fortune--2020-08-05--Everything to know about Instagram Reels, Facebook’s new TikTok rival

As video app TikTok scrambles to find a buyer for its U.S. business amid threats by President Trump to shut it down, Facebook is rolling out a copycat.
Facebook-owned Instagram on Wednesday debuted its TikTok rival, Reels, in the U.S. and nearly 50 other countries. The service lets users share 15-second clips, which, in some cases, disappear after 24 hours.
The new feature comes as TikTok, which has a huge international following, tries to salvage its U.S. business. Trump threatened to shut down the app in the U.S. if ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, failed to sell it by Sept. 15.
Microsoft is negotiating to buy the service, but it’s unclear if an agreement, estimated to be worth $50 billion, will be reached by the deadline. Other companies may also be trying to acquire parts of TikTok’s business.
Facebook, meanwhile, has stayed relatively quiet about TikTok’s sale. Because of intense scrutiny from antitrust regulators, Facebook is an unlikely buyer.
Instagram said it created its TikTok clone in response to user demand for the feature. In prelude to the official launch, Instagram has been recruiting influencers, many reportedly from TikTok, to join Reels by offering to pay them enough to cover the cost of producing new videos.
Still, Instagram is pitching Reels as slightly different from TikTok. It said creators would be able to tap their existing Instagram followers and that they would be able to use editing tools like one that lets creators align objects in previous clips to create a smooth transition for viewers into the next clip.
Instagram also says its Explore tab, which helps users discover other accounts they may want to follow, lets users more broadly distribute their videos and quickly gain new followers.
But in general, Reels is very similar to TikTok, offering the same 15-second limit for videos, a music library to incorporate into clips, and the ability to upload original audio.
Over the past two years, the service has been tested in Brazil. And more recently that pilot expanded to France, Germany, and India. Instagram has not said how many people used the feature during those tests.
In creating Reels within Instagram, Facebook is likely trying to tap Instagram’s younger user demographic. TikTok’s rapid rise was partly due to its acceptance with teens, who initially joined to create and share short dance videos.
Although TikTok is still relatively small compared to Facebook, which generated $70.7 billion in revenue last year, TikTok continues to grow rapidly. In the first half of the year, the number of TikTok downloads jumped 132% year-over-year to nearly 49 million, according to mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower, versus just a 9% gain for Instagram, to 23.2 million downloads.


fortune--2020-08-05--Fortune is adding a new dimension to its Most Powerful Women list

What would it be like if the Internet suddenly went dark ?

This is the web version of The Broadsheet, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Cori Bush has an AOC moment, Rihanna talks Fenty Skin, and Fortune is shaking up its MPW lists. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
– A list fit for 2020. For more than 20 years, Fortune has compiled its Most Powerful Women lists to highlight the world’s leading female executives and call attention to their contributions to the business community.
To determine the two rankings—one of U.S.-based executives and one of executives based outside the U.S.—Fortune editors have long leaned on four criteria: the size and importance of the woman’s business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of the woman’s career, and her social and cultural influence.
But a year like 2020 requires a shake-up. This year Fortune is adding a new factor to our original four: how an executive wields her power to shape her company and the wider world for the better. Did she introduce hazard pay for frontline employees during the pandemic? Has she instituted gender/racial pay parity? Or maybe she’s measurably reduced the company’s carbon footprint?
The coronavirus pandemic and the world’s reckoning with racism have demanded that leaders act in ways that don’t always show up on an earnings report; in fact, they’ve demanded that, at times, earnings take a back seat. Fortune is eager to consider leaders who’ve met this extraordinary moment as we determine what it means, right now, to be a powerful woman in business.
As we embark on this project, we urge you to help. Here you will find a form where you can nominate female executives at for-profit, private sector businesses who merit consideration. The deadline is Aug. 24.
We look forward to receiving your suggestions and sharing the 2020 MPW lists with you in the November issue, appearing online in October.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Upset city. In Missouri's primary on Tuesday, nurse and Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush ousted Rep. William Lacy Clay in another stunning upset of the Democratic establishment. Meanwhile, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib holds an early lead against her Democratic primary challenger Brenda Jones, but final results aren't expected until later today. In New York, longtime Rep. Carolyn Maloney held onto her Democratic nomination in results determined six weeks after the state's primary.
- Creative juices. Fast Company's new list of this year's most creative people in business features a cover devoted to Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who has fought against the dangers of unregulated facial recognition in Big Tech. Other listees include Monica Lewinsky, Mozilla chief innovation officer Katharina Borchert, WNBA star and president of the players' association Nneka Ogwumike, and more. Fast Company
- Stepping forward. In the 1990s, Lee Eun Kyung was on the panel of judges that oversaw South Korea's first-ever sexual harassment case, argued by Park Won-soon, the mayor of Seoul who died by suicide last month after he was accused of sexual harassment. Now Lee, a longtime advocate for women's rights, is speaking out about the case against Park: "It’s risky for me to speak publicly to the press about this issue, but I wanted to talk. I wanted to give power to the victim in the small way that I can," she says. Time
- Skin in the game. In a new Harper's Bazaar cover story, Rihanna talks about developing Fenty Skin, the new skincare line she launched in July to complement Fenty Beauty. "It takes a long time," she says of what's different about skincare compared to makeup. Harper's Bazaar
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Oxiris Barbot resigned as New York City health commissioner, reportedly citing her "deep disappointment" in Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Amy O'Keefe, CFO of Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, joins WW International in the same role. Christina Smedley, most recently VP, brand and marketing for Facebook's digital wallet Novi, joins Robinhood as CMO. Glassdoor promoted Bhawna Singh to chief technology officer and SVP of engineering; Samantha Zupan to SVP of corporate communications; and Amanda Runner to SVP of marketing. Quantcast added American Advertising Federation COO Constance Cannon Frazier to its board of directors. Affiliated Managers Group added Tracy A. Atkinson, a retired State Street executive, to its board. Joanne Phoenix joined Glyconics' board of directors. Kite Pharma's Bethany Dudek joins Arcutis Biotherapeutics as VP of quality. VoteAmerica named Aisha McClendon national constituencies director.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Good sports. Brown University is facing pressure over its recent decision to demote five women's sports from varsity to club status. A Rhode Island judge ordered the school to submit all related documentation as civil rights groups question whether the university violated agreements related to gender equity in sports. Bloomberg
- #GymnastAlliance. Gymnasts around the world have started using the hashtag #GymnastAlliance to share their own experiences of abuse and toxic environments following the release of Athlete A, the Netflix documentary about USA Gymnastics. New York Times
- Lessons from Milwaukee. Jeanette Kowalik is Milwaukee's health commissioner—and her city declared racism a public health crisis in the city a year ago, long before the current burst of wider attention to issues of racial equity. Kowalik is now responding to the pandemic and her other priorities, including making Milwaukee a more livable city for Black women. CityLab
ON MY RADAR
How white nationalists weaponize motherhood The Cut
Can you breastfeed after being teargassed? Slate
The calm voice asking thorny questions in Death, Sex & Money New York Times
PARTING WORDS
"Because I finished it."
-Twilight author Stephenie Meyer on why she decided to publish Midnight Sun, the first Twilight novel in a decade


fortune--2020-08-06--Good news for Kamala Harris: Voters are fine with ambitious women. So why do party gatekeepers still

Good news for Kamala Harris: Voters are fine with ambitious women. So why do party gatekeepers still care?

As gold strikes a record high , analysts think the rally has only just begun

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With the expected date of Joe Biden’s vice presidential decision growing ever nearer, the rumblings that campaign insiders are waging something of a shadow war against Sen. Kamala Harris have grown louder.
In late July, news reports emerged that certain supporters of the presumptive Democratic nominee felt that Harris was “too ambitious” for the job. “She would be running for President the day of the inauguration,” Florida bundler John Morgan told CNBC. The buzz was loud enough that Harris herself seemed to address it on Friday, while speaking via live stream at the Black Girls Lead 2020 conference: “There will be a resistance to your ambition, there will be people who say to you, ‘You are out of your lane.'”
But it seems that voters might think that lane is actually a perfectly good place for Harris and other female politicians to be.
According to research published just last month, most people actually don’t mind ambition in female candidates for office. “Voters don’t have a problem with ambitious women,” says Ana Catalano Weeks, a University of Bath comparative politics professor and coauthor of the July paper “Ambitious Women: Gender and Voter Perceptions of Candidate Ambition.” “This seems to be a problem on the party side.”
Catalano Weeks and coauthor Sparsha Saha, a preceptor at Harvard, asked survey respondents to choose fictional candidates whose genders were specified, each with descriptions that suggested different levels of ambition.
The researchers defined ambition as perceived in political candidates a few ways: progressive ambition, or seeking office and subsequent higher office; personality traits like assertiveness and determination to succeed; and ambitious political agendas.
Catalano Weeks and Saha hypothesized that voters would penalize ambitious women running for office. But they found that wasn’t the case; voters did not treat ambitious women differently than they did ambitious men.
“Norms in society change,” says Catalano Weeks by way of explanation. The general public may have once seen ambition as a negative quality in women—but doesn’t anymore. Concerns over ambition in women from political gatekeepers may then be expressions of their own sexism, or outdated concerns over how voters will react, Saha says. “To what extent are gatekeepers sexist themselves?” Saha asks. “Are they taking action thinking voters will punish ambitious women? Are they really just thinking about electability?”
These academics were inspired to take on this research in 2017 after observing Hillary Clinton’s treatment in the 2016 election, including a hacked email in which Colin Powell described the Democratic nominee as having a “long track record” of “unbridled ambition.”
This cycle, Harris wasn’t the only woman in reported contention for Biden’s ticket to be described as ambitious. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams shocked the political establishment by openly stating that she would accept a VP offer from the Democratic nominee; she told other women of color not to let others “disqualify” their ambition.
The research conducted by Saha and Catalano Weeks did not address how race affects voters’ perception of ambition in candidates, but the pair hope future work will answer that question.
“I wish the story was, ‘Yay, Kamala Harris is ambitious. Isn’t that a great thing?'” Catalano Weeks says.
Adds her coauthor Saha: “It’s just so absurd. Of course these people are ambitious.”


fortune--2020-08-06--How Target creates a great workplace for millennials

Good news for Kamala Harris : Voters are fine with ambitious women .
So why do party gatekeepers still care @

Target is hitting the bullseye when it comes to creating a millennial-friendly workplace culture.
The giant retailer ranked 10th on this year’s ranking of the Fortune Best Workplaces for Millennials, large company category. The ranking is based on research and employee surveys by Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture.
The list was produced based on employee survey data from before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. But Target and other Best Workplaces for Millennials have demonstrated their people-first, caring cultures amid the health crisis and during the racial justice uprising that followed the killing of George Floyd—protests that erupted first in Minneapolis, where Target is headquartered.
Great Place to Work asked Target’s Chief Human Resources Officer Melissa Kremer about the company’s appeal to the millennial generation, as well as about its responses to COVID-19 and the racial justice movement.
Great Place to Work: In your view, why has Target succeeded in creating a great workplace experience for millennials?
Melissa Kremer: We know millennials are focused on purpose-driven companies, and that’s one of their top considerations as they think about the organizations they choose to engage with. Their values closely align with how we’ve invested in putting our purpose and values at the center of our culture.
We also know that millennials value rich and rewarding career experiences and development. They’re eager to learn and grow in their careers and expand their skill sets both formally and informally. We’ve developed a culture of learning, backed by the more than seven million payroll hours that we invest into training each year. That training investment includes a broad portfolio of programs and initiatives that help our millennial team members build skills at all levels and gain rich and rewarding experiences to grow in their careers.
When I think about the richness of our career experiences, we give our team members a great deal of responsibility early in their careers – whether it’s within their role in a store serving guests, or supporting the functions of merchandising or supply chain.
We’ve heard from our millennial team members that they really care about the kind of leader they work for. They don’t want a “boss.” They want a coach who is invested in their career, offering them rich and meaningful always-on feedback so they can continue to learn and grow. Investing in both how our leaders show up as coaches coupled with our learning culture creates an environment that’s compelling for our millennial team members. When you layer that on top of the foundation of our purpose and values, it’s bringing together the things that we know are most important to them.
Is there a story that you can tell that captures what’s working for millennial employees at Target?
A wide spectrum of millennials see Target as an entry-point to lifelong career development. We have a broad portfolio of programs and learning initiatives intended to help them further develop their careers.
One that I’m particularly excited about is a spring internship program that we introduced last year. It focuses on students from non-traditional backgrounds who are pursuing a career change to technology. The goal of the internship program is to close the experience gap with exposure to a real-world corporate environment, while building technical skills and providing the professional development and mentorship that prepares students for positions in Target’s Technology team. It also helps Target explore new avenues for untapped talent.
One of the students from the first class was a millennial-age hairstylist with no background in tech before going back to school to become an engineer. After he completed his internship, he went on to join our Technology Leadership Program and is now an engineer and program manager at Target.
Target Chief Human Resources Officer Melissa Kremer speaks at a company event. Great Place to Work
Target has taken a number of steps to safeguard, recognize and reward employees during the pandemic—including pay raises and support with mental health. Are you seeing millennial-age employees appreciating or taking advantage of these enhanced benefits?
We care for every team member, and their health and safety is our top priority. We’re committed to providing them with the resources they need to take care of themselves and their families. As an employer, we know we play a critical role in enhancing their wellbeing through the benefits we provide. We continue to work to evolve our slate of benefits to ensure we’re helping team members across all life stages meet their needs now and into the future.
We’ve seen strong millennial usage with several free and on-demand resources we’ve invested in to support their mental, emotional and physical health throughout the pandemic. Daylight is a personalized app that helps individuals navigate stress and worry, the Sleepio app provides self-help tools to improve sleep, and Wellbeats offers digital fitness classes.
More than half of the program users for Wellbeats were millennials. When we think about creating a portfolio of benefits for all, these types of offerings are a differentiator for Target.
Within our culture of learning, we’ve seen strong millennial engagement with new online, on-demand learning and development platforms we introduced to help team members navigate work and life and continue to build skills during the pandemic. Specific tools include our Skillsoft learning library and an internally-created Adaptive Leadership site.
These tools and resources help team members strengthen their skills and invest in development topics that are meaningful to them – from coding to communication. They’re also able to grow personally in areas like resilience, empathy and inclusion. We have seen exciting usage with these tools, affirming that our teams are eager to use this time to grow and learn.
We’ve made free backup care available to all U.S. Target team members – a benefit that provides access to childcare or care for another family member. We found that this was especially helpful for our millennial population, as nearly 70% of the users were in that age group.
You “vowed to face pain with purpose” in the wake of the George Floyd killing and civic unrest. Can you say how your pledge and related actions have been received by millennial employees? In what ways have millennial employee contributed to actions you’ve taken as an organization to address issues of racism and injustice?
We’re committed to leading with our purpose and values, listening to our team, and fostering an engaged, diverse, inclusive, purpose-driven culture to make sure our team feels the same joy we aim to provide our guests. Now more than ever, we need diverse perspectives, experiences and backgrounds to help our company continue to advance and serve guests across the country. Our diversity and inclusion efforts span four foundational areas of delivering an inclusive guest experience, an inclusive work environment, a diverse workforce and championing broader societal impact.
We’re listening to our team and guests, including millennials, and using our size, scale and resources to help heal and create lasting change. In response to the murder of George Floyd, we’ve made a number of initial commitments, including investing $10 million to support partners such as the National Urban League and the African American Leadership Forum, which serve many generations. We’re providing 10,000 hours of pro‑bono consulting services for Black- and people of color‑owned small businesses, helping with rebuilding efforts.
We’re also continuing to volunteer and provide essentials to communities most in need. Many of our community volunteers are millennial team members. Additionally, we’ve established a Racial Equity Action Committee comprised of senior leaders across the company to partner with our team members, guests and members of the community to determine Target’s next steps.
We’ve held several listening sessions with our team members with a strong attendance and participation from millennial team members, many of whom shared their own experiences with racism and their commitments to a more just and equitable world for themselves or their children. Many of our millennial team members participate in Diversity Action Committees and business councils, which unite them through a common interest or goal. These groups are organized and managed by team members, for team members, and help to build connections and foster our inclusive culture.
See the full 2020 Best Workplaces for Millennials lists: the 75 Best Large Workplaces for Millennials and the 25 Best Small and Medium Workplaces for Millennials. Also see Great Place to Work’s report Managing Millennials.
A millennial’s perspective
Joya Lewis, 32 is a Target Store Director in Brentwood, Mo. Besides overseeing sales at her store, Lewis sings the company’s praises as an employer in tune with her generation’s focus on authenticity and involvement in decisions.
She also has a treasured memory of giving Target CEO Brian Cornell a store tour. Joya was a human resources business partner at the time, and the store director was out of the country on the date of Brian’s visit.
Joya Lewis, 32, Store Director at a Target store in Brentwood, Mo. Great Place to Work
“My leadership team could have chosen another store director or leader to lead the visit,” Joya recalls. “Instead, they allowed me to help prepare the store and team for a CEO visit, which allowed me to highlight not only the store, but my experiences as well. I had never been so nervous in my life! However, soon after the visit started, Brian took the time to show me a picture of an unbelievable spring Minnesota snowfall that had recently taken place. He made me feel so at ease, and after that, my nerves subsided a bit.”
Ed Frauenheim is the senior director of content at Great Place to Work, and a co-author of A Great Place to Work For All.


fortune--2020-08-06--The pandemic has been good to Wayfair

The pandemic has been good to Wayfair

This is the web version of CEO Daily. To get it delivered to your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning.
Did you buy furniture online during the pandemic? If so, you are in good company. Wayfair, the online home furnishing store yesterday reported an 84% increase in revenues, to $4.3 billion. And it reported a profit, after a long string of losses. Read Phil Wahba’s report here.
It’s also a good time to be a bankruptcy lawyer. Fortune is keeping a list of companies that have filed for bankruptcy. It includes the two companies that have provided most of my work wardrobe in recent decades–Tailored Brands and Brooks Brothers. That makes sense, since all the suits I bought from them have hung unused in my closet since March 12.
And finally, Facebook debuted its new product Instagram Reels, a clear knock-off of controversial app TikTok, which President Trump has threatened to ban over its alleged ties to Beijing. The social media giant apparently hopes the move will help it win back Gen-Zers and Washington at the same time.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Stimulus checks
The White House has warned that Americans won't get another round of stimulus checks unless Democratic and Republican party leaders agree on the terms for another stimulus package by the end of the week. Pretty much everyone agrees about having another round of checks, but they can't see eye-to-eye on unemployment benefits, COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for businesses, and other issues. Fortune
U.S. firewall
The State Department is expanding its "Clean Network" program to: a) disconnect Chinese telecoms carriers from U.S. carriers' networks; b) remove Chinese apps from U.S. app stores; c) stop "untrusted" Chinese phone manufacturers from including "trusted" foreign apps on their phones; d) stop U.S. intellectual property being stored in Chinese cloud services; and e) check that undersea cables connected to the U.S. are not being "subverted for intelligence gathering" by China. Observers have noted echoes of China's own "Great Firewall" censorship program. Quartz
TikTok data
TikTok will invest around €420 million ($499 million) in its Irish operations, specifically in setting up its first European data center there. TikTok's Irish company is now its service provider for all of Europe. So why doesn't TikTok just set up its long-awaited international HQ there? Bloomberg
Trump post
Facebook has for the first time deleted a Donald Trump post. The president's post linked to a Fox News video that showed him saying children are "virtually immune" to the coronavirus. They are not, and Facebook said the post violated its policy against spreading misinformation about the pandemic. Twitter blocked a similar Trump post, too. Fortune
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Biometric data
Senators Bernie Sanders and Jeff Merkley are proposing legislation that would stop private companies from collecting users' and employees' biometric data–such as facial recognition data–without their consent. Advocacy groups such as the ACLU and EFF are backing the proposal. Merkley: "We have to fight against a 'big brother' surveillance state that eradicates our privacy and our control of our own information, be it a threat from the government or from private companies." Reuters
Wirecard death
Christopher Bauer, the co-owner of a Manila-based payments processor that was a key partner of now-collapsed Wirecard, has reportedly died in the Philippines. Bayer, a former Wirecard employee, was under investigation by Philippine authorities over his connection to the scandal-struck German company. The cause of death is not known. Financial Times
Unfit masks
The U.K.'s National Health Service will not use 50 million face masks procured by the government in April as part of a $330 million deal, because they may not fit tightly enough. The masks were purchased from a company called Ayanda Capital, after a government trade adviser–who also advised Ayanda's board–approached the government. BBC
State disparity
The economic recovery is unevenly distributed among U.S. states. Looking at unemployment stats, Kentucky got the V-shaped recovery everyone hopes for, but New York and Massachusetts remain at Great Depression-esque jobless levels. Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.


fortune--2020-08-06--Goldman Sachs warns a vaccine breakthrough could hurt these investors

Investors should consider the risk of a successful coronavirus vaccine unsettling markets by sparking a sell-off in bonds and rotation out of technology into cyclical stocks, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The increased probability of an approved vaccine by the end of November is underpriced by equity markets, wrote strategists including Kamakshya Trivedi in a note Wednesday. Over the next few months, the ramifications of the U.S. election and the evolution of the virus—in part as schools reopen—are also likely to be key drivers of the market, they said.
Approval of a vaccine could “challenge market assumptions both about cyclicality and about eternally negative real rates,” the team wrote, adding such a scenario may support steeper yield curves, traditional cyclicals and banks, while challenging the leadership of technology stocks.
If this happened along with a change in the U.S. administration, emerging market equities could benefit “if trade policy risks diminish while U.S. tax risks rise,” according to the note.
While the strategists suggested it may be too early for investors to position themselves aggressively for such a shift, they recommended options trades as a way to play the theme. For example, some call options on the S&P 500 still look attractive, and Goldman sees upside to around the 3,700 level should there be an early vaccine.
That compares with a potential downside target of 2,200 should there be a significant reversal of activity from a second wave of the virus, the strategists added. The U.S. benchmark closed just under 3,328 on Wednesday.
The Goldman team was more forthright on keeping its bearish view on the dollar.
“The range of outcomes is wide and our highest confidence is still in ongoing U.S. dollar weakness,” they said.


fortune--2020-08-06--Heatwaves could kill as many people as all infectious diseases

This is the web version of Green, Inc, a weekly newsletter on the revolutions in energy, technology, and sustainability. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
The world’s getting warmer and people are feeling the heat. Hong Kong, where I’m basting today in 33°C temps, recorded its hottest month on record in July. Heatwaves have struck Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and even Siberia this year, where temperatures peaked at 38°C and sparked wildfires.
The world’s getting warmer and people are feeling the heat. Hong Kong, where I’m basting today in 33°C temps, recorded its hottest month on record in July. Heatwaves have struck Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and even Siberia this year, where temperatures peaked at 38°C and sparked wildfires.
With global temperatures on the rise, heat-related deaths will increase too—killing as many people a year as all infectious diseases combined, a new report says.
The research from Climate Impact Lab shows worldwide heatwaves could kill an average 73 people per 100,000 in 2100 if climate change is left unabated. That’s the same as the current mortality rate for all infectious diseases. In hotter countries, the rate could be as high as 200 per 100,000.
MIT Technology Review, however, contends the death rate can be lowered by up to 29% if regions invest in air conditioners and other urban cooling structures. But, as Fortune reported in a March feature on the African AC boom, cooling cities poses its own challenges for climate change. Electricity to power those cooling machines often comes from burning fossil fuels, which intensifies the world’s greenhouse effect.
Relying on AC to provide lifesaving cooling isn’t an option for those who can’t afford it. In New York City—which last week instructed the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to begin measuring and reporting on the impact of extreme heat—data already shows people living in low income areas are more likely to die from heatstroke than those in more affluent neighborhoods.
There could be an architectural solution to these issues. Modern skyscrapers, for instance, favor glass facades, which increase the need for air conditioning. Last year, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to ban glass skyscrapers from the city, unless those buildings can meet much stricter requirements for energy efficiency. Debate on whether improvements in glass technology will ever make it energy efficient enough to justify its sweeping usage rages on.
Some architects have begun eschewing the material. Others are crafting building designs that allow for natural cooling—such as The Star shopping complex in Singapore, the curves of which reportedly create a natural breeze.
Figuring out how to cool cities without warming the world is a life and death issue.
More below.
Eamon Barrett
eamon.barrett@fortune.com
CARBON COPY
China's green fund
China’s first dedicated environmental fund raised $12.5 billion in an initial fundraising round last week, according to the Ministry for Environment and Ecology. The National Green Development Fund will be used to invest in (somewhat vague) national strategic programs, such as financing the green development of the Yangtze River basin—a major economic zone currently suffering its worst flooding in decades. Reuters
Oil losses
BP laid out its strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050 on Tuesday, six weeks ahead of schedule, while reporting a $6.7 billion loss for the second quarter. The oil giant committed to no exploration in new countries, lowering gas and oil production 40% by 2030 and developing 50 gigawatts of renewable energy sources by the end of the decade. Rival Shell also reported Q2 losses last week, at $18.4 billion—down from a $3 billion profit the same time last year. CNBC
As easy as ESG
Google parent Alphabet made a record ESG bond sale of $5.75 billion, the largest corporate ESG bond to date. According to Bloomberg, the money raised will be used to fund organizations that support Black entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses impacted by COVID-19, affordable housing, as well as clean energy projects. Bloomberg
How to divest
An investor group managing more than $16 trillion in assets launched the Net Zero Investment Framework this week—a step-by-step action plan for how to align portfolios with the Paris Agreement. Reuters
Emerald green
Ireland’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of an environmental group that sued the Irish government over the country’s climate action plan. The court found that Ireland’s National Mitigation Plan, passed in 2017, failed to provide enough detail on how it would meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. BBC
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
‘Historic opportunity’: Governments are facing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to transition to clean energy by Katherine Dunn
China’s U.S. energy imports are 95% below what it promised in the Phase One trade deal by Eamon Barrett
To recharge America’s job market, build a green electric grid by Saul Griffith and Alex Laskey
America needs a major infrastructure overhaul—and it must be green by Ban-ki Moonand Patrick Verkooijen
How the coronavirus is testing the stakeholder business model by Karen S. Lynch
A call to action for America’s CEOs: Show your commitment to inclusion of people with disabilities by Jill Houghton and Rod Martin
How the government could boost women- and minority-owned businesses—while turning a profit by Dale Mathias and Agnes Dasewicz
CLOSING NUMBER
25%
At least a quarter of Bangladesh is underwater as of last week, as torrential rains caused the Brahmaputra River to break banks while the surrounding basin was saturated. Roughly 4.7 million people have been affected by the floods, losing their homes, while 54 have died. Closer to the coast of Bangladesh, rising seas have consumed whole villages. Worldwide, flooding—particularly coastal flooding—is predicted to increase 50% over the next 80 years. A report last week estimates the rising sea levels threaten assets worth 20% of the world’s GDP.


fortune--2020-08-06--As gold strikes a record high, analysts think the rally has only just begun

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.
Good morning, Bull Sheeters. There are patches of green in Asia (Shanghai) and Europe (Frankfurt), and the U.S. futures are ticking higher. Ahead of the opening bell today, we have jobless claims numbers, which could steal a bit of the thunder from tomorrow’s non-farm payrolls report. Meanwhile, gold climbs and climbs.
Let’s take a look at what’s moving markets.
Markets update
Asia
The major Asia indexes are mixed in afternoon trade with the Shanghai Composite leading the way higher, up 0.3% .
are mixed in afternoon trade with the Shanghai Composite leading the way higher, up . Investors have been growing increasingly wary of rising U.S. – China geopolitical tensions, and China seems to agree it’s pointless. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told state media a “new Cold War” would be a horrible idea .
– geopolitical tensions, and China seems to agree it’s pointless. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told state media a “new Cold War” would be a . Never heard of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co.? The Chinese pharma power is in relatively advanced stages in its COVID-19 vaccine trials, news that’s lifted the stock 256% this year through Wednesday. The stock is the best performer on the ChiNext Index.
Europe
The European bourses were lower out of the gates this morning, before climbing. Germany’s Dax was up 0.2% an hour into the trading session.
were lower out of the gates this morning, before climbing. was up an hour into the trading session. London’s FTSE is the biggest loser, down 1.3% after the Bank of England held rates steady at 0.1% and warned the economy won’t recover to pre-COVID levels until the end of 2021.
is the biggest loser, down after the held rates steady at and warned the economy won’t recover to pre-COVID levels until the end of 2021. TikTok chose Ireland as the location to set up its first European data center, part of a €420 million investment.
U.S.
So much for a sleepy August. U.S. futures again look to extend the equities rally. The Nasdaq finished higher for a sixth straight day, closing at a new record, just below 11,000 .
again look to extend the equities rally. The finished higher for a sixth straight day, closing at a new record, just below . Fiscal stimulus is top of mind for investors, and Round 2 talks on a coronavirus bailout package are still stuck in neutral with the White House signaling the next two days are make or break. Another batch of dismal jobless claims numbers could bring the sides closer together.
is top of mind for investors, and Round 2 talks on a coronavirus bailout package are still with the White House signaling the next two days are make or break. Another batch of could bring the sides closer together. There’s bipartisan support for as much as $25 billion in new aid for the airlines, and President Trump has given his support.
Elsewhere
Gold continues to rack up new records, it’s up 0.6% .
continues to rack up new records, it’s up . The dollar is flat, off its lows.
is flat, off its lows. Crude is sinking.
***
Gold rush
The Nasdaq and gold are both hitting fresh records daily. And, if analysts are to be believed, they both have room for further growth.
Bank of America yesterday reiterated its 18-month forecast of gold at $3,000 per ounce. (At one point, the shiny stuff was trading this morning at a record $2,060/oz.) And, it’s looking increasingly likely the Nasdaq will notch its seventh straight day of gains later today.
But Nasdaq bulls and gold bugs are betting on two very different scenarios. The former sees a post-COVID world that’s digitally powered by big data, virtual meetings and a further investment in the so-called fourth industrial revolution.
Gold is rallying, in large part, because investors are wary about the fragility of the global economy in a post-COVID world. They see a world of more fiscal bailouts, low interest rates and loose monetary policy.
As BofA analysts write, “continued fiscal spending as governments are mending the damage from COVID-19, backstopped by central banks means that interest rates will remain low, at the same time as the economy reflates. Financial repression may be with us for a while, so we reinforce our $3,000/oz.”
Given that logic, the gold rally is one of the easiest trades going these days. Gold is a pretty safe bet as long as lawmakers and central bankers are giving the go-ahead to print money and raise debt to bail out the global economy.
The indicator to watch out for, according to BofA, is nominal interest rates on 10-year Treasurys. When the yield on these notes drop, the price of gold usually goes up. Since the great financial crisis of 2008, this correlation has held steady as the chart below shows.
Investors are piling into the gold rally, and making a killer return. But it’s worth reiterating that the gold bulls are extremely bearish on the future of the global economy.
It’s a bet things will get worse before they get better.
***
Have a nice day, everyone. I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com
As always, you can write to bullsheet@fortune.com or reply to this email with suggestions and feedback.
Today's reads
Tanking tech. Multi-cloud specialist Rackspace raised $700 million in a public share offering yesterday, but it came at a cost. The share price bombed 20%. Fortune's Jonathan Varian explains what went wrong.
Speaking of IPOs. Rocket Cos., the parent of Quicken Loans, is seeing lackluster demand for its IPO, one of the most anticipated tech listings of the year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rocket priced shares at $18, well below expectations, and will offer 100 million shares. It had hoped to sell 150 million shares.
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Market candy
$813
That's the average global sale price for a new 5G smartphone. That's a good 250 bucks more than I spent in April for a new (not quite 5G-ready) iPhone SE, but it's still a big drop in price from what 5G handset enthusiasts were splashing out a year ago. According to the Journal, at this time last year, 5G phones cost, on average, more than $1,200, showing that prices are coming down quickly as the technology gets wider roll-out.


fortune--2020-08-06--The economy is recovering in some states, but others remain at Great Depression-era unemployment lev

The economy is recovering in some states, but others remain at Great Depression-era unemployment levels. Why?

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Employers laid off employees at the fastest clip in U.S. history at the onset of the pandemic, with the unemployment rate soaring from 3.5% in February to 14.7% in April. But as states reopen, that rate had fallen to 11.1% by June.
While a dropping jobless rate points to an improving economy, it also makes it clear we aren’t seeing the much-hoped-for V-shaped recovery—when an economy recovers nearly as fast as it contracted.
But dig a bit deeper and it’s clear that not all recoveries are proceeding equally. They vary immensely by state. In Kentucky, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate soared from 4.2% in February to 16.6% in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But as Gov. Andrew Beshear reopened the Bluegrass State’s economy, the jobless rate sunk to 4.3% by June—the lowest in the nation. That’s a textbook V-shaped recovery.
The swift recovery in Kentucky even caught its state officials by surprise. In May the state projected a $457 million general fund shortfall; however, it ended the fiscal year in June with a $177.5 million surplus. It helped that Kentucky doesn’t rely heavily on industries like leisure and hospitality that were decimated by the pandemic.
Other more rural states like Utah (5.1%), Idaho (5.6%), and North Dakota (6.1%) have jobless rates that also indicate V-shaped recoveries.
Then there are places that have seen little to no recovery. The jobless rate in New Jersey and Massachusetts were at 16.3% and 16.2%, respectively, in April. In June, the jobless rate was 16.6% in New Jersey and 17.4% in Massachusetts—the two highest rates in the nation. New York was the third highest at 15.7% in June. Those rates are on par with the Great Depression era, which saw an average of a 17% jobless rate during the 1930s.
Northeast states like New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were among the early epicenters of the virus and are reopening their economies at much slower rates. On the flip side, the Northeast is not seeing COVID-19 cases spike like other regions.
While states like Kentucky and Utah see V-shaped recoveries, and Northeast states barely move, there are other places firmly in the middle. Look no further than Nevada, which saw its jobless rate soar to 30.1% in April as its hotels and casinos shuttered. As it reopened this summer, that jobless rate fell to 15% in June. That is a fast recovery but still a long way to go from Nevada’s February jobless rate of 3.6%.
On Friday the BLS will release the July U.S. jobless rate, which will tell us if the resurgent COVID-19 cases in the Midwest, South, and West are pulling the economy backward. But we’ll have to wait until later this month to get the July rates on a state level.
But many experts expect to see the rate of recovery in the U.S. slow. Among U.S. chief executive officers, 42% foresee a U-shaped recovery, 26% expect the dreaded L-shaped recovery, and 23% forecast a W-shaped recovery, or a double-dip recession, according to the Conference Board’s most recent survey of CEOs. Only 9% of U.S. CEOs predict a V-shaped recovery.


fortune--2020-08-06--COVID-postponed joint replacements are costing U.S. health systems around $2 billion monthly

Dr. Ira Weintraub, a recently retired orthopedic surgeon who now works at a medical billing consultancy, saw a hip replacement bill for over $400,000 earlier this year.
“The patient stayed in the hospital 17 days, which is only 17 times normal. The bill got paid,” mused Weintraub, chief medical officer of Portland, Oregon-based WellRithms, which helps self-funded employers and workers’ compensation insurers make sense of large, complex medical bills and ensure they pay the fair amount.
Charges like that go a long way toward explaining why hospitals are eager to restore joint replacements to pre-COVID levels as quickly as possible — an eagerness tempered only by safety concerns amid a resurgence of the coronavirus in some regions of the country. Revenue losses at hospitals and outpatient surgery centers may have exceeded $5 billion from canceled knee and hip replacements alone during a roughly two-month hiatus on elective procedures earlier this year.
The cost of joint replacement surgery varies widely — though, on average, it is in the tens, not hundreds, of thousands of dollars. Still, given the high and rapidly growing volume, it’s easy to see why joint replacement operations have become a vital chunk of revenue at most U.S. hospitals.
The rate of knee and hip replacements more than doubled from 2000 to 2015, according to inpatient discharge data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. And that growth is likely to continue: Knee replacements are expected to triple between now and 2040, with hip replacements not far behind, according to projections published last year in the Journal of Rheumatology.
Joint procedures are usually not emergencies, and they were among the first to be scrubbed or delayed when hospitals froze elective surgeries in March — and again in July in some areas plagued by renewed COVID outbreaks. Loss of the revenue has hit hospitals hard, and regaining it will be crucial to their financial convalescence.
“Without orthopedic volumes returning to something near their pre-pandemic levels, it will make it difficult for health systems to get back to anywhere near break-even from a bottom-line perspective,” said Stephen Thome, a principal in health care consulting at Grant Thornton, an advisory, audit and tax firm.
It’s impossible to know exactly how much knee and hip replacements are worth to hospitals, because no definitive data on total volume or price exists.
But using published estimates of volume, extrapolating average commercial payments from published Medicare rates based on a study, and making an educated guess of patient coinsurance, Thome helped KHN arrive at an annual market value for American hospitals and surgery centers of between $15.5 billion and $21.5 billion for knee replacements alone.
That suggests a revenue loss of $1.3 billion to $1.8 billion per month for the period the surgeries were shut down. These figures include ambulatory surgery centers not owned by hospitals, which also suspended most operations in late March, all of April and into May.
If you add hip replacements, which account for about half the volume of knees and are paid at similar rates, the total annual value rises to a range of $23 billion to $32 billion, with monthly revenue losses from $1.9 billion to $2.7 billion.
The American Hospital Association projects total revenue lost at U.S. hospitals will reach $323 billion by year’s end, not counting additional losses from surgeries canceled during the current coronavirus spike. That amount is partially offset by $69 billion in federal relief dollars hospitals have received so far, according to the association. The California Hospital Association puts the net revenue loss for hospitals in that state at about $10.5 billion, said spokesperson Jan Emerson-Shea.
Hospitals resumed joint replacement surgeries in early to mid-May, with the timing and ramp-up speed varying by region and hospital. Some hospitals restored volume quickly; others took a more cautious route and continue to lose revenue. Still others have had to shut down again.
At the NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital in New York City, “people are starting to come in and you see the operating rooms full again,” said Dr. Claudette Lajam, chief orthopedic safety officer.
At St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, California, where the coronavirus is raging, inpatient joint replacements resumed in the second or third week of May — cautiously at first, but volume is “very close to pre-pandemic levels at this point,” said Dr. Kevin Khajavi, chairman of the hospital’s orthopedic surgery department. However, “we are constantly monitoring the situation to determine if we have to scale back once again,” he said.
In large swaths of Texas, elective surgeries were once again suspended in July because of the COVID-19 resurgence. The same is true at many hospitals in Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Nevada.
The Mayo Clinic in Phoenix suspended nonemergency joint replacement surgeries in early July. It resumed outpatient replacement procedures the week of July 27, but still has not resumed nonemergency inpatient procedures, said Dr. Mark Spangehl, an orthopedic surgeon there. In terms of medical urgency, joint replacements are “at the bottom of the totem pole,” Spangehl said.
In terms of cash flow, however, joint replacements are decidedly not at the bottom of the totem pole. They have become a cash cow as the number of patients undergoing them has skyrocketed in recent decades.
The volume is being driven by an aging population, an epidemic of obesity and a significant rise in the number of younger people replacing joints worn out by years of sports and exercise.
It’s also being driven by the cash. Once only done in hospitals, the operations are now increasingly performed at ambulatory surgery centers — especially on younger, healthier patients who don’t require hospitalization.
The surgery centers are often physician-owned, but private equity groups such as Bain Capital and KKR & Co. have taken an interest in them, drawn by their high growth potential, robust financial returns and ability to offer competitive prices.
“[G]enerally the savings should be very good — but I do see a lot of outlier surgery centers where they are charging exorbitant amounts of money — $100,000 wouldn’t be too much,” said WellRithm’s Weintraub, who co-owned such a surgery center in Portland.
Fear of catching the coronavirus in a hospital is reinforcing the outpatient trend. Matthew Davis, a 58-year-old resident of Washington, D.C., was scheduled for a hip replacement on March 30 but got cold feet because of COVID-19, and canceled just before all elective surgeries were halted. When it came time to reschedule in June, he overcame his reservations in large part because the surgeon planned to perform the procedure at a free-standing surgery center.
“That was key to me — avoiding an overnight hospital stay to minimize my exposure,” Davis said. “These joint replacements are almost industrial-scale. They are cranking out joint replacements 9 to 5. I went in at 6:30 a.m. and I was walking out the door at 11:30.”
Acutely aware of the financial benefits, hospitals and surgery clinics have been marketing joint replacements for years, competing for coveted rankings and running ads that show healthy aging people, all smiles, engaged in vigorous activity.
However, a 2014 study concluded that one-third of knee replacements were not warranted, mainly because the symptoms of the patients were not severe enough to justify the procedures.
“The whole marketing of health care is so manipulative to the consuming public,” said Lisa McGiffert, a longtime consumer advocate and co-founder of the Patient Safety Action Network. “People might be encouraged to get a knee replacement, when in reality something less invasive could have improved their condition.”
McGiffert recounted a conversation with an orthopedic surgeon who told her about a patient who requested a knee replacement, even though he had not tried any lower-impact treatments to fix the problem. “I asked the surgeon, ‘You didn’t do it, did you?’ And he said, ‘Of course I did. He would just have gone to somebody else.’”
This story was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


fortune--2020-08-06--Chairman of COVID vaccine maker has world’s fastest-growing net worth

In the fight against the coronavirus, a vaccine trial is almost always a boost for pharma stocks.
Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co. shares have surged 80% since the vaccine maker disclosed at the end of June that China’s drug regulator approved clinical human testing of a COVID-19 vaccine. With a 256% rally this year through Wednesday, the stock is the best performer in the ChiNext Index. It slipped 7.6% as of the midday break on Thursday.
The gains have pushed the fortune of Jiang Rensheng, Zhifei’s chairman, to $19.4 billion, putting him close to entering the exclusive club of China’s 10 richest people that’s dominated by tech and real estate moguls, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth more than doubled in July alone, the fastest surge among the world’s 500 wealthiest people, and is up by $14.4 billion this year. Jiang, 66, owns about 56% of Zhifei.
Wealth isn’t the true measure of success, social responsibility is, Jiang told students at his alma mater in May 2019. His company sells vaccines for diseases such as the flu and meningitis and is China’s sole marketer of a Merck & Co. treatment to prevent cervical cancer.
Zhifei reported net income of 1.5 billion yuan for the first six months of 2020, up 30% from last year. It said its coronavirus vaccine is going through phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.
The company has produced at least another billionaire. Wu Guanjiang, a former director with an 8% stake in the company, has more than doubled his fortune to $4.5 billion this year. Wu left Zhifei’s director board in 2015, according to a filing.
Zhifei didn’t respond to a request for comment.
With the virus outbreak, shares of drugmakers have been on a tear this year, lifting the wealth of their founders and chairmen. A 171% rally in Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products Co. took Chairman Du Weimin’s fortune to $5.4 billion, while his ex-wife, Yuan Liping, is now Canada’s third-richest woman with $5.5 billion.
Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co., whose COVID-19 test got approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has jumped 30-fold since an initial public offering in April, bringing the wealth of its chairman to $19.4 billion.
In the U.S., biotech company Moderna Inc., which is working on a COVID-19 vaccine, has produced at least three billionaires, including professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Its shares have almost quadrupled this year.
While Jiang’s net worth rose the fastest among the world’s 500 richest people in July, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mukesh Ambani all amassed more money than him. They added more than $14.5 billion each to their fortunes last month, according to the Bloomberg wealth index.


fortune--2020-08-06--China says it has no interest in a ‘new Cold War’ with U.S.

China signaled it did not want relations with the U.S. to worsen and urged against the creation of a “new Cold War” as the world’s two biggest economies continue to clash on multiple fronts.
“We reject any attempt to artificially create a so-called ‘new Cold War,’” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in an interview with the official Xinhua News Agency late Wednesday. “Anyone who tries to start a new Cold War in the 21st century will be on the wrong side of history and will only be remembered as the one who has upended international cooperation.”
Tensions between the U.S. and China have heightened in recent months over issues including trade, human rights, and the rise of Chinese technology companies, driving China to say that relations had hit multi-decade lows. Tit-for-tat forced closures of consulates in each country last month were followed by an announcement this week of the highest-level U.S. trip to Taiwan in more than 40 years, a move Beijing said it “firmly opposed.”
“China has no intention to fight a ‘diplomatic war’ with the U.S. as it will only hurt the interests of the two peoples even more,” Wang said. “If the U.S. is bent on going down the wrong path, China is ready to make due response.”
Wang also urged the U.S. to “reject decoupling and uphold cooperation,” saying the interests of both sides were deeply entwined. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has urged U.S. companies to bar Chinese applications from their app stores, part of Washington’s push to banish Chinese technology from American computers and smartphones.
“Forced decoupling will inflict a lasting impact on bilateral relations, and endanger the security of international industrial chains and interests of all countries,” he said.


fortune--2020-08-06--How to get started if you’re opening your first bank account

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Managing your money without a bank account is doable. But it can pose challenges — and the COVID-19 pandemic has only added more.
Your economic impact payment might’ve arrived weeks or months after others’ did, in the form of a check or prepaid debit card, because you couldn’t choose the faster delivery option of direct deposit into a bank account. And if you’ve gone to the store lately, you may have been asked to pay with a debit or credit card or in exact change due to a nationwide shortage of coins and concerns over germ transmission.
A bank account can make life easier in these situations, among others. To avoid future issues, consider opening one — or try again if you’ve been rejected in the past. Here’s a guide to getting started.
Assess your money needs
If you’re one of the 14 million adults without a bank account in the U.S., you might have a system that works for you. Maybe that includes using alternative products such as prepaid debit cards and check cashing services. Financial counselor Brandy Baxter has worked with clients who used check cashing services for practical reasons.
“They preferred to walk in, walk out with cash in hand,” says Baxter, an accredited financial counselor and financial coach who runs the firm Living Abundantly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Check cashing stores like Check ’n Go and ACE Cash Express may operate for longer hours than banks and have easy approval processes to get cash quickly. But this comes with a steep fee, which can range from 1% to 6%, or more, of the check amount.
Bank accounts can fulfill money needs beyond what prepaid cards and check cashing services can. For example, their fraud protections can limit what you pay if you’re victimized, and many accounts let you lock debit cards remotely when stolen.
And once you’ve begun a relationship with a bank, other doors open: Credit cards, auto or small business loans and cheaper alternatives to payday loans may eventually be within reach.
Checking accounts “don’t just help you save costs; they’re the stepping stones to use other financial products,” says David Rothstein, principal at Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, who manages BankOn, a national platform that promotes financial inclusion.
Find a bank that fits you
If you find banks intimidating or have had issues getting an account before, community banks and credit unions tend to be more accommodating than national banks and are often mission-driven — for example, focusing on the financial health of their surrounding communities.
“We’re very lenient at giving someone a second chance,” says Pedro Murillo, area branch manager in the San Francisco Bay Area for Self-Help Federal Credit Union. “If an employee comes in to apply for a loan and doesn’t have pay stubs, what else (can they) show us? A letter from (their) employer? We don’t want to give up.”
Like other credit unions, Self-Help requires a person to open a savings account to become a member; the minimum to open an account is typically a few bucks. Then members can apply for other products, like a credit builder loan.
You can search online for the term “CDFI” — which stands for community development financial institution — to find credit unions like Self-Help near you. Many require those who join to be in the same area or state where the credit union or bank has branches.
What to know about applying
To open an account, you’ll generally need your Social Security number, one or two forms of identification and money for the first deposit.
It’s common to apply for two bank accounts at the same time: a checking and a savings account. The checking account grants access to a debit card, bill payment system and other services, while the savings account lets you set money aside and, ideally, grow by earning interest.
Banks usually screen applicants on ChexSystems, a national reporting agency that keeps records of accounts closed against a person’s will. If you have lost access to a bank account in the past, you might be rejected by other banks until you settle your ChexSystems record. This can mean paying off debt to a bank or disputing errors on the record.
Once you’re cleared, consider what banks often call a second chance checking account or a BankOn-approved checking account. Many of these don’t charge overdraft fees, which kick in if you try paying for something that would put your balance in the negative.
Finding and opening the right bank account involves some effort. But once you’re approved, having a safe place for your money and a better chance to get affordable loans can make it worthwhile.
“To have a checking account… is the cornerstone of any financial empowerment effort,” Rothstein says.
This article originally appeared on the personal finance website NerdWallet. Spencer Tierney is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: spencer.tierney@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SpencerNerd.


fortune--2020-08-06--Everything to know about Uber’s second-quarter earnings

Analysts are honing their Q3 GDP estimates—which will be released just days before the election

Uber’s rides business tumbled as customers stayed home because of the coronavirus pandemic, but that decline was partially offset by rapid growth in food deliveries.
The company’s second-quarter revenue declined 27% to $2.24 billion, roughly in line with analyst estimates. Losses narrowed to $1.8 billion from $5.2 billion during the same quarter last year.
Uber’s shares fell 4% to $33.37 in after-hours trading.
The biggest concern was that revenue from rides bookings, or the amount of money Uber collects before paying drivers, fell 73% year over year to $3 billion for the quarter. But food delivery bookings, which includes the Uber Eats meal delivery service plus grocery deliveries, excluding driver pay and discounts, more than doubled to $7 billion.
“Our delivery business alone is now as big as our rides business was when I joined the company in 2017,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. “We’ve essentially built a second Uber in under three years.”
The news comes as the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on travel-related businesses, including ride-hailing companies. It has been particularly vexing for Uber, which has been trying to reduce its massive losses and deliver on a promise to become profitable, excluding certain expenses, next year.
At the same time, the pandemic has led to explosive growth in food delivery, an industry in which Uber is expected to be the second largest player following its $2.65 billion acquisition of Postmates, just behind rival DoorDash.
Khosrowshahi said though much of the growth in food delivery is due to the coronavirus, he believes that many consumers will continue to use the service after the pandemic ends. He added that the Postmates acquisition will increase Uber’s market share in certain cities as well as improve the choice of restaurants it serves.
Meanwhile, Uber has been working to expand to deliver home products, groceries, and pet supplies.
Monthly active users of Uber Eats during the quarter was up 7%. The amount of money customers spent per order on the service jumped by double digits during the quarter.
Though Uber’s delivery services are growing, the business segment remains highly unprofitable. Losses for the segment, minus expenses, narrowed 19% to $232 million compared to the same quarter last year.
Khosrowshahi said that like the rides business, it’s only a matter of time before the food delivery profit margins improve. However, he didn’t say when that improvement would happen.
“We stand purely on the belief that pure-play delivery can and will be profitable,” Khosrowshahi said. “It’s only a question of when.”
As for rides, Khosrowshahi tried to reassure investors that the lull is temporary. For example, in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Sweden, Uber said rides related to commuting and social occasions had already rebounded above pre-coronavirus levels. But rides to airports in those countries were still below pre-coronavirus levels.
Khosrowshahi tried to downplay the long-term impact of working from home during the pandemic on the rides business. In certain overseas countries, he said Uber is seeing rides recover and even surpass the pre-COVID era.
“We’ve been desperately looking for trends to identify ways in which the future would be different from the past, and frankly, we haven’t come up with any,” Khosrowshahi said. “The reality we’re seeing is as cities open up, people get back to work.”
However, the company expects to have to increase U.S. driver bonuses, which it reduced to improve profitability. Drivers in the U.S. have been slower to return to the service compared to other countries, Khosrowshahi said, suggesting that unemployment benefits may also have played a role in the country’s lag.
Said Khosrowshahi, “I think we pivoted in a big way” and “have secured the path forward.”


fortune--2020-08-06--Analysts are honing their Q3 GDP estimates—which will be released just days before the election

Sweden ’ s top virologist has a message on how to defeat coronavirus : Open schools and no masks

The good news is that recent estimates have the U.S. economy poised for a record rebound following last quarter’s depressing GDP figures.
The bad news is that 2020 is still on track to be a miserable year for the economy when it’s all said and done.
New projections are forecasting U.S. GDP to grow by around 20% on an annualized basis in the third quarter, as activity ramps back up following coronavirus-related lockdown measures that devastated the economy through the first two quarters of the year.
Morgan Stanley is currently predicting a 21.3% spike in GDP this quarter, while financial data provider IHS Markit is estimating a 20.1% increase in the third quarter. Economists at S&P Global Ratings, meanwhile, forecast a jump of anywhere from 18% to 22%—depending on what kind of compromise Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are able to reach on a new stimulus package. And the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta recently bumped up its third-quarter growth projections from less than 12% to more than 20%, on the strength of new manufacturing data.
Should they come to fruition, those numbers would shatter the previous record of 16.7% annualized quarterly GDP growth, which was set in the first quarter of 1950. Of course, such a dramatic improvement would come with a caveat: the fact that the U.S. economy has been contracting at a historic rate, with GDP down 33% in the second quarter.
Not only did that contraction set a new mark for largest annualized quarterly GDP decline (surpassing the -10% drop experienced in the first quarter of 1958), but it means that any economic growth would be coming from a significantly lower basis—one resulting from an abrupt recession that has wiped out five years’ worth of economic growth.
As a result, 2020 remains on course to be one of the worst years on record for both the U.S. and global economy. The International Monetary Fund recently revised its projections to predict an -8% decline in U.S. GDP in 2020, while it expects global economic output to fall by nearly -5%. Both of those figures are roughly -2% worse than the IMF’s previous projections in April.
Still, all eyes will be on the U.S.’s third-quarter GDP figures, which are due to be released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Oct. 29—mere days before the 2020 presidential election.


fortune--2020-08-06--Will second stimulus checks, enhanced $600 unemployment benefits get passed by Friday? Here’s where

Will second stimulus checks, enhanced $600 unemployment benefits get passed by Friday? Here’s where things stand

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White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Wednesday a stimulus deal would become much less likely to pass at all if Republicans and Democrats don’t make progress or agree to a deal by the end of the week. And it appears we’re heading into that self-imposed Friday deadline without a deal.
Before heading into a Thursday evening meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Meadows told reporters the two parties are making little progress in their talks for another stimulus package, which would include another round of stimulus checks and enhanced jobless benefits—which expired the week ending July 25.
“I think if we don’t reach a top line number, there becomes very little incentive to have further conversations,” Meadows told reporters Thursday evening. He said Democratic leaders are still wanting around $3.4 trillion, while the GOP has come up from their initial $1 trillion offer. He didn’t say how much they’ve come up.
The White House, Senate Republicans and House Democrats all support sending another round of $1,200 stimulus checks to Americans, however, they can’t come to an agreement for the broader stimulus bill in which the checks would be included. Democrats want more money for state governments and unemployment benefits, while Republicans want the extra $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit—which expired the week of July 25—reduced, and COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for businesses.
“We have said that we are going to have the $600 [enhanced unemployment benefit] … They know that we want the $600,” Pelosi said at a Thursday presser.
Republicans have proposed replacing the unemployment benefit bonus—which is paid on top of state benefits—from $600 to $200 per week for the next two months, according to Bloomberg News. After that period, the benefit would transition into covering 70% of the unemployed persons’ previous income through the end of the year.


fortune--2020-08-06--Behind the biggest digital health deal to date

This is the web version of The Capsule, a daily newsletter monitoring advances in health care and biopharma. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
Good afternoon, readers.
As I mentioned last week, we’re back to a weekly for the Capsule. So look for this every Thursday in your inbox.
Livongo and Teladoc announced an $18.5 billion merger on Wednesday, the largest deal ever in the digital health space, per the companies. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Jennifer Schneider, Livongo’s president, several times—and she shared some details with me earlier this week about what led to the deal.
I’ll have more to say on that later. But I’ll leave readers with a small taste.
Livongo and Teladoc are both digital health companies, and the former is focused on providing real-time services for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes. The deal is structured as a cash and stock merger. But these virtual medical companies have a different set of expertise which Schneider says can enhance each other (to use corporate speak, synergies).
Among these synergies is merging data collection with virtual care delivery. Those kinds of expertise have a logical relationship.
And, as with just about everything in health care right now, the coronavirus pandemic fueled this particular deal, according to Schneider.
“I think the acceleration of the market, the acceptance of the business models driven by incredible user experience for telemedicine in the pandemic, is a driving force,” she says.
“And it’s also driving the acceptance that this is not a blip. This is not a smaller portion of the health care delivery system. And that’s a large component which has really sped up the approach and the desire to get to that end vision, which is shared between Teladoc and Livongo.”
Stay tuned for more, read on for the day’s news, and see you next week.
Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy
DIGITAL HEALTH
Capsule, Hims & Hers forge an expanded partnership. Speaking of telehealth, the New York-based digital pharmacy company Capsule (which delivers medications to homes) is partnering with Hims & Hers, a digital health operation which started off specializing in men's health but has since expanded its footprint. This means that "Capsule’s digital pharmacy and same day delivery will now be offered to all Hims & Hers primary care and telemedicine customers in New York and the other cities in which Capsule operates," according to a spokesperson.
INDICATIONS
Why you're not getting your COVID testing results in time. I spent the past few weeks, dear readers, trying to figure out the answer a pretty basic question: Why does it take some people mere minutes to get a coronavirus test result and others days, or even weeks? I spoke with experts across the lab testing industries, academic leaders, and Trump administration officials to try to get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, the main takeaway is that it's a constellation of culprits. (Fortune)
THE BIG PICTURE
Ohio's governor tests positive for coronavirus. Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio has tested positive for the COVID-19, the second U.S. governor to do so, as NPR reports. He's asymptomatic, but this gets to the heart of the problem: You don't have to be sick or dying in order to still be able to carry the pathogen and potentially spread the disease. DeWine is planning to quarantine for the next two weeks in accordance with public health officials' advice. (NPR)


fortune--2020-08-06--Rocket Companies IPO: Stock of Quicken Loans parent company rises almost 20% following debut

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Shares of Rocket Companies, the parent of Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage, rose as much as 26% Thursday afternoon on its first day of stock market trading.
The stock’s debut, however, was more rocky than rocket: After Rocket Companies priced its initial public offering at $18 a share Wednesday—below the expected range of $20 to $22 a share—the fintech conglomerate’s stock initially sank as low as $17.50 when it began trading late in the morning.
After rising slowly after that, Rocket Companies stock, trading under the ticker symbol “RKT” on the NYSE, surged as high as $22.76 a share in the mid-afternoon, only to quickly give back some of those gains, closing up nearly 20%. The IPO raised $1.8 billion for the Detroit-based company whose subsidiary Quicken Loans is now the largest mortgage lender in the U.S.
In 2015, Quicken Loans launched Rocket Mortgage, an online mortgage application platform that has helped fuel the company’s growth, particularly in direct-to-consumer loans. Even as the economy has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, Rocket Companies has continued to grow, originating $72.3 billion in loans in the second quarter of 2020, up 40% from the first three months of the year, and more than double the amount during that period in 2019.
In 2019, Rocket Companies made more than $5.1 billion in revenues, a figure the firm expects to at least quadruple in 2020, according to its financial disclosures. Last year, the company had more than $892 million in net income.
In its IPO documents, the company warned that the COVID-19 crisis could dampen that trajectory. “Home sales have slowed, and future growth is uncertain,” the company wrote in its disclosures. “If the COVID-19 pandemic leads to a prolonged economic downturn with sustained high unemployment rates, we anticipate that real estate transactions will continue to decrease. Any such slowdown may materially decrease the number and volume of mortgages we originate.”
The company was founded by Dan Gilbert, a billionaire entrepreneur who remains Rocket Companies’ chairman and is also the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.


fortune--2020-08-06--Stock valuations have been this high only three times in history. What happened next should give inv

Stock valuations have been this high only three times in history. What happened next should give investors pause

The famous Shiller P/E hit 31.1 on Aug. 5, the biggest number in almost two years. So the question naturally arises: How have investors who bought at these what look to be rich prices fared in the past?
In the last few days, Wall Street analysts and business news anchors have been cautioning that stocks are getting pricey—so pricey that they may not have much room to run. More than any other news, it’s Apple’s spectacular rise that’s brought these warnings front and center. On Aug. 5, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan stoked the debate by issuing a rare downgrade on Apple, citing its “rapid multiple expansion.” TV hosts and their guests picked up the beat, marveling that the iPhone maker’s valuation has more than doubled from $900 billion in June of last year to $1.95 trillion, driven almost entirely by a jump in its price/earnings multiple from 16.9 to 35.
Suddenly, investors are viewing Apple’s sudden metamorphosis from a deep value stock to an expensive high-flier as a possible bellwether that the entire big-cap market has zoomed too far, too fast. That’s raising fears that if you buy at today’s lofty levels, you’re likely to garner at best puny gains and, more likely, suffer stiff losses. To assess the probability that investors can pocket strong returns from here—as the vast majority of Wall Street’s market strategists still predict, despite the doubts sown by Apple—let’s see how the portfolios of the folks and funds who jumped in at today’s valuations performed in the years that followed. It’s the same question for those who already own U.S. big-caps: Were the people who profited from a run-up like the boom over the past few months wise to keep all of their shares in hopes of more upside to come?
To compare where stocks stand today versus past periods on the continuum from cheap to expensive, we’ll use the CAPE, or cyclically adjusted price/earnings ratio developed by Yale economist Robert Shiller. The CAPE methodology restates current profits as a 10-year average of trailing GAAP earnings per share, adjusted for inflation. Thus, the yardstick smooths EPS so that P/Es aren’t artificially inflated when a recession, say, drives profits well below their historic norm, or the S&P looks like a bargain because profits bubble to unsustainable highs.
The value of deploying the CAPE has never been clearer than during the pandemic crisis. That’s because the collapse in profits is making the S&P 500 appear much more expensive than it actually is. The denominator, projected EPS for 2020, is severely depressed and way understates the underlying earnings power of big-cap stocks in a normal economy that isn’t wracked by a once-in-a-century calamity. That big, temporary drop inflates the P/E, making the multiple an unreliable gauge of today’s valuations versus past periods.
The CAPE eliminates the distortions caused by lurching swings like the one we’re now seeing. It puts today’s adjusted P/E at 31.1, based on the S&P 500 price of 3327 on Aug. 5. That’s a big number, a peak that the CAPE reached for the first time since September 2018. In fact, the CAPE has only hit 31.1, and stayed there or higher for subsequent periods, during three episodes over the 132 years covered by the Shiller data. The fourth time it reached 31.1 is the day I’m writing this story.
It’s instructive to examine how the S&P has performed in the two-, five-, and 10-year periods that following the month when the multiple reached 31.1. Those results may provide clues to where returns will settle over the same interludes starting now.
The results are downbeat, but they don’t provide conclusive evidence that purchasing at these prices is anything like a sure loser. It’s when you add the challenges posed by two other factors that drive returns—historically slow growth in EPS and the tendency of lofty multiples to drop—that Wall Street’s bluebird forecasts look like fantasies.
The first time the P/E reached the current 31.1 was in August 1929, amid the craze preceding the Great Depression. It’s hardly surprising that two years later, the S&P had dropped 30%, and after five years the loss had swelled to 54%. By the summer of 1939, the index was still nursing a 42% loss over the past decade. By the way, the S&P’s Shiller multiple was over 31 for only two months in 1929.
It didn’t reach 31.1 again for 58 years, until June 1997. That month, the S&P 500 hit a record of 876. Amazingly the CAPE ballooned from there. It hovered at 33 or higher for the astounding span of three years, from February 1998 to February 2001. For 21 of those months, the CAPE exceeded 40, a number that it has never recorded before or since. Those gigantic P/Es were driven by the infamous frenzy in tech stocks.
Even from a lofty starting point of 31.1, stocks did great—for a while. After two years, in June 1999, the S&P stood at 1322, registering a gain of 51%. But the bounty didn’t last. Five years from reaching a CAPE of 31.1, the index had delivered a total gain of 15.3% or a teeny 3% a year. Three months after that, investors were sitting on a loss as the dotcom bubble exploded.
By June 2007, a decade hence, the total gain was 73%, or a less-than-terrific 5.8% a year. And within a year, by mid-2008, the S&P was back to where we started, at a 31.1 P/E in June 2007. The market had made a complete roundtrip in just over a decade, erasing all the gains along the way.
The third bell-ringer came in November 2017, when the CAPE reached our mark for the first time in almost 17 years. The P/E, in fact, stayed over 31 for 11 months but never exceeded 33.3. Over the following two years, the S&P waxed by 20%. Of course, we won’t reach the five-year test until late 2022. But as of today, the S&P’s increase since hitting 31.1 in late 2017 is 28%, or 8.5% annualized.
The fourth time the CAPE made 31.1 was Aug. 5, 2020.
So what do the past returns from the same starting point tell us about what to expect? We can draw the following conclusions from those episodes.
First, short-term gains can be fabulous after starting at a 30-plus CAPE, but over a longer horizon, those returns tend to reverse. Five years after our P/E reached 31.1 in 1997, the index had barely beaten inflation. After 10 years, the annual increase was under 6%, and less than 12 months after that, went negative in the financial crisis.
The 8.5% returns we’ve seen since November 2017 are good, but it’s too early to conclude that they’ll last. Strong evidence suggests that they won’t.
Second, the short-term jumps arise mainly when the CAPE hits 31 and runs higher, as it did for many months in the build-up to the 2000–2001 tech bubble. But the span from late 1999 to 2002 is the only episode in which the CAPE rose well above 31.1 and stayed there for an extended period. In other words, the S&P got a big boost only from a CAPE that kept notching new heights on one occasion. We can conclude that getting more juice from an even higher multiple, though possible, is unlikely.
Third, when the CAPE reaches 31.1, and especially when it keeps climbing from there, it topples from the mountaintop. It was the CAPE’s never-before-witnessed flights into the 40s that triggered the panic selloff and sent the S&P below where it first hit our benchmark three years before.
In the Great Depression, the CAPE dropped from 30-plus to single digits. In 2002, it slid by one-third to 21. Even after hitting 31.1 in late 2017, the CAPE shrank to 25 in the April selloff. It appears that a CAPE of over 30 is much more likely to revert to the mid-20s or lower than to go higher, except in a short-lived spike.
Fourth, since an even higher CAPE is unlikely when starting at 31.1, investors face two problems. First, the multiple is a lot more likely to contract than even to remain steady, potentially hammering future returns. Second, even if the CAPE stays at 31.1, all future gains will depend on earnings growth. Indeed, expanding profits have been a big contributor to capital gains in recent years. As the U.S. emerged from the financial crisis in early 2010 through 2019, EPS increased at an 8% annual pace.
That record, however, is extremely unusual. Over the 55 years from 1965 to 2019, EPS advanced at 2.1%, adjusted for inflation. That’s around one point slower than growth in national income. Although total earnings track the overall economy over long periods, earnings per share lag because companies issue new stock to expand, spreading profits over larger numbers of shares. And new competitors enter the market, issuing their own shares, or if they remain private, grabbing part of the profit pool and leaving less for the old guard.
Fifth, the CAPE tends to go in the opposite direction from interest rates. At most times, the lower the 10-year Treasury yield, the higher the CAPE, and vice versa. Rising rates pounded stocks in the early 1980s, and yields at record lows appear to be buoying the S&P now. But the best time to buy equities is when rates are high or average, and the CAPE is low, periods such as 1980 and 2008. The worst time is when the opposite conditions prevail, as in 1966 and 2000. People who bought then got terrible returns over the succeeding years, simply because the world returned to normal at higher rates—and falling CAPEs that shrank prices. Today’s high-CAPE, low-rate climate resembles both of those heady periods.
Conclusion: A 31.1 CAPE is a dangerously high starting point for buying stocks. The price investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings will probably shrink from here. And EPS is already getting pounded by the COVID-19 lockdown, and the idea profits will soar in the recovery to compensate for the fall in multiples, and then some, is far-fetched.
A CAPE of 25, still extremely high by historical standards, would put the S&P around 2950, 11% lower than today. A better bet is a CAPE of 20, and that’s scary. A drop to that benchmark would push the S&P under 2500 for a decline of 25%. All the bulls’ rationalizations can’t get past this basic truth: Companies have to practically perform miracles to give you big returns when their stocks are pricey, and can reward you richly if they just muddle along if they’re cheap. Keep in mind that in 2017, Apple was selling at an 11 P/E. Would you rather buy it there, or at the current 35? One’s a no-brainer, the other’s a gamble. The story of Apple epitomizes the course of the whole market. You’ve got to “believe” a story to be a buyer here—and you wouldn’t need a story if either were a bargain.


fortune--2020-08-06--Instagram Reels is a real threat to TikTok

Good morning, Data Sheet readers. This is Fortune writer Aric Jenkins filling in for Adam.
There’s been a lot of coverage of TikTok this week, what with President Trump threatening to ban it in the U.S.—incensing Beijing and opening the door for Microsoft to buy the popular social media app for a reported $30 billion. Lest we forget, Facebook has also been working on a TikTok clone for Instagram that finally arrived on the platform yesterday.
The new feature, Instagram Reels, is no small deal. Remember the last time the photo and video app copied a high-profile rival: Has Snap ever fully recovered from Instagram lifting the temporary 24-hour “Stories” feature that sent Instagram’s monthly active users to over 1 billion? Every time users scroll through a few Stories, they’re served an ad, which makes Instagram money, of course, not to mention a cut of all those e-commerce sales.
We don’t yet know the extent to which Instagram will leverage Reels for revenue-making ventures like ads or online shopping. But we do know that copying yet another rival’s trademark feature—15-second videos with visual effects that sync to music and audio files—threatens to keep more people on Instagram and off TikTok. With that could come the high-profile creators that make these apps buzz.
The timing couldn’t be better for Instagram, really. TikTok is under siege. Facebook has picked the perfect time to crush an upstart competitor.
But early reactions to Reels may be a little concerning to Facebook. “I have not seen one original piece of content on Instagram Reels yet. It is just full of TikTok memes, dances and videos,” said Wall Street Journal tech columnist Joanna Stern. “And it just doesn’t work. Without TikTok’s algorithm backing this, the feed is just random and feels stunted.”
Ultimately, though, it may not matter. “My main takeaway from Reels is the same one that, ultimately, led to me eventually stop using Snapchat once Instagram launched stories,” wrote BuzzFeed’s Stephanie McNeal. “It’s just so easy to have everything in one place.”
Yep. That’s the same reason I stopped using Snapchat, too.
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by David Z. Morris. Check out The Ledger, the fintech newsletter he edits weekly.
NEWSWORTHY
20 state Attorneys General call on Facebook to better police hate speech. The social media giant has evaded and disappointed nearly every group trying to help/pressure it to get its act together. Corporate giants have suspended advertising, civil rights groups have blasted management indifference—and now the law enforcement chiefs of Illinois, New Jersey, and other states are asking for Facebook to do a better job fighting hate speech and disinformation. Maybe that’ll finally get Zuck’s attention?
The alleged Twitter hacker’s hearing was zoombombed by...other hackers, of course. The judge in a hearing for one of three accused players behind last month's massive Twitter hack apparently isn’t much of a tech wiz himself. The judge allowed open access to the hearing for a 17 year old accused of helping impersonate Twitter staff to gain admin-level access to prominent accounts. Naturally, someone invaded the hearing, took over the stream, and treated viewers to some good old-fashioned pornography.
Autonomous driving pioneer Anthony Levandowski has been sentenced to 18 months in prison in a plea deal over his central role in the theft of intellectual property from Google spinout Waymo. Levandowski also agreed to $756,499 in restitution to Waymo for research data he took with him when he left the company in 2016 to form Otto, nominally an autonomous trucking company. Otto quickly sold to Uber for $600 million, which could make the fine, and even the prison time, a pretty decent deal. “Anthony deeply regrets his past decisions,” his lawyers said.
Disney’s live-action Mulan remake will skip US theaters and go straight to streaming on Disney+, where it’ll cost you a cool $30. The deferral of a highly-anticipated summer tentpole to streaming is, yes, a concession to the stark realities of the pandemic. But it’s hard not to read it in light of last week’s deal between Universal and AMC to radically shift theatrical release windows. Circumstance and consumer demand, it seems, are both arrayed against the future of movie theaters.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The tech world has been understandably preoccupied with Donald Trump’s threats to ban Chinese-owned app TikTok in the U.S. For those in the business, the matter is as serious as a heart attack, given how little we can trust TikTok’s handling of user data.
But Wired rightfully points out that TikTok might be a distraction from much bigger security concerns, from America’s vulnerable electric grid to China’s treatment of the Uighurs (to say nothing of the pandemic). Former Trump advisor John Bolton even alleges that the president once told Xi Jinping that putting Uighurs in concentration camps was, in Bolton’s words, “exactly the right thing to do.”
At least he’s keeping the TikTok teens safe, right?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Everything to know about Instagram Reels, Facebook’s new TikTok rival By Danielle Abril
Samsung tests the global phone market with expensive new devices By Aaron Pressman
Wayfair finally turns a profit thanks to COVID-19 spending surge By Phil Wahba
Rackspace shares drop 20% one day after IPO By Jonathan Vanian
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
The masks were called muzzles, germ shields and dirt traps. They gave people a “pig-like snout.” Some people snipped holes in their masks to smoke cigars. Others fastened them to dogs in mockery. Bandits used them to rob banks.
That's from a New York Times story about opposition to public mask mandates … during the 1918 flu pandemic. The more things change.
David Z. Morris
@davidzmorris
david.morris@fortune.com