Germany’s recession is exposing a quiet crisis: One in eight companies now pays its bills late. Over 360,000 firms, from factories to care homes, are delaying payments, pushing smaller suppliers toward the brink. This isn’t just bad manners. It’s a systemic threat.

Germany’s auto industry is facing another brutal shake-up. ZF, the country’s second-largest supplier after Bosch, is slashing 7,600 jobs in its drive systems unit, a quarter of its global workforce in that division. The turnaround plan is as painful as it is urgent.

Germany’s economic crisis isn’t what you think. It’s not mass layoffs, it’s the death of renewal. 🇩🇪

🎧 Big shake-up at Spotify: Founder Daniel Ek is stepping down as CEO, and handing the reins to two deputies.

A sparkling first for Pandora 💎 The world’s biggest jeweller has appointed its first-ever female CEO, a move that signals fresh direction and modern leadership for the iconic brand.

Another FTSE giant may be eyeing the exit. Smith & Nephew has sparked fears it could ditch its UK listing, joining the growing exodus of British firms heading to the US. 🇬🇧➡️🇺🇸

👗 ASOS just warned that “subdued demand” has hit profits, sending shares tumbling nearly 5%. After years of struggle, the online fashion giant’s turnaround still isn’t runway-ready. A quick thread 🧵👇

🚨 Close Brothers just reported a £122 million loss, wiping out profits and shaking confidence in UK motor finance. What went wrong? A thread on the growing scandal that’s catching banks off guard 🧵👇

Corporate America’s psychological contract is broken. AT&T’s blunt memo (“we’ve shifted away from loyalty”) didn’t start it; it said the quiet part out loud. Now trust is in free fall.

HR is no longer a back-office function; it’s the strategic core of modern business. A new study of 1,000 CHROs in the UK & US finds 88% say their influence is at a record high.

Britain is paying the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world. 63% higher than France and 27% higher than Germany. 🇬🇧⚡️ For households, the UK ranks second globally, with bills twice as high as in the US.

Tesla’s leadership ranks are thinning. At least 10 top executives have left in the past year, including long-time Musk loyalists like “Musk whisperer” Omead Afshar and sales chief Troy Jones.

Trump vs. Microsoft’s Lisa Monaco Trump demands Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco. Monaco, ex–Deputy Attorney General and now Microsoft’s head of Global Affairs, is accused by Trump (without evidence) of being a “security risk” given Redmond’s federal contracts.

Pfizer bends to Trump’s pressure The Trump administration has forced Pfizer into a price-cut deal. Under the agreement, the pharma giant will reduce drug prices under Medicaid, and link future prices to those paid in other wealthy nations.

Charlie Javice sentenced Charlie Javice, once a fintech wunderkind and Forbes 30 Under 30, has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for defrauding J.P. Morgan over the 2021 sale of student-aid startup Frank.

Inside Google’s $32B Cybersecurity Bet Google’s biggest-ever deal is about defence, not data. The tech giant is paying $32 billion for Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, a startup that began inside a military unit.

Starmer’s Tech Talent Play The UK is moving to undercut the US in the global talent race. Starmer’s new “global talent taskforce” is weighing visa fee cuts and faster routes for top scientists and digital experts.

The Hidden Crisis Facing International Students in the US The dream of studying in the US often comes with an impossible choice for international students: Follow visa rules or survive.

Germany’s skills crisis in the age of AI A new study finds that most HR leaders in Germany don’t believe their teams are ready for the AI era, and many can’t even identify the skills they have.

Germany’s fragile unity, 35 years on A new Forsa poll reveals only 35% of Germans believe East and West have “largely grown together”, the lowest level in over a decade. In 2019, more than half felt united.

Germany’s start-up paradox Germany’s start-up scene is growing frustrated. Only 57% of founders now view the country positively, down four points in a year, as bureaucracy continues to choke innovation. Yet, in a twist, Germany is becoming more attractive than the US.

Accenture’s AI reset: Who gets left behind? Accenture is laying off staff, it says can’t be “retrained for the AI era.” CEO Julie Sweet told analysts the company will exit employees who can’t adapt, while hiring new AI specialists.

A former Meta scientist has accused the company of hiding evidence of child sexual abuse inside its VR platforms. He says teams were told to delete findings linking Meta’s tech to grooming and abuse.

From the Black Forest to global AI dominance 🌍 Freiburg’s Black Forest Labs is now worth $4B just 14 months after launch. It controls 86% of the image generation market and earns $100M a year. Here’s how it rose so fast: 👇

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has left a mark on Washington that few expected. By year’s end, the US government will have 300,000 fewer workers, roughly one in eight civil servants gone.

Trump just blindsided tech workers and companies with a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas. What started as a confusing rollout has turned into chaos, and a warning sign for global talent.

Accenture is taking a hard line in the age of AI. The consultancy has cut 11,000 jobs in three months, warning more staff will be “exited” if they can’t be retrained for AI-era skills.

AI model maker Cohere just raised another $100M, lifting its valuation to $7B, just a month after its last $500M round. The twist? A new strategic partnership with AMD.

Hybrid work is tightening across the UK. New data from Indeed shows 85% of hybrid job ads now require at least 2 days a week in the office, up from 65% in 2022. The era of “work from anywhere” is fading.

Lufthansa confirms plans to cut 4,000 administrative jobs by 2030. The move aims to digitise and automate processes, increasing efficiency through AI, but signals deep restructuring.

Meta has quietly poached another senior OpenAI researcher. Yang Song, who led the Strategic Explorations team, has joined Meta’s Superintelligence Lab as Research Principal.

EA, the publisher behind Battlefield, The Sims and Mass Effect, is reportedly being sold in a $50B buyout. It would be the largest leveraged acquisition in gaming history.

Onboarding isn’t paperwork, it’s your first culture test” Think onboarding is just about handing over a laptop and login? That’s how most companies lose great hires before week two. Here’s what good onboarding really does 👇

A new global alliance wants to draw “red lines” for AI, limits that the tech must never cross. Over 200 experts, including Geoffrey Hinton and OpenAI co-founder Wojciech Zaremba, are calling for an international AI safety pact. 👇

Trump’s approved the long-awaited TikTok deal, but ByteDance might still cash in. Up to 50% of US revenues could keep flowing back to China 🇨🇳. Here’s how 👇

Microsoft has suspended cloud and AI services for an Israeli military unit, after evidence it used Azure to store mass phone surveillance data from Gaza and the West Bank. Here’s what’s known 👇

Trump’s latest target: A Microsoft executive. The US President is demanding the tech giant fire Lisa Monaco, calling her a “national security threat.” Here’s what’s behind it 👇

A single man is now richer than one of America’s biggest banks. Larry Ellison’s net worth has surged past the entire value of Bank of America. Here’s how the Oracle founder pulled it off 👇

Europe’s rearmament just opened its doors to two US giants. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are gearing up for a big push into Europe, with Germany as the beachhead. Here’s what’s actually in play 👇

From iPhone-lookalikes to Porsche-chasers. Xiaomi has gone from budget phones to record-setting EVs, and it’s aiming at Germany in 2027. Here’s how a “copycat” became a contender. 🧵

You’ve been workslopped. AI-polished junk is flooding inboxes. Pretty, long, and useless. New research: 40% of desk workers hit it in the last month; each instance costs ~1h56m and $186/employee/month. At scale = $9M/yr burned. Here’s how to kill it. 👇

Hiring freeze? Not on Wall Street. Dealmaking + IPOs are back, and big banks are poaching senior bankers and slowing planned cuts (WSJ). Think MD-level laterals, not entry-level floodgates. Here’s what’s really driving it and how to play it. 👇

New data from Indeed’s Hiring Lab challenges the “AI will take all our jobs” narrative. After testing 2,800+ work skills, zero were rated “very likely” to be replaced by GenAI. 🧵

The White House has told agencies to prepare for mass firings of federal workers if the government shuts down next week. 🧵

Germany’s defence minister says Russian satellites are “shadowing” German military satellites. Boris Pistorius cited two Luch/Olymp craft accused of loitering near Intelsat satellites used by Germany’s armed forces.

Oura, maker of the smart health ring, is raising $875M at an $11B valuation, per Bloomberg. The round doubles its value from Dec 2024 ($5B). It could even top $900M before closing.

Atlassian just made its biggest acquisition yet: Buying developer productivity platform DX for $1B in cash + stock. 🧵

Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly raising $10bn at a $200bn valuation. That would put it ahead of Anthropic ($183bn) and behind OpenAI ($500bn). 🧵

Amazon will pay $2.5bn to settle FTC claims it tricked millions into Prime. Biggest civil penalty in FTC history.

Google’s Gemini 2.5 tied for 2nd at the world’s top programming contest (ICPC). GPT-5 solved all 12 problems. Sounds like AGI, right? Not quite.