Every year, the Taurid meteor shower lights up the night sky from late October through early November. Sometimes called the “Halloween fireballs”, they are named for the constellation Taurus—the bull—from which the meteors appear to…
Blog
-
5 Early Signs of Osteoporosis Doctors Say You Shouldn’t Ignore
An estimated 10 million Americans aged 50 and older have osteoporosis, a condition that causes bone loss and a higher risk of fractures. Your risk of getting the disease increases as you get older, making it important to be aware of early warning…
Continue Reading
-
Jonatan Christie continues late-season surge, while Loh Kean Yew breezes into the second round
Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie got his 2025 Hylo Open campaign off to a flying start on Wednesday (29 October), dismissing India’s Tharun Mannepalli 21–11, 21–12 in the first round of the men’s badminton singles tournament.
The world No….
Continue Reading
-
Jonatan Christie continues late-season surge, while Loh Kean Yew breezes into the second round
Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie got his 2025 Hylo Open campaign off to a flying start on Wednesday (29 October), dismissing India’s Tharun Mannepalli 21–11, 21–12 in the first round of the men’s badminton singles tournament.
The world No….
Continue Reading
-
Arsenal 2 – 0 Brighton & Hove Albion – Match Report
Goals from Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka helped us progress to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.
Mikel Merino’s fine flick helped start a flowing team move, rounded off by Nwaneri early in the…
Continue Reading
-
Captain among six troops martyred in Kurram IBO
Captain among six troops martyred in Kurram IBO – Daily Times
…Continue Reading
-
Air Liquide has successfully issued a 2.15 billion euros multi-tranche bond to finance the DIG Airgas acquisition
Air Liquide has successfully issued a 2.15 billion euros multi-tranche bond. This large-scale financial operation is intended for the financing of the strategic acquisition of DIG Airgas to be closed in the upcoming months1. DIG Airgas is a major and recognized player in the industrial gas industry in the South Korean market, a country at the forefront of the next waves of development in key sectors like the semiconductors industry, decarbonized energy and mobility. This highly complementary acquisition is a strategic move that will strengthen our presence in the Republic of Korea and beyond in Asia, reinforcing our position across key existing and growing markets.
This transaction, significantly oversubscribed by investors, was executed under the Group’s Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme. With this issuance, Air Liquide is raising 2.15 billion euros with 2-year, 4-year, 7.5-year and 12-year maturities at a weighted average interest rate below 3.00% per annum.
This issue will be rated « A » by Standard & Poor’s and Scope Ratings and « A2 » by Moody’s.
Jérôme Pelletan, Group Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Air Liquide Executive Committee, stated :
“The success of this bond issuance, confirms our strong market standing and reflects investors’ continued confidence in our robust business model and performance trajectory. The funds raised will be used to finance the acquisition of DIG Airgas. This strategic transaction is driven by the perfect complementarity between DIG Airgas and Air Liquide in the Republic of Korea, that will additionally deliver highly executable synergies, including secured growth from DIG’s investment backlog.”
1 Following the completion of relevant regulatory clearances
-
Air Liquide has successfully issued a 2.15 billion euros multi-tranche bond to finance the DIG Airgas acquisition
Continue Reading
-
-
Powering Ho Chi Minh City’s future with net zero industrial precincts
Seizing Ho Chi Minh City’s low-carbon economic opportunities with a net zero industrial precinct approach is both an economic imperative and a climate opportunity.
Vietnam’s industrial zones are central to its economic success, but they also account for a significant share of national emissions.
In line with its net zero by 2050 commitment and evolving international trade requirements, Vietnam – and particularly Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) – is taking steps to align its industrial growth with decarbonisation pathways.
Net zero industrial precincts (NZIPs) offer a coordinated, place-based decarbonisation approach.
They can help unlock shared infrastructure for clean energy, reduce the cost and risk of new technologies, and position HCMC as a globally competitive, net zero-aligned manufacturing hub.
By decarbonising its industrial zones through an NZIP framework, the city can future-proof its industries against trade regulations while attracting low-carbon investment and maintaining market access.
HCMC has over 17 industrial zones, each varying in size, types of industries, and energy and emissions profiles.
These differences mean each zone has differing decarbonisation opportunities – highlighting the benefits of taking a place-based approach.
In industries such as electronics and machinery, priorities include electrification, energy efficiency upgrades, fuel switching and rooftop solar deployment.
In contrast, heavy industries, such as steel and chemicals, require more complex interventions, including the use of hydrogen, ammonia, sustainable biomass and potentially carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).
Each zone’s energy and emissions profile informs tailored interventions that reflect both the technological requirements and market pressures of its key sectors such as electronics, steel, plastics, cement and textiles.
In this report, Climateworks analyses five representative industrial zones that cover over 70 per cent of HCMC’s industrial energy use and a wide range of sectors.
These include Saigon Hi-Tech Park, Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone, and Tan Tao, Hiep Phuoc and Dong Nam Industrial Zones.
Through this analysis, we identify common decarbonisation levers that can be applied across HCMC, including renewable energy, electrification of heating and improving energy efficiency.
Financing HCMC’s industrial transition requires targeted use of blended capital, de-risking mechanisms and the alignment of Vietnam’s nascent carbon market, green bond frameworks and sustainability-linked loans.
As HCMC is set to become an international financial hub, the city is well placed to mobilise capital for industrial transition.
We recommend a phased implementation strategy beginning with pilot projects in high-readiness zones, supported by key performance indicators, emissions baselines and public–private investment coordination.
The success of these pilots will not only help reduce local emissions but also provide a national model for industrial transition that can inform future scaling across Vietnam’s industrial ecosystem.
Realising this vision requires action across four foundational pillars and one cross-cutting enabler.
Firstly, it means developing coordination and skills to embed cross-sectoral governance mechanisms and building institutional capacity.
Secondly, it is building the necessary enabling infrastructure, including renewable electricity, green hydrogen supply, lowcarbon transport and industrial-scale heat recovery networks.
Thirdly, it means decarbonising existing industries through process upgrades, electrification, energy efficiency and low-carbon procurement standards.
Lastly, it is attracting new industries through targeted investment, incentives and policy certainty.
There are also cross-cutting enablers that are critical to unlock the required capital and deliver long-term social and economic resilience, such as sustainable finance mechanisms (e.g. green bonds, sustainability-linked loans and concessional climate finance) and workforce reskilling.
By combining our analysis of HCMC’s industrial zones with international case studies of industrial transition, this report presents a roadmap for implementing NZIPs in HCMC. HCMC stands at a strategic crossroads.
By implementing net zero industrial precincts, the city can demonstrate climate leadership, secure long-term industrial competitiveness and catalyse Vietnam’s broader transition to a resilient, low-carbon economy
Continue reading: Download the report (3mb)
Continue Reading
-
Otago Aids Major Study on TB Spread
The University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka is part of a groundbreaking new international study set to investigate whether people with tuberculosis (TB) who show no symptoms are unknowingly spreading it – potentially changing the…
Continue Reading
-
Google’s corporate parent posts first-ever quarter with $100B in revenue
SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s corporate parent on Wednesday announced its first-ever quarter with more than $100 billion in revenue, a milestone that illustrates the unwavering power of its internet empire amid legal and competitive threats.
The news of Alphabet Inc.’s accelerating growth in revenue and profit comes on the heels of a court ruling in the U.S. Justice Department’s landmark monopoly case against Google’s dominant search engine that was widely seen as a mild rebuke that wouldn’t hobble the company.
Alphabet performed like a powerhouse during the July-September period, delivering a profit of nearly $35 billion, or $2.87 per share, a 33% increase from the same time last year. Revenue rose 16% from last year to $102.3 billion. Both figures easily exceeded the analysts’ projections that steer the stock market.
Investors celebrated the third-quarter numbers by driving up Alphabet’s stock price nearly 5% in Wednesday’s extended trading.
That’s on top of a 30% surge in Alphabet’s shares that has created nearly $770 billion in stockholder wealth since early September. That’s when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a Justice Department proposal to break up Google to curb the abuses of a search engine that was declared an illegal monopoly last year.
Mehta’s cautious handling of Google’s search monopoly largely reflected his belief that rapid advances in artificial intelligence technology have already been spawning conversational “answer engines” from rising tech stars such as ChatGPT and Perplexity that are giving consumers more options.
ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI and Perplexity have released AI-powered web browsers to compete against Google’s industry-leading Chrome browser that the Justice Department had unsuccessfully tried to persuade Mehta to order to be sold.
But Google has been implanting more AI features into both its search engine and Chrome, as well as its other products, as part of its effort to protect its turf while also expanding into new technological frontiers. In a sign of the inroads those efforts are making, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai disclosed Wednesday that Google’s AI-powered Gemini app now has 650 million monthly users.
Like other major tech companies, Google has been bankrolling its AI ambitions with a spending spree that has raised worries about a potential bubble that will eventually burst. Alphabet now expects to budget $91 billion to $93 billion for capital expenditures this year, up from $85 billion in its previous quarterly report issued in July, with most of the money earmarked for the massive data centers needed to power AI.
Alphabet has the luxury of drawing upon a lucrative ad network that Google has spent a quarter century building. Google’s ad sales totaled $74.2 billion in the third quarter, a 13% increase from last year.
The AI craze has been a boon for Google’s Cloud division that oversees data centers for other companies, an endeavor that has turned into the fastest growing part of Alphabet. Google Cloud posted revenue of $15.2 billion in the past quarter, up 34% from last year.
Although Google appears to have fared relatively well in the legal attack on its search engine, it still faces a potentially damaging blow in another case brought by the Justice Department against the technology underlying its ad network.
After condemning parts of Google’s ad technology as an illegal monopoly earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is considering ways to handcuff the company in the future. The Justice Department is seeking a court order to force Google to sell pieces of its ad network — an issue that Brinkema isn’t expected to rule on until early next year.
Continue Reading