Good morning. The Biden administration on Wednesday warned businesses to be on the lookout for Iranian attempts to acquire goods that could support its ballistic missile program, reports Risk & Compliance Journal’s Richard Vanderford. 

The U.S. also imposed new sanctions on entities it said were enabling Iran’s missile and drone programs. The two moves came as United Nations restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile-related activities were slated to expire.

• What does Iran seek? Iran has sought a range of goods from the U.S. and abroad to support its missile development efforts, including circuit boards, gyroscopes and aluminum tubes, according to the administration advisory, published Wednesday by the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State and the Treasury.
   
• Comment from the advisory: “Private industry is on the front line of detecting and denying Iran’s procurement efforts, and consequently it is critical that companies be familiar with the techniques, entities, goods and technologies involved in Iran’s ballistic missile procurement efforts,” they said. “We will hold accountable those assisting Iran’s ballistic missile program, regardless of the location or nationality of those providing the assistance.”
   
• Focus on export controls: The U.S. has ratcheted up its use of export controls to stop adversaries such as Iran, Russia and China from gaining access to technology that could be used in military applications.

Brazil needs to do more on foreign bribery, global watchdog says.

Brazil has made progress in combating foreign bribery schemes over the last nine years, but still has a way to go in successfully charging individuals, an international antibribery watchdog said.

In a report published Thursday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions commended the Brazilian government for progress implementing new legislation against corporate bribery and taking enforcement actions against large-scale foreign bribery schemes since its last evaluation in 2014.

• The Biden administration late Wednesday announced the removal of a broad array of sanctions against Venezuela’s oil and gas sector in response to a deal between President Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian government and his political opponents that could lead to a presidential election next year.
   
• Companies are cracking down on employees who don’t want to go back to the office.
   
• Here are some key moments so far from the public parts of the landmark antitrust case against Google, estimated to end in late November.
   
• Two of crypto’s biggest brands are working to reintroduce consumers and lawmakers alike to the optimism that powered early investment in the sector, even as the high-stakes trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried continues to dominate conversation around digital currencies.

China’s economy faces deepening troubles in years ahead.

With the property market that long fueled China’s growth mired in a prolonged downturn, China’s economy is shifting into a lower gear.

The country’s struggling economy showed some signs of life on Wednesday, with strengthening retail sales helping to drive growth to a faster-than-expected 4.9% in the third quarter.

Still, economists warn China’s economy remains fragile and its long-term prospects are darkening. In recent weeks, a bevy of economists have lowered their forecasts for China’s longer-term growth trajectories, even as they raised their shorter-term predictions.

• Don’t Rule Out a Financial Crisis in China

Federal cyber chief tells agencies to tap brakes on AI.

Federal agencies have pitched more than 1,000 use cases for generative artificial intelligence, but the U.S. government’s cybersecurity chief wants risks associated with the technology properly addressed before they can press ahead.

Generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have piqued the interest of companies and government agencies alike, for their ability to parse large data sets and answer conversational queries. But as with any technology on government radar, caution is in order, said Chris DeRusha, federal chief information security officer at the Office of Management and Budget, speaking at a FAIR Institute conference of cybersecurity and risk managers.

• Israel, the U.S. government and independent security experts said Wednesday the preliminary evidence for a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital compound pointed to a local militant group, casting doubt on Palestinian claims that an Israeli airstrike was responsible.
   
• Meanwhile, the explosion at a Gaza hospital Tuesday night set off a wave of protests across much of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world, some of them calling for death to Israel.
   
• The Federal Reserve should extend its pause on interest-rate increases because of growing evidence that higher borrowing costs will slow the economy despite recent signs of hiring and spending strength, a top central bank official said.
   
• Chinese jet fighters have performed reckless maneuvers close to American and other military aircraft almost 300 times in the past two years under a centrally directed campaign of coercion, the Pentagon said.
   
• Deal-making activity for big investment banks might be in for a long lull.
   
• Higher interest rates and inflation are upending millions of Americans’ retirement planning. Wall Street’s boilerplate mix of stocks and bonds isn’t cutting it anymore.

• Netflix said its efforts to limit password sharing delivered stronger customer growth than expected in the third quarter, and it announced plans to increase some prices in the U.S., U.K. and France.
   
• Tesla’s profit tumbled 44% in the third quarter, a steeper drop than many on Wall Street had expected.
   
• Pfizer will price a course of its Covid-19 drug Paxlovid at nearly $1,400 when commercial sales begin later this year, more than double what the U.S. government has paid.
   
• U.S. families’ wealth surged in the years after Covid-19 struck, adding to signs of consumer strength that could help the U.S. economy shake off the bite from higher interest rates.
   
• The bar for taking a sick day is getting lower, and some bosses say that’s a problem.

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.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email David at david.smagalla@wsj.com.