🏭 Shutters and Shipping
Factory shut, container booked.
Good morning!
Sabic, Aramco's chemicals subsidiary, has found a buyer for its European petrochemicals business. The price is $500M, and the Saudi group will not see a cent of it upfront: payment comes as perpetual notes, repaid out of future cash flows. Given the industry's prospects, "perpetual" may prove the only accurate word in the contract. The seller also swallowed a write-down of nearly $2.9B, which makes the deal less a sale than a bequest. A German investment house now takes in these plants the way kind souls adopt retired greyhounds, with no great hopes of a comeback.
Since 2022, Europe has announced closures covering 37M tonnes of chemical capacity, roughly 9% of the total, and 20,000 direct jobs have gone with them. Nine steam crackers, the furnaces that split oil and gas into the building blocks of plastic, are being switched off; ExxonMobil's Scottish one already has been. New investment collapsed by more than 80% last year. The continent accounted for 27% of global chemical sales in 2004, and 13% in 2024. The diagnosis requires no consultant, though the industry hired one anyway. With Russian pipelines out of the picture, European plants pay roughly 3.3 times what their American rivals pay for gas. China pours concrete while Europe is still stamping permits. Carbon allowances trade above €80 a tonne, and the free quotas that kept heavy industry on life support are being phased out. The border levy meant to bill importers the same price still ignores plastics; the latest extension, agreed by member states this summer, left them out again.
Carbon pricing is not, in itself, the villain. Making polluters pay remains the least stupid climate policy ever devised, and free permits were always meant to be a crutch, not a pension. Vioneo, a start-up controlled by the family behind Maersk, planned a €1.5B fossil-free plastics plant in Antwerp, Europe's largest chemical cluster: 300K tonnes a year, made from green methanol. Precisely the kind of project a carbon price exists to reward. It will be built in China instead, closer to green methanol and further from European paperwork. Brussels taxes the old plant into early retirement; European buyers will import the green plastic by container ship, quite possibly a family-owned one.
Anti-dumping duties are in the works, under a procedure that gives Brussels up to 14 months to reach a final verdict, by which time the complainant may no longer exist. Europe learned in 2020 what it costs to import its masks. It is now outsourcing everything upstream of the mask: the polypropylene in the syringe, the PVC in the blood bag. The emissions will not vanish. They will simply land on someone else's books, with a longer shipping route attached. The planet will not notice the difference. European hospitals, one day, will.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇬🇧 Red Lines. Labour draws a hard boundary for local partnerships, demanding Green councils reject the “Zionism is Racism” motion or lose Labour’s support. (Financial Times)
- 🇫🇷 Track Record. A minibus carrying truck drivers collided with a freight train at the Channel Tunnel entrance near Calais, injuring 19 people and halting Shuttle traffic for 90 minutes. For the first time, the loading dock became the crash site. (France Info)
- 🇩🇪 Hold the Line. Under fire after historic electoral losses, Merz vows to push through welfare reforms and block AfD influence, refusing to consider stepping down. (Financial Times)
- 🇪🇺 Diplomatic Immunity. leaders will privately urge Volodymyr Zelenskyy to soften his public criticism of Donald Trump, fearing blunt remarks could worsen Ukraine’s fragile ties with Washington. (Financial Times)
- 🇷🇺 Editor’s Cut. Sergei Sokolov, who leads Novaya Gazeta 🇷🇺, was arrested in Moscow, with authorities searching his residence in the latest crackdown on the press. (Libé)
- 🇺🇸 Background Check. A 16-year-old gunman killed three children and a teacher at an Oregon elementary school before being shot dead by an armed bystander, leaving the community shattered and the debate over gun control wide open. (France Info)
- 🇺🇸 Credential Pending. The White House’s freshly appointed spokesperson Katie Zacharia is under fire for presenting herself as a lawyer despite no record of her bar admission in the. (France Info)
- 🇺🇸 Deposit Slip. New legislation from Warren and Garcia would force banks connected to Jeffrey Epstein to cough up records, making compliance a little less optional for the well-connected. (CNBC)
- 🇸🇬 Current Affairs. Even with a Singapore ship lost in the Strait of Hormuz, Singaporean shipping companies are still sending vessels through the strategic waterway. (CNBC)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Stage Fright. As Andy Burnham arrives in Scotland during the SNP conference, John Swinney faces a headline-grabbing distraction just as he tries to rally his party. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Green Shift. The Green Party of England and Wales has been overtaken by hard-left activists, pushing it away from climate focus and toward radical socialist policies. (Financial Times)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Not It. Donald Trump declares responsibility for a possible Ken Paxton Senate loss belongs to John Cornyn and Karl Rove, dodging any blame himself. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Trail Mix. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joins Abdul El-Sayed on a campaign swing through Michigan’s Trump-friendly Upper Peninsula, testing progressive appeal in deep red territory. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Report and Deflect. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's team intends to keep the Iran school attack findings under wraps until the midterms are safely behind them. (Bloomberg)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇫🇷 Repo Men. Despite the chaos in France’s bond market, short-term repo funding remains calm for now, suggesting the real panic has not arrived yet. (Bloomberg)
- 🇮🇹 Bond Identity. Cassa Depositi e Prestiti CEO Dario Scannapieco calls MTS SpA a key asset for Italy’s debt management, insisting no sale is on the table for now. (Bloomberg)
- 🇪🇺 Tariff and Error. The UK can join the EU’s “Made in Europe” industrial plan if it aligns with Brussels on Chinese EV tariffs, says France after a policy U-turn. (The Guardian)
- 🇪🇺 Bank on It. In a new ruling, banks are required to pay back stolen funds to fraud victims right away, regardless of customer error, but can try to recover losses afterward. (Die Zeit)
- 🇪🇺 Exit Strategy. The World Economic Forum may tap Christine Lagarde as its next president, raising the prospect of her early departure from the ECB. (Boursier)
- 🇳🇴 Ethics Reloaded. A government commission urges Norway to let its sovereign fund buy into major defense firms, arguing that current bans on nuclear-linked companies are out of step with today’s security realities. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Forecast Fight. Treasury counselor David Zervos dismissed IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's call for fiscal tightening, suggesting the IMF should check its own math first. (CNBC)
- 🇮🇳 Rank and File. The IMF projects India will leapfrog the UK and Japan 2027 to become the world’s fourth-largest economy with a $4.52T GDP. (Boursier)
- 🌏 Not So Sweet. Global sugar prices hit new highs as El Niño devastates harvests, pushing India from exporter to emergency importer just as demand peaks. (New York Times)
- 🇮🇷 Pay Toll, Play Role. The US Treasury links Babak Zanjani to Iran’s new scheme: charging ships for “insurance” in the Strait of Hormuz and moving the money via BitBank. (Le Figaro)
- 🌍 Bridge Too Far. Tony Elumelu and his team unveil a $15B pipeline of projects for West Africa, hoping to close the region’s infrastructure gap with one giant leap. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Small Wonder. The UK economy grew by 0.1% in August, prompting Chancellor Healey to declare resilience, though the modest gain leaves plenty for the Budget to fix. (BBC)
- 🇬🇧 Pie Rates. The UK's biggest banks expect Chancellor Healey to carve out a bigger slice of their £15B profits in the next Budget, proving no pie is safe from government forks. (BBC)
- 🇬🇧 Inflation Station. The Bank of England's Andrew Bailey blames Middle East energy shocks for derailing hopes of a quick return to 2% inflation, leaving borrowers waiting. (Bloomberg)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇩🇪 Home Alone. UniCredit 🇮🇹 wants to offload risk on $1.1B of German home loans, just as it prepares to take over Commerzbank 🇩🇪. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Stealth Mode. Big Tech is quietly unveiling data center plans early, aiming to answer local concerns before regulators and activists can organize. (Wall Street Journal)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Block Party. The Stirling Prize goes to Lion Green Road, a 157-home development in south London, praised for its inventive design and integration with the landscape. (BBC)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇫🇷 Stick Up. Criminals stole $90M in crypto by hiding password readers inside USB-style Ledger 🇫🇷 devices, turning the industry’s “safest” wallets into loot boxes. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Penalty Box. A federal judge refused to undo a $5M penalty against crypto firm Gemini Trust 🇺🇸, despite its Trump family connections and joint push with the CFTC. (New York Times)
- 🇺🇸 Bit of a Dip. Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000 as Wall Street’s AI stocks stumbled, sending risk assets into retreat and bulls back to hiding. (Bloomberg)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇨🇭 Cover Story. Marsh 🇺🇸, the world’s biggest insurance broker, will pay most of the $800M Credit Suisse settlement in the Greensill saga, leaving insurers with a lighter bill than expected. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Terafab Lab. TSMC 🇹🇼 is in discussions to join Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative and may expand manufacturing to Texas, as the AI chip race accelerates. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Lift Off. Tesla's new Roadster is revealed at a SpaceX site, with Musk claiming it can take off, rotate midair, and land intact. No AI required, just $250K. (Le Figaro)
- 🇺🇸 Buzz Words. Amazon unveils Bee, a new line of AI devices that listen to your conversations and offer real-time personal assistance, privacy concerns included at no extra charge. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Flash Crash. Shares of memory chipmakers are sliding on fears that Chinese rivals and looming oversupply could flood the market by 2029. (CNBC)
- 🇮🇩 Index and Out. Indonesian stocks plunged up to 15% after MSCI warned it may strip the country of its emerging-market status, sending foreign investors running for the exits. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Liquid Assets. Thames Water tells creditors it needs another £2.4B to avoid collapse before 2027, with its £20B debt pile draining the last reserves. (The Guardian)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- Lisa Nandy 🇬🇧 is minded to intervene in Sky 🇬🇧’s £1.6B agreed acquisition of ITV 🇬🇧’s broadcasting and streaming arm.
- Freshfields 🇬🇧 partners discussed spinning out its legal AI unit, Freshfields Lab 🇬🇧, and opening it to external investors to create a multibillion-dollar company.
- Saint-Gobain 🇫🇷 has agreed to acquire D.S. Brown Company 🇺🇸, a North American infrastructure solutions provider expected to generate $90M in revenue in 2026.
- Bogart 🇫🇷 has completed the sale of April Cosmetics and Perfumes Store Chain Ltd 🇮🇱 to April Holding D.K Ltd 🇮🇱 for €5.8M.
- Hy24 🇫🇷, backed by Ardian 🇫🇷, will acquire EDF 🇫🇷’s French and UK clean hydrogen unit.
- LFPI 🇫🇷 takes a majority stake in CBM 🇫🇷, a bus and coach spare-parts distributor.
- Lufthansa 🇩🇪 plans to acquire a minority stake in TAP 🇵🇹, with up to €450M in annual synergies.
- Personio 🇩🇪 has acquired Circula 🇩🇪, a spend management platform.
- Germany 🇩🇪 is in talks to acquire a 50% stake in Franco-German tank maker KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 after IPO plans targeting a $23B valuation flopped.
- Deutsche Lufthansa 🇩🇪 wins the bidding contest to acquire a 49.9% minority stake in troubled Portuguese airline TAP 🇵🇹 at a $2.8B valuation.
- UniCredit 🇮🇹 has received ECB approval to exceed a 30% stake in Commerzbank 🇩🇪 and increase it without limit, potentially reaching around 50% of voting rights after remaining regulatory procedures.
- EQT 🇸🇪 has agreed to acquire US real estate firm Stockbridge 🇺🇸 for $375M.
- Richemont 🇨🇭 and Signet Jewelers 🇺🇸 are in talks to join a consortium bidding to acquire diamond miner De Beers 🇿🇦.
- BlackRock 🇺🇸, Pimco 🇺🇸 and Sona Asset Management 🇬🇧 have hired lawyers over Nexfibre 🇬🇧's plan to acquire Netomnia 🇬🇧 after the UK regulator flagged competition concerns.
- AEG Presents 🇺🇸 has acquired Auguri Productions 🇫🇷, a French music production company representing artists including Louane, Oxmo Puccino and Vanessa Paradis.
- Ramp 🇺🇸 has raised $1.85B in a primary financing round led by Dragoneer Investment Group 🇺🇸, valuing the expense management firm at $60B.
- Penske Corp 🇺🇸 and Mitsui 🇯🇵 have agreed to take private Penske Automotive Group 🇺🇸 in a $16.3B deal including debt, expected to close in Q1 2027.
- Perella Weinberg 🇺🇸 and Piper Sandler 🇺🇸 abandoned merger talks.
- U.S. government 🇺🇸 will take a 4% stake in GlobalFoundries 🇺🇸 in exchange for $20B in CHIPS Act funding, including Japanese investment, to build two chip plants in New York.
- Nvidia 🇺🇸 announced $2B in European deals, including funding for Doctolib 🇫🇷, Genesis AI 🇫🇷, Pigment 🇫🇷 and Entalpic 🇫🇷.
- Kraken 🇺🇸 is set to acquire Saldo Bank 🇱🇹.
- GTCR 🇺🇸 and Elliott Investment Management 🇺🇸 have agreed to acquire car-insurance software provider CCC Intelligent Solutions 🇺🇸 for $4.6B, offering shareholders $7.75 per share.
- Amazon 🇺🇸 is in talks to acquire AI startup Decart AI 🇮🇱 for about $7B.
- Oasis Management 🇭🇰 raises its stake in Nidec 🇯🇵 past 8% to become its largest shareholder and pushes for a sale of the $18B-listed motor maker.
- Hongkong Land Holdings 🇭🇰 is in talks with Hotel Properties 🇸🇬 to acquire majority stakes in three Singapore buildings on Orchard Road, valued at $1.6B.
- The Indian government 🇮🇳 announces the sale of a 60.7% stake in IDBI Bank 🇮🇳 to Fairfax 🇨🇦 for $5.5B, pending final approvals.
- OCP 🇲🇦 is seeking foreign investment for some of its businesses amid supply disruptions from the Iran war.
🇺🇸 United States
- Blackford Capital 🇺🇸 has acquired electrical contractor E.G. Middleton 🇺🇸 for its Habco MEP services platform.
- Mason Wells 🇺🇸 has completed the acquisition of digital beverage-can printer Canworks 🇺🇸.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇪🇪 Unicorn Factory. Estonia and its Baltic neighbors are minting a fresh crop of $1B tech startups, with artificial intelligence now the secret ingredient behind the surge. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Access Granted. Anthropic is giving six METR researchers employee-level access to its internal AI systems and risk practices, promising unprecedented transparency and no veto over METR's published assessments. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Loan Star. As the IPO drought drags on, private equity-backed companies in the are raising new debt to keep investors happy, trading equity dreams for borrowed cash. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Exit Strategy. Blue Owl’s James Clarke claims the rush for the exits in private credit has slowed, with redemptions declining as fears subside. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Minor Offense. Eight states have filed a coordinated lawsuit against OpenAI 🇺🇸, claiming ChatGPT poses risks to children and calling for stricter controls. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Return of the Debt. JPMorgan 🇺🇸 is plotting a comeback for its Qualtrics software buyout financing, splitting $4B between high-yield bonds and leveraged loans. (Bloomberg)
- 🇨🇳 Imitation Game. Researchers have caught Chinese AI agents, likely linked to Tencent, impersonating Anthropic's "Claude" and bypassing safety systems for malicious activity. The AI rebellion is no longer just an American problem. (Le Figaro)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Not Quite Gouda. Aardman 🇬🇧, the studio famous for Wallace & Gromit, failed to claw back into profit this year, blaming a tough kids’ content market. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Bond Voyage. Clearinghouse CDFI secures a $100M Treasury bond guarantee to fund affordable housing and job creation in underserved communities, proving mission lending still travels far. (PR Newswire)
Fundraising
- Anduril Industries 🇺🇸 (Defense): $90B valuation
- Modal 🇺🇸 (AI): $750M (Accel, Kleiner Perkins, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Redpoint, Lux Capital, Bain Capital Ventures)
- Kairos Power 🇺🇸 (Energy): $368M (GV, DCVC)
- Skeleton Technologies 🇪🇪 (Energy storage): $100M (Siemens)
- Stand 🇺🇸 (Insurtech): $70M (Saga Ventures, Lowercarbon, Eclipse, Equal Ventures, Inspired Capital, Neotribe, Jackson Square Ventures)
- Mueon 🇺🇸 (Semiconductors): $65M (Maverick Silicon, Intel Capital, Geodesic Alliances Fund, Oregon Venture Fund, M-Ventures, Wellington Capital, IQT, Defined)
- Revolution Labs 🇬🇧 (AI): $60M (Accel)
- North.cloud 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $60M (PeakSpan Capital, Litquidity Ventures, Companyon Ventures, Alpaca, Uncommon Denominator, Gaingels, Mana Ventures)
- Dougs 🇫🇷 (Fintech): €50M (Expedition Growth Capital)
- Chubby Group 🇺🇸 (Hospitality): $50M (Prysm Capital)
- Rabot Energy 🇩🇪 (Energy): $50M (Endeit Capital, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, HV, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Bosch Ventures, CNI, Acurio Ventures, vent.io)
- Sirona Medical 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $40M (Avidity Partners, 8VC, GreatPoint Ventures, KLT Holdings)
- CarbonAI 🇺🇸 (Proptech): $12M (Cowboy Ventures)
- Spill Games 🇺🇸 (Gaming): $10.5M (Elevation Capital)
- Chariot Claims 🇺🇸 (Legaltech): $10M (Silverton Partners, Indicator Ventures, Lightbank, Neon Fund, ZVC, Rosecliff Ventures, Alumni Ventures, FJ Labs, Graph Ventures, Vermilion Ventures)
- Fission 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $10M (Pantera Capital, Circle Ventures, New Form, gumi Cryptos Capital, Borderless Capital, Ari Rubenstein)
- Otter Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $8M (Fika Ventures, Evidenced, Slow Ventures, Metrodora, CoFound Partners, Layout Ventures, Patient Capital, Semper Virens)
- Multiliquid 🇺🇸 (Blockchain): $8M (Polychain, Strobe Ventures, CMT Digital, Metalayer Ventures, Generative Ventures, Circle Ventures)
- Solvera 🇳🇴 (Construction): $6.3M (Seedcamp, Construct Venture, Inception Fund, Momentum, Obos Ventures, PSV Tech, Sondo, The Nordic Web Ventures)
- Holo 🇱🇹 (AI): €5M (Market One Capital, Silicon Gardens, FirstPick, Leonis Capital, NGL, Tekton Ventures, business angels)
- RedOwl (Fintech): $5.3M (Tidal Ventures)
- Homa 🇺🇸 (Proptech): $5M (Quiet Capital, Restive Ventures, Cambrian Ventures)
- Silvia Bio 🇬🇧 (Biotech): £3M (Northern Gritstone, Parkwalk, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, Wren Capital, angel investors)
- Metabolize 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $3.2M (Astanor, Maia Ventures, LongGame Venture, SOSV)
- Punch 🇺🇸 (Construction): $2M (Gutter Capital)
Fund Watch
- OrbiMed 🇺🇸: $3B (two private equity funds: $1.9B for U.S. and European life sciences, $1B for Asian healthcare)
- Clipway 🇬🇧: $1.5B (infrastructure secondaries fund, planning to raise)
- Waterous Energy Fund 🇨🇦: $1B (4th energy fund, planning to raise)
- Pear VC 🇺🇸: $333M (Fund V, early-stage venture fund, closed)
- Green AI Cloud 🇪🇺: $300M (merging with Pioneer Acquisition I in stock deal with earn-out)
- GenNx360 Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $285M (continuation vehicle for Whitsons Culinary Group, led by Churchill Asset Management)
- Uzbekistan’s Tourism Entertainment Group became the country’s first company to list in the United States following a reverse merger with StageWise Strategies.
- Antoine Iskandar 🇺🇸: joining Balyasny instead of launching his own hedge fund
🔔IPO
- International Paper 🇺🇸 (Packaging): may abandon its planned London and New York listing of its European business amid bids below $6B.
- City Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): raised $200M in an upsized IPO.
- General Atlantic 🇺🇸 (Investment): plans an IPO early next year at a $10B valuation.
- Anthropic 🇺🇸 (AI): urged to pause its IPO until it addresses AI safety and governance risks.
- Moonshot 🇨🇳 (AI): no longer has Bank of America as an adviser for its Hong Kong IPO.
- NOTA 🇯🇵 (Hospitality): planning a Japan IPO.
- SK Inc. 🇰🇷 (Conglomerate): DFO Management will buy a 1.34% stake from Chairman Chey Tae-won for $405M.
- Big Caring 🇲🇾 (Pharmacies): plans to raise $600M in a Malaysia IPO.
- Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. 🇮🇳 (Utilities): picked banks for an $800M India IPO.
- Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals 🇳🇬 (Energy): selected Botswana to host the southern African leg of its record $1.6B IPO.
- Nigerian National Petroleum Co. 🇳🇬 (Energy): exploring a Nigerian IPO following Dangote’s success.
🧳 Debt
- VaultCo 🇺🇸: preparing up to $1B in loans for critical-minerals manufacturers.
- Princeton Digital Group 🇸🇬: seeking a $1.2B syndicated loan for its Malaysia buildout.
- Dubai Aerospace Enterprise 🇦🇪: seeking $1.2B in dollar and local-currency loans from Asian banks.
🇺🇸 United States
- Sophos 🇬🇧: secured $200M in second-lien financing.
- The RealReal 🇺🇸: secured a $150M term loan and $25M revolving facility.
- Equitable Bank 🇨🇦: raised €500M through covered debt issuance.
❌ Failures
- Virgin Media O2 🇬🇧: creditors hired legal counsel over Nexfibre’s proposed $2.6B acquisition of Netomnia, which could generate $1.2B for Virgin.
- FDB Industries 🇫🇷: Europlasma’s subsidiary was placed into judicial liquidation after a six-month production halt.
- Unsere Grüne Glasfaser 🇩🇪: creditors tapped Lazard to advise on potential restructuring talks.
- Character.ai 🇺🇸: the AI chatbot startup, valued at $1B in 2023, filed for bankruptcy after running out of funds.
- S2 Capital 🇺🇸: the real estate investor refinanced its $1.2B multifamily portfolio after financial issues.
- CoreWeave 🇺🇸: bonds plunged below 80 cents, signaling financial distress.
- Gunbuster Nickel Industry 🇮🇩: China’s CNGR Advanced Material is in talks to acquire an 80% stake after the nickel plant’s court-ordered restructuring ends.
- Halk TV 🇹🇷: Turkish officials took over the opposition TV channel following a police raid on its offices.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇬🇧 Small Wonders. London Zoo has successfully bred Afia Birago's puddle frogs in captivity for the first time, offering hope for a species surviving in just two threatened pools in Ghana. (BBC)
- 🇬🇧 Color Theory. "The Colorful Life" by Kandinsky, seized during the Nazi era, just sold for $42M at Christie’s following its return to rightful heirs. (New York Times)
- 🇫🇷 Flight Risk. A Paris airport mishap sent a coffin bound for Tunisia to Spain instead, forcing a grieving family to recover their loved one from the wrong country. (Le Parisien)
- 🇫🇷 Memory Lane. At Paris’s Broca Hospital, the robot Miroki charms elderly patients with conversation and games designed to boost memory, leaving staff and visitors equally entertained. (Le Parisien)
- 🇪🇺 Star Search. Scientists inaugurate the first four telescopes of the CTAO network in the Canary Islands to hunt for gamma rays from the universe’s brightest events. (Libé)
- 🌍 Cave Combat. Scientists believe a sharpened spear ended one Neanderthal’s life 75,000 years ago, challenging the myth of peaceful prehistoric coexistence. (BBC)
