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European airlines including Aer Lingus, Finnair, LOT, Wizz, and Ryanair suffered a second wave of bomb threats yesterday. No pattern has been detected around the unprecedented recent increase in threats, and no explosives were found. Authorities and airlines say they are monitoring the situation and working closely together. “To have this in a coordinated way, I don’t think we’ve seen this before,” Ben Smith, the chief executive of Air France-KLM, observed when speaking with journalists to discuss third-quarter earnings. “It’s unfortunate and we hope it won’t give our consumers any reason to slow down or reduce their travel plan.”

 

Bloomberg

Blood banks in France have fallen victim to cyberattacks targeting refrigeration systems. The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said the attacks involved hackers remotely raising temperatures in cold storage units containing blood products, although EFS reported that "no blood products were lost and no health impact was identified." EFS is now collaborating with the French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and the Ministry of Health to enhance equipment monitoring. The incident is part of a broader wave of refrigeration-focused cyberattacks affecting supermarkets across Europe, resulting in significant food spoilage.

 

CNBC

Google's use of press publications ‌by the company's AI chatbot Gemini may in certain circumstances infringe copyright rules, according to an adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union, Europe's highest court. "When ​an LLM-driven chatbot retrieves a publication ​from a press publisher's website, reuses ⁠that publication to generate an ​answer, and provides that answer to ​the user, the press publisher's right may be infringed in certain circumstances," said Advocate General Maciej ​Szpunar, who was advising the ​court ⁠in a case brought by Hungarian website operator Like Company against Google.

 

Reuters

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is facing questions over whether its board properly approved a review into its handling of whistleblower Simon Andriesz. An email from FCA chairman Ashley Alder shows he commissioned the review and appointed a non-executive director to lead it, informing the board only the evening before its announcement. This appears to contradict chief executive Nikhil Rathi’s claim to MPs that the board had requested the review. John McDonnell, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, said: "Either one person took the decision and it has since been presented, inaccurately, as the considered view of the board, or the board did deliberate and failed to keep any record of it. Neither is acceptable." He added that he would ask the Treasury Committee to investigate.

 

The Times

UK finance minister John Healey has signalled Treasury support for reviewing post-financial-crisis capital rules that lenders say constrain mortgage and business lending. Small-business lending remains about a third below its level 15 years ago, while UK banks' average capital ratio was 15.1% in the first quarter. Banks argue overlapping buffers and mortgage models incorporating early-1990s defaults and a 25% house-price fall impose excessive caution. The Financial Policy Committee will review requirements later this year after an initial relaxation last December.

 

The Daily Telegraph

Despite good access to venture capital and local companies including Roche and Novartis being among the biggest spenders on R&D, innovation in the Swiss pharmaceutical industry has dipped for the second consecutive year, as the country lags international rivals in digital research and clinical trials. China is rapidly emerging as a rival centre for developing medicines and running trials. “Everything points to China being at the forefront within the next one or two years,” observed Michael Grass, lead author of the study by business association Scienceindustries. “The country is up everywhere and is still only below average on productivity.” Switzerland's ranking for innovation and technology leadership slipped one place from last year to ninth in the study; in 2024, it was in second place.

 

Bloomberg

UBS has reduced spending on consultants by $825m and cut over 5,500 jobs this year, streamlining operations after integrating Credit Suisse.

 

Financial Times

The UK's business, innovation, science and trade committee has said Britain remains "dangerously exposed" to China for critical minerals used in defence, electric vehicles, AI and net-zero industries. Chair Liam Byrne said Britain cannot "re-arm", build AI or deliver net zero without securing them. China processes more than 80% of global rare earth metals and dominates battery inputs including graphite and manganese. MPs said UK governments have failed for more than 15 years to diversify supply chains.

 

Financial Times

The Daily Telegraph

Reuters reports that a global shortage of air traffic controllers is fueling cross-border recruitment of experienced staff. Some countries are tapping foreign talent to fill vacancies even as their own workers are recruited elsewhere. Globally, 71,000 new air traffic controllers will be needed by 2034, according to a 2025 forecast from aviation training company CAE. Aviation officials say recruitment alone cannot solve the problem: countries need to ⁠train more ​controllers while improving retention.

 

Reuters

The Bank of England and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority learnt of Google Cloud's 20 October outage from affected firms at 9.09am, more than two hours after a London data centre lost power. The failure disrupted Revolut and affected banking, payments, operations and risk management systems. Google Cloud became a designated critical third party in July. Regulators will review Google's response, affected firms and their own arrangements. Google supplied information during the outage after failing to provide the initial alert.

 

The Times

A coalition of environmental and human rights groups has filed 14 legal complaints against JBS, the world's largest meat company, alleging money laundering linked to illegal Amazon deforestation. The complaints target JBS's financial partners in Europe, including Barclays and BlackRock, and audit advisors including EY and KPMG.

 

Daily Mail

Google has expanded voluntary exit packages to staff in Canada, France, Germany, Japan ​and Switzerland as the Alphabet-owned search engine company seeks to manage increasing costs amid heavy investment in artificial intelligence. "In 2025, some of our teams introduced a voluntary ⁠exit program with severance," a Google spokesperson said. "This past summer, in June, we expanded ​this program globally in a few countries to support our important work ahead."

 

Reuters

Eurozone inflation has risen to a three-year high of 4% in October, up from 3.8% in September, as surging energy costs continue to put pressure on household spending and increase expectations of further interest rate rises. Energy inflation accelerated to 20.8%, its highest level since January 2023, while core inflation remained unchanged at 2.5% and services inflation edged up to 3.3%. The increase marks the eighth consecutive month that inflation has exceeded the European Central Bank’s 2% target, strengthening expectations of a 0.25 percentage point interest rate increase in December.

 

Euronews

Financlal Times

The Bank of England has raised interest rates from 3.75% to 4%, marking the first increase since August 2023. Officials warned that further increases are likely unless the Middle East conflict is resolved and global energy prices stabilise. Governor Andrew Bailey said the increase was necessary to contain inflation driven by rising oil and energy prices, but noted that the rise should not be viewed as the start of an inevitable series of increases. The Bank now expects inflation to peak at 4.9% in the middle of next year and does not expect it to return to the 2% target until 2028. The decision to increase the rate to 4% was backed by eight of the nine members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, with one voting for a larger increase to 4.25%.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

The Daily Telegraph

The Guardian

Asos has reported a return to profitability for the year ending August, posting a £24.4m pre-tax profit compared with a £282m loss a year earlier, despite suffering a cyber attack that disrupted trading by an estimated £47m–£94m. Revenue declined 9% to £2.2bn, while GMV fell 5% to £2.35bn. The retailer's adjusted pre-tax loss narrowed to £46.4m, ahead of analysts' expectations of a £61m loss, reflecting progress under chief executive José Antonio Ramos's turnaround strategy. The cyber incident prompted a temporary suspension of marketing and customer-related activities, although Asos has confirmed that payment information and account passwords were not compromised.

 

Reuters

City AM

Research published in Annals of Internal Medicine has found that people whose long Covid affects multiple body systems are far less likely to improve than overall recovery estimates suggest. About 60% of people whose long Covid was dominated by changes in smell or taste had improved by three years, compared with less than 19% of those with symptoms affecting multiple body systems, according to the study of 1,019 adults who still had probable long Covid a year after their initial infection. 

 

Bloomberg