Wall Street Journal Highlights: Key Developments in Business, Politics, and Global News

The Wall Street Journal‘s latest edition covers a wide range of significant news stories. In the realm of politics, the 2024 presidential election is heating up, with candidates intensifying their attacks. Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing on courting GOP-leaning voters in swing states, while former President Donald Trump is leveraging off-script moments to engage his core supporters.

In business news, Boeing‘s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, is implementing strategies to reduce the company’s financial crisis. This includes awaiting a decision from the machinists union on a new labor contract and potentially facing a strike. Meanwhile, investment bank Jefferies is ambitious about climbing the ranks, aiming to become the fifth largest U.S. investment bank by investment-banking revenue.

Activist investor Starboard Value has taken a stake in Kenvue, the consumer-products company spun out of Johnson & Johnson, which produces brands like Tylenol and Listerine. Starboard believes Kenvue has strong consumer brands but is underperforming its rivals and is pushing for changes to boost the share price.

In the tech sector, AI startup Perplexity is in funding talks to raise about $500 million, which would more than double its valuation to $8 billion or more. This would be the company’s fourth funding round in a year.

On the global front, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv, reaffirming the U.S. commitment to Ukraine‘s war effort, though without any new commitments to Ukraine’s major weapons requests.

Additionally, Israel‘s military actions in Gaza have been significant, with the destruction of tunnels forcing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to spend more time above ground, leading to his recent killing. The U.S. is also investigating the leak of top-secret documents related to Israeli military preparations for a potential strike on Iran).