[SOURCE_CITY] – October 31, 2026 -- BlackBird Financial LP returned 62.2% in 2025, more than triple the S&P 500's 17.9% gain, without holding a single AI-related stock, according to the fund.

Fund avoids AI consensus under CIO Judah Spinner

Founder and Chief Investment Officer Judah Spinner kept the fund out of artificial intelligence names even as investors broadly concluded early in 2025 that AI companies deserved premium valuations. He did not dispute AI's transformative potential. His objection was to the assumption that transformative technology automatically delivers superior investor returns.

Spinner has cited railroads, automobiles and aviation in his annual client letters as technologies that changed civilization while disappointing the investors who funded them. His view is that valuations detach from reality when expectations outrun fundamentals, and the resulting corrections can be severe.

Plano – November 03, 2026 -- ISU Specialty Chemical and Ares Materials will jointly develop polymer materials for solid-state batteries, along with the AI tools used to optimize them. The deal pairs a lithium sulfide producer with 2025 revenue of about KRW 411.5 billion (US$290 million) and a materials-AI company based in Plano, Texas, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Ares takes formulation and AI, ISU takes production and supply

Ares will develop the polymer formulations and the AI framework used to tune them against cell-level battery test data. ISU, a member of Korea's ISU Group, will contribute its specialty-chemical and lithium sulfide manufacturing and lead production and commercial supply.

Waltham – November 03, 2026 -- Allego, Inc. has been named a Leader for the second consecutive year in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Revenue Enablement Platforms and placed furthest for Completeness of Vision, the company said.

Allego ranks first in onboarding and learning with a 4.13/5 score

In the accompanying 2026 Gartner Critical Capabilities report, Allego took #1 in the Onboarding & Continuous Learning use case at 4.13/5, its second straight year in that spot. It ranked #2 in Direct B2B Selling (4.03/5) and #3 in Buyer Engagement (3.81/5). Both Gartner reports are dated 29 October 2026.

Gartner states that it does not endorse any vendor and advises buyers not to select only the highest-rated providers.

Fort Lauderdale – November 03, 2026 -- Cloud Software Group Holdings, Inc. raised the cash consideration in its tender offer for its 9.00% Senior Secured Second Lien Notes due 2029 to $1,022.50 per $1,000 principal amount, up from $1,017.50.

Consideration rises $5.00 per $1,000 of notes tendered

The increase lifts the offered price to 2.25% above par, from 1.75% previously. Holders whose notes are accepted will also receive accrued and unpaid interest, calculated from the last interest payment date up to, but excluding, the settlement date.

The offer remains capped at $2.0 billion aggregate principal amount of notes and is subject to proration. If the cap is fully used, the $5.00 increase adds up to $10 million to the maximum consideration. The company made the offer under an Offer to Purchase dated Nov. 2, 2026.

St. John's – November 03, 2026 -- Annual trade in goods and services between Africa and the Caribbean could reach up to $1.65 billion by 2030, excluding mineral fuels, according to a report from the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank). The two institutions launched the study on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.

Around 80% of Africa's goods export potential to the Caribbean remains untapped

The report, Reshaping Africa-Caribbean Trade: Opportunities for Economic Transformation, finds that trade between the two regions still makes up only a small share of each region's overall trade. This is despite complementarities across agribusiness, manufacturing, services and the creative economy.

GALWAY – November 03, 2026 -- Medtronic's Symplicity Spyral renal denervation (RDN) system cut office systolic blood pressure by 18.2 mmHg at six months in the SPYRAL AFFIRM post-approval study, with no increase in antihypertensive medication. The company also received U.S. FDA approval to update the device's labeling with additional clinical data.

SPYRAL AFFIRM data show significant reductions across three blood pressure measures

Six-month results in the U.S. primary endpoint cohort were compared with a prespecified performance goal. Against baseline, patients recorded the following changes, all at p<0.0001:

WASHINGTON – November 03, 2026 -- The President has signed the ACT for ALS reauthorization bill into law, extending the program for five years and committing up to an additional $500 million to ALS research infrastructure and investigational treatment access, according to patient advocacy group I AM ALS.

Senate passes bill by unanimous consent hours before the law expires

The Senate approved the reauthorization by unanimous consent with only hours left before the existing law lapsed. The House had already gone home early. The original ACT for ALS Act was co-authored by I AM ALS in 2021 to close a gap in access to investigational treatments.

Sponsors of the reauthorization are Senators Coons (D-DE) and Murkowski (R-AK) and Representatives Quigley (D-IL-05) and Calvert (R-CA-41). Calvert co-chairs the bipartisan ALS Caucus.

Baton Rouge – November 03, 2026 -- APTIM has appointed Chuck Prow, former CEO of defense infrastructure firm V2X, as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman effective November 9, 2026. He succeeds Mark Fallon, who is stepping down from both roles to pursue other ventures.

Prow arrives from a V2X business with more than $4.0 billion in revenues

Prow most recently led V2X, which the source describes as a defense infrastructure management and technology firm with more than $4.0 billion in revenues. He led its formation through the merger of The Vertex Company with Vectrus, where he had been CEO since 2017.

His résumé spans more than three decades of leading global enterprises. He previously held executive leadership roles in the government and public sector businesses of IBM and PwC, has served on multiple boards in the government technology market, and is a 10-time Wash100 Award winner.

LONDON – November 03, 2026 -- Saudi Arabia welcomed about 61.2 million tourists in the first half of 2026, up about 1% year-on-year, with tourism expenditure reaching about SAR 151.9 billion (approximately $40.5 billion), Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb said as he opened Saudi Land at World Travel Market (WTM) London 2026.

Al-Khateeb, who also chairs the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), opened the pavilion alongside STA CEO Ageel Alshaibani and Rachel Travers, President of RX Global, the organizer of WTM London. The pavilion hosts 37 Saudi tourism partners targeting international tour operators, airlines and travel distributors.

TORONTO – November 03, 2026 -- Cardiol Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDL; TSX: CRDL) has entered into an at-the-market program that lets it sell up to US$75 million of common shares through Jefferies LLC to fund late-stage cardiac drug development.

Cardiol restricts ATM share sales to U.S. trading venues

Shares will be sold in ordinary brokers' transactions on the Nasdaq Capital Market or other U.S. trading markets at prevailing market prices. No shares will be sold through the Toronto Stock Exchange or elsewhere in Canada.

Sales will proceed under a prospectus supplement dated November 3, 2026. The supplement attaches to Cardiol's Canadian and U.S. base shelf prospectuses, both dated September 15, 2026. The U.S. base prospectus forms part of a Form F-10 registration statement that became effective on September 16, 2026.