Good morning. The U.K.’s financial regulator has told the country’s institutions to go easier on due diligence of politicians, a move that follows a scandal over a private bank’s decision last year to cut off Brexit advocate Nigel Farage.

• Fairer treatment: The Financial Conduct Authority on Thursday said financial firms must improve their treatment of so-called politically exposed persons, or those entrusted with a prominent public function, and their families. A review by the FCA began after Coutts, a private bank to the country’s royal family and wealthy elites, last year abruptly closed Farage’s accounts after judging him a reputational risk.
   
• Extra checks: Like their U.S. counterparts, U.K. banks are required to perform extra checks on PEPs because of the unique risks they pose, including the possibility they could misuse their offices for personal gain. But the FCA said the U.K.’s financial institutions need to ensure politicians and their families aren’t being treated unfairly.
   
• Helpful suggestions: The regulator offered several suggestions to financial firms, including that they ensure definitions of a PEP are as narrow as possible under the law, and that they review the status of the individuals promptly after they leave office.

SolarWinds defeats part of SEC’s fraud case over hack.

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed part of a landmark government lawsuit against SolarWinds and its top cybersecurity executive over how the software company dealt with a breach disclosed in 2020 that affected customers, including U.S. government agencies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last year sued Austin, Texas-based SolarWinds and its chief information security officer, Tim Brown, over how it presented the risk of a cyberattack before the breach and what it told investors after the hack occurred. The case marked the first time securities regulators went to court with civil-fraud claims—the most serious charge at the agency’s disposal—against a public company that suffered a cyberattack.

FTX claims broker Thomas Braziel stole $1.9 million from a receivership for personal gain, court says.

A Delaware court has ordered distressed-debt investor Thomas Braziel to pay back about $1.95 million that he took from a receivership he oversaw to fund his own investments and to make purchases of luxury goods.

Braziel, a managing partner at distressed investing firm 117 Partners and based in Italy, rose to fame in recent years for buying claims in high-profile cryptocurrency bankruptcy cases from customers, including in the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, crypto lender Celsius Network and crypto platform Voyager Digital.

A vice chancellor at the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, in a memorandum opinion published Thursday, found that Braziel had used funds from the receivership of defunct financial services information company Fund.com for personal gain, according to court filings.

• U.S. health officials Thursday authorized tobacco-flavored versions of America’s top-selling e-cigarette brand, granting the Vuse Alto products permission to remain on the market.

Major IT outage hits banks, airlines, businesses worldwide.

A massive tech outage swept the globe, knocking out operations for banks, media companies and emergency services, and forcing airlines to ground flights.

An update from cybersecurity-software company CrowdStrike caused outages for millions of users of Microsoft Windows devices worldwide. CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz said in a post on X that the issue had been identified and a fix had been deployed, adding that “this is not a security incident or cyberattack.”

China’s leaders point to economic threats but show no sign of changing tack.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and several hundred other top Communist Party officials huddled in Beijing this week to plot a path forward for their country’s sagging economy. The outline they released after four days of meetings suggests a future that looks more or less like the present.

That fidelity to China’s current course signals that Xi remains committed to his vision of state-led development, even as unease festers—among ordinary Chinese and foreign investors—over his stewardship of the world’s second-largest economy.

• Police and some small-business owners say people are exploiting the cultural acceptance of masks established by Covid-19 to commit robberies while hiding their faces.
   
• In a vote for political calm and continuity that runs counter to current anti-incumbent trends, the European Union’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, won a second term as president of the bloc’s executive branch.
   
• The European Central Bank held interest rates steady but kept the door open to further reductions this year.
   
• Volvo Car warned that potential European Union tariffs on electric vehicles from China will hit sales of one of its flagship models. The uncertainty around tariffs adds to lingering concerns over high inflation, elevated interest rates, raw-material price volatility and geopolitical complexity.
   
• Canadian Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan is leaving his post Friday at a time when the country’s logistics network could face upheaval from a potential strike at two main railroads.

• AT&T, UnitedHealth Group join a growing list of companies with hacks traced to the absence of one particular security measure: multifactor authentication.
   
• JD Vance used his venture career to promote the heartland as deserving of and needing to be part of the tech entrepreneurial map. But the coasts still rule when it comes to venture funding.
   
• Private-equity firms are preparing for next year’s renegotiation of Trump’s 2017 tax bill, aiming to prevent rate increases.
   
• The Supreme Court’s rulings on how federal agencies regulate business will inspire new legal battles that could have long-term effects on the marketing industry.

• The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump roiled U.S. politics and shocked people around the world. For a few enterprising traders, it also led to quick profits.
   
• Bud Light’s star is still falling more than a year after a boycott turned the U.S. beer industry upside down.
   
• People close to top Democrats said Thursday that it now appeared it was a matter of when—not if—President Biden bowed out of the presidential race.
   
• Bob Newhart, one of the first comedians to star in a TV sitcom based on his stand-up persona, died at his home in Los Angeles at age 94.
   
• Russian prosecutors on Friday sought an 18-year prison sentence in a high-security penal colony for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich after falsely accusing him of spying.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

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