This article is an onsite version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here
Good morning.
Just a day after agreeing to buy Paramount, the Hollywood studio with roots in the silent film era, David Ellison has said he wants to turn it into a modern media and technology giant capable of challenging Netflix.
“We recognise the transition that the broader industry is going through,” the 41 year old told the Financial Times. “In order to effectively navigate this transition, what is required for Paramount as a pure-play media company is to transition to becoming a media and technology company.”
Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, agreed to buy Paramount on Sunday through his Skydance production studio after a gruelling negotiation process that lasted eight months. Read more on Ellison’s vision for Paramount, including plans to work with his father’s company.
And here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today:
-
US finance: US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell delivers his semi-annual monetary policy report to the Senate banking committee and Treasury secretary Janet Yellen testifies at the House committee hearing on the state of the international financial system.
-
Economic data: Mexican statistics agency INEGI publishes consumer price data for June.
-
Nato: Members gather for a three-day meeting in Washington to celebrate 75 years of the military alliance.
-
India-Russia relations: Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi hold official talks, as India’s prime minister seeks to shore up relations and stem concerns in New Delhi about Moscow’s drift towards China.
-
Court cases: The jury in the trial of Bill Hwang, the Archegos founder accused of market manipulation, is expected to begin its deliberations after yesterday’s closing arguments. Jury selection begins in Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter trial for the 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the Western film Rust.
Five more top stories
1. Joe Biden launched an aggressive effort to hold on to his party’s presidential nomination yesterday, issuing a defiant letter to wavering congressional Democrats and appearing on national television to insist: “I’m not going anywhere.” Here’s more on the president’s latest moves, which include joining a strategy call for major contributors.
-
‘Grow a spine’: Team Biden tells Democratic doubters to back the president, as part of a three-pronged manoeuvre that could decide his fate.
2. Tesla yesterday urged a judge not to award billions of dollars in shares to the lawyers who successfully challenged Elon Musk’s record pay package, painting them as freeriding opportunists attempting to cash in on the chief executive’s hard-fought successes. Here’s more on the day-long hearing in Delaware.
3. Boeing’s guilty plea to a fraud charge is unlikely to affect the company’s stock price, credit rating or revenue from the US government, lawyers who specialise in government contracting told the Financial Times. They also said Boeing was unlikely to lose its ability to supply the Pentagon.
4. Saudi Aramco is betting the internal combustion engine will be around for a “very, very long time” after agreeing to invest €740mn in Horse Powertrain, a company dedicated to building fuel-based engines. Aramco’s executive vice-president explains the reasons for striking the deal.
5. A former employee of the World Economic Forum has sued the Swiss non-profit organisation, which runs a high-profile conference each year in Davos, and its chair, Klaus Schwab, for discrimination. Here are more details on the case.
The Big Read
A deal to allow US investors to redevelop a 1999 Nato bomb site in Belgrade is a case study in how a small non-aligned state can prepare for Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House. It also reflects a heightened western focus on Serbia at a time when prising it away from its historical soulmate, Russia, has become a priority.
We’re also reading . . .
-
Nike: After issuing a dim profits forecast Nike’s shares had their worst day since the sneaker maker’s 1980 IPO. Now Wall Street is calling for “regime change”.
-
US election: If democracy is at stake in the Trump-Biden election, shouldn’t voters be trusted to make their own decision, asks Jemima Kelly.
-
Federal Reserve: The US central bank should use the summer to address issues key to America’s economic wellbeing and global financial stability, including a review of its inflation and employment forecasting, writes Mohamed El-Erian.
Chart of the day
The leftwing surge in France’s snap election stunned politicians and the public when the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance clinched first place in Sunday’s second-round vote. Pollsters had projected that Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National would win the most seats in parliament. Here’s how France’s far right lost in five charts.
Take a break from the news
FT Weekend columnist Nilanjana Roy calls for a return to reading, not as a niche activity, but as an essential part of growing up. But for this generation of children, finding the time and the right books to read is a serious challenge. In this age of smartphones and with library closures widening the equality gap, how do you make reading attractive to children?
Additional contributions from Camille De Guzmán and Benjamin Wilhelm
