THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Britain's legal watchdog announced on Tuesday that it has upheld a suspension for the International Criminal Court's embattled chief prosecutor over allegations of sexual misconduct, banning him from practicing law in his home country.
The global court’s oversight body votes later this month on whether to remove Karim Khan from office. The 56-year-old faces allegations related to a female aide, a scandal that has dragged on for more than two years. He has denied wrongdoing.
In June, the U.K.'s Bar Standards Board suspended Khan, a measure adopted “in very serious and urgent cases,” according to the regulator, following a complaint. After a hearing last week, the bar association upheld the decision while disciplinary proceedings are underway.
Khan’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
It comes as the ICC faces increasing threats from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which has long criticized the court. The ICC was created to be a last resort for pursuing the most serious international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.
On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.”
Rubio said he will pressure the court's 125 member states to withdraw from the institution, sanction organizations that work with the court and ban staff from traveling to the United States. Countries that “enjoy the benefits of the U.S. security umbrella” will be called upon to reject the court's jurisdiction over U.S. citizens.
Trump’s administration already has brought sanctions against Khan and a dozen other ICC staff in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.
The Rome Statute, which created the ICC in 2002, gives the court jurisdiction over crimes that happen on the territory of member states or that are committed by nationals of member states. The U.S. signed the treaty but did not ratify it.
The European Union condemned the new U.S. announcement. “We are already facilitating all appropriate measures, including diplomatic, legal and financial avenues, that could help ensure the continuity of the ICC’s operations,” European Commission spokesperson Siobhan McGarry told reporters.
The sanctions have hit the court hard. Typically reserved for autocrats and crime bosses, sanctions can be devastating. They prevent the ICC officials and their families from entering the U.S., block their access to even basic financial services and extend to the minutiae of their everyday lives.
The decision on Khan’s fate is now up to the Assembly of States Parties, the body that oversees the ICC, which will hold a special session on July 24 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Days before the British sanction, the executive committee of the ICC’s oversight body concluded that Khan had committed serious misconduct and recommended that he be removed from office.
The allegations against Khan were first reported to the court’s independent watchdog. An Associated Press investigation revealed that Khan was alleged to have seen the woman working in another ICC department and moved her into his office. She later became a regular presence on official trips, according to whistleblower documents.
On one foreign trip, Khan allegedly asked her to rest with him on a hotel bed and then “sexually touched her,” the documents said. Other alleged nonconsensual behavior cited in the documents included locking the door of his office and sticking his hand in her pocket. He also allegedly asked her several times to accompany him on a vacation.
Associated Press writer Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
FILE - Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, looks up prior to a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — JPMorgan Chase said Tuesday that it logged $16.9 billion in second-quarter profit as its equities trading division again took advantage of market volatility triggered by the war in Iran.
The nation's largest bank by asset size, JPMorgan said that revenue in every line of its business hit record levels in the quarter, including its markets division, where revenue grew 35% over the same period last year. Revenue in its equity markets division skyrocketed 86%.
JPMorgan earned $6.14 per share in the period, beating analyst estimates of $5.59 per share and 2025's $5.24. Managed revenue came in at $58 billion, also topping the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet.
JPMorgan shares were down 2.4% before the opening bell.
CEO Jamie Dimon said that revenue from the New York bank's investment banking division rose 30%, accelerating to the highest level since 2021 as the thirst for initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions remained strong.
According to investment research analysts, both merger and acquisitions and initial public offerings are expected to continue at a blistering pace through 2026.
Global M&A activity accelerated in the second quarter of 2026, with announcements up 64% year-over-year and closings up 33%, according to Morgan Stanley. It was the sixth straight quarter that the volume of deals grew on a year-over-year basis.
The jump in M&A volumes were driven by deals of $10 billion or more, which accounted for 43% of the quarter’s announced volumes, the most in more than six years, Morgan Stanley said. The bank’s research arm forecast that 2026 global M&A announcements will reach $6.4 trillion, topping 2021’s $6.1 trillion.
The story was similar in the IPO market, where 48 IPOs raised a quarterly record of nearly $105 billion, according to Renaissance Capital. The bulk of the proceeds came from SpaceX’s offering, which brought in $75 billion, more than all U.S. IPOs combined in 2024 and 2025, Renaissance said.
Renaissance expects the IPO market to extend its hot streak into the second half of this year, also driven by larger deals such as Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix’s “mega-listing” on Friday that raised $26.5 billion.
Markets have been swinging wildly up and down since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February, with military strikes from both sides interspersed with pauses in fighting and vague temporary truces.
Investors’ concerns that the war will last a long time has triggered high volumes of selling in financial markets, while hopes for a resolution and a freer flow of crude oil has inspired optimism and buying.
Though volatile markets can cause anxiety for individual investors, high-speed Wall Street trading desks can take advantage of the wild gyrations. Big swings in markets tend to increase activity on trading desks, leading to higher commissions and fee revenue for the banks.
Wells Fargo also reported its second-quarter results on Tuesday, posting a 22% jump in net income over the same period last year. Wells said it earned $6.4 billion in the period, or $2 per share, up from $5.5 billion a year ago. Revenue of $22.6 billion also topped estimates.
Wells CEO Charlie Scharf said the San Francisco bank was benefiting from a strong economy and its newly unleashed ability to invest after years of government oversight. Wells’ said its investment banking revenue grew 20% from last year and markets revenue was up 24%.
“After years of not being on a level playing field with our competitors because we couldn’t grow our balance sheet, we are carefully deploying capital to grow and support our clients by taking risks that we think are prudent through economic cycles, not just the strong environment we see today,” Scharf said.
Shares of Wells Fargo fell 1.9% in premarket.
New York investment bank Goldman Sachs and commercial banking giant Bank of America also posted strong second quarter results, both beating Wall Street expectations.
Goldman earned $6.6 billion in the period, or $20.98 per share, on $20.3 billion in revenue. Its shares rose 4% before the opening bell.
Bank of America’s profit rose to $9.1 billion in the April-June period, up 27% from a year ago when it posted $7.2 billion in profit. Bank of America’s shares lost 1.3% in early trading.
FILE - The Bank of America logo is seen on a branch office, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
FILE- In this May 17, 2018, file photo the logo for Wells Fargo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, file photo, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. logo is displayed at their headquarters in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
