Good morning. To make its case that climate regulations should be tossed out, the Trump administration asked a group of five researchers who are skeptical of established climate science to write a report for the Energy Department.

What’s in it? The report challenges decades of scientific findings that emissions from cars, power plants and factories are warming the planet and posing risks to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency is using the report as the scientific basis to roll back its so-called endangerment finding, a legal tool that allows the agency to regulate industries and automakers under the Clean Air Act.

What do they say? “The science does not say what you think it says,” Steven Koonin, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a theoretical physicist who contributed to the report, said in an interview. “The reality of climate science risks and benefits have been largely misportrayed in the media, by the NGOs and many politicians,” he said, referring to nongovernmental organizations.

The context: The authors’ dissent from the scientific consensus is bigger than a scholarly argument over who has better data or models. The outcome will be used in an expected court challenge that will determine decades of environmental rules on U.S. industries from transportation to utilities.

Trump picks ‘generalist’ prosecutor for criminal division head.

President Trump has nominated a career prosecutor from Florida to serve as head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, breaking a tradition of tapping lawyers for the job who held department or corporate leadership roles.

Trump announced on Wednesday he would nominate Andrew Tysen Duva, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Florida, to take the position. If confirmed by the Senate, Duva would replace acting criminal division head Matthew Galeotti, who during his short tenure has authored several policy changes outlining the Criminal Division’s approach to combating white-collar crime.

EEOC sues hospital over vaccine policies.

The U.S. federal employment law enforcer has sued an Illinois hospital for allegedly violating its workers’ civil rights by ordering them to get Covid-19 vaccines, reports Risk Journal’s Richard Vanderford, part of a string of actions taking on vaccine mandates imposed by employers.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday announced two lawsuits against Silver Cross Hospital, saying it allegedly failed to respect one employee’s religious rights and another employee’s disability protections when it tried to force them to get the Covid vaccine.

EEOC head Andrea Lucas said the pandemic didn’t override protections for religious practice and disability, but many U.S. workplaces ignored the law.

• A Florida jury found Tesla was partly to blame over a fatal 2019 collision involving a vehicle equipped with the company’s driver-assistance software, awarding the plaintiffs nearly $329 million in damages.
   
• UBS Group agreed to pay $300 million to settle outstanding obligations Credit Suisse had committed to in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department over bonds backed by mortgages sold before the 2008 financial crisis.
   
• Indian oil refiner Nayara Energy said Microsoft restored services after the Delhi High Court intervened in a dispute over the U.S. technology conglomerate’s suspension of business services it provides Nayara.
   
• President Trump’s assertion of emergency powers to impose worldwide tariffs faced its toughest legal test yet on Thursday, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit voiced skepticism of his unilateral move to impose levies that are normally Congress’s responsibility.
   
• Pharmaceutical makers were largely unshaken by the latest demands from President Trump to lower drug prices, with industry observers saying the new measures laid out in letters to 17 companies would either have modest impact or face legal challenges.
   
• The U.S. Treasury sanctioned five companies and one individual for allegedly procuring technology to support Iran’s military drone manufacturing.

The wild week in the American economy.

For months, the economy sent off mixed signals, with employers and consumers expressing anxiety in surveys but underlying economic data generally solid.

This past week, the fog lifted. On Wednesday, official data showed economic output and consumer spending slowed markedly over the first half of the year. Later that day, the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, citing inflation and a solid labor market.

It was vindicated by another report Thursday that showed price pressures remained stubborn, then contradicted in spectacular fashion Friday by a lower-than-expected rise of 73,000 jobs in July accompanied by a significant downward revision to the prior two months.

• U.S. Hiring Slowed Sharply Over the Summer
• U.S. Factory Activity Continues to Contract
• Cooling Job Market Opens Door to September Cut

Trump’s AI strategy against China gets its first big test.

The U.S. and China just released competing plans to win the artificial-intelligence race. They will get their first test this coming week when the superpowers pitch Asian countries that are picking sides.

Competing visions. The Trump administration is expected to tout its strategy for exporting American AI for a 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in South Korea focused on technology, which begins Monday, U.S. officials said. Chinese officials will be at the event pitching their AI products, which they say will improve thanks to the government’s deep pockets and its vision for a global community of open models.

• Businesses around the world are still seeking clarity on the barriers they will face as exporters to the U.S., with many pausing big decisions on investment and hiring, according to the deputy head of the International Chamber of Commerce.
   
• A private gauge of China’s manufacturing activity returned to contractionary territory in July, as softening new business growth led factories to scale back production.
   
• U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited the Gaza Strip on Friday to develop a new aid-distribution plan, part of the Trump administration’s push to alleviate the deepening humanitarian crisis.
   
• In just a matter of months, President Trump has gone from praising India as a major strategic partner to saying he wouldn’t care if its economy implodes.
   
• Chief Executive Mike Wirth had a stern message for Chevron’s 40,000 employees in February: Stop being so nice to each other.
   
• Boeing leaders face another picket line after machinists in its St. Louis-area defense business rejected their latest contract offer.
   
• CoreCard, led by Leland Strange, risks losing Apple’s credit-card business when Apple’s partnership with Goldman Sachs ends.
   
• Hamas released videos of emaciated Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, who pleaded to be freed and criticized Netanyahu.

Pentagon snub rattles cybersecurity conference circuit.

A Pentagon move to pull its officials out of a policy think tank event is sending a chill across the cybersecurity trade-show circuit, where senior military and national security leaders often appear as keynote speakers and panelists.

What's at stake. By barring its officials from participating in cybersecurity conferences, the Defense Department would imperil critical threat-intelligence sharing between public and private cybersecurity experts, among other issues, event organizers, vendors and attendees say.

• Late summer is typically one of the slowest times for dealmakers. Not this one.
   
• Crypto bros William Duplessie and John Woeltz hatched grandiose plans in business and politics but instead drew charges in an alleged kidnap scheme.
   
• A chief White House economic adviser said Sunday that President Trump wants his allies placed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the agency published a surprisingly dismal jobs report Friday and the president later fired its commissioner.
   
• As the battle royal for AI talent escalates, the companies with the biggest war chests are finding the cash cannon only gets them so far.
   
• North Korea has opened the Wonsan Kalma coastal resort to foreign vacationers, exclusively Russians, to attract tourism and showcase a modern image.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com, Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

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