First Read

Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit unanimously ruled against Kalshi on Friday, September 25, allowing Ohio and Tennessee to enforce their gambling laws against its sports-event contracts, Jonathan Stempel of Reuters reported. The panel upheld the denial of a preliminary injunction in Ohio and vacated an injunction protecting Kalshi in Tennessee. Writing for the court, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons said Kalshi had not shown that its sports contracts qualify as “swaps” under the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction, adding that even if they did, the Commodity Exchange Act would not preempt the states’ gambling laws.

The decision deepens a federal appeals court split: the Ninth Circuit sided with Nevada in August, while the Third Circuit ruled for Kalshi in New Jersey in April, increasing the prospect of Supreme Court review. New Jersey has already asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Third Circuit ruling, while Kalshi said Friday’s decision would not survive further review and argued that a state-by-state regulatory patchwork is incompatible with nationwide markets.

Here is a copy of the Sixth Circuit Court’s decision. It includes two references to the Gary Gensler amicus filing and a reference to a paper by James M. Falvey and Andrew N. Kleit, “Commodities Exchanges & Antitrust.”

And if you are interested, here is the Nineth Circuit Court’s ruling and the Third Circuit Court’s ruling for comparison.

The Trump administration’s push to bring Venezuelan gold into the United States has left hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth sitting in warehouses because refiners are unwilling to certify it as free from criminal ties, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Tyler Pager and Rebecca R. Ruiz report in The New York Times. Following Nicolás Maduro’s removal, the administration brokered a deal allowing Trafigura to buy gold from state-owned Minerven, which remained designated a U.S. national security threat. Shipments began before Trafigura or independent auditors visited the mines.

The Times found that some exported gold came from miners who pay protection money to gangs, raising doubts about the administration’s promise to eliminate criminal influence through Western investment. Trafigura said its due diligence continues and auditors had identified no illegal activity at the inspected sites, while the White House maintained that Western companies are improving the industry. Additional U.S.-backed mining deals are advancing, but unresolved sourcing concerns have prevented Trafigura from reselling its shipments and prompted Democratic lawmakers to question the arrangement’s legality.

Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger will step down on October 16, while remaining as an advisor through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. Board President Kristin Smith will serve as interim CEO beginning on October 17.
https://jlne.ws/4AtuZtH

Only two days remain to take advantage of the early bird registration special, which provides a 30% discount on conference registration for DePaul University’s 13th Annual Cyber Risk Conference taking place on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. This year’s theme is “Supply Chain Risk in the Era of Agentic AI,” bringing together industry leaders, academics, and practitioners for a full day of discussions on the rapidly evolving intersection of AI, cybersecurity, supply chain risk, insurance, and liability. For more information and to register, go HERE.

Here are the headlines from in front of FOW’s paywall from some recent stories:

• Trading Technologies promotes Jeanniard du Dot to lead margin analytics business
• ICE launches JKM LNG options in gas and power derivatives expansion
• China Securities expands global footprint with new Dubai office
• IEX moves to launch coal exchange in energy expansion
• OTCX completes integration with BlackRock’s Aladdin to standardise OTC derivatives trading
• ESMA to review EMIR clearing reforms in 2027
• Banorte, Murex launch Mexico’s first total return swaps
• EEX to launch daily gas futures across four European hubs
• GIFT Nifty sets new volume, open interest record as foreign inflow surges
• HSBC picks Nasdaq Calypso for exchange-traded derivatives clearing
• JPX upgrades J-Quants Pro with new derivatives dataset
• Jeremy Fox-Geen to step down as Circle’s CFO in December
• Stablecoin growth could drive demand for emerging-market derivatives, says Gravity Team CEO
• Equity derivatives innovation in APAC drives retail growth: FOW Asia 2026
• Precious metals and energy see trading surge in APAC amid market volatility: FOW Asia 2026
• Prediction market data should be seen standalone asset class – BMLL
• NSE expands Augmont partnership to boost Electronic Gold Receipts trading
• CME debuts sports index futures while Borsa Italiana expands blue chip index options in busy week of listings
• GFEX opens platinum and palladium futures to foreign investors
• CoinMarketCap acquires Coinglass to expand crypto derivatives data
• US federal court rules against Kalshi, says states can regulate sports prediction markets

Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality, and justice.~JJL

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Our most-read stories from our previous edition of JLN Options were:

• Polymarket Wagers on Bank Failures Trigger FDIC Concerns from Bloomberg.
• The CFTC Is Tying Its Own Hands on Prediction Markets from LawFare.
• Which Exchange Has The Most Stock Perpetual Futures? from Yellow. ~JB

Subscribe to the JLN Options Newsletter HERE (it’s free).

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Socialism
Leo Melamed via Substack
On your 250th birthday, be careful America! It is a slippery slope. Today, with US income inequality at the largest spread in our history, socialism is once again gaining interest. It would be an incalculable mistake. Socialism is an economic and political philosophy in which the ownership of property and dispersal of income are subject to social, not private control. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of property and resources where individuals and businesses make goods for the purpose of profit. According to Carl Marx and Friedrich Engels socialism is a transitional stage between capitalism and a fully realized communist society.
/jlne.ws/4xMocsq

***** Leo’s first post in his Substack was “The World According to Leo Melamed,” but this one reads more like that title. He starts with socialism, slides into AI and finishes with biomedical research. His first column, which I missed including, was titled “A Radical Idea to Eradicate Antisemitism.” ~JJL

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Exclusive | Senate Investigation Finds Rampant Use of Tether’s Stablecoin by Iranian Regime; Wallets sanctioned over Iran ties overwhelmingly dealt in Tether’s USDT stablecoin, according to Senate Democrats
Dylan Tokar – The Wall Street Journal
Iran has relied on digital dollars issued by one of the world’s most profitable cryptocurrency companies to bypass a U.S. sanctions dragnet, according to a report that Senate Democrats plan to release Monday. The report, by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, says Tether’s stablecoin has become a primary means of payment for the Iranian regime and a tool for funding terrorist proxy organizations such as Hezbollah, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
/jlne.ws/4yjDGoW

***** For Iranian entities and other actors engaged in illicit finance, stablecoins offer an advantage over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: Their relatively stable prices reduce exposure to price swings when moving funds in and out.~JJL

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Friday’s Top Three
Our most-clicked story Friday was Federal Reserve Board requests public comment on two proposals related to establishing a regulatory framework for Board-supervised payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, from the Federal Reserve Board. Second was New York sues Polymarket over alleged illegal gambling, from FOW. Third was a tie between OG.com to seek CFTC nod for perpetual single stock futures and Payward partners with Ledger to connect custody with digital asset trading infrastructure, both from FOW.

Lead Stories

Under Trump, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Scales Back Enforcement, Worrying Farmers; The fate of two cotton brokers highlights how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has scaled back its regulatory actions not just for crypto cases but also for the kinds of cases it has long policed.
Sharon LaFraniere – The New York Times
For years, American cotton farmers suspected that they were getting cheated by powerful companies that bought and sold their goods to overseas buyers. When a whistle-blower came forward who appeared to validate those suspicions in 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal regulatory agency, began an investigation. During the last months of the Biden administration, the agency reached a settlement against one of the trading companies, Olam Group. The firm agreed to pay a $3.25 million fine after the C.F.T.C. found it had misled the markets about its cotton exports to China.
/jlne.ws/4z2k3BY

US Court of Appeals rules Kalshi sports event contracts fall outside CEA swaps definition
Natasha Cocksedge – The TRADE
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that prediction market Kalshi’s sports event contracts are not determined as swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The Sixth Circuit covers jurisdiction over federal district courts in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The ruling means that the CEA does not pre-empt Ohio and Tennessee gambling laws from regulating Kalshi’s sports event contracts – which comes following the Southern District of Ohio’s denial of a preliminary injunction and the Middle District of Tennessee’s entry of a preliminary injunction. Kalshi began offering sports event contracts on its exchange in early 2025, which in turn drew the attention of state regulators, such as Tennessee and Ohio’s sports gambling regulators.
/jlne.ws/4yTHhKq

Appeals court rules against Kalshi, says prediction markets can be regulated like gambling
Miranda Nazzaro – NewsNation
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the prediction market Kalshi Friday, determining states can regulate prediction market platforms like gambling in the latest blow to the industry. In a unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel sided with Ohio and Tennessee, finding Kalshi did not show its sports-event contracts are “swaps” that typically fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
/jlne.ws/4hlsZec

These Doomers Have Wielded Big Influence in AI Development
WSJ Staff – The Wall Street Journal
1. A tightknit subculture of doomsday researchers has quietly steered the development of the AI industry. The recent resignation of an Anthropic researcher has awakened the public to the shocking notion that runaway AI development could end humanity. However, some stalwarts of the AI-safety community known as doomers have spent more than a decade obsessing over this exact apocalyptic risk. They were among the earliest employees at major labs like OpenAI and Anthropic. Now, while Anthropic tries to strike an optimistic tone for investors ahead of a massive public listing, some of its earliest employees are considering buying land in remote places to relocate if the technology goes awry.
/jlne.ws/3VyVgqv

OpenAI Agents Used Aggressive Techniques to Access U.N. Website
Robert McMillan – The Wall Street Journal
OpenAI agents bombarded a United Nations website with search requests and then used a variety of aggressive techniques to access data on the system in June, according to an independent research report published Saturday. Researchers have discovered a spate of instances of OpenAI’s artificial-intelligence models exhibiting rogue behavior online in recent weeks. In the case of the U.N., as in several other examples disclosed in recent days, the agents went to great lengths to retrieve data from websites, according to Rowan Howard-Jones, the author of the report, which was based on data supplied by the AI research firm Transluce.
/jlne.ws/3TUlvqY

Soaring Transport Costs Spread Through U.S. Economy
Mark R. Long – The Wall Street Journal
There is virtually no way for businesses to avoid paying more to transport goods, costs that are likely to bleed through to virtually all corners of the U.S. economy, the WSJ’s Esther Fung, Laura Cooper and Costas Paris write. Trucking expenses are at their highest level since the Covid pandemic. Diesel prices are up 77% in the past year. Container-shipping rates, meanwhile, are up, while railroads, parcel-delivery companies such as FedEx, and even the U.S. Postal Service are also raising prices. Contributing to the rise in trucking costs is a shortage of truck drivers. The Transportation Department says it has removed more than 28,000 drivers from the road for failing English-proficiency tests since early 2025. It has also pushed states to cancel over 30,000 CDLs illegally issued to foreign drivers.
/jlne.ws/3TWR57s

Exclusive | Did Putin Really Think I Was a Spy?
Evan Gershkovich – The Wall Street Journal
HE LEANED FORWARD and thrust the papers into my hands. Neatly drawn in black ballpoint pen, the documents displayed what appeared to be official tables of production figures. “I copied the documents exactly so you’d understand them better,” the man, Pavel Sergienya, said in Russian. I looked up at Pavel. A union boss for factory workers, he was stocky and well-built with closely cropped brown hair and the hands of someone who had spent the bulk of his 40-plus years in manual labor. We were in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Urals. I’d flown in from Moscow a few hours earlier. We were sitting at a wooden table near the bar at the far end of Bukowski Grill, a kitschy American-style steakhouse, with faux deer heads mounted on the walls. I sat on a couch, my back up against the wall.
/jlne.ws/3VipCNY

Exclusive | Citi Expands Digital-Assets Footprint With Coinbase Partnership; Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, will provide the digital rails enabling the bank’s corporate clients to make payments with stablecoins
Vicky Ge Huang – The Wall Street Journal
Citigroup has tapped crypto company Coinbase Global to help the bank’s big clients take stablecoin payments from customers. It is the latest sign that efforts to connect traditional banking and the alternative financial system that powers cryptocurrencies are pushing ahead despite a recent setback for the crypto industry in Washington.
/jlne.ws/4htZhUB

See How Mark Walter Turned a Ho-Hum Insurance Company Into a Risk-Taking Lender; Delaware Life has transformed into a private-credit lender, with a much higher concentration of riskier investments than typical insurers
Shane Shifflett and Matt Wirz – The Wall Street Journal
Most of the money flowing through Mark Walter’s network of companies traces back to Delaware Life Insurance, a run-of-the-mill insurer he bought 13 years ago and used to acquire the Los Angeles Dodgers and bankroll a financial empire. Delaware Life mutated once Walter took over: Obscure private-credit deals grew to about 45% of its nearly $42 billion debt investments, compared with 9% in 2014, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal found. Two out of the insurer’s three largest investments are to affiliated Walter companies. The other is to a company with business ties to Walter’s financial firm Guggenheim Partners. The
/jlne.ws/4e1gaF3

Every Household in This Rural Town Receives $10,000 if a Data Center Gets Built; Many Pennsylvania residents in Hazle Township are pushing back against the data center, despite the lure of the cash payout
Will Parker – The Wall Street Journal
The letters started arriving in June, from a big developer who said he would give $10,000 to every family in town. They could spend it on anything. “Really whatever you want,” the developer wrote. To get the money, the township just needed to let NorthPoint Development build its data center, the first of 15 buildings the firm planned on 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills. Then, $10,000 checks would go out to each of the 4,500 households there. It would be a $45 million payout, the developer wrote.
/jlne.ws/4ym52ej

Tech, AI Leaders to Join Trump for Launch of Government Website
Courtney Subramanian – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump will host an event with tech and AI leaders on Tuesday to launch a new government website, as his administration faces pressure to adopt new guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence. The new website, America.gov, is designed to help Americans access federal information and resources currently spread among numerous agencies, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details on the initiative. The all-day event will also include panel discussions on AI, energy dominance, health, space and agriculture, the official added.
/jlne.ws/4z6ySn8

Oil Markets Flash Shortage Warning
Joe Wallace – The Wall Street Journal
If you’re catching up on the oil market this morning, you might be confused to read that prices are both at $100 and $107. Which is right? Both, and the fact that two very different prices are floating around shows how nervous oil traders are getting about supplies after President Trump rejected an Iranian proposal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The higher price is for contracts that will deliver Brent crude oil in November. That’s the soonest you can get your hands on the crude via a futures contract. The contracts expire at the end of this month. The lower price is for contracts that expire in October, and cover oil that will be delivered in December.
/jlne.ws/4hvQX6C

HSBC Adopts Nasdaq Calypso’s Enhanced Exchange-Traded Derivatives Platform
Nasdaq, Inc. – GlobeNewswire
Partnering with Nasdaq, HSBC has adopted Nasdaq Calypso for the bank’s exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) clearing platform, providing HSBC with a fully integrated set of clearing capabilities. HSBC’s Derivatives Clearing Services already execute ETD transactions for institutional clients across 40 global futures exchanges, and clear ETDs and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives through the world’s largest central counterparties (CCPs).
/jlne.ws/46NyYDW

35 most influential women in finance in Scotland
Juliet Napier – The Business
The inspiration for this year’s most influential women list is Dame Susan Rice, the banker, former Bank of England director, an economic advisor and member of the First Minister’s Council of Economic Advisers, and a prolific non-executive director. She was in sparkling form recently at the Executive Women in Leadership (EWIL) 10-year anniversary gala dinner in Edinburgh speaking in a panel along with Dr Lesley Sawers, the former Scotland Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Sarah Millar, the chief executive of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), and Ruth Davidson, now Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links.
/jlne.ws/4xIvb5H

World Gold Council appoints Paul Brink as new Chair of the Board
World Gold Council
The World Gold Council announces the appointment of Paul Brink, President and Chief Executive Officer of Franco-Nevada Corporation, as its new Chair. Paul succeeds Neal Froneman, who has completed his term as Chair of the Board. Paul Brink has led Franco-Nevada since 2020 and has run its business development since the IPO in 2007. Franco-Nevada is the leading gold-focused royalty and streaming company and has a long history of engagement with, and leadership of the World Gold Council.
/jlne.ws/4dIjNQ9

NOVEL PRODUCTS

Prediction Markets

US Appeals Court Rules Against Kalshi, Says States Can Regulate Prediction Markets
Reuters – GV Wire
A US appeals court on Friday ruled against the prediction markets operator Kalshi, saying Ohio and Tennessee can regulate its so-called event contracts under their gambling laws. The decision by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati deepens a split among federal appeals courts over whether state regulators or the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission should have authority to regulate the fast-growing industry. This raises the potential that the US Supreme Court may decide to settle the matter.
/jlne.ws/47t16MJ

Another appeals court rules against prediction market provider Kalshi, says sports contracts are subject to state regulations
Nikhilesh De – CoinDesk
A panel of judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that prediction market provider Kalshi’s sports-related events contracts are not swaps, and therefore are subject to state gaming regulations rather than the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s rules.
/jlne.ws/3V6BtPc

Washington Fears Polymarket Bank Failure Bets Could Fuel Panic
PYMNTS
Bank regulators and federal lawmakers have expressed concerns about the appearance of contracts on prediction market Polymarket that are tied to the likelihood of bank failures, Bloomberg reported Friday (Sept. 25).
/jlne.ws/4xMMdQc

Op-ed | Prediction markets can hedge against small business risks
Brian Quintenz – amNewYork
New York is the financial capital of the country. For generations, businesses here have relied on sophisticated financial markets to manage risk, discover prices and plan around uncertainty. The New York Stock Exchange is built on the basic idea that buyers and sellers should be able to meet in a transparent marketplace and collectively determine what something is worth. Prediction markets apply a similar model to a new category of risk.
/jlne.ws/4z10OIP

South Carolina addresses gambling concerns in popular prediction markets
Keith Savage – WSPA 7NEWS
Even though South Carolina is one of the few states that still doesn’t allow gambling, prediction markets have found their way into the state as they continue to grow in popularity nationwide. On these sites, you can bet on outcomes of real-world events, from sports games to political elections. You just have to be 18 or older.
/jlne.ws/4rEhRht

Focus: Prediction markets’ push into US stocks raises regulatory alarm bells
Douglas Gillison – Reuters
Prediction markets are fast becoming alternative venues for traders to wager on US companies like Tesla and Apple (AAPL.O), raising concerns about investor protection and market oversight, according to ​independent data and regulatory experts. The booming industry pioneered by Polymarket and Kalshi rose to prominence by allowing punters to bet on almost anything, including sports events, elections and military operations.
/jlne.ws/4z3Ks2d

Sports & Gaming

I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP.
Jake Pearson, graphics by Chris Alcantara – ProPublica
It was late May, the French Open was on and DraftKings was pushing me into the action. A promotion pinged on my phone. “BET & GET,” it boomed, offering to boost my profits if I threw down on tennis, punctuating the point with a cartoon stack of cash. I was already in the middle of a two-hour betting spree, ripping 64 wagers on the clay courts of Paris from my office chair in New York City. A $75 bet that Claire Liu would win the fifth point of her first set tiebreak against Maria Sakkari? Wrong. How about an easy $300 on Francisco Comesana to win the first game of the second set against Luciano Darderi? Negativo. I’ll be the first to admit that my backhand needs some work. But this wasn’t about sports. It was about scratching an itch.
/jlne.ws/4iKHXwS

J.P. Morgan Loses Fight to Overturn $4.25 Million Award to Advisor Fired Over Super Bowl Platter
Kenneth Corbin – Barron’s
A federal court in California has ruled that J.P. Morgan Securities must pay the $4.25 million award an arbitration panel granted a former advisor who claimed he was wrongfully terminated over an expense-account dispute. Brent Bodner, now with Wells Fargo, alleged that the unit of JPMorgan Chase had used an expense-reporting error as a pretext to fire him and then poach his clients.
/jlne.ws/4xNTIpY

35% of bettors are leaving sportsbooks for prediction markets, echoing the regulatory loophole DraftKings built its business on
Catherina Gioino – Fortune
In 2006 Congress passed a law called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which didn’t ban online betting but rather, banned banks from processing payments for it. It carved out one exception: fantasy sports, because Congress considered it a game of skill, not a game of chance like betting on a single game is.
/jlne.ws/4daqQkB

Prediction markets face uncertainty after US ruling
Daniel Soriano – Inside The Games
Kalshi suffered one of its biggest legal setbacks on Friday when a federal appeals court decided that Ohio and Tennessee can subject sports betting contracts to state gambling laws, further fracturing an already divided approach on the issue. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled unanimously that both states retain the right to regulate such contracts under their own gambling laws, rejecting the argument that the platform is protected exclusively by federal regulation. Kalshi had maintained that its sports event contracts should be treated as ‘swaps’ or financial derivatives and should therefore fall solely under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
/jlne.ws/46IZ0bv

BBB warns sports betting scammers are exploiting confusion over rules, prediction markets
KOMO News Staff – KOMO
As football season ramps up, sports fans are being flooded with ads, apps and online offers tied to sports betting — and scammers are using the confusion around what’s legal and what’s not to steal money, the Better Business Bureau warns. Sports betting scams often start with professional-looking websites, apps or social media accounts, according to the BBB.
/jlne.ws/4yfrPbz

New Mexico tribes warn prediction markets threaten gaming revenue
Bella Davis – Albuquerque Journal
/jlne.ws/4rCqDMP

Brazil’s Lula to ban online gambling before election; Leftwing president moves to prohibit fixed-odds sports betting and digital casinos, which have exploded in popularity
Michael Pooler – Financial Times
/jlne.ws/3TZhaTr

Entain Backs 2026 Guidance Despite Brazil Online Betting Ban
Michael Hennessey and Najat Kantouar – The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/4rDJNlJ

See Real Examples of How the FSPI Index Moves
Futuresports
View a short series of video clips that show how various FSPI NHL Team Indexes moved over the 2025-26 NHL season — both intragame and across multiple games.
/jlne.ws/4xVGKqp

The Incentives for Entrepreneurs Have Become Warped
Gautam Mukunda – Bloomberg Opinion
/jlne.ws/3Veeku9

Perpetual Futures

Navigating the High Seas of HTX’s New Perpetual Futures
OneSafe Content Team – OneSafe
Picture this: a digital ocean teeming with opportunities, yet each wave carries the potential for peril. Such is the reality in the ever-evolving realm of cryptocurrency, where HTX’s latest roll-out of POLYMARKET/USDT and NIL/USDT perpetual futures has dropped anchor, stirring excitement among traders. With leverage levels pushing up to 20x, mastering perpetual futures is not just beneficial; it is imperative for those traversing these turbulent financial waters—whether novices or experts.
/jlne.ws/4hQ8fgb

New Contracts & Listings

Wedbush Expands Market Access with Launch of FutureSports Performance Index Products
Wedbush via Business Insider
Wedbush today welcomed the launch of the first exchange-traded products based on FutureSports Performance Indexes (FSPI), marking a significant milestone in the evolution of capital markets and the emergence of sports performance as a new asset class. As an investor in FutureSports and a provider of multi-asset trading, clearing and technology infrastructure, Wedbush helped bring the development of sports-performance-based financial products from concept to market. The launch of CME FSPI Hockey Futures introduces the first regulated financial products built on FutureSports indexes.
/jlne.ws/4jquSsK

World Conflicts

Ukraine Invasion

Russian Foreign Minister Vows Russia Will See Ukraine War Through
Farnaz Fassihi – The New York Times
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, met with his German counterpart on Saturday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. It was the first meeting between the two countries at this level since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine over four years ago. Mr. Lavrov said the German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, had requested the meeting a day earlier. According to the Russian minister, Mr. Wadephul reiterated Berlin’s positions on Ukraine and requested that Russia make some concessions on the Ukraine front and on the safe passage of ships and tankers in the Black Sea.
/jlne.ws/4z22pye

Overwhelmed by Ukraine’s Drones, Russia Tells Businesses to Defend Themselves
Thomas Grove and Daria Matviichuk – The Wall Street Journal
When a Ukrainian drone struck one of Russia’s biggest steel producers earlier this year, the company’s owner and the country’s richest businessman, Alexei Mordashov, brought in an air-defense system to protect the firm’s biggest mill on the outskirts of Moscow, people familiar with the matter said. The move by steel giant Severstal was an example of how Russia’s private industries are increasingly having to fend for themselves as Ukrainian strikes intensify. The escalating threat is rippling through the economy, disrupting businesses and changing job requirements, making security guards and even postal workers part of the drone defenses. It isn’t all by choice.
/jlne.ws/4dI5v1X

Opinion: Inside Ukraine’s Drone Mission Control Room
Jillian Kay Melchior – The Wall Street Journal
Deep in a bunker, a device resembling an alarm clock sits on the desk of Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi. It shows the number of Russians his troops have killed that day: 302 when our conversation begins in the afternoon. “When you are leaving the number will be higher,” he says. The Unmanned Systems Forces, which he has commanded since June 2025, amounts to 2.5% of Ukraine’s armed forces, but it’s responsible for approximately a third of all Russian casualties in the past year.
/jlne.ws/4hu3U0G

A World War II-Era Feud Is Threatening a Pivotal Alliance for Ukraine
Matthew Luxmoore and Stephen Kalin – The Wall Street Journal
This summer, a small crowd gathered around six freshly exhumed human skeletons protruding from the ground on the edge of a sunflower field in Ukraine. They didn’t belong to victims of Russia’s war on Ukraine, but to Poles massacred by Ukrainian ultranationalists who briefly allied with Nazi forces in World War II.
/jlne.ws/4xSVjLw

Russian and Ukrainian strikes leave 10 dead as Trump calls on Zelenskyy to ‘settle with Putin’
Associated Press – Chicago Tribune
Russian attacks killed four people across Ukraine, officials said on Saturday, while Ukraine continued to target Russian oil refineries and industrial sites with long-range drones. The intensifying aerial war between Moscow and Kyiv came as U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would “settle” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has struck Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, glide bombs and jet-powered drones while front-line progress has slowed, some 4½-years after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
/jlne.ws/47l3CVl

Middle East Conflict

Trump’s War With Iran Drags Down Republicans in Midterm Elections
Tim Balk – The New York Times
As President Trump warned in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in recent days that he might “annihilate” Iran, a growing number of Republicans were scrambling to find distance from a costly war that has swelled into a midterm crisis for the party. The split screen showed how Mr. Trump and his party’s battleground candidates are increasingly at odds as the November elections approach. With no clear resolution in sight, the war has sent the prices of gasoline, diesel and heating oil upward, and cost increases have spilled across the economy. Mortgage rates have also climbed to seven percent, squeezing prospective homeowners already struggling with inflation.
/jlne.ws/4AD2Xfg

Other Conflicts

North Korea Is Testing Swarm Attacks Mixing Drones and Missiles
Timothy W. Martin and Jared Malsin – The Wall Street Journal
North Korea has started practicing swarm attacks that combine unmanned systems with conventional weapons, adopting tactics already used in Ukraine and the Middle East that could challenge U.S. and allied air defenses. For the first time, North Korea carried out an exercise this month that combined attack drones, nuclear-capable missiles, rockets and long-range artillery to pulverize a target. The exercise was meant to hone integration across weapon systems with a “concentrated fire” able to decimate the “enemy’s armed forces organizationally and structurally,” the country’s state media reported. Then on Sept. 20, Pyongyang said it had fired a pair of purported hypersonic missiles. Such missiles, which are designed to fly at least five times the speed of sound, can overcome air defenses due to their velocity and ability to change direction midflight. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, overseeing the test, said the missiles represented “ultramodern” technology.
/jlne.ws/3VyZPkD

EXCHANGES OTC CLEARING

Deutsche Bank, UBS, RBS Said to Mull Selling Tradeweb Stakes
Matthew Leising and Matthew Monks – Bloomberg
Deutsche Bank AG, UBS Group AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc are considering selling their minority stakes in Tradeweb Markets LLC, a bond and derivatives trading system, according to people familiar with the matter. Thomson Reuters Corp. owns the majority of New York-based Tradeweb, while a group of banks have the rest. Potential buyers have approached bank owners based in Europe — a group that also includes Credit Suisse Group AG and Barclays Plc — about selling, according to one of the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Deutsche Bank, UBS and RBS are trying to decide what to do.
/jlne.ws/4htFm85

Abaxx’s Gold Singapore Futures Wins 2026 FOW Asia Pacific Awards
BERNAMABIZ
/jlne.ws/4hrgwqZ

Eolo Toys Joins BME Scaleup on September 29
BME Bolsas y Mercados
The BME Scaleup Management Committee has approved the listing of Eolo Toys on September 29th, following a thorough review of all documentation submitted by the company and the issuance of a favorable evaluation report by the Market Coordination and Listings Committee. The company’s Board of Directors, which is the twelfth company to join BME’s growth markets so far this year, has set a reference price of 2,60 euros per share for the start of trading, representing a total company valuation of nearly 15 million euros.
/jlne.ws/4z512yM

Bybit and Franklin Templeton Form Strategic Collaboration to Expand Access to Tokenized Investing
Bybit – prnewswire.com
Bybit, the New Financial Platform trusted by more than 80 million users worldwide, today announced a strategic collaboration with Franklin Templeton, a global investment leader with $1.7 trillion in assets under management* and a pioneer in digital asset innovation. The collaboration’s first initiative allows eligible clients to use tokenized money market fund shares as off-exchange collateral when trading on Bybit. The shares are issued through the Benji Technology Platform, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain-integrated recordkeeping and transfer agency infrastructure.
/jlne.ws/3T5WR6A

When FX Futures Pause: Understanding spread risk around the daily close
CME Group
The collaboration’s first initiative allows eligible clients to use tokenized money market fund shares as off-exchange collateral when trading on Bybit. The shares are issued through the Benji Technology Platform, Franklin Templeton’s proprietary blockchain-integrated recordkeeping and transfer agency infrastructure.
/jlne.ws/4d7AwfF

DTCC and iCapital Collaborate to Advance Private Market Infrastructure, Expand Access and Support the Industry’s Next Phase of Growth and Scale
DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, and iCapital1, the global fintech company shaping the future of investing, today announced a strategic collaboration to advance the infrastructure supporting private markets. By bringing together DTCC’s market infrastructure, processing capabilities, and network with iCapital’s technology platform and investment workflows, the firms aim to connect data, operations, and market participants across the private investment lifecycle. The collaboration is intended to reduce operational friction and help wealth advisors and asset managers participate in private markets more efficiently, at greater scale and with less risk. In support of this initiative, DTCC has also made a strategic investment in iCapital.
/jlne.ws/4rJYSC7

Building liquidity in Europe’s volatility markets
Eurex
European volatility markets are becoming increasingly liquid and offering market participants a growing product suite to pursue volatility trading strategies. To discuss these developments and the market forces that are driving them, we sat down with Matthew Koren, Sales Americas at Eurex, to discuss how Eurex’ volatility ecosystem is evolving, the growth of short-dated trading, and what improved liquidity could mean for institutional and retail participation.
/jlne.ws/4AGjTBW

HKEX Launches “A Place to Connect” Exhibition Celebrating 40 Years of Hong Kong’s Modern Stock Exchange
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) today (Monday) launched “A Place to Connect: Our 40 Years at Exchange Square”, a photo-led exhibition celebrating the development of Hong Kong’s capital markets over the four decades since the establishment of Hong Kong’s modern stock exchange. HKEX hosted a special event to kick off the four-week exhibition, attended by distinguished guests that included Hong Kong Acting Financial Secretary, Michael Wong, as well as legislators, market regulators and leaders from the financial community. Former HKEX chairmen Ronald Arculli and CK Chow, and executives from the exhibition’s strategic partner, Hongkong Land, were also in attendance.
/jlne.ws/4d5eFWe

HKEX Welcomes Four New ETFs Tracking HKEX Cross-Market Indices
HKEX
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) today (Monday) welcomed the launch of four exchange traded funds (ETFs) tracking three of its cross-market indices this month, marking an important milestone in the continued expansion of the Group’s index business and reinforcing its commitment to developing innovative products that support diversified investment opportunities for regional and international investors. The newly-listed ETFs track the HKEX Bursa Malaysia Large Cap Index, the HKEX KRX Semiconductor Index, and the HKEX Tech & US Tech 100 Index. These are the first investment products based on the three benchmarks, launched earlier this year to strengthen connectivity between Hong Kong and key regional and international markets, with the first two indices introduced as part of co-branded partnerships with Bursa Malaysia Berhad (Bursa Malaysia) and Korea Exchange (KRX), respectively.
/jlne.ws/4ABAk2h

ICE First Look: Mortgage Performance Remains Stable as Foreclosure Inventory Growth Slows to Nine-Month Low
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), one of the world’s leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, today released the August 2026 ICE First Look at mortgage delinquency, foreclosure and prepayment trends. Key takeaways from this month’s findings include: National delinquency rate rose on calendar effects: The national delinquency rate rose 14 basis points (bps) to 3.53% in August but was effectively flat after accounting for the prior month’s calendar-driven decline. The delinquency rate is up a modest 10 bps year over year but remains 35 bps below its August 2019 level and below every pre-pandemic August on record.
/jlne.ws/4dbWs9j

KuCoin PROOF Returns With "Go The Distance," Featuring Tadej Pogacar-Inspired Prizes and Over 800,000 USDT in Rewards
KuCoin – PR Newswire
KuCoin today announced the return of PROOF, its flagship trading competition series, with Go The Distance, a cycling-inspired campaign that brings KuCoin’s partnership with Global Brand Ambassador Tadej Pogacar to its global user community. Running from September 25 to November 15, 2026, the campaign combines spot, futures and VIP activities, individual and team competitions, and exclusive cycling prizes, with over 800,000 USDT in rewards available to eligible users.
/jlne.ws/4dZvLVC

LSEG Appointed as a Super Validator on Canton Network
LSEG
LSEG today announces that it has been appointed as a Super Validator on the Canton Network. This expands LSEG’s existing role as a validator through the cash application of LSEG’s Digital Settlement House (DiSH) on Canton’s privacy-enabled blockchain network, purpose-built for institutional finance. Following the technical launch of DiSH earlier this year, this milestone builds on LSEG’s ongoing participation in the Canton Network and underscores its commitment to developing secure, compliant financial market solutions. DiSH has already enabled participants on Canton to settle intraday repos in DiSH cash as part of Proof of Concepts (PoCs), offering an alternative to non-cash tokens such as stablecoins. As a Super Validator, LSEG will help strengthen Canton’s infrastructure, support network governance, and collaborate with ecosystem participants. LSEG also intends to bring other services into the Canton Network, helping to advance its development and adoption across global markets.
/jlne.ws/3Torapa

HSBC Adopts Nasdaq Calypso’s Enhanced Exchange-Traded Derivatives Platform
Nasdaq
Partnering with Nasdaq, HSBC has adopted Nasdaq Calypso for the bank’s exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) clearing platform, providing HSBC with a fully integrated set of clearing capabilities. HSBC’s Derivatives Clearing Services already execute ETD transactions for institutional clients across 40 global futures exchanges, and clear ETDs and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives through the world’s largest central counterparties (CCPs). Since 2011, HSBC has used Nasdaq Calypso to clear clients’ OTC derivatives, including interest rate, inflation and credit default swaps. HSBC also uses Nasdaq Calypso for repo clearing and, by year-end, will extend its use to US Treasury cash transactions in preparation for mandatory clearing.
/jlne.ws/3VcSdEs

FinTech

Trading Technologies Elevates Maxime Jeanniard du Dot to Lead TT® Margin Business Line
Trading Technologies – Cision PR Newswire
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology provider, today announced the promotion of Maxime Jeanniard du Dot to EVP, Margin Analytics. In that role, he leads the TT Margin business, created following TT’s acquisition of OpenGamma in December. Jeanniard du Dot served as Chief Operating Officer of OpenGamma for 10 years prior to the acquisition. Alun Green, EVP, Managing Director, Futures and Options, said: “OpenGamma is the industry-leading solution for margin analytics, helping our clients save billions of dollars in capital every year. Maxime is the ideal choice to assume responsibility for TT Margin to continue OpenGamma’s leading role in providing margin analytics services to the world’s largest hedge funds, asset managers, commodity trading firms and banks. He understands the challenges our customers face along with the efficiencies and insights our products can provide across all asset classes and trade flows. He will be instrumental as we introduce cross-asset margin optimization to meet the growing demand for cross-asset trading from our clients.”
/jlne.ws/4ABgsMJ

ASML chief: ‘There is only one company making those machines’; Christophe Fouquet has built Europe’s biggest business through a total monopoly over the most advanced chipmaking equipment
Patrick Jenkins – Financial Times
Anyone worried about the short-termism of the technology sector, the bravado of so many tech bros and the easy prickability of the AI bubble should take a reality-check trip to Veldhoven, the unremarkable Dutch municipality that is home to Europe’s biggest company. ASML, arguably the most consequential yet low-profile company in the AI ecosystem, employs nearly half the town (population: 47,902) and another 25,000 besides, doing the no-nonsense work of making and marketing the ever-larger machines that churn out ever-smaller computer chips.
/jlne.ws/4ACqtZW

Monzo in talks with Brazil’s Nubank about sale; UK fintech is also in discussions with private equity about selling a significant stake in the business
Laith Al-Khalaf – Financial Times
Monzo has been approached by Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank about a sale that would potentially value the UK fintech at up to £10bn. London-based Monzo is in early-stage discussions about a tie-up with Nubank’s New York-listed parent, Nu Holdings, according to two people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/4d5nxuT

Brazil Fintech Nubank Hunts for Biggest Deal in Monzo Talks
Matheus Piovesana – Bloomberg
Brazilian fintech Nu Holdings Ltd. has been on an international push, setting up shop in the US and deepening its foothold in Mexico. Its next target could be its most ambitious yet. The fintech has held talks to buy Monzo Bank Ltd., a deal that could value the UK firm at around £8 billion ($10.6 billion) to £10 billion, people familiar with the matter have said. Advent International is also in early talks to buy a minority stake in Monzo, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified citing private discussions.
/jlne.ws/4xT5QGy

Artificial Intelligence

‘Things Will Never Be Chill Again’: The Doomers Who Shaped the AI Safety Freakout
Berber Jin and Keach Hagey – The Wall Street Journal
Inside Berkeley’s tallest office building, a small community of artificial intelligence researchers at a co-working space called Constellation has been mobilizing to save the world from apocalypse. They enjoy catered vegan meals and bring their laptops to couches with sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay. At dinners and happy hours every month, they discuss the latest and scariest AI risks. Those who work at Anthropic also have their own office space, people close to Constellation say. The resignation this month of an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, woke up the American public to the shocking notion that runaway AI development could end humanity. But at Constellation, there are stalwarts of the AI safety community who have spent more than a decade obsessing over it.
/jlne.ws/4ACngtm

Opinion: The Real AI Fear: Lawyers
Andy Kessler – The Wall Street Journal
OpenAI and Anthropic are the Mercedes and BMW of artificial intelligence. No, not because they’re expensive and vulnerable to cheap imports from the Far East. And not because they exude obnoxious “The Best or Nothing” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine” Teutonic attitudes. Instead, they share a growing fear of liability. Some background: There are various levels of autonomous driving. In Level 2, AI controls the steering and speed, but drivers must keep their hands on the wheel and watch the road. Tesla’s oxymoronically named Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is Level 2. What we really want is Level 3: read a book, watch TikTok, text a friend while driving, but be ready to take over if asked. Waymo and robo-taxis are Level 4, driverless in limited geography and weather.
/jlne.ws/4xZN40g

The Surprising Reasons China Is Skeptical of A.I. Safety Calls
Lily Kuo – The New York Times
In Silicon Valley, the nightmare keeping computer scientists up is an artificial intelligence so advanced that humans cannot stop it from launching a global drone war or setting off a nuclear bomb. In Beijing, the response could be simple: pull the plug, impose an internet blackout and haul in those responsible for the rogue A.I. After major U.S. labs said that advanced models had escaped their testing guardrails and hacked into real-world systems, some tech executives and officials have warned that A.I. poses a catastrophic threat to humanity and called for Beijing and Washington to work together.
/jlne.ws/3TVkPld

Big companies warn lack of ‘AI openness’ could hit investment in Europe; Multinationals evaluating countries’ approach to AI before making expansion plans, say executives
Ortenca Aliaj, Barbara Moens and Aaron Kirchfeld – Financial Times
Multinational companies are starting to use countries’ “AI openness” to decide where to invest, threatening to put much of continental Europe at a disadvantage to the US. Executives from companies across the financial services, industrial and tech sectors said they were analysing countries’ AI talent, infrastructure and regulatory environment when deciding where to expand their operations.
/jlne.ws/4Awq0bH

Middle-Schoolers Are Seeking Out AI Friends Instead of Real Human Ones; Young adolescents who turn to chatbots for companionship feel more lonely, new study says
Julie Jargon – The Wall Street Journal
Mileva Repasky was worried about her 12-year-old daughter Madelyn. The typically chipper sixth-grader had grown moody and quiet. On the way home from dance practice one day in May, she learned why. Madelyn told her she had been talking to someone online. She was nervous that her mom would be mad. Mileva’s heart sank. Every parent’s nightmare is that their child is communicating with a predatory adult. “It’s not a person, it’s a chatbot,” Mileva recalls her daughter saying.
/jlne.ws/4js7MlB

The rules of AI etiquette; Just because a bot can do something for you doesn’t mean it should
Pilita Clark – Financial Times
Once upon a time, the basic rules of workplace etiquette were well understood. Don’t take credit for someone else’s work. Don’t waste other people’s time by being late. Try to thank anyone who has done something to make your life easier. And so on. The arrival of AI has added uncertainty to proceedings.
/jlne.ws/4yZcDPA

How to Know When the AI Boom Is About to Go Bust
Jonathan Weil – The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/4xMeRRm

He’s Completely Terrified of AI—and He’s About to Make Billions Off It
Kate Clark – The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/4yl7FNu

Corporate America embraces cheaper ‘open’ AI models; US businesses far beyond Silicon Valley are adopting Chinese alternatives to OpenAI and Anthropic’s systems
Ryan McMorrow and George Hammond – Financial Times
/jlne.ws/4hAgsnD

Meta Seeks Payoff From AI Spending With New Push for Business Customers; The tech giant is pushing to monetize its multibillion-dollar AI investments by selling more tools and services to companies
Meghan Bobrowsky – The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/3VhAUC5

Microprocessors

Nvidia Adds Record $150 Billion to Stock Buyback
Colin Kellaher and Joseph De Avila – The Wall Street Journal
Nvidia, flush with cash from the AI boom, is launching the largest-ever U.S. stock buyback. The chip giant on Monday said its board has approved a $150 billion increase to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company’s share-repurchase program, bringing the total buyback authorization to $235 billion. The authorization eclipses the $110 billion stock buyback that Apple unveiled in May 2024 and comes just four months after Nvidia’s board added $80 billion to the buyback program. Nvidia—which dominates the market as the world’s largest designer and supplier of graphics processing units and specialized hardware for AI data centers—sports a market capitalization topping $5.4 trillion, the largest of any company in the world.
/jlne.ws/47mRoLR

Blockchain

Sui DeFi Protocol AlphaFi Winds Down After Oracle Debt Issue
Bitget
Sui DeFi protocol AlphaFi has started winding down operations after an ALPHA oracle misconfiguration created bad debt in its lending platform. The Sui Foundation’s security team identified the issue and helped resolve the situation. AlphaFi confirmed that all bad debt has been covered and user funds remain safe. The Sui DeFi protocol entered maintenance mode, stopping new deposits and loans while keeping withdrawals available. The move affects AlphaLend, the platform’s lending service built on the Sui ecosystem.
/jlne.ws/4AwHk0t

Tokenization

Around the World in 80 Days? There’s a Token for That
Andy Mukherjee – Bloomberg Opinion
Maybe Mark Zuckerberg spoiled it for us seven years ago. Ever since the Silicon Valley czar proposed a new global currency that could meet the “daily financial needs of billions of people,” we imagined that the money best suited for humans and AI agents in the 21st century could only be minted privately — with blockchain technology. While Zuckerberg’s plans for Libra (later renamed Diem) stalled over regulatory concerns, stablecoins filled the void.
/jlne.ws/4yTQORI

Connectivity/Data Centers

AI hyperscalers are transforming debt; The sector’s huge capital needs are forcing companies and countries to rethink how they borrow money
Michelle Chan, Emily Herbert and Euan Healy – Financial Times
As Silicon Valley’s tech giants fan out across the world in search of cash, often changing the economic facts of life in the process, Europe’s debt markets are set to welcome a new borrower. Meta will tap the European bond market for the first time this autumn to raise funds for its AI expansion, according to investors familiar with its goals.
/jlne.ws/4ymbjXt

Payments

Payward expands Kraken with $2B acquisition push
Olivia Stephanie – crypto.news
Payward has expanded its financial infrastructure strategy beyond Kraken through regulated derivatives, tokenized equities, payments, banking services and technology offered to other financial companies. CoinDesk reported on Sept. 26 that co-CEO Arjun Sethi described Payward as one financial platform built around a shared infrastructure stack. Trading through Kraken forms one of four operating pillars alongside banking, asset management and Payward Services. The expansion comes as Payward’s revenue mix becomes less dependent on trading fees. The company reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 17% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA reached $23 million.
/jlne.ws/3TtiygL

XConnect introduces KYC ‘Fuzzy Matching’; XConnect, a Somos Company, a provider of world-class numbering intelligence, mobile identity, and fraud prevention services, is launching fuzzy matching for all UK Mobile Phone Match clients.
Editorial Team – Finextra
The expanded service will help organisations verify customers more accurately, reduce unnecessary friction during onboarding and make better-informed identity decisions. It is expected to support approximately 85% of UK mobile numbers, subject to final operator coverage. The enhanced offering will combine CAMARA KYC Match capabilities from EE, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 with XConnect’s unique Mobile-to-Person Match (MPM) service. It builds on XConnect’s existing fuzzy matching capabilities in France, Canada and Germany. Organizations can access broader UK coverage and more flexible matching through a single integration without managing separate operator connections, response formats, or commercial agreements.
/jlne.ws/4dc4Nd7

Cybersecurity

Hackers hijack AI accounts and servers to fuel new cyber crime boom; Security researchers warn of surge in ‘LLM-jacking’ attacks targeting companies’ costly AI resources
Tom Wilson – Financial Times
Illicit access to AI models and computing power is fast becoming the hottest commodity in the cyber criminal underworld, as hackers seek to harness expensive large language models for extortion, warfare and espionage. John Hultquist, chief analyst for Google Threat Intelligence Group, said the cyber security unit had observed a major increase in so-called LLM-jacking this year, including the sale of stolen login credentials for public AI tools and the theft of computing resources by groups that want to run their own models for free.
/jlne.ws/4xQplzl

OpenAI says governments among ‘dozens’ of organisations hacked by its agents; Company says its models leaked images shared by users in a disclosure that is likely to further inflame AI safety fears
George Hammond – Financial Times
OpenAI has notified “dozens” of partners, including governments, that its tools have breached their systems in an admission that will probably inflame concerns about the risks of advanced AI. In a blog post on Friday, the company also said its AI agents had inadvertently leaked more than 50 images shared by its users to image-hosting sites.
/jlne.ws/3TqG7ae

OpenAI’s Sam Altman Will Not Attend Australia Senate AI Inquiry
Newley Purnell – Bloomberg
Neither OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman nor Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will appear before an Australian Senate inquiry after the recent revelation of an AI hack of a government website, the company said. Instead, OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon will travel from the US to answer questions at the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney on Oct. 6, a spokesperson said on Monday. “We have lodged a submission to that inquiry,” the spokesperson added. Anthropic will send US and Australia executives, the company said.
/jlne.ws/4dc1SRH

CRYPTO

Coinbase Opens Commission-Free Stock Trading to All U.S. Users
CoinMarketCap
Coinbase has rolled out stock and exchange-traded fund trading to all U.S. users, allowing customers to buy and sell equities alongside crypto within a single app on a 24-hour, five-day-a-week basis. The launch includes commission-free trading, fractional shares, and instant funding through USD or USDC, with approximately 6,000 securities currently supported. The exchange said it plans to expand the number of available securities in the coming weeks. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the rollout on X, describing the platform’s direction as “the everything exchange is growing.”
/jlne.ws/4hggZfo

CFTC Updates Crypto FAQs as Tom Selig Says Agency Seeks Regulatory Clarity
Aliyu Pokima – CoinCodex
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has updated its crypto FAQs to clarify how regulated firms can use tokenized investments and blockchain technology. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig described the update as part of the agency’s ongoing effort to provide regulatory clarity for the crypto industry. CFTC clarifies tokenized investments The September 24 update addresses situations where registrants invest customer funds in tokenized versions of investments that are already permitted under CFTC rules. The clarification does not expand the list of assets that firms can use for customer funds. Instead, it explains how an otherwise permitted investment can be represented through tokenization while remaining within the existing regulatory framework.
/jlne.ws/4htTONk

Morning Minute: SEC Clears Token Buybacks for Crypto Networks
Tyler Warner – decrypt
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance updated its crypto FAQ Friday with the most consequential line it has written all year. Once a network is functional, announcing a token buyback does not amount to a promise of “essential managerial efforts.” The Howey test asks whether you’re buying something expecting a company to work and make you rich. If yes, it’s a security. The SEC just said announcing a buyback isn’t that kind of promise. It’s a huge deal for protocols who have essentially been in limbo ever since the prior administration’s war on crypto.
/jlne.ws/3ViIoEX

Politics

Trump asked China’s president if he wants to buy US arms, ambassador says
Ben Finley – Associated Press
President Donald Trump has justified the pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan to Chinese President Xi Jinping by downplaying it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world — even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for U.S. arms, Trump’s ambassador to China said on Sunday.
/jlne.ws/4hjDWhK

America’s Farmers Are Rethinking Their Loyalty to the GOP
Patrick Thomas and Lindsay Wise – The Wall Street Journal
With just over a month to go until midterm elections, Republicans are facing the worst political environment in farm country in decades. Tariffs and high prices for diesel, gas and fertilizer because of the war in Iran, along with President Trump’s plans to import more beef, have soured the moods of America’s farmers and ranchers, giving an opening for Democrats in what are typically solid red states. Trump’s trade war with China halted soybean exports, depressing prices for last year’s crop and costing farmers billions of dollars. Tariffs have also made farm equipment more expensive.
/jlne.ws/4z2cbQO

The Supreme Court Is Inviting More Election Chaos
Mary Ellen Klas – Bloomberg Opinion
The US Supreme Court did it again. In an unsigned ruling from its emergency docket, the Court gave the Trump administration another tool it can use to raise doubts about the integrity of the November elections. On Friday, the conservative majority greenlit the use of a flawed federal database to verify voters’ citizenship; noncitizen voting, although a miniscule problem, is one of President Donald Trump’s obsessions. While the decision is unlikely to have much of an impact on voters before the midterms, that doesn’t mean it’s harmless.
/jlne.ws/4AyDl3r

Trump Is in Denial About AI’s Danger
Peggy Noonan – The Wall Street Journal (opinion)
Much was said and reported this week about artificial intelligence, and we’ll begin where history will, with President Trump’s address to the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Trump declared that while AI brings challenges, those who warn of its dangers are conspiracists and fear mongers, “the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming… and nobody was dead. These are the same people that are now saying that AI is going to kill us all, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster.” They were behind the “Russia hoax” and “open borders.” They won’t stop him, or AI: “We’re going to keep it very, very straight and very strong, and I’m not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution…. We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in.” As I said, it was historic: the biggest political self-own of our time, a blunder for the ages.
/jlne.ws/4hKSS8K

A Revealing Exchange Between Donald Trump and Kaitlan Collins
Olga Khazan – The Atlantic
When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins approached President Trump with a question about the Iran war at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, the president scolded her for being there at all. “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” Trump said, adding, “You should not be here covering me.” Presumably, he said this because CNN is among the three outlets, along with MS NOW and Politico, that Trump has barred from White House grounds because he didn’t like their coverage. But, to state the obvious, the United Nations is not the White House. If a journalist is denied a press pass from one entity, she’s not precluded from getting credentialed by another. As Collins said to Trump, “The United Nations allowed us in, sir.”
/jlne.ws/4xZHnzq

The Mystery Man Shadowing Kimberly Guilfoyle as She Pushes Deals Across Europe
Rebecca Ballhaus, Dana Mattioli, Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw – The Wall Street Journal
Kimberly Guilfoyle was a long way from Mar-a-Lago. The U.S. ambassador to Greece—Donald Trump Jr.’s former fiancee—was shuttling back and forth to Bulgaria’s capital on a mission this spring. The Trump administration wanted allies on Europe’s eastern edge to buy billions of dollars of American natural gas. There was just one thing. The Bulgarian government, she told people, should deal with a Greek construction firm called Aktor Group, a newcomer to the gas business that had teamed up with a Greek state-backed energy company to bring in liquefied natural gas from the U.S. “There is no doubt that this is kind of an official position of the U.S. government,” said a person familiar with the talks.
/jlne.ws/3TQ4z4W

We’re researchers tracking the nonprofit crisis. Philanthropy’s response is not enough
Phil Buchanan and Elisha Smith Arrillaga – Fortune commentary
/jlne.ws/4yu23Ar

Donald Trump hosts Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at White House; Dinner hints at rapprochement between US president and chief executive of leading AI lab
Joe Miller and Michael Acton – Financial Times
/jlne.ws/47l3PYD

U.S. Administration

Should I Stay or Should I Go?; The quandary faced by government lawyers who think that the Trump Administration is subverting justice.
Eyal Press – The New Yorker
On March 7, 2025, Celia Cohen, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, was finishing up a meeting at 26 Federal Plaza, in lower Manhattan, when she learned that a federal marshal had arrived on the premises and wanted to see her. She was soon led to a conference room where the marshal served her with a letter from Todd Blanche, then the Deputy Attorney General, informing her that she and Andrew Rohrbach, another prosecutor at the S.D.N.Y., were being investigated and placed on administrative leave. After Cohen collected her personal belongings, the marshal escorted her out of the building. Cohen, who has a reserved bearing, was deeply embarrassed. By the time she was back home, in Westchester County, her shock had settled into despair. Prosecutors at the S.D.N.Y., the nation’s most prestigious federal trial court, typically stay for five to seven years before moving on to jobs at private law firms, where they can earn vastly higher salaries. Cohen had no such plans.
/jlne.ws/4rGk3Fm

Opinion | Why Does Trump Think He Can Act Like a King?
Jamelle Bouie – The New York Times
Last week, the Supreme Court upheld a preliminary injunction to block a proposed plan from the United States Postal Service to overhaul the way Americans are allowed to vote by mail, rejecting President Trump’s attempt to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections. Trump blames mail-in voting for his 2020 defeat, which he attributes to fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens. “ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform last year. Whenever the Supreme Court hands Trump a defeat, there is a debate over the court’s relationship to the president. Is it as deferential as critics charge? Has it actually empowered Trump, as his opponents allege?
/jlne.ws/4AyuYF3

White House Claim of Finding $250 Billion in Fraud Uses Questionable Numbers
Linda Qiu – The New York Times
Since the White House formed a task force in March intended to combat fraud, top administration officials have repeatedly heralded its work, pointing to huge amounts of recovered payments and graft stopped in its tracks. “We found $250 billion of fraud just since the president made me the fraud czar,” Vice President JD Vance, who leads the task force, said in a speech this month at the Republican midterm convention.
/jlne.ws/4hsNw0z

Where the White House Stands in Its Push for a Bigger Role in Running Elections
Louise Radnofsky and Sadie Gurman – The Wall Street Journal
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the federal government to deploy its own immigration database to check voters’ citizenship, greenlighting a key part of the Trump administration’s push to expand its role in elections. The administration has also threatened prosecutions of elections officials and is preparing to send poll monitors to a swath of states. Other efforts—such as getting the Postal Service to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots—have been blocked by the courts for the midterms.
/jlne.ws/4z0YmlB

Memo smearing Anthropic’s Amodei circulated in White House before CEO’s dinner with President Trump
Jim Edwards – Fortune
/jlne.ws/4hu8dcm

U.S. Congress

Congress Urged to Act on Prediction Markets
Shanny Basar – Traders Magazine
Market participants said the proliferation, growth, social and ethical issues and the determination of the value of prediction contracts demand a policy reaction from Congress. Brian Quintenz, board member of prediction market Kalshi and former commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, spoke on a panel about prediction markets at the Financial Markets Policy Conference 2026 hosted by the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy on 23 September 2026 at the Georgetown University campus in Washington D.C.
/jlne.ws/3TuNRbd

Thomas Massie hits out at Trump over taxpayer-funded TV ads: ‘This is completely legal… in banana republics’
Joe Sommerlad – The Independent
Outgoing Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has attacked President Donald Trump over a series of “ominous” taxpayer-funded TV spots ahead of the midterms in which he appears prominently. The ad to which Massie particularly objected was one of three to have aired so far and featured black-and-white footage of the president marching down a corridor looking stern as audio from a rally speech blares: “This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government.”
/jlne.ws/3Vf8GYQ

Possible Next House Intel Chair Aims to Probe ‘Nakedly Corrupt Dealings’; In a letter to a defense-industry group, Rep. Jim Himes signaled to the private sector a desire to investigate alleged coercion by the Trump administration
Alexander Ward and Natalie Andrews – The Wall Street Journal
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is preparing to investigate the spy industry’s work with the Trump administration, the latest sign that the party plans to put anticorruption efforts at the center of its legislative agenda if it wrests control in the elections this fall. In a Monday letter to a defense-industry group reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who is expected to claim the gavel if Republicans lose the majority, said he was concerned about the administration’s “nakedly corrupt dealings with the private sector,” as it has “appeared to inappropriately fuse the government contracting process with the attempted extraction of political or private favors.”
/jlne.ws/4yvl1Xe

Shifting Senate Map Is Fueling Most Expensive US Election Ever
Nancy Cook, Bill Allison, Catherine Lucey and Amanda L. Gordon – Bloomberg
The political battle for the Senate is spreading to states many analysts doubted would have a central role in the November midterms, prompting both parties to bolster spending in an election that is on track to be the most expensive in American history. Just 36 days before Election Day, and with voting underway in almost half the country, Democrats are betting that voter frustration with the cost-of-living can outpace the Republican Party’s financial arsenal. An estimated $11.6 billion has been spent so far, according to the ad tracking website AdImpact. That’s more than was spent during the entire 2024 presidential race.
/jlne.ws/4ymdiuP

Others

South Korea bets big on AI for all; Deputy prime minister is an unabashed evangelist for the technology even as some fear it could pose catastrophic risks
Daniel Tudor – Financial Times
There can be few government evangelists for artificial intelligence as enthusiastic as South Korean deputy prime minister Bae Kyung-hoon, a former researcher who has published a book promoting the technology and presides over lavishly funded programmes intended to make it ubiquitous. Leading AI developers may worry the technology could threaten the survival of humanity, but Bae, who is also minister for science and information technology, sees it as the key to a “good future”.
/jlne.ws/4z2Gkzu

Regulation & Enforcement

The post-Enron auditor reforms are being rolled back; Regulators plan to further limit audit requirement imposed under Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Stephen Foley – Financial Times
The US looks set to mark the 25th anniversary of the collapse of Enron by watering down regulations put in place to prevent it happening again. The energy giant went from being one of the world’s largest companies to bankruptcy in a few short months in 2001, when it became clear it had obscured its finances with dodgy accounting practices. The Sarbanes-Oxley law, passed the following year, required companies to certify they had internal controls in place to spot when staff were engaging in financial shenanigans.
/jlne.ws/4rAt1nb

Prediction Market Regulators, Bad Actors In AI Arms Race
Chris Villani – Law360
Artificial intelligence is playing an increasingly important role in policing prediction markets, and attorneys say that regulators and investigators are starting to effectively use the same technology that would-be bad actors have leveraged to try to score big with their bets….
/jlne.ws/4dsHX1d

Exclusive | Senators Ask FTC to Probe Walmart and Amazon Over Bots’ ‘Made in America’ Data
Patrick Coffee – The Wall Street Journal
Two senators are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate how Amazon and Walmart’s AI-powered shopping chatbots handle “Made in the USA” claims with shoppers. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) and Rick Scott (R., Fla.) said in a letter to FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Commissioner Mark R. Meador that the bots may “obscure and suppress” information about which products are made in the U.S. and which falsely claim to be made there.
/jlne.ws/4znhXgf

Chinese Media Says US Shares Responsibility for Managing AI
Trista Xinyi Luo and Lulu Yilun Chen – Bloomberg
China and the US have the ability and responsibility to manage and develop artificial intelligence, according to a post published Sunday by Yuyuantantian, a social media account affiliated with state broadcaster China Central Television.
/jlne.ws/4d7SUVA

ESMA sets out 2027 priorities as strategic initiatives shift from preparation to delivery
Zara Richardson – The TRADE
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its 2027 work programme, marking a shift from preparation to the delivery of several major initiatives. Specifically, the priorities target supervision of consolidated tape providers, the transition to T+1 settlement, a review of the Emir 3 clearing reforms and four flagship simplification initiatives. The programme is guided by ESMA’s multi-annual strategy for 2023 to 2028 and is split into three areas: growing supervisory mandates, delivering more efficient financial markets, and data and technological innovation. Verena Ross, chair of ESMA, said: “[Next year] marks an important milestone for the Savings and Investments Union (SIU) as many of ESMA’s strategic initiatives move into the delivery phase.
/jlne.ws/4yitcpM

InterestMe Financial Planning Limited (IMFP) and the appointed representative InterestMe Advisers Limited (IMA) enter administration
FCA
On 24 September 2026, IMFP and IMA entered administration. Robert Goodhew and Geoff Bouchier of Kroll Advisory Limited were appointed joint administrators for both firms. The joint administrators are responsible for managing the affairs of the firms during the administration process. They are officers of the court and need to comply with all insolvency law. IMFP is authorised by the FCA. IMA is an appointed representative of IMFP. The firms carry out regulated activities, including financial planning and advice on pensions, mortgages and wider financial planning matters. On 24 July 2026, IMFP agreed to a voluntary requirement which restricted the activities it can carry out.
/jlne.ws/4hd3Zao

Investing & Trading

Beef Prices Will Rise Further Due to ICE Raids: Texas Ranchers
Billal Rahman – Newsweek
Cattle industry groups are warning that immigration enforcement operations across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas are disrupting the beef supply chain, delaying shipments of thousands of cattle, and generating millions of dollars in losses and additional costs, even as the Department of Homeland Security told Newsweek that ICE is not conducting worksite operations in Kansas. The Kansas Livestock Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and Texas Cattle Feeders Association said in a joint statement on September 24 that they were “closely monitoring” reported ICE activity affecting agricultural communities in the three states, warning that the enforcement activity was disrupting the livestock industry.
/jlne.ws/4joDbVY

Trump-Xi Summit Leaves Commodities Markets Wanting More
Megan Durisin Albery – Bloomberg
Welcome to our guide to the commodities driving the global economy. Today, Asian Agriculture Team Leader Megan Durisin takes a look at the initial reaction to the US-China leaders’ summit. For commodities traders waiting for a readout on last week’s Trump-Xi meeting, measuring progress largely hinges on tariff cuts on a slew of agricultural products. And at this stage, the markets are giving the summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping the thumbs down. China released today a list of more than 1,600 products on which it plans to cut levies, as part of a pledge by both sides to lower duties on $30 billion of each other’s goods.
/jlne.ws/4hPnTZ8

Rising Rates No Problem for US Stock Market’s Shadiest Nook
Joel Leon – Bloomberg
Rising bond yields, a war in Iran and the Federal Reserve’s campaign to tame down inflation were supposed to dim the appeal of America’s most shorted stocks. Instead, the group heads toward one of its best years ever. A Goldman Sachs Group Inc. basket of shares with the highest bearish interest, which includes names like Rackspace Technology Inc. and UiPath Inc., has jumped 31% so far this year, handily beating the S&P 500 Index’s advance. Should the current pace of gains continue, the group will rally 46% in 2026, a feat last seen in 2020 when policymakers cut borrowing rates to near zero.
/jlne.ws/4z2qHYD

The bargain between shareholders and companies is being eroded; Investor protections are good for the market as a whole and must be defended
Nicolai Tangen – Financial Times
When you buy a share in a company, you enter into a bargain. You take the price as it comes, up or down, and in return you get a set of rights. These include a vote on the decisions that matter, reliable information about the company, a fair share of the value created and a way to enforce the rights if they are denied.
/jlne.ws/4e1deZ3

World’s worst-performing market slashes minimum price for stocks; Indonesia is trying to boost liquidity by allowing shares to trade at a tiny fraction of a US cent
A. Anantha Lakshmi and William Sandlund – Financial Times
Indonesia is slashing the minimum price at which shares can trade, a move expected to cause stocks in dozens of companies in south-east Asia’s largest economy to slump to a tiny fraction of a penny. The floor price for a share on the Indonesian stock exchange on Monday fell from Rp50 — less than one-third of a US cent — to Rp1. The step is part of efforts to promote liquidity and price discovery in the world’s worst-performing stock market as Jakarta seeks to avoid a downgrade by global index provider MSCI.
/jlne.ws/4hfEZ2h

Nvidia launches record $150bn share buyback; Chipmaker’s plan to repurchase stock comes as share price gains have slowed this year
Tim Bradshaw – Financial Times
Nvidia is launching the biggest ever share buyback by a US company with a $150bn repurchase scheme, as the Silicon Valley chipmaker continues to reap huge profits from its perch at the top of the AI supply chain. The world’s most valuable company said on Monday that its board had approved a $150bn increase to its buyback programme. The figure beats Apple’s record $110bn, set in 2024, for the largest in US corporate history.
/jlne.ws/4AtFSvA

Could A.I. Safety Risks Derail the Sector’s I.P.O. Prospects?
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Niko Gallogly, Brian O’Keefe, Sri Muppidi and Ian Mount – The New York Times
/jlne.ws/4hiiiKW

Six Investing Pros Weigh In on Surging Yields—and How to Trade Them; BlackRock’s Rick Rieder sees opportunity in bonds, Ray Dalio recommends caution
Gregory Zuckerman and Jack Pitcher – The Wall Street Journal
/jlne.ws/4yjGLWb

Erratic Monsoon Rain Threatens India Crop Outlook, Official Says
Pratik Parija – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/46NxSrO

The economist who coined the phrase ‘Magnificent 7’ says the very thing that made them extraordinary is under threat
Eleanor Pringle – Fortune
/jlne.ws/46J7Nu1

ESG

Trump Administration Plans to Gut Clean Car Rules
Maxine Joselow – The New York Times
The Trump administration will move on Monday to sharply scale back fuel-efficiency rules for new cars and light trucks, gutting one of the government’s most significant efforts to reduce gasoline consumption and speed the country’s shift to electric vehicles. President Trump said on Saturday on social media that he had “just approved new Fuel Economy Standards,” adding falsely that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had implemented an “E.V. mandate.” The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said in his own social media post that the move would be announced Monday.
/jlne.ws/4rvD3Gg

Nevada Is Making Surprising Gains in Solar Energy
Clara Hudson – The Wall Street Journal
The sun beats down 300 days a year in southern Nevada, where energy developers hope a vast desert, dotted with spiky green shrubs known as Spanish daggers, will play host to a new generation of solar farms. Developers often seek out government-owned lands such as these to harness the sun’s rays, but those ambitions were dashed last year when the Trump administration essentially put solar development on those lands on ice. Now, despite President Trump’s disdain for renewable energy, the solar industry is growing quickly—particularly in regions he won in 2024. Those states accounted for more than 70% of all solar capacity installed in the first half of the year and represented eight of the top 10 states for new installations, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
/jlne.ws/4ACXHbB

Europe braces for LNG tug of war with Asia; Competition for cargoes could intensify in coming months as EU gas stores are at record lows
Verity Ratcliffe – Financial Times
A global tug of war for liquefied natural gas cargoes threatens to catapult prices even higher as Europe needs to secure more supplies than usual for the winter and buyers in Asia are willing to pay far more than in the past. The price of LNG has already reached multiyear highs, having more than doubled since the outbreak of the US-Iran war. Platts JKM, the Asian benchmark, reached almost $30 per million British thermal units in mid-September, and traded at $25.29 on Friday. Deliveries of the fuel to Europe were at $24.62 per MMBtu, according to Spark Commodities.
/jlne.ws/4jrTyRB

Qatar Extends LNG Force Majeure as Hormuz Disruptions Drag On
Stephen Stapczynski, Priscila Azevedo Rocha and Rakesh Sharma – Bloomberg
Qatar has extended force majeure on liquefied natural gas shipments to Asia and Europe by another month as disruptions continue to hamper energy flows through the critical Strait of Hormuz. State-owned QatarEnergy this week notified Pakistan and Bangladesh that LNG shipment cancellations would run through November, according to people familiar with the matter. At least one Indian buyer was also told the measure would remain in place, according to two other people, while Italy’s Edison SpA said its deliveries would remain suspended until early December.
/jlne.ws/4AD9J4L

BANKS BROKERS MANAGED FUNDS

Wall Street Giant Warns AI Agents Could Trigger a New Kind of Bank Run
Lockridge Okoth – BeInCrypto
AI agents such as Meta’s Muse could soon pull cash out of bank accounts paying 0.1% and into accounts paying up to 5%, Apollo chief economist Torsten Sløk warned on Sunday. AI agents are assistants that can act for a user, not just answer questions. Sløk says that at scale, the shift could strip banks of the cheap deposits they lend out.
/jlne.ws/47l16yn

Fidelity Pushes Germany to Widen Market-Friendly Pension Reform
Nicholas Comfort – Bloomberg
Fidelity International is lobbying the German government to widen a planned pension overhaul to include workers with gaps in their retirement savings, as money managers eye billions of euros of inflows from the reforms starting next year. “We are advocating for the new private pension solution to be opened up as an avenue for occupational pensions,” said Jan Schepanek, head of private client business at Fidelity International in Germany.
/jlne.ws/4rDMOm3

Morgan Stanley says Robinhood quietly built something bigger ahead of its September Summit
Mwangi Enos – TheStreet
Think about what investing in international stocks meant for an ordinary investor not so long ago. You needed a brokerage account with international access, dealt with currency conversion fees, navigated tax complications and, in many cases, couldn’t buy the companies you wanted. The financial system was built for insiders. That is the problem Robinhood built its entire identity around solving. And now, according to a Morgan Stanley research note shared with me at TheStreet, it is doing it again. And this time for global investors who want access to U.S. equities without a U.S. brokerage account.
/jlne.ws/4rIURxW

HSBC Makes Big Push for Affluent Clients in India to Fuel Growth
Saikat Das and Siddhi Nayak – Bloomberg
HSBC Holdings Plc is aiming to challenge India’s private-sector banks, betting that the country’s swelling pool of affluent customers and globally connected citizens can fuel its next phase of growth as it pushes deeper into smaller cities. The London-based lender is doubling down in the world’s fastest-growing major economy across three areas — wealth, transaction banking and what Hitendra Dave, HSBC’s India chief executive officer, calls “globality,” – using its international network to cater to clients whose businesses and wealth span borders. “Our ambition is to become one of the top four or five private banks in India by 2030,” the Mumbai-based executive said in an interview, referring to the wealth management business.
/jlne.ws/4yXgLQ9

Goldman Revamps Shareholder Voting Options After Fight Over Pay
Todd Gillespie – Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plans to give individual shareholders the option of letting the board of directors decide how their votes will be cast, a year after coming closer than ever to having its executive compensation proposal rejected. Regulators gave a green light to the firm’s request to give retail investors the option of voting with the board by default, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission letter Monday. Those investors account for roughly 30% of Goldman’s shares, according to a person familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/4rAqVDP

Hungary’s Biggest Bank Looks at Exiting Russia With Baltic Deal Under Scrutiny
Alberto Nardelli, Marton Kasnyik and Aaron Eglitis – Bloomberg
Hungary’s biggest bank is exploring ways to exit Russia, where documents seen by Bloomberg show its clients have included firms controlled by gas giant Gazprom PJSC and companies providing services to organizations affiliated with Russia’s foreign intelligence agency. OTP Bank Nyrt. is one of a number of European banks to have maintained a business in Russia following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That business is now under scrutiny by regulators as OTP pursues the purchase of Baltic lender Luminor Bank AS. It would be the Budapest-based bank’s biggest acquisition to date and expand its footprint in the euro region.
/jlne.ws/4yfNwbp

MFS Founder Raja Blames Barclays for Collapse in Sweeping Denial
Donal Griffin and Constantine Courcoulas – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4ADh9VC

Citigroup to Arrange $1 Billion US-Backed Debt Swap for Kenya
David Herbling and Loni Prinsloo – Bloomberg
/jlne.ws/4ADGSxm

Private Markets

Private credit turmoil eases as investor withdrawals slow;
Julia Rock and Antoine Gara – Financial Times
The turbulence that has rocked private credit funds for the past year showed signs of easing in September, with the flood of redemption requests from retail investors slowing and performance improving. Flagship funds for individual investors managed by Apollo Global, Ares and BlackRock reported a decline in redemption requests while those at Blackstone’s flagship fund remained steady, a sign that investor fears over rising corporate defaults have begun to wane.
/jlne.ws/4rBax6g

Private Equity

Exclusive | Blackstone’s Top Private-Equity Executive Is Preparing to Leave Firm
Miriam Gottfried and AnnaMaria Andriotis – The Wall Street Journal
Blackstone’s top private-equity executive, Joseph Baratta, is preparing to leave the firm, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest in a series of departures by senior leaders from the private-investment giant. Baratta, who has been with Blackstone for nearly three decades, has been the firm’s global head of private equity since 2012 and is one of its most senior executives. He is also a Blackstone board member and part of the firm’s management committee. The exact timing of his departure hasn’t been determined, but it is likely to come around the end of this year, the people said. A spokeswoman for Blackstone confirmed Baratta’s pending departure.
/jlne.ws/4xHohxP

Greenbriar Nears $1.8 billion Spectrum Control Purchase
David Carnevali – Bloomberg
Buyout firm Greenbriar Equity Group LP is nearing a deal to acquire radio frequency and microwave components-maker Spectrum Control for more than $1.8 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The private equity firm prevailed over industrial companies to acquire Spectrum Control from rival buyout firm AEA Investors, the people said. A deal could be announced as soon as this week barring last minute snags, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Another bidder could still emerge or AEA could opt to keep the business, they added.
/jlne.ws/4dbN05P

Rich turn to borrowing against private equity holdings as payouts slow; Wealthy individuals follow pension funds and institutional investors into NAV lending
Josh Spero and Alexandra Heal – Financial Times
Wealthy individuals have started borrowing against their private equity holdings to help offset a four-year dealmaking downturn that has squeezed payouts from buyout funds. Net asset value (NAV) lending had previously been used by institutions seeking to leverage their private equity and private credit holdings, but is increasingly being adopted by rich people and the family offices that manage their wealth.
/jlne.ws/4xOAW1U

WORK MGMT

We All Hated Busy Work. Now That It’s Disappearing, It Turns Out We Miss It.
Allison Pohle – The Wall Street Journal
At companies big and small, managers are grappling with a growing problem some call “experience starvation.” Corporate restructurings and AI use have automated away many of the repetitive tasks junior staffers used to do, like drafting reports or pulling data into spreadsheets. That’s freeing them from a lot of grunt work. It’s also depriving them of the way entry-level workers have long gleaned the expertise to become valuable players later on—by getting in the reps. Like a tennis player practicing serves, it’s by writing lines of code over and over that young engineers discover how to spot bugs—and learn from their mistakes. Repeatedly drawing up contracts helps beginning lawyers master underlying legal theory, just like prepping reams of corporate tax returns lets accountants know how to eventually advise clients.
/jlne.ws/4AySjX2

Editorial: Time to panic about AI? Take a look at what we know about the job market
The Editorial Board – Chicago Tribune
Far from the halls of Congress, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis are making factual assessments about how artifical intelligence is affecting workplaces in the real world. So far, the hype machine is getting a reality check. Contrary to the predictions of AI boosters, who have much to gain from promoting the technology, adopting these tools is having only a modest impact on many workplaces. So far, at least. The St. Louis Fed has covered these and related findings in a series of boring reports based largely on survey data. Predictably, these sober findings have gotten way less attention than dramatic calls for action to save humanity, but they have the advantage of being careful and accurate. The bottom line, according to the Fed’s research: AI adoption is widespread but as yet surprisingly shallow. Most of the businesses surveyed are reporting only “experimental or limited use of the technology,” the Fed researchers concluded in one of its latest reports.
/jlne.ws/4rCtFRl

Citi CEO Jane Fraser swears by Warren Buffett’s golden rule for dealing with conflict at work: ‘Never, ever respond to that email in anger’
Preston Fore – Fortune
Even at the top of the business ladder, CEOs are still learning how to lead more effectively—and often turning to their peers for guidance. For Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, that guidance came from legendary investor and former Berkshire Hathaway head Warren Buffett, who once shared with her two pieces of advice for handling difficult people and tense workplace situations.
/jlne.ws/4xTqTbH

Microsoft VP: SaaS isn’t dying. It’s becoming the operating system for AI agents—and that changes everything
Bryan Goode – Fortune
Across industries, companies are moving from AI pilots to real deployments and seeing measurable results. Teams are generating insights, completing research, and drafting work in a fraction of the time. What took months can now take days — what took days can now take minutes.
/jlne.ws/47lWlVf

Wellness Exchange

Exclusive | This Startup Is Using AI to Fight Off a Future AI Pandemic; Red Queen Bio is using artificial intelligence to design antibody drugs for novel pathogens—before future AI systems create them
Georgia Wells – The Wall Street Journal
In a wine bar near OpenAI’s office in San Francisco, biotech entrepreneurs Hannu Rajaniemi and Nikolai Eroshenko were worried—and excited. Fast advances in artificial intelligence were threatening to make it possible for terrorists or rogue states to develop deadly new bioweapons. The pair brainstormed an idea they would later pitch to OpenAI: using AI to design remedies against AI-enabled bioweapons, and cure other scourges along the way, too.
/jlne.ws/3TdffdM

Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
Carl Zimmer – The New York Times
When Anthropic, the artificial intelligence giant, unveiled findings from its new biology lab last week, its scientists claimed to have used A.I. agents to discover new enzymes with promise for biotechnology. Some scientists were quick to cast doubt on the achievement. Then Mario Rodriguez Mestre, a computational biologist at the University of Copenhagen, said this weekend that he and his colleagues had been studying the enzymes and their associated molecules — which Anthropic calls ARTs — for four years.
/jlne.ws/4hvT0rk

Regions

Australia’s biggest gold miner rejects $27bn takeover bid; Elliott Management calls on Northern Star Resources to hold talks with South Africa’s Gold Fields
Nic Fildes – Financial Times
Elliott Management has called on Australia’s largest gold producer to hold fresh talks with its potential suitor after the company rejected an A39bn(27bn) takeover offer from South Africa’s Gold Fields that would create the world’s second-largest miner of the precious metal. The future of Northern Star Resources has been uncertain since US hedge fund Elliott called for the Perth-based gold producer to put itself up for sale in June following a series of profit warnings.
/jlne.ws/4yqBNXS

How Japan went from a rice shortage to a rice surplus in two years, as climate change, tourism, and a U.S. trade fight collided
Catherina Gioino – Fortune
In 2023, extreme heat and drought damaged Japan’s rice crop, and a year later, that damage turned into a national shortage so severe, it forced a government minister to resign. By 2026, Japan had swung so far in the opposite direction that it was sitting on a record surplus, forcing the government to buy rice back off the market to keep prices from collapsing further. It’s still a wonder to the people who study it: how on earth did Japan go from shortage to surplus in two years?
/jlne.ws/4rCzpKW

China’s Tax Grab Squeezes Rich Elite Harder Than Ever
Trista Xinyi Luo and Lulu Yilun Chen – Bloomberg
In January the man in charge of China’s tax department took the stage at an annual conference in Beijing alongside a group of Communist Party officials to lay out the year’s priorities. Hu Jinglin, donning thin glasses and a military-style crew cut, began with the usual catchphrases of his country’s politics: Xi Jinping thought; socialism with Chinese characteristics; the spirit of the 20th National Congress. But this wasn’t a typical speech. Hu then promised a new era of taxation for the $21 trillion economy.
/jlne.ws/4dc24QV

Vietnam and Panama to be Removed from EU’s Tax Haven Blacklist
Saim Saeed – Bloomberg
The European Union is poised to remove Vietnam and Panama from its list of tax havens when EU finance ministers meet in Luxembourg next month. Vietnam will be moved to a so-called “grey list” while Panama will be removed entirely, according to people familiar with the matter. EU countries update the list of so-called non-cooperative jurisdictions twice a year. The function is meant to curb tax avoidance and encourage transparency. US territories Guam, Samoa and Virgin Islands, as well as Russia and Vanuatu, are among the other countries currently on the list.
/jlne.ws/4htnL0h

Financial Stress Spreads in Europe as Leverage Mounts, BCG Says
Libby Cherry – Bloomberg
One in six companies in western Europe is under financial strain as rising leverage leaves businesses more vulnerable to shocks, according to Boston Consulting Group. The pressure is broadest in Spain and Portugal, where 22% of companies need to transform their businesses, BCG found in a report, which analyzed around 1,700 publicly traded European companies. Across Europe, transformation pressure rose to 16.2% from 14.3% last year.
/jlne.ws/47oRVNo

Foreign investors bet Panama can shrug off social unrest and Trump threats; Central American country’s bonds perform better than many investors expected despite crisis that threatened to hamstring its economy
Joseph Cotterill and Christine Murray – Financial Times
Foreign investors have been buying up Panama’s debt, betting that the Central American country can stage a remarkable recovery from a recent political and social crisis that threatened to badly damage its economy. Despite mass protests that closed its largest foreign investment — a copper mine accounting for 5 per cent of GDP — and deterred other investors, followed by a threat by US President Donald Trump last year to “take back” the Panama Canal, Panama’s bonds have performed much better than many investors had expected.
/jlne.ws/4yjBD4e

Gold-rich Nicaragua hands Chinese miners rights to a tenth of its land; Dozens of mining concessions deepen Beijing’s strategic foothold as it tussles with US for influence in Central America
Janina Conboye, Camilla Hodgson, Aditi Bhandari and Christine Murray – Financial Times
Nicaragua has handed mining concessions covering more than a tenth of its land to Chinese companies in the past three years, expanding Beijing’s foothold in the gold-rich country as it tussles with Washington for influence. The Central American autocracy has awarded 80 concessions that together cover land roughly the size of Northern Ireland to Chinese miners since 2023, according to FT analysis of government data.
/jlne.ws/4yfxNJv

MISC

Penn State’s Campuswide Cocaine Ring Was Fueled by Fraternity Hazing; In the Delta Upsilon house, pledges packaged bricks of cocaine for older members who sold the drugs across the entire school. Then someone snitched.
Ashley Wong and Jared Mitovich – The Wall Street Journal
Spring at Pennsylvania State University is rush season, when hopeful students vie for a spot in one of the school’s many fraternities and sororities. At fraternity Delta Upsilon, for a short period, that meant prospects were instructed to cut and package cocaine inside the frat house and deliver the drugs across campus. The instigator, according to former fraternity brothers’ testimony before a Pennsylvania grand jury and criminal complaints filed by Pennsylvania police, was Thomas Robinson, a senior brother who showed the pledges how to break down a brick of cocaine, mix it with creatine and bag it, creating an at-home assembly line with protective equipment and a plastic folding table the pledges purchased on shopping runs to places like Walmart.
/jlne.ws/4z2gEmn