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| Here are our top stories today: - The Writer's Guild of America reached a deal with Hollywood studios that could end the months-long writer's strike
- Federal regulators sued a private equity firm and a doctor's group, alleging that they conspired to create a monopoly in Texas' anesthesiology market
- A golden retriever completed his first year in office as mayor of Idyllwild, California
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| 1 | | The Writers Guild of America (WGA) reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), potentially ending the four-and-a-half-month writers' strike. WGA's ~11,000 members must still approve the deal, the terms of which were not made public. More: - Entertainment industry moguls like Disney CEO Bob Iger and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos took part in marathon negotiations last week.
- The AMPTP presented a new proposal to the WGA on Saturday and the sides met again on Sunday to finalize the deal.
- If WGA leadership approves the deal in a vote on Tuesday, the full details of the agreement will be revealed to members.
- WGA leadership will also have to vote to end the strike, but the union officially suspended picketing on Sunday.
- The strike was the longest in WGA history.
Zoom Out: - The AMPTP is expected to resume talks with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) over an actors' strike.
- Approximately 65,000 actors went on strike in mid-July, joining writers on the picket line.
- This was the first time that Hollywood's actors and writers went on strike simultaneously since 1960.
Q: Do you think the WGA deal will help expedite negotiations between Hollywood studios and striking actors? Join the debate here. |     | |
| 2 | | Amazon stock gained nearly 1.5% after the tech giant said it plans to invest up to $4B in artificial intelligence company Anthropic. 
What happened: The two companies will be integrating several parts of their businesses. Anthropic will use Amazon's custom chips to build and implement its AI software, and Amazon will incorporate Anthropic's AI technology into different Amazon products. The investment reportedly starts at $1.25B and could grow to $4B if certain conditions are met. Anthropic, which is only two years old, agreed to spend a certain amount of the funds on Amazon Web Services. Relevance: AI businesses like Anthropic have attracted huge amounts of capital from big technology companies, venture capital firms, and institutional investors alike over the past year. Microsoft announced a $10B investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in January, taking a 49% stake in the company in the process. Google invested $300M in Anthropic in late 2022 and took part in a $450M funding round in May that was also joined by Salesforce. | | | |
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| 3 | | The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an antitrust lawsuit against a private equity-backed doctor's group accused of conspiring to raise prices on anesthesiology services in Texas. The defendants allegedly bought up anesthesiology practices across the Lone Star State to reduce competition and raise prices. More: - The lawsuit named U.S. Anesthesia Partners and New York-based private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, which owns a minority stake in Anesthesia Partners, as defendants.
- FTC Chair Lina Khan said the defendants' roll-up tactics allowed them to "raise prices for anesthesia services — raking in tens of millions of extra dollars for these executives at the expense of Texas patients and businesses."
- Roll-up mergers refers to the practice of acquiring small or mid-sized regional businesses and combining them. The resulting entity can sometimes be used to boost prices and increase profit margins for the owners.
- The defendants say they comply with federal anti-trust law and that the lawsuit is based on "flawed legal theories."
Zoom Out: - On Thursday, Khan published an op-ed in the Financial Times arguing that some private equity roll-up schemes violate anti-trust law.
- A recent study found that private equity-backed consolidation in medical specialties like gastroenterology and dermatology led to higher prices for consumers and insurance companies.
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| 4 | | COOL NEWS: Max III, a golden retriever, just celebrated his first birthday and completed his first year as the mayor of Idyllwild, California. Max III is the third golden retriever to serve as mayor of the unincorporated southern California mountain town. More: - Max III was preceded as mayor by Max I and Max II. Max I won the first-ever election in Idyllwild, in which only non-humans were allowed to enter.
- Max I served nine months in office before dying of cancer in 2013.
- Max II took his place and led the town until his own death from cancer last year.
- His owner, Phyllis Mueller, said she received thousands of messages from fans around the world expressing their condolences about the death of Max II.
- Mueller and her husband drove to Utah to pick up the puppy that would become Max III.
- Max III inherited a collection of ~3,000 ties from his predecessors, and Mueller said he ate three of them during his first month in office.
Zoom Out: - The Maxes aren't the first animals to hold elected office in the U.S.
- A mule was elected as a Republican precinct committeeman in Milton, Washington in 1938.
- Stubbs the cat was elected honorary mayor in Talkeetna, Alaska, in 1997.
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| 5 | | Canadian House of Commons speaker Anthony Rota apologized for praising a 98-year-old Ukrainian man who fought under the Nazis in WWII. The recognition of Yaroslav Hunka occurred just after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the House on Friday, with Rota introducing Hunka as a war hero. More: - Lawmakers gave Hunka a standing ovation after Rota introduced him.
- Rota described Hunka, who is from his district, as a "Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero" who fought for the First Ukrainian Division in WWII.
- The First Ukrainian Division, which was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, was a volunteer unit that the Nazis commanded.
- Rota said he was unaware of the unit's history and apologized to "Jewish communities in Canada and around the world."
- Over 600 members of the Galicia Division were allowed to live in Canada after WWII, prompting a 1985 government inquiry to ask whether Canada had become a haven for Nazi-linked war criminals.
Zoom Out: - Dominique Arel, chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa, said that anti-Russian sentiment brought together Ukrainian nationalist movements and Nazi forces in World War II.
- Arel said this has led to a "complex, if not somewhat dark legacy" with the historical remembrance of Ukrainian fighters in contemporary Ukraine and among the Ukrainian diaspora.
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| 6 | | Stefanos Kasselakis, a former Goldman Sachs trader, was elected to lead the left-wing Syriza party in Greece. Syriza, which governed Greece between 2015 and 2019, is the country's leading opposition party. More: - The 35-year-old Kasselakis, who worked at Goldman Sachs briefly before starting his own shipping company, is a political newcomer.
- Kasselakis has spent two decades living in the U.S. and only launched his leadership bid for Syriza in late August.
- In a social media post earlier this month, he said:
- "If I hadn't known capitalism from inside, if I hadn't seen the injustice of money, I may have not been a leftist."
- Kasselakis, who is openly gay, said that Greece is ready for a gay prime minister.
Zoom Out: - Kasselakis defeated 38-year-old Effie Achtsioglou, who worked as labor minister in the government of former Syriza leader Aléxis Tsípras.
- The election of Kasselakis can be seen as a rejection of the old-guard Syriza leadership by young party members.
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- French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will end its military presence in Niger after a coup in the African nation. France pulled troops out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso after coups that occurred in recent years.
- 26-year-old Ethiopian runner Tigst Assefa set the new women's marathon world record by completing the BMW Berlin Marathon in 2:11:53. She beat the previous record by more than two minutes.
- France's family planning agency is citing the Netflix show "Sex Education" as part of a campaign to get young people talking about safe sex and family planning.
- Archaeologists discovered an ancient arrow in eastern Norway that is believed to be around 3,000 years old. Thousands of artifacts have emerged from melting glaciers and permafrost in recent years due in large part to the climate crisis.
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Term of the Day Dry powder: Dry powder is a slang term used to denote the cash reserves available for investment with venture capital and private equity firms. Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation |
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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 Eduardo Garcia | |
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