Your Daily Brief

June 28th, 2022


Good morning, and welcome to your Tuesday! Today is National Insurance Awareness Day (does anyone really know how insurance works?), and here’s what we have for you:

Today’s Highlights

  • Supreme Court rules in favor of former high school football coach who prayed on the field after games
  • Two Russian missiles strike a Ukrainian shopping mall with over 1,000 civilians inside
  • Credit Suisse convicted of money-laundering related to cocaine trafficking ring
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Supreme Court rules in favor of former high school football coach who prayed on the field after games

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 yesterday that it was within former high school football coach Joseph Kennedy’s constitutional right to pray on the field after his team’s games.

After games at Bremerton High School in Washington–where he started coaching in 2008–Kennedy would kneel to pray on the 50-yard line, and began leading students in locker room prayers. The school district asked Kennedy to stop when they caught wind of his actions, over concerns that it could be sued for violating students' rights to religious freedom. While he stopped leading students in prayer, Kennedy didn’t stop kneeling after games. The district then placed him on paid leave, and the head coach recommended he not be rehired. Kennedy sued, and the case landed in the Supreme Court.

Writing for the majority, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said that Kennedy’s choice to pray on the field was protected by the First Amendment and that the Bremerton School District’s suspension of Kennedy after he refused to stop engaging in the practice was, in fact, a violation of his religious freedom.

In their dissenting opinion, ​​Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the ruling went against the “nation’s longstanding commitment to the separation of church and state,” and that it “sets us further down a perilous path in forcing States to entangle themselves with religion, with all of our rights hanging in the balance.”

Two Russian missiles strike a Ukrainian shopping mall with over 1,000 civilians inside

A shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was struck by two Russian missiles yesterday, according to country officials.

According to Dmytro Lunin, the regional governor of the Poltava region where Kremenchuk is located, at least 13 individuals were confirmed dead in the attack. Over 50 others were wounded, per Lunin, with 21 people hospitalized and 29 others receiving first-aid care without hospitalization. 

In a post to the secure messaging service Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky corroborated reports that over 1,000 civilians were inside the mall when the missiles struck. He also added that the mall posed “no danger to the Russian army,” and that the attack was of “no strategic value” to Russian forces.

Yesterday’s attack on the Kremenchuk shopping mall follows other Russian attacks on locations containing Ukrainian civilians, including a missile strike on a Maripol theater where an estimated 600 civilians were killed, and an attack on a train station in eastern Kramatorsk that left 59 dead.

Credit Suisse convicted of money-laundering related to cocaine trafficking ring

A Swiss court yesterday found Credit Suisse and one of its former employees guilty of helping a Bulgarian crime ring launder money related to cocaine trafficking through the bank.

The court found that by failing to adequately monitor its accounts and ensure compliance with anti-money laundering rules, Credit Suisse enabled the crime ring to launder millions in illegal profits through the bank between July 2007 and December 2008. During the trial, prosecutors said the former Credit Suisse employee in question accepted suitcases of cash from one of the members of the crime ring that went above legal limits on a regular basis.

While the court pointed out “deficiencies” in the bank’s management that enabled the laundering, Credit Suisse said the case arose from an investigation from over 14 years ago, and that it is “continuously testing its anti-money laundering framework and has been strengthening it over time, in accordance with evolving regulatory standards.”

As part of the court’s ruling, Credit Suisse was fined 2 million Swiss francs (around $2.1 million) and was ordered to pay the Swiss government about $20 million. Both the bank and its former employee denied any wrongdoing, and Credit Suisse said it plans to appeal the verdict.

Around the Globe

  • Russia defaults on its foreign-currency sovereign debt for the time in over 100 years
  • WNBA player Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia was extended for another 6 months; her trial for cannabis possession charges begins on Friday
  • At least 10 people died and 251 were injured in a chlorine gas leak from a storage tank at the Aqaba port in Jordan

On the Homefront

  • At least three people were killed and multiple others were injured when an Amtrak train derailed and toppled over in Missouri after colliding with a dump truck
  • Louisiana judge temporarily blocks the state’s “trigger law” which bans abortion procedures at any stage of pregnancy, allowing clinics to continue providing services
  • JetBlue Airways Corp raised its offer to buy Spirit Airlines by pledging to prepay $2.50 per share once investors approve the deal, as well as a $400 million breakup fee to be paid to Spirit if regulators block the merger

Glitz and Games

  • Houston Texans sued for allegedly enabling quarterback Deshaun Watson’s behavior during massage therapy sessions
  • Kyrie Irving exercises the option to remain with the Brooklyn Nets for another year; he will earn $37 million this upcoming season
  • HBO announced that season 4 of Succession has begun filming and that the new season will consist of 10 episodes

Money Moves

  • Major indexes in the stock market traded lower to start the week (Dow -0.20%, Nasdaq -0.82%, S&P 500 -0.30%)
  • Cryptocurrency exchange company FTX is seeking a path to acquire Robinhood Markets, Inc., according to sources familiar with the matter
  • Volkswagen is nearing a deal to sell a minority stake in its U.S. electric vehicle recharging business Electrify America to Siemens, valuing the network at over $2 billion

Tip & Tricks

  • Binge Watch: Deli-centered dramedy The Bear on Hulu led by Jeremy Allen White has us hooked
  • Chow Down: Check out this recipe for Oreo Ice Cream Pie because…well, you don’t need a reason
  • Cash Grab: This Hawaiian mansion belonging to three-time golf major winner Vijay Singh can be yours for just $23 million
  • Go Deep: Explorers discovered the USS Samuel B. Roberts at the bottom of the ocean; at 22,916 feet, it is the deepest shipwreck ever found
  • Say What: “To all the films in release, to all the studios, and to all the exhibitors: congratulations. To the audience: thank you for venturing out and allowing us to entertain you. See you at the movies,” Tom Cruise said in a tweet one day after Top Gun: Maverick passed $1 billion in global box office revenue
  • Hot Goss: TikTok star Charli D’Amelio is reportedly dating Travis Barker’s son Landon Barker (cue up blink-182's “What’s my Age Again?”)
  • Life Hack: If you sign original documents in blue, you’ll never wonder which is the original or which is a copy

Question of the day

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Looking Back…

On June 28th, 1997, Mike Tyson was disqualified from a boxing match for the heavyweight title after he twice bit opponent Evander Holyfield's ears; he temporarily lost his boxing license as a result of the infraction.

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