Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday
• Trump’s yearslong assault on the US Postal Service and his increasingly dire warnings about the dangers of voting by mail are sparking concerns that he could seek to influence an election conducted during a pandemic in which more voters than ever will submit their ballots by mail.
• Contact tracing, a cornerstone of the public health arsenal to tamp down the coronavirus across the world, has largely failed in the US—the virus’s pervasiveness and major lags in testing have rendered the system almost pointless.
• Europe’s strong management of the coronavirus enabled many economies to reopen while protecting workers whose livelihoods have been menaced, in contrast to the US, where an uneven and haphazard approach to the grave emergency could create dire economic problems.
• Ignoring international criticism and sanctions, the Chinese government has used the letter and spirit of a new national security law to crush Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition with surprising ferocity, with more harsh moves likely to come.
• Law enforcement authorities in Florida arrested Graham Ivan Clark, a 17-year-old recent high school graduate, for his involvement in a scheme that targeted the Twitter accounts of celebrities such as TSLA chief Elon Musk in an effort to have people send him thousands of dollars in Bitcoin.
• Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health and the Trump administration’s testing czar, told Congress on Friday that getting coronavirus test results within two to three days “is not a possible benchmark we can achieve today.”
• The Supreme Court rejected a request from environmental groups to stop construction of Trump’s border wall while the administration seeks review of an appeals court loss—the vote was 5 to 4, with the court’s more conservative members in the majority.
• With foreign markets struggling because of the coronavirus, China is investing heavily in its own infrastructure, employing millions of people not just to build new roads, railway lines and sewage systems but also to make the equipment necessary for those projects.
• Though poverty is soaring in Argentina as the pandemic worsens a punishing economic downturn, BLK is opposing a debt settlement proposed by the government and rallying other creditors to reject it, while holding out for a marginally improved deal.
• Democratic senators Sherrod Brown Elizabeth Warren, members of the committee that oversees banks and regulators, sharply criticized the Fed’s effort to get Congress to help it weaken capital requirements for big banks, saying the move would make the financial system less safe.
Sunday
• “As the US rides what amounts to a second wave of coronavirus cases, with daily new infections leveling off at an alarmingly higher mark, there is a deepening national sense that the progress made in fighting the pandemic is coming undone and no patch of America is safe.”
• Liberal Democrats are increasingly concerned that the military contractors, Wall Street banks, and major corporations where members of Joe Biden’s inner circle have worked while not in government could hold disproportionate power in his administration.
• Most New York City residents are avoiding subways and buses over concerns that sharing enclosed places with strangers is too dangerous, but the situation in major global cities suggests that public transportation may not be as risky as many believe.
• England has had the greatest rate of excess deaths of any country in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic, with a surge that lasted longer and spread to more places than those in hard-hit nations like Italy and Spain, according to a government report.
• Interviews with Republican party officials, strategists, and voters show that Trump’s political strategy is alienating independent and some conservative voters—particularly women and the better-educated—who dislike his partisan appeals and are disappointed in his leadership.
• On Saturday, the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country to open a nuclear power plant, part of plan to reduce oil dependence, raising concerns about the long-term consequences of introducing more nuclear programs to the Middle East.
• In the Economic View column, Robert Shiller looks at how to navigate the coronavirus real estate market, noting that “It would be easy to assume that the boom times for housing will go on forever, but that would require ignoring the disaster that led to the most recent great financial crisis, a little more than a decade ago.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weekend
• Front page story reports “Big oil companies endured one of their worst second quarters ever and are positioning themselves for prolonged pain as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sap global demand for fossil fuels.”
• The pandemic is accelerating plans in many cities around the world to encourage greater bicycle use by transforming city streets; Paris, to cite one example, will have more than 400 miles of pop-up bike lanes that didn’t exist before the crisis.
• Questionable online sales tactics used by some foreign merchants to boost sales numbers have been brought into focus after the federal government said this week that mysterious seed packages arriving from China may be an e-commerce scam.
• The Department of Homeland Security said it would increase the fee to apply for US citizenship by 81 percent and for the first time impose a charge to apply for asylum, saying current fees don’t fully cover the costs.
• Trump’s re-election campaign has pulled back on TV advertising as he trails in the polls and searches for a consistent message heading into the final months before Election Day.
• Doctors in Europe say their ability to treat Covid-19 patients is helping to reduce fatalities among the sickest patients, a hopeful sign as the region grapples with sporadic flare-ups as it heads through the tourist season and into fall and winter.
• A sudden surge in KODK stock this week turned money-losing stock-option grants into a massive windfall for the company’s executive chairman, Jim Continenza, after the US government announced a $765M loan to help the company shift into drug production.
• + FB: Some advertisers that left the social site to protest the proliferation of hate speech on its platforms say they will return, while the company’s financial outlook suggested the boycott isn’t taking a major financial toll.
• + AMZN, GOOGL, MSFT: Companies are increasingly looking to transform their digital operations during the pandemic by moving more operations into the cloud, a trend that should boost the tech giants’ cloud-computing businesses. • Bank share prices have trailed the market and have been particularly hard hit in recent months, but some investors are betting the pandemic is setting the stage for a rally that many investors have been waiting for.
• H.O.T.S.: The stock market surge may be masking reality for some investors, who are looking past the pandemic for a recovery that may not come as quickly as they think; Household goods makers have been among the biggest winners during the coronavirus crisis, but CL’s quarterly results suggest the gains may be easing; XOM “can manage its dividends, but it comes at a long-term cost that may not seem immediately apparent.”
FINANCIAL TIMES
Weekend
• Front page story on NVDA’s proposed $32B bid for Arm says the deal “would consolidate Nvidia’s position at the center of the semiconductor industry, at just the moment when the group’s technology is finding applications beyond mobile devices, in data centers and personal computers.”
• Washington condemned Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam’s move to postpone elections for the city’s legislature because of the pandemic, a decision that came a day after the government disqualified 12 pro-democracy candidates from contesting the election.
• Data published Friday show that the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the Eurozone economy into a historic recessions, with Spain suffering the biggest hit—its economy shrank by 18.5 percent in the three months ending in June.
• Big Read story says “After surging when the pandemic first hit, the dollar has had its worst month in a decade—the move reflects worries about America’s economy and its virus response, stirring debate about the currency’s global role.”
• Lex Column: Governments and central banks lack the resources to shield companies from further blanket lockdowns; After rising to the stratosphere, helium prices appear to be coming back to earth; Washington may be preoccupied with the coronavirus, but the impetus to crack down on Big Tech has also diminished. • Comment: “The crisis has reminded companies that the core purpose of a public listing—access to equity finance from long-term shareholders—comes in very handy when you need cash fast,” says Merryn Somerset Webb.
NEW YORK POST
Saturday
• Trader Joe’s, which for years has sold food under ethnic labels such as Trader Giotto’s and Trader José’s, said it will continue doing so as long as sales remain solid, rebuffing critics calling for the company to ditch the supposedly “racist” labels.
Sunday
• One home was destroyed and nearly 8,000 people were forced to evacuate after a wildfire in Southern California grew dramatically Saturday, and new evacuation orders are being issued for San Bernardino County.
• Swimply, which has been described as Airbnb for swimming pools, has seen a surge in new users during recent months—the app, launched in 2018, has reportedly grown by 2,000 percent since the pandemic started.