Weekend Papers Summary
FINANCIAL TIMES
-Parts of the US government are expected to shut down from Sunday after Republican dissidents in the House of Representatives defeated the party’s own stop-gap funding bill in a severe blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The final vote tally showed 232 House lawmakers opposing the legislation, while just 198 supported it — a humiliating result for McCarthy that further complicates the prospects for a deal to avoid a shutdown and will cast new doubts on his ability to remain as Speaker.
-The likely shutdown on Sunday will trigger the furlough of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, leave troops without pay, and shutter a broad swath of government services. With no quick political solution in sight, it could be days or even weeks before it ends.
-Parts of the US government are expected to shut down from Sunday after Republican dissidents in the House of Representatives defeated the party’s own stop-gap funding bill in a severe blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy. In a tense vote on Friday, 21 Republican rebels voted against McCarthy’s bill that would have funded the government for 30 days, joining all Democrats who opposed it because it included deep cuts to government programs.
-The allegations that prompted Bernard Looney’s resignation from BP included an accusation that the chief executive promoted women with whom he had undisclosed past relationships. The romantic relationships with BP colleagues that are in question all allegedly occurred before Looney became chief executive in 2020 but had not been disclosed to the company.
-Dianne Feinstein, the veteran Democratic senator from California and a pioneer for women in American politics, has died, aged 90. Feinstein passed away at her home in Washington late on Thursday, James Sauls, Feinstein’s chief of staff, confirmed on Friday.
-China has started its longest holiday break of the year with officials predicting record tourist travel that they hope will help to lift an economy struggling to emerge from its post-pandemic doldrums. Economists will be watching in particular whether Chinese consumers will use the eight-day break, which combines the October 1 National Day and the mid-Autumn festival holidays, to spend not only on restaurants and outings but also on bigger ticket items, particularly property.
-Su Zhu, co-founder of collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, has been imprisoned for four months for failing to co-operate with investigations into its failure, its liquidator said on Friday. Zhu was arrested in Singapore’s Changi airport earlier in the day while trying to leave the country after Teneo won a court order earlier this week for his committal to prison, the advisory firm said in a statement.
-Eurozone inflation has fallen to its lowest level for almost two years and US price rises last month were less than expected, raising the prospect that interest rate rises on both sides of the Atlantic have come to an end. Bond markets steadied on Friday after a month of turmoil, helped by the news that consumer prices in Europe’s single currency bloc rose 4.3% in September, below economists’ expectations of 4.5% and August’s rate of 5.2%.
-The United Auto Workers will expand its strike against Ford and General Motors, while sparing Stellantis from further action, citing progress with the company at the bargaining table.
-The SEC on Friday charged broker-dealers and investment advisers — including Perella Weinberg Partners and Interactive Brokers — for “widespread and longstanding failures to maintain and preserve electronic communications”. The move is the latest salvo by the regulator against Wall Street’s messaging practices. The enforcement actions have pushed banks to revisit their messaging policies and sack some employees.
-Suicide bombers killed at least 56 people and injured scores of others on Friday in three separate bomb attacks in Pakistan’s volatile border region near Afghanistan. The attacks will heighten security concerns in Pakistan as the nuclear-armed south Asian nation of 220M people grapples with escalating economic and political crises.
-Financial transactions between billionaire LVMH owner Bernard Arnault and Russian businessman Nikolai Sarkisov are being investigated by the Paris prosecutor’s office. The office on Friday said the transactions had been added to a preliminary probe launched in 2022.
-Credit Suisse has warned that it expects at least $2.2B of losses in the third quarter as UBS integrates the business it rescued six months ago and looks to wind down an investment contract the stricken bank signed with Apollo.
NEW YORK TIMES
-Rain eases in New York, but officials warn that flood risks remain. Heavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding area on Friday, bringing flash floods, shutting down subway lines and turning roadways into lakes.
-A Looming Shutdown. Hard-right Republicans defied Speaker Kevin McCarthy and defeated their own party’s bill, making a lapse in funding at midnight on Saturday all but certain.
-Dianne Feinstein, the oldest senator and a fixture of California politics, dies at 90. She achieved remarkable breakthroughs as a woman, becoming San Francisco’s first female mayor and California’s first woman elected to the Senate.
-A man is charged with murder in Tupac Shakur Case. The man, a former gang leader named Duane Keith Davis, has said the four shots that killed the rapper in 1996 came from the vehicle he was riding in. Tupac Shakur became an almost mythical figure in the decades since his killing.
-Scott Hall, a Donald Trump supporter who is among the 19 people charged in a racketeering case involving the former president, is the first to plead guilty.
-Why Evergrande’s problems are only getting worse. The Chinese property developer’s efforts to restructure more than $300B in debt are being complicated by criminal investigations.
-China’s property crisis is testing its too-big-to-fail banks. Banks hold enormous amounts of real estate debt, and regulators are nervous. But a fast-moving crisis is unlikely because of government control.
-Saturn’s Rings May Have Formed in a Surprisingly Recent Crash of 2 Moons
Researchers completed a simulation that supports the idea that the planet’s jewelry emerged hundreds of millions of years ago, not billions.
-Finland Raced to Join NATO. Now Comes the Hard Part.
-Prosecutors reassert need for gag order on trump in elections case. Prosecutors argued that Donald Trump has continued to make threatening statements after their initial request to limit his public discussion of the case.
-IRS contractor charged with leaking tax returns. The federal charges are said to involve disclosure of tax information from Donald Trump and other wealthy taxpayers to two news organizations.
-Police investigate about 100 suicides linked to Canadian man. The Canadian police charged Kenneth Law with aiding 14 suicides, including that of Ashtyn Prosser, and 88 other deaths are being reviewed.
NY POST
-White House hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will drop his bid to challenge President Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and instead mount a third-party campaign for president, according to a report. The scion of the Kennedy political dynasty plans to announce that he’ll run as an independent on Oct. 9 in Philadelphia, Mediaite reported on Friday. “Bobby feels that the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go,” a Kennedy campaign insider told the outlet.
-An inflation measure closely watched by the Federal Reserve ticked higher in August as steep prices continue to squeeze millions of US households.
The personal consumption expenditures index showed that consumer prices rose 0.4% from the previous month, according to the Labor Department. On an annual basis, prices climbed 3.5% – up from 3.3% recorded the previous month, underscoring the challenge of taming high inflation.