Good morning. A special committee at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it had hired the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to conduct a review into the workplace culture, replacing another previously hired law firm nearly a month after The Wall Street Journal revealed allegations of harassment and discrimination pervaded the agency.

• The goal: Led by former acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon Kim, Cleary Gottlieb will examine allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct as well as other issues related to the workplace culture, including “any practices that might discourage or otherwise deter the reporting of, or appropriate response to, harassment and interpersonal misconduct,” the special committee said. The team created a hotline and email address for current and former FDIC employees.
   
• The background: A Journal investigation published last month revealed allegations of a toxic workplace culture at the agency that drove many female bank examiners to quit. In response, FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said the agency had hired a law firm, BakerHostetler, to conduct an investigation. After the Journal reported additional details about Gruenberg and his deputies’ involvement in decisions over high-level allegations of sexism, harassment and discrimination in which the agency didn’t take a hard line with those accused of misconduct, Republicans on the FDIC board called for Gruenberg to recuse himself. Gruenberg took responsibility and apologized for the workplace culture in a video to staff last month.
   
• The timing: It is unclear how long the investigation is expected to take. In a 13-page action plan sent to staff earlier this month, Gruenberg projected the review would conclude by the end of February 2024. Cleary Gottlieb didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

BP asks U.S. regulator to intervene in escalating natural-gas feud.

British oil giant BP asked U.S. energy regulators to intervene in an escalating dispute with a startup U.S. natural-gas exporter whose feud with customers has become one of the industry’s nastiest battles in years.

BP in a Monday filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accused Venture Global LNG of skirting FERC disclosure rules while maintaining “a veil of secrecy around its operations” to the detriment of long-term customers.

The administrative filing asked the regulator to force Venture Global to disclose documents related to its delay in delivering cargoes of liquefied natural gas to BP and other long-term buyers. Amid that delay, Venture Global has profited handsomely from shipping a steady stream of LNG cargoes to other buyers at higher prices, surpassing $14 billion in sales, during a longer-than-normal ramp-up for an LNG plant.

• Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to take up Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution and can’t face criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the November 2020 election, in an unusual effort to expedite a judgment crucial for moving the case speedily toward trial.
   
• The Air Force said Monday it has disciplined 15 military officers for dereliction of duty following an internal investigation of how Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with taking and sharing highly classified information, went undetected for months.
   
• Rudy Giuliani’s legal and financial woes could worsen this week, with a District of Columbia jury considering whether the former Trump lawyer should pay tens of millions of dollars for falsely accusing two Georgia election workers of rigging the November 2020 presidential election.
   
• Google lost an antitrust case over the market power of its app store on Monday, a blow to the search giant as it faces other legal challenges to its search dominance and ad tech business.
   
• The U.K.’s competition authority has launched a probe into environmental claims made by Dove soap owner Unilever, marking the start of what the regulator indicated could be a broader crackdown on greenwashing by consumer products makers.

Israel warns Hezbollah to pull back forces to avert war.

Israeli officials are warning Hezbollah to pull back its forces on the Lebanese border and stop firing missiles at Israel to avert another war as fighting also rages in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military Monday said it shelled Lebanese territory after its air-defense system intercepted six projectiles launched from across the border. Israel’s air force later struck a Hezbollah site, from which the military said the group fired projectiles into Israel. The exchanges followed volleys from both sides on Sunday, part of a near-daily tit-for-tat that has killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and six Israeli soldiers.

• Hate Crimes in U.S. Increase Amid Israel-Hamas War
• Israelis Flock to Buy Guns as Sense of Security Shatters

• The British military—the leading U.S. military ally and Europe’s biggest defense spender—has only around 150 deployable tanks and perhaps a dozen serviceable long-range artillery pieces. So bare was the cupboard that last year the British military considered sourcing multiple rocket launchers from museums to upgrade and donate to Ukraine, an idea that was dropped.
   
• Trade data, corporate announcements and new academic research show that a large portion of the products shipped to the U.S. from places such as Southeast Asia and Mexico are being made in factories owned by Chinese companies, which are expanding overseas, in part to avoid U.S. tariffs.

• U.S. officials were once shy to trumpet their willingness to bargain for American hostages’ freedom, believing it could encourage rogue groups to take more of them, but an unprecedented rise in detentions by hostile foreign governments has led Washington to turn that policy on its head. America’s chief hostage diplomat, former Green Beret Roger Carstens, has few qualms about the U.S. cutting deals with dictators to free its citizens, or promoting the practice.
   
• Boeing is elevating Stephanie Pope to become its No. 2 executive, setting her up as the heir apparent to Chief Executive David Calhoun as the plane maker prepares for its next leadership transition.
   
• Hasbro is cutting nearly 20% of its workforce as weak sales for toys and games persist into the critical holiday shopping period.
   
• Pressure continued to mount Monday on Harvard University President Claudine Gay, with critics calling for her resignation following comments she made last week before Congress about antisemitism on campus.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email David at david.smagalla@wsj.com.