A clinical trial led by Queen Mary University of London has found that transcutaneous autonomic neuromodulation through the ear is safe, well-tolerated, and easy for patients with uncontrolled hypertension to use at home. The SCRATCH-HTN trial demonstrates the potential of this noninvasive technique as a treatment option for high blood pressure.
Companies are using AI to automate traditional entry-level work, with London ad agency Catalyst reporting that one junior employee can now handle five client accounts where several were previously needed. The shift is forcing businesses to rethink their approach to hiring and training early-career workers.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced that Manchester will host the 2027 G20 leaders' summit, bringing world leaders including Donald Trump to the northern English city. The UK will use its G20 presidency to pursue a global AI agreement and may also move the Global Investment Summit from London to Manchester.
Novo Nordisk's stock plummeted after the company's Capital Markets Day in London failed to reassure investors about its ability to compete in the crowded weight loss drug market, with CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen presenting a roadmap targeting $23 billion in revenue by 2035. Investors expressed concerns about the drugmaker's post-Wegovy growth prospects despite plans to expand its pipeline through acquisitions.
London-based digital asset technology platform Haruko suffered a targeted cyberattack that compromised exchange API details, trading data, and funds belonging to 15 cryptocurrency clients. Attackers obtained an access token that exposed sensitive exchange API information used by hedge funds to trade on crypto exchanges.
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, along with HMRC and Metropolitan Police, took enforcement action against three London premises on September 10, issuing cease and desist letters for suspected illegal peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading operations without proper registration.
US authorities secretly removed a diplomat from London and flew him out of the UK after he was accused of possessing indecent images of children, without informing British police. The incident has sparked diplomatic controversy and drawn criticism from Harry Dunn's mother, who called the action 'unforgivable.'
Counter-terrorism police in London arrested a 60-year-old man and 42-year-old woman on suspicion of assisting Iran's foreign intelligence service. The arrests were made at properties in London as part of an investigation into suspected National Security Act offenses.
London-based fintech Revolut secured conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a US national bank charter, marking the first of three required federal regulatory clearances. The company still needs approval from the FDIC and Federal Reserve before launching US banking operations planned for 2027.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has agreed to have his text messages and emails searched as part of a High Court legal battle with Palantir, after he blocked a £50m deal between the US technology company and the Metropolitan Police.
The London Stock Exchange Group plans to launch tokenized stocks backed by shares of London-listed companies, partnering with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken. The initiative aims to expand global access to UK equities through digital assets and 24-hour trading.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the UK will support Ukraine "100%" after Russia's embassy in London warned of consequences for Britain's supply of drones to Kyiv, which were reportedly used in recent Ukrainian strikes. The Kremlin accused Britain of seeking to contain Russia and inflict damage by proxy.
Nigerian defense technology startup Terra Industries has closed a $52 million seed round, including an additional $18 million in new funding, to develop autonomous warfare systems and security infrastructure for emerging markets. The company is opening its first office outside Africa in London while maintaining manufacturing operations in Ghana and Nigeria.
Jason Arday, 41, who became Cambridge University's youngest Black professor in 2023 and resigned last week following plagiarism allegations regarding his PhD thesis, was found dead at his home in south London. Metropolitan Police reported he was found unresponsive at an address in Battersea on Friday.
British Transport Police has begun trialling live facial recognition technology at London Tube stations, starting with Victoria station, to identify people on police watchlists. The deployment marks an expansion of the controversial surveillance technology in UK public transport.
Novo Nordisk and Amazon Web Services have established a strategic partnership featuring a co-innovation hub in London where AWS engineers work alongside Novo Nordisk R&D teams. The collaboration deploys agentic AI, biological foundation models, and Amazon Bio Discovery platform to accelerate drug discovery workflows including target identification and therapy design.
Novo Nordisk and Amazon Web Services have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate drug discovery through artificial intelligence, establishing a new AI co-innovation hub in London that will bring together AWS engineers and AI specialists with Novo Nordisk's research and development teams.
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority is working with major banks and market participants to establish standards for tokenized gold, aiming to digitize financial markets and reinforce London's position as the global bullion trading center amid competition from Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Transport for London granted private hire vehicle licenses to Uber Technologies Inc. and UK startup Wayve Technologies Ltd., allowing them to offer self-driving taxi rides with a safety driver present. The approval makes them the first companies authorized for autonomous taxi services in London, ahead of competitors Waymo and Baidu.
OLIX, a two-year-old London-based AI chip startup founded by 25-year-old school dropout James Dacombe, has raised $312 million in Series B funding at a $3.3 billion valuation, tripling its previous valuation. The round was led by Fundomo with participation from Arm, Hudson River Trading, and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.
Mastercard has finalized its acquisition of BVNK, a London-based cryptocurrency infrastructure platform and Ripple partner, for $1.5 billion plus $300 million in earnouts. The deal expands Mastercard's capabilities in the stablecoin payments market, adding BVNK's infrastructure that processes $30 billion in annual stablecoin volume across 130 countries.
Rashad Sultanov, a 44-year-old dual British-Azerbaijani national from London, was arrested in Cyprus on July 17 on suspicion of spying on RAF Akrotiri and passing information to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Britain has requested his extradition in what marks the first British investigation abroad under the National Security Act.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the transfer of intellectual property rights and a production licence for the Stone Cloak electronic warfare system to Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to a Royal Navy base. The compact, tablet-sized system is mounted on drones to blind Russian radar and air defense networks, and Ukraine will become the first country authorised to manufacture it domestically at scale.
Catherine L'Estrange from North Acton became the first patient in the UK and second in the world to receive groundbreaking gene therapy for Bardet-Biedl syndrome, a rare condition that progressively causes blindness in children. The treatment, performed at St Helier Hospital in March, involves injecting healthy copies of a gene directly into the eye.
Institutional crypto and FX trading platform LMAX Group is exploring strategic alternatives including a potential sale, IPO, or SPAC merger, with Morgan Stanley and KBW serving as advisors. The London-based firm, which reported $8.2 trillion in trading volume, could seek a valuation of up to $5 billion, with Nasdaq reportedly the preferred listing venue.
Nigerian singer Oladapo Oyebanjo, known as D'banj, made history as the first Nigerian artist to ring the closing bell at the London Stock Exchange. The milestone occurred amid other LSE developments including Volex's transition to the Main Market, McCormick's planned secondary listing, and the exchange's AI-driven trading infrastructure expansion.
The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency denied London-based payments company Wise's application for a national trust bank charter, citing deficiencies. Wise plans to resubmit a new application under the GENIUS Act stablecoin framework.
London-based Humanoid secured $152 million in Series A funding at a $1.35 billion post-money valuation, led by Prime Movers Lab with participation from Bosch and Schaeffler. The two-year-old company, which develops industrial humanoid robots including its HMND 01 model, has now raised $270 million total.
A hyperscale datacentre planned for outer London would generate over 1 million tonnes of CO2 annually, equivalent to 8,480 transatlantic flights, raising concerns about compatibility with UK net zero targets. The proposal is among several datacentre projects facing local resistance in London.
Multiple datacentre projects in London are drawing criticism, including a hyperscale facility in Charlton that would generate over 1 million tonnes of CO2 annually and a Brick Lane site residents say should be used for housing instead of high-frequency trading servers.
Multiple datacentre projects in London are drawing criticism, including a hyperscale facility in Charlton that would generate over 1 million tonnes of CO2 annually and a Brick Lane site residents say should be used for housing instead of high-frequency trading servers.
Prince Harry will not stay at Buckingham Palace during his visit to London this week, despite initial reports suggesting he had accepted an invitation to stay there. The confusion arose as the Duke of Sussex is also awaiting a High Court ruling in his case against the Daily Mail's publisher.
A UK court sentenced four Palestine Action activists to over 20 years combined imprisonment for a 2024 raid on an Israeli defense firm's Bristol factory that caused £1.2 million in damage, with the judge ruling the incident constituted an act of terrorism. The sentencing sparked protests outside the London court, resulting in over 100 arrests.
Anthropic held 'Code with Claude,' its first developer-focused event in Europe, on May 19-20, 2026 in London, demonstrating Claude's advanced code-writing abilities and new features. The event coincided with Google I/O and highlighted Claude's growing dominance in AI-assisted coding among startups.
