Blinken seeks Israel-Hamas pause: Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Tel Aviv today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blinken reportedly pushed for Netanyahu to agree to at least a short-term halt in the fighting with Hamas in order to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and induce Hamas to release the hostages it still holds. The Israeli military reports its troops have encircled Gaza City and street-by-street fighting with elements of Hamas has been underway.
Jobs report: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning a slowdown in job growth in October. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 150,000 last month and the unemployment rate ticked up a little bit to 3.9%. The October job gain was less than the 170,000 that had been forecast and well below the 297,000 jobs that had been added in September. Employment in government increased by 51,000 in October and has returned to where it was in February 2020 before the Covid pandemic.
 Crypto case: Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been found guilty of stealing about $10 billion from FTX customers and investors. Sentencing is scheduled to take place March 28 in federal court in Manhattan. Bankman-Fried is facing up to 110 years in prison, the maximum for all seven counts on which he was convicted. An attorney for Bankman-Fried said they’re planning an appeal.
Memphis police: In Memphis, a former city police officer has pleaded guilty to federal charges in the beating death of Tyre Nichols. Desmond Mills Jr. was the first of five offices charged in the case to enter a guilty plea. Mills and the other defendants were captured on video beating Nicholas after a traffic stop. Nichols died three days later. Nichols was Black as are the defendants.
Shipping job cuts: Container shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk has announced a new round of job cuts. It points to shrinking demand for its shipping services. Moller-Maersk handles about one-sixth of the world’s container shipping. The company has already cut 6,500 jobs and plans to cut 3,500 more to reduce its global workforce to about 100,000. In the third quarter of the year, the company had revenues of $12.1 billion, a sharp drop from the $22 billion it took in during the same period last year.
FBI raids: The FBI yesterday raided the Brooklyn home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ chief political fundraiser and other locations as part of an investigation into whether Adams received illegal campaign contributions. The FBI did not provide details of the search warrants that were executed. It is reported that the FBI is looking into whether the Adams campaign received illegal contributions of money from Turkey that was funneled to the campaign through a construction company.
