Month: October 2025

Ultra-rich families focus on impact ‘across generations’ in legacy planning

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Ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) families are putting greater focus on legacy planning to create sustainable impact for future generations amid growing uncertainty and vast fortunes shifting to younger heirs, according to participants in a Standard Chartered event in Dubai focused on family offices. Advertisement The emphasis among such families was changing from wealth preservation towards a strategic repositioning of family-office locations, governance structures, succession planning and decision-making, according to the London-headquartered bank. The Global Families Network Forum, which ended Thursday, was attended by 90 global UHNW families from Europe, the Middle East,…

Trump directs Pentagon to match Russia and China in nuclear weapons testing

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Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to immediately start matching other nuclear powers in their testing of nuclear weapons, specifically citing Russia and China. In a post to Truth Social, Trump said that “because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” The post came less than an hour before Trump met the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in South Korea on Thursday morning in an effort to come to a trade…

Yen softens after Bank of Japan holds interest rates

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Bank of Japan has held interest rates, sending the yen sharply lower against the US dollar on speculation that the central bank may not risk any further rate moves this year. The central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday kept rates at around 0.5 per cent, in line with expectations and its second consecutive month that its members were split 7-2. At a press conference later on Thursday, BoJ…

‘We don’t always see eye to eye’: Xi and Trump on crunch trade talks – video

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Donald Trump said the US and China had agreed ‘to a lot of things’ during trade talks in South Korea, and would be having further discussions. The US president described Xi Jinping as ‘distinguished and respected’, while the Chinese leader said: ‘We do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal.’ Trump hailed the trade talks as ‘amazing’, saying the dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April The Guardian

US and China agree to one-year trade truce after Trump-Xi talks

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<div data-o-component="o-expander" class="o-expander o-expander__info-box" data-o-expander-shrink-to="hidden" data-trackable="clip-info-box" data-o-expander-collapsed-toggle-text="Show video info” data-o-expander-expanded-toggle-text=”Hide video info“>Show video info Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have agreed to postpone recent sweeping export controls on rare earths and semiconductors as part of a broad one-year trade deal that the US and Chinese leaders reached at a summit in South Korea. The two sides said they had also reached agreements on tariffs related to fentanyl and tit-for-tat levies on each other’s shipping industries, as both leaders sought to defuse recent tensions in their first in-person meeting in six…

‘Fancy tool’: how China cut chip defects by 99% for near perfect lithography

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In a major leap for the global semiconductor industry, a joint Chinese research team has developed a method that can slash defects in lithography – a critical step in chipmaking – by up to 99 per cent. Advertisement The researchers achieved unprecedented clarity by using cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to pinpoint, for the first time, the minute sources of common manufacturing flaws. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications on September 30, by Professor Peng Hailin from Peking University in collaboration with researchers from Tsinghua University and Hong Kong University,…

China’s auto funding blitz and a US rush for rare earths

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Hello, this is Kenji in Tokyo, where US President Donald Trump just swept through this week as part of his tour of east Asia. The visit put quite a bit of stress on ordinary people as 18,000 police officers were mobilised and major highways closed off in the country’s capital during his three-day stay. When this newsletter comes out, Trump will be on his way back to the US, having wrapped up his tour with one of the most anticipated events: a face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in…

Chinese EV maker BYD’s sales surge in Europe, narrowing gap with Tesla

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Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD recorded surging sales in Europe last month after it launched more models and expanded its sales network, narrowing its gap with market leader Tesla. Advertisement The Shenzhen-based carmaker racked up 24,963 new-car registrations in Europe in September, nearly five times its deliveries of 5,013 units a year ago, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, known as the ACEA. The association tracks vehicle sales across the European Union, the UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Tesla posted a 10.5 per cent year-on-year…

Trump-Xi meeting: US president says rare earths deal and tariff reduction agreed in crunch trade talks

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Donald Trump has described crucial trade talks with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in South Korea as “amazing”, saying their dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April. In early comments, Chinese state media reported Xi as saying a “consensus” with Trump had been reached on trade issues, and that there were good prospects for cooperation on trade, immigration and fraud. After their meeting, the two shook hands and Trump immediately boarded Air Force One to return to Washington. He…