Good morning. The Securities and Exchange Commission under the Biden administration has made it easier for investors to try to drag corporations into political and cultural battles, but brewing lawsuits seek to silence the activists.

• What's been happening: After a change in SEC policy eased the path for shareholders to bring forward certain proposals, investors of all political stripes have increasingly pressed companies on hot-button issues such as climate, abortion, guns and diversity, filing hundreds of proposals each year.
   
• New proxy season, more problems: The trend has continued into this year’s proxy season—the period when most companies have their annual meetings—which is unfolding now. But companies, many of which don’t want to wade into reputationally risky areas, might get the chance to tell shareholders to pipe down.
   
• Legal challenges: In one suit challenging the status quo, oil-and-gas company Exxon Mobil, a frequent target of shareholder proposals, sued two shareholder proponents, arguing that they were activists pursuing a “Trojan horse” strategy to gain a platform to deliberately hurt its business despite only holding a tiny amount of shares.
   
• The role of the regulator: The SEC is the gatekeeper on what companies must include in their proxy statements. Following a 2021 rule change that made it easier to float resolutions on issues that have a “broad societal impact,” the number of proposals has crept up, hitting a record 739 this year, according to an analysis released Wednesday by ISS Corporate Solutions, a data and analytics provider.

The crypto industry is trying to elect political allies. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Crypto companies are fighting for survival after a regulatory crackdown. Their latest strategy: spending big on this year’s elections.

The industry has amassed a formidable war chest and is working to elect politicians it sees as allies and defeat those who are critical. A trio of super political-action committees has together raised more than $85 million, one of the largest amounts among PACs engaged in the 2024 elections.

“This is the first time we’ve really had all the pieces in place,” said Kristin Smith, chief executive of the Blockchain Association, an industry group.

• The U.S. is leaning on Europe to help defend against a surge of Chinese exports on global markets, trying to achieve unity among allies that hold distinct views of how to respond to Beijing’s economic might.
   
• Florida Republican Greg Steube forged a path with Democrats to get his hurricane-relief bill on the House floor.

American parents are feeling the pain of inflation, child-care costs.

Fewer American parents are hanging on financially.

About 64% of parents living with children under the age of 18 said they were doing all right financially in 2023, down from 69% in 2022, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve.

That was worse than the broader response. Overall, about 72% of all respondents said they were doing all right financially in 2023, down slightly from 73% the prior year.

• Western officials say they are braced for a period of increased volatility with Iran as the country prepares to choose a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash over the weekend.
   
• For the past few years, the West has been trying to break China’s grip on minerals that are critical for defense and green technologies. Despite their efforts, Chinese companies are becoming more dominant, not less.
   
• A major union benefits fund sought to exclude NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals from its health network to control spending. But the hospital system wouldn’t walk away without a hefty sum.
   
• Biden administration officials said Tuesday that a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia was within reach, but that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government might balk at the historic agreement rather than accept Riyadh’s demands for a new commitment to a Palestinian state and a halt to the Gaza war.

• Donald Trump’s defense team rested its case in his hush-money trial Tuesday, with the former president opting not to testify.
   
• One person died and at least 30 others were injured aboard a Singapore Airlines flight that encountered “sudden extreme turbulence” while en route from London to Singapore, the airline said Tuesday.
   
• When a major owner of AI chips wanted to raise billions of dollars to buy more of them, it turned to a crop of Wall Street investment firms for a loan backed by the chips themselves.
   
• Blackstone wants rank-and-file employees at the companies it buys to own a piece of their business.
   
• The Wall Street Journal studied hundreds of job postings from companies seeking college graduates. They reveal what employers think young professionals want.

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.