Category: 3. Business

WASHINGTON – Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham today announced that listed spot cryptocurrency products will begin trading for the first time in U.S. federally regulated markets on CFTC registered futures exchanges. The announcement marks a significant step forward in the Trump Administration’s pledge to usher in a Golden Age of Innovation and make America the “crypto capital of the world.”

“The CFTC has a rich history of welcoming responsible innovation on futures exchanges by balancing regulatory flexibility with core principles that safeguard both institutional and retail traders. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, this Administration has developed a comprehensive all-of-government plan for America to reclaim its place as the world leader in digital asset markets, and the CFTC has a central role to play,” Acting Chairman Pham said. “Recent events on offshore exchanges have shown us how essential it is for Americans to have more choice and access to safe, regulated U.S. markets. Now, for the first time ever, spot crypto can trade on CFTC-registered exchanges that have been the gold standard for nearly a hundred years, with the customer protections and market integrity that Americans deserve.

“Fifteen years ago, Congress passed important reforms to strengthen U.S. markets after the great financial crisis, including the requirement that leveraged retail commodity trading can only occur on futures exchanges. But the CFTC never implemented this critical customer protection reform by providing regulatory clarity on how to list these retail exchange traded products despite years of market demand. Instead, the CFTC chose regulation by enforcement rather than making clear rules of the road, resulting in huge fines that targeted the crypto industry but did not protect the retail public by giving them a safe place to trade.

“Under my leadership this year, the CFTC is finally using our decades-long existing authority to work smarter and faster to protect Americans who deserve safe U.S. markets now, not offshore exchanges that lack basic safeguards against uncontrolled customer losses. This historic milestone implements recommendations from the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets with months of public engagement and the expert input of stakeholders, CFTC staff and other regulators.”

Today’s announcement follows recommendations by the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets and stakeholder insights from the CFTC’s Crypto Sprint and cooperative engagement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Crypto Sprint also launched public consultations on all other recommendations from the President’s Working Group report relevant to the CFTC. Other components to the Crypto Sprint include enabling tokenized collateral, including stablecoins, in derivatives markets and a rulemaking to make technical amendments to the CFTC’s regulations for collateral, margin, clearing, settlement, reporting, and recordkeeping to enable the use of blockchain technology and market infrastructure including tokenization in our markets.

CORK, Ireland, Dec. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of Johnson Controls International plc (NYSE: JCI), the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, has approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share of common stock, payable on Jan. 16, 2026, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 22, 2025. Johnson Controls has paid a consecutive dividend since 1887.

About Johnson Controls
At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet.

Building on a proud history of nearly 140 years of innovation, we deliver the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, our comprehensive digital offering.

Today, with a global team of experts, Johnson Controls offers the world`s largest portfolio of building technology and software as well as service solutions from some of the most trusted names in the industry.

Visit johnsoncontrols.com for more information and follow @Johnsoncontrols on social platforms.

SOURCE Johnson Controls International plc

Expanded relationship to improve mission results and program performance using advanced cloud-based tools and technologies

AURORA, Colo., Dec. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Raytheon, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business entered a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to significantly advance satellite data processing and mission control operations. Through this effort, Raytheon is equipping customers with the mission-critical space capabilities needed to meet national security objectives.

The collaboration enables Raytheon to identify initiatives for deploying scalable cloud-based solutions using AWS artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) services. Raytheon will leverage AWS to help customers reduce mission costs, increase program flexibility, and accelerate the delivery of capabilities to operations.

“Our customers rely on Raytheon to solve their most complex problems across space, data processing, command and control, and mission management functions,” said Erich Hernandez-Baquero, vice president of Space Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance at Raytheon. “This collaboration with AWS empowers our teams to accelerate responsible AI innovation, increase agility while maintaining the highest levels of security, optimize resources, and strengthen systems to drive effective results for our customers.”

The collaboration expands options for customers to leverage combined Raytheon and AWS solutions for better decision-making, operational coordination, and flexibility including:

• Improved mission data processing and reporting leveraging AWS and Raytheon’s collection and mission engineering capabilities running on AWS. 
• Bringing mission management to the edge with the AWS Outpost family of services, a suite of fully managed solutions delivering AWS infrastructure and services to virtually any on-premises or edge location for a truly consistent hybrid experience.
• Advanced constellation command and control using modular, software-defined systems for task scheduling and asset coordination.
• Scalable mission management to rapidly and securely incorporate new capabilities into operations for expanding architectures using AWS serverless technologies.
• Incorporate AWS advanced AI and ML services to revolutionize software development and mission operations by leveraging Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock.

“This collaboration unites the security, reliability, and higher levels of availability from AWS with Raytheon’s space systems expertise to create new possibilities for our customers in the space industry,” said David Appel, vice president of U.S. Federal at Amazon Web Services. “This relationship embodies our customer-obsessed approach, driving innovations that boost mission performance, cost efficiency, and operational agility. Together, we’re propelling space technology forward, ensuring our customers maintain their competitive edge in this critical domain.”

Raytheon and AWS are actively executing programs for government and commercial customers under this agreement.

About Raytheon
Raytheon, an RTX business, is a leading provider of defense solutions to help the U.S. government, our allies and partners defend their national sovereignty and ensure their security. For more than 100 years, Raytheon has developed new technologies and enhanced existing capabilities in integrated air and missile defense, smart weapons, missiles, advanced sensors and radars, interceptors, space-based systems, hypersonics and missile defense across land, air, sea and space.

About RTX
RTX is the world’s largest aerospace and defense company. With more than 185,000 global employees, we push the limits of technology and science to redefine how we connect and protect our world. Through industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon – we are advancing aviation, engineering integrated defense systems for operational success, and developing next-generation technology solutions and manufacturing to help global customers address their most critical challenges. The company, with 2024 sales of more than $80 billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.  

For questions or to schedule an interview, please contact [email protected].

SOURCE RTX

Irish authorities have been formally asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The complaint has been made by the human rights group the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) to the Data Protection Commission, which has legal responsibility in Europe for overseeing all data processing in the European Union.

It follows revelations in August by the Guardian with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew outlet Local Call that a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls was being stored on Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure, as part of a mass surveillance operation by the Israeli military.

The ICCL alleges that the processing of the personal data “facilitated war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by Israeli military”. Microsoft’s European headquarters are located in Ireland.

Joe O’Brien, the executive director of ICCL, said: “Microsoft’s technology has put millions of Palestinians in danger. These are not abstract data-protection failures.”

He said that the cloud services “enabled real-world violence” and it was “essential that the DPC move quickly and decisively” in view of the “threat to life posed by the issues at the heart of this complaint”.

He added: “When EU infrastructure is used to enable surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commission must step in – and it must use its full powers to hold Microsoft to account.”

A cache of leaked documents reviewed by the Guardian revealed that Unit 8200, the Israeli military’s spy agency, had opened talks as far back as 2021 to move vast amounts of top secret intelligence material to the US company’s cloud service.

The documents showed how Microsoft’s storage facility had been used by Unit 8200 to store an expansive archive of everyday Palestinian communications, facilitating targeted airstrikes and other military operations.

In response to the revelations Microsoft ordered an urgent external inquiry to review its relationship with Unit 8200. Its initial findings led the company to cancel the unit’s access to some of its cloud storage and AI services.

ICCL claims that Microsoft facilitated critical components of Israel’s military surveillance “Al Minasseq” system.

It says the alleged “removal” of the records of intercepted phone calls from EU servers to Israel obscured evidence of illegal processing before investigations could commence within the EU and claims that unlawful processing was a breach of the EU’s general data protection regulation (GDPR) governing use of personal data.

Equipped with Azure’s near-limitless storage capacity and computing power, Unit 8200 had built an indiscriminate system allowing its intelligence officers to collect, play back and analyse the content of cellular calls of an entire population.

A spokesperson for the DPC said: “I can confirm that the DPC has received a complaint and it is currently under assessment.”

Microsoft has been approached for comment.

We have been awarded a contract to support the French Test Pilot school (EPNER) with a L-39 aircraft – the first for its fleet.

The contract, for flight test training, will see the aircraft used for instruction and evaluation sessions, enabling trainees to assess aircraft performance and flying qualities under realistic operational conditions.

It also involves target simulation missions for the Direction Générale de l’Armement – Essais en Vol (DGA EV). The L-39 will be used in adversary simulation roles for flight testing and technical missions, including:

• Training of servicing mechanics for DGA EV
• Refresher training for DGA EV mechanics
• Release flights for EPNER instructors and test pilots already qualified on the L-39

Pierre Basquin, Chief Executive Aviation & CEO France, commented: “EPNER is a world-renowned school of excellence, dedicated to training test pilots, engineers, and technicians involved in flight testing. The partnership reflects Babcock’s commitment to supporting the French armed forces in its critical missions by providing high-performance aerial assets tailored to the demands of training and testing.

“The contract is the first involving our L-39 aircraft and paves the way for further opportunities, particularly in operational training and the training of international pilots.”

New York – December 4, 2025: MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI) launched the MSCI All Country Public + Private Equity Index, an innovative daily index that combines public markets and a broad private equity view within a single, coherent framework. The launch marks a major shift in how investors can assess total equity exposures and measure performance across their portfolio.

With private markets increasingly integrated into investment portfolios, private equity is becoming a core component of total portfolio allocation, contributing to diversification, long-term return potential and exposure to segments of the economy not captured by public markets. Reflecting the evolving structure of investor portfolios, this innovative index sets a new standard for tracking global equity performance across public and private markets.

The index combines the flagship MSCI ACWI IMI, which represents the performance of the full opportunity set of publicly listed equities across developed and emerging markets and serves as the benchmark for approximately USD 5.6 trillion in assets under management¹, and the new MSCI All Country Private Equity Index, a daily measure based on MSCI’s proprietary dataset of LP-sourced cash flows and valuations from nearly 10,000 private equity funds. This integrated approach allows the index to reflect both the investable public equity universe and modelled private equity exposures in a consistent global equity framework.

Powered by MSCI’s combined index expertise and research and data capabilities, the MSCI All Country Public + Private Equity Index methodology is designed to provide transparency and a consistent approach for index construction, maintenance and rebalancing aligned with MSCI’s index design principles. The index, with a target allocation to private equity set to 15%, is calculated daily based on the drifted weight and the daily performance of each component index. The index is reviewed and rebalanced quarterly to maintain consistency with the target allocation weights. In each review, the latest available component index data are incorporated, and the weighting factors are reset to the target allocation. Rebalancing is conducted in accordance with MSCI’s index maintenance policies providing continuity and comparability over time.

“This index is a milestone in our mission to make private markets more transparent and accessible,” said Luke Flemmer, Head of Private Assets at MSCI. “It reflects MSCI’s unique combination of high-quality data, world class research and index distribution capabilities and extends our private assets toolkit that gives investors a simpler way to access, benchmark, and allocate to private capital.”

The launch reflects MSCI’s broader commitment to equipping investors with tools, research and data required to support informed decision-making across their portfolios. To learn more, visit MSCI Private Assets.

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