Author: Justin M. Larson

The Novo Nordisk A/S headquarters in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. Nichlas Pollier | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesShares of Novo Nordisk on Monday fell as much 11% after the Danish drug pharmaceutical company said a highly-anticipated trial for Alzheimer’s disease failed to meet its main goal.The trial tested whether semaglutide — the active ingredient in Novo’s blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy — helped slow progression for Alzheimer’s disease. While treatment with semaglutide resulted in improvement of Alzheimer’s disease-related biomarkers in two separate trials, this did not translate into a delay of disease progression, Novo said…

Scientists suggested that climate change could make central Vietnam a global hot spot for destructive storms. This year has seemed to prove the point. Source link

A U.S. government cable said that Kremlin-run outlets had scaled up their efforts across Latin America, seeking to turn people against the United States and garner support for Russia. Source link

The announcement on Sunday, which was light on details, came weeks before a similar action takes effect in Australia. Source link

A surrealist painting by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7m (£41.8m) – shattering the auction record for an artwork by a woman. The painting, from the 1940s, went for more than 1,000 times its original auction price in 1980, after a tense bidding battle between two collectors, according to the auction house Sotheby’s.The work – titled El sueño (la cama), which is translated to The dream (The bed) – depicts Kahlo asleep in a canopy bed beneath a skeleton entwined with dynamite.The auction broke the previous record figure for a female artist’s work of $44m, as well…

Jane ChambersBusiness reporter, Aguas Calientes, PeruAFP via Getty ImagesMachu Picchu attracts more than 1.6 million tourists per year, but getting there is not easyMachu Picchu, the remains of a 15th Century Inca city, is Peru’s most popular tourist destination, and a Unesco world heritage site. Yet a continuing dispute over the buses that take visitors up to the mountain-top site recently saw some 1,400 stranded tourists needing to be evacuated.Cristian Alberto Caballero Chacón is head of operations for bus company Consettur, which for the past 30 years has transported some 4,500 people every day to Machu Picchu from the local…

Even as foreign investors remain net sellers of Indian equities this year, global companies are rushing to list their local business units in one of the world’s busiest IPO markets, lured by a valuation premium. Coca-Cola’s Indian bottling unit is reportedly weighing a billion-dollar float next year. The Indian division of South Korea’s CJ Darcl Logistics has already filed draft papers , and analysts expect more global companies to bring their Indian operations to market. “Every valuation accretive step is being taken by MNCs today,” said Akshay Gupta of Prime Securities, pointing to German multinational Siemens , which split its…

Restaurants and bars in the Boat Quay district in Singapore, on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesSingapore’s inflation rate rose for a second straight month, year on year, with price growth in October scaling a near 1-year high and topping analysts’ expectations. After reaching a 4-year low in August, consumer prices rose 1.2% — highest since August 2024 — compared with the average 0.9% estimated by economists polled by Reuters and the 0.7% rise in September.Core inflation in the city-state — which strips out prices of accommodation and private transport — also rose to 1.2%, up from…

He reimagined “Once Were Warriors,” a novel about a Maori family, as a film that became a worldwide phenomenon. He went on to direct Hollywood movies. Source link

The Macquarie Group Ltd. logo at the company’s headquarters in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. Brent Lewin | Bloomberg | Getty Images Australia’s Qube Holdings announced on Monday that Macquarie Asset Management had submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire the logistics company at an enterprise value of 11.6 billion Australian dollars ($7.49 billion).Macquarie has offered to acquire Qube for AU$5.2 in cash per share, representing a nearly 28% premium to Qube’s closing level of AU$4.07 on Friday.Qube shares jumped nearly 20% to AU$4.87 in early trading on Monday. The takeover bid followed a period of negotiations after a…

Hong KongSpreephoto.de | Moment | Getty ImagesAsia-Pacific markets started the week higher after the New York Federal Reserve President signaled that a third rate cut could happen this year.On Friday, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams suggested the Fed could lower its key interest rate from here as labor market weakness poses a bigger economic threat than higher inflation.The Fed has just one meeting left for 2025, which will take place on Dec. 9-10 stateside. The target rate is currently at 3.75% to 4.00%.Fed funds futures are currently pricing in around a 70% chance of a quarter percentage point cut, according…

About a dozen people were told they face dismissal or discipline for mistakes tied to the deadly Hamas-led attack that set off the war in Gaza. Source link

Members of the South Bandung Farming Cooperative (KPBS) have recorded a 38 per cent increase in productive loans and a 43 per cent rise in sales volumes over the past two years, following the introduction of a new business app.“Easier access to financing means higher loan volumes, which in turn means more cattle and higher income for our farmers,” said Head of KBPS Aun Gunawan. “This is how financial inclusion leads to improved livelihoods.” UN Indonesia/Miklos Gaspar Dairy farmers in Indonesia are using a new business-focused app which is helping them to boost sales. Founded in 1969, KPBS has 5,000…

Joel Guinto,Singapore and Panisa Aemocha,BangkokThe moment Fatima Bosch of Mexico is crowned Miss UniverseMiss Mexico Fatima Bosch has been crowned Miss Universe at a ceremony in Bangkok, marking the end of an exceptionally scandal-filled pageant season. The 25-year-old contestant had walked out of an event earlier in November after a Thai official publicly berated her in front of dozens of contestants and threatened to disqualify those who supported her.That dramatic turn was followed a week later by the resignation of two judges, one of whom accused organisers of rigging the competition.These come as one of the world’s longest-running beauty pageants…

Ione WellsSouth America correspondent, in ColombiaBBCLizbeth Perez is the niece of Alejandro Carranza, who is missingLizbeth Perez looks fearful as she gazes out onto the postcard-perfect fishing bay of Taganga, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, recalling the moment she last spoke to her uncle in September.”He was a kind man, a good person, a friend. A good father, uncle, son. He was a cheerful person. He loved his work and his fishing.”Alejandro Carranza said goodbye to his family early in the morning on 14 September, before going out on his boat as usual, his cousin Audenis Manjarres told state media. He…

A “tremendous amount of progress” has been achieved in talks to finalise a US-proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.But “there’s still some work to be done”, Rubio said after meeting Ukrainian and European negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were “signals that President [Donald] Trump’s team is hearing us”. Ukraine and its European allies had expressed concern over the leaked proposals, seen as favouring Russia and welcomed by Vladimir Putin as “the basis” for settlement. Zelensky had said Ukraine “might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity,…

Seven bodyguards have been arrested over their alleged involvement in the murder of a popular Mexican mayor, authorities have said.Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan and an outspoken critic of cartel violence, was shot dead on 1 November at a public event marking the Day of the Dead.The office of the attorney general of Michoacán state said in a brief statement that the public servants had been detained “for their probable participation in the crime of aggravated homicide, in commission by omission” in relation to Manzo’s killing.It follows the arrest on Wednesday of a man police described as the mastermind…

Georgina RannardClimate and science correspondent, Belém, BrazilEPAFollowing bitter rows, the UN climate summit COP30 in Belém, Brazil has ended with a deal that contains no direct reference to the fossil fuels that are heating up the planet.It is a frustrating end for more than 80 countries including the UK and EU that wanted the meeting to commit the world to stop using using oil, coal and gas at a faster pace.But oil-producing nations held the line that they should be allowed to use their fossil fuel resources to grow their economies.The meeting takes place as the UN says it fears…

With the United States boycotting the summit, other nations sought to strike new deals, and some took a tougher tone with President Trump. Source link

BBCLike Alejandro Orellano, many Venezuelans say they are more worried about their personal finances than about a US invasionWhile Nicolás Maduro’s government lives on edge under a military threat from US President Donald Trump, ordinary Venezuelans spend their time trying to figure out what to eat each day.It’s Wednesday morning at Quinta Crespo, a popular market in downtown Caracas. Here, a possible escalation of the conflict is not the main concern of Venezuelans, who glance at the news while checking their wallets to find enough cash to pay.”There’s not going to be an intervention, nothing like that. What’s really troubling…

Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president convicted of plotting a coup, has blamed medicine-induced “paranoia” for damage he caused to his ankle monitor – a day after he was removed from house arrest into detention.At a hearing in Brasília, he admitted trying to open the monitor with a soldering iron on Friday until he “came to his senses”, court documents show. He said he had had no intention of fleeing.Officials say the right-wing politician, 70, was taken into custody because he was a flight risk ahead of a supporters’ vigil outside his home. He will remain in detention.In September, Bolsonaro…

As England fans caught their breath after an unexpectedly tense finale, Ojomoh collected the player of the match champagne.The 25-year-old, making only his second England appearance after a debut against the United States in the summer, looked immediately at home as he inserted himself into England’s midfield debate.Afforded a chance by Fraser Dingwall’s injury against the All Blacks, the Bath centre took only 10 minutes to gleefully dive in at the same end he had scored at against Leicester in June’s Prem final.The Argentina back three had made a mess of fielding a high kick with full-back Juan Cruz Mallia…

It was the showdown nobody wanted. But in the end, it saved the climate summit.As the clock ticked past the deadline of 6pm on Friday in Belem, Brazil, the issue that, rightly or wrongly, came to define this year’s UN climate talks was still unresolved.The great, unanswered question was how to talk about fossil fuels: two words pathetically controversial for a summit trying to tackle climate change, given they are the main cause.But it had taken 28 COP meetings to even name those words in a deal. Finally, the promise came in Dubai in 2023 to “transition away from fossil…

Two Russian warships were intercepted in the English Channel by the Royal Navy, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.In the latest incident involving Russia’s ships entering waters around the UK, HMS Severn headed off the RFN Stoikiy, a corvette and Yelnya, a tanker, as they sailed west through the Dover Strait into the English Channel in the past fortnight.Last week, it emerged that the Russian spy ship Yantar was spotted off the coast of Scotland and it used lasers to disrupt RAF pilots tracking its movements.Defence Secretary John Healey branded the Yantar’s move “deeply dangerous” and warned Russia and…