US Adds Surprise Gold Bar Tariff in Blow to Switzerland, FT Says

 

The US government has placed tariffs on imports of one-kilogram gold bars, threatening to shake up the bullion market and dealing a blow to Swiss trade, the Financial Times has reported.

The industry had expected gold bars to be classified under customs codes exempt from President Donald Trump’s country tariffs. However, Customs Border Protection has placed one-kilo and 100-ounce gold bars under a code that is subject to the levies, the newspaper reported, citing a ruling letter dated July 31.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-08/us-hits-gold-bars-with-tariffs-in-blow-to-switzerland-ft-report

Why firms are merging HR and IT departments

Even if you have never worked for a big company, you will probably have an idea what the HR and IT departments do.


Human resources (HR) deal with people, IT deal with the technology.

It might seem like an obvious management division, but some companies are merging the responsibility for those departments under one leader.

And a big part of that is to do with the introduction of AI.

Some 64% of senior IT decision makers at large companies expect their HR and IT functions to merge within five years, according to a survey by Nexthink, a firm that makes workplace software.

Tracey Franklin is the chief people and digital technology officer at biotech company Moderna, which has more than 5,000 employees.

"I am responsible for the entire HR function and the entire IT function," she says.

"That's both what you would think of as core IT for the company, as well as the digital technology required to do drug development, manufacturing and commercialisation."

"Traditionally, HR departments would say, 'we're going to do workforce planning, so we're going to count how many humans we need to get tasks done'. And then the IT team would take requests [for] the systems that we need," she says.

In contrast, she thinks of her role as being an architect of how work is done.

"It's [about] how work flows through the organisation, and what should be done with technology – whether that's hardware or software or AI – and where you complement human skills around that.

Moderna has a partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and has trained all employees in using it.

"We're saying, 'here are the tools to rewrite how work gets done,'" she explains. "Having employees learn how to learn, be masters of AI, and recreate their own workflows."

Before taking on her current role in November 2024, Ms Franklin led HR at the company. She took some IT training for her new job, but she has two IT managers reporting to her.

"I don't think the leader of this function has to be an expert in one area or the other, but what they have to do is set direction, provide vision, do capital allocation, remove obstacles, set culture, and do employee engagement," she says.

Although the leadership structure has changed, the people within the HR and IT teams continue to do the work they are experts in. "I haven't turned an HR person into an IT person or vice versa," she says.

Covisian provides software and services for customer care. Most of the company's 27,000 employees work in call centres, answering customer calls for Covisian's clients.

The company merged its IT and HR teams in April 2023 under the leadership of Fabio Sattolo, chief people and technology officer. He was previously CTO.

"We're talking about developing people on one side and developing IT on the other," he says.

"If we bring these two together, we can have a common vision for how technology can have an impact on people and how people can adapt and evolve to leverage the new technology."

One example is in the call centre, where AI will increasingly be used. People will still answer the calls and work out the customer's problem, Mr Sattolo says, but they will then delegate the process for fixing it to AI.

"We are developing AI considering that a human agent will use it," he says. "But you also need to develop the human agent to make sure that they are aware of how to use this technology."

Previously, HR and IT departments might have butted heads over what HR wanted and what IT thought it could deliver.

Now, there is one decision-maker in charge. "The effectiveness and speed of developing things is much higher," says Mr Sattolo.

If there are technical barriers, Mr Sattolo can often adapt the HR process as a workaround.

One success was an internal job postings tool, which gives call centre agents an opportunity to move into other roles in the company. The new tool, developed by the combined HR/IT organisation, doubled responses to job adverts.

"Making people speak the same language was the hardest part, because IT and HR people are really different," Mr Sattolo says.

While HR people are good at listening, IT people aren't always good at talking, he says. "I remember many meetings where I was asking the questions because they were not talking to each other."

To help the HR and IT teams work together, he identified people who were not closely associated with either discipline to lead the multidisciplinary teams. "It's like a judge who makes them negotiate to find the proper solution," he says.




David D'Souza is director of profession at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development.

He sounds a note of caution about the trend: "The skillsets of the two professions are complementary, and don't have much overlap. Complex people issues require an understanding of organisational and situational factors, different to the specialist expertise required in IT.

"Greater collaboration between HR and IT makes sense, leaning into the strengths of each discipline, but merging the departments risks losing or diluting the specialist expertise organisations need to thrive."

Bianca Zwart is chief strategy officer at online bank Bunq, where the IT and people team sit within the same bigger team.

She says it makes sense to have them together because both IT and HR are building systems that support the rest of the business.

Like many firms, Bunq is trying to work out how AI and humans will best work together.

They are betting that a good way to do that is to have IT and HR working closer together.

"In that sense, it's like a natural merger."

No one person is responsible for working out whether a task should be performed by a human or AI at Bunq.

The company aims to make its 700-plus people self-sufficient, building the automations and AI processes they need themselves.

Bunq is on track to automate 90% of its operations by the end of 2025, but has not made redundancies and continues to hire new employees.

"In any company, people need to understand that they need to work in a completely different way moving forward," she says. "AI will be taking away the repetitive tasks so they can focus on the more complex problems."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0w8gvq84xo

US Increases Reward for Venezuela’s Maduro On Drug Trafficking Charges

 

The US set a $50 million reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, denouncing him as one of the world’s largest drug traffickers shortly after Washington restored a key oil license that could strengthen the embattled socialist leader.

Attorney General Pam Bondi made the announcement in a video posted on X, accusing the Venezuelan president of using allied “terrorist” groups to traffic illicit drugs into the US, including the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-08/us-ups-reward-for-venezuela-s-maduro-on-drug-trafficking-charges

Medical Tech Firm Heartflow Prices $317 Million IPO Above Range

 

Heartflow Inc. raised $317 million in its initial public offering, pricing shares above the top of a marketed range.

The company, which is an artificial intelligence software platform focused on heart disease, sold 16.67 million shares at $19 each, according to a statement Thursday.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-08/medical-tech-firm-heartflow-prices-317-million-ipo-above-range

Pesticide Liability Protection Act Threatens Our Food Supply & The Health Of A Nation

 by Brooke Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

As stewards of the land and providers of our nation’s food supply, farmers and ranchers carry a profound moral obligation - to produce the safest, healthiest, and most nutritious food on the planet. It is not just our livelihood; it is our responsibility to future generations.

That is why I am writing today with deep concern regarding the Pesticide Liability Protection Act currently under consideration in Congress.

If enacted, this legislation could cause irreparable harm—not just to the health of farmers and ranchers who work directly with these chemicals, but to the broader public who unknowingly consume their residues.

The Dangerous Path of Corporate Immunity

This bill threatens to open the floodgates for a new wave of pesticides and herbicides engineered by agrochemical giants—products that may be even more toxic than those currently on the market. By shielding these corporations from legal accountability, it removes their last remaining incentive to ensure their chemicals are safe.

We have seen this story before. In 1986, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, granting pharmaceutical companies immunity from liability for vaccine-related injuries. The consequences were swift and staggering: a surge in new products, rushed to market without proper safeguards, and a dramatic rise in chronic health conditions in children and adults alike. It was a public health turning point, and not for the better.

The parallels to our current situation are striking. Consider the case of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Bayer (which acquired Monsanto in 2018) has faced more than 177,000 lawsuits involving the weedkiller and set aside $16 billion to settle cases. Over $11 billion has been paid out in Roundup lawsuit settlements, with individual jury awards reaching as high as $2.1 billion in recent cases.

These staggering financial settlements reflect the real human cost of inadequate chemical safety oversight. Even more alarming is the widespread exposure we’re seeing in our most vulnerable population: children. About 87 percent of 650 children tested had detectable levels of glyphosate in their urine, according to CDC analysis. Research shows that children exhibit higher levels of glyphosate in biofluids than adults, and recent studies indicate that higher levels of glyphosate residue in urine in childhood and adolescence were associated with higher risk of liver inflammation and metabolic disorders in young adulthood.

To repeat that same mistake with our nation’s food supply would be unconscionable.

Why the Pesticide Liability Protection Act Is Unconstitutional

The Pesticide Liability Protection Act fundamentally violates several core Constitutional principles that form the bedrock of American jurisprudence:

• Due Process Violations (5th and 14th Amendments): The Act deprives citizens of their fundamental right to seek redress in courts for injuries caused by defective or dangerous products. This violates substantive due process by eliminating a basic property right—the right to compensation for harm—without adequate justification or alternative remedies.

• Equal Protection Concerns: The legislation creates an arbitrary distinction between victims of chemical company negligence and all other tort victims. There is no rational basis for why those harmed by pesticides should have fewer legal rights than those harmed by other dangerous products.

• Separation of Powers: By preemptively shielding an entire industry from judicial review, Congress unconstitutionally interferes with the judiciary’s role in adjudicating disputes and determining liability. This represents legislative overreach into the judicial branch’s constitutional domain.

• Takings Clause Violations: The Act effectively takes private property—the right to legal recourse—without just compensation, violating the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause.

The Supreme Court has consistently held that access to courts is a fundamental right, and any legislation that bars entire categories of claims must meet strict constitutional scrutiny. The Pesticide Liability Protection Act fails this test.

A Call for Leadership

Therefore, I strongly urge all agricultural organizations—from cattlemen’s associations to farm bureaus, from organic growers to commodity groups—to go on record opposing the Pesticide Liability Protection Act. We must issue public statements and press releases declaring our stance against corporate immunity for chemical manufacturers. This is not just a matter of agricultural policy—it is a matter of public health, environmental integrity, and moral leadership.

In addition, I ask that agricultural organizations support Senator Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) proposed legislation, which seeks to hold chemical producers accountable and prioritize the safety of both producers and consumers. This is a rare opportunity to lead on an issue that will define the future of American agriculture.

The Choice Before Us

The agricultural community stands at a crossroads. We can choose to prioritize short-term convenience and corporate profits, or we can choose to protect the long-term health of our land, our communities, and our food supply.

The history of corporate liability shields teaches us a clear lesson: when companies are freed from accountability, public safety inevitably suffers. We cannot allow the same corporate immunity that transformed the pharmaceutical industry to be replicated in agriculture.

Let us be remembered not as the generation that turned a blind eye, but as the one that stood firm to protect our land, our people, and our food.

Dr. Brooke Miller is a physician, rancher, past president of the United States Cattlemen's Association, and advocate for agricultural safety and public health.

Republished from the author’s Substack

https://www.zerohedge.com/food/why-pesticide-liability-protection-act-threatens-our-food-supply-health-nation

Intel’s CEO, Under Attack From Trump, Is Already at Odds With His Board

 Lip-Bu Tan and chip maker's directors have been clashing over how to revive the struggling tech giant

https://www.wsj.com/tech/intel-ceo-lip-bu-tan-trump-board-9cc08631

AbCellera Reports Q2 2025 Business Results & First Participants Dosed in a Phase 1

 AbCellera (Nasdaq: ABCL) today announced financial results for the second quarter of 2025 and that dosing has begun in a Phase 1 clinical trial of ABCL635 for the potential treatment of moderate-to-severe vasomotor symptoms (VMS) associated with menopause. All financial information in this press release is reported in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

"In the second quarter we hit two critical milestones, receiving authorization to initiate Phase 1 studies for both ABCL635 and ABCL575. I am pleased to announce today that we have successfully begun dosing the first participants in the Phase 1 study of ABCL635. This is a landmark achievement for AbCellera, one that completes our transition to a clinical-stage biotechnology company," said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., founder and CEO of AbCellera. "Today we also announced that a third program, ABCL688, has advanced into IND-enabling studies. With over $750 million in available liquidity, we are well-positioned to continue to execute our strategy."

Q2 2025 Business Summary

• Generated a net loss of $34.7 million, compared to a net loss of $36.9 million in 2024.

• Received authorization from Health Canada to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials for ABCL635 and ABCL575, bringing the cumulative total of molecules to reach the clinic to 18.

• Advanced ABCL688, an ion channel- or GPCR-targeted antibody development candidate (autoimmunity), into IND/CTA-enabling studies.

• Presented preclinical data for ABCL575 at the Society for Investigative Dermatology.

• Reached a cumulative total of 102 partner-initiated program starts with downstreams.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/abcellera-reports-q2-2025-business-200500293.html