HealthEquity said it had added costs because of cyber threats and fraud attacks.
The health savings account custodian missed profit estimates and gave weak full-year guidance.
HealthEquity blamed "bad actors" for an approximately $17 million reduction in gross profit.
Shares of HealthEquity (HQY) sank 20% Wednesday, a day after the Health Savings Account (HSA) custodian missed profit estimates and gave weak guidance as it dealt with the costs of a rise in criminal activity targeting the firm.1
The company reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.69, while analysts surveyed were looking for $0.71. Revenue rose 19% year-over-year to $311.8 million, exceeding expectations.
In a transcript of the analyst call provided by AlphaSense, CEO Scott Cutler explained that along with other financial firms, HealthEquity has seen "increased cyber threats and fraud attacks from bad actors using sophisticated technology, techniques and methods." Cutler noted those activities "led to excess service expense."2
CFO James Lucania said gross profit was cut by about $17 million because of additional service costs "incurred to protect members from and reimburse those impacted by sophisticated fraud activity and to assist members during our card processor consolidation."
HealthEquity sees full-year adjusted EPS of $3.57 to $3.74, and revenue from $1.280 billion to $1.305 billion. The estimates were for $3.66 and $1.302 billion, respectively.
The partnership underscores Servier’s commitment to developing targeted therapies that address unmet medical needs in oncology
Servier will develop and commercialize BDTX-4933, a Phase 1 asset with best-in-class potential targeting both RAS mutations and RAF alterations, in solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer
Black Diamond will receive an upfront payment of $70 million and up to $710 million in development and commercial sales milestone payments plus royalties
Questions are mounting in Canada and in Europe over whether big-ticket purchases of high-end U.S. weaponry, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, are still a wise strategic choice for Western countries worried about their investment in U.S. defense technology.
In less than two months, U.S. President Donald Trump has upended decades of U.S. foreign policy. He has left NATO members questioning whether the U.S. will honor the alliance's commitment to defend each other if other European countries are attacked by Russia. He's also made repeat overtures to Russia and suspended most U.S. foreign aid.
And Pete Hegseth, Trump's defense secretary, last month told a gathering of European defense ministers “that stark strategic realities” prevent the U.S. from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.
That could impact foreign sales of the Lockheed Martin-produced F-35 and other advanced U.S. jets like the F-16. As the war in Ukraine continues into its fourth year, it's become clear that Eastern European NATO members still have vast stores of Soviet-era weapons in their stockpiles that were not interoperable with Western weaponry. A long-term plan to get all of NATO on similar platforms — by replacing old Soviet-era jets with Western ones, particularly the F-16 and in some cases, the F-35 — has gained momentum.
Some of the NATO countries are now re-thinking tying their defense to U.S.-made systems and potentially considering European jets like the Saab Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale instead.
Angering an F-35 partner
In Canada, where Trump has launched a trade war and has threatened economic coercion to make it the 51st American state, new Prime Minister Mark Carney has asked Defense Minister Bill Blair to review its purchase of F-35s. Canada has been a partner with the U.S. in developing the F-35.
Blair will see if there are other options “given the changing environment,” a defense spokesman said.
Carney on Tuesday announced a radar purchase from Australia worth Canadian $6 billion ($4.2 billion). The Over-the-Horizon Radar system will provide early warning radar coverage from the Canada-United States border into the Arctic, and officials said it would have a smaller footprint than a similar American system.
And in Portugal, the outgoing defense minister said in an interview with a Portuguese newspaper published last week that “recent positions” taken by the U.S. compelled a rethink about the purchase of F-35s because the U.S. has become unpredictable. Portugal is considering various options to replace its F-16s.
“You’re not just buying an airplane, you’re buying a relationship with the United States,” said Winslow T. Wheeler, a longtime government watchdog who spent 30 years in the U.S. Congress working for Democrats and Republicans on national security and defense issues. “People in the past have not just welcomed but craved that kind of relationship.”
The Netherlands and Norway have voiced recent support for the F-35 program in comments to the media.
“The F-35 is a vital component of our national defense capability, and the cooperation and dialogue with the United States continues to support the development and use of this high-end platform," Norwegian State Secretary Andreas Flåm said in a statement. ”We expect this constructive cooperation to continue into the future."
The F-35 and a ‘kill switch’
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was designed to combine stealth, maneuverability and attack capabilities in a single aircraft. Each jet costs about $85 million (78 million euros), and the price jumps to $100 million (91 million euros) to $150 million (137 million euros) when supporting infrastructure and spare parts are included. About 1,100 have been produced to date for 16 military services across the globe.
The F-35B, a variant that can take off from ship decks vertically, is the latest model. It's the most expensive weapons system the U.S. has ever produced, with estimated lifetime costs now expected to top $1.7 trillion. One of the ways the program was counting on reducing those costs was by selling more aircraft to international customers.
But the Trump administration's recent pause on providing intelligence to Ukraine to force the country to negotiate with Russia has fueled fears that the U.S. may have similar ways to coerce them in a future fight — such as by embedding a hypothetical “kill switch” in the F-35's millions of lines of programming.
In a statement, the Pentagon's F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office on Tuesday vehemently rejected any notion that jets sold to allies could be remotely disabled.
“There is no kill switch. The F-35 was conceived, developed, and continues to be operated and sustained as a joint/coalition platform, built on strong partnerships with U.S. allies and partner nations across the globe,” the office said in a statement. “The strength of the F-35 program lies in its global partnership, and we remain committed to providing all users with the full functionality and support they require.”
But that's not the only way to impact an ally's program, Wheeler said. The F-35 requires constant U.S.-controlled tech upgrades to operate in combat. If a relationship with the U.S. soured and updates were delayed, it could make a jet, or even a fleet, inoperable, he said.
Lockheed Martin, in a statement Tuesday, said the company is committed to helping its customers “strengthen their airpower and security with the F-35.”
“As part of our government contracts, we deliver all system infrastructure and data required for all F-35 customers to sustain the aircraft,” the defense contractor said. “We remain committed to providing affordable and reliable sustainment services to our customers that enable them to complete their missions and come home safely.”
European jet alternatives
The Saab Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale could see an increase in sales if other countries decide to forgo their F-35 purchases. But none of them have the stealth capabilities of the F-35.
The Swedish-made Saab Gripen is used by the militaries of Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Africa,Brazil and Thailand. Conventional defense industry wisdom says it's significantly cheaper than the F-35, Wheeler said.
The Eurofighter Typhoon, a swing-role combat aircraft, is part of the British, German, Spanish and Italian forces. It's manufactured by a consortium of defense companies: Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
The French-built Dassault Rafale twin-jet fighter is used by the French Navy and the French Air and Space Force. The governments of Egypt, India, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Indonesia have all signed contracts for Rafales.
David Jordan, a senior lecturer in defense studies at King’s College London and co-director of the Freeman Air and Space Institute, said that previously, European leaders felt it was easier and more cost-effective to lean on the U.S. defense industry — and American taxpayers — to get access to advanced weaponry. But the Trump administration's move away from Europe could be the turning point, Jordan said.
It would require the continent to pool its money and resources — often a sticking point among the countries — into research and development, manufacturing and logistics, but Jordan said it's possible within five to 10 years.
“The European defense industry is more than capable of building what it needs,” Jordan said.
French President Emmanuel Macron is already ramping up his efforts to persuade France’s allies to switch to European defense contractors and weapons systems, including French-built Rafale fighters.
“Those who buy the F-35 should be offered the Rafale. That’s how we’ll increase the pace,” La Dépêche du Midi quoted Macron as saying during a press briefing Friday to journalists from regional French newspapers.
If the Europeans increase their production, it would greatly affect the bottom lines of Lockheed Martin and other U.S. defense companies. Jordan said U.S. defense contractors are likely concerned about Trump’s next move.
“At what point will they say ‘we don’t like this, we’re talking about risking billions of dollars here,’” Jordan said.
At the conference, first-ever accuracy and performance data will be presented for Dexcom’s upcoming G7 15 Day system,1 showing an overall mean absolute relative difference (MARD) of 8.0%, making it the most accurate CGM sensor.2
New Dexcom G7 automated insulin delivery and smart insulin pen integrations also announced at ATTD reinforce the company’s status as the most connected CGM brand in the world.
The UAE is lobbying the Trump administration to torpedo a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip that Egypt drafted and which has been endorsed by the Arab League, US and Egyptian officials told Middle East Eye.
The split is becoming increasingly bitter, with US diplomats concerned that it is harming US interests in the region. It reflects growing Arab competition over who calls the shots in the Gaza Strip’s future governance and reconstruction, as well as different opinions over how much influence Hamas should retain there.
The Emirati pressure poses a dilemma for Cairo because both the UAE and Egypt broadly back the same Palestinian powerbroker for Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, an exiled former Fatah official. “The UAE could not be the lone state opposing the Arab League plan when it was agreed, but they are trashing it with the Trump administration,” the US official told MEE.
The UAE is flexing its unparalleled access to the White House to criticize the plan as unworkable and accuse Cairo of giving too much influence to Hamas.
The UAE's powerful ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, has been lobbying US President Donald Trump’s inner circle and US lawmakers to put pressure on Egypt to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians, one US official and one Egyptian briefed on the matter told MEE.
Otaiba was previously on record saying that he did not see “an alternative” to Trump’s call earlier this year for Palestinians to be forcibly displaced outside of the Gaza Strip. MEE contacted the UAE embassy in Washington, DC for comment but did not receive a reply.
Hamas is an offshoot of the Egypt-founded Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE has tried to stamp out across the Middle East. Egypt’s military-led government has also crushed the Muslim Brotherhood, but it allows Hamas officials some freedom of movement. Egyptian spymasters have long-standing relations with Hamas members, including the Qassam brigades, which Egypt has used to mediate the ceasefires in Gaza.
UAE angered by US-Hamas talks
Egypt’s Gaza plan has been criticized by the UAE for not spelling out specifically how to disarm and remove Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian officials say the plan is clear that governance will be handled by the Palestinian Authority. The plan calls for a security force in Gaza trained by Jordan and Egypt and leaves open the possibility for UN peacekeepers to be deployed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Hamas said it accepts the plan, but Israel is against internationalising the conflict in such a way, regional diplomats say.
The US brokered a ceasefire to the war in Gaza in January, but it has effectively collapsed, with the besieged enclave on the verge of a return to war. Israel has cut off electricity to the enclave. Over the weekend, it launched deadly strikes that killed at least 15 people, Palestinian health officials said.
The US has floated a plan for Hamas to release the 27 living captives left in the Gaza Strip in exchange for an extension of a temporary truce. Hamas has insisted on a permanent end to the war, as stipulated in the January ceasefire agreement.
The Trump administration has said it backs Israel returning to war in the Gaza Strip. American diplomacy was jolted after Trump’s former nominee for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, met directly with Hamas recently in Doha, Qatar.
The White House said Boehler met with Hamas to negotiate the release of one remaining American captive, but the envoy said publicly he discussed a five-year to ten-year truce with Hamas that would have seen the group disavow politics, and the US and its Arab allies ensure the demilitarisation of Gaza.
Those remarks, and Boehler’s statement to CNN that he would not rule out further meetings with Hamas, sparked backlash from the Israeli government and pro-Israel US lawmakers. On Friday, Boehler was withdrawn as the nominee for hostage affairs.The meeting also riled the UAE, the Egyptian and US officials told MEE.
Trump’s top advisors have been ambivalent about the Arab League’s post-war Gaza plan. While travelling in the region in March, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, did not endorse the plan but called it the “basis for the reconstruction efforts”.
US reassessing military aid to Egypt
Some US and Egyptian officials believe the Emirati campaign has already impacted US-Egyptian bilateral relations, with the US warning Egypt that it will cut military aid in 2026, an Egyptian official and one US official told MEE.
The American warnings that the White House planned to cut military assistance to Egypt were first reported by London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed last week. The US official told MEE that Egypt has been informed that the US is reassessing its military aid but has not been directly told that a future reduction is a quid pro quo in exchange for Egypt accepting a forced displacement of Palestinians.
The Trump administration has been cutting foreign aid worldwide. Egypt and Israel both obtained waivers from the 90-day freeze on foreign American assistance. Other Arab countries, like Lebanon, have also received carve-outs in recent weeks.
The Trump administration followed through in March on the former Biden administration’s plan todivert $95m in aid earmarked for Egypt’s military to the Lebanese Armed Forces.
A delegation of former senior Egyptian officials visited Washington last month to meet policymakers and think tanks in a bid to shore up Egypt’s position with the Trump administration. In their public discussions, they did not acknowledge the US warnings, an Egyptian briefed on the matter told MEE.
Egyptian officials have told their US counterparts that it is in Israel's and Egypt’s interest to maintain US aid, the US and Egyptian officials told MEE. Egyptian officials have told the US that the aid is a cornerstone of the Camp David Accords, which led to a 1979 peace treaty between the two neighbours. But suspicion is deepening among Egypt's elite.
The military establishment is already seething with resentment at the US for accusing it of failing to police the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Republican Senator Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Egypt of “blunting” Israel’s fight with Hamas in a previous interview with MEE.
Egypt receives $1.3bn in military aid each year. The US already conditions $300m in aid to human rights matters. The US's leverage over Egypt has diminished since the Israel peace treaty. In 1978, US aid stood at six percent of Egypt's GDP. Today, that number is less than half a percent, and it is not clear that the Trump administration views aid as an asset worth preserving.
US officials have told the White House that reducing aid would prompt Egypt to turn to Russia or China for military equipment, but Trump is re-ordering US ties to Russia.
Egypt receives aid through foreign military financing, which means the US purchases military equipment for Egypt from American defence contractors, whereas oil-rich Gulf states mainly buy American weaponry with their sovereign funds through foreign military sales.
Frenemies: UAE and Egypt
One of the complicating factors in the dispute is that both Egypt and the UAE look to Dahlan as a power broker in post-war Gaza. When the Egyptian-drafted plan was endorsed by the Arab League, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pardoned exiled former Fatah officials.
That was widely seen as a nod to Dahlan, who was Fatah’s enforcer in Gaza before Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. Dahlan relocated to the UAE after falling out with Abbas in the occupied West Bank.
MEE reported that the UAE is pushing for Dahlan to oversee a committee governing Gaza and later replace octogenarian Abbas as president. MEE contacted Dahlan for comment on this article.
Sisi enjoys close ties to Dahlan. The UAE is a key backer of Sisi’s cash-strapped government. In 2024, it agreed to a $35bn investment in Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. But the UAE and Egypt are backing opposing sides in a brutal civil war in Sudan.
Further complicating matters, The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration is continuing to push for Sudan and the unrecognized government of Somaliland to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians.
The Trump administration’s expected nominee for Africa Affairs at the State Department, Peter Pham, is a vocal supporter of the UAE and Somaliland's independence. The UAE is the main powerbroker in Somaliland, where it trains security forces and controls the main port through its state-owned company, DP World.
The Trump administration’s cold shoulder to Egypt’s Gaza plan has riled career officials in the US State Department, who have watched France, Germany, Italy, and Britain all endorse the framework.
American diplomats said the White House was brushing aside career officials' warnings not to pressure Egypt to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians, MEE reported previously. Trump publicly walked back that demand after being dissuaded not by US officials but in a private discussion with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House in February. The next month, Trump told reporters, “Nobody is expelling any Palestinians.”
In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, Alina Habba, senior advisor to President Donald Trump, shared the administration’s plan and her role in addressing this critical issue. But as Habba sees it, this isn’t just about human trafficking—it’s about “human extortion,” a more encompassing term that includes everything from sex trafficking to cyber activity and forced labor.
“I’m focused on human extortion, which includes child trafficking,” she said in an interview with Jan Jekielek, senior editor at The Epoch Times and host of “American Thought Leaders.”
Habba emphasized that her efforts focus not only on children who are victims of trafficking but also on any individual, regardless of age, who falls victim to sex trafficking, financial extortion through cyber means, or modern slavery.
Habba, 40, who served as Trump’s defense attorney in recent years, now works as a counselor to the president, collaborating closely with government agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She is currently drafting a series of executive orders aimed at strengthening regulations and protecting the victims of human extortion.
In her view, the crisis reflects the widespread abuse of vulnerable individuals who are coerced and exploited, often in ways that the public is barely aware of. Habba pointed to examples like cyber-interactive pornography that encourages people to hurt children, calling it a “sick” and disturbing reality of today’s world.
She also noted that the issue worsened during the border crisis under the Biden administration.
Many children were, misleadingly, trafficked over the border, she said.
“They were displaced from their families and then found themselves in vulnerable positions where they were sex trafficked and labor trafficked.”
Since Trump took office, Habba said she has spent nearly two months fully understanding the scale of the problem. The administration is now focused on bringing these children home, providing them with necessary care, capturing their traffickers, and prosecuting those responsible—particularly pedophiles.
A DHS report from August 2024 revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred over 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children to the HHS between fiscal years 2019 and 2023. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division within HHS, is responsible for placing these unaccompanied children with sponsor homes in the United States. However, the report indicated that ICE was unable to track the location and status of all the children who had been released from HHS custody.
While Habba declined to provide exact numbers, she stated that the absence of familial DNA testing had led to a surge in child trafficking.
In 2023, the Biden administration revoked a Trump-era program that required rapid DNA testing for illegal immigrants crossing the border. Without this measure, she said, individuals were entering the country with alleged relatives—such as parents, aunts, or uncles—without any verification. As a result, it was impossible to determine whether those accompanying the children were associated with cartels or engaged in human trafficking.
The Biden administration reportedly did not provide specific reasons for ending the program, only stating that it was not renewing the contract with the private company doing the tests.
Since Trump’s return to office in January, the DNA testing program has been reinstated. However, Habba said there are still other critical issues to address.
She mentioned that some migrant children were placed in “fake sponsor homes” by HHS. When officials visited these homes for safety checks, they found that the children were no longer there.
“So, effectively, they were being re-trafficked,” Habba said.
The administration is now working closely with public and private sector individuals to ensure these children are kept safe, provided with necessary rehabilitation, including therapy and medical care, and placed in secure homes.
Tate Brothers and Epstein Files
Habba addressed the recent controversy surrounding the influencer Tate brothers, who are facing human trafficking and rape allegations. She faced criticism after expressing in a January interview that she was a big fan of Andrew Tate.
Habba told Jekielek that her comments had been manipulated and taken out of context. She clarified that her support for Tate was based on his political views and should be viewed separately from the accusations being made against him.
“The accusations against the Tate brothers are stomach-churning. They are disturbing,” she said. “There is no part of me that condones at all that behavior,” she said of the reports. The Tate brothers are contesting the allegations being made against them.
Habba also provided an update on the long-awaited Epstein files.
She said that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are leading the investigation to review the files and thoroughly vet the accusations.
“We are committed to transparency,” Habba said, urging Americans to be patient during the process.
“We’re not going to be off the cuff. We’re not going to shoot from the hip. We’re going to look at things methodically and take them very seriously. And unfortunately, that takes time.”
Habba also discussed her upbringing and family, identifying herself as a Middle Eastern Catholic woman. Her parents, both Chaldean Catholics, emigrated from Iraq to the United States in the early 1980s to escape persecution in their home country.
“My family is religious. They are very involved in the church, and I’m proud of that,” she said.
Trump praised Habba when announcing her appointment as counselor to the president, highlighting her dedication and loyalty.
“She has been unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve—standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in Court,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Dec. 8, 2024.
“As a first generation American of Middle Eastern Heritage, she has become a role model for women in Law and Politics, most recently being named Chaldean Woman of the Year.”
