Category: 3. Business

What’s going on here?

The US dollar took a step back this week, with mounting confidence that the Federal Reserve is about to cut interest rates—boosting the euro, yen, and other major currencies just as global central banks gear up for a flurry of meetings.

What does this mean?

Traders now see a 90% chance the Fed will trim rates at its next meeting, according to LSEG, with at least two more cuts expected this year. The dollar index edged down 0.2% to 98.906, while the euro and yen strengthened. Softer US job numbers added fuel to the idea that the dollar’s gotten ahead of itself. There’s also chatter about a potential Fed leadership shake-up, with Kevin Hassett rumored as a possible replacement for Jerome Powell—which could mean even looser policy. Meanwhile, central banks from Tokyo to Frankfurt are lining up rate decisions, and shifting paths could spark big moves across currency markets in the days ahead.

Why should I care?

For markets: Interest rates call the shots.

The Fed’s expected shift is already rippling through financial markets. A softer dollar is driving investors to size up opportunities in currencies like the euro and yen. Small moves—like a modest 0.1% euro gain and steady yen at 155.15—reflect a wait-and-see mood, but a potential rate hike from the Bank of Japan could strengthen the yen and upend carry trades. That could force investors to redraw strategies as well as rebalance global portfolios.

The bigger picture: Global central banks face a turning point.

A packed run of central bank meetings—from Australia and Canada to Japan and Europe—underscores a shift in policy momentum. With core US inflation inching higher and speculation swirling about Fed leadership, investors face a world where currency and asset values could swing sharply. That means risk assets, from stocks to crypto, may see more volatility as diverging rate plans reset global market dynamics.

Over the past year, AI in legal departments has shifted from theory to practice. Organizations are maturing past the informal exploration stage and are now actively creating strategies for the implementation of AI solutions to drive efficiency. This evolution was the focus of “AI Unleashed: The Journey, One Year Later,” a key session at the ELM Amplify 2025 user conference, which provided a real-world look at progress, challenges, and strategies for successful AI adoption.

Insights from industry leaders at Marsh McLennan and DHL revealed that successful AI implementation in legal departments is not about chasing the latest technology. Instead, it requires a focused strategy, clear governance, and a deep understanding of organizational needs. Why is a focused strategy so important for AI in legal departments? A focused strategy ensures that AI projects are not isolated experiments, but integral components of the department’s long-term vision. It helps prioritize high-impact problems and aligns AI initiatives with core business goals for maximum organizational benefit.

What is the best strategy for AI adoption in legal departments?

The best strategy for adopting AI in legal departments is to focus on the quality of use cases, not the quantity. Success for legal departments often comes from the smaller, more focused use cases. Tiffani Huynh of DHL shared that her team initially pursued a long list of initiatives but soon realized the need for a more focused strategy. The key was creating a plan that directly tied AI projects to the legal department’s long-term vision.

Similarly, Chris Terry of Marsh McLennan stressed the importance of making progress. understanding core departmental needs. By concentrating on high-impact areas, their team avoids distractions from vendors and scattered internal requests. Both panelists agreed that impactful AI projects have to consider what solutions will be the most effective, future-proof, and have the most longevity. This requires developing a clear plan, avoiding distractions, and prioritizing initiatives with the greatest organizational benefit.

How are legal departments using AI today?

Over the past year, leading legal departments have made tangible progress, moving from pilot programs to live, value-adding AI in legal solutions. Their experiences show how a dedicated strategy translates into measurable advancements in efficiency and capability.

The team at Marsh McLennan has successfully established a robust AI governance process, a critical foundation for any organization. They leveraged AI in existing external solutions to drive adoption through practical applications, including:

• Translations
• Pre-execution contract comparisons and redlining
• M&A due diligence and routine legal administrative work, using an in-house ChatGPT-based platform

DHL has gone live with several key solutions that leverage AI. Notable applications include:

• An EEOC position statement generator
• Contract extraction and drafting
• A strategic shift from an in-house tool to Copilot, enhanced with legal-specific prompt training
• A legal operations career architect agent
• Pilots focused on document review and contract creation and analysis

An audience poll at the conference revealed that Copilot was the most-cited AI tool, highlighting the widespread adoption of foundational AI across the industry.

What are the main hurdles to implementing AI in legal?

The primary hurdles to implementing AI in legal departments are internal barriers related to governance, resource constraints, and organizational change. An audience poll confirmed that “approval,” “governance,” and “risk management” are the top factors slowing AI adoption.

Chris Terry noted that large organizations naturally struggle to adapt to rapid change, a challenge made worse by the need to protect sensitive data when using AI tools. Multi-layered approval processes, along with newly created internal AI committees, can create dramatic slowdowns that may leave key stakeholders disengaged or render the technology outdated prior to implementation. To push through these obstacles, Tiffani Huynh urges legal operations professionals to focus on internal marketing and consistent internal storytelling.

Furthermore, AI initiatives often require support from other departments like IT and finance, whose resources are already stretched thin. Both panelists emphasized the need to involve these stakeholders early in roadmap discussions to ensure alignment and secure necessary support.

Change management also remains a universal challenge. How can legal teams overcome resistance to AI adoption? Doing so requires both top-down support from leadership and a bottom-up effort to address team members’ concerns. Empowering internal AI advocates to demonstrate value and providing clear communication can help drive adoption and build trust.

How can legal teams make progress on their AI journey?

The session provided a clear message: successful AI in legal implementation is a marathon, not a sprint. Based on the expert panel’s insights, here are three actionable takeaways to guide your AI journey:

1. Don’t chase “shiny objects.” Start by developing a strategic plan that aligns with your department’s core objectives. Focus on solving problems that will provide the broadest and most significant impact.
2. Acknowledge internal barriers. Proactively engage with stakeholders in IT, finance, and other key departments. Build a strong business case and a clear governance framework to smooth the path for approval and implementation.
3. Start with mindset, then move to metrics. First, encourage adoption and gather qualitative feedback. Use small, early wins to build momentum and justify further investment before focusing on demonstrating a hard return on investment.

On Thursday, Apple announced Lisa Jackson, its VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives, as well as Kate Adams, the company’s general counsel, will both retire in 2026. Adams has been Apple’s chief legal officer since 2017, and Jackson joined Apple in 2013. Adams will step down late next year, while Jackson will leave next month.

Jackson and Adams join a growing list of top executives who have either left or announced their exits this year. AI chief John Giannandrea announced his retirement earlier this month, and its design lead, Alan Dye, who took charge of Apple’s all-important user interface design after Jony Ive left the company in 2019, was just poached by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta this week.​

The scope of the turnover is unprecedented in the Tim Cook era. In July, Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO, who was long considered Cook’s successor as CEO, decided to retire after 27 years with the company. One month later, Apple’s CFO, Luca Maestri, also decided to step back from his role. And the design division, which just lost Dye, also lost Billy Sorrentino, a senior design director, who left for Meta with Dye. Things have been particularly turbulent for Apple’s AI team: Ruoming Pang, who headed its AI foundation models team, left for Meta in July and took about 100 engineers with him. Ke Yang, who led AI-driven web search for Siri, and Jian Zhang, Apple’s AI robotics lead, also both left for Meta.​

Succession talks heat up

While all of these departures are a big deal for Apple, the timing may not be a coincidence. Both Bloomberg and the Financial Times have reported on Apple ramping up its succession plan efforts in preparation for Cook, who has led the company since 2011, to retire in 2026. Cook turned 65 in November and has grown Apple’s market cap from about $350 billion to a whopping $4 trillion under his tenure. Bloomberg reports John Ternus has emerged as the leading internal candidate to replace him.​

Apple choosing Ternus would be a pretty major departure from what’s worked for Apple during the past decade, which has been letting someone with an operational background and a strong grasp of the global supply chain lead the company. Ternus, meanwhile, is focused on hardware development, specifically for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. But it’s that technical expertise that’s made him an attractive candidate, especially as much of the recent criticism about Apple has revolved around the company entering new product categories (Vision Pro, but also the ill-fated Apple Car), as well as its struggling AI efforts.​

Now, of course, with so many executives leaving Apple, succession plans extend beyond the CEO role. Apple this week announced it’s bringing in Jennifer Newstead, who currently works as Meta’s chief legal officer, to replace Adams as the company’s general counsel starting March 1, 2026. Newstead is expected to handle both legal and government affairs, which is essentially a consolidation of responsibilities among Apple’s leadership team, merging the roles of Adams and Jackson into one.​

Alan Dye, meanwhile, will be replaced by Stephen Lemay, a move that’s reportedly being celebrated within Apple and its design team in particular. John Gruber, who’s reported on Apple for decades and has deep ties within the company, wrote a pretty scathing critique of Dye, and in that same breath said employees are borderline “giddy” about Lemay—who has worked on every major Apple interface design since 1999, including the very first iPhone—taking over.

Meanwhile, on the AI team, Giannandrea will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, who led AI strategy and development efforts at Google for about 16 years before a brief stint at Microsoft.

Hitting the reset button

All of the above departures cover critical functions for Apple: AI competitiveness, design innovation, regulatory navigation, and operational efficiency. Each replacement brings specialized expertise that aligns with the challenges Cook’s successor will inherit.​

The real test will be execution across multiple fronts simultaneously. Can Subramanya accelerate Apple’s AI development to match competitive threats? Will Lemay’s design leadership maintain Apple’s interface advantages as AI reshapes user interaction? Can Newstead navigate regulatory challenges while preserving Apple’s privacy-first approach?

What’s certain is the company will look fundamentally different in 2026 as the executive team that grew Apple into a $4 trillion behemoth is departing. The transformation could be as profound as any since Jobs handed the reins to his COO at the time, Tim Cook, 14 years ago.

Brazil’s Cerrado and Amazon landscapes are at the heart of global food and fiber supply chains and are globally critical for their environmental services. Transforming how they are managed is essential for a sustainable future – for climate, nature and people. The Landscape Accelerator Brazil – LAB is leading this transformation by uniting business, finance, policymakers, and producers to scale regenerative agriculture and land use. This year, the LAB’s journey – from the inaugural Cerrado Summit, to foundational research (check out Cerrado and Amazon assessment) and the LAB Action Plan, to dynamic pre-COP and COP30 events – has set the ambition for scaled investment and regenerative outcomes on the ground in the coming years. 

LAB Action Plan: A Blueprint for Regeneration 

The LAB Action Plan outlines how diverse stakeholders can work together to scale regenerative landscapes across two critical biomes in Brazil: the Cerrado and Amazon. It focuses on three pillars: 

• Blended finance: Unlocking and aligning public and private capital to catalyze regenerative transitions. 
• Metrics & MRV: Developing shared indicators and monitoring systems for transparency and measurable impact. 
• Public policy: Creating enabling conditions through incentives, regulation, and integration with national climate and agricultural agendas. 

Together, these pillars underpin the LAB ambition to mobilize USD $5 billion by 2030 to accelerate regenerative land-use models and strengthen resilience in these biomes, as part of a longer-term investment opportunity approaching USD $100 billion. 

Pre-COP events: building the momentum 

At the pre-COP events, the LAB has been an active platform for convening business leaders, government representatives, civil society, finance stakeholder, and producers to align around regenerative solutions. These dialogues helped shaping the agenda and direction on land-use priorities for the private sector, ensuring that Brazil’s leadership in sustainable land use is recognized and supported globally. 

At the Sustainable Innovation Forum in Sao Paulo, WBCSD, BCG and CEBDS convened over 50 leaders from corporates, finance, MDBs, producers, and civil society to strategize on accelerating blended investment into regenerative landscapes. The roundtable identified two key LAB roles going forward: 

• Macro scale: Support “matchmaking” between investment supply and demand, and advance key systemic drivers of the transition including key policies and digital innovation. 
• Landscape scale: Codify, scale, and replicate successful collective action models, aggregate co-investment, and enhance farmer trust and participation. 

Participants brainstormed actionable opportunities, such as creating a directory of funds, harmonizing eligibility criteria, and integrating MRV & finance unlocks to accelerate regenerative outcomes on the ground. The session underscored the importance of de-risking transitions for farmers and tailoring financial solutions to their needs. 

Later the same day, WBCSD’s Executive Vice President Diane Holdorf represented our collective work in a multistakeholder panel alongside leaders from the International Finance Corporation, WBCSD member Louis Dreyfus Company, the Rwanda Green Fund and a local organic producer. 

This working session in partnership with CEBDS and with participation from the Brazilian Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, the Central Bank, producer associations and other key technical partners showcased LAB’s progress in aligning metrics for regenerative landscapes and MRV guidance tailored to Brazil , highlighting the benefits and challenges of a vision for regenerative agriculture focused on impact instead of practices alone. Key opportunities to explore in 2026 include: 

• Accelerating the Rural Environment Registry (CAR) validation – an important national registry that maps rural properties and their environmental obligations, providing the data needed to verify compliance with the Forest Code and guide conservation efforts – and improving data infrastructure. 
• Setting “carrots and sticks” by identifying key metrics for unlocking public and private investment. 
• Embedding aligned metrics in proof-of-concept projects. 
• Tackling knowledge gaps through coordinated efforts with academia and institutional partners like Brazil’s leading agronomic research body Embrapa. 

What COP30 meant for the regenerative landscapes agenda in Brazil? 

Together, these engagements reinforced LAB’s role as a bridge between global priorities and local action, making regenerative agriculture scalable and investable. 

At COP30, the Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (AARL) underscored the global momentum for land restoration by announcing over $9 billion in private-sector commitments, spanning 210 million hectares and 12 million farmers since COP28. This signaled both the scale of opportunity and the urgency for country-led pathways to translate ambition into impact. 

Brazil’s launch of RAIZ (Resilient Agriculture Investment for net-Zero land degradation) provides exactly that pathway. RAIZ focuses on mapping degraded landscapes, identifying investable restoration solutions, and structuring blended finance to mobilize capital at scale. It offers a practical route to convert degraded soils into productive, resilient land while advancing climate, biodiversity, and rural development goals. 

The LAB plugs directly into this architecture as the implementation engine, showing how RAIZ and AARL commitments can materialize on the ground. As a place-based coalition set to promote coordinated technical and financial support in 2026, the LAB demonstrates how to turn global commitments and national strategies into investable, farmer-centered action. 

Looking ahead: LAB’s path forward 

At COP30, the LAB and its members and partners demonstrated the power of systemic collaboration to align local investment and action with global climate and biodiversity goals. By connecting people, policies, and investments, the LAB is making regenerative landscapes scalable and investable, turning ambition into action and setting a blueprint for the path ahead and for others to follow. 

Learn more about our work on our website and reach out to Matt Inbusch (inbusch@wbcsd.org) to explore collaboration opportunities. 

Jamie Oliver is to revive his Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain in the UK, more than six years after the celebrity chef’s brand collapsed.

Jamie’s Italian is poised to be relaunched in the spring, starting with a restaurant in London’s Leicester Square.

Oliver’s return to the UK restaurant scene is being backed by Brava Hospitality Group – the private equity-backed group that runs the Prezzo chain – which intends to relaunch the brand across the UK.

“As a chef, having the chance to return to the high street is incredibly important to me,” he said. “I will drive the menus, make sure the sourcing is right, the staff training, and ensure the look and feel of the restaurant is brought to life in the right way.”

Jamie’s Italian was first launched with his mentor, the chef Gennaro Contaldo, in Oxford in 2008. The brand was expanded to about 40 sites at its peak, before a series of restructuring programmes started to reduce the number of locations from 2017.

Two years later the now 50-year-old was forced to call in the administrators after a sales process that sought to bring in new investment into the business proved unsuccessful.

In an email to staff at the time, Oliver blamed “the well-publicised struggles of the casual dining sector and decline of the UK high street, along with soaring business rates”.

Oliver’s return comes at a time when the hospitality industry faces several challenges including soaring food inflation, increasing wage costs and lacklustre trade as consumers rein in spending on non-essentials amid higher household bills.

“In theory it’s not the easiest time to return but conversely, I think it’s the perfect time,” Oliver said. “I believe the mid-market needs excitement, surprise and delight and that’s exactly what I am planning on delivering.”

The failure of Jamie’s Italian in 2019 resulted in 1,000 job losses.

After the collapse of the UK business, the Jamie’s Italian brand continued to operate overseas and it has more than 30 restaurants in 25 countries. Overall, Oliver still has about 70 restaurants around the world run by franchise partners.

Ed Loftus, the global director of Jamie Oliver Restaurants, said the partnership with Brava “marks an exciting next chapter” for the group in the UK.

“Our priority is making the first location exceptional,” he said. “The public will ultimately determine how quickly and how far we grow.”

Financial filings released in October showed that Oliver and his wife, Jools, paid themselves £2.5m in dividends for the second year in a row, as pre-tax profits at their core media and restaurant empire slumped.

Pre-tax profits at Jamie Oliver Holdings (JOH) fell by £1m to £2.4m last year. This was despite a 6% rise in sales to £28.6m, helped by an increase in restaurant income after the November 2023 opening of his first directly run restaurant since the collapse of his UK empire.

JOH includes Oliver’s media interests such as TV production, books, endorsements, his cookery school and his restaurant, as well as franchise income from the overseas outlets, fees for promoting the supermarket Tesco, and royalties from products bearing his name.

Rolls-Royce Submarines has signed an innovative contract with industry experts Assystem, AtkinsRéalis and Frazer-Nash to boost collaboration and gain benefit from the unique nuclear capabilities of each company.

The new Capability Assured Strategic Partnership (CASP) backs UK based businesses and represents a step forward in bringing together nuclear capability to better support the UK Royal Navy’s submarines programme and the wider Defence Nuclear Enterprise.

With a value of up to £400m, this strategic alliance represents one of the largest single supply chain contracts in the history of Rolls-Royce Submarines. Having worked with all three partners for over 20 years, they are uniquely placed to support its future growth ambitions in advanced nuclear technologies.

It represents a long-term commitment from the partners to deliver the collective engineering capabilities, nuclear expertise, and other professional services that Rolls-Royce can utilise to meet growing demand from the Ministry of Defence, and beyond.

In March 2023, it was confirmed that Rolls-Royce Submarines would provide all the nuclear reactor plants that will power new attack submarines as part of the tri-lateral agreement between Australia, the UK and US.

This increase in demand from the Ministry of Defence and the AUKUS agreement means Rolls-Royce plans to double the footprint of its Raynesway site in Derby to support both UK and Australian defence programs. Delivering the Defence Industrial Strategy, the build of new manufacturing and office facilities will create more than 1,000 skilled roles across a range of disciplines, including manufacturing and engineering, plus hundreds more across the supply chain.

Rolls-Royce has powered the UK Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines for over 65 years and is the only private company in the world with the nuclear capability to manage reactor design, manufacture and decommissioning within one single entity.