🥡 Takeout Files
Hackers don’t even clear the table—they just grab a box.
Good morning!
For a week last winter, a large South Korean electronics manufacturer hosted a group widely believed to report to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence, and set no extra plate. Eight months on, security vendors are still dining out on the story. The group answers to MuddyWater, Seedworm or Static Kitten, depending on which firm is billing for the report, and collects aliases the way retired ministers collect board seats. It worked through at least 9 organisations on 4 continents. No ransom note, no frozen screens. Credentials copied, files shipped out through a public file-sharing service. The intrusion ended on a Friday. On the Saturday, American and Israeli jets struck Iran. The homework had been handed in early.
To run its code, the group borrowed signed programs from an audio-chip maker and from SentinelOne, a company paid to keep precisely this sort of visitor out. An Iranian implant launched by a security vendor's own certified software is a burglar in the alarm company's overalls: nobody questions the uniform. After three decades of selling virus signatures, the industry concedes they are not much use against an intruder working with the victim's own tools, identities and cloud. The cure, the same vendors explain, is behavioural monitoring, sold on annual subscription. The modern threat looks exactly like a Tuesday.
Pyongyang plays the same game with a better business model. Its Lazarus group lures engineers with fake job offers and last year went after an Italian aerospace firm during a Europe-wide hunt for drone know-how. The same outfit lifted $1.5B from the Bybit exchange, 44% of all crypto stolen in 2025, making North Korea the only intelligence service with a credible revenue line. Hackers traced to China left Italy's Interior Ministry with the names, roles and postings of some 5,000 officers of the Digos, the country's political police, while Rome and Beijing were drafting a police cooperation plan covering, of all things, cybercrime. Not the most balanced exchange Italian diplomacy has negotiated.
Mocking boards that discover geopolitics through their IT department is cheap sport, and they have earned some of it. Yet a firm holding patents, passwords or a door into a supplier's network is now a combatant in wars it never declared, with no army behind it and a security budget sized for ransomware. The next gift is already wrapped: AI agents granted administrator rights, tireless and incurious, waiting to be borrowed the way MuddyWater borrowed a signature. A burgled company at least gets a breach notice and a higher premium. Among the 5,000 Digos names were the officers who keep watch over Chinese dissidents living in Italy. A stolen password can be reset in a minute. The dissidents those officers know by name have no reset button.
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🗞️ Top Story
- 🇮🇹 Still Standing. After four years in office, Giorgia Meloni boasts record longevity for an Italian leader, favoring pragmatism and stability over sweeping reforms while unrest simmers at home. (Les Echos)
- 🇪🇺 Heat and Run. A new study finds that record heatwaves killed 50,000 people in European cities this summer, with climate change outpacing urban adaptation by a wide margin. (France Info)
- 🇪🇺 Fleet Street. The European Parliament calls for an naval mission in the Black Sea after a wave of drone attacks on merchant ships, pointing the finger at Russia and demanding NATO step up. (El Pais)
- 🇪🇺 Justice Served. The International Criminal Court wins the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, as Europe backs The Hague against US pressure and sanctions. (El Pais)
- 🇨🇦 Royal Flush. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s government excluded the king’s representative from its inaugural ceremony, making Quebec’s split with the monarchy more than symbolic. (Le Monde)
- 🇧🇷 Handwritten. Flavio Bolsonaro tried to brand Lula as "corrupt" by flashing his palm on TV, only to see the gesture hijacked by Brazilians who turned it into a viral meme about themselves. (Le Parisien)
- 🇦🇷 Artificial Illusions. President Javier Milei promises to make Argentina an AI powerhouse with minimal regulation, but investors see more hype than substance as projects stall and infrastructure lags. (Financial Times)
- 🇻🇪 Calendar Girls. Supporters of exiled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado took to the streets, insisting the interim government stop stalling and announce an election timeline. (Die Zeit)
- 🇪🇨 Arrested Development. Ecuadorian opposition leader Luisa González was detained over alleged campaign finance laundering, just weeks before local elections and amid rising political tension. (El Pais)
- 🇨🇳 Fault Lines. A magnitude 7 earthquake struck Tibet on Thursday night, causing casualties and damage to homes, with power and telecoms disrupted as rescue efforts begin. (Le Monde)
- 🇲🇲 Call of Duty. Aung San Suu Kyi spoke with her son Kim Aris for the first time in five years, breaking the silence imposed since her 2021 detention. (Libé)
- 🇸🇦 Terminal Velocity. A drone attack on Dammam airport killed 2 and injured 8, marking the second strike on the site this month as tensions escalate. (Spiegel)
- 🇨🇲 Tourist Trap. Cameroon's President Biya faces ridicule for treating his nation like a stopover, having spent years of his tenure outside the country. (Washington Post)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Survival Kit. Ministers are telling the public and companies to prepare for disruptions by stocking food, water, and first aid, as part of a new three-year resilience push. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Wait and See. A Care Quality Commission report finds NHS waiting times for children in England have surged, making conditions harder to treat and exposing deep regional gaps. (The Guardian)
- 🇺🇸 Sworn Identity. A judge orders Donald Trump to answer questions under oath by December 11 in his defamation lawsuit against the BBC, after months of delays and missed depositions. (BBC)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Joint Venture. Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a longtime Trump critic and top Democrat, faces federal marijuana racketeering charges just weeks before the midterms. Timing is everything. (CNBC)
🏛️ Economy
- 🇪🇺 Union Dues. The European Commission teams up with the Economic and Social Committee to address poverty, hoping coordinated paperwork can outpace public anger. (Les Echos)
- 🇪🇺 Current Affairs. The European Commission reports another dip in eurozone consumer sentiment, with energy costs keeping optimism firmly in the red. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇪🇺 Class Action. Protests over the cost of living, low wages, and housing erupt across Europe as a new generation faces the reality of downward mobility. (Le Parisien)
- 🇳🇴 Blame Game. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund says it has been hurt by Turkey’s market meltdown and is now reviewing its Turkish stock holdings for damage. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Screen Test. The Treasury’s proposed regulations would force investors to pass a tougher security screening before backing Chinese tech, especially in areas that could boost military power. (Financial Times)
- 🇺🇸 Capital Gains. Mark Zuckerberg secures a deal to stay in California and maintain his Meta grip, planning to sell non-voting shares to pay the looming $12B wealth tax. (Le Monde)
- 🇯🇵 Rate Expectations. Japan's consumer inflation hit 2.1% in September, giving the Bank of Japan its first real argument for a rate hike this year. (Wall Street Journal)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇬🇧 Mood Swing. UK consumer confidence plunged 11 points in October, marking its sharpest monthly drop since the pandemic began, as cost-of-living pressures bite harder. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇬🇧 Bill of Rights. UK households can expect to pay some of the continent’s highest prices for winter energy, buying security one expensive import at a time. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Firestarter Kit. UK Prime Minister Burnham will unveil an AI-powered unit to detect wildfires after the hottest summer on record left the country scorched. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Spin Cycle. As ministers eye AI for welfare reform, a Harvard paper finds the tech is great at summarizing spin but hopeless at producing real policy breakthroughs. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Licence to Bill. The FCA and PRA are scrapping key post-crisis rules, letting banks halve compliance costs while promising that accountability will somehow remain intact. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Form and Function. Chancellor John Healey will scrap full profit and loss filing for small UK firms, promising to cut £800M in "pointless paperwork" costs next week. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Margin Call. Facing warnings of a “negative supply margin,” Britain secured emergency gas imports from Belgium to keep the heat on if winter turns brutal. (Financial Times)
- 🇬🇧 Click and Mortar. Andy Burnham is being pressed to tax online sales more than in-store purchases as business leaders demand help for struggling high streets. (The Guardian)
- 🇬🇧 Bank Shot. The Labour government is targeting UK banks for increased profit taxes, hoping to fill budget gaps with a little help from the City. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Track Record. California’s high-speed rail project has burned through $126B over 18 years without completing a single mile of track, redefining slow progress. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Layoff Proof. Initial unemployment filings dropped again, hovering just above their lowest since 1969, proving that layoffs remain the exception, not the rule. (CNBC)
🏢 Real Estate
- 🇨🇿 Crane Expectations. Prague’s medieval streets are set for a billionaire makeover as investors move in, promising a future with more glass than cobblestone. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Cold Listings. Mortgage rates above 7% have iced out buyers, forcing sellers to cut prices in former hotspots like Austin and Miami as the chill deepens. (New York Times)
🔗 On-chain
- 🇮🇪 Coin Tossed. The Central Bank of Ireland fined Coinbase Ireland 🇺🇸 €3.25M for years of operational failures and weak safeguarding controls, with a 30% discount for settling. (FinExtra)
- 🇨🇭 Swiss Missed. BIT Asset Management secures FINMA approval for Switzerland's first and Europe’s only spot Bitcoin ETF, giving retail investors direct access to crypto from a Swiss bank account. (PR Newswire)
- 🇺🇸 Exit Strategy. Andreessen Horowitz ditches the crypto label, relaunching as a16z Frontier and quietly admitting that blockchain fever has broken. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Crypto and Order. A new lawsuit alleges Trump and World Liberty Financial raked in $2B from unlawful foreign digital currency deals involving UAE's Sheikh Tahnoon. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Stock and Awe. Tokenized stocks and ETFs saw $37B in onchain trading last quarter, as Dune Analytics reports an 18-fold surge since January. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Trading Places. Kalshi’s plan for perpetual oil futures faces fierce opposition from major exchanges, who want the CFTC to shut the door on retail access and offshore workarounds. (Bloomberg)
💱 Listed Markets
- 🇫🇷 Beauty and the Boost. L'Oréal posts a Q3 revenue of €11.56B, beating forecasts and cementing its lead after acquiring Kering Beauté for €4B. The beauty giant is not just surviving, it is thriving. (Les Echos)
- 🇫🇷 License to Chill. EDF 🇫🇷 may get approval to operate its nuclear plants past the 60-year mark, proving that retirement is negotiable when the grid is at stake. (Bloomberg)
- 🇺🇸 Memory Lane. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says he sees no risk of a memory chip glut by 2029, insisting demand will always find more room. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Profit Lock. Lockheed Martin lifts its annual forecasts after smashing Q3 expectations with $7.97 EPS and a record $292B order backlog. The defense business never sleeps. (Boursier)
- 🇺🇸 Waiting for AI. The IPO market is stuck as everyone looks to Anthropic's next move, proving artificial intelligence can freeze more than just jobs. (Bloomberg)
- 🇨🇳 Model Behavior. Shares of MiniMax Group and Z.AI have lost $150B in value since their January IPOs, as China’s AI market turns from hype to harsh reality. (Bloomberg)
- 🇯🇵 Supply Chain Reaction. Toyota's delayed investment in RAV4 plants leads to a sharp 30% production fall and a 29% sales slump in the US, making scarcity the new selling point. (Wall Street Journal)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Flight Risk. American Airlines forecasts another quarterly loss as rising fuel costs wipe out revenue gains, leaving investors buckled in for more turbulence. (Wall Street Journal)
- 🇺🇸 Fountain of Youth. PepsiCo 🇺🇸 secures another 12 years with Taco Bell 🇺🇸, keeping its sodas in U.S. restaurants even as KFC defects to Coke. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Shift Happens. Hyundai Translead will add 1,250 more jobs to its Illinois expansion, bringing its total investment to $600M and hiring to 3,750. The third shift is officially on. (Bloomberg)
🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)
- Shell 🇬🇧 and ExxonMobil 🇺🇸 are exploring a sale of their jointly owned UK-based chemicals unit, Infineum 🇬🇧, valued at $8B.
- London Stock Exchange Group 🇬🇧 has agreed to acquire credit intelligence, data and workflow provider Octus 🇺🇸 from Permira 🇬🇧 and management for $3.54B.
- Castore 🇬🇧 is in talks about a possible sale after receiving interest from Anta Sports Products 🇨🇳 and Li-Ning 🇨🇳. Valued at $1.3B in 2023.
- Bridgepoint 🇬🇧, Bain Capital 🇺🇸 and Aquiline 🇺🇸 are interested in acquiring UK wealth management firm W1M 🇬🇧, backed by Lovell Minnick Partners 🇺🇸.
- Renault 🇫🇷 has agreed to sell Alpine Racing SAS 🇫🇷, including the Viry-Châtillon Formula 1 engine plant, to Belgian group Dumarey 🇧🇪, which will take over approximately 150 employees and the assets required to operate the site.
- ARCHIMED 🇫🇷 has acquired a majority stake in 3verest 🇬🇧, a medical imaging cloud provider.
- CNP Assurances 🇫🇷 has agreed with Prudential Financial 🇺🇸 to acquire 100% of Prudential of Brazil 🇧🇷 and Prudential of Mexico 🇲🇽 for $4B, subject to regulatory approval and expected to close in H2 2027.
- Axel Springer 🇩🇪 has proposed acquiring TikTok’s European business 🇨🇳.
- Autobuses de Leon 🇪🇸 offered to acquire National Express 🇬🇧 from Mobico 🇬🇧 for $378M at a 55% premium.
- Akzo Nobel 🇳🇱 is in early talks to sell its European vehicle refinishing business as part of its proposed $19B merger with Axalta Coating Systems 🇺🇸.
- Bekaert 🇧🇪 is considering carving out its China business 🇨🇳.
- EQT 🇸🇪 has agreed to acquire Qiagen 🇩🇪 via a friendly tender offer valued at €9.6B, unanimously recommended by Qiagen’s supervisory board.
- CVC 🇱🇺 is exploring an LBO of listed Swedish security firm Verisure 🇸🇪 for $14B, one year after its listing by Hellman & Friedman 🇺🇸.
- H.I.G. Capital 🇺🇸 has acquired a majority stake in L4A 🇮🇹, an Italian strategic infrastructure maintenance platform.
- Common Interest 🇺🇸 acquires a minority stake in creative agency Mirimar 🇺🇸.
- Elon Musk 🇺🇸 has invested about $1B in Skydance 🇺🇸 as part of the company’s broader equity raise.
- Arlington Capital Partners 🇺🇸 takes private Gooch & Housego 🇬🇧 with a $300M debt package led by Blackstone 🇺🇸. The aerospace and defense components manufacturer was initially funded with equity.
- Rivian 🇺🇸 has acquired AI startup Third Dimension 🇬🇧 to support its autonomous-driving development.
- Visa 🇺🇸 is reportedly in late-stage talks to acquire Fireblocks 🇮🇱 for $2.5B, a claim Fireblocks says is untrue.
- Elon Musk wants to merge Tesla 🇺🇸 and SpaceX 🇺🇸 in a $3.7T deal before Trump's term ends.
- Thoma Bravo 🇺🇸 is reviving the $6.5B sale of consumer intelligence platform J.D. Power 🇺🇸.
- Cencora 🇺🇸 will acquire American Oncology Network 🇺🇸 for $2.4B.
- Lee Equity Partners 🇺🇸 and Coastwood Senior Housing Partners 🇺🇸 are exploring a $1B sale of Discovery Senior Living 🇺🇸.
- Circle8 🇺🇸 receives a second extension to make a bid for SThree 🇬🇧, valued at $480M.
- Warburg Pincus 🇺🇸 is considering a $300M sale of Chinese parking operator Sunsea Parking Industry Group 🇨🇳.
- Nvidia 🇺🇸 is in talks to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian data center firm Firmus 🇦🇺 following its collapsed IPO.
- Blackstone 🇺🇸 and Apollo 🇺🇸 are in talks to join the list of approved private equity firms allowed to invest in minority stakes in NFL 🇺🇸 teams.
- Chevron 🇺🇸 is exploring a sale of some of its older Gulf of America assets.
- Bose 🇺🇸 will acquire headphone maker Skullcandy 🇺🇸.
- Taiwan 🇹🇼 blocked Grab Holdings 🇸🇬's $600M takeover of foodpanda's Taiwan unit 🇹🇼.
- IFM Investors 🇦🇺 acquired a majority stake in UK port operator Associated British Ports 🇬🇧 from CPPIB 🇨🇦 and OMERS 🇨🇦 at a valuation of over $13.4B.
- Industrial Development Corp. 🇿🇦 has agreed to acquire ArcelorMittal South Africa 🇿🇦 for $610M.
- Sonangol 🇦🇴 is open to increasing its stake in Banco Comercial Português 🇵🇹 if Fosun International 🇨🇳 sells its holding.
🇺🇸 United States
- Ecolab 🇺🇸 makes a strategic investment in water-filtration company ZwitterCo 🇺🇸.
- Colorado ONE Fund 🇺🇸 invests in Code19 Autonomy 🇺🇸 at seed stage to develop defense autonomy software.
- Paine Schwartz Partners 🇺🇸 has completed a strategic investment in wellness brand First Day Life 🇺🇸.
- Sequoia Financial Group 🇺🇸 has acquired Quish 🇺🇸, a Colorado-based family office and wealth management firm.
- Stone-Goff Partners 🇺🇸 announces an investment in Quandary Consultants 🇺🇸, an environmental services provider for critical infrastructure operators.
🧳 Private Markets & VC
- 🇪🇺 Cash Backed. Jensen Huang tours Europe handing out funds to startups, who then return the favor by buying Nvidia chips with their new capital. (Sifted)
- 🇳🇴 Bond Voyage. Norway’s $2.3T sovereign wealth fund posted a $30B loss in Q3 as rising interest rates battered its bond portfolio and spoiled the summer cruise. (CNBC)
- 🇺🇸 Trillion Dollar Baby. OpenAI is reportedly seeking to raise up to $30B at a $1.25T valuation, setting a new record for private companies before its IPO even launches. (TechCrunch)
- 🇺🇸 Paws of War. Palmer Luckey unveils Warhound, a $1.2B start-up aiming to breed genetically enhanced military dogs with Silicon Valley backing and Pentagon ambitions. (Financial Times)
Fundraising
- Legora 🇸🇪 (Legaltech): $550M (Atreides Management)
- Xona 🇺🇸 (Space): $250M (Future Ventures)
- Warp Sciences 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $215M (Lightspeed, Premji Invest, Mayfield, IVP, Lux, Conviction, Menlo Ventures, 01 Advisors, Standard, Lowercarbon Capital, Gigascale Capital, Angular Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Uncork Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Matter VP, Zero Shot Fund, SignalFire, Moxxie Ventures, Brian Armstrong, Mike Krieger, Milan Kovac, Ion Stoica, Fidji Simo, Brendan Foody, Mark Chen, Sarah Friar, Kate Rouch, Lulu Meservey, Deepak Pathak, Dylan Field, Lachy Groom)
- Whop 🇺🇸 (E-commerce): $205M (Sequoia)
- Tractian 🇺🇸 (Industrial AI): $130M (Sapphire Ventures, M&G's Catalyst, N47, General Catalyst, Bosch Ventures, 53 Stations, Monashees, Endeavor Catalyst, Norte Ventures, Y Combinator)
- Peak Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $108M (General Motors Ventures)
- Vegafin Capital 🇮🇳 (AI): $106M (Azim Premji’s family office)
- Blacksmith 🇺🇸 (Software): $66M (Sequoia)
- Formic 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $50M (Mercato Partners, Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Citi, S2G Investments)
- WILDE 🇺🇸 (Food): $40M (S2G Investments)
- Cognitive Credit (Fintech): $40M (Summit Partners, ETFS Capital)
- Coast 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $35M (Thomvest Ventures, Intuit Ventures, Small World Capital, Alpha Square Group, ICONIQ Growth, Accel, Insight Partners, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Avid Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Colle Capital, Synchrony, RXR, TheFintechFund)
- Watchtower Labs 🇺🇸 (AI): $35M (Shield Capital, Conviction)
- Mave 🇮🇱 (Cybersecurity): $34M (Red Dot Capital Partners, Lumir Growth Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Emerge Ventures)
- Mach9 🇺🇸 (AI): $34M (First Round Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners)
- Nirva 🇺🇸 (AI): $33M (Lightspeed, South Park Commons)
- Beyond Vision 🇵🇹 (Drones): Over €28M (Índico Capital Partners, Lince Capital, ActiveCap)
- Optivolt 🇺🇸 (Solar): $32M (VXI Capital, RA Capital, Valo Ventures, Atlas Innovate)
- Enact Intelligence 🇨🇭 (AI): €26.68M (redalpine, Notion Capital, firstminute capital)
- Slingshot Insurance 🇺🇸 (Insurtech): $27M (Rally Ventures, Skyward Group, Jim Hays)
- Hive (Event tech): $27M (Frontier Growth)
- CapitalOS 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $21.9M (LGVP, WEX Venture Capital, Group11, Great North Ventures, Night Capital)
- FORT Robotics 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $20M (Tiger Global, Mark Cuban Companies)
- IDL (Sports): $15M (Elysian Park Ventures)
- Firstwork 🇺🇸 (AI): $15M (Earlybird)
- QuantrolOx 🇫🇮 (Quantum): €12M (IW Capital, European Innovation Council Fund, Transpose Capital)
- ScribeUp 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $13M (Curql, Mucker Capital, Service Ventures)
- Dataline (AI): $10.6M (Lattice, Dispersion Capital)
- BioStack 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $9.5M (Peak XV, Afore Capital, DCVC, Emerson Collective, SV Angel, Verdict Capital, Streamlined Ventures, Y Combinator)
- Pascal 🇺🇸 (Climate tech): $8.5M (Sazze Partners, LB Investment, KDB Silicon Valley)
- Indurex 🇳🇱 (Cybersecurity): €7M (Contrarian Ventures, Axeleo Capital)
- PreScalar 🇺🇸 (Manufacturing): $7M (Dynamo Ventures, BMW i Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, Uplift Ventures, Antler)
- Reduck 🇫🇷🇺🇸 (AI): $3M (Daphni, Drysdale Ventures, Galion.exe)
- RhymeQ 🇩🇪 (Quantum computing): $2.2M (Ground State Ventures, Vanagon Ventures, Plug and Play, Freiraum Ventures)
- Aurelion 🇭🇰 (Fintech): US$2M (Antalpha)
Fund Watch
- Pantheon 🇬🇧: $6B (8th private equity secondaries fund)
- APEX Tech Acquisition 🇺🇸: $3.5B (merger with Korean entertainment platform Korai Flix)
- Northwind 🇺🇸: $1B (3rd real estate credit fund)
🔔IPO
- Anthropic 🇺🇸 (AI): preparing a IPO that could raise up to $100B at a potential $2T valuation.
- Lycia Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Biotech): raised $317.5M in an upsized IPO.
- Abbott Laboratories 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): spinning off its $8.5B nutrition unit.
- Abra Group 🇨🇴 (Airlines): delaying its IPO until next year.
- DayOne Data Centers 🇸🇬 (Data centers): may delay or reduce its US IPO to $2.5B-$3B.
- Merdeka Gold Resources 🇮🇩 (Mining): plans to raise $560M through an Indonesian share sale.
- Carlsberg India 🇮🇳 (Beverages): preparing to file for a $700M IPO.
- VVDN Technologies 🇮🇳 (Technology): considering an India IPO that could raise $300M.
- Dangote Industries 🇳🇬 (Conglomerate): bought a 25% stake in Kenya Pipeline Co. for $327M.
🧳 Debt
- Intesa Sanpaolo 🇮🇹: working on SRTs tied to $6B in assets.
- Vornado Realty Trust 🇺🇸: landed a $3.3B construction loan with Ken Griffin and Rudin for a new Manhattan office tower.
- JDS Development 🇺🇸: in talks for a $1.1B refinancing to rescue its stalled Miami tower.
- PLS Group 🇦🇺: sold $700M of U.S. dollar junk bonds.
❌ Failures
- Barclays 🇬🇧: plans to cut about 5,000 jobs, or 5% of its workforce, by the end of 2026 as it adopts AI.
- Highland Spring 🇬🇧: its billionaire owner faced creditor defaults and enforcement actions across his heavily indebted real estate empire.
- Volvo Car 🇸🇪: the automaker will cut 2,500 jobs globally as part of a plan to save over $500 million.
- Optimum Communications 🇺🇸: the telecoms firm is nearing a restructuring deal that would give lenders control and resolve litigation.
- Braskem 🇧🇷: Bracebridge Capital filed an involuntary Chapter 11 petition against a unit of the Brazilian petrochemicals firm.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Liberty Steel Newport 🇬🇧: creditors appointed liquidators to wind down the steelworks, putting 180 jobs at risk.
🎯 For a Few More Minutes…
- 🇬🇧 Raye of Light. British singer Raye wins the 2026 Mercury Prize for her album "This Music May Contain Hope," beating out Olivia Dean and Paul McCartney for the coveted honor. (Le Figaro)
- 🇦🇹 Bear Minimum. Giorgi Bolkvadze returned €116K after a bank teller’s tenfold cash error, earning a thank-you gift of candy and a modest €50 bonus. (Le Parisien)
- 🇺🇸 Boss Fight. Talks to merge Johnson & Johnson’s orthopaedics unit with Smith & Nephew collapsed at the last minute over who would run the $34B company, proving egos can outmuscle even the biggest deals. (Financial Times)
🇺🇸 United States
- 🇺🇸 Rein Check. New York City Council votes to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park by 2028, ending a 160-year-old tourist tradition and igniting fierce debate over animal welfare and livelihoods. (New York Times)
