💸 Free Chips, Extra Bill
This round’s on the house—until the tab comes out.
Good morning!
From December, Google will charge twice as much for Gemini 4 Argon, its flagship model: $20 per million tokens of output instead of $10. Gemini 3.8 Flash, the cheap workhorse, doubles in January. For 3 years, AI was sold on the economics of a dealer's first bag: chatbots free, APIs priced like tap water, coding assistants handed out by startups yet to meet a margin. Companies rebuilt their workflows around it and trimmed headcount to match. Uber ran the same trick, losing some $30B before its first profitable year to teach cities that a ride across town should cost less than lunch. In New York, drivers who had borrowed to buy medallions at $1M were still paying off loans worth more than the medallions when the fares went up.
Upstream, the price has already moved. AWS raised its H200 GPU blocks by about 15% one weekend in January, without a press release, after 20 years of announcing price cuts. CoreWeave, the landlord that rents NVIDIA chips to the AI labs, put its rates up 25% in July, then about 10% more. Renting a Blackwell B200 on the spot market went from $2.75 to $4.08 an hour between February and April. NVIDIA builds each B200 for about $6.4K and sells it for $30K to $40K, a gross margin above 80% that makes Hermès look generous.
Nobody upstream has a reason to blink. Meta has booked about $35B of CoreWeave capacity through 2032 and now expects to spend $135B to $145B on infrastructure this year. CoreWeave's order book passed $100B in the summer, 20x its 2025 revenue. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's boss and a stranger to false modesty, sees $1T of orders for his chips through 2027. Downstream, list prices per token kept falling through October. OpenAI launched GPT-6 Sol at half its predecessor's promotional rate. Anthropic's newest Opus costs less per token than the last one, though its newer tokenizer cuts the same page into about 30% more tokens.
The gap between a wholesale price up 15% to 48% and a retail price going down is paid by the labs and the investors behind them, for as long as they agree to. Google has just announced the end of its own lagniappe. The others will follow when their backers tire of funding it. The bill will then land on the companies that spent 3 years telling their boards AI would cut costs, and that have since made every agent and copilot load-bearing. It will not arrive with a press release. It will arrive with an invoice.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇬🇧 Raid and Error. Shabana Mahmood’s immigration enforcement teams made 23,538 raids in 2025, but nearly two-thirds led to no arrests and most lacked a warrant, raising accusations of aimless searches. (The Guardian)
- 🇫🇷 Call of Duty. Macron persuades OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral AI, and government officials to endorse a Paris declaration on AI security, promising more openness and shared oversight. (Le Monde)
- 🇫🇷 Chill Factor. France blames Iran’s Revolutionary Guard for cyber-attacks that sabotaged supermarket fridges, spoiling millions in food and triggering EU sanctions talk. (BBC)
- 🇩🇪 Heat of the Moment. Germany teams up with island nations at COP31 to defend the 1.5°C climate goal, urging rich countries to stop stalling on emissions and funding. (Die Zeit)
- 🇬🇷 Dead Reckoning. Greek coast guards discovered 20 migrants dead on two boats off Crete, as storms turned another desperate crossing into a tragedy at the EU's doorstep. (France Info)
- 🇭🇺 Family Ties. Viktor Orban’s brother Aron was taken into custody for alleged human trafficking, as announced by Peter Magyar, who campaigned on rooting out corruption. The Orban era’s legacy is getting a police escort. (Le Figaro)
- 🇪🇺 Spin Doctors. The has identified "Operation Overload," a Russian network using fake news videos to blame French riots on immigration and undermine confidence in France's leadership. (Boursier)
- 🇷🇺 Body Counted. A cyberattack on Rosstat exposed that almost 400,000 Russians have died in the Ukraine war, shattering the official silence on casualties. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Cabinet Drama. As Rep. Massie pushes to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over Iran, Trump and Rubio defend their embattled ally and denounce the challenge as a partisan stunt. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 War of Words. Trump announces the Iran conflict is "militarily over" and signals no new strikes are planned, though he keeps the threat alive for future headlines. (BBC)
- 🇺🇸 Peace Out. Trump’s Board of Peace warns of a dire crisis in Gaza, blaming Israel’s limited aid for worsening floods and exposing displaced families to life-threatening conditions. (Financial Times)
- 🇦🇪 Peace Out? After nine months of silence, US-led talks to end the Ukraine war resume in Abu Dhabi, with negotiators hoping for a security breakthrough beyond stalled territorial demands. (New York Times)
- 🌍 Summit Expectations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opens COP31 by urging world leaders to "rise to the occasion" on emissions, fossil fuels, and climate funding, as disputes over money cloud the start in Antalya. (Le Monde)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Pocket Dialed. England will ban pupils from carrying phones anywhere on school grounds by 2027, forcing schools to go truly phone-free for the entire day. (BBC)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Clockwork Gridlock. Lawmakers are back in Washington with government funding and the debt limit on the docket, but the odds of compromise look slimmer by the hour. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Duck Season. Congress returns with a lame-duck lineup, a pile of unfinished business, and a new Democratic majority waiting to take charge in January. (New York Times)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇬🇧 Scale Fail. Former UK entrepreneurship adviser Alex Depledge says the Treasury does not grasp what scale-ups need and blocked her efforts to reform procurement. (Financial Times)
- 🇫🇷 Royal Flush. Belgian prince Henri de Croÿ told a Paris court his "radicalization" led him to mastermind a massive tax fraud network, costing France at least €54M. (Le Figaro)
- 🇩🇪 Export Credit. Germany's trade surplus shrank in September even as exports rose to $157B, since imports climbed even faster and spoiled the comeback story. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇪🇺 Euro Game. France is considering backing Spain's Pablo Hernandez de Cos over the Netherlands' Klaas Knot in the race to succeed Christine Lagarde as ECB president, with lobbying now in full swing. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Paywall Street. California voters rejected a proposed 5% wealth tax on billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey, keeping $100B out of the state’s healthcare budget and the ultra-rich comfortably untaxed. (BBC)
- 🇨🇳 Trade Billionaire. China’s trade surplus has already topped $1T in 2024, with exports up 35% and the domestic economy left watching from the sidelines. (Le Figaro)
- 🇸🇬 Safe Deposit. The Monetary Authority of Singapore opens its national currency vault to central banks, inviting them to stash gold reserves in the city-state’s care. (Bloomberg)
- 🇦🇺 Bot and Order. Australia will require AI companies to report risks and submit to independent audits, installing mandatory guardrails after government systems were breached by OpenAI models. (Le Temps)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Chair Force One. The White House nominates Christopher Mufarrige to the FTC, aiming to fill the Republican seat and rebalance the commission's power dynamic. (Bloomberg)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇪🇺 Access Denied. Nordic governments are clamping down on data center expansion, requiring operators to meet tough new standards and potentially generate their own power. (Le Monde)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Park and Order. The Supreme Court cleared the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in Big Bend National Park, overriding environmental objections with a $1.7B green light. (Le Monde)
- 🇺🇸 Drone Alone. Alphabet's Wing is building a $125M plant in Fort Worth to mass-produce delivery drones, betting the sky is the new sidewalk. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Suite Leak. Wyndham Hotels accidentally exposed customer data through a hardcoded password in its Android app, leaving millions potentially vulnerable until a researcher flagged the flaw. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Stuck Market. home listings surged to 183,500 in October, but sellers refuse to cut prices, leaving buyers and properties in a standoff that only grows frostier. (CNBC)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇺🇸 Token Gesture. Securitize 🇺🇸 jumped 10% after hours as Q3 results and its River One acquisition signal a push beyond pure tokenization into asset-backed finance. (CNBC)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇳🇱 Copycat Patrol. Land Rover is taking legal action to stop Chinese automaker BYD from selling its Ti7 Defender lookalike in Europe, leading Dutch authorities to search BYD's European headquarters. (De Tijd)
- 🇪🇺 Passport Control. Brussels takes Atos 🇫🇷, IBM 🇧🇪, and Leonardo 🇮🇹 to court after their border tech rollout missed deadline after deadline, leaving the EU’s “smart” system stuck in the slow lane. (Boursier)
- 🇪🇺 Tree of Might. Onodrim, named for Tolkien’s Ents, emerges from stealth with $300M to revive Europe’s defense manufacturing by acquiring and growing key suppliers. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Saving Private Equity. Skydance has announced plans to cut $6B in costs, offering investors a blockbuster promise of efficiency before the credits roll. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Spin Doctorate. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hired crisis PR firm Heller Inc. a year before admitting an affair with a woman suspected of spying for China, proving foresight is everything in Silicon Valley scandals. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Park and Ride. Uber launches a new in-app parking reservation service after acquiring SpotHero, aiming to lock in commuters now and robotaxis later. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Default Settings. As CoreWeave’s bond yields jump above 16% and credit default swaps soar, Wall Street questions whether neoclouds can finance their own AI ambitions much longer. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Strike It Off. Brent crude plunged below $93 as Trump signaled a diplomatic turn on Iran, making war premiums look like yesterday’s news. (Financial Times)
- 🇻🇪 Déjà Drilled. Exxon Mobil 🇺🇸 reaches a tentative pact with Venezuela to review oil projects, despite twice having its assets seized there in the past. (New York Times)
- 🇯🇵 Bull Street. SoftBank Group 🇯🇵 shares soared 11% as Asian tech stocks mirrored Wall Street’s rebound, turning a global market scare into a buying party. (CNBC)
- 🇯🇵 AIcarus. SoftBank’s $65B all-in bet on AI soars then crashes as shares drop 60 percent since June, exposing Masayoshi Son’s empire to new risks and political headwinds. (Financial Times)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Trust Issues. Palantir lobbied to access NHS GP records, pushing Zubir Ahmed for a wider data grab that doctors warn could erode patient confidence. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Hot Seat. The NHTSA is investigating 1.2M Ford vehicles after reports that airbag deployments in certain models have caused burn injuries. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Stop Means Go. Waymo’s driverless taxis, owned by Alphabet, are under federal investigation after repeatedly failing to halt for school buses despite a software update that was meant to fix the problem. (Wall Street Journal)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- Schroders 🇬🇧 plans to sell Wisteria Mall 🇸🇬 for around $172M.
- Permira 🇬🇧 has agreed to acquire a majority stake in HVAC group Flint Group 🇺🇸 from General Atlantic 🇺🇸 for $1.5B.
- Crédit Agricole 🇫🇷 has proposed a merger of its Italian operations with Banco BPM 🇮🇹, offering shareholders a 20% premium, a €1B dividend and a path to a roughly 45% stake. Completion is projected for H2 2027.
- Alcatel Submarine Networks 🇫🇷 acquires Ship as a Service 🇫🇷, a French operator of underwater infrastructure inspection and monitoring vessels and robots.
- Germany 🇩🇪 will take a 50% stake in Franco-German tank maker KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 for $7.3B, reducing the likelihood of an IPO.
- ACS 🇪🇸 is not considering a tender offer for its listed German subsidiary Hochtief 🇩🇪 and is not contemplating the sale of Hochtief 🇩🇪-owned U.S. builder Turner Construction 🇺🇸.
- Acesur 🇪🇸 and Dcoop 🇪🇸 have agreed to acquire Deoleo 🇪🇸 from CVC 🇺🇸 at a $586M enterprise valuation.
- Grupo Solitium 🇪🇸, Koesio’s subsidiary, has acquired a 51% stake in Multimac 🇵🇹, a Portuguese office services and digital solutions provider.
- argenx 🇧🇪 acquires Californian biotech company Unnatural Products 🇺🇸 for up to $1.15B.
- The Cracco and Bonamie families 🇧🇪 bring two other families into Boemm 🇧🇪, with acquisitions planned to grow revenue to €200M by 2030.
- ATP 🇩🇰, USS Investment Management 🇬🇧 and Guotong Romeo 🇨🇳 are weighing a sale of their stake in Redexis 🇪🇸 at a valuation above $1B.
- Activists TOMS Capital Management 🇺🇸 and Kimmeridge Energy Management 🇺🇸 continue pressuring Devon Energy 🇺🇸, valued at $42B, to sell itself after an asset-sale review.
- Silver Lake 🇺🇸 and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund 🇸🇦 held talks to acquire Unity 🇺🇸 in a $25B leveraged buyout.
- Extreme Networks 🇺🇸 is exploring a sale after receiving takeover interest.
- Moelis family 🇺🇸 takes a minority stake in Gotham FC 🇺🇸 for $100M at a $350M valuation.
- Liberty Media 🇺🇸 acquired chairman emeritus John Malone 🇺🇸’s super-voting class shares.
- Shield AI 🇺🇸 will acquire radar company Echodyne 🇺🇸 for $5.3B and raise $2.5B, including a $1B Series H at a $28.8B valuation.
- DTE Energy 🇺🇸 has agreed to sell its non-utility business DTE Vantage 🇺🇸 for $3B.
- Wendy’s 🇺🇸 rejected a $1.4B LBO offer from activist hedge fund Trian Fund Management 🇺🇸 and adopted a poison pill.
- New York Times 🇺🇸 is in exclusive talks to acquire film-focused social platform Letterboxd 🇳🇿 for $330M.
- General Mills 🇺🇸 is considering a sale of its Häagen-Dazs 🇺🇸 ice cream brand outside North America.
- NextEra Energy 🇺🇸’s proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy 🇺🇸 faces opposition in Virginia. The Virginia State Corporation Commission 🇺🇸 is scheduled to rule on the deal in January.
- Morgan Stanley 🇺🇸 has agreed to acquire Vinyl Equity 🇺🇸, a digital transfer agent and shareholder recordkeeping platform.
- Securitize 🇺🇸 has agreed to acquire institutional asset-backed financing platform River One 🇺🇸. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2026.
- RBC Global Asset Management 🇨🇦 has agreed to acquire Yarra Capital Management 🇦🇺, adding $12B in assets under management.
- Mitsui Chemicals 🇯🇵 has agreed to acquire semiconductor materials maker JSR 🇯🇵 jointly with Development Bank of Japan 🇯🇵 for $8.8B from JIC Capital 🇯🇵.
- SoftBank 🇯🇵 and ABB 🇨🇭 are exploring carving out ABB’s Chinese unit at a $2B-$3B valuation after China 🇨🇳 blocked SoftBank’s $5.4B acquisition of ABB 🇨🇭.
- Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone 🇮🇳 will acquire Evos 🇳🇱 from Igneo Infrastructure Partners 🇦🇺 for $2.9B including debt.
- QatarEnergy 🇶🇦 has agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Chevron 🇺🇸’s offshore Petroleum Exploration License 82 in Namibia.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇫🇷 The Price is Right. Patrick Drahi hands over his Paris restaurant for €1 to Jean-Luc Berrebi, proving that when it comes to troubled eateries, everything must go. (L'Informé)
- 🇺🇸 Claude and Clear. Anthropic launches faster, cheaper versions of its Claude AI model just weeks before what could be the biggest IPO ever. (De Tijd)
- 🇺🇸 Tech Wreck. Hedge funds offloaded global tech shares at one of the fastest rates since 2016, fearing political backlash could short-circuit the AI boom. (Bloomberg)
- 🇦🇺 Loan Star State. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission opens a case on Bathla Group, casting fresh doubt on the health of private credit down under. (Bloomberg)
Fundraising
- OpenAI 🇺🇸 (AI): $11B (Coatue, T. Rowe Price, SoftBank, Sequoia, Founders Fund, a16z)
- Monzo Bank 🇬🇧 (Fintech): $10B
- Zipline 🇺🇸 (Mobility): $1.5B (Paradigm, WCM Investment Management, Layer Global)
- Onodrim Industries 🇳🇱 (Defense): $300M (Lux Capital, General Catalyst, Lakestar, Altimeter, Strike Capital, 137 Ventures, 8090, Expeditions)
- Harbinger 🇺🇸 (Automotive): $240M (Tiger Global, Capricorn, Ridgeline)
- Nominal 🇺🇸 (Manufacturing software): $240M (Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insight Partners, Lux Capital, Sequoia Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures)
- Sand.ai 🇺🇸 (AI): $200M (Cornerstone Capital, Wangsu Science & Technology)
- EOS-X Space 🇪🇸 (Space tourism): $120M (Global Emerging Markets)
- Ocient 🇺🇸 (AI): $100M (BOKA Capital)
- Delix Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $100M (Johnson & Johnson Innovation JJDC, Inc., SV Health Investors' Dementia Discovery Fund, RA Capital, UC Investments, Artis Ventures, OMX Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Bail Capital, Adage Capital Management, Hamilton Square Partners Management, Vestal Point Capital, YK Bioventures)
- Project Omega 🇺🇸 (Nuclear technology): $80M (B Capital, noa VC, 645 Ventures, Starship Ventures, Mantis Ventures, Decisive Point, Virta Ventures, Pace Ventures, Essential Capital, Washington Harbour Partners)
- Kalepa 🇺🇸 (Insurance): $75M (Updata Partners)
- Spines 🇮🇱 (Publishing): $64M (Zeev Ventures, Aleph, NordStar, M-Fund, LionTree, Dan Senor, Twelve)
- Optics11 🇳🇱 (Defence): €50M (SET Ventures, FORWARD.one, Value Creation Capital, JOIN Capital)
- Humble Robotics 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $51M (Obvious Ventures)
- Beacon Holdings 🇨🇦 (Software): $50M (CPPIB)
- Tenspresso (AI): $50M
- Coframe 🇺🇸 (AI): $35M (Khosla Ventures, Hanabi Capital, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind)
- Vaeridion 🇩🇪 (Aviation): €30M (Shift Invest, Invest-NL, World Fund, Project A, Vsquared Ventures, Alexander Rittweger)
- Numica 🇺🇸 (Accounting): $21M (Roosh X, Flashpoint Capital)
- geniosAI (Fintech): $19.1M (FactSet, Zoom, General Catalyst)
- Uranium Digital 🇺🇸 (Trading): $16.5M (Blockchain Capital)
- Betski 🌐 (Gaming): $15M (Nimbus Capital)
- Sanyou Bio 🇨🇳 (Biotech): Nearly RMB 100M (Zero2IPO Industry Investment)
- BanTu Technology 🇨🇳 (AI): $10M (Lenovo Venture Capital, IDG Capital)
- Physicl (AI): $10M (Inovia Capital)
- Atmospheric AI 🇺🇸 (Supply chain): $10M (DBL Partners)
- MOVIN 🇰🇷 (AI): KRW 10B (IMM Investment, Industrial Bank of Korea, Voyager Ventures, Atinum Investment, NAVER D2SF, Schmidt)
- Takenos 🇦🇷 (Fintech): $7M (North Island Ventures, Road Capital Management)
- Blackletter 🇺🇸 (Legal): $6M (Lerer Hippeau, Seven Stars, Maple VC, Garage Capital, Ripple Ventures, Aidan Gomez, Ivan Zhang, Nick Frosst, Jae Lee, Sara Hooker)
- Astral 🇺🇸 (Edtech): $5.5M (Andre Charoo, MapleVC, Stand Together Ventures Lab, Conversion Capital, Original Capital)
- Vessel 🇺🇸 (Consumer health): $5M (HG Ventures, Flex Capital, Ford Street Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures)
- Ridero 🇺🇸 (Automotive): $2.7M (RiverPark Ventures, NY Ventures, Green Egg Ventures, Blackpoint Capital, Potamkin Ventures)
- Memora 🇩🇰 (Proptech): €1.7M (True Collective VC)
- Crowd Threat 🇬🇧 (Cybersecurity): £1M (Mercia Ventures, PXN Ventures)
Fund Watch
- Walleye Capital 🇺🇸: $17B (returning capital and closing part of its equities L/S business)
- Ardian 🇫🇷: €1B (semiconductor investment platform, raised)
- Aldaron 🇺🇸: $950M (Fund I, transformation equity fund, closed at hard cap)
- Altamont Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $750M (5th lower-middle-market private equity fund, planning to raise)
- Sagard PE 🇫🇷: $580M (3rd emerging-markets fund of funds)
- Yosemite 🇺🇸: $350M (2nd cancer-focused VC fund)
🔔IPO
- BP 🇬🇧 (Energy): sold a 5% stake in Norway’s Aker for $1.05B.
- Frasers Group 🇬🇧 (Retail): will buy back $135M worth of shares from founder Mike Ashley.
- Airbus 🇫🇷 (Aerospace): launches a share buyback program of up to €5B, with an initial €800M tranche.
- Uniper 🇩🇪 (Energy): Germany is considering an IPO of the nationalized utility.
- Giorgio Armani 🇮🇹 (Fashion): heirs favor an IPO over a sale.
- WB Electronics 🇵🇱 (Drones): plans to IPO at an $8B valuation.
- vVardis 🇨🇭 (Dental): seeking to raise $230M at a $4.4B valuation in a US IPO.
- Anthropic 🇺🇸 (AI): investors are pushing for an IPO at a valuation as low as $1.25T.
- Wonder Group 🇺🇸 (Foodtech): confidentially filed for a IPO after a $10B valuation in July.
- General Motors 🇺🇸 (Automotive): transferring its listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq.
- Logisteed Holdings 🇯🇵 (Logistics): targeting a record $4B Japan IPO with KKR.
- NOTA 🇯🇵 (Hospitality): plans to raise $150M in a Japan IPO.
- Ascendas Firstspace 🇮🇳 (Real Estate): considering an India IPO that could raise $500M.
🧳 Debt
- Apple 🇺🇸: raised $7.5B in an investment-grade bond sale.
- Option Care Health 🇺🇸: secured $3.1B in acquisition financing.
- Alphabet 🇺🇸: planning a second $1.5B prepaid energy bond sale this year.
- Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne 🇺🇸: An undisclosed seller is seeking to sell $500M of tied data center loans.
- China 🇨🇳: raised $599M in debut yuan-denominated green bonds in Canada.
- Haoyang Data Center 1 (Thailand) 🇹🇭: secured a $590M loan to fund a data center facility.
- Indonesia 🇮🇩: sold $3B of dollar bonds in its first issuance since its fallout with MSCI.
🇺🇸 United States
- Fervo 🇺🇸: holds $301.6M in long-term debt.
❌ Failures
- BC Partners 🇬🇧: is seeking a $50M DIP loan from Saudi Arabia’s PIF to take control of collapsed LIV Golf.
- Smoby 🇫🇷: the toy manufacturer plans to cut 13 net jobs and close two sites amid declining sales.
- Crusoe 🇺🇸: Google bought its Wyoming data center site and will invest $17B after it failed to secure customers.
- Autokiniton 🇺🇸: the KPS-backed auto parts supplier shelved a deal to amend and extend its $1.1B leveraged loan.
- Microsoft 🇺🇸: is winding down its deal to rent AI computing capacity from Oracle.
- Boeing 🇺🇸: plans to cut about 2,500 commercial-plane jobs, or 5% of its workforce, as production growth falls behind schedule.
- PepsiCo 🇺🇸: the company plans to cut about 1,000 jobs as its North American business struggles.
- Qantas 🇦🇺: the airline will cut 850 jobs from mid-2027 and outsource some operations to India as it adopts AI.
- LIV Golf 🇸🇦: the Saudi-backed PGA rival will wind down operations after its financing deal with BC Partners fell apart.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Thames Water 🇬🇧: asks creditors to extend repayment of part of its £20B debt to March 2028.
🇺🇸 United States
- Children’s Place 🇺🇸: filed for Chapter 11 protection and is seeking a buyer.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇩🇪 Oops, There It Goes. A pair of East German bureaucrats accidentally set off the events that toppled the Berlin Wall, reminding everyone that revolutions do not always follow the script. (Washington Post)
- 🇭🇺 Past Imperfect. Hungary unveils long-hidden state security files, with Péter Magyar staging a symbolic break from silence exactly 70 years after the Soviet crackdown. (Le Temps)
- 🇰🇷 Factory Settings. In Ulsan, Hyundai's auto plant sprawls across the city, with company-branded buildings, shops, and even hospitals forming a corporate ecosystem that employs over half the population. (Les Echos)
- 🇸🇬 Ship Happens. The Odyssey cruise ship, which left over 200 passengers stranded in Cambodia after its operator suspended operations, has now been seized in Singapore for unpaid debts. (Le Parisien)
- 🌍 Animal Farm. Not all animals are treated equally: from pampered orangutans to despised bugs, human preferences shape which species get saved and which get squashed. (Libé)
