Weekend Papers Summary
NEW YORK TIMES
Saturday
• The House passed President Biden’s $1.9T stimulus plan in a nearly party-line vote with unanimous Republican opposition and two opposing Democrats, advancing a pandemic aid package that would provide direct payments to individuals and help schools and businesses.
• Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to an intelligence report from the Biden administration, which will take no direct action against the prince.
• Federal health officials warned state governors against relaxing pandemic control measures, saying that a recent steep drop in coronavirus cases and deaths in the US may be leveling off at a very high number, and that staving off a fourth surge is crucial.
• “Amid building anger over a sluggish European Union coronavirus vaccine rollout that has left them far behind several other wealthy countries, many EU states are looking beyond the bloc’s joint purchasing strategy, which now seems woefully underwhelming.”
• The global consensus among scientists is that emissions of planet-warming gases must be cut nearly in half by 2030 if the world is to have a good shot at averting the worst climate catastrophes.
• With New York governor Andrew Cuomo under fire on several fronts, political figures are beginning to discuss what it would take to mount a viable challenge against him next year, and who might be best positioned to run against him.
• A Gallup survey found that more adult Americans are identifying as LGBT, a shift pollsters see as driven in part by people in younger generations who are more likely to consider themselves to be something other than heterosexual.
• A report from Otis College of Art and Design found that from February 2020 through December 2020, job loss in California’s “creative economy workforce” reached about 13 percent statewide and 24 percent in Los Angeles country.
• An online database of speech crimes in China links directly to publicly issued verdicts, police notices, and official news reports over the past eight years, and lists nearly 2,000 cases when the government punished people for what they said online and offline.
• The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which NFLX commissioned to look at its US-based scripted original films and series, showed an improvement in diversity in its films and series in 2018 in 2019.
Sunday
• Led by loyalists who embrace Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election, Republicans in state legislatures are going to extraordinary lengths to change the rules of voting and representation to gain political advantage.
• The Biden administration and a Democratic Congress hope to alter and expand the Affordable Care Act by changing regulations and spending billions to make the law simpler, more generous, and closer to what its architects originally sought.
• With the US coronavirus vaccine supply set to expand, states and cities are rushing to open mass vaccination sites to give thousands of shots a day, an approach the Biden administration believes is necessary to reach herd immunity.
• The Palestinian Authority on Saturday announced a new set of lockdown restrictions in the West Bank as coronavirus infections surge and Palestinians await the rollout of a significant vaccination program.
• Myanmar’s military regime fired the country’s UN ambassador after he gave a speech to the General Assembly in New York, pleading for international help in restoring democracy to his homeland.
• Amid an ongoing debate among lawmakers, civil liberties advocates, and police chiefs about the use of facial recognition, Massachusetts became one of the first states to create laws for the use of the technology in criminal investigations.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Weekend
• Household income—the amount Americans received from wages, investments, and government programs—rose 10 percent in January from the previous month, the second largest increase on record, eclipsed only by last April’s gain, when the pandemic-relief payments were sent.
• The Biden administration plans to allow a sweeping Trump-era rule aimed at combating Chinese technology threats to take effect next month, over objections from US businesses, which say the rule could stifle innovation and competitiveness.
• Federal officials are rushing emergency relief to Texas for its power crisis, though longer-term efforts to shore up its electric grid are likely to run into political obstacles and challenges to Washington’s authority.
• Senate Democrats are developing a Plan B for raising the minimum wage at some large companies as part of their coronavirus relief package, after the chamber’s parliamentarian ruled out including it in the stimulus deal.
• The US dropped a Trump administration demand in global corporate-tax negotiations opposed by European nations seeking higher taxes on tech giants, removing one obstacle to an agreement on adapting the tax system to the digital economy.
• Hospitals say cyberattacks are complicating their operations and hurting profits, adding to pressure on a $1.2T sector that is under heavy strain from the coronavirus pandemic.
• The White House announced that nearly half the US population aged 65 and older has received the first coronavirus vaccine dose, and that the Biden administration will ask US companies to offer vaccination incentives to employees.
• WHO investigators are looking for information about a second food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan after the first officially confirmed Covid-19 case, dubbed patient zero, told them his parents had shopped there.
• “As vaccine rollouts gain momentum, governments world-wide are looking at ways for people to prove they are inoculated against the coronavirus, raising logistical and ethical concerns about whether others will be excluded from daily life.”
• + UPS: New chief Carol Tomé, formerly finance head at HD, “is remaking the company in her number-crunching image, in part by adopting the philosophy that delivering less can be more”—and by leveraging the crisis to rapidly change the business model.
• As dozens of electric vehicles come to market, customers who bought anything but a TSLA are discovering that America’s charging infrastructure isn’t ready for prime time, though experts say fast-charging is essential to expanding adoption of EVs.
• H.O.T.S.: Investors have pared back bearish bets after the GME frenzy, showing its lasting effects on funds that make money by shorting; Electricity grids should be more reliable, but agreeing on what price to pay for safety is difficult; “Savings rates have spiked and many American households are sitting on large cash balances”; As the pandemic eases, ABNB may prove a safe bet for investors.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Weekend
• Treasury secretary Janet Yellen told G20 finance ministers that Washington will drop the contentious “safe harbor” part of its global digital tax reform proposal, allowing multilateral negotiations which had stalled under the Trump administration to continue.
• The European Union must consider far-reaching legislative changes to its public borrowing rules in the wake of the pandemic, according to the bloc’s economic commissioner, and adopt radical fiscal reform.
• India’s economy emerged from recession during the final quarter of 2020, growing by 0.4 percent year on year amid a drop in Covid infections that allowed businesses to reopen and consumers to begin spending.
• The UN rebuked 75 nations over climate failures in a report that says they are responsible for a third or global emissions, falling far short of what is needed to meet the goals of the Paris accord on global warming.
• Big Read piece says “The sell-off this week in government bonds reflects concerns that aggressive monetary and fiscal policy will reignite inflationary pressures—which could hamper the economic recovery and unsettle markets.”
• Lex Column: “The ship looks set to sail on Britain’s aversion to dual-class shares” and their weighted voting rights, which critics see as poor corporate governance; “The worst recession in 300 years was little more than a bump in the road for online property portal Rightmove”; Pent-up demand for travel is likely to unleash a bookings bonanza at ABNB.
• Comment: Vaccine passports pose a range of technical and ethical problems, says Melinda Mills—and governments should make them mandatory only economic grounds or to protect the public health.
NEW YORK POST
Saturday
• Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Tontine Holdings said he plans to start announcing market-moving news on TWTR, much as TSLA chief Elon Musk does.
• An analysis by cybersecurity firm PiiQ Media found that bots on major social media platforms have been hyping GME and other so-called meme stocks, suggesting an organized effort to move the shares. Sunday
• White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden backs an “independent review” of sexual harassment claims against New York governor Andrew Cuomo after allegations from two female former staffers.
• Two stillborn babies in Israel from mothers infected with Covid-19 have tested positive for the coronavirus, with at least one of the deaths blamed on the contagion, according to medical officials.