Agency

• MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has announced the finalists for the 22nd Agency of the Year Awards 2026, recognizing agencies that have significantly influenced Singapore’s marketing landscape. • Judge Michelle Yang, general manager at BMW Eurokars Auto, noted that top entries balanced commercial results with consistency in performance, product, people, and perspective. • The awards highlight the importance of deliberate investments in AI, technology, talent, and organizational culture as key drivers of industry impact.

• The US Administration is restructuring the systems supporting PEPFAR and global health security, shifting its engagement strategy toward regulatory influence over long-term public health partnerships. • Concerns are rising that increased political oversight and the deconstruction of international collaborations may undermine the NIH's scientific infrastructure and its history of HIV research and vaccine development. • In a move toward regulatory cooperation, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the African Medicines Agency (AMA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a shared framework for information sharing.

• An emergency session focused on the situation in Lebanon has been added to the ongoing diplomatic negotiations between Iran and the United States in Switzerland. • The addition of this session comes amid escalating tensions and instability within Lebanon, necessitating urgent high-level discussions. • This development highlights the critical role of Iran-US relations in managing regional conflicts and the potential for diplomatic intervention to prevent further escalation.

Head of National Cyber Security Centre says UK in ‘ongoing contest with capable adversaries’ and AI could add to threatThe UK’s critical national infrastructure has been hit by more than 200 cyber incidents over the past year and state-linked assailants were behind three-quarters of the attacks, according to the state cybersecurity body.Richard Horne, the chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, said hostile states such as Russia, China and Iran were increasingly targeting systems behind the UK’s key services. Examples of critical national infrastructure include the UK’s nuclear deterrent, power plants, hospitals and airports. Continue reading...

Housing and urban development department alleges fraud in administration’s latest clash with CaliforniaThe Trump administration has suspended federal funding to Los Angeles’s beleaguered homelessness agency.The announcement is the administration’s latest move rescinding funding to California, where Donald Trump has feuded with the state’s Democratic leaders. Continue reading...

But Australian government will expand offences covered by rules to include promotion of communal violence and attacks on defence systemGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLabor has quietly backed down on moves to make spy agency Asio’s powers for compulsory questioning permanent, but will expand offences covered by the rules to include promotion of communal violence and attacks on Australia’s defence system.The laws were introduced in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and give intelligence operatives powers to issue a questioning warrant requiring a person as young as 14 to give information or produce items that may assist in a serious investigation. Continue reading...

Deletion of the bureau’s website content is just the most recent part of a larger plan to ‘undermine an agency that’s helped people’The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deleted at least 2,200 webpages from its website last month, a move advocates say is part of the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the federal consumer finance watchdog.The removed content was all published before Trump’s second term, and includes press releases, consumer advisories, congressional testimonies, speeches and blog posts. Some of the material dates back to as early as 2010, when the agency was formed. Continue reading...

Ben Black’s lawyers deny relationship with disgraced financier, but DoJ records reveal years of interactionsSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailBen Black, the head of a little-known government investment agency funded by billions of dollars from US taxpayers, had personal and business ties to Jeffrey Epstein, according to emails and business filings released by the Department of Justice.His father, Leon Black, had once been the disgraced financier’s highest paying client – calling on the convicted sex offender for tax advice and to orchestrate payments to women, according to the New York Times and Bloomberg. Continue reading...