As companies seek to close growing gaps in skills and talent,

Deloitte US CEO Jason Garzatus believes it's important for organizations to understand their baseline of skills.

There's so many organizations that can't ask and answer the fundamental questions about how much computer science or data management skills do I have or AI development skills in a given domain? By performing a

skills inventory, leaders can truly understand where their efforts should be focused. Being blind

to those gaps is the real miss. Visit Deloitte.com to learn how your enterprise can help successfully

cultivate talent. Here's your midday brief for Thursday, October 16th. I'm Zoe Colkin for the Wall Street Journal.

We're exclusively reporting the Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal

Revenue Service that could allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries into left-leaning groups and

Democratic donors. That's according to people

familiar with the matter. A senior official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential

targets, some of the people said, including billionaire donor George Soros in his affiliated organizations.

The proposed overhaul, which officials say aims to install Trump allies at the IRS Criminal Investigation Division to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the role of IRS lawyers, coincides with a broader effort to investigate financial networks that the president claims are fermenting political violence.

The European Union is putting forth a new five-year strategy, the Defense Readiness Roadmap 2030, to overhaul military planning and procurement to become combat ready by the end of the decade.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is proposing four priority joint defense procurement projects, including the European Dron Defense Initiative,

and is aiming to boost joint acquisition of arms to 40% by 2027, up from around 20% currently.

The document states that a militarized Russia poses a persistent and future threat to European security,

making the rapid acquisition of advanced weapons essential for deterrence.

And as promised, we have earnings for Charles Schwab and Bank of New York Mellon, with both banks

reporting higher third quarter profit. Charles Schwab's revenue beat Wall Street's expectations

and hit with the company called record levels, soaring 27% to $6.14 billion. Gains included a 25% increase

in trading revenue and a 37% surge in net interest revenue, with asset management fees, also

rising 13% year over year. The company logged a $2.28 billion profit for common stockholders,

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