Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-Why did a drug gang kill 43 students? The Mexican police and others secretly colluded with a cartel that kidnapped 43 students. Wiretaps show just how much the authorities helped the gang.
-Jimmy Buffett has died at the age of 76. With songs like “Margaritaville” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” he became a folk hero to fans known as Parrot Heads. He also became incredibly wealthy.
-A brutal path forward for Ukraine, village by village. As Ukraine pushes slowly forward in its counteroffensive, it’s relying heavily on the effort of hundreds of small-scale assault groups.
-Russia said it had thwarted a Ukrainian attack on a vital bridge that links Russia to occupied Crimea.
-President Biden struggles to make ‘Bidenomics’ a plus, not a minus. Wages are up, inflation has slowed and the White House has a new slogan. Still, President Biden’s poor marks on the economy are making Democrats worried.
-Biden team isn’t waiting for impeachment to go on the offensive. The White House has enlisted two dozen attorneys, legislative liaisons and others to counter Republican efforts to impeach President Biden.
-President Biden said he would meet Gov. Ron DeSantis after Hurricane Idalia. The governor’s aide said he had no such plans.
-One of Montana’s top elected officials has made banning the app a top priority, putting the state at the center of a geopolitical storm. Lobbying groups, businesses and influencers have defended TikTok on billboards and in court filings against a Montana proposal.
-Mongolia, a nation with few Catholics gives pope a welcome fit for an emperor. Although it was the first trip to Mongolia by a Roman Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis noted that the two entities have ties dating back many centuries.
-Why Charter and Disney Are Fighting, and What It Means for Viewers. Subscribers to Charter’s Spectrum service cannot watch the U.S. Open or college football games this weekend, with deeper implications for the industry.
-Europe’s boars still hold radioactivity. What surprised scientists is why. Some boars in Germany have radiation levels exceeding the limit deemed safe for humans consumption. Research suggests it’s not just because of Chernobyl.
-As the anniversary of women’s uprising nears, Iran cracks down. Sept. 16 marks one year since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police, setting off protests. The authorities are trying to quell new unrest.
-Can plastic recycling ever really work? Many plastics that carry the “chasing arrows” symbol, like soda cups and yogurt tubs, are rarely recycled. A new California law is raising the bar.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-New data confirming that the world’s largest economy is cooling has given the US Federal Reserve room to hold interest rates steady, economists say, even as it leaves open the possibility of resuming a historic monetary tightening campaign later in the year.
-Igor Kolomoisky, an influential Ukrainian oligarch who backed Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential campaign, has been named as a suspect in a fraud and money laundering case. Zelenskyy’s administration is attempting to beef up its anti-corruption credentials to assuage concerns of western allies, which have poured billions of dollars in economic and military support into the country in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
-The impact of the Hollywood strikes on California’s economy has reached almost $5B four months after script writers took to the picket lines, a figure that is expected to grow after the latest talks between union representatives and studios ended in acrimony. The first joint strike by actors and writers in 60 years has shut down most Hollywood productions, creating a knock-on effect for caterers, dry cleaners, drivers, rental companies and other small enterprises that support the industry, said Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist at the Milken Institute, who conducted the research.
-An influx of cash from Saudi Arabia stoked a record-breaking summer transfer window for European football, with clubs in the English Premier League spending more than £2B on new players for the first time.
-Hedge funds have upped bets against Argentina’s bonds as the emergence of radical rightwing candidate Javier Milei has sparked investor fears that the country is on course to elect a leader who will struggle to govern in the throes of an economic crisis. The total value of Argentina’s bonds borrowed by investors to wager on a fall in prices has jumped by 65% since Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, won a primary poll last month ahead of a presidential election in October.
-The Florida-based start-up, Magic Leap, was valued at $6.4B in 2018, having secured funding from investors including Alibaba, Google and Qualcomm. But poor sales of its consumer-oriented headsets led to lay-offs, a restructuring and a pivot to business customers. Its valuation fell to $2B by late 2021, when Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought a controlling stake in the company, infusing it with more cash and taking total funding to $4B.
-Six industry groups told a Texas-based federal appeals court that the Securities and Exchange Commission overstepped last week when it adopted new rules for private fund managers. The package requires increased disclosure and puts new limits on the way the industry treats customers — mostly pension funds, endowments and other institutional investors.
-Xi Jinping’s decision to send Premier Li Qiang to the G20 Summit summit (rather than attend himself), which western officials say was conveyed to them by Chinese counterparts, has yet to be confirmed by Beijing. But the absence of China’s president will be a blow to India’s rotating presidency of the multilateral gathering and the status of the New Delhi summit. It also shakes the stature of the G20 as the pre-eminent global leadership forum, amid deep fissures between its members.
-By the time Omar Bongo Ondimba died in 2009 after 41 uninterrupted years as president of Gabon he had fathered as many as 50 children. In that crowded field it was the French-educated Ali Bongo, one of seven “official sons” and a jazz-funk musician, who emerged as his successor. Ali, now 64, was elected president a few months after his father’s death, a position he held until this week when he became the latest African head of state to be swept out of office in a coup. Thousands poured on to the streets of Libreville, the seaside capital, to celebrate the apparent demise of the Bongo dynasty.
NY POST
-Support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign “collapsed” after the first Republican presidential debate, according to a new poll.The poll, published Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, showed former President Trump’s lead over his top rival at a yawning 46 points — nearly double the gap in the Journal’s last poll in April. In a survey of 600 Republican primary voters, 59% said Trump would be their first choice, followed by 13% for DeSantis. That’s down from the 24% the Florida governor previously logged, when he was seen as closing in on Trump. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was third at 8%.
-Amazon shareholders are suing the e-commerce giant for allegedly refusing to consider Elon Musk’s SpaceX for a profitable satellite contract because of his ongoing feud with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund (CB&T) filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of Amazon against Bezos, current CEO Andy Jassy, and other top executives at the company. The shareholders accused Amazon’s founder and executives of “consciously and intentionally breached their most basic fiduciary responsibilities” in its decision to purchase rocket launchers for its Project Kuiper satellite internet system. The lawsuit alleges that Amazon’s board awarded contracts worth $2.7B to Blue Origin, Bezos’ space company, and did not consider rival SpaceX, which is owned by Musk, as an alternative launch provider despite its track record. - Source TradeTheNews.com