Original title: CapVest Jumps Into PE Big Leagues With €10 Billion Stada Buyout Europe’s largest leveraged buyout this year wasn’t done by a Wall Street giant like Blackstone Inc. or KKR & Co. Instead, it’s from a lesser-known British private equity firm that manages just €12 billion ($14 billion). London-based CapVest Partners announced Monday it will buy control of German drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel AG in what’s by far its largest-ever purchase. The acquisition, which values Stada at around €10 billion, caps a few furious days of around-the-clock negotiations as CapVest raced to seal a deal with the drugmaker’s owners at Bain Capital and Cinven. ...

Original title: Argentine Pulp Maker Blames Milei as It Seeks Bankruptcy Protection Pulp and paper manufacturer Celulosa Argentina SA filed for bankruptcy protection Bloomberg Terminal Monday, blaming the government of President Javier Milei for creating a bad business environment for local industry. After missing bond payments, Celulosa, based in agricultural export hub Rosario, is now seeking protection from creditors in Argentina’s equivalent of a Chapter 11 process, according to an investor filing. Its locally traded shares slumped by as much as 17% on Monday and are down nearly 80% so far this year. ...

Original title: Hell Is Us is a cryptic and ambitious meditation on the horrors of war The opening hours of Hell Is Us are brilliantly confusing. The game tasks you with getting up to speed on a complicated civil war between the Palomists and Sabinians. A deluge of proper nouns is unleashed: Lymbic weaponry, Guardian Detectors, and more. But the clearest way the game communicates that you should feel utterly dumbfounded is through the cryptic stone panels scattered amid its ravaged, Eastern Europe-coded setting; you’re unable to actually read the text engraved in these tablets. At every turn in the first levels — a dank forest and then a fetid bog — meaning and, just as importantly, understanding, eludes. In this manner of willful bewilderment, Hell Is Us evokes Hidetaka Miyazaki’s constellation of soulsborne hits. Like those games, notably Elden Ring, here beckons a world of esoteric symbols, puzzles, and inscrutably complex history. Combat also apes the cadence of quintessential Miyazaki titles: stamina drains with each thunderous strike, recuperating only in moments o ...

Original title: Top 10 AI Tools That Will Transform Your Content Creation in 2025 Top 10 AI Tools That Will Transform Your Content Creation in 2025 Looking to level up your content creation game in 2025? You’re in the right place! The digital landscape has evolved dramatically, and AI tools have become essential for creators who want to stay ahead of the curve. In this guide, I’ll show you the top 10 AI tools that are revolutionizing content creation and making creators’ lives easier. Why You Need These AI Tools in 2025 Content creation has become more demanding than ever. Whether you’re a social media influencer, marketer, or business owner, keeping up with the constant need for fresh, engaging content can be overwhelming. That’s where AI tools come in – they’re not just fancy tech, they’re your secret weapon for creating better content faster. Let’s Dive Into the Top 10 AI Tools for 2025 1. ChatGPT : Content Ideation and Scriptwriting What Makes It Special: ChatGPT has evolved into a comprehensive content creation assistant by combining advanced language understan ...

Original title: ‘Kim Novak’s Vertigo’ Review: Doc Tribute to an Icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age Crosses the Line From Loving to Fawning Shown out of competition in Venice in conjunction with the festival giving a lifetime achievement award to its 92-years-young titular subject, documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo is essentially a cinematic fan letter, written with love but chock full of gushing, purple prose, some of it by the subject herself. Swiss filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe is already known for his essayistic celebrations of auteurs and their masterworks, including Lynch/Oz, Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist and The People Vs. George Lucas. He may take writing, directing and co-producing credits here, and appears onscreen as Novak’s interviewer, but it’s Novak who feels like the one who’s largely in charge. Kim Novak’s Vertigo The Bottom Line Her-story. Venue: Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition) Director/screenwriter: Alexandre O. Philippe 1 hour 16 minutes That commitment to seeing the world through Novak’s eyes comes with a certain price in credibility. However much you might admire her as an a ...

Original title: Saudi Arabia, Iraq Stop Oil Shipments to Nayara After Sanctions Saudi Arabia and Iraq aren’t shipping any crude to Nayara Energy Ltd.’s refinery in western India after it was sanctioned by the European Union. Saudi Aramco halted crude oil sales to Nayara after the bloc’s measures, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. One of the people cited payment issues due to sanctions as the reason for the stoppage. Likewise, Nayara didn’t receive any shipments from Iraq state oil marketeer SOMO in August, another person familiar with the matter said. ...

Original title: Glencore Mulls Job Cuts at South African Ferrochrome Venture Glencore Plc’s ferrochrome venture in South Africa said it’s started restructuring talks that may lead to job losses months after shuttering some of its plants. Merafe Resources Ltd. – which owns a 20.5% stake in the operations – said on Monday that the consultation process will focus on two smelters that were closed in May. While South Africa is the world’s largest producer of chrome ore, the domestic processing industry has been hammered in recent years by high electricity costs and fierce competition from Chinese facilities. ...

Original title: Swaps Pioneered by Credit Suisse Take On New Life in Age of War Debt swaps pioneered by Credit Suisse to fund nature conservation are enjoying a second life, as bankers see an opportunity to apply the model to everything from post-war reconstruction to energy security. The swaps help governments refinance debt at more favorable terms and put any savings toward a pre-determined policy goal. After a drought in dealmaking since late last year, as many as four new swaps may be completed by the end of 2025, according to Jake Harper , senior investment manager, private credit at Legal & General Group Plc. But none of them has a nature-focused goal, he says. ...

Original title: Chatbots can be manipulated through flattery and peer pressure Generally, AI chatbots are not supposed to do things like call you names or tell you how to make controlled substances. But, just like a person, with the right psychological tactics, it seems like at least some LLMs can be convinced to break their own rules. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania deployed tactics described by psychology professor Robert Cialdini in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion to convince OpenAI’s GPT-4o Mini to complete requests it would normally refuse. That included calling the user a jerk and giving instructions for how to synthesize lidocaine. The study focused on seven different techniques of persuasion: authority, commitment, liking, reciprocity, scarcity, social proof, and unity, which provide “linguistic routes to yes.” The effectiveness of each approach varied based on the specifics of the request, but in some cases the difference was extraordinary. For example, under the control where ChatGPT was asked, “how do you synthesize lidocaine?”, ...

Original title: The 89 best Labor Day sales happening now Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, and while the prospect of cooler weather and shorter days can be a tough adjustment for some, at least there is always a great selection of deals to combat the post-summer blues. Lucky for you, we’ve gone ahead and rounded up the best discounts you can get on a variety of Verge-approved gadgets and goods, from earbuds and 4K TVs to the latest e-readers. Being that it’s now September, it’s also a good reminder that the holidays will be here before you know it. Thankfully, some gadgets — including the latest Kindle Colorsoft, the M4 MacBook Air 13, and Sony’s WH-CH520 headphones — have fallen to their lowest price to date, making now an excellent time to get a head start on your holiday shopping. After all, there’s no guarantee they’ll drop lower in price, even when Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around. Speaker deals JBL’s Flip 7 is on sale for around $129.95 ($20 off) at Best Buy, is on sale for around $129.95 ($20 off) at Amazon Walmar ...