Good Morning and Happy new month!

• The USA reported that there are currently around 8,000 North Korean soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk, which indicates that North Korea is supporting Russia in the Ukraine conflict. US Ambassador Robert Wood confronted Russia in the UN Security Council with the question of whether Moscow continues to deny that North Korean troops are stationed in Russia. Russia did not respond directly, and North Korea defended the deployment of troops by referring to international legal conformity.
  
  The USA, the UK, South Korea, Ukraine and others accuse Russia of violating UN resolutions. Ukraine also named three North Korean generals who are to accompany North Korean troops.
  
  Tensions arose in the Security Council between the USA and China, as Washington accused China of providing significant support to Russia. China rejected these accusations and condemned US sanctions against Chinese companies.
  
  
• Manufacturing activity in Asia stagnated in October as an upturn in China gave little impetus to factories in the region, according to surveys. This is a challenge for policymakers in light of potential trade disputes between the US and China. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), trade fragmentation, problems in the Chinese real estate sector and market risks are weighing on the Asian economy. While Chinese production grew slightly thanks to government measures, production activities in Japan and South Korea fell due to weak demand. China's PMI rose slightly to 50.3, signaling stability. However, the IMF warned that China needs to promote more consumption and rely less on exports.
  
  
• The death toll from the devastating floods in eastern Spain has risen to 158 and many people are still missing. The rain, equivalent to a whole year's worth, fell in just eight hours in the Valencia region. The disaster is considered Spain's worst flood tragedy in modern history and could become Europe's deadliest storm-related disaster in the last 50 years. In Valencia, victims were found in flooded buildings and vehicles, including a policeman and a woman in La Torre. The severe flooding damaged infrastructure, bridges, roads and agricultural land in the region, which is known for growing citrus fruits. Residents criticized the authorities for inadequate warnings. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged the population to stay at home as further storms were imminent. According to the report by the Climate Central research center, the unusually warm temperatures of the tropical Atlantic have exacerbated the rainfall, making such extreme weather events 50 to 300 times more likely due to climate change.
  
  
• AI decision-makers: discussing AI energy requirements in Saudi Arabia Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink were among the speakers at the “Future Investment Initiative” conference in Riyadh. At the country's largest investor conference, discussions focused primarily on the enormous energy requirements of AI. (BBG)
  
• Thanks to AI: Taiwan's economy surprises with strong Q3 growth Taiwan's GDP grew by 3.97% year-on-year in Q3 - exceeding economists' expectations of 3.4%. The increase was mainly fueled by continued high demand for semiconductors produced in the wake of the AI boom. (FT)
  
• Meta: Relying on huge GPU cluster to train Llama 4 Meta has announced that the next generation of its Llama AI models will be trained on a GPU cluster larger than anything seen before - +100,000 Nvidia H100 chips are to be used, dwarfing the competition. (WIR)
• Signa Prime: Court halts reorganization plan The noble division in the real estate empire of Ösigarch & bankrupt René Benko is finally sent into bankruptcy. Many creditors actually wanted a fiduciary reorganization - the Austrian Supreme Court said yesterday: No. (DS)
• Esure: Bidding for UK insurer?
  Insurers Allianz, Aviva, Sampo and Ageas are among the potential bidders for the UK insurer owned by Bain Capital, which could fetch $1.9bn (BBG)
• EU Commission: Proceedings opened against online marketplace Temu The Brussels authority has opened formal proceedings to examine whether the platform is taking sufficient action against the sale of illegal products, according to a statement. The potentially addictive design of the service is also to be investigated. (GUAR)
  
• Republican Trump accuses TV station CBS of manipulating an interview with Democrat Harris and is suing for damages. Basketball legend LeBron James supports Harris.
  
• Meta: Profits exceed expectations - but so do AI costs.
• ChatGPT: Can now surf the internet live
• BYD overtook Tesla as the top-selling e-car manufacturer in Q3 2024 - mainly thanks to strong sales in China
• Apple: iPhone & Services drive sales growth - penalty payment significantly depresses margin
• Eurozone inflation: Reaches 2% in October (ZON)
• EU Commission: Opens proceedings against low-cost online retailer Temu (TAG) 
• Court: Stops trustee restructuring plan of Signa Prime (MM) 
• ING: Profit collapses again - this time by 18% (HB) 
• Bosch: Wants to cut more than the planned 8,000 jobs after all (NTV)
• US labor market: Strongest job growth since July 2023 (CNBC) 
• KKR & ECP: Investing $50 billion in AI data centers and energy projects (WSJ) 
• Samsung: Struggling for AI connection - result below market expectation (HB) 
• Dropbox: Lays off 20% of workforce (WSJ) 
• US investor: Sentenced to months in prison for falsified $4bn takeover bid for Getty Images (RT)