A tense day in global politics and markets: the Trump-Putin summit is in limbo after Moscow refused a Ukraine ceasefire.
France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a historic prison term, gold saw its sharpest crash in years after hitting record highs, and Novo Nordisk’s board is being gutted after a clash with its dominant shareholder.
Here’s your Tuesday wrap of the major stories.
Trump-Putin meeting on hold
Moscow’s flat-out refusal to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine is now putting the planned Trump-Putin summit at risk.
According to diplomats, a key prep meeting in Budapest, between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, has already been postponed, which they say is a sign that getting the summit off the ground won’t be easy.
People familiar with the talks say Washington thinks Russia’s position hasn’t budged at all and is still too hard-line, so the US isn’t eager to move forward unless Moscow shows some flexibility.
Even so, neither Washington nor the Kremlin has officially called off the summit, and quiet discussions are still happening in the background.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that no date had ever been formally set and said such a meeting would need serious groundwork before anything goes ahead.
Meanwhile, European leaders are pushing for a ceasefire based on the current front lines, while Russia insists deeper issues have to be addressed before any pause in fighting.
Former French President starts prison sentence
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy started serving a five-year prison sentence on Tuesday over his role in a scheme to illegally fund his 2007 election campaign with money from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
At 70, he’s now the first modern French ex-president to actually go to prison.
He was taken to La Santé prison in Paris, while a crowd of supporters cheered as he left his home.
Sarkozy has repeatedly insisted he’s innocent and says the case is politically motivated. He’s already filed an appeal, but for now, he’ll begin his sentence, likely in solitary confinement or in a protected wing for vulnerable inmates.
This ruling comes after years of legal wrangling over claims that he and his inner circle sought millions in campaign cash from Gaddafi’s regime.
He was acquitted of personally taking the money, but the court still found him complicit in the broader conspiracy.
Gold plunges over 6%
Gold prices took a major hit on Tuesday, dropping more than 6% in a single day, the biggest fall in over five years.
This comes right after a huge rally earlier in the week that pushed gold to an all-time high of $4,381 per ounce on Monday.
A lot of traders decided to cash out their gains, especially with the US dollar strengthening and some of the fear-driven demand fading as people become more hopeful about upcoming US–China trade talks.
Trading volumes were also thinner than usual because of the Diwali holiday in India, which tends to affect global gold liquidity.
On top of that, technical charts had been flashing warnings that the market was overbought.
Even with the drop, gold is still up for the year, supported by expectations that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates and by ongoing geopolitical tensions that keep investors cautious.
Novo Nordisk crisis
Novo Nordisk has announced that its board chair, Helge Lund, and six other board members will step down and won’t run for re-election at the extraordinary general meeting on November 14, 2025.
The move follows a clash with the company’s controlling shareholder, the Novo Nordisk Foundation over how the board should look going forward.
Lund said the board had pushed for a “light refresh,” bringing in some new skills while keeping most of the current team in place. But the Foundation wanted a much bigger shake-up.
This board exit comes at a time when the company is already going through major leadership changes. It recently fired its CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, after stumbling in the obesity drug market.
So the shake-up is part of a broader effort to reset the company’s direction after a rough stretch.
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