Weekend Papers Summary
-Using Adoptions, Russia turns Ukrainian children into spoils of war. Russian authorities have celebrated the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but the systematic resettlement is a potential war crime. It falls under Vladimir Putin’s strategy to cast his invasion as a noble cause, yet several children described a process of coercion, deception and force.
-The US and its allies are casting doubt on whether Russia’s military buildup in Belarus represents a serious threat.
-The Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, setting up legal battle over testimony. The subpoena threatens to thrust former President Trump and the House committee into a precedent-setting legal battle that could land before the Supreme Court.
-Steve Bannon received a sentence of four months for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 panel.
-Senator Lindsey Graham asked the Supreme Court to spare him from testifying in a Georgia election inquiry.
-Former President Donald J. Trump in Mesa, Ariz released a lengthy, rambling letter that attacked the Jan. 6 committee’s work and reiterated false claims of widespread voting fraud but did not address whether he would comply with a subpoena.
-The Federal Appeals Court temporarily halts Biden’s student debt cancellation. The move puts President Biden’s debt relief plan on hold. Some 22M people have already applied since the program opened late last week.
-In a sign that New Hampshire is at risk of falling off the map of Senate battleground states, the super PAC said it was canceling $5.6M in ads.
-In the Arizona Governor’s race, a question looms: ‘Where’s Katie?’ Critics say the Democrat, Katie Hobbs, has been too subdued. Her Republican rival, Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor, is taking full advantage.
-In a race rife with concerns of antisemitism, Doug Mastriano’s adviser called Josh Shapiro “at best a secular Jew.”
-Twitter tries calming employees as deal with Elon Musk looms. With Mr. Musk’s $44B deal to buy Twitter set to close no later than Oct. 28, the company is trying to reassure workers about their employment. For months, the company’s 7,500 employees have worried how Elon Musk may change the service.
-New Questions Arise Over Actions of State Police in Uvalde Shooting
The Department of Public Safety moved to fire a sergeant, and a captain is under investigation for his role in the response at Robb Elementary School.
-Capt. Joel Betancourt’s actions are the subject of an internal investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety into its own officers’ response to the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-The top Republican in the US Senate called for the Biden administration to step up assistance for Ukraine, breaking with his counterpart in the House of Representatives who warned earlier this week that aid for Kyiv would be reined in should the GOP take control of the lower chamber.
“The Biden administration and our allies need to do more to supply the tools Ukraine needs to thwart Russian aggression,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Friday.
-It took less than 48 hours after Russia unleashed a massive missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine this month for the aptly named “You Have Enraged Ukrainians” crowdfund to raise almost $10M to buy 50 kamikaze drones.
-Pro-oil voices are suddenly much bolder again, swatting aside environmentalists for having the gall to worry about the climate during a global energy crisis. For every pink-haired teenager gluing herself to a wall, a shouty cohort of Twitter blowhards is ready to mansplain how petrochemicals made the glue she used.
-At the White House on Friday, the US president said Republican leadership in Congress “has made it clear they will crash the economy next year by threatening the full faith and credit of the United States”, by seeking cuts to social security and Medicare, the largest government pension and healthcare programs for seniors, in exchange for a debt-limit increase. “I will not yield,” Biden said.
-Investors and some Conservative MPs took fright on Friday as Boris Johnson considered running for a second stint as UK prime minister, with warnings that he risked triggering further political and economic chaos. Johnson’s allies are scrambling to secure the 100 nominations needed from Tory MPs to enter Monday’s ballot to replace Liz Truss, who resigned on Thursday after only six weeks in power.
-Giorgia Meloni is to become the first woman to lead Italy as the Eurozone’s third-largest economy wrestles with a severe energy crisis because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meloni, whose party won the largest share of the vote in elections last month, succeeds Mario Draghi, whose coalition collapsed in July. The chief of Brothers of Italy, a party with post-fascist roots, will be formally sworn in as Italy’s prime minister during a ceremony on today.
-EU leaders hailed a fall in gas prices hours after they endorsed plans for a price cap on the fuel, breaking months of deadlock over how to tackle Europe’s energy crisis. The main European benchmark index dropped 7% to €115 per megawatt hour in Friday trading, although it held above a four-month low hit earlier this week. Leaders at a summit in Brussels agreed to pursue work on the cap in an effort to reduce high energy costs that have fueled inflation and threaten a recession.
-Pakistan’s election commission has barred Imran Khan from holding office for allegedly incorrectly declaring his assets in a contentious case that threatens to stoke political tensions in the country. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party confirmed the election commission’s judgment to the Financial Times on Friday, adding that it would challenge the decision in Islamabad’s high court.
-American Express set aside more money for bad loans than Wall Street expected, sending another potential warning about the health of the US consumer at a time of high inflation and rising interest rates. The credit card company built its reserves for bad loans by $387M in its third quarter, a reversal from the $393M “release” a year ago, it stated in its third-quarter results on Friday.
-Ebay CEO Jaimie Iannone is confident the booming second-hand luxury market, for items such as trainers or watches, will help turn round the online marketplace’s fortunes.
“We’re leaning into where Gen Z and millennials are,” he said. “There’s a bigger focus on sustainability, and ‘re-commerce’. Ebay is really the pioneer?.?.?. that gives us an opportunity.”
-Rio Tinto is to refocus on deal-making amid concern the miner missed out on growth opportunities because of the “baggage” of past deal disasters, its new chair has said. Dominic Barton, a former managing partner at McKinsey who took over at Rio in May, told the Financial Times Mining Summit he felt the company had missed opportunities in recent years, in part because of fears over investors’ reaction given its chequered past in mergers and acquisitions.
-A shortage of new jets is the latest challenge for the global airline industry, which has been grappling with resurgent passenger demand following the pandemic while at the same time facing an exodus of staff and spare parts. Deliveries of new jets have been hampered by severe constraints in the supply chain, particularly for engines, pushing back delivery times for many airlines.
-US stocks closed higher after a choppy week of trading, with investors on Friday buoyed by news that the Federal Reserve might begin to slow the pace of interest rate rises. The broad S&P 500 rose 4.7 per cent for the week, including a 2.4 per cent rise on Friday.
NY POST
-Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he’ll “look into” arming Ukraine if elected again to lead the nation. The country’s longest-running leader — who is eyeing a comeback as Israel braces for a fifth election in less than four years — made the comment in an interview with USA Today Friday. “I was asked about that recently,” he said when asked if Israel should join many of the world’s military powers in arming Ukraine to fight Russian invaders. “I said I’ll look into it when I got into office.”
-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday for the first time since May as the war in Ukraine approaches its eight-month anniversary, according to the Pentagon. Austin initiated the call with his Russian counterpart, during which the secretary “emphasized … the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters.
-A family of four could pay as much as $1,100 to spend the day at Disneyland during the upcoming holiday season — and that’s before shelling out for food or souvenirs, according to a new report. The sum total — taking into account the latest price hikes at “the happiest place on earth,” which have risen even faster than inflation this year — was calculated for a group of two adults and two children between the ages of 3 and 9.
-After a surprise round of layoffs at Deutsche Bank on Tuesday - as well as a handful of senior executives this week, amid a slowdown in dealmaking - some senior bankers had expected to see surviving employees diligently showing up to the office for the rest of the week. And they were sorely disappointed, insiders told The Post.
“The lights are literally off,” one senior banker complained to The Post — referring to the fact that the motion-detector lights at Deutsche Bank’s posh Manhattan offices on Columbus Circle only turn on when they sense there are people in the room.