Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday
• The Justice Department’s inspector general opened an investigation into the decision by Trump-era federal prosecutors to secretly seize the data of House Democrats and reporters in a bid to find the source of leaked classified information.
• +/- JNJ: A federal order that 10M doses of the company’s coronavirus vaccine produced in a Baltimore factory run by EBS cannot be used is the latest in a series of setbacks for the company, which sought to be a key source of vaccines.
• Attorney General Merrick Garland revealed a plan for protecting voting rights and said the Justice Department would double enforcement staff, scrutinize new state laws that seek to curb voter access, and take action if it sees a violation of federal law.
• The Hong Kong government will begin blocking the distribution of films it deems undermine national security, marking the official arrival of mainland Chinese-style censorship in one of Asia’s key filmmaking hubs.
• Governor Greg Abbott of Texas said on Thursday that the state would build a border wall with Mexico, but he offered few specifics about construction that would extend one of former Donald Trump’s key projects.
• The Biden administration will restore environmental protections to Tongass National Forest in Alaska, one of the world’s largest intact temperate rain forests, after Trump removed them to pave the way for logging and road construction.
• +/- AAPL, GOOGL: As the reach of tech giants grows, they have become surveillance intermediaries and partners for law enforcement authorities, able to arbitrate which requests to honor and which to reject.
• Chinese police are still buying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of American DNA equipment despite warnings from the US government that the technologies could enable human rights abuses.
Sunday
• The private equity industry “has perfected sleight-of-hand tax-avoidance strategies so aggressive that at least three private equity officials have alerted the Internal Revenue Service to potentially illegal tactics” at dozens of firms.
• President Biden urged European nations and Japan to counter China’s growing economic and security influence by offering developing nations hundreds of billions in financing as an alternative to relying on Beijing for infrastructure.
• Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to crush dissent and impose a narrative on the country may not be able to counter widespread anger over his stumbling response to the pandemic, undermining a key part of his strategy for wielding power.
• The FBI has made strides in cases involving criminals using encryption and cryptocurrencies, but law enforcement sill faces challenges in an increasingly digital world, and a recent global sting operation may simply drive bad actors farther underground.
• Traffic has begun to return as the economy has revived, but planners, transit agencies and researchers are now considering the remarkable possibility that in many places it won’t revert to its old shape amid newfound work flexibility.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weekend
• House lawmakers proposed bipartisan legislation to rein in the country’s biggest tech companies, including a bill that seeks to make AMZN and other large corporations effectively split in two or shed their private-label products.
• As Western economies rebound from the pandemic, Covid outbreaks in Asia—where vaccination campaigns are in early stages—is creating new bottlenecks in the global supply chain, threatening to push up prices and weigh on the recovery.
• The Biden administration will allow some healthcare providers more time to spend $187B in emergency coronavirus funding following an appeal from hospitals and congressional lawmakers.
• Senior Democrats hope to pass budget resolutions by the end of July, preparing late summer and early fall a package that could determine the scope of President Biden’s ambitions on infrastructure and social programs.
• + JNJ: The FDA is making millions of the company’s Covid vaccines available for export from an EBS factory that has faced contamination problems, leading to the rejection of 60M doses of the shots.
• The FBI’s ability to regain most of the Colonial Pipeline ransom from hackers demonstrates a growing technical ability to disrupt the cryptocurrency infrastructure that has enabled hackers to squeeze hundreds of millions of dollars from victims.
• During his meeting with NATO allies Monday, President Biden is set to encounter skepticism from some who question whether efforts to counter China could distract from the alliance’s primary goal of deterring Russia.
• South Korea can now build missiles able to reach Beijing—Washington had had imposed limits on Seoul’s weapons program for four decades but lifted them as North Korea’s nuclear arsenal expands and China’s military strength grows.
• + BP: The oil major’s plan to spin off its operations in Iraq into a stand-alone company is part of a larger effort to shuffle its assets and investment plans in its pivot toward lower-carbon energy and give it more flexibility in developing strategies.
• “The cheapest dollars in years are spurring a rise in foreign investment in US government bonds at the same time that pension funds are boosting their holdings—and that demand pickup could weigh on Treasury rates.”
• AMZN customers have grown accustomed to having packages sent via one-day delivery, leaving small businesses little choice but to do the same, forcing them to raise prices, risk lost sales, or eat the shipping cost.
• Germany removed a legal loophole that had made it a prime destination for patent litigators who target fast-growing tech companies—the new law will require a check to ensure that any injunction doesn’t create “undue hardship” for third parties.
• H.O.T.S.: “Policy makers are reviving old-school industrial planning policies to face challenges posed by China and the pandemic, but European recovery funds don’t appear targeted enough to fix a lopsided economy”; Strength in cloud computing and gaming give MSFT an edge over rivals; Debates about inflation are ongoing, but the bond market seems unfazed.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Weekend
• President Biden “has won support at the G7 summit for a ‘carry on spending’ plan as western leaders rejected austerity in a post-Covid world and vowed to tackle inequality at home and abroad.”
• A G7 pledge to provide one billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer countries has been criticized by campaigners for greater access as inadequate, and for failing to bridge the global divide in supplies.
• Corporate sponsors of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics fear brand damage because of a range of issues, and have hired marketing consultants to determine whether a direct association with the games would hurt their image.
• Global scientists who have collaborated with Chinese peers for decades are now concerned about future projects amid growing animosity between Beijing and other governments about the origin of the coronavirus.
• Big Read piece on BIIB’s Alzheimer’s drug says “After years of false dawns, the approval of a new drug this week has given hope to patients with the disease, but some experts are critical of the high cost of the drug, and question how well it works.”
• Lex Column: Didi Chuxing’s investments in deliveries and electric vehicles will remain a cash drain, and it may need to lower its targeted IPO valuation accordingly; Many Japanese stocks trade at a discount to global peers because of bad governance, and Toshiba continues to be one of them; Signa Sports United’s merger with US-based SPAC Yucaipa is astute, and its e-commerce credential are respectable.
• Comment: Cryptocurrencies are here to stay, but to counter ransomware attacks, companies must develop robust know-your-customer and anti-money laundering laws fit for the digital age, says Alex Younger.
NEW YORK POST
Saturday
• “Congressional lawmakers are targeting tech giants over antitrust concerns—and the proposed legislation could force them to overhaul or even break up their business empires.”
• Pre-auction bidding for a slot on AMZN founder Jeff Bezos’ July 20 Blue Origin space flight closed Thursday at nearly $5M, according to the space company’s website.
Sunday
• A study that surveyed the remote work habits of 10,000 employees at an Asian technology company between April 2019 and August 2020, found a 20 percent decrease in output despite the fact workers put in more hours at home.
• Just hours after El Salvador’s legislature made the country the first to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, president Nayib Bukele said a state-owned geothermal electric company will harness volcanic energy to mine the cryptocurrency.