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U.S. President Trump says he has reached a one-year agreement with China on rare earth supplies. Beijing has paused export controls on rare earths, while Washington cut fentanyl-linked tariffs, following a meeting between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea. “Rare earth issue has been settled,” Trump said, observing that the one-year agreement would be negotiated annually. However, Beijing’s rare earths restrictions announced in early April still remain in place. In return, Beijing said it will “work very hard to stop fentanyl.”

 

CNBC

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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said between $7bn and $14bn in U.S. gross domestic product will not be recovered after the government shutdown. According to the federal agency's report, the shutdown will also reduce U.S. GDP by one to two percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2025. CBO director Phillip Swagel said: “In CBO’s assessment, the shutdown will delay federal spending and have a negative effect on the economy that will mostly, but not entirely, reverse once the shutdown ends.”

 

Axios

Reuters

The Guardian

Executives at the ninth Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, say there are signs of lending standards weakening in the market for private lending to large companies—although fears of a risky bubble emerging in the private credit market are overblown. "The risk is when you have too much leverage and not enough liquidity you tend to have problems and I don't see us having that right now even in private credit," Anne Walsh, chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners told attendees at the annual flagship finance conference.

 

Reuters

Executives at Blackstone, Apollo and Ares have said the firms had no exposure to U.S. companies First Brands and Tricolor at the time of their bankruptcies, and the private credit industry had been unfairly linked to the collapses. Daniel Leiter, a senior managing director at Blackstone, told a British House of Lords committee examining the rise of private markets that "There has been a lot of misinformation," and said private credit was fundamentally safer than bank funding, which risked wider contagion.

 

Reuters

U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves in Lexington, Kentucky, has been convinced by a coalition of banking groups to temporarily block enforcement of a U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulation—the so-called “open banking” rule—aimed at making it easier for consumers to switch financial service providers. The Bank Policy Institute, Kentucky Bankers Association and Forcht Bank said they welcomed the judge's order. The decision "ensures banks won’t be forced to invest time and resources preparing for a rule that is currently being rewritten," they said.

 

Reuters

A Reuters tally illustrates how companies worldwide, including Amazon, Target and Nestle, have ramped up job cuts, as they rein in spending amid dimming consumer sentiment and as AI-focused tech companies start to replace roles with automation. Cuts like those at Amazon "tell me the economy is slowing down, not getting stronger. You don't have mass layoffs when the economy is strong," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.

 

Reuters

The Financial Times reports on how China’s support for a rapid rollout of solar and wind power forms a stark contrast with the growing antipathy of the Trump administration towards renewables.

 

Financial Times

Law firms entering agreements with the government must carefully consider the ethical implications, according to an October ethics opinion by the District of Columbia Bar. Any lawyer or law firm that contemplates making a deal with a government that includes conditions that may limit or shape their practices, the opinion said, “must examine whether the arrangement would prevent the firm from providing conflict-free representation to clients—existing and new—who are adverse to the relevant government.”

 

ABA Journal

New York Times

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a landmark decision in West Virginia that had rejected attempts by a region to be compensated by U.S. drug distributors for a local influx of prescription pain pills. The court in Richmond ruled that a lower court judge had erred when he said the state’s public nuisance law did not apply to the lawsuit involving the distribution of opioids. “West Virginia law permits abatement of a public nuisance to include a requirement that a defendant pay money to fund efforts to eliminate the resulting harm to the public,” the 4th Circuit wrote. “West Virginia has long characterized abatement as an equitable remedy.”

 

The Baltimore Sun

Mondelez has emerged victorious in a proposed greenwashing lawsuit over a claim about its Clif Bar. U.S. District Judge Manish Shah in Chicago dismissed the class action lawsuit accusing the company of deceiving consumers into overpaying for products that were labeled "climate neutral certified." Shah said he found nothing wrong with labels for Clif Kid Zbar and Zbar Protein that reflected a certification from the Change Climate Project nonprofit.

 

Reuters

A Citigroup investigation into complaints about the conduct of top executive Andy Sieg was completed without interviewing some of the most high-profile employees who departed after expressing concerns about him.

 

Financial Times

Real income growth has slowed to near-decade lows, with young people being hit the hardest, according to a report from JPMorgan Chase Institute. George Eckerd, research director at the institute and a co-author of the report, told the Financial Times: “We’re looking at a level of year-on-year growth that’s actually similar to [the 2010s] when the labor market was a lot weaker and the unemployment rate was higher.”

 

Axios

Financial Times

Microsoft is investigating a disruption that has made Microsoft 365 Cloud and Office.com inaccessible to users. The company confirmed the issue on Wednesday and is working to identify the root cause. No further details on the scale or duration of the outage were provided at the time of the announcement.

 

Reuters

A report from the UN warns that developing countries face a significant funding shortfall for climate adaptation, warning that the "yawning gap" is "putting lives, livelihoods and entire economies at risk."

 

Financial Times

Toys “R” Us is set to reopen 30 new stores this holiday season, marking a significant comeback for the retailer. Jamie Uitdenhowen, Executive Vice President of Toys “R” Us at WHP Global, said: “This next phase of growth brings the magic of Toys “R” Us to even more communities across the country.” The new flagship stores will feature popular brands including Lego, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Nerf, and Paw Patrol. After closing its stand-alone stores in 2017 due to bankruptcy, Toys “R” Us returned in 2022 with pop-up shops in Macy's and a large store at American Dream in New Jersey.

 

Al.com