US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis has dismissed US bribery and fraud charges against Gautam Adani over alleged $250 million payments to Indian officials for solar contracts, while sharply criticising the Justice Department’s “highly unusual” internal process. The judge singled out Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter for sidelining line prosecutors and relying on a word-count argument that labelled the case “primarily foreign”, and raised concerns about the authenticity of documents submitted. The ruling removes a major criminal overhang as Adani Group advances nearly $15 billion in new investments and a $1.6 billion share sale after recent SEC and OFAC settlements totalling $293 million.

Concerns over the “functioning independence” of the Office for Nuclear Regulation have been raised in the House of Lords after the regulator’s sponsorship was moved from the Department for Work and Pensions to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which is directly responsible for nuclear policy and new build. Critics argue that placing the safety regulator under the same department promoting Sizewell C, small modular reactors and lifetime extensions could create perceived conflicts of interest. For civil and nuclear engineers, this may affect confidence in regulatory decisions on reactor design approvals, site licensing and safety case scrutiny.

Public trust built through strong regulation and early, meaningful community participation is identified by the Trust, Accountability and Inclusion Collaborative’s report “Mined The Gaps: Trust and Critical Minerals” as a primary driver of faster permitting, challenging assumptions that deregulation speeds critical minerals projects in Australia, Canada and the US. Author Sefton Darby proposes Adaptive Governance Partnerships, with joint regulator–company–community committees addressing environmental, social and cultural risks from exploration onwards, rather than at permitting. The report warns that under-capitalised juniors, focused almost solely on geology in brownfield expansions, embed unmanaged ESG risks, and calls for exploration funding to be explicitly tied to environmental and social initiatives.