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North American Edition
21st August 2026
 
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THE HOT STORY

Starbucks cuts more than 200 corporate jobs as turnaround drive continues

Starbucks is laying off more than 200 corporate employees as chief executive Brian Niccol continues to streamline the business and target $2bn in cost savings by the end of fiscal 2028. The cuts include about 120 technology employees who declined to relocate to the company’s new Nashville office, as well as 104 roles in coffeehouse design and development, and do not involve additional cafe closures. The reductions follow 300 U.S. corporate layoffs earlier this year and around 2,000 corporate job cuts in 2025, alongside the closure of hundreds of U.S. stores. Starbucks is simultaneously investing in cafe operations and a new $100m Nashville office for 2,000 employees, while its turnaround has shown signs of progress, with recent quarterly sales and earnings beating expectations and the company raising its full-year same-store sales and earnings forecasts.
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WORKFORCE

San Francisco Bay Area dethroned as largest ‘tech talent' market

The San Francisco Bay Area, once the heart of the tech industry, has been surpassed by New York in terms of the size of the tech talent workforce, according to a report from CBRE. New York's tech workforce reached 394,300, while the Bay Area's dropped to 375,730, marking a 6% decline from 2022 to 2025. Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE's Tech Insights Center, observed: “The Bay Area is likely to remain . . . the central location for the AI industry and for innovation. But as we've seen during past cycles, as it tends to grow, that spreads out to all the key markets.”  The report also highlighted that 71% of adults believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the U.S. over the next two decades.

Jobless claims fall to 206,000, but continuing claims rise

Initial jobless claims declined last week after nearly a month of increases, signaling that layoffs remain relatively limited despite a slower labor market. The Labor Department reported 206,000 new unemployment benefit claims in the seven days to August 15th, down 6,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised 212,000 and below economists’ expectations of 210,000. The four-week moving average rose 4,250 to 204,000, while total claims, reported with a one-week lag, hit 1.8m, up from 1.78m. “The labor market has yet to show any sign of wear and tear from the surge in oil prices since the start of the war with Iran and the global energy supply shock,” commented High Frequency Economics chief economist Carl Weinberg.
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ECONOMY

U.S. Leading Indicators rise as outlook points to moderate economic growth

The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index rose 0.2% to 99.5 in July, following an upwardly revised 0.1% decline in June, signaling the potential for moderate U.S. economic growth ahead. The index increased 0.2% over the six months through July, marking its first positive six-month growth rate in four years and a sharp improvement from the 1.3% contraction in the previous six-month period. Most components improved, although consumer expectations remained a drag, with The Conference Board forecasting that AI-related business investment will support expansion while higher living costs constrain consumer spending, particularly among lower- and middle-income households. The organization continues to forecast real GDP growth of 1.9% in both 2026 and 2027.
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LEGAL

Most Americans see Trump's business interests influencing presidential decisions

Most (69%) Americans believe President Trump has inappropriately profited since returning to power and his policy decisions are influenced by private business dealing, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Half of Republicans, two-thirds of independents and nine in 10 Democrats hold such a view. Reuters notes that ​experts on presidential ethics say the intermingling of business and politics in the White House is unprecedented. “We have seen nothing like this before, even the first Trump administration did not have as many ‌complex business ⁠interests as the second Trump administration," said Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer for Republican President George W. Bush. "There are no conflicts of interest," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly responded. "The President only acts in the best interests of the American public."
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TAX

Treasury and IRS propose limiting refundable tax credits for certain immigrants

The Treasury Department and IRS have proposed rules that would restrict certain immigrants from receiving the refundable portions of four tax credits: the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, American Opportunity tax credit, and adoption tax credit. By classifying these refunds as “federal public benefits,” the proposal could exclude people with pending asylum applications, Temporary Protected Status, DACA recipients, and other noncitizens who are authorized to work in the U.S., potentially affecting hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Affected taxpayers could still use the nonrefundable portions of eligible credits to reduce their tax liability to zero, but they would generally be unable to receive the remaining value as a refund. Lower-income households are expected to be most affected because they tend to receive a larger share of these credits as refunds. The proposal is subject to a 45-day public comment period and an Oct. 14 hearing, and, if finalized this year, would apply to 2026 tax returns filed in 2027.
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TECHNOLOGY

Anthropic 'plans to change enterprise data retention policy'

Claude chatbot maker Anthropic plans to allow business customers to keep greater control of their data when using its AI models, according to a source familiar ‌with the matter. The company expects to launch a new safety system that will require enterprise customers to retain data for 30 days, with the option to do so on their own cloud computing infrastructure. Anthropic had said in June ​it would require ​30-day ⁠retention of all enterprise customer traffic on its more powerful Fable and ​Mythos models, as well as future ​frontier models, ⁠to help guard against potential cyberattacks using its technology.
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INTERNATIONAL

Samsung Electronics ends anonymity on internal message board

Samsung Electronics has decided to eliminate anonymous posting on its NOW Talk internal message board due to repeated misuse by employees. The change requires employees to now use their real names when posting. The decision follows concerns over abusive language and misinformation. “There have been repeated cases of employees undermining our internal communications [systems] by using anonymity to disparage others or spread unverified information,” the company wrote in a notice. “Violations of employees' rights on the internal message board have become increasingly serious due to [posts'] abusive language and personal attacks […] and we recently received guidance from the Ministry of Employment and Labor to improve workplace harassment practices.” NOW Talk has been operative since the early 2010s. 

Wildcat strike hits Ben Gurion Airport

Israel's aviation sector is under strain due to staffing shortages and ongoing regional conflict. A wildcat strike at Ben Gurion Airport yesterday halted operations for hours, leading to numerous flight cancellations and delays. The workers' union did not formally declare the strike, but airport management attributed the disruption to the labor action. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by calling for the dismissal of employees involved. The Airports Authority plans to increase staffing but warned that clearing the backlog will take time. "Anyone who obstructs the operations of the airport will be sent home," Netanyahu said.

Pacific unions want to be a part of remote worker schemes

Pacific trade unions are advocating for involvement in the recruitment of workers from Pacific nations for labor schemes in Australia and New Zealand. Currently, over 30,000 Pacific Islanders participate in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, and an additional 20,000 are in New Zealand's scheme. Jodika Sharma from the Fiji Trade Unions Congress said unions need to be part of the hiring process to ensure proper worker selection and to verify employers to prevent exploitation. "The proper management of the whole system is important," she said. "The sending countries need to ensure that there is government to government agreements that specify how their workers will be managed on the other side."

Farmers in Japan adapt to deadly heatwaves

As heatwaves intensify, Japanese farmers are shifting their work hours to the night to protect their crops, their livestock - and themselves. Motoaki Iijima, a flower farmer, now harvests gerberas after dark to avoid extreme daytime temperatures that can exceed 40°C. He said: "The hours around dusk are really precious. That's when we can be outside . . . We've gradually become nocturnal. It's about protecting our bodies, and ultimately, our lives." The trend is not unique to Japan; farmers globally are adapting to similar conditions. In 2024, Japan recorded 59 agricultural worker deaths due to heat.
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OTHER

U.S. prescription drug prices post steepest annual decline since 1963

U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.8% in July and 3.1% year over year, marking the steepest annual decline since 1963, with President Donald Trump attributing the drop to his administration’s “most favored nation” agreements with pharmaceutical companies and the TrumpRx drug pricing platform. However, drug pricing experts said the decline likely reflects a combination of factors, including increased competition from generic and biosimilar medicines, Medicare drug price negotiations introduced under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, and newer Trump administration policies. Experts said the impact of Trump’s most-favored-nation agreements remains difficult to quantify because contracts with drugmakers have not been disclosed, and related federal pricing models have yet to take effect.
 
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