This week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ is about how financial disclosures for President Donald Trump showed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions involving securities in major American companies including Nvidia $NVDA ( ▼ 0.77% ) , Palantir $PLTR ( ▲ 0.09% ) , Paramount $PSKY ( ▲ 0.82% ) , and Boeing $BA ( ▼ 2.54% ) in the first three months of 2026. Send me your entry — to haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET Thursday, for consideration by your Cheddar peers.

Let’s cut to the news chase…

Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

• Global watchdog summons Anthropic as Mythos AI thr …

• Starbucks fires 300 more people from its HQ

• French ad firm Publicis spent $2.2B on a firm it c …

• Detroit’s big three car firms cut 20,000 jobs

• What to do in business if your boss is an out-of-c …

• Poll of the day: Handling your drunken boss

What’s the stock market up to, eh?

$SPX ( ▼ 0.67% ) $DJI ( ▼ 0.65% ) $NDX ( ▲ 1.59% )  

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

$ANTHROPIC ( ▼ 0.02% )  $SBUX ( ▼ 0.21% )  $OMC ( ▼ 1.79% )  $WPPGY ( 0.0% )  $GM ( ▼ 0.64% ) $F ( ▲ 0.23% ) $STLA ( ▼ 0.81% )

Global watchdog summons Anthropic as Mythos AI threatens financial systems

The global banking watchdog has summoned U.S. tech company Anthropic because its new AI agent, Claude Mythos, could destabilize financial systems around the world. Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor and chair of the global Financial Stability Board, requested the urgent briefing for G20 finance officials. Regulators are increasingly alarmed that Mythos could expose catastrophic weaknesses in the cyber defenses of global lenders.

The scale of the impending threat is staggering. Anthropic itself admitted last month that Mythos “found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser.” The tech group issued a dire warning about its own creation: “The fallout — for economies, public safety, and national security — could be severe.”

Fears are mounting that if this technology falls into the wrong hands, the global impact would be devastating. Echoing this widespread panic, the International Monetary Fund told the Financial Times that advanced AI models like Mythos “elevate cyber risk to a potential macro-financial shock.” As IMF officials grimly emphasized, “Cyber risk does not respect borders,” leaving the world's interconnected economies exposed to unprecedented danger. Still, I’m glad it’s hump day, aren’t you?

Quote of the Day

Starbucks fires 300 more people from its HQ

As part of its ongoing aggressive restructuring effort, Starbucks has announced the elimination of 300 corporate jobs and the closure of several regional U.S. offices. The layoffs will primarily impact employees in human resources, marketing, and supply chain management, and front-line coffeehouse staff will remain unaffected. To reduce excess real estate, the coffee giant will shut down underused facilities in major cities like Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta.

This latest workforce reduction follows the 2,000 corporate job cuts made last year under incoming Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm in 2024 to simplify operations. The sweeping cost-cutting measures will result in $400 million in restructuring charges, yet they appear to be yielding positive financial results. During the first quarter, U.S. same-store sales experienced a robust 7% increase, a shift Niccol enthusiastically dubbed “the turn in our turnaround.”

Looking ahead, Starbucks is shifting its corporate footprint, preparing to open a new Nashville hub that could employ up to 2,000 people over the next five years. Maybe they’ll hire back some of the 2,300 people they’ve just fired?

Emphasizing the core strategy behind the overhaul, Niccol stated, “Our focus now is on sustaining our momentum and making our results repeatable and durable, all while delivering a healthy cost structure that supports profitable growth.”

Which has to be the most corporate non-sentence ever uttered. The company’s stock price has simply meandered since Niccol took over and is still miles off its record highs.

French ad firm Publicis spent $2.2B on a firm it can use to more precisely target you with ads

French advertising behemoth Publicis Groupe is apparently so desperate to know exactly what you want to buy that it is dropping a cool $2.2 billion in an all-cash deal to acquire U.S. data collaboration company LiveRamp.

LiveRamp is a platform designed to match and connect your media and customer datasets, albeit in what they promise is a “secure way without directly sharing personal information.” Sure.

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun bravely spun this massive corporate data-grab as a “commitment to investing ahead of market shifts,” heroically battling through an industry challenged by a “difficult global context” and the terrifying “rise of AI.”

This isn't even Publicis's first time throwing billions to track your habits; they already bought Epsilon for $4.4 billion back in 2019. All this relentless, targeted snooping is certainly paying off for them, helping the French firm leave traditional rivals WPP $WPPGY ( 0.0% ) and Omnicom $OMC ( ▼ 1.79% ) in the dust to become the world's most valuable ad group. The deal, priced at a generous 29.8% premium, is expected to close by the end of 2026.

Song of the Day: KOLA, ‘Fantasy’

Here’s a nice little banger of a tune. I can’t really find out anything about the artist behind it but it popped up on my Spotify last week and I’ve been enjoying it ever since!

Detroit’s big three car firms cut 20,000 jobs

The American automotive industry is undergoing a massive transformation, and it is taking a heavy toll on corporate workforces. The "Detroit Three" automakers — General Motors $GM ( ▼ 0.64% ), Ford $F ( ▲ 0.23% ), and Stellantis $STLA ( ▼ 0.81% )  — have eliminated over 20,000 U.S. salaried jobs, representing 19% of their combined white-collar workforce from recent employment peaks this decade.

A primary driver behind these deep cuts is the rapid rise of AI, alongside industry shifts toward electric and software-defined vehicles. Ford CEO Jim Farley bluntly captured the impending threat, telling CNBC, “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.” He grimly added that “AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”

General Motors has led the aggressive downsizing, reducing its salaried headcount by roughly 11,000 people since 2022. Addressing these strategic workforce shifts, GM CEO Mary Barra told shareholders, “Sometimes the people who got you to ‘point A’ aren’t necessarily people who are going to get you to ‘point B.’”

Experts predict clerical and repetitive roles are the most vulnerable. Although what do we expect when robots already make most of the cars?

What to do in business if your boss is an out-of-control alcoholic

Dealing with a boss who frequently goes on benders and vanishes can severely drain workplace morale. A recent advice column from the New York Times tackles this exact scenario, describing an alcoholic company founder who "disappears completely from day-to-day work" and leaves employees to "pick up the slack."

If you find yourself in this frustrating situation, you’re probably working for me. it’s important to realize you have far more leverage than you think. Because you keep the company running smoothly during their absences, "you and your co-workers are the key people, and he’s the minor figure," the Times advises.

One of my school mates was recently let go from his law firm, come to think of it, after behaving appallingly under the influence of alcohol. I was the head boy in 1996. He was my deputy. I assume his bitterness over playing second fiddle contributed to his spiral into the demon drink. Still not sorry, Darren. 🤷

Instead of staging a personal intervention yourself, the experts recommend "approaching someone he trusts outside of the business, as a group" to express your collective concern. Inside the office, you can address the leader's absences by raising the problem as a purely "procedural matter." Try using professional terms like "business-continuity issues" or asserting new "decision-making authority" to sign off on tasks without them.

Most importantly, leverage your indispensable position. You should "insist on fairer compensation for the extra work you’ve all taken on." If your colleagues band together, you could even demand that the absentee boss "formally cede some power and ownership,” the Times advises. In other words? If you are effectively running the business, you deserve the authority and stake to match. But yeah. Good luck with that.

Free yourself from advertising forever!

Should you check your 401(k) today?

👎️ 

No.

Poll of the day: Handling your drunken boss

Poll of the day: Ai, Ai, Ai

We asked: Are graduates right to boo the mention of AI in speeches?

You answered:

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes. After all, who doesn't love hearing that their entry-level job is officially obsolete? (436)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No. Show a little more respect, kids. (102)
538 Votes via @beehiiv polls

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