TheChek News Flow

• The American economy slowed in July as the pace of hiring eased from the robust rate of the previous two months, a victim of waning momentum and the resurgence of the coronavirus in many parts of the country.

• Russia is using a range of techniques to denigrate Joe Biden, according to American intelligence officials in their first public assessment that Moscow continues to try to interfere in the 2020 campaign to help Trump, while China, which would prefer that he lose, has done little to interfere.

• New York governor Andrew Cuomo said schools—including in New York City—can reopen for in-person instruction this fall because the state is one of the few with low enough coronavirus transmissions to allow children back in classrooms.

• Figuring out what drives coronavirus super-spreading events—where the virus can spread from a single individual to dozens or even hundreds of others, proliferating through packed crowds—could be key to stopping them, and ending the pandemic.

• The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Friday on Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, and 10 other senior officials in Hong Kong and mainland China over their roles in cracking down on political dissent.

• An Air India Express Boeing 737 trying to land during a torrential downpour in southern India on Friday night skidded off a slick runway, crashed into a wall, tumbled into a valley and split in half, killing at least 17 people and injuring many more.

• Trump’s decision late Thursday to restrict Chinese social media services TikTok and WeChat from the US has created confusion about how broad the bans on doing business with China could ultimately be—and the confusion may be intentional.

• “It is increasingly clear that if the Great Recession was personified by empty subdivisions and foreclosed homeowners, the enduring symbol of coronavirus, with its disproportionate impact on hourly workers, is likely to be a laid-off tenant struggling to keep an overcrowded apartment.”

• As Democrats and Republicans clash over how to conduct an election in a pandemic, Trump’s litigiousness and unfounded claims of fraud have increased the likelihood of epic postelection court fights that will extend far beyond November.

• With negotiations over an economic recovery package far from resolved, Trump on Saturday sought to circumvent Congress and extend an array of federal pandemic relief, resorting to a legally dubious set of edicts whose impact was unclear, given the fact that Congress controls spending.

• A new medical study in South Korea offers further proof that people without coronavirus symptoms carry just as much virus in their nose, throat and lungs as those with symptoms, and for almost as long, accounting for why seemingly healthy people can spread it to others.

• Violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces transformed much of central Beirut into a battle zone Saturday, as anger over a huge explosion in the port of Lebanon’s capital city this week fueled attacks on government buildings.

• Story profiles online therapy startup Talkspace, whose former employees say it has an admirable ambition to de-stigmatize therapy, but that it deploys questionable marketing practices and regards treatment transcripts, which should be private, as a data resource to be mined.

• Trump said he would issue executive orders to provide more coronavirus aid to Americans, after White House negotiations with Democrats made no progress toward agreements on unemployment benefits and state and local aid, two of the central issues.

• “The Trump administration’s cascade of actions taken against Beijing represent a new chapter in US–China relations, one marked by increasing confrontation and few efforts to de-escalate the tensions.”

• The work-at-home trend during the pandemic has shifted the cost of energy to consumers, a situation that, with the accompanying expense, could make things worse for those already suffering financially as a consequence of the pandemic.

• Brent Scowcroft, the only person to serve two US presidents as national security adviser and whose work shaping the Cold War and its largely peaceful conclusion influenced generations of American foreign-policy strategists, died at the age of 95.

• Former Obama administration national security advisor Susan Rice, believed to be a top contender to be Joe Biden’s running mate, sold a large number of the NFLX shares she acquired since becoming one of the company’s directors in 2018.

• + UPS: The delivery giant announced it will impose hefty fees on big shippers during the holiday season, reflecting the added complexity and cost of an expected crush of online orders amid the coronavirus pandemic.• Despite rising political tensions between Beijing and Washington, American brands have suffered little commercial fallout among Chinese consumers, enabling them to capitalize on the economic rebound in China as they wait out the crisis in the US. • + AAPL: Story reports on how chief Tim Cook “made Apple his own” by turning the company Steve Jobs founded “into a corporate colossus, delivering one of the most lucrative business successions in history.”

• Borrowing for cars, trucks, and SUVs rose more than 90 percent in the past decade, but that lending boom threatens to unravel as payment deferrals end while unemployment remains high and stimulus fades.

• Danish car designer Henrik Fisker, whose first company, Fisker Automotive, went bust in 2013, has new financial backers—he hopes to take his new operation, Fisker Inc., public later this year and release the Ocean, a battery-powered SUV made with recycled materials, in 2022.

• +/- F: Story suggests that if the Detroit auto giant wants to innovate—and have a shot at taking on TSLA—it needs to stop worrying about pleasing shareholders for a while and consider going private.• Federal guidance says that Insurers don’t have to cover workplace Covid-19 testing that an employer does to broadly screen for infection among employees, a situation that could have a negative impact on small businesses.

• H.O.T.S.: Rebounding oil prices have the potential to show the cracks that already exist in the delicate cooperation between the powerful oil-producing nations; Continued job growth in July doesn’t change the need for stimulus; The Trump administration’s latest moves against China could have profound impacts—but the winners and losers might not be who they seem.

• Front page story reports that Trump’s recent actions against China are an attempt to deflect attention away from his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, and that he will continue to criticize the country to shore up his dwindling popularity ahead of the November election.

• The European Union will not include France’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app in a coordinated exercise of cross-border information sharing after Paris snubbed a standard created by AAPL and Google that most member states embraced.

• Exports from China rose sharply in July, according to the country’s official figures, a sign of resilience in the trade activity despite the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and there are signs other global economies are emerging from the crisis even as global trade levels remain depressed.

• Industrial output in three of the Eurozone’s largest economies—France, Germany, and Spain—increased by more than expected in June as governments lifted their most stringent lockdown measures, with areas such as auto making and clothes manufacturing seeing a boost.

• Big Read piece says that “Even before the explosion in Beirut this week, Lebanon was facing a massive economic crisis and the risk of becoming a failed state—and angry citizens are now calling for the overthrow of the entire political class.”

• Lex Column: Many US apps, such as WeChat and Twitter, have long been banned in China, but now that US retaliation has begun, shareholders should prepare for the worst; Patience will be required for investors in Standard Life Aberdeen as new chief Stephen Bird seeks to rebuild the firm’s reputation from within; “Churning out more transactions does nothing to prove UBER’s long-term viability if churning out more losses is the main result.”

• Comment: “What would help Spain is a dose of the enlightened statesmanship and democratic compromise that inspired the makers of the 1978 constitution”—a spirit former leader Juan Carlos once exemplified, says Tony Barber.

• Shares of struggling cinema chains such as AMC and CNK rose Friday after the Department of Justice scrapped 72-year-old rules that severely limited the ability of Hollywood studios to purchase movie theaters.

• Investors including actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson purchased the struggling XFL football league from WWE wresting mogul Vince McMahon for $15M in a deal that was rubber-stamped by a US bankruptcy judge. Sunday

• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday defended the legality of Trump’s executive orders to provide financial help during the coronavirus and said Americans would hold Democrats responsible for delaying the assistance if they challenge the actions in court.

• Stock-trading app Robinhood has become a phenomenon during the pandemic, but experts say inexperienced traders can easily lose money using it, and that it’s “built for the person who doesn’t know a lot about the markets and doesn’t ask a lot of questions.”