Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
-In Hollywood, the strikes are just part of the problem. The entertainment industry is trying to figure out the economics of streaming. It’s also facing angst over a tech-powered future and fighting to stay culturally dominant.
-Medical device makers have bankrolled a cottage industry of doctors and clinics that perform artery-clearing procedures that can lead to amputations.
-Suspect in Gilgo Beach killings led a life of chaos and control. The 59-year-old architect was painstaking in his Manhattan career. At home in Massapequa Park, he left neighbors discomfited.
-The Gilgo Beach victims were always more than escorts. The author of a book about the murders writes that more than a decade after the women went missing, attitudes toward them seem to have changed.
-‘Not for Machines to Harvest’: data revolts break out against AO. Fed up with AI companies consuming online content without consent, fan fiction writers, actors, social media companies and news organizations are among those rebelling.
-It’s a few weeks before the release of Claude, a new A.I. chatbot from the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, and the nervous energy inside the company’s San Francisco headquarters could power a rocket.
-South Korea reels from monsoon rains as floods and landslides kill 26. At least 10 people were missing after the deluge, and rainfall was expected to intensify in the next few days.
-Russia is doing ‘everything’ it can to stop counteroffensive, Zelensky Says. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine secured new weapons pledges this week from allies, but it was not clear when they would arrive.
-After suffering heavy losses, Ukrainians paused to rethink strategy. Early in the counteroffensive, Ukraine lost as much as 20% of its weapons and armor. The rate dropped as the campaign slowed and commanders shifted tactics.
-Turmoil in Florida’s new State Guard, as some recruits quit. Some said the force, which was commissioned by Gov. Ron DeSantis and billed as a natural disaster relief organization, had become too militarized.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
-The Pentagon’s annual funding bill is set to become the focus of a political showdown after Republicans inserted “anti-woke” social provisions into the legislation. The bill — known as the National Defense Authorization Act — is normally shielded from the bitterest partisan bickering and often passes with support from both political parties. But on Friday, Republicans in the House of Representatives passed their version of the legislation, worth $886bn, by adding measures designed to curb abortion rights, diversity training and medical care for transgender patients in the military.
-Joe Biden and the Democratic party raised $72M in the second quarter to spend on the US president’s 2024 re-election campaign as they raced to gain an early financial edge over Republican rivals for the White House.
-A week after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group’s mutiny failed in June, the warlord’s online media empire announced it would shut its doors and “depart the country’s news agenda”. But since then Prigozhin’s notorious troll army has kept up its frenetic posting rate online, while the former caterer has remained in Russia — even meeting Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin — despite a deal to leave for exile in Belarus.
-Cautious investors are snapping up derivatives that would protect them if this year’s rally in European stocks crumbles, in a sign of mounting concerns that slowing economic growth will weigh on markets sitting close to record highs. Traders have been buying an increasing number of put options, which provide insurance against a slide in prices, relative to calls, which pay out if the market rises. In so doing, they betray an “underlying nervousness” about European stocks despite their recent run, said analysts at Bank of America.
-Three of the largest US banks reported a surge in profits from charging more for loans, as the Federal Reserve’s series of interest rate rises fattened their bottom lines. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo collectively earned $49B in net interest income in the second quarter, the difference between what the banks pay for deposits and earn from loans and other assets.
-Elon Musk claimed on Friday that his new artificial intelligence company, xAI, could be trusted more than OpenAI and Google to build safe AI systems when computers become smarter than humans. However, discussing his AI plans on Twitter two days after launching the company, he did not shed light on how xAI’s work would differ from rivals that are years ahead or the kind of services it hoped to create.
-Hackers tied to Russia’s spy services have hijacked a Polish diplomat’s advertisement to sell his BMW, spreading malware in an attempt to infiltrate foreign embassies’ networks in Ukraine. The Kiev-based diplomat emailed an advertisement about his 2011 BMW 5 series car to dozens of other embassies this spring. Within two weeks, the hackers had repurposed the advertisement, dropped the price and laced the notice with malware, according to researchers at Unit 42 — part of Californian cyber security firm Palo Alto Networks.
-Wealthy borrowers in the UK with large interest-only mortgages face a punishing jump in payments — leaving them potentially paying thousands of pounds a month more — as they come off fixed-rate deals in a rising interest rate environment.
NY POST
-Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was caught on video strolling down a Midtown sidewalk in the moments before plainclothes cops swooped in to arrest him, footage shows. Heuermann, 59, appeared oblivious as he walked along, with a messenger back slung over his shoulder. Suddenly plainclothes officers can be seen stepping in front of, then surrounding the architect and taking him into custody, according to footage obtained by WABC. The takedown occurred close to Heuermann’s Fifth Avenue office Thursday night. Heuermann appeared in court Friday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and other charges related to the deaths of three women over 10 years ago. The life-long suburbanite, who was emotionless in court, was also named the prime suspect in a fourth killing.
-The US Virgin Islands said it wants JPMorgan Chase to pay at least $190M to resolve a lawsuit accusing the largest US bank of ignoring the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. In a Friday filing in federal court in Manhattan, the territory said it wants JPMorgan to pay a $150M civil fine, and give up at least $40M from its 15-year relationship with Epstein. It also wants JPMorgan to pay compensatory damages suffered by Epstein’s victims, as well as punitive damages.