2026-10-30

The US Justice Department referred two asphalt mergers to state attorneys general, and both buyers agreed to sell facilities

Colas, an asphalt company owned by Bouygues, agreed to sell four New York and Pennsylvania facilities to buy Suit-Kote, a rival. CRH, the Irish building materials company, agreed to sell New Jersey facilities to buy Arcosa, a US materials company, for about $8.5 billion.

The Justice Department charged five people over fraudulent federal student-aid applications filed with stolen American identities, and seized more than $750,000 in cryptocurrency in Kenya

The scheme used stolen US citizens' identities to submit fraudulent aid applications that enrolled students who do not exist, then diverted the loan and grant refunds to accounts controlled by foreign actors, with US-based money mules helping move the money.

The FTC ordered JetBlue, Delta, United, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Walmart and Target to show how personal data sets individual prices and gig-worker pay

The nine companies have 45 days to hand over the inputs, tools and procedures they use to vary a ticket, ride, delivery or product price between individuals, and the gig-work firms must also show how they vary individual workers' compensation.

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, says a hack hit $6.3 billion in digital assets, about half of it now frozen

Binance says it will cover all losses and has disabled withdrawals. Early checks point to a compromised engineer's laptop. TRM Labs and Chainalysis, two blockchain analytics firms, blame North Korea's TraderTraitor group; Binance has not named anyone.

Sea drones sank the Greek container ship CONTSHIP JET off Bulgaria, one of at least six ships attacked there this month

The Liberian-flagged ship, run by Contships Management, was sailing from Haifa, Israel, to Constanta, Romania, when three drones hit it on October 28th; all 18 crew were rescued. No attacker has been named. Ambrey, a maritime risk firm, says the drone is likely a Russian design, and Moscow denies involvement in the recent attacks.

Ukraine has paused its strikes on Russian oil refineries after US pressure, the Wall Street Journal reports

Trump had grown frustrated with the strikes as diesel prices hit record highs, and after Ukraine refused to stop he announced a deal to buy diesel from Moscow and to waive sanctions authorized by a bill he signed in September.

Ethiopia has received 12 Russian Su-35 fighter jets and plans to buy four S-400 air-defense systems, its prime minister says

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the delivery while attending the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow, as fighting intensified in Tigray, the northern region bordering Eritrea.

From November 1st, the EU will charge a flat €2 customs handling fee on every item sold online to EU buyers from outside the bloc

It applies to goods from any non-EU country, including US companies selling directly to EU consumers. The European Commission set the fee in a regulation published October 22nd and says it covers the cost of customs data checks, risk analysis and controls.

A tanker of Russian diesel is tracked arriving at New York and New Jersey around November 7th, its buyer unnamed, and a 2022 statute still bans Russian oil imports

Unidentified people raided Libya's central bank headquarters in Tripoli, hours after the eastern parliament accepted its governor's resignation and named an interim replacement

The US sanctioned Rwanda's defense ministry and Zigama Credit and Savings Society over alleged support for a rebel movement in Congo, and Rwanda's foreign minister says his country bears no responsibility for the Congolese crisis

An unprotected database tied to CitySourced, a platform local governments use to take residents' complaints, held about 42 million documents, a researcher says

The General Services Administration shared 116 files of controlled unclassified information, including Social Security numbers, with staff who had no business reason to see them

Nvidia pushes back on a New York Times report that US intelligence agencies suspected Alice Huang, a close contact of chief executive Jensen Huang, of spying for China

Arch Capital's chief executive says new reinsurance capacity is keeping contract terms loose, and the company will not chase growth for the sake of growth

Taiwan's national security chief says more than 50 Chinese navy and other official vessels are operating from southern Japan to Taiwan and off the Philippines

North Korea fired around 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea's military says