Government and Policy Sector
Regulators approved a national trust bank charter for World Liberty Trust Company to issue its USD1 stablecoin, while Mexico cleared Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Meanwhile, California conditioned Charter's $34.5 billion Cox acquisition on $310 million in upgrades, and the CFTC used emergency powers to keep Kalshi operating in New York despite state litigation. On the fiscal and geopolitical front, California's high-speed rail faces a 2027 cash exhaustion date, and a U.S. naval blockade threatens $18 billion in annual shipping costs for Iran.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank charter to World Liberty Trust Company, an affiliate of the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial. The approval authorizes the entity to directly issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin in-house, cutting out current partner BitGo Bank and Trust. The charter is limited, prohibiting the institution from taking deposits, making loans, or seeking a Federal Reserve master account, but it requires a minimum capital of $20 million alongside a qualified internal audit manager. World Liberty Financial is approximately 38% owned by an entity tied to Donald Trump Jr. and other family members, prompting Senator Elizabeth Warren to introduce the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act to block banking applications involving top elected officials and their families.
The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved Charter Communications' $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications' California operations, attaching $310 million in mandatory network and community investments that federal regulators did not require. The deal combines the providers to serve approximately 35.6 million residential and business internet customers, allowing Charter to spread the heavy capital costs of deploying DOCSIS 4.0 symmetrical gigabit technology across a larger subscriber base. Charter is spending roughly $11.4 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 to upgrade its hybrid fiber-coax infrastructure, driven by subscriber losses that reached 172,000 in the second quarter of 2026 amid intense competition from 5G fixed wireless and fiber. Under the CPUC settlement, Charter must spend $275 million upgrading California networks within three years, allocate $30 million to digital inclusion programs, and commit $5 million to Community Development Financial Institutions. The transaction is expected to close during the week of August 18, 2026.
Paramount Skydance Corporation secured regulatory clearance from Mexico for its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery following an eight-month review across 68 countries. The transaction has cleared authorities in jurisdictions including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Brazil, China, COMESA, the United States, and Mexico. Antitrust regulators globally found that streaming platforms and digital services exert competitive pressure on legacy networks, concluding the merger will not substantially lessen competition. However, a lawsuit brought by California and 11 other U.S. state attorneys general remains the final obstacle to closing the combination. Paramount chief executive officer David Ellison said the company has offered commitments and concessions while preparing to defend the deal in court against the state antitrust challenge.