THE SPEED READ

Deals

News Corp agreed to buy the consumer arm of the educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (News Corp)
The Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss has teamed up with a Maryland hotel developer to bid for Tribune Publishing, challenging a takeover offer from Alden Global Capital. (NYT)
Robinhood and SoFi are planning to give some of their customers access to I.P.O.s before they start trading. (Bloomberg)

Politics and policy

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, on her efforts to tighten antitrust enforcement of the tech industry: “It’s on us as a democracy to get a hold of what’s going on in the internet.” (Sway)
A group of Silicon Valley moguls — including Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs — are urging Californians to reject an effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Axios)

Tech

Fintech start-ups that are taking on Wall Street giants are having a moment. (NYT)
Amazon is reportedly hitting back hard against critics like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at the behest of Jeff Bezos. (Recode)
“On Google Podcasts, a Buffet of Hate” (NYT)

Best of the rest

Leon Black plans to step down as chairman of MoMA, days after announcing he will give up the same position at Apollo Global Management. (NYT)
Female journalists report being increasingly harassed online, forcing their publications to issue public statements defending them. (Vanity Fair)
A $25 million donation to offer San Francisco students free day care and summer school has become another flash point over the tech industry’s philanthropy. (Recode)
The New York Times