Selling Thames Water to a Chinese-controlled company could give Beijing access to sensitive customer data, which might pose a risk to national security, a senior former intelligence officer has warned, The Times reported. Sir Simon Gass, who served as chairman of the government’s joint intelligence committee until two years ago, said that proposals to hand Thames Water over to the Hong Kong-based infrastructure firm CKI required “close scrutiny from a national security perspective”.

The Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien ceased operations at its Freyung location on August 21, 2025, after more than four decades. The closure is related to the economic consequences of the Signa insolvency, which made the institution's operations impossible, Aviation.direct reported. The last exhibition at the venerable venue, Mensch Berlin, was a popular success. The show featured more than 120 works of art from the post-war German period and the period of reunification. Thousands of visitors took the opportunity to visit the exhibition and bid farewell to the Kunstforum.

Silicon Valley startup Lyten will need to convince carmakers it can succeed where bankrupt Swedish EV battery maker Northvolt failed - creating a European champion to reduce the region's reliance on China, Reuters reported. Lyten, which develops lithium-sulfur batteries, unexpectedly announced on August 7 it was buying Northvolt's assets, offering a lifeline to future European battery production for electric vehicles.

Switzerland soon hopes to finalise a new business offer for Washington to ease its tariff burden, which will likely include more defence spending and greater access for U.S. energy interests, Reuters reported. Switzerland was stunned when U.S. President Donald Trump this month hit it with one of the highest tariff rates worldwide - 39% - after complaining about the U.S. trade deficit with the country on a call with Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter.

Shares in the embattled Bitcoin miner, Argo Blockchain, tumbled more than 20% on Friday, after the company announced that it had failed to negotiate terms for a bailout loan, CCN.com reported. Argo remains locked in talks with Growler Mining, a potential white knight investor, but has warned that without fresh capital or a refinancing deal, it may soon have to enter insolvency proceedings. In a market update on Friday, Aug. 22, Argo said that while the parties are working diligently toward finalizing the terms of the Plan, there can be no assurance of reaching a deal.

Germany’s economic output shrank by more than initially estimated in the second quarter, with industry faring worse than expected as U.S. tariffs hurt exports, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product in Europe’s largest economy fell 0.3% on quarter in the three months to the end of June, according to fresh estimates, a sharper rate than the 0.1% decline initially estimated made last month, statistics agency Destatis said. That performance offset much of the 0.3% increase in GDP in the first quarter. Exports of goods fell 0.6% in the quarter as U.S.

U.K. consumers felt a little better about their finances this month as the Bank of England lowered borrowing costs, though sentiment remains weak amid wider economic turmoil, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer confidence rose two points to minus 17 in August from minus 19 in July, according to research group GfK’s monthly index, published with the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions. The increase suggests sentiment is at its sunniest so far this year, but still well below the prepandemic trend.

EU tariffs on Russian fertiliser imports that aim to cut funding for Moscow's war in Ukraine have so far hit European farmers, raising costs and risking higher consumer prices while Russian companies say they can divert exports to other markets, Reuters reported. "We're shooting ourselves in the foot," farmer Cedric Benoist, deputy secretary general of French wheat farmers union AGPB and head of the cereals committee of EU farmer association Copa Cogeca, told Reuters, saying farmers are now faced with paying higher global prices.

The U.K.'s third-largest steelworks has been placed under government control, creating an uncertain future for nearly 1,500 workers in Rotherham and Sheffield, BBC.com reported. Insolvency courts granted a compulsory winding up order sought by creditors owed hundreds of millions of pounds by Speciality Steels UK (SSUK) – part of the Liberty Steel metals empire of controversial tycoon Sanjeev Gupta.

The largest creditor to struggling water company Thames Water has said it is confident that it will not lose money, joking that the UK was comparable to Puerto Rico, which paid lenders to its water company despite a crippling debt crisis, The Guardian reported. Dominic Frederico, the chief executive of U.S. insurer Assured Guaranty, suggested that the U.K. government would not impose losses on creditors.