning to work, with many resorting to "firefighting tactics" to manage their workload. The phenomenon of "fear of falling behind" (FOFB) is prevalent:  63% of professionals say they find it easier to relax on leave when their teams are also off.
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OTHER

Research reveals PFAS can be expelled by gut microbes

Research from the University of Cambridge in the UK has revealed that certain gut microbes can absorb and help eliminate toxic "forever chemicals" known as PFAS from the body, potentially offering a more effective solution than current methods like bloodletting or side-effect-inducing drugs. The study's authors are now working on developing probiotic supplements to enhance these beneficial microbes in humans, although they caution that this approach should not detract from addressing the broader PFAS contamination issue.
 
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