Nepal's hotel sector has incurred significant financial losses exceeding 25 billion Nepali rupees due to recent protests across the country. Numerous hotels, including international brands, sustained extensive damage from vandalism and arson attacks on September 9.

• Nationwide losses from the protests are projected to exceed 25 billion rupees, with damage to the Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu alone estimated at over 8 billion rupees.
• The Hotel Association Nepal released a statement detailing the damages and appealed for a relief package to aid the affected hotels.
• Nearly two dozen hotels, encompassing both domestic and international brands, were extensively damaged in the attacks.

AstraZeneca has paused plans to invest £200 million at a Cambridge research site, a move that would have created 1,000 jobs. This decision represents a fresh blow to the UK pharmaceutical industry, following a similar withdrawal by US pharmaceutical giant Merck.

• AstraZeneca's Cambridge expansion, announced in March 2024, is now paused.
• The pause comes after Merck scrapped a £1 billion UK expansion and as President Donald Trump pressures pharmaceutical firms to invest more in the US.
• AstraZeneca previously scrapped plans to invest £450 million in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside in January.
• UK spending on medicines has fallen from 15% of the NHS budget to 9% over the last 10 years.
• AstraZeneca announced in July that it would invest $50 billion (£36.9 billion) in the US for "medicines manufacturing and R&D."

Rating agency Fitch has downgraded France’s long-term sovereign credit rating from AA- to A+, with a stable outlook. This decision was primarily driven by the nation's high and rising government debt, political fragmentation, and projected high deficits.

• Fitch projects France's debt to reach 121 percent of GDP by 2027, up from 113.2 percent in 2024.
• The French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, via Minister Eric Lombard, has "taken note" of the downgrade.
• New Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is consulting with Parliament to restore public finances.