Welcome to The Free Press Report’s Weekly Digest. This week a lot has happened – the Department of Justice rolled out new procedures for companies, Jeff Bezos’s rocket crashed, and fighting broke out in the Middle East. Read on for more of the stories you might have missed.
Market Recap
U.S. Politics
“No, we will not protect our kids” – Democrats shoot down bills to bolster school security. Senator Ted Cruz (R, Texas) introduced the Securing Our Schools act to double the number of police officers and employ thousands of mental health professionals in schools. The act would have been paid for with unspent Covid emergency funds. But Democrat senator Chris Murphy objected on the Senate floor, preventing the legislation from being debated, and describing Cruz’s bill as “theater.” Cruz responded by warning that voters would "remember this moment when the Democrats said, ‘No, we will not protect our kids.’" [WFB]
Congress wants to probe airline Covid funding. A letter from two leaders of congressional committees requested a federal investigation into whether airlines used their $54 billion emergency funding to pay for retirement packages for pilots, contributing to the pilot shortage that has caused worldwide disruption to air travel. [Reuters]
DOJ wants companies to “own up” to misconduct according to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. The new Department of Justice policies are aiming to providing “predictability”. Companies that report their own misconduct will be able to avoid pleading guilty and divert blame onto executives and employees. [BBG]
Biden secures “tentative” deal to avoid rail strike. Negotiations between workers unions and rail companies have deteriorated in recent days, with scheduled strikes threatening to bring the U.S economy to a standstill. On Friday, an agreement was reached to give rail workers a 24% wage increase including an $11,000 immediate payout. [Reuters]
White House looking to refill oil reserves according to latest reports. Biden officials are allegedly preparing to buy oil if it drops below $80 per barrel, although a spokesperson said that they were not planning to start buying until at least 2023. [BBG]
Social and Business
Bezos rocket crashes just one minute into flight. The Blue Origin spaceship, which is the same model as the commercial rocket that takes paying customers to the edge of space, was unmanned at the time of the crash. It had been carrying equipment for experiments, which survived in an emergency capsule that parachuted out of the rocket. [AP]
Disney publishes adjusted wage data for race and gender. The data, which accounts for employee role, experience and location, suggests that there is almost no variation in pay between men and women, or between White and Asian, Black or Hispanic workers. However, median wage data filed in the United Kingdom reports that, unadjusted for factors like position, women earn 14% less than men. [BBG]
$1 billion SPAC deal takes Intuitive Machines public. The merger with the Inflection Point SPAC will inject $338 million cash into Intuitive Machines, which develops rocket propulsion and lunar vehicle technology. [CNBC]
Activision teases COD Warzone 2.0 at video games event. The successor to the popular Call of Duty series will launch on November 16th for console and PC, and was described as “the most ambitious release” in the series’s history. [Verge]
World View
Israeli airstrike on Syrian airport kills five. Israel did not comment on the incident, but has maintained a policy of bombarding Syrian airports to disrupt Iran’s supply of weapons to the region. [Reuters]
“Intense battles” in Central Asia as ceasefire breaks down between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Twenty four people were killed in the violence and 136,000 civilians were evacuated. The violence likely erupted over the contested and poorly-demarked border. [Reuters]
Super typhoon heading for Japan as meteorologists urge evacuation. Residents on the island of Kyushu have been told to prepare for an “unprecedented” typhoon that will bring 20 inches of rainfall. The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center warned that the typhoon would be the most powerful to hit Japan in decades. [Reuters]
Swiss tennis legend retires. Roger Federer, aged 41, won 20 grand slam titles in his career and recorded the longest ever consecutive period as world number 1. He will play his last competitive match at the Laver Cup tournament in London. In an audio clip, he said “tennis has treated me more generously than I ever would have dreamed, and now I must recognize when it is time to end my competitive career.” [NY Times]
Crypto
Ethereum “Merge” successful, and now Dogecoin is the second largest proof-of-work coin in the world. This week ETH completed its transition to proof-of-stake, which seeks to reduce power taken to process transactions. Consequently, now eight of the ten largest cryptocurrencies use proof-of-stake – the only exceptions being Bitcoin and Doge. [Decrypt]
Ex-Coinbase boss’s brother guilty of insider trading. Nikhil Wahi admitted that he had traded on confidential information provided by his brother, a former Coinbase product manager. Wahi and his friend Sameer Ramani reportedly profited $1.5 million through this scheme. Wahi will be sentenced in December. [Reuters]