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| Happy Friday, Insiders! Today's newsletter covers: - 👨⚖️ Reports that SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas took dozens of luxury vacations that wealthy benefactors paid for without reporting them on financial disclosure documents
- 💰 The rising price of gold - and predictions that it may rise higher
- 🔬 New research from physicists who are on the trail of a fifth force of nature
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| 1 | | Since joining the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas reportedly took at least 36 destination vacations paid for by wealthy benefactors. The reporting was done by ProPublica, a non-profit investigative newsroom that had reported on Thomas' relationship with billionaire Harlan Crow earlier this year. More: - ProPublica found several instances in which wealthy benefactors directed their private jets to pick up Thomas, including two trips for which an entire 737 jumbojet was sent to taxi Thomas to South Florida.
- Thomas took at least 26 private jet rides and eight helicopter flights.
- David Sokol, a Republican donor and private equity executive, hosted Thomas at several of his multi-million dollar homes and paid for his travel and vacations.
- Last October, Sokol referred to a pending case during a speech to scholarship recipients, saying that the Supreme Court would overturn President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.
- The prediction was correct, with Thomas siding against the executive branch in the decision.
Zoom Out: - Critics argue that Thomas, who failed to disclose many of these flights and luxury trips, violated the ethics laws governing the Supreme Court and American judiciary.
- Judicial disclosure rules mandate that most gifts over $415 be disclosed.
- Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served on a judicial committee reviewing judges' financial disclosures, said that Thomas' actions were "unprecedented."
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The spot price of gold hit a record intraday high of $2,072.5 earlier this week, and some analysts expect gold to reach an all-time high of $2,500 by 2025. Relevance: Gold has outperformed most other asset classes over the last year, and there is growing demand for the precious metal from central banks and households alike. Gold is seen as a recessionary hedge, and TD Securities' global head of commodity strategy said that he expects gold to reach a trading level of $2,100 by late 2023 or early 2024. He said that he expects the Fed to change its monetary policy before the 2% inflation target is reached, which will boost gold's price. | | | |
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| 3 | | Researchers at a U.S. particle accelerator facility said they are getting closer to discovering a new force of nature. Their research showed that sub-atomic particles called muons aren't behaving as inspected during an experiment, indicating that an unknown force could be at play. More: - The four forces that physicists are aware of are gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force.
- Researchers at the Fermilab particle accelerator near Chicago first published results in 2021, indicating they may be on the trail of a fifth force.
- In a recent experiment titled "g minus two (g-2)", researchers found the muons behaving in ways that can't be explained by what is called the Standard Model of physics.
- They expect to identify the force within two years, but a rival team at the European Large Hadron Collider is also on the trail of the new force.
- If it is discovered, the fifth force would revolutionize physics.
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| 4 | | GOOD NEWS: The Energy Department is offering $1.2B to companies working on carbon removal via direct air capture. Agency officials said that the $1.2B, split between two projects, will be the most significant investment in engineered carbon removal in history. More: - The two projects will be built in Louisiana and Texas.
- Each project claims that it will initially be able to capture up to a million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.
- Energy officials said that the projects will create up to 5,000 jobs.
- A representative from the Texas-based project said that it could remove up to 30 million metric tons annually once it is fully operational.
- It is unclear how long these projects will take to become operational.
Zoom Out: - Direct air capture technology uses chemical reactions to pull carbon dioxide out of the air to be deposited underground.
- Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas most responsible for heating the planet.
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| 5 | | Wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui killed at least 55 people, with hundreds more still unaccounted for. The wildfires largely destroyed the town of Lahaina, and some have argued that the city and local agencies failed to take early action to evacuate residents before the fire worsened. More: - More than 10,000 residents on the western side of Maui were still without power as of Thursday evening, and the local electricity utility said that some customers could be without power for weeks.
- Nearly 15,000 tourists were evacuated from the island on Thursday, and the state tourism agency told other tourists that nonessential travel to Maui was "strongly discouraged."
- More than 1,000 structures in and around Lahaina were burned, and emergency workers on the island have begun checking the insides of the burned buildings.
- A 150-year banyan tree the size of a city block that the town's residents cherished appeared to survive the fire despite some burn damage.
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| 6 | | The Supreme Court sided with the Justice Department by blocking Purdue Pharma's $6B opioid lawsuit settlement and agreeing to hear the Justice Department's claims against the settlement. The Justice Department argued that the historic settlement would have removed liability from additional parties who allegedly contributed to the opioid addiction epidemic. More: - By taking up the case, the Supreme Court blocked Purdue from distributing money from the settlement to families and states harmed by the opioid crisis.
- The Sackler family, which owned Purdue Pharma before its bankruptcy filing, had sought to use the settlement and bankruptcy to absolve themselves of liability for the opioid crisis.
- Some lawsuits seek to claw back money paid out to Sackler family members by Purdue before its bankruptcy filing.
- The case will determine whether it is appropriate for bankruptcy courts to approve settlements between Purdue's creditors and the company's owners in a way that removes their liability.
- The Justice Department opposes the $6B settlement because it would absolve the Sacklers of liability in current and future lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic.
Zoom Out: - The Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case in December, and a decision is expected before July 2024.
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 | Writer | | Dr. Daniel Smith is an Inside writer with a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. Follow him on Twitter @DJS12321 or email him at Daniel@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Christopher Hachey | |
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