>>> What to look at today - 21st of October 2025

Asian shares extended gains Tuesday, buoyed by upbeat US earnings and indications that tensions between Washington and Beijing were easing.
A regional stock gauge topped its record close as most major Asian benchmarks advanced. Chinese shares gained at the open, while Japanese equities strengthened amid expectations Sanae Takaichi will become the nation’s first female prime minister. US equity futures rose after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 each gained more than 1% Monday, while gold held near highs amid bubble concerns. Asian markets are finding fresh momentum after the S&P 500 logged its biggest two-day gain since June on Monday, with about 85% of companies beating profit estimates so far. Strong third-quarter earnings helped temper worries over the US government shutdown, while hopes of progress in US-China trade talks lifted sentiment. President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to follow through on a tariff hike on Chinese goods “if there isn’t a deal” by Nov. 1, but said he plans to meet President Xi Jinping next week. Earlier this month, markets were roiled as Trump raised the prospect of a sky-high tariff rate, citing China’s “hostile” export controls. Soybean futures rallied Monday, with growers holding out hope that Trump will make a deal with China to restart stalled American exports. Separately, shares of critical mineral producers jumped in Sydney on Tuesday after Trump signed an agreement with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to boost America’s access to rare earths and other key materials.
The Treasury 10-year yield traded below 4% and the dollar was steady early Tuesday as falling oil prices eased concern about the inflation backdrop before the release of consumer-price data.  After a delay caused by the US government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release September’s consumer price index on Friday. The data, originally slated for Oct. 15, will give Federal Reserve officials a key reading on inflation ahead of their Oct. 30 policy meeting. The data may take on greater importance due to the government shutdown-driven data drought, said Rick Gardner at RGA Investments. He still sees a Fed cut in October and noted that a key test will be Big Tech earnings, with investors looking for clarity on how spending on artificial intelligence is leading to profitability.  US After Hours CCK +8%, ZION +2.4% higher on earnings; DCGO +54.2% sharply higher after acquiring virtual care platform SteadyMD; BTSG -2.9% lower on guidance; STLD -0.6% ticks lower on earnings.

Nikkei +0.87% Hang Seng +1.65% CSI +1.53% Shanghai +1.20% Shenzen +1.63%

Eur$ 1.1654 CNH 7.1195 CNY 7.1180 JPY 151.08 GBP 1.3390 CHF 0.7933 RUB 90.9437 TRY 41.9512 WTI$ 57.38 -0.24% Gold -0.28% BTC 108,208 -2.62% ETH 3,872 -3.14%

S&P +0.04% Nasdaq +0.07% EuroStoxx +0.16% FTSE +0.26% Dax +0.16% SMI

Macro :
- Germany's Merz calls for deregulation to aid chemicals industry
- US Army Head Met With PE Firms on Infrastructure Overhaul: FT

Keep an eye on :
- ATO FP : Atos Sees FY Revenue Above EU8B, Saw About EU8.5B, Est. EU8.23B
- AMZN US : Amazon Says AWS Cloud Services Operating Normally After Outage
- BHP LN : BHP sees ‘resilient’ commodity demand despite slowdown in China - FT
- BMPS IM : Norges Bank Holds 3.16% of Monte Paschi: Consob Filing
- BNP FP : BNP Holds 5.39% in Generali Via Financial Instruments: Consob
- CAN LN : MultiChoice Says Canal+ Now Holds 94.39% of Its Shares in Issue
- DBK GY : Deutsche Bank Seeks to Block Ardagh’s Restructuring Deal: FT
- FLR US : Fluor Shares Gain on Report Activist Starboard Has Built Stake
- G IM : BNP Holds 5.39% in Generali Via Financial Instruments: Consob
- GLEN LN : Appian Capital, IFC to Invest $1b in Critical Minerals: FT
- GMAB DC : Genmab, Bicara Tumble on Competitive Threat from Rival J&J Drug
- HAL US : VoltaGrid, Halliburton to Provide Data Center Power Solutions
- HSBA LN : HSBC Names Lindberg CEO of UK Ringfenced Bank in Latest Change
- ITP FP : Interparfums 3Q Net Sales $430M
- META US : Meta is removing its Messenger apps for Windows and macOS
- STLA IM : Stellantis Plans to Hire 400 Workers to Bolster Mirafiori Plant
- TEVA IT : Teva, Prestige in Pact for Tuznue Commercialization in Europe

Le Figaro : À vous de juger» : la décision de justice condamnant Nicolas Sarkozy

«À vous de juger» : la décision de justice condamnant Nicolas Sarkozy analysée par Nicolas Baverez

TRIBUNE - La décision du tribunal judiciaire de Paris condamnant Nicolas Sarkozy a été aussi largement commentée que peu lue, pointe l’avocat et essayiste. Pour y remédier, et alors que l’ancien président de la République sera incarcéré à partir de ce mardi, il propose un commentaire étayé de larges extraits du jugement.

Le 25 septembre 2025, le tribunal judiciaire de Paris, dans l’affaire dite du financement libyen de la campagne présidentielle de 2007, a condamné Nicolas Sarkozy à une peine de cinq ans de prison assortie d’une exécution provisoire pour association de malfaiteurs, tout en le relaxant des chefs de recel de détournement de fonds publics, de corruption passive et de financement illégal de campagne électorale. L’ancien président de la République, sans le moindre recours possible, est ainsi incarcéré à la prison de la Santé à compter de ce mardi.

La décision a été aussi largement commentée que peu lue, notamment du fait de son format inhabituel de 380 pages. Cette longueur s’explique par le fait que le tribunal se prononce sur de nombreuses infractions connexes auxquelles l’ancien président est totalement étranger.

« Nous savons combien tu aimes la France : lettre à notre compagnon, Nicolas Sarkozy » : http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/politique/nous-savons-combien-tu-aimes-la-france-lettre-a-notre-compagnon-nicolas-sarkozy-20251020

La justice étant rendue au nom du peuple français, il paraît utile que les citoyens puissent se faire leur opinion. Les lecteurs du Figaro trouveront ainsi ci-après les extraits décisifs du jugement. Ils pourront les examiner à la lumière des principes fondamentaux de l’État de droit qui ont été fixés par quatre articles de la Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen du 26 août 1789 :

Article 7 : « Nul homme ne peut être accusé, arrêté ni détenu que dans les cas déterminés par la loi, et selon les formes qu’elle a prescrites. Ceux qui sollicitent, expédient, exécutent ou font exécuter des ordres arbitraires doivent être punis ; mais tout citoyen appelé ou saisi en vertu de la loi doit obéir à l’instant : il se rend coupable par résistance. »

Article 8 : « La loi ne peut établir que des peines strictement et évidemment nécessaires, et nul ne peut être puni qu’en vertu d’une loi établie et promulguée antérieurement au délit, et légalement appliquée. »

Article 9 : « Tout homme étant présumé innocent jusqu’à ce qu’il ait été déclaré coupable, s’il est jugé indispensable de l’arrêter, toute rigueur qui ne serait pas nécessaire pour s’assurer de sa personne doit être sévèrement réprimée par la loi. »

Article 16 : « Toute société dans laquelle la garantie des droits n’est pas assurée, ni la séparation des pouvoirs déterminée, n’a point de Constitution. »

La compétence du tribunal judiciaire de Paris

Page 19 : « Les délits reprochés, à les supposer constitués, portent sur la recherche auprès du régime libyen d’un financement illégal de la campagne présidentielle de Nicolas Sarkozy, reposant sur un pacte de corruption qui aurait été noué entre le candidat à l’élection présidentielle, Nicolas Sarkozy, et le régime libyen, Mouammar Kadhafi au premier chef. Dès lors, la relation de corruption serait établie entre, non pas le ministre, mais le candidat futur à l’élection présidentielle et le gouvernement libyen. Il aurait été aidé en cela par Brice Hortefeux, agissant non en qualité de ministre, mais de soutien au candidat, contribuant au pacte corruptif et à sa mise en œuvre. Ces faits, à les supposer établis, sont sans lien direct avec la conduite des affaires de l’État, relevant de leurs attributions, quoi qu’ils aient pu être commis concomitamment à l’exercice de celles-ci. Il s’en déduit dès lors l’absence de tout lien entre les faits poursuivis et la fonction ministérielle de Nicolas Sarkozy. »

Les déplacements en Libye, à l’automne 2005, de Nicolas Sarkozy, Brice Hortefeux et Claude Guéant sont au cœur du débat. Le tribunal en analyse longuement les motifs, les préparatifs, le contenu, les suites, les compare avec des déplacements analogues de ministres à l’étranger, examine leur continuité avec la politique étrangère conduite par Jacques Chirac. L’article 68-1 de la Constitution précise que « les membres du gouvernement sont pénalement responsables des actes accomplis dans l’exercice de leurs fonctions et qualifiés crimes ou délits au moment ils ont été commis. Ils sont jugés par la Cour de justice de la République. » Dès lors que le tribunal reconnaît que ces déplacements sont justifiés par les fonctions ministérielles de Nicolas Sarkozy, seule la Cour de justice de la République est autorisée à affirmer que les conditions de leur déroulement ne relèvent pas des affaires de l’État et sont dissociables des responsabilités gouvernementales qu’il exerçait.

La note dite « Moussa Koussa » publiée par Mediapart et les déclarations des anciens dignitaires libyens et de Ziad Takieddine

Page 223 : « La procédure permettait de retrouver une dépêche AFP du 4 mai 2012 selon laquelle Mustapha Abdeljalil, président du Conseil national de transition, avait estimé que la note était fausse et fabriquée, et qu’aucune référence à cette note n’apparaissait dans les archives libyennes. Les enquêteurs de la section de recherche de Paris concluaient à la forte probabilité que le document publié soit un faux. »

Pages 328 à 330 : « Les accusations initiales de corruption portées par les dignitaires du régime déchu de la grande Jamahiriya libyenne ont été relayées par un grand nombre de ressortissants libyens, mais également par Ziad Takieddine. (…) Force est cependant de constater (…) (que) les déclarations des dignitaires libyens sont intervenues dans le contexte de l’intervention de la coalition en Libye, postérieurement aux déclarations d’Alain Juppé et Nicolas Sarkozy appelant au départ de Mouammar Kadhafi, puis à la reconnaissance du CNT par le président de la République. L’ambassadeur Gouyette a souligné à cet égard que les Libyens étaient furieux. (…) Aucune archive, manuscrite, tapuscrite ou sonore, venue de Libye relative au financement de la campagne de Nicolas Sarkozy par cet État n’a été mise à jour, alors qu’il semble que certaines d’entre elles aient survécu à la guerre en Libye (…) et qu’il soit plausible qu’il y ait eu une pratique de l’enregistrement par ce régime, ce qui ressort de plusieurs témoignages. (…) S’agissant des témoignages recueillis auprès d’autres Libyens, ils sont souvent imprécis, manquant de cohérence entre eux (…), dans une très grande majorité indirects, les témoins se contentant de rapporter des propos qu’auraient tenus Mouammar Kadhafi ou ses proches. (…) Le tribunal doit analyser les déclarations de Ziad Takieddine et notes contenues dans ses archives, qui ont tenu une place importante dans les investigations. Les déclarations de l’intéressé ont pu être extrêmement variables. Au sein d’une même déclaration, il a pu mêler des informations vraies et d’autres fausses. (…) Nombre de ses déclarations se sont avérées mensongères. (…). Le tribunal rappelle que dans le cas du dossier “Karachi” sa condamnation porte, entre autres, sur des faits de faux témoignages, d’une gravité certaine. (…) Certaines notes contiennent des projets (…) qui ne relèvent que de son imagination. »

Le tribunal établit que la note publiée par Mediapart qui se trouve à l’origine du dossier est un faux. Il considère les déclarations des anciens dignitaires du régime déchu et de l’intermédiaire franco-libanais Ziad Takieddine comme non crédibles et dépourvues de force probante. Or ces anciens dignitaires et cet intermédiaire sont les seuls à soutenir que Nicolas Sarkozy, par l’intermédiaire de ses collaborateurs, aurait négocié, à l’automne 2005, avec le régime libyen, un financement illégal de sa campagne électorale.

Politique extérieure de la France et pacte de corruption

Page 340 : « Il résulte de ce qui précède que tant la relance de la coopération diplomatique avec la Libye que la visite de Mouammar Kadhafi en France ne paraissent pas après 2007 d’une nature et d’une intensité différente de ce qui s’est pratiqué dans d’autres pays, ou sous le quinquennat de Jacques Chirac. Elles semblent s’inscrire dans un contexte international favorable à ce pays et dans la continuité de ce qui avait été déjà entrepris. Le simple engagement de s’inscrire dans cette continuité est néanmoins susceptible de constituer un élément du pacte corruptif. »

Le tribunal, en violation du principe de séparation des pouvoirs et en contradiction avec sa propre décision reconnaissant l’immunité attachée à la fonction de président de la République, juge de la politique étrangère de la France. Contre toute logique, il considère que la continuité de la politique étrangère de la France entre Jacques Chirac et Nicolas Sarkozy et son alignement sur celle du reste de la communauté internationale sont des éléments à charge en faveur de l’existence d’un projet de pacte de corruption.

La preuve du délit d’association de malfaiteurs

Page 358 : « Le soin particulier que Claude Guéant et Brice Hortefeux ont mis à présenter Nicolas Sarkozy comme étant étranger à ce processus corrobore au contraire le fait qu’il en était parfaitement informé. »

Le fait de nier une accusation vaut preuve de la culpabilité. Le raisonnement s’inscrit dans la lignée d’Andreï Vychinski, procureur général de l’Union soviétique durant les procès de Moscou de 1938, qui qualifiait le juge d’« ingénieur des esprits » et affirmait que « la justice n’est pas faite pour protéger l’individu contre l’État, mais pour protéger l’État contre l’individu ».

La culpabilité

Page 362 : « (Est déclaré coupable), pour avoir, entre 2005 et le 15 mai 2007, (…) participé à un groupement formé ou une entente établie en vue de la préparation du délit de corruption active et passive d’agent public, Nicolas Sarkozy : en ayant, alors qu’il était ministre, président de l’UMP et candidat à l’élection présidentielle, mais agissant ainsi en dehors de ses fonctions, laissé ses plus proches collaborateurs et soutiens politiques sur lesquels il avait autorité et qui agissaient en son nom, à savoir Claude Guéant (directeur de cabinet, directeur de campagne) et Brice Hortefeux (membre du bureau politique et secrétaire général de l’UMP) et des intermédiaires officieux, tels que Ziad Takieddine : agir afin d’obtenir des soutiens financiers en vue du financement de sa campagne électorale ; se rencontrer de manière confidentielle en France ou en Libye (…) ; rencontrer des collaborateurs officiels de Mouammar Kadhafi (…) ; organiser des transferts de fonds publics de la Libye vers la France (…) ; et envisager des contreparties diplomatiques (le retour de la Libye sur la scène internationale, l’invitation de Mouammar Kadhafi en France), économiques (engagement sur le nucléaire civil) et juridiques (promesse de levée du mandat d’arrêt d’Abdallah Senoussi). »

L’association de malfaiteurs n’est le produit d’aucune action positive de Nicolas Sarkozy, qui n’est l’auteur d’aucune infraction. Elle est le produit d’une simple abstention, celle d’avoir laissé faire des proches alors qu’il n’existe aucune preuve ni qu’il était informé des rencontres de Claude Guéant et Brice Hortefeux avec Abdallah Senoussi ou d’autres intermédiaires, ni même que ses proches aient effectivement négocié ou envisagé de négocier un financement de la campagne électorale de Nicolas Sarkozy par la Libye. Il est par construction impossible d’apporter la preuve d’un fait qui n’a pas eu lieu. La culpabilité ne peut découler d’un faisceau d’indices que si ceux-ci sont solides. À défaut, le doute doit profiter à l’accusé.

«La fin de l’histoire n’est pas écrite», Nicolas Sarkozy exprime sa gratitude devant ses anciens collaborateurs : http://www.lefigaro.fr/choix-redaction/la-fin-de-l-histoire-n-est-pas-ecrite-nicolas-sarkozy-exprime-sa-gratitude-devant-ses-anciens-collaborateurs-20251009

La peine

Page 376 : « S’il est exact qu’il n’y a pas eu d’accroissement direct et immédiat de son patrimoine, l’association de malfaiteurs avait pour but de lui procurer un avantage dans la campagne électorale et de lui permettre d’accéder à la plus haute fonction et de l’exercer pendant cinq années. Il s’agit donc de faits d’une gravité exceptionnelle, de nature à altérer la confiance des citoyens dans ceux qui les représentent et sont censés agir dans le sens de l’intérêt général, mais aussi dans les institutions mêmes de la République.

Ces éléments rendent nécessaires le prononcé d’une peine d’emprisonnement sans suris, toute autre sanction étant inadéquate. (…) En outre, le prononcé d’une amende 100.000 euros est proportionné à la gravité des faits et au patrimoine, revenus et charges dont le condamné a justifié. Il y a également lieu de prononcer les peines d’interdiction de toute fonction publique pendant cinq ans et de privation des droits civils, civiques et de famille limitée au droit d’éligibilité pendant cinq ans. »

La peine obéit à une logique d’exemplarité et non de nécessité. Elle n’est pas fondée sur la légalité, donc sur le droit, mais sur l’exemplarité, donc sur la morale. La confiance des citoyens dans leurs représentants relève des citoyens eux-mêmes à travers leur vote et non de l’autorité judiciaire.

L’exécution provisoire

Page 376 : « L’exceptionnelle gravité des faits et le quantum prononcé rendent nécessaire le prononcé d’un mandat de dépôt (…) assorti de l’exécution provisoire, mesure indispensable pour garantir l’effectivité de la peine au regard de l’importance du trouble à l’ordre public causé par l’infraction. »

L’exécution provisoire est une mesure d’exception qui tend à devenir une règle de droit commun. Elle répond à la nécessité d’effectivité de la peine et de prévention de la récidive. Cette nécessité est exclue en l’espèce. Les risques de fuite de Nicolas Sarkozy ou de récidive sont inexistants. L’exceptionnelle gravité des faits justifiant le trouble à l’ordre public ne relève pas de la légalité, mais de la subjectivité du juge. L’exécution provisoire vide de sens la procédure d’appel. En mettant immédiatement à exécution une peine d’emprisonnement, le tribunal prive Nicolas Sarkozy de son droit à la présomption d’innocence et l’expose à une rigueur qui ne relève d’aucune nécessité pour s’assurer de sa personne.

FT : European bank mergers can succeed even though BBVA failed

European bank mergers can succeed even though BBVA failed
This year is set to be the busiest in terms of deal value for the continent in more than a decade

Spanish bank Sabadell saw off a hostile takeover approach from larger rival BBVA last week, putting an end to a vicious 18-month battle. That must be disappointing for Carlos Torres, the BBVA chair who had aggressively pursued the deal. But not everyone who fought on his side need despair.

The most pessimistic take on the affair, put forward by some of Torres’s allies, is that Sabadell’s shareholders have not only shot down a good deal for themselves, but also caught any number of other potential banking mergers in the crossfire.

After all, Europe needs transformative cross-border tie-ups to compete with American investment banks and fund major long-term projects across the region. But if even a straightforward domestic combination can’t get past political opposition, what bank chief would be foolish enough to try?

BBVA played on these concerns during its campaign and there were signs policymakers in Brussels were listening, with the European Commission warning the Spanish government for trying to interfere. 


It is not wrong that Europe would benefit from more deals. But this one was ultimately undone by shareholders, not politicians. And while a combination might have made sense at the right price, it wouldn’t actually have benefited the continent much. The Spanish banking sector is heavily concentrated and fairly efficient, and most of the rest of BBVA’s business is focused on emerging markets. A deal would hardly boost Germany’s Mittelstand or keep the wolves of Wall Street from the door.

True, the noise around this high-profile failure could cast a psychological chill that goes beyond its practical impact. But BBVA’s failure does not really signal the impossibility of completing a bank acquisition. Rather, it shows it’s unwise to try to snap up a lender with a big retail shareholder base on a hostile basis while paying only a small premium — especially during tense regional elections.

Listen closely, and European bank M&A is actually drumming along quite well. This year is set to be the busiest in terms of deal value in more than a decade, with over €35bn of transactions completed or pending, according to LSEG data and Lex analysis. Multibillion-euro deals have been made in Germany and Italy, as well as a few cross-border combos such as French group BPCE’s €6.4bn acquisition of Portugal’s Novo Banco and the €7bn sale of Santander’s Polish arm to Austria’s Erste Group. 


Unicredit’s one-sided courtship of Commerzbank shows big deals are extremely difficult to get done — especially when the target company’s board isn’t keen — but it is not clear they are any harder than a week ago. And while going two steps forward and one step back might not be the most efficient marching rhythm, it eventually gets to the same place.

FT : Europe’s defence boom takes to the high seas

Europe’s defence boom takes to the high seas
Activity in the fragmented maritime sector is hotting up

Where money flows, corporate action follows. The sea change in European military spending has given rise to piecemeal acquisitions, joint ventures and fundraisings as companies attempt to trade and share capabilities. So far, the action has largely been focused on land and air equipment. But there are signs that activity in the maritime sector is hotting up. 

The latest example is Thyssenkrupp’s spin-off of its marine division, whose maiden voyage on Monday proved a remarkable success. Shares in the German conglomerate’s submarine and ship-making unit, ended the day at €81.10, valuing Thyssenkrupp Marine Services’ equity at €5.15bn. 

The carve-out — which leaves Thyssenkrupp as the majority shareholder with 51 per cent — enables the embattled steel conglomerate to take advantage of a propitious moment. Europe’s defence index has trebled since February 2022. Even assuming, boldly, that ongoing wars come to an end, Europe has to make up for decades of under-investment in fleets, tanks and other military kit.


TKMS sees its “attainable” market doubling to €61bn by 2033, based on proposed government spending on ships, submarines and associated technology. 

True, there are others competing for those euros and dollars. TKMS knows as much, having recently lost out to Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for an order to build a fleet of Australian frigates, worth up to A$10bn ($6.5bn) in its first phase. But the company is well positioned, especially given its integrated offering comprising vessels above and below the sea, along with sonar and sensor systems.


This is borne out by TKMS’s €18.6bn order book; sure, this is for massive bits of kit that can take six years to build, but that number equates to 10 times 2022 sales. Consensus sees revenue rising by 50 per cent to 2033. Operating margins meantime have been lifted to more than 5 per cent and the group is guiding for this to rise to 7 per cent over the medium-term.

Consolidation is a deeper undercurrent in the industry. Naval defence is a fragmented market. Flagships include Italy’s Fincantieri, Europe’s largest shipbuilder, which last year bought defence group Leonardo’s submarine unit, Wass. Germany’s Rheinmetall last month stepped into the waters with a deal to buy privately owned Naval Vessels Lürssen; the tank and munitions maker wants to build “a naval powerhouse” in Germany.

That leaves the question open as to whether TKMS might — in future — buy or be bought. Thyssenkrupp has so far declined to participate: political vacillations last year stymied a proposed acquisition by US private equity firm Carlyle after lengthy talks.

Meanwhile, the unit’s strong standalone prospects are sufficient cheer for its parent. The day one performance of the demerged entity already gives it an equity value far above the €2bn-€4bn analysts had been pencilling in to their valuations of Thyssenkrupp. Yet with TKMS trading on 45 times this year’s estimated earnings — a 13 per cent discount to similarly-growing rival Fincantieri on S&P Capital IQ estimates — there is fuel in the tank yet.

FT : University tuition fees in England to be linked permanently to inflation

University tuition fees in England to be linked permanently to inflation
Government promises ‘higher standards’ in higher education and ‘renewed focus’ on skills in long-awaited white paper

Ministers will permanently link tuition fee rises to inflation in England but restrict increases to universities that meet higher quality standards, the Department for Education said on Monday.

The long-awaited government white paper on skills and post-16 education also set out plans to address the funding shortfall in research, noting that the proposed changes “may result in funding a lower volume of research”.

The proposed reforms come amid widespread cost-cutting in higher education as providers come under mounting financial pressure from a long-term funding squeeze and a clampdown on immigration that has dampened international demand.

The tuition fee cap, which is set at £9,535 for the current academic year, would increase in line with forecast inflation for the next two years, with automatic increases to be legislated “when parliamentary time allows”, the white paper said.

However, fee rises would become “conditional on higher education providers achieving a higher quality threshold” to protect taxpayer money, it noted.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told MPs that it was right that universities delivered “the world-class education students expect if they are going to charge the maximum tuition fee”.

“These reforms will ensure value for money, higher standards across our universities and colleges and a renewed focus on the skills our economy needs,” she added.

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of lobby group Universities UK, said the decision to raise fees in line with inflation would “help to halt the long-term erosion of universities’ financial sustainability” following a decade of fee freezes.


The white paper also outlined proposals to strengthen the role of the Office for Students, enabling the sector regulator to “impose recruitment limits where growth risks poor quality” and toughen its management and governance conditions of registration.

Governing bodies must ensure they have “diverse skills and capability to oversee strategy, plan prudently, understand and manage risk”, should “not sign off unachievable plans” and should “challenge whether their organisation is specialising appropriately”, the policy document added. 

The OfS will also be given reinforced investigative powers to tackle abuse of the system by recruitment agents and poor quality provision by university franchises.

Universities will be encouraged to “specialise in areas of strength” through a more strategic distribution of research funding, and to explore “more consolidation and formal collaboration” to secure the sector’s financial sustainability.

Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities, welcomed the tuition fee announcement but urged the government to rethink the international tuition fee levy, details of which are to be set out in the Budget on November 26.

Last month the government announced it would bring back maintenance grants for disadvantaged students on priority courses. The reintroduction of grants, which were abolished by the Conservative government in 2016, will be paid for via a 6 per cent levy on international student fees.

The levy, announced as part of the immigration white paper in May, has come under criticism from universities, with sector leaders warning that the £621mn-a-year hit will lead to further redundancies.

The equivalent of more than 15,000 job cuts have already been announced in the past year, according to the University and College Union.

Acknowledging the flaws of the current post-16 education system, the paper vowed to take a “more joined-up approach across government” to deliver the industrial strategy and address the high number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

The new system will provide greater flexibility through the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, a credit-based system that will unify higher and further education finance from January 2027, and the growth and skills levy that funds apprenticeships, with plans to allow employers to fund short training courses.

The proposals also included a new “stepping stone” qualification for students with lower attainment before they retake GCSE maths and English following widespread criticism of the current system that sees hundreds of thousands of teenagers resit these exams each year.

FT : Trump signals backing for Aukus nuclear deal with Australia

Trump signals backing for Aukus nuclear deal with Australia
Comments from US president will ease concerns in Canberra that Washington was cooling on pact

Donald Trump has offered strong support for Aukus, saying the deal to help Australia obtain a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines would boost deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific.

Sitting beside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Monday, the US president offered his first public backing for the trilateral programme that his predecessor Joe Biden signed with the UK and Australia.

“We’ve worked on this long and hard, and we’re starting that process right now, and I think it’s really moving along very rapidly, very well,” Trump told reporters before his meeting with Albanese.

His comments will be welcomed in Australia amid concerns about a Pentagon review of Aukus launched by Elbridge Colby, the under-secretary of defence for policy who has been a public sceptic of the submarine deal.

John Phelan, the US secretary of the navy who joined the Trump-Albanese meeting, said the Pentagon was trying to “improve” the original Aukus framework to benefit the US, UK and Australia.

“We’re really trying to . . . make it better and clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the prior agreement. So it should be a win-win for everybody.”

But Trump later added: “There shouldn’t be any more clarifications because we’re just, we’re just going now full steam ahead.”

Under Aukus, the US will sell a number of Virginia-class submarines to Australia while the three countries work on a new vessel called the SSN Aukus that will not come into service until the end of the next decade.

Critics of Aukus in the US, including Colby, have voiced concern about Washington selling submarines at a time when American shipyards are struggling to produce enough to satisfy the US’s own demands.

Charles Edel, an Australia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump had provided strong support for Aukus.

“While there have been questions raised about the viability of Aukus, and what exactly the Department of Defense review will say about it, Trump appeared to push those concerns aside, stating that there were only ‘minor details’ left to be worked out, and that Aukus was moving ahead ‘full steam’.”

Trump and Albanese also signed a rare earths deal that will see Australia help the US process the minerals. As part of the deal, the two nations will within six months each contribute at least $1bn to projects in their countries that will produce rare earths for buyers in the US and Australia.

Canberra had pitched the country’s rare earth resources as a bargaining chip in talks with the US, which is looking to secure more supplies of critical minerals from outside China for its defence and energy industries.

The agreement comes two weeks after Beijing unveiled a sweeping export control regime for critical minerals that angered the US. Trump has threatened to put an additional 100 per cent tariff on imports from China in response.

The president is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea on October 29 when the leaders attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Trump on Monday said he believed that he and Xi would agree on a “fantastic deal” at their meeting in South Korea.

“It’s going to be a great trade deal, it’s going to be fantastic for both countries, and it’s going to be fantastic for the entire world,” Trump said.

He said he believed that “China will come to the table and make a very fair deal” to avoid what the US president said would amount to a total US tariff rate of 147 per cent on imports from China.

But he also repeated his threat to impose additional tariffs and other countermeasures on China if the two sides cannot reach an accommodation.

“They threatened us with rare earths, and I threatened them with tariffs, but I could also threaten them with many other things like aeroplanes . . . because they can’t get parts for their aeroplanes,” Trump said.

He also said he would likely discuss Taiwan with Xi. China wants Trump to express opposition to Taiwanese independence, in what would be a shift away from the traditional line that the US does not support independence.

“When I’m in South Korea with President Xi, we’re going to be talking about a lot of things. I assume that’s going to be one of the things, but I’m not going to talk about that now,” Trump said.

Taiwanese officials are nervous about Trump’s upcoming meeting with Xi because of concerns that he might agree to a deal that undermines US support for Taiwan.

FT : BHP sees ‘resilient’ commodity demand despite slowdown in China

BHP sees ‘resilient’ commodity demand despite slowdown in China
World’s biggest miner by market capitalisation locked in negotiations over iron ore with Beijing-controlled buyer

BHP has warned that it expects slower growth in China for the rest of the year but maintained a positive view of demand for commodities as it continues to hold talks with China over iron ore contracts. 

The Australian company, the largest global miner by market capitalisation, reported a 1 per cent decline in iron ore production to 64mn tonnes during the three months to September, due to maintenance upgrades of its facilities in Western Australia.

Its copper production increased 4 per cent while steelmaking coal production grew 8 per cent in the quarter. 

BHP has been embroiled in negotiations with China’s state-run iron ore buyer over the terms of future purchasing amid reports that the world’s largest consumer of iron ore has stopped buying some of the miner’s products.

Melbourne-based BHP has refused to comment on commercial negotiations with China Mineral Resources Group, which co-ordinates much of the country’s iron ore purchasing.

BHP made no reference to the talks in its production report but pointed to a slowdown in demand in the coming months. 

“Overall macroeconomic signals for commodity demand remain resilient, and global growth forecasts are moving higher,” said Mike Henry, BHP chief executive. “While we expect some deceleration in growth in [the second half] of [2025], in China we still expect GDP growth of [about] 5 per cent for the year.”

BHP shares opened 2 per cent higher following the release of the production numbers. The company holds its annual meeting this week.

The Australian company, which attempted to buy UK rival Anglo American last year, has increased its exposure to copper through acquisitions in Australia and South America in the past three years and has forged ahead with a major plan to produce potash in Canada as it has looked to reduce its reliance on iron ore.

In contrast, BHP scaled back its steelmaking coal operations with the downsizing of a mine in Queensland after the state imposed higher taxes on commodity companies.

>>> US After Hours Summary: CCK +8%, ZION +2.4% higher on earnings; DCGO +54.2%

After Hours Summary: CCK +8%, ZION +2.4% higher on earnings; DCGO +54.2% sharply higher after acquiring virtual care platform SteadyMD; BTSG -2.9% lower on guidance; STLD -0.6% ticks lower on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: CCK +8%, HBCP +2.9%, ZION +2.4%, WTFC +0.6%, RLI +0.3%,

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: DCGO +54.2% (acquires virtual care platform SteadyMD), CORZ +4.5% (trades higher after hours on report that ISS advised voting against CoreWeave (CRWV) deal, according to Bloomberg), PSX +1% (binding open season for Western Gateway with KMI), HAL +0.9% (strategic collaboration with VoltaGrid), BANC +0.8% (expands Los Angeles presence), SUN +0.5% (increases quarterly distribution), KMI +0.3% (binding open season for Western Gateway with PSX), GPRK +0.2% (provides Q3 operational update), GHM +0.1% (acquires Xdot Bearing Technologies),

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: BTSG -2.9% (guidance; also secondary common stock offering), CADE -1.9%, SFBS -1.8%, IPAR -1.8% (guidance), STLD -0.6%, WRB -0.1%,

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: OPRA -0.4% (adds deep research agent into Opera Neon), TEVA -0.1% (enters license agreement with Prestige Biopharma),

FT : XTX discrimination case against Mazars over billionaire Russian owner dismi

XTX discrimination case against Mazars over billionaire Russian owner dismissed
Alexander Gerko will appeal against decision after court finds accounting firm refused services because of his nationality

A UK court has dismissed XTX’s claim against Mazars in a case that centred on the accounting firm’s refusal to work for the trading group because its billionaire owner was Russian.

The London-based trading group sued Mazars in August 2022 for breaching the UK Equality Act by discriminating on the grounds of race when it declined to work for XTX as Alexander Gerko held Russian citizenship.

Gerko renounced his Russian citizenship in December 2022, about 10 months after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and is not the subject of any sanctions. He also holds British citizenship.

The UK County Court for Central London last week dismissed XTX’s case against Mazars, saying the accounting group at the time only refused to provide services in France and the US, not the UK.

However, the judge said if XTX had been seeking services from Mazars in the UK, “there would have been direct discrimination”.

“The nationality of Dr Gerko was why the services were refused,” the judge said, according to a copy of the judgment seen by the Financial Times. “There is no basis for saying it was reasonably necessary not to engage with XTX simply due to Dr Gerko’s nationality.”

On Monday, Gerko said the judgment “confirms that Mazars’ actions would have been considered race discrimination” if XTX had been seeking services in the UK. He said XTX is based in Britain, where most of its employees live, adding: “We fully intend to appeal the judgment.” 

“We were seeking a global consolidated payroll services provider (which includes also non-UK offices), it’s puzzling why it was determined that we were not seeking services in [the] UK,” Gerko said. 

The judge said “it is clear from the emails that XTX approached Mazars Global for a transfer of all payrolls in 5 countries including the UK”, but that the services being sought initially were for France and the US. 

XTX’s case against Mazars was brought after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when professional services groups faced pressure to refuse to work for Russian clients or companies with any perceived links to the country. 

Mazars declined to comment. The group is now known as Forvis Mazars after a merger deal in late 2023.

Gerko is one of the UK’s richest people, worth $11.4bn according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, and earned £682mn from XTX’s trading profits last year. He is also the UK’s top individual taxpayer, according to Sunday Times estimates.

Gerko has vehemently denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, donated millions of pounds to Ukrainian charities, and called on the UK to expand its sanctions list. 

XTX makes money by using vast amounts of computing power to detect tiny margins on millions of trades across currency, debt, equity, commodity and crypto markets. It handles about $250bn worth of trades every day and uses 25,000 artificial intelligence chips to power its trading.

The Information : Inside Hyperliquid, Ground Zero for the Latest Crypto Controve

Inside Hyperliquid, Ground Zero for the Latest Crypto Controversy
Harvard grad Jeff Yan’s trading platform is thriving on crypto fans’ love for anonymity and leverage.

The Takeaway
  • Hyperliquid handles over $13 billion in daily trades, generating $1 billion in annualized revenue.
  • Exchange liquidated over $10 billion in trades during a recent crypto crash, drawing scrutiny.
  • Hyperliquid bootstrapped growth via its HYPE token, which now has a $10 billion market cap.

When a crypto crash ricocheted across markets earlier this month, the spotlight landed on Hyperliquid, an exchange that handles more than $13 billion in trades a day with around 11 employees based largely in Singapore.

The two-year-old exchange is little known outside crypto markets but wildly popular among traders for offering anonymity, high leverage and giving away a token that has soared in value. Hyperliquid has no outside investors and generates more than $1 billion in annualized revenue, based on the trading volume and fees it discloses.

The platform drew unprecedented attention after the crash because it liquidated more than $10 billion in trades that day, potentially exacerbating the sell-off. Hyperliquid also came under scrutiny after two of its user accounts placed massive bets against the market just minutes before President Donald Trump announced a big increase in tariffs on China.

“Hyperliquid is extremely unique,” said Ash Egan, founder of Archetype, a crypto venture fund. “You don’t see it that often where successful founders make the decision to entirely self-fund” a startup before launching a token, said Egan, whose fund owns Hyperliquid tokens.

Jeff Yan, a 2017 Harvard graduate who grew up in Silicon Valley, created Hyperliquid in response to the collapse of FTX, a centralized exchange that held users’ assets. Hyperliquid is decentralized, meaning its algorithms match buyers and sellers, and its customers maintain custody of their own assets. Yan has grand ambitions for Hyperliquid, hoping it can trade all kinds of assets.

The exchange, developed by a team based in Singapore, doesn’t allow U.S. traders, but they can access it using virtual private networks. Nevertheless, Hyperliquid is growing fast–its trading volume is now equal to 10% that of a comparable product on Binance–the world’s biggest crypto exchange. Its growing size and use of derivatives is causing concerns it could accelerate a meltdown in the market.

Yan, a son of Chinese immigrants, went to math camps growing up and attended Palo Alto High School in the heart of Silicon Valley. He won silver and gold medals at the International Physics Olympiad, the most prestigious annual physics competition for high school students around the world. After attending Harvard University, he joined Hudson River Trading, a high-frequency trading firm in New York, as an algorithm developer but left after less than a year.

Yan is deeply technical and ambitious, people who know him say, and has attracted talented people to his projects.

His first startup, founded in 2018, was a prediction market that failed. He then set up a trading shop called Chameleon Trading in Puerto Rico, where he hired Denis Yarats, later a co-founder of artificial intelligence search engine Perplexity AI, and Jacob Jackson, now a researcher at coding assistant Cursor. The firm soon became a major trader. It never transacted on FTX because Yan didn’t trust the platform, Yan previously said.

When FTX collapsed at the end of 2022, Yan started building Hyperliquid. Instead of raising venture funding, Hyperliquid bootstrapped its growth by issuing its own token, HYPE. Major venture firms including Paradigm and Founders Fund expressed interest in investing in Hyperliquid, but it turned them all down, according to people familiar with the matter. Instead, it gave away 31% of the total supply of tokens to users based on their trading volume. Known as an airdrop, the giveaway attracted more users.

“When Hyperliquid started, the standard thing to do was raise big rounds from VCs and generate a lot of excitement — raising one round after another,” Yan said in a podcast interview on Wu Blockchain in August. “But that always felt kind of fake to me. That’s not real progress.”

The firm made HYPE even more attractive by directing most of the fees generated by the trading platform to buy outstanding tokens, reducing the supply and boosting its price. HYPE’s price jumped from $3.90 per token when it was issued last November to $38 currently. The value of HYPE tokens in circulation is about $10 billion, making it one of the most successful token launches in history.

The 310 million tokens Hyperliquid gave customers were worth $1.2 billion immediately after the airdrop. “It’s inspiring to see tens of thousands of community members secure life-changing wealth,” Yan tweeted a day after the token launch. Nearly all the prominent crypto funds—Paradigm, a16z, Pantera, Galaxy Digital, Hivemind, CoinFund—now own HYPE tokens, according to their disclosures and The Information’s reporting.

And Hyperliquid is attracting capital from U.S. stock market investors. A Nasdaq-listed U.S. company, Hyperliquid Strategies, in July announced plans to accumulate $888 million HYPE tokens, allowing investors to effectively buy the token like a stock. Bob Diamond, former CEO of Barclays, will be the company’s chair. The transaction hasn’t closed, however, and the stock has fallen 64% since the announcement. Another Nasdaq-listed stock, Hyperion DeFi, has bought 1.7 million HYPE tokens, worth $59 million based on the current token price.

Hyperliquid has attracted traders by offering them anonymity and high leverage. Most of the platform’s trading volume is in perpetual futures, highly leveraged derivatives with no expiration dates, which are not available on U.S. platforms.

Since Hyperliquid just provides trading software but doesn’t act as a broker, it’s not responsible for verifying users’ identities. Trading by anonymous users created a storm of speculation on Oct. 10 when two accounts bet the market would fall just minutes before Trump’s surprise announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese goods. Traders speculated that whoever made the bets must have been tipped off by someone at the White House.

“Hyperliquid is benefiting from the fact that there’s a lot of people who want to get anonymous trading,” said Matt Zhang, founder of crypto fund manager Hivemind.

Those two bets paid off dramatically when the crypto market tumbled following Trump’s announcement. High leverage accelerated the sell-off. Hyperliquid’s algorithms forced traders to close out their positions to protect the exchange from big losses. More than $10 billion worth of trades were liquidated on Hyperliquid that day, out of a total of at least $19 billion that day, the largest in the industry’s history, according to CoinGlass, exacerbating the market sell-off.

Traders who use leverage always risk potential liquidation when markets fall. Like other crypto exchanges, Hyperliquid forcibly closed trades during the market turmoil, leaving many traders surprised and disrupting their hedging strategy. Hyperliquid is not regulated globally, which means users have little recourse if anything goes wrong.

Hyperliquid discloses little information about its core team. Besides Yan, most members are anonymous or use pseudonyms, including another co-founder listed as “iliensinc” who also went to Harvard. A core contributor who goes by the name Xulian is responsible for go-to-market strategy. Hyperliquid employees came from California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and previously worked at Citadel, Hudson River Trading and Airtable, a maker of productivity apps, according to Hyperliquid’s website.

Yan spends most of his time working on improving Hyperliquid’s blockchain and encouraging companies to launch products on it. He often responds to developers’ questions on Telegram within 24 hours.

“He doesn’t have a board of directors. He doesn’t have investors calling him up and yelling at him and telling him he needs to do this or do that,” said David Schamis, founding partner of private equity firm Atlas Merchant Capital, who will be the CEO of Hyperliquid Strategies, the public company that plans to hold Hyperliquid tokens. “It’s great because he can keep his mind totally focused on the mission.”

Hyperliquid’s mission goes beyond crypto. It says it wants to “house all finance” by letting people launch a range of investment products on its blockchain. “The idea is that today on Hyperliquid, you really only can trade crypto perpetuals, but eventually you might be able to trade public equities, indexes, private companies, commodities and maybe even interest rates,” said Alvin Hsia, co-founder of Ventuals, which is developing a way for investors to bet on valuations of private companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. It’s “manifesting their vision of becoming the everything exchange,” he said.

For instance, another company, Trade.XYZ, recently launched the perpetual trading of an equity index on Hyperliquid, which allows traders to bet on prices of stocks using leverage without having to own the actual shares.

For Yan, Hyperliquid will not have succeeded until it breaks out of crypto and reinvents how people interact with finance. “If Hyperliquid fails, I think by and large it will likely be because we as a community didn’t build something of real value for the world,” Yan said on a panel at a Singapore conference this month.

That also means Hyperliquid will be pushing regulatory boundaries. While it operates offshore, Hyperliquid has shown some interest in U.S. crypto policymaking. In May, it advocated for the role of decentralized exchanges in a letter submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The letter was in response to the agency’s request for comment on perpetual-style derivatives.

If Hyperliquid wants to enter the U.S. market, it could consider buying a licensed entity or start its own, although it would likely have to reduce the leverage it offers.

Hivemind’s Zhang said much of what Hyperliquid does will eventually be allowed in the U.S. “I think people are still having the Biden administration hangover—people haven’t really realized how much has changed in the last 10 months,” he said.