Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-First speech as King of Britain caps day of remembrance: King Charles III’s speech, coming one day after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, emphasized the continuity of governance in Britain’s constitutional monarchy.
-The UK now enters a mourning period that continues until after the queen’s funeral.
-New offensive seems to have caught Russian forces off guard. Sweeping south from positions in Ukraine’s northeast, Ukrainian forces have made their largest gains since routing Russia from Kyiv in April. Ukrainian and Western officials warned that the operations were in their early days and that the situation was fluid.
-Justice Dept. and Trump lawyers clash over special master’s qualifications. The two sides had diverging views of who could serve as an independent arbiter to sift through the files seized from former President Trump’s home.
-Navy orders high-level outside investigation of SEAL course. The punishing selection course for the Navy’s most elite force is under new scrutiny after a sailor’s death exposed physical abuse and other problems.
-Yeshiva University can bar LGBT Club for now, Justice rules: Sonia Sotomayor’s ruling will be in place pending a decision by the Supreme Court to take up the case.
-In New Hampshire, a MAGA rivalry is splitting House Republicans. Two young conservatives are battling for the mantle of Trumpism in a congressional primary that could help decide the House majority.
-First Kansas, Now Michigan and beyond as abortion ballot measures spread. Democrats are hoping ballot measures on abortion rights will drive up voter turnout. They’re looking to Michigan as a test run.
-Gov. Hochul declares polio state of emergency for New York. The virus has now been detected in a Nassau County wastewater sample, officials said.
-After legal fight, Oberlin says it will pay $36.59M to Gibson’s Bakery. The latter said the liberal arts college in Ohio had falsely accused it of racism after a Black student was caught shoplifting.
-Marc Lewitinn, Covid patient, dies after 850 days on a ventilator. While no definitive statistics exist, doctors say Mr. Lewitinn was likely the longest-surviving intubated Covid patient. He was 76.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-Charles III has addressed his nation for the first time, vowing to emulate his late mother Queen Elizabeth’s “life-long service”, ahead of his formal proclamation as king on Saturday.
-“We are at war,” Emmanuel Macron said on Monday as he outlined the emergency measures France was taking to shore up its energy supply and shelter its citizens and business from soaring costs. For months following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the president of France, aspired to act as intermediary and peacemaker between Kyiv and Moscow. This week he and fellow European leaders became belligerents in a sharply escalating energy conflict between Russia and the west. It was time, Macron said, for a “general mobilization”.
-The US is threatening to impose sanctions on buyers of Russian oil that rely on western services and fail to abide by the price cap proposed by G7 countries, as the Biden administration vows to strictly enforce the policy once it takes effect.
-Europe’s energy ministers have signaled support for a temporary cap on the price of gas imports including those from Russia and a windfall levy on energy producers to address “astronomical” costs for businesses and consumers.
-Josh Harris, the billionaire private equity executive who left Apollo Global Management last year after a messy succession battle, is returning to the investment industry with a firm that aims to be a contender in financial markets including private equity, credit and insurance.
-Josh Harris, the billionaire private equity executive who left Apollo Global Management last year after a messy succession battle, is returning to the investment industry with a firm that aims to be a contender in financial markets including private equity, credit and insurance.
-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss has been accused of carrying out an “ideological purge” of top civil servants after she approved the sacking of Sir Tom Scholar, the experienced permanent secretary at the Treasury, on her first day in the job. Whitehall insiders fear that Scholar’s dismissal on Tuesday will have a chilling effect on the civil service and make it less likely that officials will speak “truth to power”.
-FTX Ventures, the investment firm led by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, will buy a 30 per cent stake in the fund of ex-Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci, as he continues his mission to try to bolster the struggling cryptocurrency market.
-India imposed controls on exports of several varieties of rice on Friday, in a move likely to affect the global market for one of the most commonly eaten staple foods as commodity prices surge following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The country — the world’s leading exporter of rice, accounting for about 40% of the global trade — imposed a 20% duty on unmilled white rice, husked brown rice and semi-milled or wholly-milled rice. The restrictions do not apply to basmati rice, India’s best-known variety of the grain.
-Investors and analysts expect sterling and UK government bond prices to weaken further as the country issues billions of pounds in debt to fund Prime Minister Liz Truss’s new energy package.
-Solar power generation reached a new record in the EU over the summer months as supplies from gas, hydropower and nuclear were all squeezed during the energy crisis.
Sunny weather across the continent and a boost in solar installations contributed to the record generation, which was 28 per cent higher than the previous summer, according to research from Ember, the UK environmental think-tank.
NY POST
Tensions were too high for Meghan Markle to join the royal family at Balmoral after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, insiders say. Members of the family, including Prince William, the new heir to the throne, dashed to the monarch’s bedside Thursday.
-Gov. Kathy Hochul had New Yorkers pay twice as much for COVID tests from a company tied to nearly $300,000 in donations to her campaign compared to other state vendors, a new report details, raising fresh concerns of alleged pay-to-play behavior ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
-A suspected ransomware attack on Holiday Inn has crippled the hotel giant’s ability to book reservations online, resulting in sharp occupancy drops that have sparked legal threats from franchisees, The Post has learned. InterContinental Hotels Group, which owns Holiday Inn as well as 15 other brands including Crowne Plaza, said hackers breached its systems on Monday, forcing it to shut down its online reservation booking portal.