Good morning. A federal judge granted the Justice Department’s request to drop fraud charges against Indian energy magnate Gautam Adani and his nephew, Risk Journal’s Max Fillion reports, in an opinion criticizing many of the department leadership’s stated reasons for doing so (free link).

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter failed to establish facts for many of his reasons for requesting a dismissal, but said he believed Adani’s promise to invest $10 billion in the U.S. wasn’t a factor in the decision.

• What remains in place: Garaufis, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, left in place foreign bribery and obstruction of justice charges against executives of Adani’s energy conglomerate, asking the Justice Department to submit a filing by Aug. 31 better explaining their request to drop the charges. All charges against Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, were dropped.

• Response: Adani in a social-media post said, “I welcome the U.S. court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process.”

• Background: Adani and the executives were charged in November 2024 with allegedly orchestrating a scheme to bribe Indian officials in exchange for energy contracts and for deceiving U.S. investors about the conglomerate’s corruption policies.

• Moves to drop the case: The department moved to drop the case in May, the same month the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached an $18 million civil settlement with Gautam and Sagar Adani in a parallel action. An Adani Group subsidiary also agreed to pay $275 million to settle alleged violations of Iranian sanctions levied by the U.S. Treasury’s civil sanctions enforcer.

Flight-tracking platform sues Kalshi over flight cancellation prediction markets

Flight-tracking platform FlightAware is suing Kalshi, alleging the prediction-market company is using its data without permission to let users bet on flight cancellations.

Kalshi has built flight-cancellation betting pages verified by FlightAware’s data despite demands to stop, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for ​the Southern District of New York on Monday.

What do they allege? According to the suit, Kalshi uses FlightAware’s data to settle bets on the percentage of scheduled flights that would be canceled out of an individual airport in a particular time period and, therefore, whether those wagers will win or lose. The suit marks the latest legal action taken against the popular prediction site.

• New York City Launches Sweeping Investigation Into Polymarket and Kalshi

Trade groups seek to reel in FTC’s AI ideology focus

Business groups told the Federal Trade Commission a proposed rule to scrutinize potential political leanings in AI content could impact everything from safety considerations to a chatbot’s sense of humor, Risk Journal’s Clara Hudson reports (free link).

What’s the rule? The FTC proposed the rule earlier this summer homing in on AI systems for potentially undisclosed ideological bias and deceiving consumers.

What’s the uproar? Most business groups submitting comments to the FTC in response to the proposal said they are aligned with the regulator’s goal of ensuring AI systems are trustworthy, and support transparency efforts to help consumers. Some of those trade groups also attempted to steer the FTC toward a proposal the business community would find less restrictive.

• The U.S. Treasury’s financial intelligence unit is making permanent the exclusion of U.S. owned businesses from its business ownership registry, Risk Journal reports (free link).

• Investment adviser Eric Munson denied claims he lied to investors about taking unsecured loans from funds, among other misconduct, but said he opted to settle a fraud case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid “years of litigation.” (free link)

• New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has fired a new salvo in his push to take on big business on behalf of low-paid workers, backing a bill that would force Amazon, FedEx and other companies to employ delivery workers instead of using subcontractors.

• Water associations renewed calls for Washington to set minimum cybersecurity standards, arguing a string of disruptive attacks has exposed the limits of voluntary federal guidance.

• The Justice Department’s Fraud Section—a prominent arm of the Criminal Division that investigates corporate wrongdoing—has a new name: the White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section, reports Risk Journal (free link).

• A Staten Island judge ordered an emergency pause on the implementation of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new pied-à-terre tax. Meanwhile, President Trump on Tuesday said he was reviewing whether his administration can challenge the new law.

• Austria’s Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN) dismantled an international network using shell companies and forged documents to acquire sanctioned industrial equipment for Russia’s arms industry, the Interior Ministry announced Monday.

The average temperature in the contiguous U.S. in July, equivalent to 24.9 degrees Celsius, which was the hottest month ever recorded, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

U.S. fires on ship breaking its blockade of Iran

U.S. forces fired on a Panama-flagged ship that attempted to run the American blockade of Iranian ports early Tuesday, the U.S. military said, stepping up enforcement as the Trump administration attempts to squeeze the regime economically.

A U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of the M/V Vela Nova after its crew ignored warnings from American personnel working to enforce the blockade of Iran’s ports, the military said. The cargo ship was trying to cross the Gulf of Oman for an unspecified Iranian port, the military said.

• Iran’s Mysterious Ruler Signals a Hard Line on Trump With New Leadership

• Gulf States Accept a New Normal in Hormuz: Iran Is in Control

• Iran Is Defying U.S. Pressure by Becoming a ‘Survival Economy’

Insurance risks remain high as wildfire threat rises, Swiss Re Institute says

Estimated natural-catastrophe losses in the insurance industry fell sharply in the first half of 2026, but wildfires and weather events