Ford is recalling more than 741,000 SUVs and pickups, including 2018–2021 Expedition and Navigator, 2020–2021 Explorer and Aviator, and 2021 F-150 models, over a transmission defect that can allow a vehicle to roll away. The company has linked the issue to 24 reports of property damage and nine alleged injuries, including two reports involving emotional injuries. Dealers will install a software update and inspect and replace damaged transmission components at no cost, with interim owner letters expected to begin Aug. 3. Ford said a permanent repair is not expected to be available until April 2027.

Bloom Energy (BE) rose 13.97% to $345 in after-hours trading, bringing its gains to more than 24% on the day. The stock is up about 20.5% over the past month and roughly 269% year-to-date. The move followed partner Brookfield’s decision to raise its financing framework for AI infrastructure-related power projects from $5 billion to $25 billion, calling Bloom a key clean power provider for expanding AI compute.

The article says the Strait of Hormuz has been closed, disrupting flows that include 20% of global oil and natural gas, 30% of seaborne fertilizer trade, 30% of helium supply and transport linked to 10% of aluminum production. It says gasoline has risen more than 50% to around $4.50 a gallon and diesel is up more than 60%, while fertilizer and helium shortages could lift food prices and disrupt semiconductor production. The piece adds that U.S. CPI has climbed to 3.8% and wholesale prices are up 6%, with markets expecting the Federal Reserve may raise rates by year’s end.

Women are more likely than men to rely on Social Security for retirement income, but they receive about $4,800 less per year on average, according to research from the AARP Public Policy Institute. The report points to lower earnings and more time spent out of the workforce for caregiving as key drivers of the gap. Financial advisors say the disparity makes the timing and coordination of benefit-claiming decisions especially consequential for women.

Sydney home prices fell 1.2% month on month in June, while Melbourne declined 1% and Canberra slipped 0.6%. The national median price dropped 0.4% over the month, the biggest month-on-month fall since 2022. The faster declines are attributed to Labor’s tax changes and expectations of further interest rate rises weighing on buyer confidence, signalling a sharper cooling in Australia’s housing market.

DeFi suffered 88 hacks with known dollar amounts in Q2 2026, with total losses of $780.3 million through June 30. April accounted for $644.8 million, while May and June added a combined $135.4 million across dozens of incidents. Bridge-related hacks were tagged at $353.4 million, and DeFi protocol-targeted entries made up $735.8 million of the quarter’s total, according to DeFiLlama’s hacks tracker. The data suggest exploit pressure has shifted from isolated events to ongoing strain across multi-chain infrastructure such as bridges, oracles, frontends, signing systems, and contract logic.

Australia’s federal government is preparing sweeping regulatory reforms that would require PwC, KPMG and other global firms to structurally separate their audit and consulting operations and restrict offering both services to the same client. The proposals also include a 400-partner cap, shorter audit tenures and stronger enforcement powers for ASIC. The overhaul follows KPMG’s recent confidential-data misuse scandal and PwC’s tax information leak, and is aimed at restoring trust in the sector.

A Ripple executive said a proposed XRP Ledger credit facility has moved into the network voting process, aiming to enable on-chain lending for digital asset holders and businesses seeking faster financing. The feature would only be deployed if nodes approve it through a vote. RLUSD is also expanding via new settlement support across eight chains and additional integrations and listings, while XRP network activity has risen over the past two weeks even as large holders continue moving tokens to exchanges. Separately, technical analysis cited a TD Sequential daily buy signal and flagged $1.06 as a key support level.