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Good morning and welcome back. In today’s newsletter:
‘Screaming match’ between Trump and Zelensky
Amazon outage hits global web services
Centrists win Bolivian presidential election
“Bermuda Triangle of Talent”
The day begins with a special story. President Donald Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accept Russia’s terms to end the war during a White House meeting on Friday, warning that President Vladimir Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if he did not agree.
What happened: The meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents devolved into multiple “shouting matches,” people familiar with the matter said. They added that the US president put aside maps of the Ukrainian front and insisted that Zelensky surrender the entire Donbass region to Putin, repeating points the Russian leader had made in a telephone conversation the day before.
‘He will destroy you’: Trump told Zelensky that Putin told him the conflict was a “special operation, not even a war,” according to a European official familiar with the talks, adding that the Ukrainian leader must terminate the deal or face ruin. The official said Trump told Zelensky he would lose the war and warned: “If (Putin) wants, he will destroy you.” Read more about the White House meeting.
Here’s what else we’re looking at today:
Economic data: The Argentine government is scheduled to release trade balance data for September.
Israel-Hamas war: White House mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Israel today after two Israeli soldiers were killed over the weekend, putting the ceasefire under severe strain.
Frank Sentence: Olivier Hamard, former chief growth officer of university financial aid startup Frank, will be sentenced along with the company’s founder.
Join Financial Times journalists and special guests Lael Brainard and Fidelity’s Salman Ahmed to discuss the resilience of the financial system and the risks it faces. The webinar will be held on Thursday and you can register for free here.
5 more top articles
1. Amazon’s cloud business has hit a glitch, disrupting several key global web services and apps. AWS has reported an “operational issue” affecting “multiple services” in the US East Coast region. Read more about this developing story.
2. China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in a year in the third quarter, as the trade war with the US and a prolonged real estate downturn weighed on momentum. The world’s second-largest economy’s official GDP increased by 4.8% year-on-year, and by 5.2% in the second quarter. But separate customs data last week showed Chinese exports remained resilient, increasing 8.3% last month from a year earlier. There’s a lot more to Thomas Hale in Shanghai.
More economic news from China: The country’s leaders will meet this week to develop their next five-year plan, and are expected to prioritize increased investment in advanced manufacturing.
3. Centrist Sen. Rodrigo Paz won Bolivia’s presidential runoff election, marking a decisive shift to the right for the landlocked country after a long period of rule by the socialist party Movimiento al Socialist. Paz, 58, the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora, won after a campaign that promised “capitalism for all.” Read more about the victory and the challenges facing the new president when he takes office on November 8th.
4. Canada is seeking a C$3 trillion (US$2.1 trillion) pension plan to boost domestic investment as it seeks C$500 billion in new loans to restart its economy and reduce dependence on the United States. A new wave of “economic nationalism” means Canadian financial institutions need to promote homegrown investment, the country’s industry minister told the Financial Times. Read the full interview with Mélanie Joly.
5. Investors are racing to boost rare earths companies, sending stock prices to record highs as President Trump’s efforts to break China’s stranglehold on supplies of critical minerals revitalizes a once-sluggish industry. Here are the companies riding on the rare earth bull market:
big reading
Since the start of President Trump’s second term, hundreds of US federal websites have removed text related to climate change, and more than 100 have been permanently removed. Experts are warning of the impact on weather forecasts and disaster prevention. Eva Hsiao and Jana Tauscinski enumerate the costs of President Trump’s climate change censorship.
I’m also reading. . .
Markets: Historically, the correlation between stocks and gold has been zero, writes Ruchir Sharma. Now, he says, they are rising together to ride the tide of liquidity.
PORTLAND: A northwestern city has become ground zero in an increasingly heated battle for security in America’s largest city. Guy Chazan visits.
‘The Bermuda Triangle of Talent’: Why do so many bright, idealistic young people go into finance, management consulting and corporate law? Simon van Toitem spoke to some of them to find out.
Paris robbery: Police are searching for four suspects after priceless royal jewelery was stolen from the Louvre yesterday.
chart of the day
Apple’s new iPhone 17 is fueling the company’s strongest smartphone sales growth since the Covid-19 pandemic. Early momentum for a redesigned version of the company’s mobile device has proven stronger than expected, industry officials said. This helped Apple build market confidence ahead of the important year-end sales season.
Please stop listening to the news. . .
The Danish town of Billund is home to around 7,000 people, most of whom depend on Lego in some way for a living. Oliver Berry visited the birthplace of the little brick and saw “what his factory would have looked like if Willy Wonka had had a taste for plastic rather than chocolate.”
