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Brown University has rejected the Trump administration’s proposed compact, which would have required the university to make changes to its campus policies in exchange for an advantage in receiving federal funds. In a Wednesday letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and White House aides May Mailman and Vincent Haley, Brown President Christina Paxson said she was “concerned” that agreeing to the compact “would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance.” Paxson notes that while she is willing to cooperate with the federal government and is “committed to contributing to national conversations about principles for improving American higher…

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A federal employee union last week filed its second lawsuit against the Trump administration over its efforts to outlaw collective bargaining at most federal agencies, arguing that the White House targeted National Aeronautics and Space Administration workers in response to the labor group’s vow to fight anti-union actions at other federal agencies.In March, President Trump signed an executive order citing a seldom-used provision of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act to strip two-thirds of federal employees of their collective bargaining rights, on the grounds of national security. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers in July challenged that edict…

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This article is an on-site 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 hereGood morning and welcome back. In today’s newsletter:Bond investors rein in credit riskFrench business ‘betrayed’ by Lecornu’s moveRethink of Europe’s military procurement urgedAir travel disruption from US shutdownWe begin with the bond market, where big investors are cutting back their exposure to riskier corporate debt.Who’s shifting: Asset managers including BlackRock, M&G and Fidelity International have gravitated towards safer corporate or government bonds, believing that a huge…

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Sometimes you have to ask yourself: How did I get here—sitting in Saudi Arabia, listening to Louis C.K. do jokes about Barely Legal magazine?Honestly, I thought it would be funny. The instant I heard about the Riyadh Comedy Festival, I pleaded with the editor of this magazine to send me. Despite a series of legal reforms over the past decade, Saudi Arabia remains one of the most conservative Muslim societies in the world, while Louis C.K. is famous for his foul mouth and his record of masturbating in front of a succession of unimpressed women. A match made in heaven!My…

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Arson Alone Does Not Explain the Palisades Fire The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet. When federal prosecutors charged a man last week with intentionally starting a brushfire that was suppressed but smoldered and ultimately became the Palisades fire, arson became the focus of attention all week. The city’s after-action report about the fire was totally overshadowed by questions around the suspect. What was his motive? Is there strong evidence? It’s almost as if arson became the sole explanation for one of the state’s most destructive fires. That would be a mistake. People…

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In 1979, the fiftieth anniversary of the crash, the co-authors Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts published “The Day the Bubble Burst,” which included the anecdote about the shoeshiner. Now, four years before the hundredth anniversary, comes “1929,” a new book by Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial columnist for the Times and a co-anchor on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” As in Sorkin’s previous book, “Too Big to Fail,” a best-selling account of the financial crisis of 2008, he focusses mainly on the financiers and policymakers at the center of the crisis, drawing on private letters, transcripts, oral histories, architectural plans, memoirs, newspaper…

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New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said in an interview on Wednesday that it was “too early” to give President Trump credit for the Israel-Hamas deal.  “When it comes to the ceasefire, I am thankful, and I have hope that it will actually endure and that it will be lasting. And I continue to have concerns, because I’ve seen reports still, just in the last few days, that five Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military. And that’s what gives me pause about issuing any kind of praise or celebration at a moment when it is still so…

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Hassan Abdalla, governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, speaks to Global Finance about attracting more investors and about the bank’s next steps. Global Finance: What have been the key economic challenges over the past two years? Hassan Abdalla: On the international front, we had to navigate an unprecedented surge in global commodity prices, which put pressure on domestic prices and strained fiscal positions. At the same time, major central banks raised interest rates by more than 500 basis points leading to capital outflows from emerging markets. On top of that came the heightened geopolitical tensions. The Red Sea attacks…

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Nigel Farage’s obsession with free speech has become the mood music of his own party, the Conservatives and the BBC, so it shouldn’t have been shocking or troubling to learn that he’d testified in the US Congress on 3 September on the subject of this elemental liberty, and how profoundly at risk it is in the UK.His position we could recite in our sleep – it hasn’t deviated, and remains nonsense on stilts. Free speech is only at risk in the UK insofar as 80-year-olds can now be arrested for opposing genocide with homemade placards, and that’s quite a big…

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