fortune--2020-05-27--Can’t pay rent? The coronavirus stimulus package may be able to help you

The U.S. crosses 100,000 COVID-19 deaths as states reopen more businesses

Times are tough for Americans; the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the U.S. economy and forced tens of millions of people to file for unemployment amid an unprecedented wave of layoffs and furloughs.
In addition to expanding unemployment benefits and doling out “stimulus checks” worth up to $1,200 per person, the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which passed in late March, also offered extensive forbearance provisions for those with government-backed mortgages.
But what about the ever-increasing number of Americans—particularly millennials—who don’t own their homes and instead opt to rent? While the protections offered to renters aren’t nearly as robust, there are provisions, in the CARES Act or otherwise, meant to help those who are struggling to make rent or at risk of eviction.
What are the federal protections offered to renters?
The CARES Act’s strongest protections are for renters who live in federally subsidized or federally backed housing. In most cases, tenants in these “covered dwellings” are safeguarded from eviction for not paying their rent through July 24, 2020 (or 120 days after the passage of the CARES Act). During this time, landlords are also prohibited from charging late fees and penalties for tenants who don’t pay their rent on time.
Of course, this does not mean that tenants are off the hook for paying rent. The protections merely offer a moratorium on eviction and late fees; renters are still obligated to pay what they owe. And they also only apply to eviction on the grounds of “nonpayment of rent and other charges, and not for other causes for an eviction,” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—meaning that you can still be evicted for reasons other than not paying your rent.
Check with your landlord
According to the Urban Institute, the CARES Act’s tenant protections cover roughly 12.3 million units of housing—or more than one-fourth of all rental units in the U.S.
Among those covered are renters who directly receive federal assistance from programs such as the Section 8 housing voucher program or the rural housing voucher program. Also protected are those who live in housing subsidized through federal programs, including public housing and Section 8 project-based housing; Section 202 housing for the elderly; Section 811 housing for people with disabilities; rural development multifamily housing programs; and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
Additionally, if a renter’s home or apartment building holds a federally backed mortgage, then they are also covered under the CARES Act’s eviction protections. That includes mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, as well as those obtained through agencies like the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And if a tenant’s landlord is receiving mortgage relief through the CARES Act—such as a forbearance period on a federally backed mortgage—then that renter is also protected from eviction or late fees for the duration of the relief period, according to the CFPB. Given that many tenants may not realize their landlord is receiving such help, the agency encourages them to speak with their landlord or “do further investigation”—such as reaching out to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to find out whether their building is receiving mortgage relief.
State-level help
Many states have taken matters into their own hands by announcing eviction moratoriums of their own—though these measures vary and are often conditional on a renter being able to prove undue hardship on account of COVID-19.
In New York, for instance, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently extended a statewide moratorium on evictions by an additional 60 days, to Aug. 20. But the added two-month period only applies to those who are “eligible for unemployment insurance or benefits…or otherwise facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Cuomo’s executive order.
Other states have taken a more laissez-faire approach toward eviction moratoriums and other tenant protections. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University is keeping tabs on the policies implemented by states across the country via its COVID-19 Housing Policy Scorecard—with the likes of Texas, Georgia, Missouri, and Louisiana among the lowest-ranked states tracked.
More personal finance coverage from Fortune:
—What to do if you can’t pay your bills this month
—Stimulus checks are depositing: How people are spending the money
—Stuck in the unemployment benefit backlog? What you should know
—What you should know about mortgage forbearance and skipping payments
—Furlough vs. layoff? What to know about your rights and benefits
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEOs
—VIDEO: 401(k) withdrawal penalties waived for anyone hurt by COVID-19
Subscribe to How to Reopen, Fortune’s weekly newsletter on what it takes to reboot business in the midst of a pandemic.


fortune--2020-05-27--Stocks surge for a third day, S&P 500 closes above 3,000

U.S. stocks advanced for a third day on rising optimism the pandemic’s damage to the economy has peaked. Treasuries rose and oil slipped.
The S&P 500 climbed to an 11-week high, holding above 3,000 points and its average price for the past 200 days, technical levels considered key by chart watchers. For a second day, stocks most punished by the effects of the economy shutting, from Carnival Corp. to United Airlines, performed best as investors anticipate a sharp uptick in spending on non-essential goods and services. Stay-at-home beneficiaries from Peloton Interactive to Zoom Video Communications fell.
The Nasdaq indexes turned positive late in the session after Micron Technologies forecast earnings that were ahead of estimates, lifting chipmakers. The Russell 200 jumped more than 3%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 2.2%, led by American Express and Goldman Sachs.
The recent equity rally “is an indication that investors are getting optimistic about the reopening of the economy and the drug-treatment development,” Katerina Simonetti, senior portfolio manager at UBS Private Wealth, said on Bloomberg TV. “We hope that it will eventually lead to a normalization in the market, but we have to keep an eye on the re-emergence of virus cases.”
Rising tensions with China continued occupy part of investors’s minds. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. has certified that Hong Kong is no longer politically autonomous from China, a move that could have far-reaching consequences on its special trading status. On Tuesday, reports indicated the U.S. was considering sanctions over Beijing’s crackdown in the former British colony. Futures on the Hang Seng index fell.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index ended higher and Italy’s government bonds rose after details emerged of Europe’s package of grants and loans for up to 750 billion euros ($823 billion) to overcome the region’s deepest recession in living memory. The euro gained.
Investors are closely watching the new U.S.-China friction — including possible sanctions over Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong — as global stocks trade near levels not seen since early March on hopes that economies are beginning to recuperate after a deep downturn. The Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book” survey due for release later Wednesday may provide clues on the inflection point for the economy and near-term outlook for jobs.
Here are some key events coming up:
Thursday brings the U.S. jobless claims reading for the week ended May 23.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell participates in a virtual discussion on Friday.
Euro-area data due Friday is forecast to show consumer inflation fell to 0.1% on May from 0.4% the previous month.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index rose 1.5% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.6% and the Russell 2000 added 3.1%.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced0.2%.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.2%.
The euro increased 0.2% to $1.0998.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.2% to 107.77 per dollar.
The British pound declined 0.6% to $1.226.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell three basis points to 0.67%.
Germany’s 10-year yield rose one basis poins to -0.42%.
Britain’s 10-year yield decreased two basis points to 0.19%.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 5.7% to $32.40 a barrel.
Gold weakened 1% to $1,711.20 an ounce.
–With assistance from Michael Msika and David Wilson.


fortune--2020-05-27--The CDC says antibody tests shouldn’t be used to make return-to-work decisions

COVID-19 antibody tests will eventually prove key to determining how and when to reopen businesses and allow mass congregations—but we’re still far from that point, says the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in updated guidance about coronavirus antibody testing.
The agency writes that blood tests which detect COVID-19 antibodies, telltale signs that a person has contracted the disease but recovered, “should not be used to make decisions about grouping persons residing in or being admitted to congregate settings, such as schools, dormitories, or correctional facilities” and also “should not be used to make decisions about returning persons to the workplace.”
While numerous firms such as Roche, Abbott Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics, and others are rushing to make these so-called serologic tests, CDC officials note that there’s still far too much information left unknown as well as questions about the accuracy of various tests.
For instance, some COVID-19 antibody tests can provide incorrect results up to half the time through false positives or negatives, according to the CDC. And then there’s the problem of immunity. While antibodies typically indicate a defensive biological response, meaning that a recovered patient has some level of immunity to a pathogen, the novel coronavirus is so new that it’s still unclear how strong that immunity is, how long it lasts, and whether recovered patients are still at risk for reinfection.
That’s a frustrating scientific reality with which businesses and society at large will have to grapple. On Wednesday, lab testing giant Quest Diagnostics announced that it would provide coronavirus testing services to large employers, including antibody tests, to help guide safe strategies for returning employees to work.
But as the CDC guidance highlights, it may well take years—and continuous, long-term follow-up testing of the population—to truly understand which antibody tests are most accurate, and what their results even mean.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
—The Rebuild Program: A project to help small businesses reopen amid a pandemic
—What France’s “patient zero” doctor wants you to know about COVID-19
—McConnell focuses Senate on conservative judge appointments rather than the coronavirus
—Photo essay: What life looks like in Europe as the continent starts to reopen
—Trump’s demand that China pay coronavirus reparations evokes an ugly history
—To reopen safely, the private and public sectors need to ramp up collaboration
—Uber’s food delivery helps cushion the blow of COVID-19 on rides business
—PODCAST: How Marc Benioff is helping out during the coronavirus pandemic
—WATCH: Fortune’s top 10 heroes of the coronavirus pandemic
Subscribe to How to Reopen, Fortune’s weekly newsletter on what it takes to reboot business in the midst of a pandemic.


fortune--2020-05-27--On average, top CEOs make over $12.3 million. Can that continue after the coronavirus?

The typical pay package for CEOs at the biggest U.S. companies topped $12.3 million last year, and the gap between the boss and their workforces widened further, according to AP’s annual survey of executive compensation.
Median pay for CEOs in the survey climbed 4.1% last year. For the typical worker at their companies, it rose 3.2%. It would take two lifetimes for the typical employee at most S&P 500 companies to make what their CEO did, or 169 years, according to data analyzed by Equilar for The AP.
For the first time since the AP’s annual pay survey began in 2011, a woman is at the top of the list: Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices. She had compensation valued at $58.5 million after guiding her company’s stock to the best performance in the S&P 500 for two straight years.
Otherwise, the top of the pay rankings again includes several familiar names from the media and entertainment industries, such as Walt Disney’s Robert Iger and Netflix’s Reed Hastings.
This photo combo shows from left, General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, David M. Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Communications, Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger and Netflix Founder and CEO Reed Hastings. (AP Photo/File)
CEOs such as Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai and Intel’s Robert Swan had packages that were valued even higher than Su’s, but were excluded because the AP’s survey looks only at S&P 500 bosses who have been in the job for at least two years, in part to avoid distortions caused by sign-on bonuses.
Of course, the survey’s results are from before the coronavirus pandemic upended everything. Now, there’s a chance the outbreak will do what rising anger about income inequality has not in recent years: pull executive compensation lower.
Hundreds of CEOs across the country have already said they’ll forgo some or all of their salary. And the turmoil in the stock market and the global economy could make it tougher for CEOs to meet performance targets and threaten the stock awards and bonuses that make up the majority of their pay.
Boards of directors could make changes to compensation plans to help shield CEOs from the damage caused by a recession that no one saw coming. Consultants and investors say such adjustments are already being considered in some boardrooms.
Executive pay was already under greater scrutiny among those ultimately in charge of how much CEOs get paid: investors who own the company’s stock and elect the directors to the board.
“I think there has been a growing sense — not by all, but a growing portion of institutional investors — that CEOs are overpaid,” said Amy Borrus, deputy director of the Council of Institutional Investors. “It’s not so much that they’re overpaid but that it’s out of whack with corporate performance”
She said pay packages are often built on goals set by boards that are difficult for investors to understand and that don’t always incentivize performance.
The AP’s compensation study included pay data for 329 CEOs at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30.
2019 CEO compensation, by industry.
A recent slowdown
CEOs in the AP’s survey had a median compensation valued at $12.3 million last year, which means half made more and half made less. Besides salary and cash bonuses, that includes stock awards and option grants that CEOs will get the full value of only if the company’s stock price rises in the future.
In many cases, big chunks of the compensation were for stock and options that companies granted their CEOs in 2019 for their performance in 2018 and earlier years.
The 4.1% rise in median pay was a slowdown for S&P 500 CEOs, who had seen their pay jump 7.2% the year before and by even more in earlier years. Much of the slowdown was because of a drop in how much cash the CEOs got for hitting various performance targets.
At Eastman Chemical, for example, the value of CEO Mark Costa’s compensation dropped 11% to $14 million last year, according to the survey, in part because he fell short in some performance metrics set by the board of directors.
Eastman’s board said Costa exceeded the goals set for “growth and innovation” in 2019, but he only partially met the targets for how much cash the company generated, as well as for employee safety and other measures. He received $377,000 in what the company calls its “unit performance plan,” down from the $1.5 million he got from the plan a year earlier.
Say on pay
The slowdown in CEO pay across the S&P 500 is partly due to the increased voice investors have gotten on the subject, shareholder advocates say. It’s been nearly a decade since the U.S. government began requiring companies give their investors a “Say on Pay” at annual meetings, allowing them a non-binding up-or-down vote on executive compensation.
Shareholders are giving most companies an overwhelming thumbs up. But the scrutiny has helped curb some of the most egregious practices in recent years, such as companies paying the equivalent of CEOs’ income taxes, said Rosanna Landis Weaver, program manager of executive compensation at As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group.
“We might find out just how well the system works next year,” she said. “I fully expect some companies will keep their targets and metrics the same, and there will be fewer bonuses.”
Because companies have tied more of their CEOs’ compensation to corporate performance — and because many boards set their financial goals early this year, before everyone fully appreciated how badly the COVID-19 outbreak would wreck the global economy — many CEOs are likely to fall short of all the pay they could have been in line for.
The S&P 500 lost as much as a third of its value earlier this year, when worries about the recession were at their peak. Corporate profits, another key measure for CEO pay, are also expected to crater. Across the S&P 500, earnings per share will likely sink 33% this year, strategists at Goldman Sachs say.
The COVID-19 response
The economy’s deep freeze has caused massive layoffs and furloughs, and nearly 39 million U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits in the two months since the outbreak took hold in the country. It’s just one of the ways that companies are preserving cash to survive the sudden recession, along with suspending matches to workers’ 401(k) plans and cutting dividend payouts to shareholders.
To show that they’re sharing in the pain, many top executives have volunteered to give up some or all of their salaries. At Disney, which has furloughed 120,000 of its workers, Iger agreed to forgo all his salary through the end of the fiscal year, except for what he’s contributing to participate in the corporate health benefit plan. He stepped aside as Disney’s CEO earlier this year and became its executive chairman.
Another CEO high atop the rankings, Comcast’s Brian Roberts, pledged to donate all his salary to charities that support COVID-19 relief efforts “for the duration of this situation.”
A CEO’s salary, though, typically makes up less than 10% of total compensation each year. What will hit CEOs’ pocketbooks more is what happens to companies’ share prices, which will affect the value of stock and options they were already granted, as well as the bonuses they would have been in line for.
“The stock market alone has really caused some significant decrease in outstanding value for executives,” said Kelly Malafis, partner at Compensation Advisory Partners.
The economy’s sudden, unexpected downdraft has investors on guard for boards of directors to rejigger CEOs’ performance goals and make them easier to achieve. Boards could also give CEOs bigger grants of stock to make up for the plunges in price earlier this year, as many companies did after the 2008 financial crisis.
”The risk is that if there is a strong rebound in the market, that could lead to windfall profits for executives,” said Borrus of the Council of Institutional Investors, which represents pension funds and other big investors.
Some boards are already discussing whether they should make changes to compensation, consultants say. But most are in a wait-and-see mode given all the uncertainty about where the economy is heading, and given how much scrutiny is sure to be cast on pay packages next year. Besides, the stock market has already recovered more than half its earlier losses.
”You can’t be the organization that has laid off employees, that has cut the 401(k) match and yet your CEO is getting pay increases and bonuses,” said Melissa Burek, partner at Compensation Advisory Partners. “That’s not a good story.”


fortune--2020-05-27--Walmart’s latest move to build more fashion cred: The resale market

Walmart has been trying for years to establish itself as a fashion destination that can offer more than cheap basics—with some success—and now it is looking to ride the resale craze to speed those efforts up.
The retailer said on Wednesday it had begun selling women’s and children’s clothing, accessories, footwear, and handbags from ThredUp, a leading resale site, on Walmart.com, offering an assortment of some 750,000 secondhand items that will be listed on ThredUp’s site as well. To sell on ThredUp, people can send in items that are in good condition. If they are up to standard and then sold, the seller gets a cut of the sale.
In the past few years, Walmart has added as much fashion as it could, moving beyond $3 camis, hoping to compete with Target, whose inexpensive but trendy clothing has been a big draw for shoppers and boosted profit margins, and Amazon, a growing force in fashion.
“This partnership is our latest move to establish Walmart.com as a destination for fashion and offer customers the pre-owned items they might be looking for,” said Denise Incandela, a former Saks Fifth Avenue executive who has led Walmart U.S. e-commerce’s fashion business since 2017.
Walmart’s efforts have included buying brands such as ModCloth, which it quickly resold, menswear label Bonobos, outdoors brand Moosejaw, and women’s plus-size apparel maker Eloquii. Walmart also recently revived Scoop, a fashionable New York City brand. In 2018, Walmart relaunched four store brands and even held an event for them on the margins of New York’s fashion week.
The ThredUp tie-up not only allows Walmart to get in on one of the fastest areas of apparel retail—a 2019 report by research firm GlobalData estimated U.S. sales of secondhand items will more than triple from 2019 levels to $23 billion in 2023—but it also enables Walmart to bolster its assortment of better brands like Coach, which it can only sell indirectly.
An earlier effort to do so by hosting a site on Walmart.com for venerable department store Lord & Taylor met with little success, and now that retailer is reportedly heading toward liquidation.
On top of the higher margins clothing offers retailers, more fashion options attract more of the middle-class shoppers Walmart covets. And Walmart’s online boom has been fueled by online grocery orders, with a pandemic-related surge since March, leading CEO Doug McMillon to say he wants general merchandise sales to do better as he looks to make Walmart’s e-commerce operation profitable.
For ThredUp, teaming up with Walmart is a way to get in front of a much larger audience: According to analytics firm SimilarWeb, Walmart.com had 454 million visits last month, though that was unusually high because of pandemic-related stocking-up shopping that month.
This is ThredUp’s first online partnership with another retailer. It has set up small spaces in department stores J.C. Penney and Macy’s, but those are in-store only and only at a number of stores. And in February, ThredUp started allowing Gap Inc. customers to turn in clothing in exchange for a store credit at Gap and Athleta stores, though not at Old Navy.
While Walmart will take the orders, ThredUp will handle shipping items to customers, who will get free shipping for orders of $35 or more, the same policy Walmart offers on anything bought on its site. Shoppers can also return ThredUp items to Walmart stores, but potential sellers cannot drop off clothes they want to sell on ThredUp at a Walmart store.
The partnership also enables ThredUp to further stand out from the growing resale crowd, with more brick-and-mortar options for either shopping or making returns. Larger rival Poshmark is a marketplace where buyers and sellers interact directly, while the RealReal, also bigger than ThredUp, focuses purely on luxury consignment.


fortune--2020-05-27--How a trip to an English castle united Britain against the country’s lockdown architect

The story sounds like something out of a lesser Shakespeare work.
A deadly disease haunts the land, killing young and old from city to city, village to village. The country folk lock down indoors, and close their businesses, all on ambiguous orders from the government. Restless, and even a bit rebellious, Britons soon learn that the man responsible for the hated lockdown orders is a high-powered, unelected advisor to the ruling party. He’s found out after making an ill-conceived trip to a medieval English castle, a drive that seems to flout his own carefully crafted stay-at-home orders. Cue widespread indignation. A cabinet member resigns. The citizenry want him out. A crisis-inside-a-crisis brews for a country that was already having a bad pandemic.
This is the story of Dominic Cummings, British prime minister Boris Johnson’s chief advisor. You might—or maybe you don’t—remember him as the power broker portrayed by actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the Brexit TV drama that aired in both the U.K. and on HBO in the U.S. last year.
Cummings is the man widely credited with leading the U.K.’s campaign to leave the EU. Enemies refer to him as the “Svengali” or “Rasputin” of Johnson’s government; proponents see him as a “Renaissance man” capable of cutting through the bureaucracy of government. Following his trip to Barnard Castle, hours north of London, he faces a barrage of criticism that threatens to split Johnson’s Conservative Party over his apparent violations of the strict lockdown rules that he himself helped draft at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“There cannot be one rule for most of us and wriggle room for others. My inbox is rammed with very angry constituents and I do not blame them,” tweeted Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, one of at least 40 Conservative MPs who’ve called for Cummings to resign or be fired. “They have made difficult sacrifices over the course of the last 9 weeks.”
“It is a classic case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’—and it is not as if he was unfamiliar with guidance he himself helped draw up,” said another Conservative MP, who called Cummings’ actions “utterly indefensible.”
On Wednesday, Johnson faced Members of Parliament in a virtual House of Commons over his staunch defense of Cummings, who has admitted to breaching lockdown to drive 260 miles from London to his parents’ house in the Northeast of England. Johnson said he understood the nation’s “indignation,” but said it was time everyone moved on.
Cummings said the drive, which was later followed by other short trips in the region, was an emergency trip to get backup childcare for his young son at time when both he and his wife had COVID-19 symptoms.
One junior cabinet minister has already resigned over the debacle, saying he could not tell constituents, who had been unable to visit sick family, that “they were all wrong, and one senior advisor to the government was right.”
The Dominic Cummings scandal is shaping up to be one of the largest—if not the largest—threat to Johnson’s party amid the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the U.K. has faced a barrage of criticism from scientists, healthcare workers, and even Conservative party politicians for months over a basket of controversies around its handling of the outbreak. Those scandals have ranged from insufficient testing efforts and PPE, the usability of a new tracing app, unclear guidance on the easing of the lockdown, and a lack of transparency over the source of scientific advice to the government.
Meanwhile, the U.K. has the highest death toll in the world after the U.S., with more than 37,000 people dead as of Wednesday, according to Public Health England.
From “Vote Leave” to “Stay Home”
The Cummings scandal may seem familiar to Britons. A Scottish medical officer and a senior scientific advisor to the government had already been forced to resign for breaking lockdown restrictions. But when it comes to Cummings, those frustrations are turbo-charged, both due to his role in recent British history and his ability (so far) to get the backing of Johnson where others have been quickly booted. His own response has only added to the fire. On the weekend, Cummings gave a televised address from his back garden, refusing to resign, defending his actions as reasonable, and stating, “I do not regret what I did.”
The scandal has also represented a rare moment of unity for Britain’s politically fractious press. The Guardian says he must go. The conservative-learning Telegraph has labeled the mess “Domnishambles.”
Like Boris Johnson—an Eton and Oxford educated aristocrat who has railed against the establishment—Cummings is a study in contradictions. An Oxford classics graduate who attended an elite private school, he has railed against British education and pushed for science and data to take an ever-larger role in the country’s politics and civil service. He is a long-time political operative with little patience for formalities, the media, or dress codes: “His sartorial standards have deteriorated the closer he has got to the centre of power,” drily notes a Financial Times profile from January. The same profile reports he has consistently claimed he is only passing through the halls of power, while in fact staying for years.
He is most notorious for spearheading the “Vote Leave” campaign, which helped convince the British public to leave the EU—a campaign which weaponized frustration at the country’s small cohort of elites, a largely London-based, privately educated, Oxbridge graduate club with media connections. It was orchestrated by many of those very elites.
The success of that campaign helped launch Cummings’ reputation as a savvy sloganeer-in-chief. He reportedly had a hand in the recent slogans “Get Brexit Done,” which helped the Conservatives win the December 2019 election, and also the recent “Stay Home, Stay Safe, Protect the NHS”, which has been affixed billboards across the country throughout the multi month lockdown. (It was recently replaced with the much-mocked advice to “Stay Alert.”)
The U.K. officially left the EU on January 31, entering an 11-month transition period to agree to an official trade deal with the EU. The fourth round of trade talks will begin on June 1, and despite the pandemic Johnson’s government has repeatedly ruled out requesting an extension period.
“Political points” and public outrage
Cummings was a source of controversy even before this weekend, particularly after it was revealed he was on the government’s scientific advisory panel, known as SAGE, which is supposed to be free from political interference. His influence has collectively produced an impression that the Prime Minister is deeply dependent on him, and that he has power far beyond a typical government advisor.
That impression was only strengthened this week, as junior MPs publicly called for Cummings to resign, and senior ministers tweeted statements of support for Cummings, including Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who tweeted that “Taking care of your wife and young child is justifiable and reasonable, trying to score political points over it isn’t.”
On Tuesday, a daily televised press conference featured a series of tense exchanges as nearly every question directed at Health Secretary Matt Hancock focused on Cummings’ actions, pressing the minister to state whether the advisor had undermined the government’s message to stay home during the lockdown. Among the most controversial of orders are the explicit instruction not to visit second or additional homes, or to travel long distances away from a primary residence, a fine-able offense.
At one point on Tuesday’s public briefing, Hancock took a question from a priest who pushed the minister to confirm that any fines given due to travel for childcare reasons would be revoked. That prompted Hancock to say he would check with the Treasury if this was a possibility, before adding that Cummings’ circumstances were “exceptional.” Shortly after the press conference, the government confirmed that no fees would be waived, The Times reported.
While some conservative MPs dismissed the outcry as a political sideshow, there were clear signs of growing outrage among the public, across party lines. The party’s approval rating has taken a hit, with YouGov reporting that the party’s approval rating had fallen to 44% from 48% in a single week. Another survey by YouGov found that 59% of Britons believe Cummings broke the rules and should resign or be fired. A third poll, by JL Partners, found 80% believe the aide broke lockdown rules.
But the government appears to be anxious to move the public’s attention. On Tuesday, cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said the country had other issues to focus on, and told the BBC it was “time to move on.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, Johnson, a fan of the classics, searched for a term to dismiss the matter out of hand. The scandal, he said, was little more than “political ding dong.”
Ding dong or not, it’s unlikely to blow over any time soon.


fortune--2020-05-27--Instagram throws influencers a lifeline with revenue sharing for IGTV ads

Instagram helped create the $6.5 billion influencer economy—and now the app is taking steps to help it weather the COVID-19 storm.
On Wednesday, Instagram announced new ways for creators to make money on the app. The service plans to debut ads on IGTV, its long-form video function, splitting revenues with creators, and also to launch Instagram Live “badges” that users can buy to support their favorite influencers.
The Facebook-owned company will reportedly share 55% of the revenues from the up-to-15-seconds-long IGTV ads with creators—a move that’s expected to help it better compete with YouTube, which also uses a revenue-sharing model. Instagram plans to start testing the ads next week, launching the program with a small group of influencers.
The platform will also roll out a feature enabling creators to sell badges to their fans on Instagram Live in the U.S. this month, with international markets to follow. Badges, which will appear as icons next to a user’s name during a live video stream, will cost between $0.99 and $4.99.
Instagram’s blog post announcing the changes also notes that it plans to expand its new Live Shopping feature—which lets users tag products in live videos—so that creators can sell their own merchandise.
In a statement, Instagram chief operating officer Justin Osofsky said: “Providing a variety of monetization tools is crucial in order to support all creators on Instagram, from emerging digital stars to established entertainers and everything in between. We’re excited to add these two new revenue streams to the mix of tools for creators to help them generate additional income to fuel their work.”
The expanded options for making money are well timed for influencers, who have been impacted by the sudden cutback in companies’ marketing budgets amid the COVID-19 crisis—not to mention the general uncertainty about how to advertise amid a global pandemic. At the same time, some of the creators who migrated to Instagram Live in the early stages of the lockdown have begun to question the viability of using a platform that doesn’t pay them for their content.
The new revenue streams are also likely to be a boon to Instagram, which has seen use of its video services—and particularly live video—spike during the lockdown. On an April earnings call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 800 million people now tune into live video on Instagram and Facebook daily. And in Wednesday’s blog post, Instagram noted that Live has posted a 70% increase in views from February to March. The company has had few options to turn that blossoming engagement into revenue—until now.
Instagram has become an increasingly important source of revenue growth for Facebook. Last year, the photo platform brought in an estimated $20 billion, or roughly a quarter of the company’s total revenue, and analysts expect that share to continue to grow.


fortune--2020-05-27--Disney World will reopen in July—with significant changes

Walt Disney World in Orlando, one of the world’s largest tourist destinations with more than 90 million visitors annually, is set to reopen in July after the coronavirus pandemic prompted the park’s closure in March.
Disney presented its reopening plan to the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force on Tuesday, gaining approval from local officials. The proposal calls for the park’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom to reopen on July 11; Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot will follow on July 15.
Similar to the approach it took with Shanghai Disneyland’s reopening earlier this month, Disney will limit its Florida resort to a reduced capacity to maintain social distancing. Visitors must have their temperatures checked upon arrival, and face masks will be mandatory for all guests and staff. “High-touch experiences” such as character meet-and-greets, playgrounds, and parades, will remain suspended. Contactless payments and mobile ordering at restaurants will be encouraged.
Disney did not include reopening dates for its two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. The adjacent Disney Springs outdoor shopping complex began a phased reopening on May 20.
Other theme parks in Orlando have set plans for reopening, as well. Legoland Florida plans to welcome back visitors on June 1; Universal Orlando on June 5; and SeaWorld on June 11.


fortune--2020-05-27--Larry Kramer, playwright and AIDS activist, dies at 84

Larry Kramer, the playwright whose angry voice and pen raised theatergoers’ consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to militant protests in the early years of the epidemic, has died at 84.
Bill Goldstein, a writer who was working on a biography of Kramer, confirmed the news to The Associated Press. Kramer’s husband, David Webster, told The New York Times that Kramer died of pneumonia on Wednesday.
Kramer, who wrote “The Normal Heart” and founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, lost his lover to acquired immune deficiency syndrome in 1984 and was himself infected with the virus. He also suffered from hepatitis B and received a liver transplant in 2001 because the virus had caused liver failure.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for “Women in Love,” the 1969 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s novel. It starred Glenda Jackson, who won her first Oscar for her performance.
He also wrote the 1972 screenplay “Lost Horizon,” a novel, “Faggots,” and the plays “Sissies’ Scrapbook,” “The Furniture of Home,” “Just Say No” and “The Destiny of Me,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
But for many years he was best known for his public fight to secure medical treatment, acceptance and civil rights for people with AIDS. He loudly told everyone that the gay community was grappling with a plague.
In 1981, when AIDS had not yet acquired its name and only a few dozen people had been diagnosed with it, Kramer and a group of his friends in New York City founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, one of the first groups in the country to address the epidemic.
He tried to rouse the gay community with speeches and articles such as “1,112 and Counting,” published in gay newspapers in 1983.
“Our continued existence as gay men upon the face of this earth is at stake,” he wrote. “Unless we fight for our lives, we shall die.”
The late journalist Randy Shilts, in his best selling account of the AIDS epidemic “And the Band Played On,” called that article “inarguably one of the most influential works of advocacy journalism of the decade” and credited it with “crystallizing the epidemic into a political movement for the gay community.”
Kramer lived to see gay marriage a reality and joined one such union himself in 2013 but never rested. “I’m married,” he told The AP. “But that’s only part of where we are. AIDS is still decimating us and we still don’t have protection under the law.”
Kramer split with GMHC in 1983 after other board members decided to concentrate on providing support services to people with AIDS. It remains one of the largest AIDS-service groups in the country.
After leaving GMHC, Kramer gave voice to his grief and frustration by writing “The Normal Heart,” in which a furious young writer — not unlike Kramer himself — battles politicians, society, the media and other gay leaders to bring attention to the crisis.
The play premiered at The Public Theater in April 1985. Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara called it an “angry but compelling indictment of a society as well as a subculture for failing to respond adequately to the tragedy.”
A revival in 2011 was almost universally praised by critics and earned the best revival Tony. Two actors from it — Ellen Barkin and John Benjamin Hickey — also won Tonys. Joe Mantello played the main character of Ned Weeks, the alter ego of Kramer.
“I’m very moved that it moved so many people,” he said at the time. Kramer often stood outside the theater passing out fliers asking the world to take action against HIV/AIDS. “Please know that AIDS is a worldwide plague. Please know there is no cure,” it said.
The play was turned into a TV film for HBO in 2014 starring Mark Ruffalo, Jonathan Groff, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons, Alfred Molina, Joe Mantello and Julia Roberts. It won the Emmy for best movie, and Kramer stood onstage in heavy winter clothing as the statuette was presented to director Ryan Murphy.
The 1992 play “The Destiny of Me,” continues the story of the character Weeks from “The Normal Heart.” Weeks, in the hospital for an experimental AIDS treatment, reflects on the past, particularly his relationship with his family. His parents and brother appear to act out what happened in the past, as does the young Ned, who confronts his older self.
In 1987, Kramer founded ACT UP, the militant group that became famous for staging civil disobedience at places like the Food and Drug Administration, the New York Stock Exchange and Burroughs-Wellcome Corp., the maker of the chief anti-AIDS drug, AZT.
ACT UP’s protests helped persuade the FDA to speed the approval of new drugs and Burroughs-Wellcome to lower its price for AZT.
Kramer soon relinquished a leadership role in ACT UP, and as support for AIDS research increased, he later found some common ground with health officials whom ACT UP had bitterly criticized. (At the Emmy Awards, Kramer wore an ACT UP baseball cap.)
“There are many people who feel that ACT UP hurt itself by so many of us going to work inside, with the very system that we were formed to protest against,” Kramer told The New York Times in 1997. “There’s good reason to believe that. On the other hand, when you are given the chance to be heard a little better, it’s hard to turn down.”
In 1997, he clashed with administrators at his alma mater, Yale University, when they turned down his multimillion-dollar offer to endow a professorship in gay studies.
He said such the field could consider gays’ contributions in history, sociology, politics and culture, as well as on aspects of sexual identity. The school said the field was too narrow for a permanent professorship and, besides, there was a hiring freeze.
“I have no question in my mind that they were rejected because of extreme homophobia,” Kramer responded. “There’s no question that Yale is not a friendly place for gay professors or teachers.”
Kramer said he wanted to help gay students feel more comfortable than he did when he was at Yale. In 1953, during his freshman year, he attempted suicide with pills. “I tried to kill myself because, as far as I was concerned, I was the only gay kid on the face of the earth,” he said.
Kramer never softened the urgency of his demands. He found time in 2011 to help the American Foundation for Equal Rights mount their play “8” on Broadway about the legal battle over same-sex marriage in California.
One of his last projects was the massive two-volume “The American People,” which chronicled the history of gay people in America. It took him decades to write.
“I just think it’s so important that we know our history — the history of how badly we’re treated and how hard we have to fight to get what we deserve, which is equality,” he told The AP.
At the 2013 Tonys, he was honored with the Isabelle Stevenson Award, which honors a member of the theater community for philanthropic or civic efforts.
A few months later, Kramer married his longtime partner, architect David Webster, in the intensive care unit of NYU Langone Medical Center, where Kramer has been recovering from surgery for a bowel obstruction. He had set up the wedding plans before his health emergency and wouldn’t let that stop him.
The moment was bittersweet: The legendary gay rights activist finally got to celebrate his union legally but was so sick that he couldn’t sign his name. He had planned to exchange vows on his balcony but was knocked into a stupor two days before the event.
“It certainly wasn’t the wedding present one wanted to share,” he said. Pointing to his head, he added: “I’m just grateful the old thing still works, because evidentially it didn’t for a while.”


fortune--2020-05-27--Pompeo says Hong Kong no longer autonomous from the Chinese government

Secretary of State of Mike Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday that the Trump administration no longer regards Hong Kong as autonomous from the Chinese government.
The notice sets the stage for the U.S. to withdraw preferential trade and financial status that the former British colony has enjoyed since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
“Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997,” Pompeo said in a statement.
Pompeo’s decision was not accompanied by a revocation of any specific privileges but comes amid calls for the U.S. and others to react against Beijing’s move to impose Chinese national security laws over the territory.
“Beijing’s disastrous decision is only the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms and China’s own promises to the Hong Kong people under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-filed international treaty,” Pompeo said. “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground.”
Pompeo’s certification to Congress is required by the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support last year. The law requires the U.S. to impose sanctions against officials held responsible human rights abuses in Hong Kong as well as determine whether the city continues to warrant special status.
Under the terms of the Sino-British declaration, Hong Kong was to have enjoyed significant autonomy from the communist government in Beijing for 50 years starting in 1997. That autonomy was to have included protections for free speech and self-rule under what the Chinese government has termed a “one country, two systems” policy.
Last week, however, after years of mounting protests against encroachments into Hong Kong’s autonomy, the Chinese government’s ceremonial parliament moved to enact a national security law for Hong Kong aimed at forbidding secessionist and subversive activity, as well as foreign interference and terrorism.
Mass protests in 2014, known as the Umbrella Revolution, followed the Chinese government’s decision to allow direct election of the city leader only after it screened candidates. In the end, the plan for direct elections was dropped.
Legislation proposed in Hong Kong last year that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China for trials set off months of demonstrations that at times involved clashes between protesters and police. The legislation was withdrawn.
Earlier Wednesday, thousands of protesters shouted pro-democracy slogans and insults at police in Hong Kong as lawmakers debated a bill criminalizing abuse of the Chinese national anthem in the city. The bill would make it illegal to insult or abuse the Chinese national anthem, “March of the Volunteers” in semi-autonomous Hong Kong.


fortune--2020-05-27--The tweet that broke the bird’s back

The tweet that broke the bird’s back

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
It’s finally happened—the tweet that broke the bird’s back. For the first time ever, Twitter has slapped a fact-checking label on posts by the President of the United States.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump claimed via his favorite microblogging microphone that mail-in ballots for voting “will be…substantially fraudulent.” Underneath the tweets, Twitter placed an exclamation mark and a link to more information: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” the note read, redirecting people to coverage debunking the unsubstantiated claims.
After Twitter took action, Trump repeated his claims in a follow-up post. He added that Twitter “is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election.” And he continued this morning, writing, “Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!”
A Twitter spokesperson, Katie Rosborough, said in a statement that the company applied the fact-checking label because the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes.” She said the posts “have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”
Trump has long come under fire for his itchy Twitter fingers. Just this week, he promoted a conspiracy theory involving MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. A month ago he suggested bleach as a possible cure for the coronavirus. And earlier this year, he threatened his impeachment manager, Rep. Adam Schiff, in a tweet, saying the congressman “has not paid the price, yet” for his role in the proceedings.
Facing allegations of bias and the specter of regulatory action, social networks have been reluctant to reproach politicians. But the march of misinformation—and its exacerbation of civil discord—represent greater threats, not only to the Silicon Valley firms, but to society at large. It was only a matter of time before their hands were forced.
We are six months away from the next presidential election. Expect the showdown to continue.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
Email: robert.hackett@fortune.com
THREATS
Open for business. Starting on July 6, Google plans to begin phasing workers who want to return back into its offices. The search giant aims to permit its offices to operate at about 10% capacity, increasing that to about 30% capacity by September. Apple, meanwhile, plans to open 100 more U.S. retail stores this week, as well as locations in Japan and Sweden.
One small step for Musk. Rocket-builder SpaceX is set today to ferry two NASA astronauts from a launchpad in the U.S. to the International Space Station. Weather permitting, it will be the first time a corporation has flown commercially developed spacecraft loaded with humans to the satellite. Meanwhile, Tesla, the other business headed by billionaire Elon Musk, is slashing the prices of its electric vehicles by up to $5,000.
Je-Zoox take the wheel. Amazon is in "advanced talks" to buy Zoox, a struggling self-driving car startup, the Wall Street Journal reports. The potential deal will value Zoox at less than its last private valuation of $3.2 billion, sources told the Journal. The possible acquisition could bolster Amazon's prospects for a delivery business to rival UPS and FedEx. Signaling growing interest in transportation tech, Amazon invested in Aurora, an autonomous vehicle startup, and Rivian, an electric carmaker, in recent years.
Cha-ching in Beijing. ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the viral video app TikTok, brought in more than $3 billion in profit on more than $17 billion of revenue last year, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the finances. That means revenues at the world's most valuable startup more than doubled what they were in 2018. Also in Beijing, WeChat-maker Tencent plans to take on rivals Alibaba and Baidu by investing $70 billion in cloud computing and A.I. tech over the next five years.
Check twice, cut once.
ACCESS GRANTED
For all its talk about "bringing the world closer together," Facebook is often criticized for driving a wedge into civil society. There's truth to that belief; the company sanctioned research into its products' possible ill effects a couple years ago, and it found troubling indications that their usage caused polarization. When push came to shove, however, Facebook executives tended to opt for a light touch approach, prioritizing engagement over what might be termed social good, as the Wall Street Journal reports.
A Facebook Inc. team had a blunt message for senior executives. The company’s algorithms weren’t bringing people together. They were driving people apart. “Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” read a slide from a 2018 presentation. “If left unchecked,” it warned, Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.” That presentation went to the heart of a question dogging Facebook almost since its founding: Does its platform aggravate polarization and tribal behavior? The answer it found, in some cases, was yes.
FORTUNE RECON
Dear Kevin Mayer: Here is what parents want you to change at TikTok by Michal Lev-Ram
Coronavirus apps’ fatal flaw: Almost everyone has to use them or they won’t work by Jeremy Kahn
What crisis? Nasdaq nears all time highs, defying toll of economic shutdown by Anne Sraders
Facebook rebrands cryptocurrency wallet ‘Calibra’ to ‘Novi’ by Jeff John Roberts
Self-driving car companies hit the pandemic speed bump by Jonathan Vanian
The U.K. may soon change its mind about Huawei, delighting hawks like Trump by David Meyer
ONE MORE THING
Looking to boost your security? Ars Technica pored over the pros and cons of five popular apps dedicated to two-factor authentication, or "2FA," basically apps that supply a second password to protect people's digital accounts. Dan Goodin, the reviewer, determined that the best choice for consumers is Authy, followed closely by Cisco's Duo, thanks in part to their adept handling of backups. Ranking lower were Microsoft's, Google's, LastPass's authenticator apps for having worse security, in Goodin's estimation.


fortune--2020-05-27--Gabrielle Union on diversity in Hollywood: ‘There are so many blind spots’

The American actress Gabrielle Union graces the cover of Variety magazine this morning with a new interview that sheds light on her unceremonious departure from the hit television series America’s Got Talent as well as the inner workings of NBCUniversal, which has grappled with workplace criticisms ranging from sexual abuse and harassment to inclusion and diversity.
“I had a professor [at UCLA] who told me that racism is an issue for people who have to experience it every day. If you don’t have to experience it every day, it’s a nonissue. And that was never more true than in this case,” Union tells Variety’s Matt Donnelly, citing the mixed reception of her feedback on the AGT filming environment. “When you talk about diversity, there is very little diversity behind the scenes to match all of the diversity that is in the audience on-site, at home watching, and the contestants. There are so many blind spots.”
America’s Got Talent, also known as AGT, is produced by FremantleMedia and Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and has aired for 15 seasons on NBC. Union (Bring It On, 10 Things I Hate About You, Top Five, The Birth of a Nation) became a guest judge on the program in summer 2018 and lasted one season before she and fellow judge Julianne Hough (Dancing With the Stars) were given the boot. In the wake of their departure, news reports—citing several incidents of racism—suggested that the show fostered a toxic work environment.
Fremantle, Syco, and NBC engaged an outside investigator to review the issues raised by Union. “While the investigation has demonstrated an overall culture of diversity,” the companies said in a statement, “it has also highlighted some areas in which reporting processes could be improved.” For their part, AGT’s producers said their ongoing investigation has so far determined that “no one associated with the show made any insensitive or derogatory remarks about Ms. Union’s appearance, and that neither race nor gender was a contributing factor in the advancement or elimination of contestants at any time.”
In the new Variety article, Union—speaking for the first time since her departure—recalls how the production team responded to her complaints of on-air racism, specifically a joke allegedly told by comedian Jay Leno that perpetuated the stereotype of Asian people eating dog meat.
They were more focused on fixing the result of the problem than the problem itself, she says: “You cannot edit out what we just experienced. There is not an edit button in my brain or in my soul. To experience this kind of racism at my job and there be nothing done about it, no discipline, no companywide email, no reminder of what is appropriate in the workplace?”
Since AGT, Union is staying busy running her production company, I’ll Have Another, alongside development head Holly Shakoor Fleischer. According to Variety, she’s got irons in the fire at Universal, Netflix, Sony, Quibi, and HBO Max, the cable-TV pioneer’s new streaming platform.


fortune--2020-05-27--Business critic Anand Giridharadas has a message for newly graduating MBAs

Author and business critic Anand Giridharadas has a simple message for this year’s business school graduates: Forget everything you just learned.
Giridharadas, a former McKinsey consultant, recorded a commencement speech of sorts for all newly minted MBAs, urging them to dump pro-market philosophies and “put people above profits.” It’s the same theme he outlined in his 2018 bestselling book, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, but now with a COVID-19 twist.
“Thanks to these business school doctrines, we ended up not only with limited personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses in the worst crisis since World War II, but also without the capacity to make that stuff quickly once we became aware of the shortage,” says Giridharadas in the just-released address, airing tonight on VICE.
An Ohio native who graduated from the University of Michigan and studied at Harvard before joining McKinsey, Giridharadas is now an editor-at-large for Time and a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Strategies taught in business school like maximizing shareholder value, forming just-in-time supply chains, and outsourcing low-end work have led to massive income inequality and an inability to handle crises like the coronavirus pandemic, he argues.
“You will need to desert the tools responsible for our plight,” he urges business school grads. “You will need to forget the frameworks that have been drilled into you at business school in the hope that you would sustain for another generation the habit of running corporations in ways that run people and communities and the planet into the ground.”
Watch the full address in the video above.
(Correction, May 27, 2020: An earlier version of this story misstated where Giridharadas graduated from. He graduated from the University of Michigan and later studied at Harvard.)


fortune--2020-05-27--Jimmy Fallon apologizes for using blackface in 20-year-old ‘SNL’ skit

NBC “Tonight” show host Jimmy Fallon has apologized for doing an impersonation of fellow comic Chris Rock while in blackface during a 2000 episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
Fallon tweeted on Tuesday that “there is no excuse for this.”
Discussion of Fallon’s 20-year-old skit surfaced this week after a video of it was posted online. According to Variety, it was first posted on Twitter by a user named “chefboyohdear,” and showed Fallon, as Rock, appearing on a talk show.
Fallon tweeted that it was a terrible decision to impersonate Rock, also a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member.
“I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable,” the late-night star wrote.
The Twitter user who posted the clip mentioned Megyn Kelly, who was taken off the “Today” show and eventually left NBC News after suggesting in 2018 that it was OK for children to wear blackface in Halloween costumes. She apologized for her remark.
The history of minstrel shows and movies where white performers donned blackface to mock blacks has made its use considered offensive today.
Another late-night comic, Jimmy Kimmel, wore blackface to impersonate basketball star Karl Malone while on Comedy Central’s “The Man Show” 20 years ago. Sarah Silverman used blackface for a sketch on her Comedy Central show in 2007, a decision she later said she was “horrified” by.


fortune--2020-05-27--Why TJX is reemerging stronger from the lockdowns than Ross Stores

For TJX, home is not only where the heart is, but it’s also where the sales and its competitive edge lie.
The owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods is seeing business rebound after weeks of store closings in the U.S. more quickly than its rival Ross Stores is in large part because of TJX’s advantage in one key category: home furnishings.
The CEOs of the two leaders in off-price retail, which has won legions of devoted customers in the past decade by selling designer brands at low prices, struck different notes in describing business since they’ve started reopening stores. As of last Thursday, Ross has reopened 700 stores and TJX has reopened 1,100, with both planning to be fully operational by late June.
TJX CEO Ernie Herrman last week noted to Wall Street analysts “the very strong sales we have seen in stores where we have reopened so far” and that “sales overall have been above last year.”
Meanwhile Ross Stores chief Barbara Rentler said, “There’ll be a negative impact on consumer demand throughout the remainder of the year” and noted, “We don’t know how quickly the consumer will return to our stores.”
Both companies have taken a big beating from their stores being closed for weeks. In the first quarter, sales fell by just over half at both Ross’s and TJX’s U.S. stores. Both Ross, which had its first quarterly loss in 30 years, and TJX expect pressure on profit to continue from having to increase staffing at cash registers to move people through the stores faster, needing to limit the number of shoppers in stores at one time, and spending more on cleaning supplies.
But TJX looks poised to recover more quickly than Ross for a number of reasons. Its biggest advantage over its smaller rival is that it gets a much bigger percentage of sales from home furnishings: 33%, compared with 25% at Ross. Its HomeGoods chain is booming: It took in $6.4 billion in sales and is growing more quickly than its sister chains. Herrman said, “In our early results, we are seeing very strong demand at HomeGoods and in our home categories across all of our banners.”
Home furnishings are less subject to the whims of fashion and therefore have a longer shelf life and don’t need to be cleared at the end of a season as much as apparel does. They can also simply be boxed up and sold next year if they are a bit seasonal. What’s more, TJX tends to have more desirable, higher-end brands than Ross.
“In contrast, Ross has a reasonable assortment with a more limited selection of brands,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. He added that Ross’s recovery is likely to be “shallower and more protracted than that of its bigger off-price rival.”
That makes Ross more dependent on apparel, where sales fell even at chains that were open throughout the lockdowns like Walmart and Target. And Ross carries far more ordinary clothing brands than T.J. Maxx, which sells names like Michael Kors and Under Armour, meaning it will compete more directly with lower-tier retailers trying to unload a ton of inventory. Ross took a $313 million noncash charge on inventory it expects to sell at a loss—most of it apparel.
Both Ross and TJX are being careful about buying right now, waiting to see how consumer spending recovers, but also how effective brands are at packing up seasonal merchandise they couldn’t sell this year and trying to sell it next spring, rather than clear it through off-price stores—which could dampen the “treasure hunt” aspect of shopping at those stores that is so central to their business model.
Still, both companies have a strong enough business model and finances to emerge stronger from all this, albeit at different speeds. After all, Cowen expects Ross Stores to rebound 20% next fiscal year.
As detailed in a Fortune article last month, shoppers’ appetite for good brands at a discount will likely get stronger from this crisis, department store rivals will get weaker, and brands will get more desperate to sell at growing retailers like TJX’s chains and Ross.
Rentler said Ross would be cautious when it comes to buying, but she still sees an opportunity to win some new, better brands for the company. And TJX sees its hold on top labels also strengthening.
“We will probably be even more important to the vendors,” Herrman said.


fortune--2020-05-27--Autonomous vehicles make sense in the coronavirus. But they’re hurting

Autonomous vehicles, in theory, make more sense than ever in a socially distanced world.
Forget the anxious all-caps message urging the delivery driver to leave the food on the steps—wouldn’t it feel infinitely better to see an utterly humanless Waymo car glistening in the sunlight on your block, shooting a drone toward the front door with the Chinese takeout?
It’s just that the technology isn’t there yet, despite early predictions. It will likely take years and billions of dollars more to get there, and the coronavirus has only delayed AV tests, which require a not-so-socially-distant two people inside a car.
In the middle of the pandemic, Waymo bulwarked cash by raising an additional $750 million earlier this month.
And Zoox, a driverless, ride-hailing startup that was valued at $3.2 billion in 2018, is now reportedly in talks to be acquired by Amazon, per the Wall Street Journal. Zoox has struggled to raise funding as the industry has consolidated. GM, for example, acquired Cruise in 2016 in a deal valued at over $1 billion. The potential deal between Zoox and Amazon is expected to value the former at a lower point than its last round.
Some Lizzo and Ed Sheeran action: Warner Music Group, the New York-based record label that manages the likes of Ed Sheeran, Lizzo, and Cardi B, is forging ahead with its initial public offering as the pandemic lifts its streaming business.
Planning to list on the Nasdaq, Warner said Tuesday that it expects to raise as much as $1.8 billion by offering 70 million shares priced between $23 to $26 apiece, a deal that could value the company at about $13.3 billion.
The coronavirus swept across the entertainment industry, closing live events and pressuring ad revenues, and Warner was no exception. Revenues across the company fell 10% to $295 million in April compared to a year earlier. But its focus on digital over the years has become a boon in an economy that has moved largely onto the internet: Warner’s largest and fastest growing source of revenue, recorded music streaming, rose 12% to $183 million.
Streaming at large has been a saving grace for the music industry—a sentiment that investors have caught onto if Spotify’s $36 billion valuation is anything to go by. When Warner’s owner, Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, first acquired the company in 2011, the sector as a whole was reaching its bottom as piracy ran rampant. Streaming has since reversed the industry’s fortunes, consistently pushing up revenues across the board since 2014.
But as algorithms run the world and impact consumer tastes in everything from shoes to our preferred presidential candidates, they’re also reshaping the music industry’s focuses. Warner notes that it is emphasizing “genres that over-index on streaming platforms (e.g.., hip-hop and pop)” to help boost its digital revenue growth. Sorry artists in rock and roll—today’s not your day.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- SpaceX, the spaceflight company, has raised $346 million of a targeted $350 million in funding, per an SEC filing. Read more.
- AbCellera, a Vancouver-based maker of an antibody discovery engine, raised $105 million in Series B funding. OrbiMed and current investor DCVC Bio led the round, and were joined by investors including Viking Global Investors, Peter Thiel, Founders Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, University of Minnesota, and Presight Capital.
- Bianlifeng, a Chinese cashierless checkout company, raised $100 million in funding, per DealStreetAsia. Read more.
- Aircall, a Paris-based cloud-based voice platform, raised $65 million in Series C funding. DTCP led, and was joined by new investors Swisscom Ventures and Adams Street, as well as all existing investors including eFounders, Draper Esprit, Balderton Capital, and NextWorld.
- SmartRent, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based provider of a smart home automation for property owners, raised $60 million in Series C funding. Spark Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Fifth Wall, Energy Impact Partners, the Amazon Alexa Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, and RET Ventures.
- DefinedCrowd, a Seattle-based data provider for artificial intelligence, raised $50.5 million in Series B funding. Investors include Semapa Next and Hermes GPE, and existing investors Evolution Equity Partners, Kibo Ventures, Portugal Ventures, Bynd Venture Capital, EDP Ventures and IronFire Ventures.
- Bluecore, a marketing technology firm, raised $50 million in Series D funding. Georgian Partners led the round and was joined by investors including FirstMark and Norwest. Read more.
- Higi, a Chicago-based consumer health engagement company, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Babylon led the round.
- ViaCyte, Inc., a San Diego, Calif.-based regenerative medicine company, raised $27 million in Series D funding. Investors include Bain Capital Life Sciences, TPG Capital, RA Capital Management, and Sanderling Ventures.
- Kentik, a San Francisco-based provider of a network intelligence platform, raised $23.5 million in growth funding. Vistara Capital Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including August Capital, Third Point Ventures, DCVC, and Tahoma Ventures.
- By Miles, a by the mile insurtech company, raised £15 million in Series B funding. CommerzVentures led the round and was joined by investors including Octopus Ventures, Insurtech Gateway and JamJar Investments.
- Fernish, a Los Angeles-based furniture rental firm, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Techstars Investments.
- Baton, a New York-based company focused on automating and managing software implementation, raised $10 million in funding. Investors include Activant Capital, and Global Founders Capital, and Hybris founder Carsten Thoma.
- Greeneye Technology, a Tel Aviv-based crop protection company, raised $7 million in seed funding. Jerusalem Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Syngenta Ventures, 2B Angels, One Way venture, Panache Ventures Techstars, and Hyperplane Venture Capital.
- Cariloop, a Dallas-based provider of care coaching services, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Patterson Thoma Family Office led the round and was joined by investors including Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, ACAP Health, KCRise Fund, MPK Equity Partners and Patrick McGee.
- Datch, a Los Angeles-based voice assistant for industrial markets including power and EV manufacturing, raised $3.2 million in seed funding. Blue Bear Capital led the round, and was joined by Stage Venture Partners, Tuhua Ventures, Lorimer Ventures, Predictive Venture Partners, and Plug and Play Ventures.
- Spectrm, an AI marketing platform, raised $3 million in Series A funding from Runa Capital. Read more.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- KKR has acquired a majority stake in Etche France, a private real estate company.
- Apax Partners led a $550 million investment in Kar Global, a Carmel, In.-based vehicle remarketing and technology solution services provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- NordStar Capital will acquire TorStar Corp. (TSX: TS.B), a news publisher. NordStar will pay $0.63 in cash per share, representing a 66.67% premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average trading price or about $52 million.
OTHERS
- Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) plans to acquire Themis Bioscience, an Austrian vaccine maker working on Covid-19.
- Carlsberg, a Danish brewer, and Marston’s, a British pubs and cask ale firm, announced a joint venture valued at £780 million ($956 million).
- Volkswagen AG is in final talks to invest in two Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firms, per Reuters. It is in talks to acquire 50% of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Holding for at least 3.5 billion yuan ($491 million) and plans to invest in Guoxuan High-tech Co Ltd. Read more.
BANKRUPTCIES AND BREAKUPS
- German property groups LEG Immobilien and TAG Immobilien terminated their merger discussions. Read more.
- Texas Capital Bancshares and Independent Bank Group, two Texas-based lenders, called off their $5.5 billion merger. Read more.
IPOS
- Vaxcyte, a Foster City, Calif.-based biotech developing pneumococcal vaccines, filed to raise up to $100 million. Abingworth Bioventures, Longitude Venture Partners, and Roche Finance are among the investors. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “PCVX.” Read more.
- Avidity Biosciences, a La Jolla, Calif.-based biotech developing antibody therapies for muscle disorders, filed for an $100 million IPO. RTW Investments (14.5% pre-offering), Cormorant Asset Management, and Eli Lilly and Company (10.4%) back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “RNA.” Read more.
- Generation Bio, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech developing gene therapies for rare diseases, filed for an $125 million IPO. Atlas Venture Fund (37% pre-offering), Fidelity Investment (15%) and T. Rowe Price (8.9%) back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “GBIO.” Read more.
- Pliant Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based Phase 2 biotech developing therapies for the treatment of fibrosis, plans to raise $90 million in an offering 6 million shares priced at between $14 to $16. It posted revenue of $57.1 million in 2019 and loss of $631 million in 2019. Third Rock Ventures (32.3% pre-offering), Eventide Asset Management (9.3%), and Redmile Biopharma (7.8%) back the firm.. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “PLRX.” Read more.
EXITS
- Nordic Capital agreed to acquire Max Matthiessen, a Stockholm-based financial advisor, from Willis Towers Watson. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- iA Financial Group (TSX:IAG) acquired Innovative Aftermarket Systems (IAS), an Austin-based underwriter of vehicle protection products, From Genstar Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- AddSecure agreed to acquire Connexas Group, a vehicle fleet management solution, from Horizon Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
F+FS
- Aquiline Capital Partners closed its fourth private equity fund with over $2 billion in commitments.
- Thoma Bravo is seeking $16.5 billion for its 14th flagship fund. Read more.
PEOPLE
- TPG Capital appointed Karthic Jayaraman as a Partner in London. Jayaraman will co-lead the healthcare practice.
- Four Carlyle dealmakers responsible for the Sub-Saharan African fund are leaving to start their own fund. Genevieve Sangudi, Eric Kump, Idris Mohammed and Bruce Steen are creating a new fund called Alterra Capital.


fortune--2020-05-27--Inside HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s multibillion-dollar bet on its streaming future

Beginning Wednesday, when some HBO Now users try to open the streaming app on their devices, they will no longer see the platform’s standard black-and-white icon. The familiar HBO logo will be there, but glowing against a distinct purple backdrop—now reading “HBO Max.”
The app update is expected to cause confusion among some of HBO Now’s roughly 8 million subscribers—at least that’s what a handful of published explainers, including from HBO itself, seem to predict, posing the question: “What’s the difference between HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO Max?” (In brief: Go is a streaming service that comes with a conventional HBO television subscription; Now is a stand-alone online service featuring HBO content; Max is a stand-alone online service featuring WarnerMedia content—including HBO.)
A lot is riding on HBO Max. No mere update to HBO’s existing offerings, HBO Max is an entirely new streaming service that also functions as WarnerMedia’s (and parent company AT&T’s) counterattack in the streaming wars. HBO Max comes armed with 10,000 hours of content, including 1,300 feature films, hailing from a wide-ranging collection of the media conglomerate’s properties and licenses. Included in its library: the Harry Potter franchise, Friends, Batman, Rick and Morty, Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, The Big Bang Theory, Sesame Street, and The Bachelor, to name a few. HBO’s full catalog will be available on HBO Max in addition to originals streaming exclusively on the platform; the Anna Kendrick–starring romantic comedy series Love Life headlines the service’s launch.
Such a substantial collection was made possible by AT&T’s nearly two-year long acquisition of Time Warner, dragged on by an antitrust challenge from the U.S. Justice Department. The $85.4 billion deal, finally completed in mid-2018, saw AT&T gain control of major Hollywood studio Warner Bros., DC Entertainment, TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network, HBO, Cinemax, and half of The CW (split evenly with ViacomCBS). The new entertainment company, rebranded under AT&T as WarnerMedia, set out to tear down departmental barriers under the direction of then–WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey (who will succeed Randall Stephenson as chief executive of AT&T in July). With AT&T’s linear TV business in decline, Stankey pushed the prestigious, adult-oriented HBO to broaden its audience and produce more content.
Combined with the rest of WarnerMedia’s legacy properties, HBO Max is an effort to transition AT&T into the streaming age while competing with the likes of Netflix, Disney, Amazon, and Comcast’s NBCUniversal. AT&T plans to direct its existing base of phone, broadband, and pay-TV customers to the service to close the gap. The company is prepared to invest $4 billion over the next three years, a mix of original production costs and lost revenues from content that could’ve been licensed elsewhere.
HBO Max is one of the last major streaming services to enter the market, and it does so in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The resulting halt in film and television production led to the delay of a highly anticipated Friends reunion special, which was slated to accompany the platform’s launch. HBO Max is also priced at $14.99 a month, the most expensive of the existing streaming services—surpassing Netflix’s starting price of $11.99 and Disney+’s $6.99 price tag—at a time when Americans are grappling with mounting job losses and pinched pockets amid a global economic downturn.
There has been a silver lining to the pandemic for streaming services, however. As Americans stayed at home abiding lockdown and social distancing measures, consumers increasingly turned to the TV and movie platforms to stay entertained. A Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll in October found that 29% of U.S. adults watched streaming services daily; another Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll taken on May 11 saw that figure leap to 45%. In April, Netflix disclosed that it had added nearly 16 million subscribers in the first quarter of this year—more than double the estimate of Wall Street analysts—reflecting the pandemic’s impact on streaming growth.
Others, however, have been less fortunate. In an interview earlier this month, Quibi founder and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg pegged the mobile streaming app’s slow start on launching during the pandemic. “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything,” he told the New York Times.
With HBO Max, WarnerMedia executives will be watching closely to see if the pandemic’s boost to streaming services outweighs the overall negative effects of a sluggish economy. “There certainly is a plus in terms of the receptivity and people’s interest and desire for these kinds of services,” said Andy Forssell, WarnerMedia’s executive vice president of direct-to-consumer and general manager of HBO Max. “We’re seeing people who always wanted to watch The Sopranos, and now it’s time.”
Besides the Friends reunion, the pandemic hasn’t had a significant impact on HBO Max’s original releases, Forssell said. The production schedule for 2021 remains an open question, but until then the service will be supplemented with releases later this summer, including its first original film, An American Pickle, starring Seth Rogen. The platform will also premiere a second season of DC Comics web series Doom Patrol, a third season of the TBS cult comedy Search Party, and a docuseries on comedian and actress Amy Schumer. HBO Max is also leaning into kids-oriented content, including a new Looney Tunes Cartoons series from Warner Bros. Animation and Sesame Workshop’s The Not Too Late Show hosted by Elmo.
The effects of the pandemic were felt in other ways. Stay-at-home measures issued in March forced HBO Max’s technology team to finish building the infrastructure for the platform from remote locations. A flood in a facility in Seattle where HBO Max was being tested led to a power outage that further complicated the situation. “It was one of those things where you’re like, ‘You got to be kidding me,’” said Jeremy Legg, WarnerMedia’s chief technology officer.
WarnerMedia executives briefly debated delaying HBO Max’s May 27 launch as engineers and coders scrambled to finish testing the platform, Legg said. Ultimately, the decision was made to proceed as it became clear that remote work would not have a significant impact on productivity ahead of the service’s launch.
HBO Max runs on the same underlying tech platform as HBO Go and HBO Now. The services’ ability to handle high-volume traffic during episodes of Game of Thrones’ final season was a convincing factor in the decision to build upon existing technology rather than design from scratch, Legg said. User interface design features include movie and TV titles represented as various shapes to “create a kind of taxonomy,” said Sarah Lyons, senior vice president of product experience for WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer division. Squares represent titles consumers are in the midst of watching or have flagged for later; landscape rectangles indicate individual episodes of a TV series; circles represent content curated by HBO Max’s human editorial team.
One of the biggest challenges of HBO Max’s platform will be to appeal to traditional mature-minded HBO subscribers along with younger and more family-oriented audiences—a conflict of interest that drew criticism internally as well as concern from outside observers. “The conundrum we tried to tackle was, how do you double the catalog of adult content for all these additional brands that target different types of users like Gen Z and millennials’ families?” Lyons said. Individual profiles and parent control search features have been added to help various age groups filter through specific content, she added.
As of press time, HBO Max arrives without streaming compatibility on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Comcast, and Dish TV. The company expects to push them through. “We still do have discussions going on, and as a very smart business-affairs person internally here said last fall, these deals get done when they have to get done,” Forssell said.
As for the trio offering of HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO Max, Forssell did not rule out the eventual elimination of Go in the future “at some point in concert with our distribution partners.”
“Consumers should absolutely demand simplicity from us,” he said. “They should absolutely hold us accountable to be as simple as possible.”


fortune--2020-05-27--‘On the Record’ is a reminder that the #MeToo movement is here to stay

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Hertz paid out millions in executive bonuses after laying off workers, the white woman who called the police on a black man in Central Park loses her job, and the documentary once produced by Oprah premieres today. Enjoy your Wednesday
– On the Record, on the TV. Even before the pandemic became the only thing we could talk about, the #MeToo movement was losing some of its grip on global headlines.
On the Record, a documentary premiering today on the new streaming service HBO Max, is a reminder that while women’s experiences of harassment and assault may become less prominent in the public consciousness, they certainly do not disappear.
The film tells the stories of Drew Dixon, Sil Lai Abrams, and Sheri Sher, three women who accused music mogul Russell Simmons of sexual assault. (Simmons has denied the allegations.)
The doc got some attention earlier this year when news broke that Oprah Winfrey was cutting ties with the project (and taking its Apple TV distribution deal with her) over creative differences with the filmmakers. It’s hard to compete with Oprah on the publicity front—or anything really!—so it’s great to see the film land on a splashy distribution platform and to have the opportunity to be received on its own terms.
Our colleague Radhika Marya spoke to Dixon, Abrams, and Sher about what it feels like to finally see their stories make it to the small screen.
“It’s a relief that it’s finally going to find an audience,” Dixon told her. “I hope other survivors whose abusers aren’t famous, who may be in industries that have nothing to do with entertainment…hopefully will see their own story and experience affirmed in some way by some of the things that we have gone through.”
The trio also spoke to Radhika about the complexities of being black women, speaking out against a powerful black man.
“As a feminist, I don’t subscribe to the idea that I need to protect those who harm us. I believe they need to be called out,” Abrams said. “On the flip side, I’m fiercely protective of my people and cognizant of the way in which we are perceived, and not wanting to…add to that by coming forward. But at the same time, I’m very resolute that this is just.”
None of the three seems to have much faith the #MeToo movement has yet transformed the entertainment world into a safe place for women, but the spirit that first moved them to speak out—and kept them resolute during the years it took for their stories to make it to screen—seems as strong as ever. As Sher told Radhika: “I think this film is going to bring awareness and light.”
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- A tale of two Coopers. A white woman named Amy Cooper was recorded on video in New York's Central Park this weekend calling 911 and telling police that an "African-American man" threatened her life after the man, writer and editor Christian Cooper, asked her to put her dog on a leash in the park's woodland area known as a haven for bird-watching. Amy Cooper's employer was Franklin Templeton, the investment manager led by Jennifer Johnson. The company fired Cooper from her position as head of insurance investment solutions on Tuesday, saying that it does not "tolerate racism of any kind." Read our colleague Ellen McGirt's piece on the incident from Broadsheet sister newsletter raceAhead: Fortune
- Shifting gears. Hertz, the Fortune 500 car rental company that until last week was led by CEO Kathryn Marinello, paid out $16 million in bonuses to 340 executives before it filed for bankruptcy this month, including $700,000 to Marinello's replacement as chief executive. The company paid the bonuses a month after it laid off 10,000 employees. Fortune
- Trading pause. The Justice Department closed its investigation into Sens. Kelly Loeffler and Dianne Feinstein over stock trades that seemed to be related to coronavirus briefings; the investigation into Sen. Richard Burr continues. A spokesperson for Loeffler says that the decision "affirms what Senator Loeffler has said all along—she did nothing wrong." Wall Street Journal
- The main event. Big tech—like Eventbrite, led by CEO Julia Hartz—has become an unlikely ally of small business as the businesses that allow platforms to thrive are threatened by the coronavirus downturn. Hartz and lobbyist Heather Podesta have worked their connections on behalf of the event venues and retailers that are so critical to Eventbrite's success. Protocol
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Pearson has promoted Alexa Christon chief marketing officer. Grammarly hired Shopkick CMO Kristy Stromberg as VP of marketing. EY promoted Asia-Pacific accounts leader Alice Chan to global accounts committee chair; she succeeds Alison Kay, who is now U.K. & Ireland managing partner, client service. Former U.S. Surgeon-General Regina Benjamin joins HealthQuests’ board of advisors. Nexthink hired PTC VP of HR Meg Donovan as chief people officer.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Team effort. SpaceX is scheduled to launch its first manned spaceflight today. In the past, astronauts' journeys have left their families waiting on Earth; it's the same this time around, with one crucial difference: astronauts are often married to other astronauts. "Astronaut wives" Karen Nyberg and Megan McArthur will know exactly what their husbands are going through when they take flight. The Atlantic
- Political first. Claire Russo is running for Congress in Virginia. One of her campaign ads includes a groundbreaking line: "I was attending the Marine Corps Ball when I was drugged and raped by a superior." The political ad is believed to be the first to include a candidate sharing a personal experience with sexual assault. Russo has made her own experience and subsequent battle with the Marine Corps a centerpiece of her campaign. New York Times
- Pregnancy and COVID-19. A new, small study of pregnant women who tested positive for the coronavirus found that the virus appears to lead to injury of the placenta during pregnancy. The study found evidence of "insufficient blood flow from the mother to the fetus and blood clots in the placenta." CNN
ON MY RADAR
Athing Mu might be America's fastest teenager. How fast will she be in 2021? New York Times
Pence press secretary back to work after coronavirus recovery, announces pregnancy CNN
Dear Kevin Mayer: Here is what parents want you to change at TikTok Fortune
Surviving it all The Cut
PARTING WORDS
"Workers are going to be unwilling to accept anything less than real change in the value of their work."
-SEIU president Mary Kay Henry on the value placed on work now deemed 'essential'


fortune--2020-05-27--How Wuhan tested 6.5 million people for the coronavirus in 10 days

Wuhan, China, on May 15 launched an ambitious citywide campaign to test every one of its 11 million residents for the coronavirus.
The mass testing in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak was prompted by a rise in asymptomatic cases of COVID-19—people who are infected but show no symptoms of the disease—that raised fears of a second wave of cases.
Children under 6 and people who had already been recently tested were exempted from the initiative. Taking those exemptions into account, Wuhan is nearing its goal, having tested more than 6.5 million people in 10 days. Here’s how it pulled off the feat:
Shelling out
The Wuhan government coughed up an estimated $140 million for the campaign, with the government covering individual test costs. It also paid to employ thousands of medical workers to conduct testing. Workers made house calls for elderly and disabled people, roamed streets and construction sites to find migrant workers, and set up testing tents in residential compounds.
Wuhan health workers have swabbed samples from more than 9 million people, which makes up more than 90% of the city’s target for sampling, according to Chinese state media. Over 6.5 million of those samples have been tested, and the rest are still being processed.
Upping capacity
When the Wuhan government announced the mass testing plan on May 11, it called the effort a “10-day battle.”
Testing capacity ramped up massively after the official launch of the campaign on May 15, when 113,609 coronavirus tests were carried out. One week later, on May 22, more than 10% of the city’s population—1.47 million people—were tested in a single day.
For comparison, on that same day, May 22, New York State tested around 45,000 people. As of Tuesday, the state had conducted a total of 1.7 million tests. In the U.S. as a whole, 15 million people have been tested for the coronavirus.
The “10-day battle” officially ended on May 24, when the Wuhan government announced that more than 9 million samples had been collected.
The city says it is now in a “checking for gaps and patching up leaks” phase, to search for and test residents who missed out on the initial push. Wuhan residents who had never undergone a coronavirus test were instructed to register and arrange testing by May 26.
Authorities increased testing capacity so dramatically by using a batch testing method that allows for faster processing of samples but may compromise the accuracy of the results.
The method combines swab samples from up to 20 people to test as a single sample; if the sample tests positive, then the individuals will be retested one by one. This saves time—if the sample tests negative, then all 20 people can be checked off as negative for the virus—but it could lead to logistical problems like overly diluted samples, Chinese financial newsmagazine Caixin reported.
The batch testing method works best in areas with low infection rates, where there isn’t a high chance that every batch would need to be retested.
The method could help the U.S. increase its testing capacity and aid with reopening. A lab in Nebraska is currently carrying out batch testing, and researchers there reported that they are saving 50% to 60% worth of material and time compared to individual sample testing.
Cautious measures
Wuhan carried out testing systematically. Testing priority went to densely populated buildings and residential compounds with previous community outbreaks.
Test drive sites were set up in the open air to minimize infection risk, and people had assigned time slots, wore masks, had their temperatures checked, and were told to maintain distance while they queued.
Citizens receive their test results via a notification on their mobile phones, and their health codes—app-based QR codes that give each person a coronavirus risk rating and determine what public services they can use—are updated accordingly.
The millions of tests have so far turned up a total of 206 asymptomatic cases. Those people will be isolated and observed under medical quarantine to see if they develop symptoms. If they do, they’ll be hospitalized; if they don’t, they’ll be monitored until they test negative for the virus.
More must-read international coverage from Fortune:
—Inside China’s reopening: 7 personal stories of life after lockdown
—Photo essay: What life looks like in Europe as the continent starts to reopen
—Reopening of Shanghai Disneyland is a proving ground for pandemic-era theme parks
—Trump’s demand that China pay coronavirus reparations evokes an ugly history
—PODCAST: How Marc Benioff is helping out during the coronavirus pandemic
—WATCH: The global crisis in recycling
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