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Boston – September 21, 2026 -- Global M&A value climbed 15% year over year in the first eight months of 2026, exceeding the ten-year average by 11%, according to a new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The number of megadeals worth $10 billion or more rose to 37 from 24 a year earlier, surpassing 2021's record of 32.

Megadeal surge masks a narrower recovery below the top of the market

Transactions valued at $1 billion or more are running above longer-term norms, but deal volume for small-cap and midcap transactions remains below historical levels even before inflation adjustments. BCG's M&A Sentiment Index rose to 83 from 79 at the start of the year, still well below its long-term average of 100.

New York – September 21, 2026 -- Africa's push for greater control over its resources and a stronger voice in global governance took center stage as business leaders, heads of state, and investors gathered for the fifth edition of Unstoppable Africa, held alongside the 81st UN General Assembly session at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

Guterres calls for Africa's permanent UN Security Council seat

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told delegates that Africa needs a permanent presence on the UN Security Council to contribute to global dialogue and action. He urged reforms so the continent's critical minerals generate local value and jobs rather than being exported raw.

London and St Helier, Jersey – September 21, 2026 -- Bloomsbury Money Group has appointed Thomas Holst, a former SAP health-technology engineer with more than a decade of experience, as Chief Technology Officer to lead the build-out of its multi-jurisdiction banking platform.

Holst will unify fiat, digital assets and payment rails onto one platform

Holst joins from SAP's health technology ecosystem in Germany, where he spent 13 years building data-intensive, privacy-critical software for hospitals and research institutions and the cloud infrastructure supporting it. At Bloomsbury Money, he will oversee technology strategy, engineering and platform architecture as the group consolidates its multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange, cross-border payments and regulated virtual asset services onto a single infrastructure designed to operate under one standard of control across multiple regulatory regimes.

Singapore – September 21, 2026 -- Seoul has emerged as the top overseas holiday destination worldwide for this year's Golden Week, recording a 91% year-on-year jump in international flight bookings, according to new data from Trip.com Group. Chinese travellers are combining Golden Week with the Mid-Autumn Festival into a 13-day break by taking three additional days off, with outbound departures expected to spike as early as September 25 and average trip lengths exceeding nine days.

Chinese Outbound Departures Shift Earlier to Avoid Holiday Rush

More than half of outbound flight bookings this season are for departures before the official holiday begins on October 1, with daily volume peaking on September 25 and 30. The shift comes as Mid-Autumn Festival lands the Friday before the October holidays, prompting travellers to front-load their trips.

Dallas – September 21, 2026 -- Solidion Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: STI) has combined its Chairman and CEO roles, appointing Jaymes Winters to the dual position effective September 16, 2026, while naming Mark N. Schwartz as Lead Independent Director.

Winters adds Chairman title to CEO role effective September 16

Winters, who brings more than 15 years of chief executive experience across oil and gas, telecommunications and retail, will retain the CEO title while assuming board chairmanship. He previously served as CEO of Nubia Brand International Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, and founded United Energy Inc., which he grew to nearly $100 million in revenue. Winters also taught business strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital for more than 9 years as an adjunct professor at Portland State University's School of Business.

New Taipei City – September 21, 2026 -- UD info's DB Series SSD Drives have achieved FIPS 140-3 validation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Cryptographic Module Validation Program, with NIST Certificate No. 5479 issued August 12, 2026, confirming Overall Level 2 status.

Certificate confirms Overall Level 2 validation for DB Series cryptographic module

The validation provides independent third-party assurance that the DB Series meets federal cryptographic security requirements, addressing procurement mandates in government, critical infrastructure, and other regulated sectors. NIST CMVP validation is a common prerequisite for federal and defense-adjacent storage procurement in the United States.

Singapore – September 21, 2026 -- MetaOptics Ltd (Catalist: 9MT) has secured an investment facility of up to US$10 million from White Lion Capital LLC, marking the Singapore-listed metalens maker's first institutional backer from the United States.

White Lion gains rights to up to 40 million new shares under warrant deed

Under the warrant deed, Los Angeles-based White Lion may exercise warrants at its discretion to raise up to US$10 million by issuing up to 40,000,000 new ordinary shares in MetaOptics. The deal arrives one year after MetaOptics listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange, and follows what the company describes as a period of design and evaluation requests from customers alongside shipped sampling units.

Melbourne – September 21, 2026 -- Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX: TLX, NASDAQ: TLX) has signed a strategic agreement to merge with ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE in a deal valuing ITM at US$1.65 billion upfront on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with up to US$700 million in additional contingent consideration tied to regulatory and sales milestones.

Deal structures $1.25 billion in Telix stock alongside debt assumption

Under the agreement, ITM shareholders will receive approximately US$1.25 billion in the form of 105.8 million Telix shares priced at US$11.84 per share, released as Nasdaq-listed ADRs following escrow periods of up to 15 months. Telix will additionally assume US$302 million of ITM net debt at closing, with US$96 million allocated to management equity rollover and transaction expenses. Upon completion, existing Telix shareholders will hold roughly 76.3% of the combined company, with ITM shareholders holding approximately 23.7%.

Southlake, Texas – September 20, 2026 -- Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR) has moved nearly 80 customers into piloting or full production on its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, a year after launching the technology that lets AI agents book, sell and service travel directly on the company's data and inventory.

Sabre launched its MCP server in September 2025, a full year ahead of rivals now announcing similar agentic AI plans

The server acts as a connective layer allowing AI agents to transact directly against Sabre's travel data and inventory. Clients using the technology include Virgin Australia, Flight Centre, and Internova — spanning its Global Travel Collection, Nexion, ALTOUR and Travel Leaders Network brands — with the company citing real bookings and cost savings already realized.

Armonk, N.Y. – September 20, 2026 -- Seventy-one percent of Chief Human Resource Officers say the ability to supervise, validate and override AI outputs is now the most essential workforce skill, yet only 29% of employees rank judgment as important, according to a new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value.

Benguerir, Morocco – September 20, 2026 -- Envision Energy has energised Morocco's first large-scale lithium iron phosphate battery storage system, a 25 MW / 125 MWh unit installed at OCP Green Energy's Benguerir mining site.

System cuts peak-hour electricity costs by roughly 25% at industrial site

The battery storage system, supplied and commissioned by Envision Energy under a contract signed in late 2025, shifts surplus daytime solar power to peak consumption hours. The company integrated the BESS with the site's solar generation, grid conditions and industrial load profile, and the system is now undergoing testing before entering commercial operation.

Hong Kong – September 20, 2026 -- Reap has launched Sentry, a managed fraud and risk service that eliminates the need for card-issuing clients to build in-house fraud teams or license separate monitoring tools.

Global card fraud losses hit $33.41 billion in 2024, Nilson Report data shows

Payment card fraud losses worldwide totalled USD 33.41 billion in 2024, tied to global card volume of USD 51.920 trillion, according to The Nilson Report's January 2026 figures. Reap cites the millisecond nature of authorisation decisions as the reason fraud must be intercepted at the point of transaction rather than remediated afterward.

Shanghai – September 20, 2026 -- Abbisko Therapeutics Co., Ltd. (HKEX: 02256.HK) reported that its oral FGFR2/3 inhibitor lavengratinib achieved a mean increase of 2.4 cm/year in annualized height velocity among children with achondroplasia in the lowest-dose cohort of a Phase II trial, with a 100% responder rate.

Seven children in the first dose cohort completed six months of treatment with no serious adverse events

All seven participants aged 6 to 12 in cohort 1 of the ABSK061-202 study received lavengratinib at 0.064 mg/kg once daily for 27 weeks. Responders were defined as achieving at least a 25% improvement in annualized height velocity from baseline, a threshold every participant in the cohort met.

Seoul – September 20, 2026 -- LG Display has begun mass production of a 24.5-inch Gaming OLED panel with a 720Hz refresh rate, the highest ever achieved in a gaming OLED display, alongside a 0.02ms response time.

LG Display sets new refresh-rate benchmark for esports monitors

The panel is the first OLED display built specifically for the esports segment, where 24-inch class monitors dominate because they let players view the full screen at a glance. To hit 720Hz at FHD (1920x1080) resolution, LG Display developed a proprietary driving algorithm and an integrated design spanning panel construction to the driving system, reducing motion blur and ghosting in fast-paced genres such as first-person shooter and racing games.

Seattle – September 20, 2026 -- Convera and JustLogin have partnered to embed regulated cross-border payroll and business payment capabilities directly into JustLogin's HR platform, enabling companies to initiate payments in up to 16 currencies across Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Partnership targets $105 billion regional B2B payments opportunity

Southeast Asia's B2B payments market was valued at approximately USD 44.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed USD 105 billion by 2033, according to figures cited by the companies. The integration positions JustLogin's HR platform to capture a share of that growth by letting customers manage payroll disbursement without leaving their existing workflow.

Houston and Oxford – September 20, 2026 -- Velocys has released the AlphaCore 800, its highest-capacity microchannel Fischer-Tropsch reactor to date, capable of producing up to 800 barrels per day, or 30,000 tonnes per year, from a single unit.

New reactor doubles capacity of predecessor model

AlphaCore 800 doubles the throughput of the AlphaCore 400 and extends Velocys' reactor family range from roughly 50 to 800 barrels per day per unit, or 2 to 30 kt/a. The reactor targets larger sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and e-fuels projects, including plants aiming for approximately 100,000 tonnes per year and above.

Shanghai – September 20, 2026 -- Antengene Corporation Limited (SEHK: 6996.HK) has dosed the first patient in China in its pivotal Phase III CLINCH-3 study evaluating ATG-022, a CLDN18.2 antibody-drug conjugate, as monotherapy for CLDN18.2-positive advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma.

Breakthrough Therapy Designation accelerated the trial's launch

China's National Medical Products Administration granted ATG-022 Breakthrough Therapy Designation, which the company says streamlined regulatory communications and enabled the rapid start of CLINCH-3. The randomized, controlled, open-label multicenter study is initiated in China and planned for expansion into a multi-regional clinical trial, with Professor Lin Shen of Peking University Cancer Hospital serving as principal investigator. The study compares ATG-022 against treatment of investigator's choice, targeting a future marketing approval application.

New York – September 20, 2026 -- More than 100 CEOs, heads of state and UN leaders concluded the 2026 UN Private Sector Forum in New York calling for faster public-private cooperation to unlock clean-energy investment, citing grid bottlenecks, regulatory uncertainty and financing gaps as the main barriers to deployment at scale.

UN Secretary-General urges companies to deploy capital and purchasing power

Hosted by the UN Global Compact on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, the invitation-only session pressed business leaders to close the gap between existing climate commitments and the pace of change needed to keep the 1.5°C target within reach. Guterres told participants that companies possess the capital, technology, supply chains and consumer base to "supercharge the renewables revolution" through direct investment in clean power and energy efficiency, and by using purchasing power to build markets for clean technologies.

Singapore – September 20, 2026 -- 01F Group has made an investment in DANA, Indonesia's leading digital e-wallet and financial services platform, through its growth-stage fintech private equity arm, 01Fintech. The deal deepens 01F Group's exposure to Southeast Asia's fintech sector as Indonesia's digital payments market is projected to approach USD 1 trillion by 2030.

DANA's platform reaches millions of users across Tier 2 to Tier 4 regions

DANA operates an integrated digital financial ecosystem serving consumers, merchants and financial institutions, with particular penetration among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) outside Indonesia's major metropolitan centers. Founded in 2018, the platform combines digital payments, QRIS transactions, money transfers and AI-powered financial tools.

Chicago – September 20, 2026 -- The Walter Family publicly rejected media reports claiming Mark and Kimbra Walter are scaling back philanthropic commitments, calling the allegations "false and easily disproven."

Walters pledge hundreds of millions more despite funding-structure scrutiny

Over more than two decades, Mark and Kimbra Walter have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations focused on under-resourced communities, education access and wildlife conservation. The family stated it intends to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars more in coming years, with existing financial commitments remaining unchanged.

The rebuttal directly addresses speculation that recent changes to the funding structure of certain organizations reflect a need to conserve cash. The family called such narratives "irresponsible," warning they create uncertainty for the young people, families and communities served by the affected organizations.