fortune--2020-07-06--In retirement plans, ‘social responsibility’ can’t outweigh financial performance

TikTok, the latest social media craze, has reached new levels of popularity in recent months as it keeps us entertained at home while more traditional methods of entertainment have been put on pause. Over the years, we have been entertained by and caught up in similar whims of the moment: Everyone remembers Hula-Hoops in the 1950s and Pet Rocks in the 1970s.
These trends enjoyed enormous, albeit short-term, popularity. While we were all on board during their respective 15 minutes of fame, we recognize that today these trends would not be received with equal enthusiasm. But what if the person managing your retirement savings made investment decisions based on the whims of the cultural moment? Some retirement account managers choose the social or policy aims of the day over financial performance when making investment decisions in the accounts of many Americans. In line with President Trump’s promise to put American workers first, that is an investment approach foreclosed for funds regulated by the Department of Labor.
In 1974, a Republican President and a Democrat-led Congress came together to promise workers their retirement savings would be managed with the utmost care. Today, the Department of Labor is taking action to make good on that promise to protect retirees by working to ensure their interests in retirement income and financial benefits come first. In its new proposed rule, published in the Federal Register last week, the department aims to ensure that when controlling retirement funds, plan managers may not sacrifice investment returns, take on additional risk, or choose lower-performing alternatives as a means of promoting social goals.
Nearly 154 million American workers participate in private retirement plans that collectively hold about $10.7 trillion in assets. These workers entrust their savings to plan investment managers with the understanding that these hard-earned dollars will be invested wisely and responsibly. And they have good reason to believe this will be the case—when Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974, it required that trustees owe to plan participants the highest duties known to law, those of a fiduciary.
Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo famously described this fiduciary standard of behavior as “the punctilio of an honor the most sensitive.” Under ERISA, this requires that a trustee operate a plan “solely in the interest” of participants and beneficiaries, and “for the exclusive purpose” of providing benefits and defraying costs.
Under what is lately termed “socially responsible” investing, instead of using the vast resources available to them to earn the highest possible return for investors, some investment managers are using assets for the collateral purpose of persuading companies to follow the social trends du jour. You may know of this practice by such names as activist investing, economically targeted investing, or so-called ESG investing, for “environmental, social, and governance.”
ERISA plans that adopt these strategies at the expense of financial performance go against the Labor Department’s long-standing position that ERISA fiduciaries may not sacrifice investment returns or assume greater investment risks to promote collateral policy goals.
Retirement account managers have the great privilege to choose where to direct trillions of dollars of retirement savers’ money. In an ERISA plan, this comes with the great responsibility of investing these dollars prudently and for the exclusive benefit of plan participants. Our department’s proposal makes clear that trustees must keep savers’ retirement income at front of mind, and not use workers’ and retirees’ savings for nonpecuniary purposes.
Investing strategies rooted in social and policy preferences—which may change year to year and month to month—rather than on financial considerations have no place in investment planning with a long-term focus, like ERISA retirement accounts. With the weight of the saver’s future retirement income on the line, ERISA-regulated retirement accounts are not the appropriate vehicle to test nonpecuniary investment strategies nor to enlist funds to drive social and policy change at the expense of financial performance.
Famed investor Warren Buffett has a simple set of rules to direct money management, and investment managers tasked with looking after retirement accounts would be wise to bear in mind: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.”
Patrick Pizzella is the U.S. deputy secretary of labor.


fortune--2020-07-06--A Biden presidency might be good for stocks, according to JPMorgan

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Could Biden bode well for stocks?
That’s what analysts at JPMorgan suggest in a new report.
“The consensus view is that a Democrat victory in November will be a negative for equities. However, we see this outcome as neutral to slight positive,” strategists at the firm wrote in a report Monday.
It wasn’t too long ago that investors appeared bullish on the incumbent reclaiming the presidency. As Fortune reported back in February, investors were largely shrugging off the possibility that a Democratic nominee could clinch the presidency. Wells Fargo Investment Institute’s senior global market strategist Sameer Samana told Fortune back in February that the market was “completely discounting” the possibility of a progressive Democratic candidate (and President) almost entirely (although he noted that either Biden or Trump winning were the most likely outcomes).
But today, a Democratic victory could actually prove to be a “slightly” good thing for stocks, the Wall Street firm suggests, as Biden’s platform may be more benign and “center” coming into the White House.
Those like Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders point out that if the economy is still in a weak state owing to the virus, big campaign trail items like reversing corporate tax cuts may “move down the priority spectrum.”
Plus, even if Biden secures the presidency, “It’s not the case that the minute there’s a changeover in the White House, everything on the campaign platform becomes policy,” she tells Fortune. That’s why Sonders echoes the firm’s analysis: “I do happen to think a Biden presidency isn’t this guaranteed disaster for the stock market.”
Indeed, strategists at JPMorgan write that Biden’s proposed policies including infrastructure spending, an easing up of tariff rhetoric, and higher wages “should be net positive for S&P 500 earnings and largely offset the corporate tax headwind.” Plus, a more “diplomatic” (read: non-Twitter-based) way of approaching policy at home and abroad would “likely” result in lower volatility. That’s something Sonders points out, too: “Particularly in the last year and a half, leaving COVID-19 aside, we saw a lot of volatility kick in when the trade war was launched,” she notes. “Not that Biden is going to end the trade war, but [there may be] less erratic back and forth.”
Softening on tariffs “could be a significant boost for earnings through reduction in friction costs and lower import prices,” the analysts at JPMorgan wrote, while a higher minimum wage could mean a “neutral positive” for S&P 500 companies, since it would “result in higher aggregate demand while margin pressure should be limited.”
Still, the reversal of Trump’s corporate tax cuts are the “largest headwind” to growth, according to JPMorgan analysts. They estimate that if a Democratic President instituted a partial reversal of Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) benefits and sent rates back up to 28%, it could mean a hit of up to $9 in S&P 500 earnings per share.
However, hand-wringing about corporate taxes under a Biden administration may be premature, JPMorgan writes. “Given the current economic weakness, business recovery and job growth are likely to be prioritized over policies that could dampen economic growth,” suggesting that the degree of “corporate tax reversal may ultimately be lower than currently discussed.” In short: “Headline risk might be greater than actual policy.”
A few names JPMorgan sees as being “outperformers” under a Democratic President? Stocks such as electric-vehicle maker Tesla, pharma giant Johnson & Johnson, and even Boeing, which the firm suggests would be a beneficiary of a de-escalation in U.S.-China tariffs.


fortune--2020-07-06--PPP loans: Billionaire West Virginia Governor’s family companies got millions in government money

Billionaire West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family companies received at least $6.3 million from a federal rescue package meant to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released by the Treasury Department on Monday.
Justice, a Republican, is considered to be West Virginia’s richest man through ownership of dozens of coal and agricultural businesses, many of which have been sued for unpaid debts. At least six Justice family businesses received the Paycheck Protection Program loans, including The Greenbrier Sporting Club, an exclusive members-only club attached to a lavish resort Justice owns called The Greenbrier.
The aid package is the centerpiece of the federal government’s plan to rescue an economy devastated by shutdowns and uncertainty. The data released by the Treasury Department presents the fullest accounting of the program thus far, though payments to Justice companies could be higher than $6.3 million because the federal government disclosed the dollar figures in ranges, not specific amounts.
Justice acknowledged last week that his private companies received money from the program but said he did not know specific dollar amounts. A representative for the governor’s family companies did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
The governor said he wanted to place his assets in a blind trust shortly after he was elected but has not done so. He maintains that his children are in control of the family business empire. Still, Justice has faced criticism throughout his time as governor from those who argue he is too focused on his private companies to perform his government duties. The governor has repeatedly pushed back on such claims.
Lat year, another one of Justice’s family businesses, Justice Farms of North Carolina, received $125,000 in soybean and corn subsidies, the maximum allowed from a separate federal program meant to help American farmers through the U.S. trade war with China. The payments, made public through records provided to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, highlighted the sometimes fraught relationship between the billionaire’s businesses and his role as chief executive.
Under the Paycheck Protection Program, the government is backing $659 billion in low-interest loans written by banks. Taxpayer money will pay off the loans if borrowers use them on payroll, rent and similar expenses. Companies typically must have fewer than 500 workers to qualify.
Demand was so great that a first infusion of $349 billion ran out in just two weeks. Many Main Street businesses could not navigate the application process rapidly enough to get one of those first loans before funding dried up. Meanwhile, several hundred companies traded on stock exchanges — hardly the image of a small business — received loans maxing out at $10 million each, causing a public backlash and leading dozens to return the money.
Congress added $310 billion to the program, but confusing, shifting and sometimes restrictive rules cooled interest. About $140 billion was unclaimed as the application deadline closed June 30. With money still available, Congress voted to extend the program just as it was expiring, setting a new date of Aug. 8.
The public may never know the identity of more than 80% of the nearly 5 million beneficiaries to date because the administration has refused to release details on loans under $150,000 — the vast majority of borrowers. That secrecy spurred an open-records lawsuit by a group of news organizations, including The Associated Press.


fortune--2020-07-06--Colin Kaepernick’s transition to TV continues with Disney first-look deal

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Days after announcing an upcoming Netflix series with Ava DuVernay, Colin Kaepernick is committing to more television projects—this time with Walt Disney.
The former NFL quarterback turned civil rights icon signed an overall first-look deal with Disney to develop scripted and unscripted projects centered on race and social justice, Disney and Kaepernick’s production company, Ra Vision Media announced Monday. The deal will extend across all Disney platforms including Disney Television, ESPN and its website, The Undefeated, which focuses on race in sports, Hulu, and Pixar.
Projects developed from the deal will showcase the work of Black and brown directors and producers, the companies said. The first project in the works is a docuseries charting Kaepernick’s journey from San Francisco 49ers quarterback to civil rights activist. The series will tell the story from Kaepernick’s perspective, utilizing never-before-seen archival footage and new interviews, Disney said. Writer Jemele Hill of The Atlantic, who previously worked at ESPN and The Undefeated, has been brought on as a producer.
“I am excited to announce this historic partnership with Disney across all of its platforms to elevate Black and Brown directors, creators, storytellers, and producers, and to inspire youth with compelling and authentic perspectives,” Kaepernick said in a statement. “I look forward to sharing the docuseries on my life story, in addition to many other culturally impactful projects we are developing.”
Kaepernick’s project with Netflix is titled Colin in Black & White. The scripted six-part drama chronicles Kaepernick’s years as a high school athlete in Turlock, Calif., and “the acts and experiences that led him to become the activist he is today,” Netflix said.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro said that as the U.S. grapples with the treatment of Black people following the George Floyd protests, “it feels particularly relevant to hear Colin’s voice on his evolution and motivations.”
Disney executive chairman and former CEO Bob Iger said that Disney was committed to creating diverse and inclusive content “during this unprecedented time.
“Colin’s experience gives him a unique perspective on the intersection of sports, culture, and race, which will undoubtedly create compelling stories that will educate, enlighten, and entertain, and we look forward to working with him on this important collaboration,” Iger said.


fortune--2020-07-06--Federal virus aid proves a bonanza for Trump-connected lobbyists

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Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report.
The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served on his campaign, were part of the committee that raised money for inaugural festivities or were part of his presidential transition. Many are donors to Trump’s campaigns, and some are prolific fundraisers for his reelection.
They include Brian Ballard, who served on the transition, is the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and has bundled more than $1 million for Trump’s fundraising committees. He was hired in March by Laundrylux, a supplier of commercial laundry machines, after the Department of Homeland Security issued guidance that didn’t include laundromats as essential businesses that could stay open during the lockdown. A week later, the administration issued new guidance adding laundromats to the list.
Dave Urban, a Trump adviser and confidant, has collected more than $2.3 million in lobbying fees this year. The firm he leads, American Continental Group, represents 15 companies, including Walgreens and the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, on coronavirus issues.
Trump pledged to clamp down on Washington’s influence peddling with a “drain the swamp” campaign mantra. But during his administration, the lobbying industry has flourished, a trend that intensified once Congress passed more than $3.6 trillion in coronavirus stimulus.
While the money is intended as a lifeline to a nation whose economy has been upended by the pandemic, it also jump-started a familiar lobbying bonanza.
“The swamp is alive and well in Washington, D.C.,” said Mike Tanglis, one of the report’s authors. “These (lobbying) booms that these people are having, you can really attribute them to their connection to Trump.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Shortly after Trump took office, he issued an executive order prohibiting former administration officials from lobbying the agency or office where they were formerly employed, for a period of five years. Another section of the order forbids lobbying the administration by former political appointees for the remainder of Trump’s time in office.
Yet five lobbyists who are former administration officials have potentially done just that during the coronavirus lobbying boom:
— Courtney Lawrence was a former deputy assistant secretary for legislation in the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017 and 2018. She became a lobbyist for Cigna in 2018 and is listed as part of a team that has lobbied HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and at least two other agencies. Cigna did not respond to a request for comment.
— Shannon McGahn, the wife of former White House counsel Don McGahn, worked in 2017 and 2018 as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. She then joined the National Association of Realtors as its top lobbyist and is listed on disclosures as part of a team that has lobbied both houses of Congress, plus six agencies, including the Treasury Department. The Realtors association did not respond to a request for comment.
— Jordan Stoick is the vice president of government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers. Stoick’s biography on NAM’s website indicates that he is “NAM’s lead lobbyist in Washington,” where he started working after serving as a senior adviser in the Treasury Department. Disclosures indicate that Stoick and his colleagues lobbied both houses of Congress plus at least five executive branch agencies, including Treasury.
“NAM carefully adheres to the legal and ethical rules regulating lobbying activity, including ensuring that its employees comply with all applicable prohibitions on contacting their former employers,” Linda Kelly, the organization’s general counsel, said in a statement.
The group also said that the disclosure was filled out in a way that lumped the work of multiple lobbyists together in one entry and that the filing “in no way means every lobbyist contacted every listed office.”
— Geoffrey Burr joined the firm Brownstein Hyatt after serving as chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The firm’s lobbying disclosure for the first quarter of 2020 includes Burr on a list of lobbyists who contacted the White House and Congress on coronavirus-related matters on behalf of McDonald’s.
— Emily Felder joined Brownstein Hyatt after leaving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she worked in the legislative office. Felder is listed on a disclosure from the first quarter of 2020 that shows she was part of a team that lobbied Congress and the White House.
A spokeswoman for the firm said both Felder and Burr abide by the Trump administration’s ethics rules, which limit their lobbying to the House and the Senate.
“We are confident that our lobbyists are in compliance with all lobbying rules and applicable prohibitions and did not violate their Trump Administration pledge,” spokeswoman Lara Day said in a statement.
Public Citizen’s Craig Holman, who himself is a registered lobbyist, said the group intends to file ethics complaints with the White House. But he’s not optimistic that they will lead to anything. Last year, he filed more than 30 complaints, all of which were either ignored or rejected.
“There does not appear to be anyone who is enforcing the executive order,” Holman said.


fortune--2020-07-06--WhatsApp and Telegram won’t give Hong Kong user data to Chinese authorities in response to ‘easily a

WhatsApp and Telegram won’t give Hong Kong user data to Chinese authorities in response to ‘easily abused’ security law

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Both Facebook-owned WhatsApp and its messaging competitor Telegram have announced that they will cease complying with requests for data on users in Hong Kong from Chinese authorities. The twin announcements follow the June 30 passage of a sweeping new security law in Hong Kong that has been widely decried by human rights agencies, and which has been seen internationally as marking the end of Hong Kong’s special status as a jurisdiction with greater political freedom within China.
“Facebook’s WhatsApp and Telegram are doing the right thing,” Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher with the nonprofit Human Rights Watch, told Fortune. Provisions of the new national security law, she said, “are very broad and can be easily abused by authorities to punish people for peacefully expressing critical views of the Chinese or Hong Kong government. By suspending reviewing requests for user data, the companies are fulfilling their commitments to upholding the right to privacy and freedom of expression.”
Neither decision appears to be permanent. In a statement to Hong Kong Free Press on Sunday, a Telegram spokesperson said that “Telegram does not intend to process any data requests related to its Hong Kong users until an international consensus is reached in relation to the ongoing political changes in the city.”
Facebook, meanwhile, announced Monday morning that WhatsApp is “pausing” such reviews “pending further assessment of the impact of the national security law, including formal human rights due diligence and consultations with human rights experts.”
Signal, a competing messaging app that is fully encrypted, took the opportunity to state on Twitter that “we never started turning over user data to HK police. Also, we don’t have user data to turn over.”
Facebook’s decision has minimal broader business risk. Facebook itself has been prohibited in China, and blocked by government firewalls, since 2009, and WhatsApp is also officially unavailable on the mainland. But experts say the announcements presage more difficult decisions to be made by other tech companies in the coming days and weeks.
“International firms that have operated comfortably in Hong Kong for years are now facing a dramatically changed reality,” Julian Gewirtz, a China expert and research fellow at Harvard, told Fortune. “The Chinese leadership’s brazen move is forcing tech companies to reassess whether they can continue to responsibly offer their products and services in Hong Kong. Many may find that the answer is no.”
WhatsApp has been reported to play a key role in organizing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as early as 2014. Its role remained prominent in the latest and most violent round of protests beginning in 2019.
Those protests came largely in reaction to previous restrictive legislation proposed by Beijing, which would have allowed extradition of criminal suspects—including political dissidents—to courts on the Chinese mainland. That bill was later officially retracted.
The latest bill carves out a swath of new offenses in Hong Kong that critics say effectively end freedom of speech in the former British colonial territory. Those offenses include political subversion, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. The media are also restricted from observing legal cases involving “state secrets” or “public order.” Under the new law, state authorities will strengthen “supervision and regulation” of the press.
These categories are so broadly defined in the new law that experts say it provides no clear guidelines for the media or public speech in Hong Kong, eroding Hong Kong’s traditional common law framework. The international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders described the law as “grotesque.”
As reported by Hong Kong Free Press, opposition groups disbanded, and activists fled overseas in response to the law. In the U.S., legislators have passed tough sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for the law, as well as Chinese banks and police units.
President Donald Trump, who has frequently expressed solidarity with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and staked much of his political reputation on a trade deal with China, has not yet signed the sanctions into law.


fortune--2020-07-06--NYC has hit ‘Phase Three’ of reopening. Here’s what you need to know

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As other parts of the U.S. hastily roll back reopening plans, New York City is taking one more small step forward.
On Monday, the city officially kicks off Phase Three, paving the way for legions of beauty businesses — nail salons, tanning studios and tattoo parlors — to open their doors to customers for the first time in months.
Yet perhaps the biggest and most widely anticipated change — the resumption of indoor dining — has been postponed indefinitely. Blame the recent COVID-19 spikes in states such as Texas and Florida after they reopened bars and restaurants.
Both New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have repeatedly urged New Yorkers to remain vigilant and not let their guard down. Coronavirus cases in the U.S. topped 50,000 in a single day for the first time this past week, even as infections in New York reach new lows.
“It’s been a long battle, and it continues to be,” de Blasio said.
Here’s what you need to know:
What does ‘Phase Three’ reopening mean?
It’s the third of a four-step process that will ease restrictions gradually on business activity and people’s ability to move around and socialize in the state of New York. Progress depends on infection rates, hospital capacity and the state’s ability to test and trace people who may have contracted the virus. Regardless, each phase will last at least two weeks.
New York City entered ‘Phase Two’ on June 22 — the last region to do so. Several other regions are already in the fourth phase. (Check out our roundups for Phase One and Phase Two.)
We’re tracking everything you need to know as New York reopens after the Covid-19 shutdown. Read our explainer and sign up for alerts sent directly to your inbox.
What’s still closed?
The mayor and governor said indoor dining in the city won’t resume for the time being, citing the resurgence of cases in parts of the country that have taken a more cavalier approach. Gyms, schools, movie theaters and other large venues for culture and entertainment still are shut, and some won’t reopen even after the city enters the fourth phase. The Broadway League, a trade association for the theater industry in New York and beyond, said the city’s theaters will remain closed through the end of the year.
It’s getting hot out! Are the beaches open yet?
Yes, the city’s public beaches opened for swimming on July 1. And as of Friday, the S train, a subway shuttle that runs on the Rockaway Peninsula, began picking up riders at Rockaway Boulevard in Queens between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. That special service lasts through Labor Day.
Fifteen of the city’s outdoor pools — four in Manhattan, two in Staten Island and three in each of the other boroughs — will open in coming weeks.
Can my dog finally get some exercise?
Yes and so can you. The city will reopen dog runs — meaning your four-legged friends can finally work off some of their pent-up energy. The city will also open courts for basketball, tennis and other sports. However, you should still try to practice social distancing, and the city encourages residents to wear masks while using these facilities. So expect to play on your own for a while.
Some states seem to going in reverse. Could that happen in New York, too?
The state’s reopening is conditioned on seven different measurements ranging from infection rates to hospital capacity and testing and tracing. As long as those remain below certain thresholds, the process can continue. City and state officials haven’t publicly said whether they would roll back parts of the reopening if a resurgence of cases pushes a region above those limits.
With indoor dining postponed, is outdoor dining at risk?
For now, there’s no reason to worry. “Outdoor dining, unquestionably, has been a great hit,” de Blasio said July 1, adding that it “is working, period.” Around 6,600 venues so far have taken advantage of the city’s initiative to expand outdoor-seating options, and the city is working to involve more restaurants in that effort, he said. The city also plans to close more streets to traffic on evenings and weekends to give restaurants more space for dining al fresco.
And just to be sure — social-distancing requirements are still in place, right?
You already know the answer to this question. Wear a face covering, keep people at a 6-foot distance and wash your hands. At outdoor restaurants, you’re allowed to take off your mask once seated.


fortune--2020-07-06--Why shares of Tesla, Nio, and other electric-vehicle makers are skyrocketing

Share prices of electric-vehicle makers zoomed on Monday despite little news beyond last week’s impressive quarterly results from leading players Tesla and Nio.
The stock of Tesla, which said last week that it had delivered almost 91,000 vehicles in the second quarter, jumped 13% on Monday, closing at an all-time high of $1,371.58 and marking a 55% gain over just the past month. Meanwhile, Chinese automaker Nio, which has been challenging Tesla in China with futuristic-looking SUVs, saw its shares do even better after reporting record results for June. Its stock rose 23% to $11.51 on Monday, just below its all-time high, to more than double the price a month ago.
The strong sales results from Tesla and Nio amid the COVID-19 pandemic came even as the overall global car industry suffers. Second-quarter sales for General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler slipped 33% or more. Several analysts raised their price targets on Tesla on Monday, including JMP Securities and J.P. Morgan.
The big gains in the stocks of electric-vehicle makers have pushed their market values sky-high, alarming some analysts. They’re concerned that Tesla’s shares, in particular, are in bubble territory and that they may eventually pop. “We see a lot more that can go wrong than can go right as the company transitions into Mr. Musk’s greater vision,” Cowen research analyst Jeffrey Osborne wrote. His price target of $300 for the company’s stock is more than 75% below its current price.
The stock price gains of EV makers on Monday were even sharper among less well known and less highly valued companies. ElectraMeccanica Vehicles, a five-year-old Canadian electric-vehicle maker, saw its stock price jump 65% on Monday, giving it a gain of 279% over the past month. Blink Charging, which runs networks of vehicle-charging stations, rose 59% on Monday and 282% over the past month. Arcimoto, maker of high-speed, three-wheeled electric carts, gained 6% on Monday and 165% over the past month. Kandi Technologies Group, another Chinese EV manufacturer, gained 15% on Monday and 37% over the past month.
A few recent high-fliers in the electric-vehicle sector were left out of Monday’s rally. Nikola Motor, a newer maker of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, lost 14% on Monday, although it is still up 36% over the past month. And shares of Workhorse Group, which is developing electric vans and drones, lost 16%. It’s still up fivefold over the past month.
(Update: This story was updated on July 6, 2020 with closing stock prices.)


fortune--2020-07-06--Banks will collect billions in fees on PPP small business loans, according to a new report

The Paycheck Protection Program, designed to save jobs and stimulate the economy by providing forgivable loans to small businesses hurt by the coronavirus, is also creating another winner: banks.
Banks that made the government-guaranteed PPP loans to small businesses are set to collect billions of dollars in fees directly from the Small Business Administration, according to a new analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Through the end of June, more than $521 billion in PPP loans had been approved, according to the latest data from the SBA.
The top 10 lenders will receive an estimated total of more than $3.8 billion, S&P Global Market Intelligence found. JPMorgan Chase, which is the largest PPP lender after extending nearly $29 billion worth of the loans, is on track to make some $864 million in fees. Bank of America, the next biggest, will rake in an estimated $755 million in fees on its PPP loans.
In its analysis, S&P Global Market Intelligence assumed banks charged a fee of 3%, which is the median fee for PPP loans, according to Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Under Treasury Department rules, PPP lenders can charge processing fees between 1% and 5%, depending on the amount of the loan.
Higher fees of 5% are charged on the smallest loans of $350,000 or less, while fees of just 1% are assessed on loans of $2 million and above. Lenders are barred from collecting the fees from the small businesses applying for PPP loans; instead, the SBA will cover the costs.
While the revenue from PPP fees is a small portion of the overall revenue of big banks, the program is likely to be a windfall for at least 31 smaller lenders, which will make more in PPP fees than they did in total revenue for all of 2019. Those smaller banks include New Jersey–based Cross River Bank, which partners with several fintech lenders: It can expect to collect more than $163 million in fees, or 170% of its 2019 revenues.
Still, S&P Global Market Intelligence notes that banks can’t count the fees as revenue immediately—they have to wait until the loans are either forgiven or paid back by the company, which could take years. While many PPP borrowers hope their loans will be forgiven—which would allow banks to collect those fees as soon as later in 2020—the requirements and timeline for loan forgiveness have been in flux, particularly as the program itself was just extended last week.


fortune--2020-07-06--A double-digit unemployment rate is the norm for Black Americans and a rarity for white Americans

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On Friday the unemployment rate fell from 13.3% to 11.1% as employers continue to rehire staff. But the economic impacts of the pandemic are still hitting communities of color harder than white Americans: The jobless rate among white workers is 10.1%, compared with 13.8% for Asian workers, and 14.5% for Hispanic workers. The jobless rate is highest among Black workers at 15.4%.
But this racial economic divide also highlights the fact that the job market has always been unequal for Hispanic and Black Americans. The unemployment rate among Black workers has topped 10% in 405 months, or 69.6% of the time, since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started calculating it in 1972. Meanwhile, the white unemployment rate has topped double digits in only three months during that same period, or 0.5% of the time.
The unemployment rate among Hispanic or Latino workers has topped double digits 190 times, or 33.5% of the months since March 1973 when the BLS started calculating that rate. And since 2000, when the BLS started calculating an unemployment rate among Asian workers, it has topped double digits on three occasions, or 1.2% of months during that period.
The three months in which the white jobless rate topped double digits all occurred since the onset of the 2020 pandemic. The current 11.1% unemployment rate is just below the average unemployment rate for Black Americans since 1972 of 11.4%. However, workers who have lost jobs during the pandemic have felt the effects blunted somewhat by the extra $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits, which are set to expire at the end of July. Since March, the economic pain has continued to be unevenly spread. Some 24% of Black workers say they have lost their jobs, and another 31% have seen cuts to their hours or pay, finds a Fortune-SurveyMonkey poll of 4,109 U.S. adults, conducted between May 20 and May 26. In comparison, 11% of white workers have lost their jobs, and 28% have experienced cuts to their hours or pay.


fortune--2020-07-06--Supreme Court upholds 30-year-old cell phone robocall ban

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 1991 law that bars robocalls to cellphones.
The case, argued by telephone in May because of the coronavirus pandemic, only arose after Congress in 2015 created an exception in the law that allows the automated calls for collection of government debt.
Political consultants and pollsters were among those asking the Supreme Court to strike down the 1991 law that bars them from making robocalls to cellphones as a violation of their free speech rights under the Constitution. The issue was whether, by allowing one kind of speech but not others, the exception made the whole law unconstitutional.
The court threw out the exception for government-debt collection and preserved the broader prohibition.
During arguments, Justice Stephen Breyer got cut off when someone tried calling him. Breyer said after he rejoined the court’s arguments: “The telephone started to ring, and it cut me off the call and I don’t think it was a robocall.”


fortune--2020-07-06--Supreme Court rules states can require presidential electors to back popular vote winner

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that states can require presidential electors to back their states’ popular vote winner in the Electoral College.
The ruling, just under four months before the 2020 election, leaves in place laws in 32 states and the District of Columbia that bind electors to vote for the popular-vote winner, and electors almost always do so anyway.
So-called faithless electors have not been critical to the outcome of a presidential election, but that could change in a race decided by just a few electoral votes. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that a state may instruct “electors that they have no ground for reversing the vote of millions of its citizens. That direction accords with the Constitution — as well as with the trust of a Nation that here, We the People rule.”
The justices had scheduled arguments for the spring so they could resolve the issue before the election, rather than amid a potential political crisis after the country votes.
When the court heard arguments by telephone in May because of the coronavirus outbreak, justices invoked fears of bribery and chaos if electors could cast their ballots regardless of the popular vote outcome in their states.
The issue arose in lawsuits filed by three Hillary Clinton electors in Washington state and one in Colorado who refused to vote for her despite her popular vote win in both states. In so doing, they hoped to persuade enough electors in states won by Donald Trump to choose someone else and deny Trump the presidency.
The federal appeals court in Denver ruled that electors can vote as they please, rejecting arguments that they must choose the popular-vote winner. In Washington, the state Supreme Court upheld a $1,000 fine against the three electors and rejected their claims.
In all, there were 10 faithless electors in 2016, including a fourth in Washington, a Democratic elector in Hawaii and two Republican electors in Texas. In addition, Democratic electors who said they would not vote for Clinton were replaced in Maine and Minnesota.
The closest Electoral College margin in recent years was in 2000, when Republican George W. Bush received 271 votes to 266 for Democrat Al Gore. One elector from Washington, D.C., left her ballot blank.
The Supreme Court played a decisive role in that election, ending a recount in Florida, where Bush held a 537-vote margin out of 6 million ballots cast.
The justices scheduled separate arguments in the Washington and Colorado cases after Justice Sonia Sotomayor belatedly removed herself from the Colorado case because she knows one of the plaintiffs.
In asking the Supreme Court to rule that states can require electors to vote for the state winner, Colorado had urged the justices not to wait until “the heat of a close presidential election.”


fortune--2020-07-06--Three major deals to have on your radar, post July 4th

This is the web version of Term Sheet, Fortune’s newsletter about deals and dealmakers. Sign up here.
Good morning, Term Sheet readers. I hope that those of you stateside have had a relaxing long weekend—though news that has come out in recent hours suggest many of you have been in full throttle.
Here are three deals to start your day off with:
Uber buys food-delivery peer Postmates for $2.65 billion in stock: Uber’s deal to create the largest food-delivery company in the U.S. by acquiring rival Grubhub had disintegrated. Now, roughly a month later, Uber is acquiring a smaller peer as companies fight to consolidate the space: Postmates. “In our opinion, Uber finds itself with its back against the wall on the consolidation theme as the Grubhub deal fell apart,” writes Dan Ives over at Wedbush in an analyst note. By his estimate, the deal would give the combined duo about a third of the market share—but still below that of leader DoorDash. The deal represents a 10% uptick to Postmates’ last private round of funding, which valued it at $2.4 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway finds its first (pandemic) crisis-era deal: While other investors jumped in as markets dove early in the pandemic, the Oracle of Omaha, who has made many of his best bets in the middle of crises, stayed away. “We haven’t seen anything that is attractive,” said Warren Buffett in early May. Then markets rebounded and his skeptics wondered if the storied dealmaker would be able to find his next bet. It seems like Buffett has found his next investment in the struggling natural gas sector: Berkshire has agreed to acquire the natural gas pipeline and storage assets of Dominion Energy for about $9.7 billion ($5.7 billion of that being through the assumption of debt).
The United Arab Emirates is buying cows: The pandemic has reinvigorated conversations around reshoring global supply chains. One fascinating example: In a bid to boost food security, the United Arab Emirates is importing 4,500 dairy cows from Uruguay. With climates that make farming difficult, the UAE and its neighbor are heavily dependent on imports for food supplies.
Now its government has made several moves to ensure “uninterrupted access to supplies” as the coronavirus plays putty with global trade, per Bloomberg. Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURES DEALS
- KK Guan, a Chinese online-to-offline new retail business, raised 1 billion yuan ($142 million) in Series E funding, valuing it at over $1 billion. CMC Capital Group led the round. Read more.
- Instacart, the grocery delivery company, raised an additional $100 million in funding. T. Rowe Price led the round. Read more.
- FineEx, a Chinese warehousing and distribution services platform, raised 500 million yuan ($71 million) in Series D funding. Baidu Capital led the round. Read more.
- Social Bella, an Indonesian beauty startup, raised $58 million in Series E funding from existing investors Temasek, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures.
- Payfazz, an Indonesia-based provider of financial and payment services, raised $53 million in Series B funding. B Capital Group and Insignia Ventures Partners led the round and were joined by investors including Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator, ACE & Company, Quiet Capital, and BRI Ventures. Read more.
- Carbon Clean Solutions Limited, a U.K.-based a carbon dioxide capture and separation tech maker, raised $22 million in Series B funding. Equinor Ventures and ICOS Capital led the round.
- Mission Therapeutics, a U.K.-based drug discovery and development company, raised $15 million (£12 million). Pfizer Ventures led the round.
- FraudScope, an Atlanta, Ga.-based platform for health plans to address fraud, waste, and abuse, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Investors include QED Investors, Brewer Lane Ventures, and the GRA Venture Fund as well as existing investors Spider Capital, Mosley Ventures, and TechSquare Labs. Read more.
- Vendia, a San Francisco, Calif.-based multicloud serverless platform, raised $5.1 million in seed funding. Neotribe’s Swaroop ‘Kittu’ Kolluri led the round and was joined by investors including Correlation Ventures, WestWave Capital, HWVP, Firebolt Ventures, Floodgate, and FuturePerfect Ventures. Read more.
- e-peas, a Belgian energy harvesting solutions, raised $9 million (€8 million) in funding. Partech and Airbus Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including KBC Focus Fund, W.IN.G, Noshaq Ventures, LeanSquare, Nivelinvest, and Vives.
- Transcelestial, a Singapore-based startup seeking to developer of wireless laser communications for telecoms and enterprises, raised $9.8 million in Series A funding. Investors include Partech.
- Basemark, a Helsinki-based software company specialising in graphics and autonomous driving vehicle software, raised €7 million in funding. ETF Partners led the round.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- CORE Industrial Partners invested in Arizona Natural Resources, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based provider of formulation and contract manufacturing solutions for personal care products with an expertise in haircare and skincare. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Foam Fabricators, a portfolio company of Compass Diversified (NYSE: CODI), acquired Polyfoam Corporation, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of protective and cold chain packaging solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Unifrax, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, acquired Rex Materials Group, a Howell, Mich.-based manufacturer of engineered thermal components. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- MiMedx Group, Inc. (OTC PINK: MDXG), a Marietta, Ga.-based provider wound care and an emerging therapeutic biologics, raised $150 million private equity and debt financing. The equity financing (pursuant to a Securities Purchase Agreement) came from EW Healthcare Partners and Hayfin Capital Management.
- EQT again offered to acquire Metlifecare, a New Zealand-based retirement village operator, for NZ$1.28 billion ($837 billion), a lower price compared to before it expressed plans to terminate the deal. Read more.
- KKR agreed to acquire a controlling stake in J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (NSE: JBCHEPHARM), an Indian pharmaceutical company specializing in branded formulations for roughly $500 million for a 54% stake. KKR also plans to make an open offer for another 26% of the company.
- The Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in Memsource, a Prague-based AI-powered software maker automating translations. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Affiliates of Paceline Equity Partners acquired R.E.L.A.M., Inc., a Cleveland, Oh.-based lessor of railroad maintenance equipment. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Pine Labs, the Indian payments company backed by Sequoia Capital and Mastercard, weighing an acquisition of Wirecard AG’s businesses in Southeast Asia and India, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Sony Corp. is weighing a bid for Leyou Technologies Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed gaming firm. Leyou has also received interest from Zhejiang Century Huatong Group Co. Read more.
- Jio Platforms, the Indian telecom giant, raised $255 million from Intel Corp’s investment arm. The 0.39% stake gives Jio Platforms a valuation of about $69 billion.
- Britain and India’s Bharti Global agreed to acquire OneWeb, the bankrupt satellite operator backed by SoftBank, for $1 billion. Read more.
BREAKUPS, HANGUPS, AND BANKRUPTCIES
- Casual Dining Group, the U.K.-based dining group behind the Café Rouge and Bella Italia chains, has gone into administration. KKR backs the group. Read more.
IPOs
- Royole Corp., a Chinese flexible display maker, is reportedly putting its potential $1 billion U.S. listing on hold and is weighing a listing in China instead. Read more.
- Smoore International, a Chinese e-cigarette and vape manufacturer, raised $918 million in a Hong Kong IPO. Read more.
- Hangzhou Wahaha Group, a Chinese beverage maker, is weighing an initial public offering that could raise more than $1 billion. Read more.
- Thrive Causemetics, the vegan beauty startup, is reportedly working with an adviser to explore options including a sale or public listing, per Bloomberg citing sources. Read more.
- Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, a Philippine provider of fixed broadband services, plans to raise as much as $725 million in what could be the largest IPO in the country. Read more.
- Nahdi Medical Co, Saudi Arabia’s largest pharmacy retail chain, is weighing an IPO. Read more.
EXITS
- BillDesk, an Indian domestic payments startup, is seeking to sell itself for $2.5 billion. General Atlantic is its largest shareholder. Read more.
- Paytm agreed to acquire Raheja QBE, an insurance provider, for $76 million. Prism Johnson and QBE Australia backed Raheja the firm.
- EQT is weighing a sale of Synagro Technologies, a Baltimore, Md.-based waste management provider, for about $500 million, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Montagu acquired Galileo Global Education, a Paris-based higher education services provider, from Providence Equity Partners. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
PEOPLE
- Torsten Slok is joining Apollo Global Management. Slok was previously chief economist at Deutsche Bank AG.


fortune--2020-07-06--Ennio Morricone, Oscar-winning movie composer, dies at 91

Ennio Morricone, the Oscar-winning Italian composer who created the coyote-howl theme for the iconic Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and often haunting soundtracks for such classic Hollywood gangster movies as “The Untouchables” and the epic “Once Upon A Time In America,” died Monday. He was 91.
Morricone’s longtime lawyer, Giorgio Assumma, said “the Maestro,” as he was known, died in a Rome hospital of complications following surgery after a recent fall in which he broke a leg bone.
Outside the hospital, Assumma read a farewell message from Morricone.
“I am Ennio Morricone, and I am dead,” began the message. In the greeting, the composer went on to explain that the only reason he was saying goodbye this way and had requested a private funeral was: “I don’t want to bother anyone.”
During a career that spanned decades and earned him an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2007, Morricone collaborated with some of Hollywood’s and Italy’s top directors, including on “The Untouchables” by Brian de Palma, “The Hateful Eight” by Quentin Tarantino , “The Battle of Algiers” by Gillo Pontecorvo and “Cinema Paradiso,” a nostalgic ode to the importance of movie houses in Italian small town life, by Giuseppe Tornatore.
The Tarantino film would win him the Oscar for best original score in 2016. In accepting that award, Morricone told the audience at the ceremony: “There is no great music without a great film that inspires it.”
In total, he produced more than 400 original scores for feature films.
His iconic so-called Spaghetti Western movies saw him work closely with the late Italian film director Sergio Leone, a former classmate.
Morricone practically reinvented music for Western genre movies through his partnership with Leone. Their partnership included the “Dollars” trilogy starring Clint Eastwood as a quick-shooting, lonesome gunman: “A Fistful of Dollars” in 1964, “For a Few Dollars More” in 1965 and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” a year later.
Morricone was celebrated for crafting just a few notes — like those played on a harmonica in Leone’s 1984 movie “Once Upon A Time in America” — that would instantly become a film’s highly memorable motif.
That movie is a saga about Jewish gangsters in New York that explores themes of friendship, lost love and the passing of time, starring Robert De Niro and James Wood. It is considered by some to be Leone’s masterpiece, thanks in part to Morricone’s evocative score, including a lush section played on string instruments.
“Inspiration does not exist,” Morricone said in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press. “What exists is an idea, a minimal idea that the composer develops at the desk, and that small idea becomes something important.”
In a later interview, with Italian state TV, Morricone cited “study, discipline and curiosity” as the keys to his creative genius. “Writing music, like all creative arts, comes from a long path” along life’s experiences, he said.
“A great phenomenon of world music” was how Italian film director Dario Argento described Morricone, who scored five of his films.
In his late 80s, Morricone provided the score for “The Hateful Eight,” Tarantino’s 2015 70-mm epic and the first time in decades that he had composed new music for a Western. It was also the first time Tarantino had used an original score.
In accepting Morricone’s Golden Globe for the music in his place, Tarantino called him his favorite composer.
“When I say ‘favorite composer,’ I don’t mean movie composer. … I’m talking about Mozart, I’m talking about Beethoven, I’m talking about Schubert,” Tarantino said.
Italy’s head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, in a condolence message to the composer’s family, wrote: “Both a refined and popular musician, he left a deep footprint on the musical history of the second half of the 1900s.”
Morricone’s sound tracks, Mattarella said, “contributed greatly to spreading and reinforcing the prestige of Italy in the world.”
Morricone’s style was sparse, made of memorable tunes and unusual instruments and arrangements, and often stirred deep emotions.
His music punctuated the long silences typical of the Spaghetti Westerns, with the characters locked in close-ups, staring at each other and waiting for their next moves. The coyote howl, harmonicas and eerie whistling of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” became Morricone’s trademark and one of the most easily recognizable soundtracks in cinema.
Minutes before handing Morricone the Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2007, Eastwood recalled hearing for the first time the score of “A Fistful of Dollars” and thinking: “What actor wouldn’t want to ride into town with that kind of music playing behind him?”
It was a night to remember for Morricone, who had been nominated for Oscars five times (“The Hateful Eight” was his sixth) but until then had never won.
Born in Rome on Nov. 10, 1928, Morricone was the oldest of the five children. His father was a trumpet player.
After studying trumpet and composition at the Conservatory of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the Italian capital, he started working as a trumpeter and then as an arranger for record companies.
“I started working on very easy kinds of music pieces for the radio, for television and then for the theater, and then little by little I started to compose the film scores,” he told the AP in 2016.
In 1961 he wrote his first score for a movie, a bittersweet comedy set in the final moments of Fascism called “Il Federale” (known in English as “The Fascist”). That decade also saw Morricone cooperate with Pontecorvo, first on “The Battle of Algiers,” the black-and-white classic depicting the Algerian uprising against the French; and later on “Queimada,” a tale of colonialism starring Marlon Brando.
Morricone received his first Oscar nomination for original score with “Days Of Heaven,” a 1978 movie by U.S. director Terence Malick. Beside “The Hateful Eight,” the others were for “The Mission” (1986), “The Untouchables” (1987), “Bugsy” (1991) and “Malena” (2000).
Shortly before his lifetime Oscar, Morricone joked that he would have been happy without the coveted statuette, saying “I would have remained in the company of illustrious non-winners.”
But he also made no secret that he thought “The Mission,” with its memorably sweet theme of “Gabriel’s Oboe,” deserved the Academy Award. That year, he lost to Herbie Hancock’s “Round Midnight.”
Highly versatile, Morricone also orchestrated Italian pop tunes that include enduring classics, like one version of an eternal summer hit, “Sapore di Sale” (“Taste of Salt”), which was written by famed Italian troubadour Gino Paoli.
Another renowned maestro, Riccardo Muti, cited his “friendship and admiration″ for Morricone. Muti on Monday recalled that when he directed the composer’s piece “Voci dal Silenzio” (Voices from the Silence” ) the work elicited “true emotion” from the audience, both in Chicago, where Muti directs the symphony orchestra, as well as during a performance in Ravenna, Italy.
Muti called Morricone an “extraordinary” composer both for films and in classical music.
Asked by Italian state TV a few years ago if there was one director he would have liked to have worked with but didn’t, Morricone said Stanley Kubrick had asked him to work on “Clockwork Orange.” But that collaboration didn’t happen because of a commitment to Leone, Morricone recalled.
Morricone is survived by his wife Maria Travia, whom he cited when accepting his 2016 Oscar. Married in 1956, the couple had four children, Marco, Alessandra, Andrea and Giovanni.
___
Biographical material for this report was contributed by former AP correspondent Alessandra Rizzo.


fortune--2020-07-06--The strange and sudden collision of tech and drug research

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.
Information technology and health sciences have historically occupied two different worlds in Silicon Valley. The former was about chips and software and then later the Internet, gadgets, and apps. It moved in fast-twitch cycles and created fortunes quickly. The latter typically was related to what is now called biotech, and regulated drug trials could take years. This made capital the ultimate long-term bet, and health-science household names were few and far between.
Now more than ever the two distinct industries are colliding, and with any luck, just in time. In a pandemic, the world needs the brains and computing power of IT and the medical know-how of cutting-edge drug research. The wishful thinking of one particularly unserious politician notwithstanding, serious scientists believe some combination of vaccines and therapeutic treatments could come quicker than ever before, thanks to this massive combination of capital and science.
That’s what I know so far from watching for a couple decades—and the last few months. I plan to learn far more on Tuesday and Wednesday when Fortune convenes its annual Brainstorm Health conference, this time online. Clifton Leaf, the editor of Fortune and grand poobah of this event, has put together an agenda that is something of an embarrassment of riches for someone trying to understand what’s going on right now.
The agenda is jam-packed with an extraordinary lineup of business executives, government officials, and other smartypants, including the CEOs of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Amgen, Centene, Baxter, GE Healthcare and Cisco. Leaders from Apple Health, Alphabet’s Verily subsidiary, and Google Health will speak too, as will the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed. I’m interviewing Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, who has lately had to become something of a health expert himself.
Register here to attend this unique, of-the-moment event and use this code, BSH20HALF, to get a 50% discount.
***
Related to all this, I also encourage you to check out Fortune’s new list of 100 top hospitals in the U.S. Other hospital rankings tend to be popularity contests. This one, Leaf tells me, is “based on 11 clear, objectively measured stats that really speak to clinical outcomes and patient experience and costs.”
***
I hope you had a great holiday weekend. I found myself thinking about freedom and honor. I watched the Netflix documentary about Michelle Obama’s book tour and was reminded, again, of how admirable she is. I also watched Spike Lee’s prescient new movie, Da 5 Bloods. With my family I watched the filming of a 2016 performance of Hamilton. (Disney Plus: You got me, and I feel good about that!)
One more note about the moment we’re living in. I try my best to avoid the cesspool that is Twitter, so I’m often behind on who’s fighting with whom. I have, however, picked up on the battles between tech-industry bigwigs and journalists they’re accusing of less-than-honorable favor. I’m not wading in—there absolutely are more important topics to discuss—but I have found over a long period of time that the very same worthies who complain bitterly about their coverage in the news media are ecstatic when coverage is positive, so much so that they go to great lengths to solicit it. My advice to them: Grow some thicker skin or stop trying to have it both ways.
Adam Lashinsky
@adamlashinsky
adam.lashinsky@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Step up to the buffet. As rumored, Uber is buying Postmates for almost $2.7 billion, after losing out on GrubHub to Europe’s Just Eat Takeaway.com last month. The decade-old Postmates service ranks fourth in the U.S. in food delivery.
You don't like me, you really don't like me. Americans still like their tech CEOs, for the most part. Only one has a net unfavorable rating, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, with only 42% favoring him and 56% holding an unfavorable opinion, according to a poll by Fortune and SurveyMonkey. The highest Big Tech net favorability scores went to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who are both viewed favorably by a 41% margin. Meanwhile, Zuck is preparing to meet this week with a group of advertisers who are boycotting Facebook and calling for better policing of hateful and racist content.
You have my full support. I'm not sure if Elon Musk was in the poll–if not, what an electrifying oversight–but he's not lost his sense of fun. In the Tesla CEO's latest move to tweak investors betting against his success, he's started selling red satin "Short Shorts" on Tesla's web site. No word yet on whether he's sent a pair to hedge fund manager David Einhorn, one of the biggest shorters of Tesla stock, as he did two years ago. Order a pair for yourself for $69.420. Yes, he went there again.
Unscrupulous underwriters unmasked. Florida last week became the first state to adopt legislation limiting the use of DNA tests by life, disability, and long-term care insurers. "Your genetic code should only be shared with your explicit consent and it should not be used to determine the cost and kinds of insurance coverage available to you," state CFO Jimmy Patronis said.
Can you see me now? After conquering India's wireless market and raising over $15 billion from some of the world's leading investors, Reliance Jio is expanding–no surprise. The company launched a Zoom video conferencing rival called JioMeet last week. Calls can last for up to 24 hours (quite the gabfest), and are encrypted and password-protected. I'll wait for the security folks to weigh in on that claim, though.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Apple is possibly the most influential company on digital design in the world, so when they reveal a big change in philosophy, it's worth taking note. Game developer Michael Flarup takes a deep dive into the new design of MacOS Big Sur in an essay he calls "The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design."
Given the chance of a redesign on the mac, Apple did not choose minimalism as the single guiding design pillar. In fact, they doubled down on expressiveness, added depth, gaussian blur shadows, angled lighting and real lifelike objects. Sure, it’s not consistent and we lost some expressiveness elsewhere (🥃 pour one out for detailed toolbar icons), but generally this is like a green light turning on for more expressiveness and ultimately more fun in visual design. They didn't just keep this for nostalgia's sake, they developed it further. They advanced it and are pushing it out to millions of Mac users later this year.
With this approach Apple is legalising a visual design expressiveness that we haven’t seen from them in almost a decade. It’s like a ban has been lifted on fun. This will severely loosen the grip of minimalistic visual design and raise the bar for pixel pushers everywhere. Your glyph on a colored background is about to get some serious visual competition.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How realtors are giving virtual home tours in the absence of open houses during the pandemic By David Z. Morris
Netflix and the importance of Black-owned banks By Ellen McGirt
Why Google’s Fitbit acquisition will be tough to stop By Aaron Pressman
Silicon Valley companies are rethinking in-office perks for a post-pandemic era By Michal Lev-Ram
The case for going all-in on remote work By Brian Kardon
The must-have gear, gadgets, and accessories for safer summer travel By Rachel King
101 Great Things About America (2020 Edition) By Andrew Nusca and Fortune Staff
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
Italian composer and Hollywood legend Ennio Morricone died on Monday at the age of 91, leaving a legacy of hundreds of movie scores that may never be equaled. YouTube has a great highlights reel for Morricone. The man who wrote the music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America, and The Untouchables had a touch of modesty, too. "Compared to classical composers like Bach, Frescobaldi, Palestrina or Mozart, I would define myself as unemployed,” he once told the New York Times.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com


fortune--2020-07-06--The great workplace testing dilemma—Why some companies are screening employees for COVID-19, while o

The great workplace testing dilemma—Why some companies are screening employees for COVID-19, while others have opted out

From nursing homes in New York and a landfill in Utah to Disney World and the Las Vegas Strip, employers are wrestling with workplace safety in the age of Covid-19 and making fraught calculations about how to safeguard both their businesses and their employees.
Mass testing, a critical tool to stem the virus’s spread, would appear an obvious solution.
But dogged by issues of cost — diagnostic tests start at around $100 each — access, logistics and employee privacy, tests aren’t part of most back-to-work plans. As health-care companies that work with employers in this capacity are fond of saying, there’s no silver bullet.
Subscribe to How To Reopen, our weekly newsletter on what it takes to reboot business in the midst of a pandemic.
Another major deterrent is that Covid-19 tests only measure that point in time, notes Lauren Vela, senior director for the Pacific Business Group on Health, which represents large employers like Microsoft Corp. and Walmart Inc. If a worker is infected shortly after being tested, it wouldn’t show up but everyone would be falsely reassured by the negative result.
Testing is “not really available, feasible or easy, and it’s not a solution you can do for every employee, every day,” Vela said.
So instead employers are favoring lower-cost, easier-to-implement interventions like temperature checks and symptom screening while also stocking up on masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes. While those measures help, asymptomatic individuals could still transmit the virus.
Health-care startup Buoy Health has been working with employers on Covid workplace issues. Only a few are taking an on-site testing approach.
“The cost of the test at scale is pretty prohibitive,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew Le said.
But at Walt Disney Co. theme parks, actors working the live shows are demanding screenings before they return.
Performers sing, dance and hand things to each other, noted Kate Shindle, president of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union that represents cast members at Broadway shows and Disney’s Florida resorts.
“There’s lot of people who can do their work when they’re wearing a mask and gloves. Our people can’t do that,” Shindle said in an interview. “It’s just very important to our membership, who otherwise is overwhelmingly eager to get back to work.”
In a June 24 letter to its unions in California, Disney said it doesn’t think testing is a good idea, citing a high rate of false negatives and concerns that it creates “a false sense of security,” among other factors. Instead, it’s focusing on physical distancing, wearing effective face coverings, hand washing and sanitization.
‘Not in Control’
Intermountain Regional Landfill in Utah, located about an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City, has made a different calculation. Cases in the state have surged in recent weeks and an employee recently had to stay home for three days because of a potential exposure through a family member who ended up testing negative.
That was “not only cumbersome and a loss of productivity, but really frustrating to know we’re not in control of it,” said Chief Financial Officer Adam Campbell.
Intermountain processes over four million pounds of waste a day and operations are easily disrupted even if only a few workers got sick. In the worst-case scenario, should infection hit all 15 employees and force a total work suspension, the business would face estimated losses of about $20,000 a day.
So Intermountain decided to test its workforce. It’s working with Atlas ID, a software company that had focused on employment verification systems before the pandemic, to work out how often to test and in which scenarios. It’ll cost about $2,000 a round.
“We could be testing for years at a high level and never even touch just missing one day’s worth of having to divert our waste,” Rob Richards, the landfill’s president and general manager, said.
Insurance Help?
At nursing homes and assisted living facilities, which an analysis by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity found account for 45% of virus deaths in the U.S., testing employees is mandatory for many. But the bill quickly adds up.
Len Russ owns Bayberry Care Center in New Rochelle, New York. His roughly 100 employees were tested twice a week for five weeks, at a cost of $20,000 a week. The screening did identify at least six sick employees, but Russ is still waiting to see how to cover the $100,000 tab. The lab that processed the tests will try billing employees’ insurance, though Russ said he doesn’t expect them to cover repeat testing.
Keene Valley Neighborhood House, an assisted living facility in upstate New York, has had success billing insurance, according to executive director Richard Rothstein. But employers are ultimately likely to bear these costs themselves through higher premiums.
Employers, many of whom are already facing massive losses from shutdowns, often find the cost doesn’t make sense. Antigen testing, which screens for active infections and provides rapid and cheap results, has promise but is only beginning to come to market.
Although antibody tests, which screen for past infections and are easier for labs to scale up, seemed like a solution, it isn’t clear what sort of immunity antibodies grant. And after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said antibody tests shouldn’t be used in deciding to send people back to work, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued a statement telling employers they can’t require the tests. Diagnostic tests for current infections are permitted.
South of Los Angeles, EB Design builds decorative interiors for hotels and high-end restaurants, a group that was “basically decimated” during shutdowns, owner Eric Beneker said. He decided to test his 20 employees biweekly to ensure their safety, but couldn’t find information or resources on how to do it.
The company ended up booking appointments through facilities set up by local governments. It’s been time-consuming, though, as there were few open slots and long turnaround times. And they had to mislead the sites to get in because individuals have to be symptomatic to get tested.
“Is it the honest thing to do?” Beneker said. “Probably not, but we don’t have any other choice, and we’re not given any other choice.”
In May, two employees tested positive and EB Design closed down. The company paid a private lab to re-test everyone. It cost about $3,000 total, around 10% of the company’s payroll. It turned out neither had Covid-19. Could the company field that kind of bill regularly? “Hell no,” Beneker said.
“The problem is we’re so far down the road here with reopening of the economy,” he said. “While we’re trying, and we’re doing our best, we’re not getting the tools” needed to help.
Logistical challenges abound — results often take days or over a week to come in, supplies continue to be limited — but privacy issues often weigh as heavily.
Suffolk Construction partners with Buoy Health on its workplace safety plan. A testing facility is available as needed, but the builder isn’t implementing mass screenings, Executive Vice President Alex Hall said, citing privacy concerns and the limited usefulness of the results.
“We get it. There’s an element of Big Brother around this situation anyway,” Hall said. “We want to be mindful of how people are feeling.”
The battle is also playing out in Vegas, where cases have surged since casinos began reopening last month.
Managers, unions and other business leaders created a program with a hospital to test workers at the convention center. But it isn’t mandatory, according to Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which represents casino employees.
While Caesars Entertainment Corp. has made testing mandatory after a worker died from the virus in June, others haven’t. Khan said the union is pushing for regular testing and on Monday, it sued Harrah’s hotel, operated by Caesars, and MGM Resorts International’s Bellagio for not adequately protecting workers.
MGM said it’s working with health-care professionals to develop safety protocols, including mandatory testing for anyone with symptoms or exposure, as well as free ones for anyone who wants a test. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of everyone inside of our properties,” the company said.
At a press conference last week, a bellman at The Signature at MGM Grand hotel spoke about falling ill in June.
“It was three months that we did social distancing, that we did lockdown in Las Vegas,” Sixto Zermeno said. “I go back to work, three days later I’m sick on the fourth day.”


fortune--2020-07-06--Samsung made a closet that disinfects your clothes

Samsung’s newest appliance on the U.S. market seems tailor-made for pandemic life—that is if you still have the need to regularly clean your work wear.
Behold the AirDresser, a self-service cleaning mechanism designed for the home closet that cleans and dries clothes, while eliminating odors and up to 99.9% of bacteria in all types of clothing and fabrics. Although first announced in 2018, and since released elsewhere around the world including the U.K. and Russia, the AirDresser’s arrival stateside is almost prescient as American consumers are more concerned than ever about keeping all of their belongings as disinfected as possible without having to leave the house to go to the dry cleaner.
“We’re seeing that consumers are looking for better clothing-care options, and there’s need in the marketplace for an easy and effective home solution for gently refreshing and sanitizing clothes,” says Shane Higby, vice president for home appliance product marketing at Samsung Electronics America.
Higby suggests the ideal customer is anyone who’s looking to help increase the life span of his or her clothes, while saving time and money on refreshing garments in between washes or trips to the dry cleaner.
The AirDresser reduces wrinkles, sanitizes, and gently dries to eliminate odors and 99.9% of bacteria in all types of clothing and fabrics. Courtesy of Samsung
The AirDresser doesn’t completely eliminate the need for dry-cleaning, but it should help refresh and disinfect your wardrobe in between trips to the dry cleaner.
The AirDresser comes with three hangers (a.k.a. “Air Hangers”), which can hold up to six hanging garments, including pants. There’s also an accessory rack built into the door that can hold scarves and ties, and a shelf ideal for items that can’t be hung, such as hats, sweaters, and toys.
The three Air Hangers release air and steam throughout the AirDresser to refresh clothes, remove dust and odors, and reduce light wrinkles from the inside and out. Users can choose among four general cycles, three dry cycles, nine special cycles (for suits, winter coats, wool, fur, and leather), and six additional cycles for denim, bedding, and more.
The AirDresser is approximately 73 inches tall, 18 inches wide, and 24 inches deep, and it weighs about 200 pounds. Courtesy of Samsung
The Sanitize cycle offers high-temperature steam that penetrates clothes to eliminate bacteria and dust mites from fabrics. For delicates, the gentle and lower-temperature Heat Pump Drying function reduces the risk of heat damage and shrinking. And the odor-elimination technology and deodorizing filter removes stubborn odors that linger in fabrics, like smoke, perspiration, and food. Users can also insert a dryer sheet into the built-in Fresh Finish compartment to leave garments smelling fresh and reduce static cling.
“The purpose of the AirDresser was always to provide consumers with a more convenient and cost-efficient at-home solution to care for their clothes,” Higby says. “Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the sanitization features and convenience of the product are even more relevant, so consumers can ensure hard-to-clean items like jackets and other outerwear, bedding, and even soft children’s toys are sanitary from the comfort of home.”
The AirDresser was first launched in 2018 in South Korea, and was made available in global markets, including the U.K. and Russia, earlier this year. Courtesy of Samsung
The AirDresser connects via Wi-Fi to Samsung’s SmartThings App, which will recommend the best cycle based on the garment and fabric type, and the app will send a notification when the cycle is complete and garments are ready.
The portable closet is designed to fit into the home easily, plugging into a standard U.S. 120-voltage outlet and using a refillable water reservoir, meaning no separate water lines are needed.
The new Samsung AirDresser is now available in the U.S. with a $1,500 price tag.


fortune--2020-07-06--The cast of ‘Psych 2: Lassie Come Home’ on making their ‘family whole again’

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“It’s like being wrapped up in a nice warm green Psych Snuggie,” says Dulé Hill.
“It’s like coming home,” says Maggie Lawson.
That’s how the cast of Psych feels about resuming their roles for their new movie, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, which debuts on NBCUniversal’s Peacock when it launches nationwide July 15. As the title suggests, the movie centers on Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), also known as “Lassie.”
Outside of a small cameo, Lassiter was largely absent from the first Psych film (2017) because Omundson had recently suffered from a massive stroke. But the cast and crew of Psych couldn’t imagine making a second movie without him.
“There was no way we were doing another Psych movie without Tim,” says James Roday, who plays Shawn Spencer and cowrote the film. “So it was really just a matter of checking in with him, getting a sense of where he was, what he was going to be comfortable or not comfortable in building a story around what we all felt like Tim could handle.”
“It was very emotional. It was having our family whole again,” Lawson (Juliet O’Hara) tells Fortune. “While we had a great time on the first movie, not having our whole family together and not having Tim there, we really felt that.”
“It was absolutely touching to see…his strength, his fortitude, his courage, and his determination to keep pressing forward in the midst of this atrocious obstacle that was thrown his way,” adds Hill (Burton “Gus” Guster). “He really is one of my heroes.”
“Psych 2: Lassie Come Home,” on Peacock, features James Roday (left) as Shawn Spencer and Dulé Hill as Gus Guster. James Dittinger—Peacock
Psych, the series, debuted on USA in 2006. The detective dramedy ran for eight seasons before the first film, Psych: The Movie, was made. As time went on, the cast’s characters became second nature to them, and more and more of their own personalities began to trickle onto the show. Hill describes it as something of a “give and take” and a “tennis match between the actors and the writers.”
“We all approached it from the beginning as creating a character and playing a character, and then you wake up, and you’ve been doing it for the better part of a decade, and it’s almost impossible not to have little quirks and inside jokes and pieces of you start to blur with the character you’ve been playing,” Roday says. “And then you realize that every joke you make with your costars is now in the show.”
Psych’s fans are a dedicated bunch, and the actors think they’ll be satisfied with what Lassie Come Home has to offer.
“I’m relatively confident that they’re going to be overwhelmingly ecstatic with watching the movie. I think there’s a lot of funny moments in there,” says Hill. “Seeing Tim back on the screen—that alone is the cake, the icing, and the cherry on top.”
The possibility of another movie also remains: “Our fans have kept us around this long, and if the appetite is still there, and they want us to keep coming back, I think I can speak for all of us when I say we’ll always figure out how to do it on our end,” says Roday.
As far as the series’ enduring appeal for its fan base is concerned, he thinks it has something to do with “an element to Psych that is a celebration of all things good.”
From left: Lawson, Omundson, Roday, and Hill in the “Bollywood Homicide” episode of “Psych” from 2009. Alan Zenuk—USA Network
“When society around us folds in on itself as it is currently, and we always face our own individual struggles on our own journeys, having something that you can consistently rely upon—it doesn’t have to be a TV show—whatever it is that reminds you that there is good, becomes invaluable,” says Roday.
“We realized, ‘Oh, we have families watching this show together. We have families who are struggling to connect six days a week, but for one evening they can all sit together in their living room and feel that connection, and bond over watching a television show,’” he adds.
“And I think once we realized that that was part of our journey—our collective journey on this show—it came with a certain responsibility to not mess that up and to lean into that,” he says. “And that’s, I think, another reason why we’ll always come back and do more, as long as the appetite is there, because we should be so lucky to be a part of this.”


fortune--2020-07-06--David Schwimmer and costar Nick Mohammed on their new workplace comedy ‘Intelligence’

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A new workplace comedy from across the pond, featuring a familiar face, is coming to Peacock when the NBCUniversal streaming service launches nationally on July 15.
Intelligence, set inside the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), stars David Schwimmer as Jerry Bernstein, an NSA agent who comes over from the U.S. to work with the cybersecurity team. Of course, high jinks ensue amid the culture-clashing “fish-out-of-water” scenario.
Jerry’s an “alpha male” who’s “arrogant and pompous and narcissistic and racist, sexist, homophobic—very patriotic, mostly because he has never been out of the country and speaks no other language,” says Schwimmer, describing the role as a departure for him.
“I think it’s an opportunity to have a laugh at and really examine this kind of person and this kind of power dynamic that exists,” says the actor, who recently spoke to Fortune along with costar and show creator Nick Mohammed (who plays systems analyst Joseph Harries).
“It’s about this sort of group of social misfits, but you’ve got this huge backdrop because of the nature of what they do in national security,” Mohammed says of how he came up with the setting, while also trying to differentiate the show from other workplace sitcoms. “Whilst they’re dealing with some really tragic and difficult things, you’ve also got Linda’s retirement drinks in the next cubicle, or it’s someone’s birthday, or they’re organizing the Christmas party.
“For me, it was a juxtaposition of those two things that made it a really interesting area, and the fact that you’ve got this culture clash with David’s character coming in as an NSA agent into a quintessentially British institution—it just felt like a real recipe to create a ‘pressured’ environment,” he adds.
“Intelligence,” which is coming to Peacock, is a new workplace comedy set in the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters. Series creator Nick Mohammed (left) and David Schwimmer (right) star in the show. SKY UK
Because GCHQ’s work is fairly secretive, Mohammed says the writers had room to “play with people’s expectations” of what they may think the organization does. But while what viewers see on TV will include some absurdities heightened for laughs, creating the show involved research that helped root it in reality. Even so, some findings—like the fact that GCHQ has a choir and does bake sales—did get left out, Mohammed says.
“Some of the actual true things that we found, we just didn’t put in because we felt that it would look like we’d overwritten the sitcom,” he explains.
The series came about after Mohammed and Schwimmer entertained the possibility of working together. Schwimmer says he went to London at some point to do some improvisation for a show Mohammed was working on with actress and writer Julia Davis; the pair were toying with adding an “American hotshot producer” as a character.
“I became an instant fan of Nick’s, and I think we both recognized we had real chemistry as actors,” Schwimmer says.
The original concept never took off, but Schwimmer says Mohammed emailed him the idea for Intelligence a year later.
“I was like, ‘I’m in,’” he says, laughing. “I thought the idea was hysterical. I thought the characters were great.”
Intelligence has already aired in the U.K., and Mohammed is in the process of writing the second season.
“We were supposed to be shooting right now, but of course because of COVID, we’ve pushed it to the fall,” Schwimmer says. “It’s fun in that we get to kind of launch season one [in the U.S.] while working on season two scripts.”
“It sort of feels like Groundhog Day,” Mohammed says of promoting the show in the U.S. in recent weeks, while admitting he had initially been a little nervous about the show’s stateside debut on Peacock. “Now we get to relive it again—I’m just hoping that you guys like it as well.”


fortune--2020-07-06--Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson reflects on the lessons of former employee Amy Cooper

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Ghislaine Maxwell is arrested, Thrive Causemetics could be the next big beauty deal, and Franklin Templeton’s CEO reflects on the lessons of her former employee Amy Cooper. Have a productive Monday.
– Lessons learned. The $700 billion asset manager Franklin Templeton was one of the earliest companies to respond to racial injustice when, about a week before nationwide protests over police violence and racism began, its own employee, Amy Cooper, called 911 on Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper in Central Park.
In an exclusive interview with Fortune‘s Susie Gharib, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson—the fourth member of her family and first woman to run the business—reflects on that incident and the past few months of greater corporate reckoning with discrimination and racism.
“We concluded that this was not consistent with our values as a firm, and frankly we knew we needed to make a swift decision. There wasn’t a lot else to debate once you’ve decided that was the situation,” Johnson says of her fast decision to fire Cooper.
When Franklin Templeton’s $4.5 billion deal to acquire Legg Mason closes as is expected this year, Regina Curry, the chief diversity officer for that firm, will begin reporting to Johnson and serve in the same role for the new $1.5 trillion asset manager. Johnson says she has been leaning on Curry already, “tapp[ing] into her expertise as we’ve been trying to respond to some of the issues, including our own within Central Park.” Johnson hopes Curry will help Franklin Templeton reach a wider candidate pool of potential hires.
Susie asked Johnson to reflect on responding to these kinds of social issues as a CEO—something her father and grandfather didn’t have to do when they led the family business. “Every CEO should carry that responsibility today,” she said. “I certainly do.”
Watch Susie’s full interview with Johnson here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Epstein arrest. Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested on Thursday and charged with recruiting and grooming underage girls on behalf of Epstein—and for engaging in sexual abuse herself. (Maxwell has denied wrongdoing in the past.) She is scheduled to appear in court in New York this week.
- Stake for sale. Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, No. 44 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women International list, has reportedly struggled to sell a stake in the $3.8 billion Louis Dreyfus Holding company after borrowing $1 billion to buy out family members. Louis-Dreyfus is reportedly reluctant to give up control with any sale. Bloomberg
- A Thriving business. Karissa Bodnar, 31, founded the vegan beauty brand Thrive Causemetics in 2015. Now, the company with $150 million in revenue is seeking a possible sale or IPO on the heels of some other high-profile beauty deals (namely, the Kardashians'.) Bloomberg
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Amy Emmerich resigned as global president and chief content officer at Refinery29 following an investigation into the brand's work environment. Luggage brand Away said that Steph Korey would depart as co-CEO by the end of the year; Korey resigned after an investigation into Away's workplace last year, but later returned to the company. WNYC staff have protested the recent appointment of Audrey Cooper, the former editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, as editor-in-chief, objecting to her lack of experience in New York and in public radio; staff had also asked for a non-white leader.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Remote woes. Young women in finance are eager to get back to the physical office, worried that they're missing out on networking opportunities that have become even harder to break into remotely. Bloomberg
- Hard-fought victory. Jonathan Irons, the man whose freedom Maya Moore left her basketball career to fight for, was released from prison last week after his sentence was overturned. Moore's fight for justice follows a long tradition of female athletes advocating for causes—and, with lower profiles than male athletes to begin with, sometimes not seeing that work amplified. New York Times
- We all scream? Another female-founded business has been accused of fostering a toxic work environment. This time around, it's the Museum of Ice Cream, founded by Maryellis Bunn. Employees allege that Bunn "manages by intimidation, verbally accosting employees and publicly berating them for mistakes, while ignoring the expertise of older, more experienced hires." Bunn denied the allegations. Forbes
- Tale of two interviews. Two moms working while taking care of children during lockdown had live TV segments interrupted by kids last week, a la BBC Dad, with very different results. During one interview, the host cut off foreign affairs editor Deborah Haynes when her son appeared. In the other, a host let professor Clare Wenham finish talking while her daughter wandered around. New York Times
ON MY RADAR
Boeing’s top spokesman resigns over 1987 view on women in combat Bloomberg
Meghan felt 'unprotected' amid 'false' media claims, court documents suggest BBC
Meet Glamour's 2020 college women of the year Glamour
As a Black woman, I know too much about white hair Elle
PARTING WORDS
"AO 2017 champions 🤩."
-The Australian Open on Twitter, captioning photos of Serena Williams and her daughter Olympia on the tennis court. Williams was pregnant when she won the Australian Open in 2017.


fortune--2020-07-07--Flying into London Heathrow any time soon? You may be subjected to a coronavirus swab

If you ’ re reading this , Beijing says its new Hong Kong security law applies to you

London’s Heathrow airport plans to conduct trials of a coronavirus testing procedure that could allow the scrapping of quarantine rules for people arriving from territories including the U.S.
The pilot program would be offered as a private service, with swabs taken by nurses from Collinson Group at a facility run by ground-handling firm Swissport International AG. Passengers would go on to their place of quarantine with the results made available within 24 hours.
“The government made a significant step forward last week by removing quarantine for visitors from many countries, but we still need a solution that safely allows passengers to travel to and from higher risk countries,” Heathrow Chief Executive Officer John Holland-Kaye said in a statement.
U.K. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said last week in Parliament that the government is in touch with Swissport and will consider backing the plan for a trial. The PCR or Polymerase Chain Reaction tests would cost about 150 pounds ($187) and are recognized as effective by Britain’s National Health Service, according to a Heathrow spokesman.
Britain on Friday announced the lifting of the 14-day self isolation rule for passengers arriving from 74 territories including most of Europe and long-haul locations including Australia, Japan and Hong Kong. Countries which continue to have a high incidence of Covid-19 cases were excluded, the U.S. among them.
The International Air Transport Association has cited a passenger survey as indicating that the U.K. quarantine is as off-putting for would-be travelers as the pandemic itself. Airlines and leisure firms serving Britain have said the restrictions have prevented them from making the best of the disrupted summer season as lockdowns ease.
Heathrow has cut 500 management posts and begun talks about departures among its 5,500 front-line workers. Zurich-based Swissport said last month it plans to cut 4,500 jobs in Britain as the world’s biggest provider of airport handling services responds to a collapse in demand for travel.