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North American Edition
23rd February 2026
 
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THE HOT STORY

Teamsters seeks court order to halt UPS $150,000 driver buyout plan

The Teamsters union has urged a federal judge to block UPS from offering $150,000 buyouts to drivers, warning that more than 10,000 workers could accept the deal if it proceeds. UPS plans to extend the enhanced buyout offer to around 105,000 eligible employees as part of a broader restructuring that includes cutting up to 30,000 jobs and closing 24 facilities. The company says the move is aimed at reducing its driver workforce amid falling package volumes and a strategic shift away from lower-margin deliveries for Amazon. The union argues the buyout program violates its 2023 labor contract, claiming UPS failed to negotiate the plan and is barred from making individual agreements with drivers. UPS counters that the contract does not prohibit voluntary buyouts and says blocking the program could force it to implement layoffs instead. Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston said she would issue a ruling shortly.
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LEGAL

Law firms prepare for tariff refund fight after Supreme Court ruling

Trade attorneys say the volume of cases seeking refunds for tariffs already imposed – more than 1,800 already – will likely surge after Supreme Court justices rejected the legal rationale behind an estimated $175bn in U.S. customs revenue since last April. The court ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump lacked authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law meant for use in national emergencies. At a White House press conference on Friday, Trump said he would levy more tariffs and predicted the process for companies seeking refunds would precipitate a protracted legal battle. “We’ll end up being in court for the next five years,” Trump said. Lawyers have told Reuters they expect to file many more cases in the coming weeks at the New York-based Court of International Trade.

Centerview settles lawsuit over analyst’s need for sleep

New York boutique investment bank Centerview Partners has settled a lawsuit from a former analyst who was fired after saying she needed eight to nine hours’ sleep per night. Kathryn Shiber had sued Centerview in 2021, claiming she was fired shortly after informing the firm that she had mood and anxiety disorders requiring her to sleep at least eight hours a night on a consistent schedule. Centerview said Sunday that it had settled the case but declined to discuss the terms. “Centerview has said all along that Ms. Shiber’s legal claims have no merit,” a Centerview spokesperson said. “We were ready to prove that in court, and are confident we would have prevailed at trial. But we are nonetheless happy to put this distraction behind us and focus on delivering for our clients.”
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WORKFORCE

Latham & Watkins poaches two more partners from Wachtell Lipton

Mark Stagliano, a mergers and acquisitions specialist, and Emily Johnson, a debt financing expert, have departed Wachtell Lipton for Latham & Watkins' New York office. They join two other Wachtell partners - John Sobolewski and Zachary Podolsky - who have left for Latham in the past year. The Wall Street Journal notes a burgeoning talent war among Wall Street’s top law firms including Kirkland & Ellis, Paul Weiss and Freshfields, and that until recently, it had been extremely rare for partners to defect from some of the most prestigious firms, including Wachtell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore. 
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STRATEGY

Walgreens cuts hundreds of jobs following private equity takeover

Walgreens is cutting hundreds of jobs across the U.S. as its new private equity owner, Sycamore Partners, moves to reduce costs and restructure the struggling pharmacy chain. The company is eliminating 469 roles in Illinois, where it is headquartered, and a further 159 positions in Texas, linked to the closure of a distribution center. Walgreens said the layoffs are part of efforts to simplify its organization, speed up decision-making and improve customer service. The cuts follow Sycamore’s acquisition of the business last year after declining profitability, driven by increased competition from online retailers and discount chains, as well as lower insurance reimbursements for prescriptions. Since the takeover, the company has reduced staff, removed some paid holidays and sought to boost store sales by expanding product offerings.
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ECONOMY

U.S. economic growth slowed to 1.4% in fourth quarter amid government shutdown

U.S. economic growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter of 2025, expanding at a 1.4% annual rate as a record-long government shutdown and weaker consumer spending weighed on activity. The figure fell short of economists’ expectations of 2.5% growth and marked a significant slowdown from the third quarter’s 4.4% pace. Federal government spending plunged at a 16.6% annual rate during the quarter, cutting nearly 1.2 percentage points from headline GDP. The shutdown, which lasted from October 1st through November 12th, disrupted federal operations and reduced services, though economists say such losses are often partially recouped once the government reopens. For the full year, the economy grew 2.2%, down from 2.4% in 2024 and the weakest annual performance since 2022. Even excluding the shutdown’s effects, underlying private-sector demand cooled, with a key measure of consumer and business spending rising at a 2.4% rate — the slowest since early 2025. Despite the slowdown, U.S. growth remains relatively strong compared with other developed economies, supported by steady consumer spending and ongoing investment in areas such as artificial intelligence. 
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CORPORATE

Consultancies set for fastest growth in years on back of AI boom

Companies are turning back to consultants for ideas on how to supply energy-hungry data centers with power and turn AI experiments into productivity gains, according to research group Source Global.
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INTERNATIONAL

Eskom's pay increase offer turned down by unions

South Africa's Eskom has faced rejection of its improved 6% pay increase proposal from two major trade unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). The NUM, seeking a 12% rise - down from an initial demand of 15% - argued that workers should be rewarded for their role in ending load-shedding, saying: "It's not Eskom management that ended load-shedding; it's the workers." With further negotiations planned, Eskom aims for a multi-year wage agreement to sustain improvements following a profitable year.

Tech giants 'must comply with Indian laws'

India's information minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has called for significantly stronger regulations to tackle the growing threat of deepfakes. He said that all digital platforms operating in India must adhere to the country’s legal framework and the Constitution. “It's very important for the multinationals to understand the cultural context of the country in which they are operating,” Vaishnaw said during a briefing at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi.  “The problem of deepfakes is growing day by day. We need much stronger regulation,” he said.

German population set to shrink 5% by 2050

German economic think-tank Ifo has revised its forecast for a 1% population decline by 2050 to nearly 5% - a drop that would leave Germany with its smallest population since 1990.
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OTHER

U.S. plans online portal to bypass content bans

Reuters reports that the U.S. State Department is planning an online portal be hosted at "freedom.gov" that will allow people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda. Officials are said to have discussed including a virtual private network function to make a user's traffic appear to originate in the U.S. “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department . . . and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs," the department told Reuters.
 
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