TheChek News Flow

The six-piece capsule is the latest collaboration between the multihyphenate and sports giant.

Pharrell Williams is continuing his relationship with Adidas with a new capsule collection.

The multihyphenate and his skin care brand Humanrace are teaming up with the sports giant to release a six-piece collection that pays tribute to Adidas’ iconic Samba silhouette. The collection includes a reimagined version of the popular sneaker in a gray and white colorway and designed in suede and leather. The sneaker has been updated with a tongue made in a molded leather and features a zigzag stitching on the iconic three-stripe style.

The collection’s apparel offerings are meant to pay tribute to Adidas’ history in the soccer world, with knit jerseys, shorts and ripstop jackets designed in gray, bright green, white, black and orange. The knit jerseys, which come with short and long sleeves, are meant to “forge a connection to football culture through an exploration of timeless colors and archival cut lines,” according to the two brands.

Williams’ Humanrace brand previously teamed with Adidas in April to release their first collection, which offered loungewear styles featuring the Humanrace logo. Williams has a long-standing relationship with Adidas, partnering with the sports giant in 2014 and releasing a number of sneaker collaborations over the last eight years.

Williams launched Humanrace in November 2020 with three skin care products housed in green, recyclable and refillable packaging. He’s since expanded the brand to offer body care and sun care products as well as homeware offerings.

Humanrace and Adidas’ Samba collection will be available to purchase starting Monday on the Humanrace website and on Friday on Adidas’ website. Prices range from $80 to $150.

With first-time buyers scarce, there should be fewer forced sellers to create a downward spiral

A fellow columnist did not merely predict a UK house price crash some while ago. He also stayed out of the market. His outlay in buying a costly dwelling years later serves as a terrible warning against taking one’s own financial advice.

Pundits are once again forecasting that the UK property souffle will collapse. Interest rates are rising and real incomes are deteriorating. Zoopla has provided some apparent evidence. Buyer demand has fallen by almost half since Liz Truss’s “mini” budget derailed the mortgage market in September, the property portal said on Monday.

However, a crash presupposes a bubble. Has there been one? It is true that nominal house-price growth neared a two-decade high earlier this year. But the increase remains restrained by historic standards. A drastic correction is a distant prospect too.

During previous periods of UK housing exuberance, nominal prices rose faster and for longer. Average annual price growth in nominal terms peaked at about 30 per cent during each of the four big postwar bubbles. The most recent peak in the rate was at half that.

Adjusted for the overall levels of price growth, the highest average of previous bubbles falls to 20 per cent. The most recent real top pace hit about a third of that.

The restraint is largely down to changes in lending curbs brought in after the great financial crisis. Dodges such as self-certification of income and zero deposit mortgages were prohibited. Transaction volumes never fully recovered to pre-crisis levels.

It is true that at seven times average earnings, a UK dwelling has never been less affordable. The ratio is almost double that in London.

Businesses dependent on property transactions, such as housebuilder Persimmon, have suffered share-price drops of more than 50 per cent. Even the stock of dominant property portal Rightmove has fallen by about a third.

But with stretched first-time buyers scarce, there should be fewer forced sellers to create a downward spiral. Prices are certainly cooling. But the good news for house-hugging Brits is that a crash rivalling the GFC’s 20 per cent decline is unlikely.

The early death of an Alzheimer’s patient taking part in lecanemab trials sent shares down

Dementia is the problem disease that has gone on being a problem. Drug developers have pushed cancer into retreat with immunotherapy medicines. Dementia drug candidates still have one of the highest failure rates in clinical development — 97 per cent according to one study.

Shares in Biogen fell 4.5 per cent on Monday after the website Science reported the early death of an Alzheimer’s disease patient participating in trials of lecanemab. The US biotech has been developing the treatment with Eisai of Japan.

In September, the two companies said results of a late-stage clinical trial showed the experimental drug reduced the rate of cognitive decline in early-stage patients.

Investors responded by bidding up Biogen and Eisai shares by 47 per cent and 66 per cent respectively. Dementia is a Holy Grail for drug companies because it affects more than 55mn people worldwide and costs the global economy $1.3tn.

It has proved difficult to treat. It results from several distinct diseases. Symptoms can emerge a decade or more after onset. This makes it hard to diagnose and to find early-stage patients for drug trials. The slowness of the disease means trials are lengthy and expensive. Drug efficacy is hard to measure for cognition.

Like other Alzheimer drugs, lecanemab targets the build-up of sticky plaques in the brain known as beta amyloid. This is controversial. Critics see little conclusive evidence that treating plaques provides benefits.

Eisai and Biogen have thus far published only minimal data from the lecanemab trial — although more detailed information will be released this week.

Regulators are unlikely to rush through approval following the botched launch last year of Biogen’s aducanumab, an amyloid-clearing treatment. A report that medical authorities are investigating the deaths of two patients during lecanemab’s trials will increase scepticism.

For investors, there is merit in backing dementia research. With populations ageing in the developed world, a successful treatment would generate big social and financial benefits. However, scientific understanding is needed even for crude binary bets on stocks. Start by reviewing the evidence on amyloid plaques.

High Court hears law firm set to represent Russian tycoon had questioned whether fees might exceed £500,000 limit

An attempt to imprison or fine Oleg Deripaska for alleged contempt of court has been delayed after London’s High Court heard that lawyers set to represent the Russian tycoon had raised the prospect of his legal fees exceeding the £500,000 limit imposed by the UK sanctions regime.

Deripaska, who founded metals group EN+, has been the subject of US government sanctions since 2018 over an allegedly close relationship with the Kremlin, although in 2019 he described such allegations as “filthy lies”.

The UK government imposed sanctions on Deripaska in March after Russia invaded Ukraine, calling him a “pro-Kremlin oligarch”.

The High Court was due on Monday to hear a committal application brought against Deripaska by Vladimir Chernukhin, the husband of a Conservative party donor and former deputy finance minister under President Vladimir Putin, who is now based in Britain.

Chernukhin alleges that Deripaska breached legal undertakings after a high-profile legal dispute between the two over the ownership of land in Moscow. He has applied for Deripaska to face contempt of court trial proceedings, which, if successful, could lead to the oligarch being jailed or fined.

But the High Court was on Monday told that Deripaska was not present or legally represented at the hearing — although he has lined up law firm Peters & Peters to act for him in the case.

A spokesman for Deripaska said that given the court had decided to proceed with the case “it would only be right if Mr Deripaska is allowed to defend himself with no restrictions”.

A licence has now been granted by the Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), allowing payment of his legal expenses.

The government has since February placed 1,200 individuals and entities under sanctions as part of the Russia Sanctions regime, but OFSI is empowered to issue licences so that sanctioned individuals’ legal fees can be paid.

Richard Lissack KC, representing Chernukhin, read the court letters from Peters & Peters, which said the £500,000 limit laid down by OFSI might not be sufficient for Deripaska’s upcoming three-day trial.

The letters also questioned whether a separate licence might be needed from the US-based Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) because the payments could require a bank with a US connection.

Lissack told the court the £500,000 limit was a “handsome war chest” to pay any legal fees and that the amount was “sufficient to enable Mr Deripaska to have a fair trial and defend himself”.

Mr Justice Knowles said he would delay the trial, due to start this week, until next March. Peters & Peters and Deripaska did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Separately, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which oversees solicitors working in England and Wales, on Monday said it was concerned Russian oligarchs and other wealthy litigants had used so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation to silence critics.

Ministers have promised to introduce legislation to crack down on wealthy individuals or companies seeking to use Slapps, which enable claimants to evade scrutiny and financially exhaust opponents raising issues of public importance.

“Proceedings must be pursued properly, and that means making sure that representing your client’s interests does not override wider public interest obligations and duties to the courts,” said the SRA.

Researchers delved deep underground into the permafrost in Siberia and discovered 13 prehistoric zombie viruses frozen in the ice

Scientists have revived a 50,000 year old zombie virus that had been trapped deep within the Siberian permafrost.

Over a dozen prehistoric viruses were discovered by researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

They made the foreboding discovery within ice cores deep underground in Siberia.

The preprint study revealed 13 never-before-seen viruses that had been laying dormant within the ice for tens of thousands of years - and are now being brought back.

Researchers revived a virus that was 48,500 years old, called Pandoravirus yedoma.

However, this is not the first time the boffins have found such ancient diseases trapped within the ice.

Back in 2014, the same researchers found a 30,000-year-old virus trapped in the permafrost and found that, after all that time, it was still able to infect organisms.

Now, with the thirteen new viruses in hand, scientists are thawing them out to assess their impacts on public health.

However, the find raises a very real and worrying possible threat to the world.

As the permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, melts and thaws, the ice is releasing the chemicals and microbes that were trapped there.

This is happening more and more because of climate change and could include releasing more ancient viruses we know nothing about.

The study’s author wrote: “Due to climate warming, irreversibly thawing permafrost is releasing organic matter frozen for up to a million years, most of which decomposes into carbon dioxide and methane, further enhancing the greenhouse effect.

“Part of this organic matter also consists of revived cellular microbes (prokaryotes, unicellular eukaryotes) as well as viruses that remained dormant since prehistorical times.”

These ‘zombie viruses’ could be potentially dangerous to humans, the researchers warned and some have already claimed lives.

In 2016, one child died and dozens of people were hospitalised after an anthrax outbreak in Siberia.

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The shocking incident was triggered, officials believe, because a heat wave thawed permafrost and unearthed a reindeer carcass that had been infected with anthrax decades ago. About 2,300 reindeer died in the outbreak.

Researchers were confident that the viruses they uncovered this time would pose a ‘negligible’ risk but warned that might be the case in the future.

But they cautioned that the ‘risky’ search for viruses found in the remains of prehistoric animals like mammoths, woolly rhinoceros or horses, frozen in the ice, was a different story altogether.

The crypto lender plans to use bankruptcy to recover what it can from failed exchange FTX

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi Inc. filed for bankruptcy Monday, making it the latest major digital-assets firm to fail since FTX, with which BlockFi is financially intertwined.

BlockFi’s chapter 11 filing continues the march of crypto platforms forced into insolvency following this summer’s crypto-price downturn and this month’s failure of FTX, a big exchange with ties throughout the largely unregulated industry.

BlockFi, based in Jersey City, N.J., is only beginning to answer how its hundreds of thousands of customers will fare. The company’s top 10 creditors alone are owed close to $1.2 billion, according to its filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J, with the total amount of liabilities likely to be much larger.

The firm, founded in 2017 by Zac Prince and Flori Marquez and backed by Thiel Capital spinout Valar Ventures, lends money to customers using their cryptocurrency assets as collateral. Bain Capital, Tiger Global Management and a fund operated by the Winklevoss twins are also included among BlockFi’s equity investors, according to PitchBook Data Inc.

BlockFi halted withdrawals and limited activity on its platform earlier this month after disclosing it had “significant exposure” to FTX. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that BlockFi was preparing to file for bankruptcy in part due to its troubled relationship with the exchange.

FTX, the largest crypto company to file for bankruptcy to date, has said in court papers that its 50 largest creditors are owed more than $3 billion, and its new managers are still assessing its total obligations to customers. Celsius Network LLC, a crypto lender that filed bankruptcy in July, listed $5.5 billion in total liabilities when it entered court protection, including more than $4.7 billion owed to its users.

BlockFi said Monday it would use chapter 11 to focus on recovering all obligations owed to it by its counterparties, including FTX.

“Due to the recent collapse of FTX and its ensuing bankruptcy process, which remains ongoing, the company expects that recoveries from FTX will be delayed,” BlockFi said.

BlockFi said it plans to reduce its expenses, including labor costs, in chapter 11 and it has nearly $257 million in cash on hand to support its operations during the restructuring process.

As of 2021, BlockFi had between $14 billion and $20 billion in customer deposits and had lent out $7.5 billion, though those deposits are likely worth much less given the decline in cryptocurrency prices this year, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The firm has said it was exposed to both FTX and FTX’s sister company Alameda Research LLC, including a credit line from FTX U.S. that also gave FTX an option to buy BlockFi. Monday’s chapter 11 petition lists $275 million owed to FTX as one of the largest creditor claims against BlockFi.

BlockFi was also among the struggling crypto firms that signed deals to be rescued by FTX in the past months. The agreement hasn’t gone as planned as FTX itself sorts through its financial problems and federal and state investigations into its business.

BlockFi also holds assets at FTX.com and it made loans to crypto trading firm Alameda partly secured by FTX’s FTT tokens.

BlockFi owes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission $30 million, according to the firm’s court filings. In February, BlockFi agreed to settle SEC charges that the firm failed to register the offers and sales of its crypto lending products.

In addition to the chapter 11 filing, BlockFi also filed a petition with the Supreme Court of Bermuda for the firm’s international arm, incorporated in the island nation. However, BlockFi anticipates that its client claims will be addressed through the chapter 11 process.

BlockFi is advised by law firms Haynes & Boone LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and Cole Schotz PC, investment bank Moelis & Co. and financial adviser Berkeley Research Group. C Street Advisory Group is BlockFi’s strategic restructuring and communications adviser.

CEO tells employees that the company needs to chase profitability from streaming rather than new subscribers

Walt Disney Co. DIS -2.78% ’s Chief Executive Robert Iger told employees in a companywide town hall meeting that he will give priority to creativity and that he will chase profitability over growing subscriber numbers at Disney’s streaming services.

The town hall is Mr. Iger’s first since he was reinstated to the top job about one week ago after the board of directors ousted Bob Chapek. Mr. Iger, who was Disney’s CEO from 2005 to 2020, was met with applause when he was introduced at the Monday town hall and he responded by saying he thought he might cry.

Mr. Iger is facing a number of challenges in returning to Disney, including employee morale. Creative professionals in the company’s studio and streaming divisions, the so-called cast members that work in the parks and the engineers that develop and build the park attractions have expressed upset at various times over the past year about how Mr. Chapek was running Disney.

Dressed in a navy cardigan, white dress shirt and navy slacks, the 71 year-old Mr. Iger tried to ease the nerves of employees after a stressful week of shake-ups and uncertainty. Greeted with a large ovation by a few hundred executives invited to attend the town hall in person, Mr. Iger stressed the role of creativity in determining much of the company’s strategy going forward.

Mr. Iger said that he was recently listening to the music from the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” specifically the song “What Did I Miss?” sung by the Thomas Jefferson character, which contains the lines, “There is no more status quo, but the sun comes up and the world still spins.”

Mr. Iger was interviewed at the town hall by KABC-TV Los Angeles newscaster Leslie Sykes.

Mr. Iger said he doesn’t have any plans to alter a hiring freeze that Mr. Chapek had put in place earlier this month, and he added that he is taking cost-cutting measures very seriously. Mr. Iger told employees that travel and other expenses would be scrutinized carefully. Mr. Iger didn’t speak about the possibility of layoffs, which Mr. Chapek had also warned about.

Earlier this month, previous CEO Mr. Chapek announced companywide cost-cutting measures and told division leaders that layoffs were likely. The austerity measures included a ban on all but essential work travel and a freeze on new hires for all but a few critical positions.

Mr. Iger’s statements about seeking profitability rather than subscriber growth at its streaming business signal a shift in direction that investors and Wall Street analysts had been calling for. He said he wasn’t entirely up to speed on Disney’s spending and added he would spend where it will add value for the company.

Under Mr. Chapek and as part of his growth plan for the company’s streaming services, Disney increased its content spending dramatically, to around $30 billion this fiscal year alone. At the same time, it charged customers far less for Disney+ than most of its rivals, including Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s HBO Max. This strategy helped attract customers, but led to ever-growing losses for Disney’s streaming division, which ballooned to $1.47 billion in the most recent quarter.

Asked about potential transactions, Mr. Iger said he didn’t see any on the immediate horizon.

“Nothing is forever, but I’m very comfortable with the set of assets that we have. I think they can serve our company,” he said, adding “don’t expect any headlines soon about deals.” He declined to comment on reports of a potential eventual sale of Disney to another company such as Apple Inc. but said, “what you’ve read is pure speculation not rooted in any fact.”

On the issue of employees returning to work as the threat of Covid-19 lessens, Mr. Iger said he wasn’t issuing any proclamations but believed people should be in the office and that leads to better creativity and teamwork.

“There is tremendous value of working in the same place,” Mr. Iger said, stressing that he thinks it enables creativity and is extremely important. He also said he believes there could be a negative impact on people who spend less time at the office. He did say, in an acknowledgment to long commutes, that if your drive is shorter at 4 p.m. than at 6 p.m. then leave at 4 p.m.

“I’m going to spend a lot of time here, and I hope it is not lonely,” he said.