WSJ : Inside the West’s Race to Defend the Arctic

Inside the West’s Race to Defend the Arctic
Russia holds a large advantage in the high north. NATO’s effort to catch up is beset by challenges.

  • Western nations are struggling to match Russian and Chinese expansion in the Arctic, a contested region crucial for geopolitical strategy.
  • The MV Nunalik, a cargo ship, faced severe Arctic weather and logistical issues while attempting to deliver supplies for a Canadian spy station.
  • The West is behind in Arctic military capabilities, with Russia having a geographic advantage.

ABOARD THE MV NUNALIK—Greenland lurked in the distance as Capt. Donald Gibson rushed to the bridge of his cargo ship amid a sudden Arctic storm. Snow lashed against the pilothouse windows while he and his crew struggled to control the vessel and steer clear of icebergs.

Down in the ship’s hold was construction material needed to upgrade the northernmost military outpost, a Canadian spy station providing crucial intelligence on Russia’s military.

After nine days traversing 2,500 nautical miles, pitching on swells from Hurricane Erin, the Canadian-flagged Nunalik had reached its destination—30 minutes late. It was Friday, and dockworkers in the port of the U.S.’s Pituffik Space Base had already gone home for the August weekend. The delivery would have to wait.

“I’d have thought they would have taken us in and welcomed us after a long journey,” said 66-year-old Canadian Gibson, who has sailed since he was 18.


The West is racing to catch up with Russian and Chinese expansion in the Arctic, one of the world’s most contested places, in a new era of geopolitical conflict. It is also working out its priorities.

Defending the Arctic—an environment that for centuries has thwarted ambitions of explorers and governments—will demand big budgets, unprecedented resources and determination. Even the most basic elements of operating a military base in the high Arctic are extremely cumbersome. As the Nunalik’s lost weekend suggests, the West is only awakening to the challenge.

Russia, Gibson said, probably wouldn’t leave a cargo ship of military supplies drifting in a blizzard because port workers had gone home.

“We want to develop the north, we want to compete,” he said with frustration. “But there’s no rush.”

A Wall Street Journal reporter sailed with the Nunalik for three weeks. The 450-foot cargo vessel, owned by Canadian shipping company NEAS, set off from the port of Becancour, near Montreal, for its annual journey to Greenland, during the brief window when Arctic sealifts are possible.

At night, crews trained a searchlight across dark waters infested with so-called growlers—low-floating chunks of ice the size of trucks that can puncture ships. For almost the entire trip, the vessel sailed without another ship in sight. The 20-strong crew’s only outside company were pods of dolphins and killer whales, stray icebergs and the northern lights dancing across the night sky.

After being refused docking in Greenland, the ship anchored so close to shore that the barracks housing some 150 American servicemembers were clearly visible. Then things got worse.

The wind suddenly picked up to 50 knots and the Nunalik started dragging. The anchor dropped off a steep underwater slope and got tangled. The vessel drifted for four hours with a 2.5-ton anchor at the end of a 590-foot chain, amid icebergs and near an underwater fiber optic cable. Monday morning, after a weekend of snowsquall and whiteout conditions, the crew unloaded the cargo.

In a sign of how daunting Arctic operations can be, the Nunalik’s cargo wasn’t even destined for Greenland. From Pituffik, a plane would carry it farther north to Alert, a Canadian signals intelligence outpost only 500 miles from the North Pole—roughly the distance between New York and Detroit—and unreachable by cargo ship. A Canadian official said if anything was missing from the cargo, it could delay construction on the base by a year, until the next sealift.

Sailors have always struggled in these parts. In 1830, so many British whaling ships wrecked in the nearby Melville Bay that a thousand men were left stranded on the ice, where they set fire to their broken ships and drank heavily from rum casks for weeks until they were rescued.

If Russia were to launch a full-scale war against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Arctic would be central. Finland, Sweden and Norway, all sharing a border with Russia, have long prepared to fight a land war in subzero temperatures. In North America, a conflict would likely be aerial and maritime.


The Arctic Kola Peninsula hosts Russia’s Northern Fleet, with advanced land, air and naval assets, including some of its nuclear arsenal. The most direct way for Moscow to attack the U.S. with missiles is over the Arctic.

Because of Russia’s geographic advantage and the West’s own negligence, NATO is falling precipitously behind in the Arctic, said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

“This is one of the only areas where we are not able to go toe-to-toe with our adversaries,” he said. Now, as Russia’s land forces have been weakened by the war in Ukraine, the West has an opening to catch up. However, Western militaries are only just shifting focus after two decades of counterterrorism in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Many lessons learned there cannot be applied in the high north. Building a significant military presence in the Arctic will have to be done almost from scratch, Bouffard said.

“We are in the beginning of one of the hardest challenges ever,” comparable only to exploring space, he said. “I don’t know which one is tougher.”

President Trump in an executive order in January called missiles “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.” He said the U.S. would deploy a next-generation missile shield—a “Golden Dome” for America—and called on allies to increase cooperation on missile defense technology.

The West’s missile detection in the Arctic currently relies on early warning systems at Pituffik and other radar sites across Alaska and northern Canada.

Canada has pledged 6 billion Canadian dollars, equivalent to $4.3 billion, in partnership with Australia, to develop over-the-horizon radar and modernize the capabilities of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed troops to a more sustained year-round presence in the Arctic.

Russia has for decades expanded its bases in the Arctic. China has declared itself a near-Arctic nation and deployed ice breakers and research vessels. A Chinese research vessel called Xue Long 2 transited close to Canadian territorial waters this summer for the second year in a row. Canadian and U.S. aircraft last year intercepted Chinese and Russian bombers in international airspace near Alaska, the first joint patrol between the two in the approaches to North America.

The war in Ukraine highlights several other problems facing the West in the Arctic. It has shown the importance of resupplying troops, which is inherently difficult in the high north. It has also displayed Russia’s willingness to use purported hypersonic cruise missiles, which the West currently doesn’t have adequate defenses for.

Hypersonic missiles fly at at least five times the speed of sound, in unpredictable paths at a low altitude that make them hard for radar to detect. Russia has said it has used the missiles in Ukraine, though some have been intercepted. China has been developing and testing hypersonic missiles since 2017.

The U.S. is building space sensors to track hypersonic and ballistic missiles from orbit. Canada’s promised over-the-horizon radar is meant to detect low-flying missiles over the North Pole. ​Such detection is a necessary first step in building deterrence, analysts say.

“We have to demonstrate to the Russians and the Chinese that we are as modern and capable of deterring their forces as we were during the Cold War,” said Rob Huebert, director of the University of Calgary’s Center for Military, Security and Strategic Studies. “You’ve got to develop your own warfighting capabilities, and that in fact becomes a form of deterrence, albeit a very dangerous one. But again, we don’t really have an alternative.”

The Nunalik, one of the few Western cargo vessels capable of operating in the Arctic, mainly transports goods to remote Canadian Inuit communities, which depend on outside supplies for nearly everything. Gibson said he expected shipping companies in the Arctic to receive more business from Western armed forces.

Pituffik, formerly Thule Air Base, was built in 1951, and is the last remaining of more than a dozen U.S. bases built in Greenland during the Cold War under a treaty with Denmark, which controls the autonomous island. Trump’s attempts to take control of the island have caused friction within NATO.

The northernmost U.S. military installation, Pituffik is a collection of barracks, hangars, fuel tanks and satellite-dish domes shaped like giant golf balls. A sleepy community center offers slot machines, pool and darts. Musk oxen and snowshoe hares inhabit the base perimeter. Last year, the base imposed a curfew on its personnel because a polar bear was strolling around the airstrip.

Behind the base, the vast empty ice sheet stretches for more than 600,000 square miles. On a concrete plateau on a mountain overlooking the ice-dotted fjord sits the base’s radar building, a massive brutalist structure shaped like a concrete-and-steel trapezoid.

Reaching Alert, in northern Canada, is an even greater challenge. Such outposts provide signals intelligence, particularly on Russia’s Northern Fleet, long-range bombers, missile units and submarines capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

The base is supplied weekly by the Canadian Air Force, and twice a year with bigger airlifts of fuel and cargo. Larger sealifts via Greenland are only possible four to five months a year.

In 1991, five people were killed when a Hercules transport aircraft crashed on final approach to Alert, 10 miles from the base. It took rescue workers more than 30 hours to reach the site, navigating a blizzard and 24-hour darkness, and an additional two days to rescue the last survivors.

(ZH) Nobel Peace Prize Organizers Probing Potential Insider Trades On Polymarket

Nobel Peace Prize Organizers Probing Potential Insider Trades On Polymarket


The organizers of the Nobel Peace Prize are investigating whether insiders used privileged information about this year’s winner to profit on crypto prediction market Polymarket, according to local reports.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, displays a photo of winner María Corina Machado on his smartphone in Oslo on Friday © Rodrigo Freitas/NTB/AFP/Getty Images
Roughly 11 hours before the closely watched award was given to Venezuelan resistance leader Maria Corina Machado this morning, the odds of her victory surged from near-zero to over 70% on Polymarket.
The market on this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner has accumulated over $21.4 million in trading volume since opening in July.
For nearly all of that time, the odds of Machado receiving the coveted prize have hovered around a 1% or 2% likelihood.
Then, Thursday night, shortly before 1:00 am Norway time, the Venezualan’s odds of winning surged to over 43%.
By 2:00 am, they hit 73%.
The identity of the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize -one of the most coveted awards in the world - is typically kept tightly under wraps. Even Machado herself did not find out she had won the award until minutes before the news was announced publicly in Oslo at 11:00 am this morning.
The five-member committee tasked with selecting the award’s winner did not even come to a decision until this week, according to local reports.
But somehow, Polymarket traders appeared clued-in to their decision ahead of today’s flashy announcement.
The action appears to have kicked off at roughly 12:45 am Norway time this morning, when a trader on the site began betting thousands of dollars on the likelihood of Machado’s victory. Over the next several hours, they continued to buy and sell thousands of dollars worth of Machado positions, until they eventually redeemed $80,000 when the market resolved.
Their account was created within the last 10 days, according to the Polymarket site.
A spokesperson for the Nobel Institute did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment regarding what would happen if someone within or connected to the prize committee is found to have used insider information about the award to make a profit.
But while such activity may be looked down upon within such secretive organizations, it is widely considered a good thing in the world of prediction markets. The ultimate goal of prediction markets tends to be accurate information, not fairness, and Polymarket users were ultimately clued into this morning’s breaking news the night before.
Polymarket’s terms of service, meanwhile, do not appear to restrict users’ use of insider or privileged information while making wagers. A representative for the company did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment on this story.

(ZH) Anduril Founder Urges Rapid Reindustrialization As U.S. Defense Supply Chai

Anduril Founder Urges Rapid Reindustrialization As U.S. Defense Supply Chain Remains Alarmingly Reliant On China

China's latest decision to expand rare earth export controls, adding holmium, erbium, thulium, europium, and ytterbium to the restricted list just days ago, serves as yet another wake-up call for the Trump administration and Washignton as a whole. The U.S. remains dangerously dependent on China, the world's largest producer of rare earths, for these critical minerals that are essential inputs into the manufacturing of drones, humanoid robots, EVs, and advanced weaponry.
Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey sat down with Bloomberg on Friday to discuss how America's defense supply chains are dangerously reliant on China. He said the U.S. must urgently "reindustrialize" and rebuild its capacity to produce rare earths, semiconductors, and advanced computing hardware domestically if it wants to survive the 2030s.
"I mean, the reality is that our interests are relatively divergent at this point," Luckey said, referencing President Trump's late tariff threats (read here) against Being. "We need to make our own chips, our own computers, our own products downstream. China has a lot of leverage right now, and that makes it very hard to negotiate. They do have a lot of leverage right now, and so it's very hard to make deals with them. I think it's actually healthy for the US-China relationship for it not to be so dependent on China right now."
Luckey noted that Anduril, one of the fastest-growing defense technology startups in the U.S, has been heavily sanctioned by China, forcing it to eliminate all supply chain exposure in China.
"Remember that we are sanctioned by China. Remember that our executives are personally sanctioned by China. And so we have we can't we're not doing this for you to leverage or negotiating reasons. We have to get off of the Chinese supply chain and not just things that are literally made in China, but even things that are dependent on China," he said.
Given that China holds considerable leverage in the ongoing trade war, there's an ongoing risk that Beijing could abruptly sanction a major U.S. defense contractor, triggering supply chain disruptions for critical weapons, such as advanced, man-portable, anti-tank guided missile systems. Such an event could prove devastating for America's global military posturing and its active operations around the world that depend on these defense systems.
"It's the broader economy and maybe some other defense companies, if you can believe it, there's lots of us defense companies that haven't been sanctioned by China and therefore they haven't had the foresight to go and build it," Luckey said.

However, there is some good news: The Trump administration recently created another mining juggernaut, this time with mining projects in Alaska run by Trilogy Metals, and followed its new stake in Lithium Americas Corp., which is developing the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada. In July, the U.S. Defense Department agreed to a $400 million equity investment in MP Materials Corp. to fund a plant for rare-earth magnets. It is expected to do the same with USA Resources.

(ZH) Goldman Maps Out Power Bill Crisis As Afford Concerns Stay Localized

Goldman Maps Out Power Bill Crisis As Afford Concerns Stay Localized
by Tyler Durden
Sunday, Oct 12, 2025 - 02:25 AM
The power bill crisis has gone mainstream in recent months, with soaring electricity prices epicentered across the Mid-Atlantic region. Legacy grids and misguided "green" energy policies have been colliding with surging new power demand from AI data centers. We first warned about this crisis in August 2024. Ignored at the time, it has taken more than a year for corporate media to catch up (read here) - now being framed as a "major political issue" in states across the region, most of which are controlled by Democrats.
A new report from Goldman Sachs, led by analyst Carly Davenport, sheds light on the surge in electricity costs sweeping across key U.S. regions, particularly the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and California, where affordability concerns are soaring just as utilities begin a historic capital-investment cycle. The situation has all the ingredients for a political reckoning: years of grid mismanagement under far-left leadership, which prioritized climate change ideology over reliability and aggressively retired stable fossil-fuel generation, have become a key driver of today's affordability crisis.
Davenport told clients that over the past three years, residential power bills jumped 29% in states like Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, and California, roughly 20 percentage points above the Consumer Price Index, while regulated states such as Michigan, North Dakota, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Louisiana saw only about 5% growth. She pointed out that deregulated markets experienced higher power bill inflation due to capacity-price spikes, natural gas price volatility, and rising "public benefit" charges tied to climate change mandates.
Davenport includes a Q&A section that adds more clarity about the unfolding affordability crisis:
What is driving this regional dispersion in bill inflation?
In the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and California, we believe higher bill inflation has been a function of (1) tighter regional power markets as demand inflects from electrification, data centers, and reshoring, and as coal units are retired, driving higher capacity prices that are passed onto customers, (2) volatility in natural gas prices as well as supply constraints on domestic natural gas flows in certain regions, (3) public benefits charges that support state/federal mandates around energy efficiency, wildfire mitigation, and clean energy goals increasing on bills, and (4) higher delivery charges, as utilities invest in aging grid infrastructure. In the states that have seen lower inflation, robust local resource availability (coal/wind/gas) have helped keep electricity rates lower with ample supply.
Why does affordability matter for utilities?
Ultimately, affordability matters as it increases regulatory risk. If consumers are too constrained by high electricity bill levels, regulators might be less lenient in approving returns or rate increases for the utilities, whether they are in a regulated or competitive power market. We believe we are in the midst of a capital investment upcycle across the regulated utility space, which can translate into higher earnings growth for utility companies, but this opportunity will need to be balanced with customer bill affordability. Stocks most exposed to states that had the five highest bill inflation in the past three years include EIX, PCG, EXC, SRE and ES, and those exposed to the lower bill inflation states include AEP, WEC and XEL (Exhibit 2).
We believe the affordability concern is largely regional, and forecast national bill inflation as broadly in line with history, but higher capex poses risks. On a national level, resi utility bills have lagged CPI since 2008, largely due to declining usage trends, but in 2024, both usage and price inflation inflected, driving bills above CPI. Going forward, we expect customer bills to grow in line with historical levels of 3% through 2029 on average, based on our published utility capex forecasts and a number of other key factors we take into account such as electricity sales, customer growth and gas prices. However, if utility capex accelerates above our base case scenario, bill inflation could reach 6% through 2029, which increases regulatory risk for the regulated utilities, in our view.
The analyst explains the origins of this mess...
We believe the higher inflation in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic and California regions are being caused by: (1) tighter regional supply/demand as load growth inflects from electrification, data centers, and reshoring, driving higher capacity prices that are passed onto customers, alongside coal plant retirements, (2) volatility in natural gas prices as well as supply constraints on domestic natural gas flows, (3) public benefits charges that support state/federal mandates around energy efficiency, wildfire mitigation, and clean energy goals, and (4) higher delivery charges, as utilities invest in aging grid infrastructure. In the states that have seen lower inflation, robust local resource availability (coal/wind/gas) have helped keep electricity rates lower given abundant supply.
Power bill inflation appears to be regional, not present on a national level, which means political pressure will be localized.
U.S. state map of regulated/deregulated/partially regulated regions
States in red below had the highest accumulated bill inflation over the past 3yrs, while states in green had the lowest bill inflation in the same period
The focus should be on the political ramifications at the local level - specifically, how skyrocketing power bills will impact voter sentiment with those in power that pushed endless amounts of fake climate change narratives to ram through green policies - loot the Treasury with climate bills (recall $20bln of taxpayer funds frozen at Citi, slated for Biden-Harris regime to funnel into shady NGOs) - all while making the grid more fragile (read this) in the era of AI data centers.

Le Monde : Cancer : pourquoi la France fait partie des pays les plus touchés au

Cancer : pourquoi la France fait partie des pays les plus touchés au monde
Une étude récente a placé la France en tête des pays ayant le plus grand nombre de cancers. Si ce chiffre doit être nuancé, la consommation d’alcool et de tabac, mais aussi les pollutions environnementales expliquent le poids de ce fardeau dans le pays.

La France est-elle le pays ayant la plus grande incidence de cancers au monde ? C’est ce que suggère une étude parue le 25 septembre dans la revue The Lancet. Dans leurs travaux, les chercheurs du programme de recherche Global Burden of Disease (GBD), piloté par l’Institut pour la mesure et l’évaluation de la santé (IHME), basé à Seattle, ont produit les taux d’incidence standardisée selon l’âge de 204 pays et territoires. Ce taux permet de comparer le nombre de nouveaux cas de cancers en neutralisant les différences de structure d’âge de la population des différents pays. Sans qu’ils mettent en avant ce classement, les chercheurs ont produit un résultat sans appel : la France et Monaco arrivent en tête des pays ayant le plus grand nombre de cancers rapporté à leur population, avec respectivement 389,4 et 491,3 cas pour 100 000 habitants.

Une donnée pour le moins inquiétante, même si la France fait partie des pays européens ayant le taux de mortalité associé au cancer le moins élevé, car le fardeau, aussi bien sociétal qu’économique, reste immense. In fine, les cancers sont la première cause de mortalité en France (27 %), suivis des maladies cardio-neurovasculaires (21,4 %), c’est-à-dire l’infarctus du myocarde, l’AVC et l’insuffisance cardiaque.

Surtout, ce classement interroge ce que pourraient être les particularités distinguant la France d’autres pays comparables. On comprend bien que le système de dépistage des cancers est nécessairement plus performant en France que dans des pays à faible revenu ne disposant pas de systèmes de santé aussi solides ; ce qui explique au moins en partie une incidence plus élevée. Mais la comparaison ne tient pas avec les autres pays à haut revenu.

En effet, au niveau européen, la France fait plutôt figure de mauvaise élève du dépistage. Selon les données publiées par l’Organisation européenne du cancer en 2024, la France se situe en dessous de la moyenne européenne pour les trois principaux programmes mis en place. Le taux de participation au dépistage du cancer du sein est de 46 % en France contre 54 % en Europe, et de 62 % contre 69 % concernant le cancer du col de l’utérus. L’écart est particulièrement marqué pour le cancer colorectal, avec un taux de participation de 29 % en France contre 44 % en moyenne en Europe. Alors, comment interpréter la place singulière qu’occupe la France dans le nombre de cancers affectant sa population ?

Que disent précisément les données ?
Le Centre international de recherche sur le cancer (CIRC), une agence de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé basée à Lyon, travaille également sur le fardeau du cancer dans le monde et produit le Globocan, une base de données en ligne. Pour ce dernier, la France est classée à la neuvième place des pays ayant la plus grande incidence de cancers, derrière un trio de tête constitué par l’Australie, la Nouvelle-Zélande et le Danemark. « Ces résultats ne sont pas nécessairement surprenants compte tenu de nos différences dans les sources de données et les méthodes utilisées, et soulignent l’importance de soutenir les efforts locaux de surveillance du cancer », estime Lisa Force, maîtresse de conférences en sciences des mesures de santé à l’IHME.

La France a la particularité d’être l’un des derniers pays européens à ne pas disposer de registre national. Le décompte des cas de cancers est confié à Francim, un réseau regroupant une trentaine de registres locaux et deux registres pédiatriques nationaux. Au total, les nouveaux cas de cancer ne sont ainsi comptabilisés que pour 24 % de la population française. Pour le reste, des mathématiciens sont chargés de faire des estimations, ce qui ouvre la voie à des différences d’interprétation et de méthode.

Par ailleurs, le travail des registres recoupe plusieurs sources, avec lesquelles chacun doit nouer des conventions de transfert de données. Ce travail de fourmi prend du temps. En 2025, la plupart des registres sont à jour sur les données réelles observées en 2022. Mais les dernières données officielles dont on dispose, publiées par Santé publique France en juillet 2023, sont les nouveaux cas observés jusqu’en 2018, à partir desquels des extrapolations ont été faites jusqu’en 2023. En 2027, Francim espère publier sa prochaine étude d’incidence des cancers basée sur les chiffres de 1985 à 2022.

« Cela fait longtemps que l’on discute de la qualité des données en France, souligne Isabelle Soerjomataram, cheffe adjointe de la branche surveillance du cancer au CIRC. La vérité est probablement entre la valeur du GBD et celle de Globocan, avec la France dans le top 10 de l’incidence mondiale. » Une loi promulguée le 30 juin prévoit la mise en place d’un registre national, confiée à l’Institut national du cancer. Mais l’instabilité politique a repoussé la publication du décret d’application, initialement prévue en septembre.

Quelle est la part des modes de vie ?
Si la majorité (57 %) des plus de 430 000 cas estimés en 2023 ont été diagnostiqués chez des hommes, la hausse de l’incidence française est essentiellement liée à l’augmentation des cancers chez les femmes depuis 1990. En 2023, les cancers les plus fréquents sont ceux du sein (14,1 %), de la prostate (13,8 %), du poumon (12,2 %), du côlon et du rectum (10,9 %), avec une nette hausse depuis 1990 pour ces deux derniers chez les femmes et une baisse chez les hommes. « Le niveau de cancers des femmes est en train de rejoindre celui des hommes, avec une hausse considérable des cancers liés au tabac et à l’alcool », alerte Béatrice Fervers, responsable du département prévention, cancers et environnement du Centre Léon-Bérard.

Les mutations délétères sur certains gènes sont associées à environ 5 % à 10 % des cancers, par exemple celles sur le BRCA1 ou le BRCA2 pour le cancer du sein et de l’ovaire. Mais ces prédispositions nécessitent un déclencheur environnemental, au sens large, pour aboutir à la maladie. Le tabac et l’alcool sont tous deux des facteurs de risque identifiés de très longue date, respectivement associés à seize et à dix sortes de cancers.

Malgré des améliorations ces dernières années, la France continue d’être en mauvaise place dans les classements européens. Si la proportion de fumeurs quotidiens en France a diminué, passant de 30 % en 2010 à environ 25 % en 2021, ce taux reste supérieur à ceux de la plupart des pays européens. Chez les femmes françaises, le taux de tabagisme (23 %) est le plus élevé d’Europe, selon les données de l’OCDE. Même chose côté alcool. Si sa consommation a un peu diminué en France ces dernières années, elle reste à des niveaux très élevés, supérieurs de 9 % à la moyenne de l’Union européenne en 2021, selon l’OCDE.

Quasi exclusivement féminin et surreprésenté parmi les cancers en France, celui du sein est le plus emblématique de ces tendances. En 2018, le CIRC a estimé que 37 % des cas étaient attribuables à des facteurs dits « modifiables », c’est-à-dire liés aux modes de vie. Si 8 000 cas étaient attribuables à l’alcool, 4 500 l’étaient à l’obésité, 2 300 au tabac, 1 700 à la prise d’hormones (contraceptifs oraux et traitements hormonaux de la ménopause), 1 600 au manque d’activité physique. Concernant l’obésité et le manque d’activité physique, les Françaises ne se démarquent pas particulièrement de leurs voisines européennes.

Que sait-on de l’impact de la prise d’hormones ?
Le risque de cancer associé aux hormones, c’est-à-dire la pilule contraceptive, le stérilet hormonal et les traitements hormonaux de la ménopause (THM), fait débat depuis plusieurs années. Il y a une quinzaine d’années, le CIRC a classé certaines pilules et THM, combinant des œstrogènes et de la progestérone, comme « cancérogènes pour les humains ».

Cela signifie que le niveau de preuve scientifique est suffisant pour considérer ces produits comme des causes de cancers – du sein et du col de l’utérus –, mais pas qu’ils sont aussi dangereux que le tabac, l’alcool ou l’amiante, classés dans la même catégorie. Plusieurs études estiment que le surrisque de cancer du sein associé aux pilules est de 20 % à 30 %, mais le risque global reste relativement faible. A l’inverse, elles peuvent réduire les cas de cancer de l’endomètre et des ovaires. Dans tous les cas, difficile de jeter l’opprobre sur un produit qui apporte tant en termes de contrôle des naissances, mais aussi d’atténuation de maux associés aux règles.

Depuis plusieurs avis négatifs des institutions européennes et françaises en 2003, que certains considèrent aujourd’hui comme trop sévères, les THM ne sont quasiment plus prescrits, et ne comptent donc pas dans les tendances des dernières années. Mais les pilules combinées restent encore aujourd’hui bien plus prescrites que les pilules microprogestatives ou microdosées qui ne contiennent, elles, qu’un progestatif. « Les hormones ne sont jamais prises en compte dans les facteurs modifiables associés aux cancers, souligne Suzette Delaloge, cancérologue à l’Institut Gustave-Roussy, à Villejuif (Val-de-Marne). En particulier, on ne sait pas quelle est l’augmentation du risque quand on prend des hormones tout au long de sa vie. » Mais les données, comme les comparaisons internationales, manquent.

Quelle est la part de l’environnement ?
Toute la population est involontairement exposée à d’autres substances actives, par le biais de l’environnement et de l’alimentation. Pollution atmosphérique, additifs et résidus de pesticides dans la chaîne alimentaire, plastifiants (phtalates, bisphénols), dioxines, polluants organiques persistants (PFAS, PCB, PBDE…), etc. : cette multi-exposition de basse intensité est suspectée d’être à l’origine d’une part substantielle des cancers non attribués à des facteurs de risques connus. Mais les données sont lacunaires et les risques souvent impossibles à chiffrer. « De grandes agglomérations, comme la région parisienne, ou encore de nombreux bassins industriels ne sont pas couverts par des registres de cancer, remarque la toxicologue Francelyne Marano (université Paris Cité). Or ce sont des données cruciales si l’on veut estimer le rôle de l’environnement dans la progression de ces maladies. »

La hausse rapide de certains cancers est néanmoins fortement suspectée d’être liée à l’environnement. « Quand on voit la hausse alarmante du cancer du pancréas, et que les principaux facteurs de risque connus, en particulier le tabac, ne permettent pas d’expliquer cette tendance, une ou des causes environnementales sont plus que probables », dit Mme Marano. Au cours des trente dernières années, selon Santé publique France, le nombre de cas a quadruplé chez les hommes et quintuplé chez les femmes, les deux tiers de ces hausses n’étant pas explicables par le vieillissement ou l’accroissement de la population.

La Conférence nationale des unions régionales des professionnels de santé a récemment alerté sur un lien possible avec le cadmium. Ce métal lourd, classé cancérogène, est présent dans les engrais phosphatés importés du Maroc très utilisés en France. L’imprégnation des Français est, de ce fait, notoirement forte (trois fois celle des Américains, deux fois celle des Italiens). Selon les données du CIRC, la France est le quatrième pays le plus touché au monde, même en tenant compte de l’âge de sa population. En 2024, des chercheurs français ont ouvert une piste de recherche en montrant une association statistique entre pesticides épandus localement et risque de contracter la maladie.

Les pesticides – dont la France est l’une des plus fortes utilisatrices au monde – sont, par ailleurs, une cause établie de lymphomes et de cancer de la prostate chez les professionnels exposés, mais aussi de certains cancers pédiatriques chez les populations riveraines d’exploitations. En population générale, les preuves sont limitées, mais des travaux menés en France et publiés en 2018 ont montré un risque diminué de lymphomes (− 75 %) et de cancer du sein post-ménopausal (− 34 %) chez les plus gros consommateurs d’aliments bio, par rapport à ceux qui ne consomment que des produits issus de l’agriculture conventionnelle. L’hypothèse des auteurs était une responsabilité des résidus de pesticides de synthèse dans l’alimentation. Les données disponibles ne permettent cependant pas de faire de cette imprégnation une particularité française.

D’autres substances cancérogènes et/ou perturbateurs endocriniens touchent pour leur part la population hexagonale à des niveaux supérieurs, voire très supérieurs, à la moyenne européenne. C’est le cas des phtalates, ou encore des PFAS. Selon le programme de biosurveillance communautaire, 23,8 % des adolescents français sont au-dessus de la valeur-guide d’exposition pour les « polluants éternels », très au-dessus de l’Espagne (1,3 %) ou de la Grèce (13,5 %). Des huit pays disposant de données, la France est le plus mauvais élève. Ces indices ne suffisent pas, à eux seuls, à expliquer la situation. « Les grands programmes de recherche qui permettraient de chercher des réponses n’ont pas été lancés, dit Rémy Slama (Inserm), épidémiologiste de l’environnement. Comme il est peu probable que la plupart des cancers aient un petit nombre de causes “fortes”, pour décrypter le rôle de l’environnement, il faut pouvoir identifier les contributions, souvent faibles, d’un très grand nombre de facteurs chimiques, physiques, infectieux. »

Comme tous les spécialistes de santé environnementale, le toxicologue André Cicolella (Réseau Environnement Santé) estime qu’« il ne faut pas attendre la preuve épidémiologique sur le cancer avant d’agir ». « Réduire les expositions aux perturbateurs endocriniens a des cobénéfices immédiats et démontrés, par exemple en diminuant le risque de prématurité », illustre-t-il. En matière d’environnement, les preuves épidémiologiques arrivent avec retard, les expositions prénatales à certaines substances pouvant exacerber la prédisposition à certaines maladies bien plus tard dans la vie. Il a fallu par exemple attendre 2015 pour montrer que le quart des Américaines de 50 ans les plus exposées in utero au DDT dans les années 1960 avaient un risque de cancer du sein quadruplé par rapport au quart les moins exposées.

Le Figaro : Cybersécurité: le français Thales développe le premier logiciel capa

Cybersécurité: le français Thales développe le premier logiciel capable de neutraliser des attaques quantiques

Une carte à puce intégrant des algorithmes de rupture a été certifiée par l’Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes informatiques (Anssi). Une première mondiale.

Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir. Le proverbe s’applique au monde de la cybersécurité, qui travaille depuis plusieurs années sur des contre-mesures – algorithmes de cryptographie de nouvelle génération - capables de stopper des attaques menées par des hackers utilisant des ordinateurs quantiques. Des attaques qui s’annoncent redoutables car capables de « casser » les cyber protections conçues avec les technologies actuelles pour protéger les données sensibles et personnelles contenues dans les cartes à puce utilisées pour justifier de son identité, par exemple lors du contrôle du passeport à l’aéroport, ou régler un achat par carte bancaire (CB) en ligne ou chez un commerçant.

D’où une course entre acteurs de la cybersécurité pour développer des produits adaptés à ces futures attaques quantiques. Le premier à y être parvenu est le français Thales, leader européen de la cybersécurité, qui investit depuis plus de cinq ans dans ce domaine. Sa solution, une carte à puce intégrant des technologies de cryptographie post-quantiques protégeant les documents d’identité, est la première à être certifiée, a annoncé le groupe de défense et de hautes technologies, ce mardi matin. « Les capacités et la fiabilité de notre logiciel ont été certifiées par l’Anssi (Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes informatiques, NDLR), qui est un tiers de confiance aux exigences élevées, en fonction de standards internationaux partagés par l’industrie », explique Philippe Vallée, directeur général adjoint de Thales, en charge de la division cybersécurité et identité numérique (CDI).

Des ordinateurs mille fois plus puissants et plus rapides
Ce précieux sésame est l’équivalent d’une certification, attribuée par l’Agence européenne de la sécurité aérienne (EASA) à un nouvel avion, le déclarant apte à voler en toute sécurité avec des passagers. En devenant la première entreprise au monde à obtenir ce haut niveau de certification, Thales offre aux gouvernements une solution pour protéger les données sensibles, insérées dans les cartes d’identité, passeports, cartes de santé (carte Vitale en France) ou les permis de conduire (qui font office de justificatifs d’identité aux États-Unis). Le groupe, qui fournit un document d’identité sur trois dans le monde, « assure » que l’identité des citoyens est protégée des menaces quantiques en train d’émerger.

Il s’agit d’un jalon important pour Thales car les États ont fait de la protection des documents d’identité leur priorité. Il s’agit de remplacer la base installée de documents, dont la validité oscille, selon les pays, entre cinq et dix ans. Cela, avant que les premiers ordinateurs quantiques soient totalement opérationnels. Ils en sont aujourd’hui encore au stade de démonstrateurs. Leur mise en service, qui augure d’une bascule aussi importante que celle d’internet et du numérique pour nos sociétés, n’est pas attendue avant 2029-2030. Et les premiers utilisateurs seront les gouvernements, les universités ainsi que les grandes entreprises, les Gafam (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon et Microsoft) et autres acteurs de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) générative (OpenAI notamment). Il faudra sans doute plus d’une décennie avant que le grand public puisse acheter un smartphone ou un PC personnel quantique à la Fnac ou chez Orange.

Mais d’ores et déjà, les simulations en laboratoire démontrent que ces machines seront mille fois plus puissantes et rapides que les ordinateurs actuels. Cela, en raison de leur caractéristique : contrairement au parc installé qui fonctionne avec des bits (1 ou 0), par exemple pour trouver une solution à un problème, explorant une solution après l’autre, les ordinateurs quantiques utilisent des qbits (1 et 0 en même temps). Ce qui leur permet de traiter en parallèle, et par superposition, toutes les options en même temps. Conséquence : toutes les données et codes deviendront vulnérables aux cyberattaques quantiques.

Fabrication des nouvelles cartes à puce lancée fin 2025
« Afin de ne pas devoir réagir dans l’urgence, les gouvernements et les banques veulent engager le renouvellement progressif de la base installée de cartes à puce, dont la protection est assurée par les technologies d’aujourd’hui », explique Philippe Vallée. D’ici à la fin 2025, Thales prévoit de lancer la fabrication en série de sa nouvelle carte à puce – composant et logiciel - et de la proposer aux États. Thales s’estime bien placé pour jouer un rôle clef dans ce grand mouvement de remplacement de la base installée de documents d’identité. En France, Thales est partenaire de l’Imprimerie nationale, qui a le monopole de leur fabrication.

Prochaine étape pour Thales : certifier une carte à puce dédiée aux banques – quelque 5 milliards de CB par an sont distribuées dans le monde. Le groupe français est partenaire de 92% des banques constituant le Top 100 mondial. Puis un autre produit spécifique pour les besoins des opérateurs de télécoms (protection des cartes SIM des smartphones notamment) ainsi que pour le commerce et l’e-commerce. Le groupe fournissant déjà 70% du top-50 des acteurs du commerce, notamment Amazon. Le besoin de produits de cybersécurité quantique se déclinant progressivement dans tous les domaines, de l’automobile à l’énergie en passant par l’armement, la logistique ou encore les transports. « Les “outils” de génération de clefs de chiffrement cyber protégeant les données des entreprises devront également passer au quantique », souligne Philippe Vallée, en rappelant que Thales est numéro un mondial sur la sécurité des données. Le groupe estime que les entreprises doivent engager, dès aujourd’hui, un travail de recensement de leurs données chiffrées avec la technologie actuelle afin de se préparer.

Le marché de la protection des données devrait connaître, à l’occasion de cette bascule quantique, un nouvel essor. Cela, alors qu’il progresse déjà de 10 à 12% par an, et pèse quelque 15 milliards de dollars dans le monde sur un marché cyber estimé au global à quelque 150 à 160 milliards par an.

>>> Weekend Papers Summary

FINANCIAL TIMES
-US President Trump announced plans to impose 100% tariffs on China while threatening to cancel his upcoming summit with President Xi Jinping, escalating US-China trade tensions. He criticized Beijing's "extraordinarily aggressive" trade stance and indicated that large-scale export controls on virtually all Chinese products and critical software would be implemented from November 1, contingent on China's response. This announcement follows China's introduction of export controls disrupting global supplies of rare earths and minerals, requiring foreign businesses to seek permission for exports. Trump labeled China's new policy as surprising and suggested it undermined the rationale for his scheduled meeting with Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. As of Saturday afternoon, there was no reaction from China's foreign ministry or state media regarding Trump's statements.
-The United States has authorized Qatar to establish an air force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, enhancing security cooperation between the two nations. The facility will accommodate Qatari fighter jets and pilots for joint training with American forces. The agreement, signed by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatari Defense Minister Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the Pentagon, follows President Trump's executive order affirming US commitment to Qatar's security, interpreting any attack on Qatar as a direct threat to US peace and security. This decision follows a recent incident where Israel targeted a building in Doha, aiming to eliminate Hamas officials, which resulted in heightened tensions and a subsequent apology from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during his visit to Washington. Qatar has been instrumental in mediating between Israel and Hamas to alleviate the conflict in Gaza.
-Denmark plans to invest $8.7B in defense, comprising 16 F-35 fighter jets from the US, ships, drones, and a new military headquarters in Greenland, amid increasing pressure from both Russia and the US. This includes $4.5B to enhance its F-35 fleet to 43 aircraft and $4.2B for Arctic security improvements. Key initiatives will involve establishing two military units in the Arctic, a joint command headquarters in Nuuk, two maritime patrol ships, air surveillance radar, and drones in eastern Greenland. Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen emphasized the aim to enhance military presence across Greenland's territories. This strategic move follows significant pressure from the US, particularly after President Trump's comments earlier in the year regarding Greenland's semi-autonomous status and his suggestion of potentially taking control by force.
-The recent political developments in France suggest that the era of Macronism may be drawing to a close. Following a chaotic week marked by the reappointment of Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister just days after his resignation, there is growing skepticism about President Emmanuel Macron's credibility and leadership. An adviser from the right-wing Les Républicains party articulated this sentiment by stating, "This is the end of Macron," predicting the decline of both his political system and his personal influence.
-French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, with the task of forming a government and trying to pass a budget for 2026. Lecornu said on Friday evening he had accepted Macron’s “mission” to “do everything so France has a budget for the end of the year”. France has been gripped by a deepening political crisis since Macron called snap elections last year that resulted in a hung parliament, with the president having subsequently appointed and then lost three prime ministers, including Lecornu. A close ally of Macron, Lecornu resigned on Monday after less than a month in office, having appointed a cabinet filled with Macron allies that sparked opposition from the premier’s rightwing partners.
-The Trump administration has intensified its political clash with Democrats by initiating the firing of federal employees amid a government shutdown that commenced last week. Russell Vought, the budget director, confirmed on social media that "reductions in force" (RIFs) have started, though the exact number of employees being laid off remains unspecified. Multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury and health departments, are impacted. This strategy marks a departure from the typical approach during shutdowns, where non-essential workers are placed on furlough with the promise of repayment once funding resumes.
-Israel is undertaking the task of recovering the remains of deceased individuals in Gaza, coinciding with the countdown for the release of 20 living hostages. This effort has gained urgency since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, where 250 captives were taken. In the early stages of the conflict, a commando unit collected samples from bodies found in Hamas's tunnels for potential DNA identification of hostages. As the Israeli military gained control over more areas, excavations of Palestinian cemeteries were documented, with bulldozers removing hundreds of bodies to search for potential hostages. The recovery of fallen soldiers is a critical part of Israel's security doctrine and reflects a societal commitment to the families of those who serve in the military.
-EU ships may face higher operational costs as they could be required to travel at slower speeds and use more fuel than their Asian competitors due to the European Commission's delay in approving a new anti-fouling paint. This innovative paint, which uses medetomidine, was discovered by Swedish scientists to cause barnacles to become hyperactive, preventing them from attaching to ship hulls. While barnacles are individually small, their accumulation significantly increases a ship's drag, leading to greater fuel consumption and higher carbon emissions. I-Tech, the start-up that developed the medetomidine-based biocide with substantial support from the Swedish government, suggests that a hull covered with just 10% barnacles can lead to a 40% increase in fuel usage at constant speeds.
-The US has cancelled the Esmeralda 7 solar project, which was set to be the largest in North America, amidst the Trump administration's increasing opposition to the renewable energy sector. The Bureau of Land Management made the decision on Thursday, revoking approval for the 6.2 gigawatt project that could have supplied electricity to nearly 2M homes. Initially permitted under the Biden administration, the Nevada project was supported by NextEra Energy and involved seven solar farms and battery systems across approximately 62,300 acres of federal land in the Nevada desert. The cancellation reflects the Trump administration's ongoing critique of renewable projects, with the president labeling them a “scam.”
-AstraZeneca has reached an agreement to reduce the costs of specific medications in exchange for a three-year exemption from tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. This deal involves lowering drug prices for Americans on Medicaid and reducing costs for certain recently launched drugs. AstraZeneca will also enhance direct sales of its medicines to patients through its website and the new TrumpRx platform. The agreement stipulates that the company must return some foreign profits to the US if foreign drug prices rise as a consequence of the deal. Trump has threatened to implement 100% tariffs on branded medicines imported from nations outside the EU, which currently has a 15% rate.

NEW YORK TIMES
-Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, historically known for his liberal stance and philanthropy in San Francisco, appears to have shifted his political alignment in 2025. In a recent interview, he expressed strong support for President Trump and suggested deploying National Guard troops to address homelessness in San Francisco, a move that city leaders oppose. This change mirrors a broader trend among Bay Area tech executives, such as Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI's Sam Altman, who have recently aligned themselves with Trump's views, possibly in response to his influence over tech businesses. Observers suggest these adaptations may be strategic, given Trump's history of targeting companies that do not align with his administration, particularly as Salesforce holds numerous contracts with the federal government.
-In a rare meeting on October 10, 2025, the UN Security Council convened to discuss the Trump administration’s military strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean, which the US claims were drug smugglers. This meeting highlighted escalating tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela, particularly following at least four strikes resulting in the deaths of 21 individuals. While the council rarely addresses the actions of a permanent member, there was no unanimous condemnation of the U.S. or blind support for Venezuela's government. President Trump justified the strikes by characterizing the crew of the boats as “unlawful combatants” in what he declared a war on drug cartels, a stance contested by various legal experts.
-President Trump proposed a 100% tariff on all products from China, effective November 1, in response to China's recent restrictions on rare-earth mineral exports. He characterized these actions as "sinister and hostile," potentially complicating global trade. Trump's tweet indicated that the new tariffs would be in addition to existing tariffs of up to 30% on Chinese goods, with further export controls on critical software also planned. He expressed uncertainty about continuing a scheduled meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping due to the escalating tensions, complicating global market dynamics, which saw the S&P 500 index drop over 2% following the announcement. However, later remarks suggested the possibility of retracting the proposed tariffs, indicating that the administration is still weighing its options amid ongoing negotiations regarding US-China trade relations.
-On a significant day for the stock market, the S&P 500 experienced a notable decline of 2.7 percent, marking the steepest drop in six months, while the Nasdaq Composite similarly faced its largest fall since April. This tumultuous shift in the market is attributed to renewed tensions in the trade war between the United States and China. President Trump recently threatened to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports in response to China's imposition of restrictions on rare earth material exports, which are critical for various industries, including the production of artificial intelligence chips. Trump indicated on his social media platform Truth Social that a "massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products" is under consideration, along with other countermeasures aimed at addressing these ongoing trade conflicts.
-Thousands of people began their journey from the south to the north of the Gaza Strip following the announcement of a cease-fire by the Israeli military, aimed at potentially concluding the two-year conflict. Individuals, including men carrying bags, women with children, and older children holding hands, moved along the dusty seaside road toward Gaza City, which they had been ordered to evacuate weeks prior. Despite the destruction surrounding them, the atmosphere was one of joy, as articulated by Shamekh al-Dibs, who had fled south with his family the previous month.
-Most Democrats expressed enthusiasm over the potential return of hostages and a resolution to the conflict, yet few openly credited President Trump. Many were hesitant to praise a president they view as hostile, particularly regarding his complicity in Israel's actions in Gaza. Senator Bernie Sanders explicitly declined to give credit, emphasizing the United States' financial contributions to the humanitarian crisis. Statements from other Democrats, such as Senator Mark Warner and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, acknowledged the agreement's significance but omitted Trump from their remarks. This illustrates the challenging position Democrats face in reconciling their political stance with the acknowledgment of a major achievement linked to a president they largely oppose, especially given the complexities surrounding Israel's support within their party.
-In March, Daniella Santoro and her husband Aaron Lorenz uncovered a marble slab with Latin engraving while clearing their New Orleans backyard, initially resembling a grave marker to Dr. Santoro. Subsequent investigations revealed it was a nearly 2,000-year-old gravestone belonging to Sextus Congenius Verus, a Roman sailor and soldier. Dr. Santoro expressed her astonishment at the stone's authenticity and origins. The discovery prompted a historical inquiry, culminating in its identification and authentication by Professor Susann Lusnia of Tulane University, who was fascinated to confirm its Roman inscription and funerary significance. This inscription is reminiscent of others found in an ancient Roman cemetery in Civitavecchia, Italy, during the 1860s. Interestingly, Dr. Santoro contacted Professor Lusnia on April 1, which added a layer of irony given the nature of their findings.
-In China, the ultrahigh-voltage power line stretches over 2,000 miles, transporting electricity from solar farms in Xinjiang to densely populated southeastern cities like Anhui. This line is part of a network of 41 similar lines, all capable of carrying significant electricity amounts due to advanced technology and supportive national energy policies. The power line traverses diverse terrains and powers key areas where electric car manufacturers thrive, including cities housing up to 61M people. China's rapid transition to clean energy has resulted in battery-powered vehicles comprising half of new car sales and reliance on electric high-speed rail lines spanning 30,000 miles. In April, renewable sources contributed over 25% to China's power needs, underscoring the nation's aggressive clean energy strategy.
-Federal employees from various departments, including health, homeland security, education, energy, and treasury, received layoff notices amid a government shutdown, as part of President Trump's directive to downsize government agencies. Although the White House did not disclose the specific number of affected workers or agencies, President Trump indicated that there would be a significant number of layoffs, emphasizing that the cuts would target Democrats. Concurrently, Trump announced a potential 100% tariff on all Chinese imports in response to China's export restrictions on rare earth minerals, contributing to a 2.7% decline in the S&P 500 due to trade uncertainties. Additionally, M.I.T. became the first university to reject a White House proposal that involved compromising support for the administration's higher education initiatives in exchange for favorable scientific funding.
-When First Brands, an auto-parts manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy recently, it initially seemed insignificant due to its size and nature. The company, which produces products like pumps and filters sold at retailers such as AutoZone and Walmart, had expanded rapidly but ultimately faltered. The bankruptcy has ignited discussions in the financial world regarding the loans that supported its growth and dubious accounting practices before its decline. Notable financial firms have been affected, dealing with losses and criticism for not recognizing warning signs. This includes Jefferies, the investment bank that facilitated much of First Brands' financing; UBS, which contributed a significant portion of the funding; and BlackRock, which provided funds to an intermediary that lent money to First Brands.
NEW YORK POST
-The Trump administration disclosed in a court filing that over 4,000 federal employees were terminated on Friday due to the ongoing partial government shutdown. This wave of layoffs will impact workers across at least seven Cabinet-level agencies. The filing was submitted to the District Court for the Northern District of California, where federal employee labor unions are seeking to prevent the administration from downsizing during the funding lapse. The majority of layoffs occurred at the Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, resulting in approximately 1,446 and 1,200 job cuts respectively. Additional firings included 466 at the Department of Education, 442 at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 315 at the Department of Commerce, 187 at the Department of Energy, and 176 at the Department of Homeland Security. Furthermore, the Justice Department indicated that other agencies have issued general "intent to RIF" (Reduction in Force) notices.
-As many as 19 individuals are currently missing and feared dead following a significant explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant, a bomb factory located at the Hickman-Humphreys County line in Tennessee. The explosion, described by Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis as a “devastating blast,” occurred at approximately 7:45 a.m. on Friday. Sheriff Davis confirmed there were fatalities but did not specify numbers, referring to the missing workers as “souls.” He remarked on the scene as the most distressing he has encountered in his career, stating, “There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone.” The blast obliterated one entire building, specifically the Melt Pour building, where explosive materials are handled. This factory, which manufactures and tests explosives for government use, is situated far from residential areas. Aerial footage revealed the destruction, with only smoldering debris and burnt-out vehicle shells remaining in the aftermath.