fortune--2020-09-01--Facebook plans to block users in Australia from sharing news

Facebook Inc. plans to block people and publishers in Australia from sharing news, a move that pushes back against a proposed law forcing the company to pay media firms for their articles.
The threat escalates an antitrust battle between Facebook and the Australian government, which wants the social-media giant and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to compensate publishers for the value they provide to their platforms.
The legislation still needs to be approved by Australia’s parliament. Under the proposal, an arbitration panel would decide how much the technology companies must pay publishers if the two sides can’t agree.
Facebook said in a blog posting Monday that the proposal is unfair and would allow publishers to charge any price they want. If the legislation becomes law, the company says it will take the unprecedented step of preventing Australians from sharing news on Facebook and Instagram.
“This is a decision we’re making reluctantly,” said Campbell Brown, Facebook’s vice president of global news partnerships. “It is the only way to protect against an outcome that will hurt, not help Australia’s media outlets.”
Facebook is still working through the details of how it would block articles from being shared, she said.
Responding to Facebook’s announcement, Australia Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said: “We don’t respond to coercion or heavy handed threats wherever they come from.”
Forcing digital platforms to pay for original content would help create “a more sustainable media landscape,” Frydenberg said in a statement.
Google’s Concern
Google has also raised alarms about Australia’s proposal. The measure “would force us to provide you with a dramatically worse” Google Search and YouTube, and “put the free services you use at risk in Australia,” Mel Silva, managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand, wrote in an open letter.
The Australian government has said it’s trying to level the playing field between the tech giants and a local media industry that’s struggling from the loss of advertising revenue to those companies. In May, for example, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. announced plans to cut jobs and close or stop printing more than 100 local and regional newspapers in Australia.
The Australian-born Murdoch has for years advocated that Facebook and Google pay for news articles that appear on their platforms. And News Corp. has lauded government efforts to force the two companies to pay for news.
Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, was quoted widely as saying: “The tech platforms’ days of free-riding on other peoples’ content are ending. They derive immense benefit from using news content created by others and it is time for them to stop denying this fundamental truth.”
Yet Facebook’s decision to block news on its platform could prevent publishers from reaching a wider audience. In the first five months of 2020, the company said it sent 2.3 billion clicks from its News Feed to Australian news websites.
‘Insignificant’ Loss
The decision could also limit the appeal of Facebook’s social-media platform to Australians who use it to read news. However, Brown said removing news articles from Facebook in Australia would be “insignificant” to its business because they are a small fraction of what users see.
Australia’s new rules are part of a global push by government agencies to regulate the tech giants. In some countries, officials are concerned not only that Facebook and Google are capturing much of the advertising dollars that have sustained journalism, but also with the types of articles getting shared. The stories that tend to go viral on Facebook are those that stoke emotion and divisiveness, critics argue.
In April, France’s antitrust regulator ordered Google to pay media companies to display snippets of articles. In June, Google said it would pay some media outlets that will be featured in a yet-to-be-released news service in Germany, Australia and Brazil.
Last October, Facebook introduced a separate news section, paying some publishers whose stories are featured. Brown declined to share numbers on the popularity of the Facebook News tab, but said nearly all of the readers are a new audience for publishers. Last week, Facebook said it plans to expand the news section to other markets globally.


fortune--2020-09-01--Trump says corporations that support Black Lives Matter are led by ‘weak people’

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President Donald Trump called companies supporting the Black Lives Matter movement “weak” and said they’re led by “weak people.”
Since George Floyd’s death in the custody of Minneapolis police in May, many major corporations have moved swiftly to embrace Black Lives Matter and the racial equity principles it represents. Trump made clear on Monday in an interview on Fox News that he doesn’t support the movement.
Companies, he said, are supporting the movement because “they just do what’s the easiest path.”
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“Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization,” Trump said. “Black Lives Matter came into existence walking down the street yelling, ‘pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon,”’ he added, saying the chant referred to the police.
It wasn’t clear what episode he was referring to. He said he considered the movement’s name “so discriminatory.”
He later claimed that there were many “race riots” during Barack Obama’s presidency, citing protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of Michael Brown by police.


fortune--2020-09-01--Global trade is recovering faster from COVID-19 than it did from the 2008 crisis

Global trade is on course to recover more quickly from the coronavirus pandemic than after the 2008 financial crisis, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Shipping volumes are already back at levels that took more than a year to reach following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, hinting at a V-shaped recovery, the institution’s President Gabriel Felbermayr said.
Trade has seen a “deep slump and a quick rebound,” he said. “The current situation is significantly better” than a decade ago.
The pandemic has pushed the global economy into what may be its deepest slump since the Great Depression. The initial rebound reflects the lifting of severe restrictions to contain the virus, and policy makers have warned against premature optimism that the worst has passed.
The World Trade Organization said earlier this month that projections for a strong, V-shaped trade rebound in 2021 might be “overly optimistic.”
Yet others — including the Kiel Institute — are taking a more confident stance. On Monday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva pointed to a “revival of trade.”
The Kiel Institute argued container shipping activity in key areas supported its conclusion, with ship movements in the Americas, Asia and Europe normalizing. Freight capacity was back at levels that would be expected in late August — even without a crisis.


fortune--2020-09-01--AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine enters final-stage trial in the U.S.

AstraZeneca Plc has begun a large-scale human trial of its coronavirus vaccine in the U.S., the company said in a statement, with plans to enroll as many as 30,000 adults to test the shot.
The AstraZeneca shot, invented by researchers at the University of Oxford, is one of the farthest along of numerous COVID-19 vaccines in development. In addition to the U.S. trial, a final-stage test of the inoculation is underway in the U.K. and could yield preliminary results as soon as next month. Other companies that have COVID-19 vaccines in phase 3 trials include Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.
The trial had been delayed for several days, according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health who are helping conduct the tests. The university is one of the sites where the trial is being run, and plans to begin injecting healthy volunteers on Tuesday, according to William Hartman, a UW Health anesthesiologist and investigator on the trial. It plans to ramp up to injecting 50 people a day shortly after the Sept. 7 Labor Day holiday, he said in an interview.
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An Aug. 27 article in the Palm Beach Post reported that the U.S. trial of AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on hold due to political pressure, perhaps because U.S. regulators planned to grant an emergency use authorization on the basis of the trial in Europe.
Hartman said he was told the hold was due to unspecified operational issues.
“There was a hold on enrollment. We don’t really know what the reason for that was. We were told it had nothing to do with safety and didn’t have anything to do with an EUA, it was just an operational issue,” Hartman said in a phone interview. “On Friday evening, they lifted that hold.”
An email shared with Bloomberg that Hartman received on Aug. 28 from AstraZeneca and contract research organization Iqvia Holdings Inc. stated the hold “was lifted and we have our first patient screened and randomized.”
Americans should understand that “there are no corners that have been cut,” said Hartman, in a phone interview. “We are going to proceed with the trial independent of any political pressure.”
People in the trial will get either the experimental vaccine or a placebo made of saline.
In a separate statement, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot nodded at concerns that review of a vaccine could face political pressure.
“In recent weeks we have seen an increasing number of questions around the safety and availability of vaccines to fight this terrible COVID-19 pandemic and I want to reiterate my commitment that we are putting science and the interest of society at the heart of our work,” Soriot said. “We are moving quickly but without cutting corners.”


fortune--2020-09-01--JPMorgan says investors should prepare for rising odds of a Trump 2020 win

Investors should position for the rising odds of President Donald Trump winning re-election, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Betting odds that earlier had Trump well behind challenger Joe Biden are now nearly even — largely due to the impact on public opinion of violence around protests, as well as potential bias in polls, said strategist Marko Kolanovic.
Based on past research, there could be a shift of five to 10 points in polls from Democrats to Republicans if the perception of protests turns from peaceful to violent, he said. People giving inaccurate answers could artificially skew polls in favor of Biden by 5%-6%, he added.
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“Certainly a lot can happen in the next ~60 days to change the odds, but we currently believe that momentum in favor of Trump will continue, while most investors are still positioned for a Biden win,” Kolanovic wrote Monday. “Implications could be significant for the performance of factors, sectors, COVID-19 winners/losers, as well as ESG.”
Biden’s narrowing advantage in polls evokes memories of the 2016 election, when such tallies seemed to favor Hillary Clinton strongly. While Clinton won the popular vote by several million, the Electoral College, a state-by-state count that determines the election outcome, ended decisively in Trump’s favor.
Kolanovic said important drivers of the election in coming weeks include developments in the COVID-19 pandemic, which looks like it might subside as the vote nears.
Also key are the outcome of any debates, and the Democrats’ stance on protests. The latter risks turning off voters generally if seen as too permissive, but also could alienate progressives if it’s not seen as sympathetic enough, according to the note.


fortune--2020-09-01--As Trump’s payroll tax holiday kicks in, here’s what employers and employees need to know

Employers are down to the wire to decide if they want to opt in to President Trump’s so-called payroll tax holiday, and tax experts note there’s a plethora of possible consequences to deferring the payroll taxes.
Back in early August, Trump issued a memorandum that would allow employers to defer the employee portion of the Social Security tax (that 6.2% per paycheck) for employees making less than $4,000 bi-weekly (or roughly $104,000 per year) from September 1 through December 31 this year. But guidance released by the IRS and Treasury on Friday, just days before the holiday would start taking effect, has many experts skeptical of the scheme.
While not explicitly stated in the guidance, experts believe it’s clear employers will be able to opt out of participating—and that most would indeed skew on the conservative side and do just that.
The upshot is that employees could temporarily see bigger checks for the next four months, and the most an employee could theoretically receive back in their paycheck would be roughly $2,232 spread over those four months—which they would have to pay back next year, likely via higher taxes for the first four months. And in that sense, those like Andre Shevchuck, a tax partner at accounting firm BPM, note it may put employers in between a “rock and a hard place”: “Saying, ‘Well, here’s this opportunity to save a little bit of cash and we’re not going to follow it because it’s complex,’ is not a really good answer,” he tells Fortune. But he argues if the employer is able to explain that the holiday really functions as a “very short term no-interest loan,” most employees would understand it’s likely not worth it, he argues.
Tax experts point out three things for employers to consider now.
It’s likely you’ll get stuck with the bill
While experts are awaiting more guidance on exactly who is on the hook for paying back the taxes, some experts suggest the big risk with participating in the payroll tax holiday is that the employer would get stuck with the bill come next year. While “It’s the employee’s tax, … it’s the employer’s responsibility to collect and remit that tax,” notes Shevchuck.
Ultimately, those like Christopher Moran, an attorney in the labor and employment practice group at Troutman Pepper, say employers need to consider if the benefits outweigh the risks: “Every little bit [for your employees] helps, I know, but is that significant enough to opt in to this administrative scheme?” However, federal employees may not even have the option to opt out, The Washington Post reported Monday, which would mean they could see even higher taxes for the first four months next year.
The language of the guidance itself is a bit ambiguous, experts note, but since it’s the employer’s responsibility to withhold and remit the employee’s portion of the tax, “It would be the employer’s obligation to deposit anything deferred, so that becomes a potential struggle for them should any of their employees leave, the burden is on them to collect the funds in the coming year,” Laura Melville, a manager and CPA at account firm Wiss & Co, tells Fortune.
And failing to pay back those taxes on time is going to cost you. The IRS and Treasury guidance spells out that “interest, penalties, and additions to
tax will begin to accrue on May 1, 2021, with respect to any unpaid Applicable Taxes.” Or, in other words, “It would be the typical penalties and interest for not fully properly withholding your payroll taxes,” Shevchuck says.
It’s a ‘gamble’ that Congress will forgive the taxes
President Trump has stated his intent to have the taxes forgiven, but he would need Congress to do that (and would also likely need to win re-election). And for employers betting on Congress acting to dismiss the tax, it’s “speculative but not seemingly likely,” Shevchuck believes.
“You are sort of gambling that it’s converted from a deferral to a forgiveness,” notes Moran.
In the meantime, the payroll tax holiday is merely a deferral of the taxes, and based on the guidance from the IRS and Treasury, the taxes would have to be paid back ratably from January 1 through April 30, 2021. In that case, “it seems like in one hand, the employee gets the benefit upfront, and they effectively get double taxed on the next four months immediately following the year end,” Shevchuck points out.
If many companies do opt in to the holiday, which experts note is unlikely, it “does put pressure on Congress to dismiss the tax, and that would be the only real hope there” for employees, notes Shevchuck.
Employees leaving could be a big problem
For those like Melville, the “biggest complication” for employers would be who is ultimately footed with the bill if an employee leaves during the four month deferral or even at the beginning of next year.
“Collecting it itself is going to be its own complication, but when you add wrinkles in if your employee were to quit or leave sometime during the September through December time period, what does that mean?” says Shevchuck. “The questions that will get posed are going to be, ‘Who’s really on the hook for that tax?'” he suggests.
While the IRS guidance notes employers are able to “make arrangements” with employees about paying back taxes, those like Moran are not optimistic these agreements will turn out well for the person paying the check. That arrangement might look something like paying a lump sum, Shevchuck suggests, but Moran argues “in my experience, arrangements to collect money from employees who have departed are inherently problematic.”
The bottom line, experts say, is that employers need to weigh the pros and cons of opting in. For Moran, that might mean looking at the salaries of your workforce and who would actually benefit (in other words, who makes $104,000 per year and under), and whether or not your business is in an industry that historically has high employee turnover—If that’s the case, “you’re going to have problems,” he suggests.
For now, employers may want to have conversations with their employees to make sure they “communicate clearly with the employees that it’s not a tax break, it’s a loan, and making sure they understand it’s complex and something that’s not really vetted out,” Shevchuck says. “Those conversations have to be had right now.”


fortune--2020-09-01--Acting on FBI tip, Facebook deletes small network of Russian accounts

One university may have the best COVID testing operation in the U.S.—and tests students twice a week

Facebook removed a small network of accounts and pages that originated in Russia and had links to the Internet Research Agency, acting on a tip from the FBI, according to Nathaniel Gleicher, the social media company’s head of cybersecurity policy.
The network included 13 accounts and two pages, and just 5% of the English-language content it created was targeted at U.S. users, Gleicher said. The network was trying to build an audience on the political left, and posted some criticism of the presidential campaigns of both Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, Gleicher said. The network got “nearly no engagement on Facebook before we removed it,” Facebook wrote in a blog post.
Russia’s IRA was the main group behind a concerted effort to influence the 2016 U.S. election on Facebook, though its efforts during that campaign cycle went undetected until 2017, and reached tens of millions of users. Facebook has removed 12 networks with ties to the IRA since 2017, the company wrote in a blog post, though any effort by the group to meddle in a U.S. election raises alarms given Facebook’s history.
While the network removed in August didn’t gain much traction on Facebook, the group did trick a number of “unwitting freelancers” into writing stories for a news website the IRA created, later sharing the stories on social media, Gleicher said. “They reached out to and relied on real people who are native speakers in the languages they wanted covered likely to try to limit their linguistic footprint and make it harder to see that this is in fact an influence operation,” Gleicher added.
Facebook said it will alert people who were approached by the group on Facebook, and Gleicher said that fewer than 200 people were contacted. Facebook disclosed the network’s removal as part of a monthly report on its efforts to fight foreign influence operations on its sites.
Twitter also said Tuesday it removed five accounts that were linked to “Russian state actors” following an FBI tip, according to a company spokesman. “The accounts achieved little impact,” Twitter posted from a company account.


fortune--2020-09-01--Our nation turns its lonely eyes to Kenosha

Yesterday, President Donald Trump suggested that Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin and murdered two protesters, was the real victim.
“That was an interesting situation,” the president said in a White House press briefing. “He was trying to get away from them, I guess it looks like, and he fell and then they very violently attacked him, and it was something that we are looking at right now and it’s under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would’ve been killed. It’s under investigation.”
He also framed the nationwide protests in starkly political terms. “I also want to provide an update on left-wing political violence that we’re seeing in Democrat-run cities,” he said. “Under my administration, federal law enforcement is working with state and local authorities all over the country to comb through hours of video, track down rioters, looters, and arsonists, and bring them to justice.”
“The violent rioters share Biden’s same talking points, and they share his same agenda for our nation,” he said.
Today, the president has traveled to Kenosha, one of the swingiest cities in a swing state poised to decide his fate.
With all the race-baiting and fearmongering, it sounds as if the president is counting on white voter exhaustion to keep him in office, particularly in Wisconsin. The New York Times thinks it may be working, but Politico is not so sure.
Kenosha’s issues with race are at once emblematic of those facing the rest of the country and also quite specific to them — John Oliver has a brutal assessment of Kenosha’s problematic white police chief here — but the renewed willingness to accept vigilante violence as legitimate force is a deeply disturbing development.
Rittenhouse is a young man with a big mouth and bigger gun, who killed two people and was later waved off the scene by local police with thanks for his service. He is facing six criminal counts, five of which are felonies, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and intentional first-degree intentional homicide. His attorney will likely claim self-defense, as foreshadowed by the president.
But the sixth charge, of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under the age of 18, is a misdemeanor — and in this case, a tell. For this charge, his attorneys are planning a unique defense: That Rittenhouse was acting as part of a “well-regulated militia” under the Second Amendment. It would let them circumvent the age issue, while hearkening back to a Constitutionally mandated vision of a patriotic age.
It is not likely to work, but the dog whistle is clear, and so is the rush to turn Rittenhouse into a martyr.
That said, the Blake family is holding firm with some deft counter-programming timed for the president’s visit.
The president inspected the protest site but had no plans to visit a peaceful protest planned by Blake’s family at the scene of the shooting. The rally included a community cleanup, food drive, music, barbecue, a bouncy house, healing circle and voter registration booth, reports Kenosha News.
It hasn’t been easy, though. Jacob Blake Sr. has been receiving death threats, he says, and his younger son was recently hospitalized for depression. “It is saddening to me that people don’t understand the type of pressure this family is under and what the rest of the family is dealing with,” he told CNN.
But Justin Blake, Jacob’s uncle, said today was about reclaiming the narrative from politics as usual. “Our focus today is on helping the Kenosha community and thanking the local community for its support,” he said. “It’s not just for my nephew, Jake,” Justin Blake said, “but for all the little Jakes around the country. We’re staying focused on getting justice and on healing. We want to come together.”
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On point
Losing Chadwick Boseman It came as a shock, like Kobe Bryant before him, who fell from the sky and was gone. But what few people knew was that Boseman, who was born to play King T’Challa, Jackie Robinson, and Thurgood Marshall, was living in a body harboring cancer for the last four years. He died on Friday, at 43. By now you’ve seen the tributes: this from Denzel Washington, who once underwrote his studies, this from co-star Michael B. Jordan, this from director Ryan Coogler, this from 7-year-old Black Panther fan Kian Westbrook. It is an incalculable loss for fans, though some have found a way to channel their grief into action: A Change.org petition to swap a Confederate monument in his hometown of Anderson, South Carolina with a memorial to Boseman. There’s some legal hurdles ahead, but it’s gaining traction. Petition organizer DeAndre Weaver told CBR.com that Boseman "made it a mission to give back to his community. It is only fitting that his work is honored in the same place that birthed him.” #WakandaForever
Change.org
Levi CEO Chip Bergh is not messing around In the latest episode of Fortune’s Leadership Next podcast, Chip Bergh digs into the details of how the legendary denim maker is coming back from the pandemic. But he spent a good deal of time on the issues top of mind for him — gun violence, voting access and building a diverse and anti-racist workforce. The issues are interrelated, he says. (Don’t miss my interview with Aimee Allison, the founder and president of She The People, a national network that aims to amplify the political capacity of women of color. It’s at the 26-minute mark.) When you’re done listening, check out Bergh’s latest op-ed, where he clearly sets out what he thinks is next for his leadership. “But the more I comprehend how structural racism intersects with gun violence and voting policies—as well as with environmental justice, financial opportunity, education, and other aspects of life—the more I am committed to using my and our company’s platform to highlight and address the human-made structures that nurture America’s racial caste system.”
Leadership Next
Will racism fall out of fashion? Washington Post’s Robin Givhan asks the essential question of the accountability era: Will the fashion industry’s late-stage commitment to racial equity make any difference? One positive sign is that the fashion forwards seem to be open to ideas from new quarters, like the Fifteen Percent Pledge, create by Aurora James, founder of the accessories brand Brother Vellies. It asks retailers to pledge 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses, and make their audits public. In fact, says Givhan, the pressure is unrelenting. “The industry is being called to account for the composition of corporate boards, brand managers, editors, photographers and anyone else who has a hand in an industry that shapes our sense of self.”
Washington Post
Problem solved NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on a press call today that the league plans to stencil “End racism” and “It takes all of us” in the end zones at every NFL stadium this fall. “The NFL stands with the black community, the players, clubs and fans confronting systemic racism. We will not relent in our work,” Goodell said. I’ll leave this here.
NBC Sports
Novelist Jasmyn Ward open her heart and pours out her grief in this extraordinary essay in a special issue of Vanity Fair called The Great Fire, guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Her husband, whom she refers to as Beloved, died early in the pandemic, a casualty of a disease yet to be named. The story that follows is a blueprint of pain, her way forward as she cared for their young children and watched the world break open in a global righteous rage that she had to blink to see. “I sat in my stuffy pandemic bedroom and thought I might never stop crying,” she writes. “The revelation that Black Americans were not alone in this, that others around the world believed that Black Lives Matter broke something in me, some immutable belief I’d carried with me my whole life.” Praise upon Beloved and his beautiful family.
Vanity Fair
Niecy Nash nearly salvaged 2020 Well, not quite, but she did pull off the surprise of the decade. Nash, a comedic genius known for her work on The Mindy Project and Reno 911, came all the way out when she posted a photo yesterday of herself in a wedding dress, after a previously unannounced wedding. To further compound the surprise, she married Jessica Betts, a musician. “I gotta whole wife,” Nash posted on Instagram. Nash was not publicly known to be queer, and fans were delighted on her behalf. Click through for more about the happy couple. All the mazels to Mrs. Carol and Jessica Betts.
Out
Amplifying Black voices
“I am proud to be black. And also…being black is exhausting,” says writer, community builder and tech policy adviser Corey Ponder.
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, the powerhouse who has made anti-racist thinking accessible in the modern era, sat down with Brené Brown to discuss policy, empathy and how to examine the racist ideas we’re all steeped in.
The reckoning must begin with unlearning, says Michelle Alexander, who should know.
Black Lives Matter is not a design challenge, by the way. Pencils down.
“Companies, the lifeblood of our economy, must step forward not just in solidarity, but more importantly in leadership,” says tEQuitable CEO Lisa Gelobter. Now is the time to get your cultural house in order—“the beliefs, values, and behaviors that are communicated, even indirectly, to employees and dictate how people will be treated and valued.”
raceAhead is edited by Aric Jenkins.
Today's mood board


fortune--2020-09-01--Mnuchin: standalone PPP ‘easiest’ way to get more help to struggling small businesses

Amid a battle in Congress over new stimulus, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said passing a standalone bill to revamp the Paycheck Protection Program is the “easiest” option to get continued help to small businesses.
In the Secretary’s first appearance before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Tuesday, Mnuchin said during the hearing that “jobs and kids” were the most important area of focus for the next stimulus bill, and that on the jobs front, a repurposed standalone PPP bill would be the “easiest to pass”—a prospect that has garnered support on both sides of the aisle and would likely “pass with overwhelming support,” Mnuchin argued. The PPP expired on Aug. 8 with over $130 billion in unused funds after being extended by Congress.
Recent PPP proposals floated would largely include more targeted help to smaller businesses (with fewer employees) who are able to demonstrate a hit to revenue or profits owing to the pandemic (Mnuchin also singled out those in industries like hospitality, travel, and entertainment as “hit very, very hard”). Additionally, Rep. Nydia Velazquez emphasized during the hearing Tuesday that a new PPP bill would also need to prioritize minority-owned businesses that were hit the hardest and struggled to access previous rounds of the program.
Negotiations for a new round of stimulus thus far have been stalled in Congress as Democrats and Republicans have butted heads over the size of the package and various items to include. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans said they would vote on their own legislation next week that likely will include unemployment benefits and, notably, more PPP, CNBC reported last week.
Mnuchin said during the hearing that “more fiscal response is needed,” emphasizing that “the issue is not what is the topline, I think the issue is we need now support quickly—that’s what’s important to the American economy, and if we need more, we can come back,” he said.
However, Mnuchin reiterated his wish for Congress to “move along with standalone legislation,” singling out the PPP, although it’s unclear if a separate PPP bill would be passed outside of an overall stimulus package. Democrats have previously indicated they do not want to pass legislation on a “piecemeal” basis, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said back in July.
Billions of dollars flagged for fraud and misuse
Yet the Secretary’s comments come on the same day House Democrats via the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a preliminary analysis suggesting that while PPP has helped millions of small businesses survive the crisis, the program has shown a “high risk for fraud, waste, and abuse,” in line with a report from government watchdog the Government Accountability Office (GAO) back in June.
The analysis found that among the 5.2 million loans approved through the program before it expired, over $1 billion went to companies with multiple loans, and an additional near $3 billion was “flagged” by the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM) database and PPP loan-level data, the Subcommittee wrote Tuesday. The Subcommittee alleged the SBA has “refused to implement strong oversight mechanisms and instead has committed to audit only a tiny percentage of loans,” the Subcommittee wrote.
Also on Tuesday, House Republicans released a report calling the program a “resounding success” and claiming the PPP had “supported more than 51 million jobs across the country” with “minimal fraud.”
An SBA spokesperson told Fortune in a statement that “the loan forgiveness process currently underway seeks to address data inaccuracies and other matters. In addition, all loans are undergoing an automated review and all loans over $2 million will undergo a manual review. Furthermore, any loan may be selected for a manual eligibility or forgiveness review.”


fortune--2020-09-01--The bizarre reason Amazon drivers are hanging phones in trees near Whole Foods

It sounds like a futuristic version of The Jungle, Upton Sinclair’s dystopian 1906 novel about Chicago slaughterhouse workers: But instead of toiling in meatpacking plants, modern day Chicago workers are resorting to desperate measures to earn a few bucks from Amazon—notably hanging phones from trees to win jobs.
According to Bloomberg, the phone-hanging scheme lets drivers game the system by which Amazon awards delivery routes though its Flex app, which pays $18 hour/per hour for routes that take two to four hours to complete. The Flex app awards routes from Amazon’s warehouses and from Whole Foods grocery stores, which the company owns.
The purpose of hanging phones in trees is to trick Amazon’s dispatch mechanism into believing the drivers are closer to a warehouse or store than they really are. The Flex app awards routes in part by a driver’s proximity to a pick-up point.
The phones in the trees contain the Flex app and are synched with other phones belonging to the drivers. As Bloomberg describes, the scheme appears to be run by a single group or individual who masterminds the operation:
The phones in trees seem to serve as master devices that dispatch routes to multiple nearby drivers in on the plot, according to drivers who have observed the process. They believe an unidentified person or entity is acting as an intermediary between Amazon and the drivers and charging drivers to secure more routes, which is against Amazon’s policies. The perpetrators likely dangle multiple phones in the trees to spread the work around to multiple Amazon Flex accounts and avoid detection by Amazon
A person familiar with the scheme told Bloomberg that the mastermind likely takes an $8 cut from the $18 hourly wage paid to the drivers, who may in some cases lack documentation required for the job. Amazon declined to comment on the phenomenon.
The phone-hanging tactic may reflect increased competition among workers for Flex jobs among workers at a time when Uber and Lyft rides—another popular source of so-called gig work—are in decline due to the pandemic.
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fortune--2020-09-01--Despite pleas to stay away, Trump visits Kenosha

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President Donald Trump paid a controversial visit to Kenosha, Wis. on Tuesday, just over a week after the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake prompted protests and rioting in the city roughly 35 miles south of Milwaukee.
Local officials had feared the president’s trip could further strain tensions in the city. Ahead of Trump’s trip, Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers wrote to the White House pleading for the president to reconsider. “I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing,” Evers wrote. “I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together.”
Trump proceeded with the visit anyway, with a mix of his supporters and Black Lives Matter activists gathering in Downtown Kenosha to await his arrival. Helicopters circled above; armored vehicles were stationed around the city as Trump toured the “destruction” of city blocks he has attributed to the actions of Democratic leaders.
Despite pleas to stay away, the president said his visit to Kenosha would “increase enthusiasm” in Wisconsin—a key battleground state ahead of November’s presidential election. He may be right, according to recent data.
A poll conducted by the Marquette University Law School on Aug. 26, three days after the shooting—which left Blake paralyzed from the waist down—found that approval of Black Lives Matter protests in Wisconsin has dwindled in August compared to June, when video footage revealed the police killing of George Floyd.
In June, 61% of the state approved of the protests while 36% disapproved; in August just 48% approved, while 48% disapproved. In August, the poll asked for the first time if respondents viewed the protests as “mostly peaceful” or “mostly violent”—48% responded with mostly peaceful, while 41% categorized the protests as mostly violent.
The minimal divide between those figures plays into Trump’s stance as the “law and order” candidate, an approach that could appeal to Wisconsin voters. The Marquette poll found that respondents’ views of the police are extremely favorable, with an approval of 44% of Black or Hispanic respondents and 78% of white respondents in the June and August data combined.
Trump met with law enforcement officials in Kenosha, shoring up support for police officers a day after comparing them to golfers who “choke” and “miss a three-foot putt” when shooting people in the back. That flame was fanned by the president’s recent refusal to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old supporter armed with a military-style rifle who was charged with homicide for shooting two demonstrators.
The president still has much work to do if wants to close the gap between himself and challenger Vice President Joe Biden. According to a Morning Consult poll released Tuesday, Biden holds a nine point lead over Trump in Wisconsin, at 52% to 43%. The recent Democratic and Republican national conventions, as well as the unrest in Kenosha, did little to change Biden’s standing with white voters, the poll found. 44% of those without a college degree prefer Biden; 49% said they would vote for Trump. Meanwhile, Biden holds a sizable lead over Trump among college-educated whites at 59% compared to 38%.
Trump won Wisconsin by less than one point in 2016 and it will be perhaps the most hotly-contested battleground this time around. Trump’s refusal to cancel his visit to Kenosha suggests his campaign sees the state’s decreasing enthusiasm for the Black Lives Matter movement and high support of the police as on opportunity to reverse polling numbers—even if leads to more violence.
“He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate heat, and he’s stoking violence in our cities,” said Biden of Trump on Monday. “He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s fomented it.”


fortune--2020-09-01--Senate Republicans plan vote on COVID stimulus bill. What to expect in the package

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On Tuesday, Senate Republicans announced the chamber will take up a vote next week on a GOP proposed stimulus package.
This vote comes as Democrats and Republicans have struggled for weeks to come to terms on a bipartisan stimulus package. The two parties did make some progress last week, with Democrats offering to come down from a $3.4 trillion ask to $2.2 trillion, meanwhile, the White House offered to come up from $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion. Nevertheless, both offers were quickly rejected.
Senate Republicans told reporters the stimulus bill they’d vote on next week would be in the $500 billion ball park. Last week Republican officials told CNBC that they may try to push forward with a limited stimulus package which would include enhanced unemployment benefits, funding for schools, Paycheck Protection Program loans, and funding for a vaccine and testing. That limited bill would exclude a second round of stimulus checks and state government funding.
But even if the bill garnered all 53 Republican votes, Democrats could still use the filibuster to block it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have said that a limited stimulus package, or anything below $2 trillion, is a nonstarter.
Apart from the total size of the stimulus package, the parties are also in disagreement on items including a steep increase in federal aid to state and local governments, which Democrats support, and COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for businesses, which Republicans support.


fortune--2020-09-01--FBI says hackers haven’t stolen any U.S. voter data this year

Federal cybersecurity experts on Tuesday tried to reassure U.S. voters that no election systems have been breached by hackers this year.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI, in a joint statement, said they “have not seen cyber attacks this year on voter registration databases or on any systems involving voting.”
The statement followed chatter on social media this week about some voter information allegedly being offered for sale by hackers. The statement also comes after the Trump administration decided to cancel previously scheduled in-person briefings for members of Congress about election security and foreign interference. And in 2016, Russian hackers attacked election systems in all 50 states and even tried to delete and alter voter data.
But the CISA and FBI said that hasn’t happened in 2020, at least not yet. “Early, unverified claims should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism,” the agencies noted. “More importantly, we encourage voters to look to trusted sources of info, in this case state election officials who have correctly pointed out that a lot of voter registration data is publicly available or easily purchased.”
Security experts said earlier reports about hacked or leaked voter data turning up on the Dark Web, where criminals regularly trade illicit material, likely emanated from publicly available voter data. The U.S. State Department has been offering cash rewards for evidence of foreign interference in the election. Thus some hackers may have obtained public information and tried to claim the rewards, they said.
Because the rumors mentioned voter data from Michigan, the office of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also denied that any information had been stolen.
“Our system has not been hacked,” a spokeswoman for Benson told the Detroit News. “We encourage all Michigan voters to be wary of attempts to ‘hack’ their minds, however, by questioning the sources of information and advertisements they encounter and seeking out trusted sources, including their local election clerk and our office.”


fortune--2020-09-01--Joe Biden reportedly raised more than $300 million in August fundraising—beating the previous record

Joe Biden reportedly raised more than $300 million in August fundraising—beating the previous record by over $100 million

Joe Biden may already lead Donald Trump in the national polls, but he appears on the verge of surpassing the President in another, arguably more important metric: fundraising.
According to the New York Times, the Democratic presidential nominee raised more than $300 million in fundraising in the month of August—a figure that would shatter the previous monthly fundraising record for a presidential campaign (believed to be $193 million by the Obama campaign in September 2008, the Times reports).
By contrast, the previous Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, only raised $143 million four years ago in August 2016, while then-candidate Trump’s campaign managed to raise only $90 million.
Biden’s August haul would likely see his warchest surpass that of the President’s, as the two campaigns entered the month of August virtually neck-and-neck in terms of fundraising (with Biden’s $294 million fundraising total trailing the President’s $300 million-plus, according to the Times).
And unless the Trump campaign is able to reveal similarly impressive fundraising figures of its own for August, it will likely represent a reversal of the presidential race’s recent fundraising dynamics, which have seen Trump regularly outraise Biden. In July, the President’s campaign managed to bring in $165 million in donations—$25 million more than the $140 million raised by the Biden camp.
Biden’s robust August fundraising figures were aided in part by his selection of Sen. Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee; in the 48 hours after announcing Harris as Biden’s running mate, the campaign raised $48 million in donations, it said. Coupled with the $70 million raised over the four-day Democratic National Convention two weeks ago, Biden and the Democrats were able to raise nearly $120 million over a six-day span last month, the Times notes. (The Trump campaign, for its part, said it raised $76 million over the Republican National Convention last week.)
While sources told the Times that most of Biden’s August fundraising came from small, grassroots donors online, the campaign has also received plenty of enthusiasm from large donors—including Silicon Valley interests who view Harris as an ally amid heightened regulatory and antitrust scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Biden has also drawn millions from Wall Street donors, as well.
As far as how the Biden camp is allocating its war chest, television advertising is by far the most significant expenditure—as evidenced by its decision to buy two minutes of national airtime on the final night of the Republican National Convention last week. Early last month, the Biden campaign revealed that it would spend $280 million on advertising this fall in a push that would target 15 key states, with television ads comprising the overwhelming bulk ($220 million) of that spending. The remaining $60 million is dedicated to digital advertising, which has grown considerably more influential in recent years after playing a major role in the Trump campaign’s 2016 success.
Meanwhile, Biden’s fundraising efforts have been aided by some high-profile supporters. A virtual fundraising event hosted by Cher on Monday night, which focused on LGBTQ issues issues, raised $2 million for the Democratic nominee, while Dr. Jill Biden teamed with the cast of the popular Netflix series “Queer Eye” for another virtual fundraiser on Tuesday.


fortune--2020-09-01--If you choose virtual learning for your kids, you’ll likely be disqualified from expanded paid leave

If you choose virtual learning for your kids, you’ll likely be disqualified from expanded paid leave from the government

With the coronavirus pandemic still raging, schools across the country have given parents the option: send your child back to in-person school a few days a week or keep your student at home. As the school year starts, families have made the decision based on their jobs, access to childcare, and level of comfort in placing their child in a group.
Recently released guidance from the Department of Labor, however, places a new burden on parents who have taken the most cautious route. If a school is open for any in-person instruction, but families have opted to keep their kids at home for entirely virtual learning, those parents will no longer be eligible for emergency paid leave for childcare as outlined in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
The Department of Labor clarified its interpretation of the legislation in a paragraph posted Thursday on its Frequently Asked Questions page about the law. “You are not eligible to take paid leave under the FFCRA because your child’s school is not ‘closed’ due to COVID–19 related reasons; it is open for your child to attend,” the department wrote. “FFCRA leave is not available to take care of a child whose school is open for in-person attendance. If your child is home not because his or her school is closed, but because you have chosen for the child to remain home, you are not entitled to FFCRA paid leave.”
“The new rule balances protecting workers while ensuring workers have jobs to return to,” a Department of Labor spokesperson said when asked for further comment.
The restriction applies to the law’s two weeks of paid sick leave to care for a child whose school is closed or unavailable and to 10 weeks of paid expanded family and medical leave for an employee unable to work because of school closures. Both types of leave are at two-thirds of the employee’s rate of pay.
If a school offers hybrid in-person and virtual learning, parents are eligible for this paid leave on those days when their child is not permitted to attend in-person instruction. Only parents making an entirely at-home schooling choice are excluded.
“People have really valid reasons for staying home even if the hybrid options are available,” says Vasu Reddy, senior policy counsel for workplace programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families. “This is going to affect the people who have immunocompromised family members at home, immunocompromised kids themselves, people who work in health care and other high-risk industries. Those are going to be the people most affected by this restrictive interpretation.”
This restriction is based on the Department of Labor’s interpretation of the law—not any specific guidelines created by lawmakers about the difference in eligibility based on in-person or virtual instruction. (The Families First Coronavirus Response Act was passed in March, when lawmakers likely weren’t yet thinking about the logistics of the next school year, Reddy says.)
Most American workers are already excluded from this federally mandated leave because the law exempts large companies with more than 500 employees and some small businesses. The National Partnership estimates that 106 million workers—or about 83% of the American workforce—are not covered.
Less than 20% of American employees do qualify for this expanded paid leave, and the DOL’s recent interpretation cuts down on that number further. “They’re already bearing the brunt of this pandemic,” Reddy says of the people most likely to choose full-time virtual instruction. “We need to be making things easier for them, not harder.”


fortune--2020-09-01--After public outcry, Amazon deletes listings for 2 intelligence jobs that involved tracking ‘labor o

After public outcry, Amazon deletes listings for 2 intelligence jobs that involved tracking ‘labor organizing threats’

Amazon has deleted listings for two job openings whose duties included tracking “labor organizing threats against the company” after the positions caused a public uproar.
Amazon’s postings, removed on Tuesday, were for a senior intelligence analyst and an intelligence analyst within its Phoenix, Az.-based Global Security Operations’ “global intelligence program.” The group is responsible for keeping tabs on and reporting to leadership all manner of corporate risks, everything from protests and geopolitical crises to insider threats and trade secret theft.
The jobs’ duties, Amazon said, “may cover topics including organized labor, activist groups, hostile political leaders.” The company said it expected the analysts to keep up to date on “topics of importance to Amazon, including hate groups, policy initiatives, geopolitical issues, terrorism, law enforcement, and organized labor.”
Despite appearing on LinkedIn for days—and on the official Amazon jobs portal for months—the listings caused an uproar after they became broadly known on Tuesday. Amazon critics described the prospective employees as “snitches” and “union busters.”
Amazon is looking for a snitch to report on employees who want fair labor practices. https://t.co/rD9AQ8qlgt — Selena (@selenalarson) September 1, 2020
only unusual thing is that Amazon was advertising these hires openly—companies having creepy Pinkerton-types track workers’ activity is standard in the US https://t.co/pIbxONB4Dw — Alex Press (@alexnpress) September 1, 2020
Amazon hiring an in-house union buster is gross, & their publicizing it one more sign of monopolistic disregard for laws and decency
However, let's marvel for a moment that worker power in tech is fierce and ceaseless enough to scare Amazon into making such a hire!
Solidarity! https://t.co/1TvGLRBG1b — Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) September 1, 2020
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont called Amazon’s actions “disgusting” in a tweet, saying that “Jeff Bezos became the richest man on Earth while spying on, underpaying, and mistreating his workers.”
“We must build a powerful trade union movement to stand up to the billionaire class and finally say: Enough. You cannot have it all,” Sen. Sanders added.
Disgusting. Jeff Bezos became the richest man on Earth while spying on, underpaying, and mistreating his workers.
We must build a powerful trade union movement to stand up to the billionaire class and finally say: Enough. You cannot have it all. https://t.co/9gjeWv67D6 — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 1, 2020
Amazon did not reply to Fortune’s request for comment; however, a spokesperson told CNBC that “the job post was not an accurate description of the role—it was made in error and has since been corrected,” without elaborating further.
Amazon and its warehouse workers have a history of clashing. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated tensions between management and the rank-and-file, who contended that the company failed to protect people’s health and safety amid the spread of COVID-19.
Amazon is under investigation in New York for firing a worker who participated in a walkout, and it has faced criticism for similar firings that have targeted activists and labor organizers this year. Amazon maintains that the terminations were the result of people violating internal company policies.
The Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit group that advocates against corporate monopolies, released a paper Monday criticizing Amazon’s employee surveillance practices. Daniel Hanley, a policy analyst who co-authored the paper, called “Eyes Everywhere,” said that “decreasing the market power of such dominant firms is critical to protect workers’ rights to privacy and to collectively organize.”


fortune--2020-09-01--These 10 journalists are missing, and COVID is impeding investigations

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The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a #MissingNotForgotten campaign Sunday to raise awareness about the 64 journalists it estimates are missing worldwide.
Via the campaign, the organization has shared stories about the missing reporters, as well as put pressure on authorities to pursue their suspicious disappearances. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed or stopped several of the investigations, but despite this, the CPJ and other organizations continue to spread the word about these individuals’ circumstances—just as these journalists have raised awareness about perceived injustice throughout their careers.
Each month, Fortune copublishes a monthly ranked list of the 10 most urgent press freedom cases, assembled by the OFPC in partnership with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). This month, the list of 10 is dedicated to missing persons. By amplifying information about these individuals, Fortune hopes to help locate them, as well as bring to justice anyone who may have been involved in their capture.
All attacks on journalists are attacks on press freedom, and meanwhile, those who have been imprisoned, harassed, and even killed for doing their jobs also deserve justice. Read last month’s list here for information about some of these individuals.
Journalist, cartoonist and columnist abducted 10.5 years ago after leaving his house.
Prageeth Eknelygoda, a cartoonist and columnist for online news outlet Lanka eNews, was last seen by his wife and two teenage sons as he left his house for work 10.5 years ago. Ahead of the 2010 presidential election, staff of Lanka eNews faced intimidation for its opposition of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government. Last year the attorney general indicted seven individuals over Eknelygoda’s abduction, and the trial is ongoing. In the past six months, Eknelygoda’s wife, Sandya, said she believed witnesses in the case were being intimidated, and threats to her and surveillance of her family had increased.
Journalist’s belongings found days after her disappearance 7 months ago.
Daysi Lizeth Mina Huamán was last seen waiting for a bus on January 26, on her way to meet her boyfriend after voting in Peru’s congressional elections and filing a report for television broadcaster Cable VRAEM in the central city of Ayacucho. About a week after the disappearance, family members found her identity card and other personal documents along the side of a road between the bus stop and her destination.
Freelance reporter abducted 5.5 years ago last seen being taken away from a prison.
In December 2014, members of the Islamic State militant group abducted two freelance journalists working for the Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw TV. The journalists had been driving to interview a local political leader when armed men stopped the vehicle, examined the occupants’ phones and laptops and threatened them at gunpoint to drive to the town of Tel Hamis, where they were imprisoned. An Islamic State court sentenced them to death by beheading. Cameraman Massoud Aqeel, who was later released in a prisoner swap, last saw reporter Farhad Hamo being taken away from Raqqa’s prison in March 2015.
Investigation stalled 2.5 years after photojournalist’s disappearance.
Freelance photojournalist Vladjimir Legagneur was last seen by his wife in March 2018 after he left their Port-au-Prince home. According to a colleague, Legagneur was working on an independent project in Grand-Ravine, known for high rates of violent gang activity. A police spokesperson said he “feared a fatal outcome” after skeletal remains and a hat were found that month near the site of Legagneur’s disappearance, but officials never announced conclusive results from collected evidence and DNA tests. There is no indication of any further investigation.
Newspaper journalist vanished almost 11 years ago after covering police abuse allegations.
María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe, a mother of two, was last seen leaving her home in the central state of Michoacán in November 2009. She reported for regional news outlets, including Zamora-based daily El Diario de Zamora and regional daily Cambio de Michoacán, and tended to focus on organized crime and local corruption, sometimes omitting her byline out of awareness of possible reprisal. In the weeks before she vanished, Aguilar’s coverage included police abuse allegations and the military’s anti-cartel efforts. According to CPJ data, at least 14 journalists are currently missing in Mexico.
Reporter feared to be dead after four years missing.
Jean Bigirimana has not been seen or heard from since July 2016, after he received a call from a source in the country’s national intelligence service and left his home in Bujumbura. The reporter for independent weekly newspaper Iwacu formerly worked for the pro-government radio station Rema FM. Sources report the journalist was arrested by intelligence agents and accused of writing about exiled Burundian journalists living in Rwanda, and family members fear Bigirimana is dead. Four fellow Iwacu reporters, also targeted by government authorities, are currently serving a 2.5-year prison sentence.
Journalist went missing after leaving work 5 months ago.
A reporter and news presenter for the Palma Community Radio broadcaster in the northern Cabo Delgado province, Ibraimo Mbaruco disappeared on April 7 after leaving work and then texting a colleague saying he was “surrounded by soldiers.” The journalist’s brother told CPJ he reported the disappearance to local police and the provincial prosecutor’s office but had yet to receive any information about Ibraimo’s whereabouts and did not know if he was still alive. To date, the government has not launched a credible investigation. Mbaruco was also part of the Sekelekani network, a local civil society organization that trains citizen journalists.
Investigative reporter last seen during business trip 13.5 years ago.
In March 2007,Oralgaisha Omarshanova, who uses the pen name Oralgaisha Zhabagtaikyzy, wrote about ethnic clashes in rival regions of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital. On a business trip there, colleagues from Astana-based independent weekly Zakon i Pravosudiye (meaning “Law and Justice”), last saw Omarshanova, director of the anti-corruption department, getting into a vehicle. The following month, her brother said at a press conference that, in the weeks prior to her disappearance, Omarshanova had received several death threats via telephone warning her to stop reporting.
Investigation needed for rural reporter missing three years.
The Tanzanian government has failed to conduct a credible investigation since Azory Gwanda, a freelancer who had been investigating mysterious killings in his rural community, went missing in November 2017. In a BBC interview in June 2019, Tanzania’s foreign minister said the journalist was among several people who had “disappeared and died”; however, the minister later issued a clarification saying his statements were taken out of context and that he did not know whether the journalist was alive or dead. Authorities have not responded to CPJ’s repeated requests for updates in the case.
Among several unresolved cases in Syria, foreign journalist missing seven years.
Samir Kassab, a Lebanese photographer working for the Abu Dhabi-based broadcaster Sky News Arabia, disappeared in October 2013 while reporting alongside Mauritanian reporter Iszhak Ould Mokhtar in Aleppo. Kassab’s fiancée told CPJ in 2019 that no group had claimed responsibility for the journalists’ abduction. At least nine journalists are currently missing in Syria, a country that also claims the highest number of foreign journalists missing. CPJ recently helped 60 Syrian journalists and their families escape dangerous conditions and resettle in Europe.
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fortune--2020-09-01--Apple and Google expand digital coronavirus contact-tracing tools to help speed adoption

Apple and Google announced Tuesday that they will deploy digital contact-tracing tools on behalf of state and other public health authorities. The tools could help slow the spread of COVID-19 by informing users if they come into contact with someone who tests positive for the virus.
States have so far been expected to develop their own applications that work with the tech giants’ recently-launched contact-tracing infrastructure. But Apple and Google will now deploy contact-tracing tools using parameters provided by state health agencies. Google will use the information to create apps for Android phones, while Apple will implement contact-tracing for iOS devices that isn’t reliant on apps.
Digital contact tracing is a supplement to traditional manual contact tracing. In manual tracing, which has been used to fight pandemics for decades, infected individuals are interviewed by health workers about those whom they have been in contact with recently. Those at-risk individuals are then notified to self-isolate and seek testing, to prevent them from infecting others.
Digital contact-tracing tools do similar tracking automatically, using cell phones’ Bluetooth and GPS systems to anonymously monitor users’ possible exposure.
The new initiative, Exposure Notifications Express, will let public health authorities submit parameters for contact tracing to Apple and Google. Those parameters include an agency’s standards for what constitutes a coronavirus exposure, what actions users are instructed to take if exposed, and visual elements including logos. Google will then create an app for Android phones available through the Android App Store, while Apple will set up “app-less” notifications for iOS.
Contact-tracing apps developed by or for state health authorities will all interact using a decentralized, privacy-preserving data system jointly developed by Apple and Google. The new app development process will not affect those privacy features, which rely on phones communicating with one another at short range, and sending only minimal, anonymous data to a central server.
Taking the technical burden off of states should help increase adoption of digital contact-tracing apps. Apple and Google launched a new data system in May to run the apps, but only six U.S. states have developed their own app since then, while 25 more are in talks with the tech giants. Representatives for Apple and Google said Tuesday that a lack of technical staff has been one of the major barriers to the deployment of contact-tracing apps by remaining states.
Despite efforts to preserve privacy, there is substantial worry that Americans will be hesitant to use the apps. Some have said that low adoption could make them ineffective, based on an Oxford study that found 60% adoption of the apps would be sufficient to control a pandemic. But that threshold referred to the necessary adoption rate of digital contact tracing in the absence of other measures. Oxford professor Christophe Fraser, one of the researchers behind that study, has since emphasized that as little as 15% of a population using digital contact-tracing apps could reduce COVID-19 infections by 15% and deaths by 11%.


fortune--2020-09-01--COVID-19 cases are spiking in these college towns—even as the U.S. trends downward

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The return of students to campuses across the U.S. is changing the landscape of pandemic America.
As new cases of coronavirus across the country trend downward, college towns dominate the list of places—accounting for the top 16 spots—where new cases of COVID-19 have increased the most in the past two-week period, according to a Fortune analysis of New York Times data.
Johnson County, Iowa, home to Iowa City and the University of Iowa where classes began last Monday, saw the biggest jump in new cases—up from an average of 17 per day two weeks ago to 184 per day in the week ending Aug. 30. After the reports of fast-rising cases and publication by the local media of photos of mask-less students teeming Iowa City’s bars last week, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds ordered all bars, night clubs, and other drinking venues in six counties—including those where Iowa, Iowa State, and Drake Universities are located—to close. (All three of those institutions are in counties that are among the 16 with the biggest increase in new coronavirus cases). The University of Iowa Health Care reported positivity rates well above 30% for multiple days last week.
Lee County, Alabama, where Auburn University is located—and where classes began Aug. 17—experienced the second largest increase in new cases—up from an average of 8 per day two weeks ago to 54 per day in the week ending Aug. 30. Sixteen players on the college’s football team are among those to have reportedly tested positive.
In total, counties with 113 colleges had reported at least 25 more coronavirus cases per day in the week ending Aug. 30 than two weeks prior.
In less populated areas, the return of students to campus has had an even greater impact in terms of overall coronavirus case numbers. The city of Radford, Virginia—the location of Radford University and roughly 9,400 students—had recorded just 68 cases as of Aug. 17; two weeks later, with students back on campus, the figure has increased by 465% to 348 cases for the year. The total number of cases reported year-to-date in Dawes County, Nebraska (population 8,700) have increased 329% in the two weeks ending Aug. 30. That’s the location of Chadron State College, a 3,000-student institution that has reported 27 positive cases among its student and faculty since Aug. 12. Whitman County, Washington has seen its case numbers soar by 258% in the past two weeks, reportedly due to the area’s student population. While the university has gone to remote classes this fall, many students have reportedly returned to off-campus housing nearby. Some of South Dakota’s college towns have also become hotspots, though case numbers remain relatively small.
Institutions in counties with largest increase of daily new cases
Additional new cases per day based on a seven-day average, Aug 17 – Aug. 30


fortune--2020-09-01--Official Biden-Harris campaign yard signs available for download in Nintendo’s ‘Animal Crossing’

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Joe Biden is rallying the gamer vote. Starting Tuesday, people can download official Biden campaign yard signs for display within the Nintendo video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Supporters of the Democratic nominee for President and California Sen. Kamala Harris, his running mate, can wave the flags or post the signs outside their island homes inside the game, whose bucolic world-simulation attracted hundreds of thousands of players during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns. The digital merchandise represents a way to organize voters online during a campaign season derailed by COVID-19.
Four pro-Joe signs are available for download. One features the official Biden-Harris logo. Another reads “Team Joe.” A third says “Joe,” incorporating colors from the pride flag. The fourth features red, white, and blue Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses, a much-memed trademark accessory of the candidate.
Biden-Harris yard signs within “Animal Crossing.” Courtesy of the Biden Campaign
“It is an exciting new opportunity for our campaign to engage and connect Biden-Harris supporters as they build and decorate their islands,” said Christian Tom, director of digital partnerships for the Biden campaign. “As we enter the final campaign stretch towards November, this is one way we are finding new creative and innovative ways to meet voters where they are and bring our supporters together.”
People can acquire the virtual “swag” by scanning QR codes associated with the designs through the Nintendo Switch Online app.
An example of the virtual signage created by the Biden campaign, plus an associated QR code.
In COVID-19’s wake, the Biden campaign has been resorting to virtual rallies and fundraisers in lieu of potentially infectious in-person events. The campaign has released custom Zoom videoconferencing backgrounds, among other digital banners.
This isn’t the first time politics has infused Animal Crossing. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York made the rounds by visiting people’s virtual islands in May. Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and related nationwide protests crafted customized in-game gear, like “BLM” signs and clothing. And pro-democracy demonstrators used the game to show support for protests in Hong Kong.
“This is just the start of how we plan to engage players ahead of November as we’re already looking forward to rolling out more digital swag, voter education tools, and organizing efforts on Animal Crossing and other platforms,” Tom said.
The Trump campaign used the opportunity to take a swing at its opponent. “This explains everything: Joe Biden thinks he’s campaigning for President of Animal Crossing from his basement,” said Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign. “The Trump campaign will continue to spend its resources campaigning in the real world with real Americans.”
The Trump campaign has recently been spending millions on digital ads across the Internet on news websites and video-streaming services. The spokesperson did not comment on plans for possible digital signage in other virtual venues.


fortune--2020-09-01--Tesla bulls dig in their hooves after company’s $5 billion capital raise announcement

Tesla certainly knows how to strike when the iron is hot.
The Elon Musk-led electric vehicle behemoth saw a 13% surge from bullish investors and traders on Monday following its 5-for-1 stock split— building on roaring momentum that’s seen the stock skyrocket 479% this year.
But Tesla isn’t stopping there: early Tuesday, the company announced a capital raise of up to $5 billion worth of shares via 10 top banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, selling them “from time to time, through an ‘at-the-market’ offering program,” the company said in an SEC filing.
And Tesla bulls are seemingly digging their hooves in deeper.
“I think this was purely a golden opportunity to shore up its balance sheet and just given the massive momentum in shares, it was the right move at the right time because now they’re no longer in a negative debt situation relative to its balance sheet,” Wedbush’s ever-bullish Dan Ives tells Fortune.
Currently Tesla holds about $14.1 billion in total debt and finance leases and roughly $8.6 billion in cash (as of its latest 2nd quarter report).
Although the stock was trading down roughly 2% in midday trading Tuesday, for investors, “this just puts further credence in the longer-term bullish thesis for Tesla,” Ives argues. “I think it really takes the lingering bear thesis around the balance sheet and debt situation and throws it out the window.”
Naturally, Tesla bulls haven’t been shy on Twitter.
This latest capital raise comes six months after the EV maker raised some $2 billion in a stock offering—moves that “initially took the doomsday scenario off the table that Tesla was facing at the time and ultimately helped them navigate the build out of the linchpin Giga 3 factory in China and enough time for the model to hit sustained profitability,” Ives wrote in a note Tuesday.
The ‘champagne on ice for S&P 500 inclusion’
Meanwhile, inclusion in the S&P 500 index has been an increasingly hot topic for Tesla investors, and according to some bulls, this latest one-two punch of the stock split and capital raise “basically puts the champagne on ice for S&P inclusion,” Wedbush’s Ives believes. Inclusion would be “important institutionally-speaking,” Ives says, as he notes institutional interest in the stock has grown in recent months, and he believes inclusion is now a “matter of when, not if.”
Yet less bullish voices on the Street view Tesla’s hype as a bit overdone.
“Tesla will have growing pains, recessions to fight through before reaching mass-market volume, more competition, and needs to pay off debt,” Morningstar’s David Whiston wrote in an August 25 note. “It is important to keep the hype about Tesla in perspective relative to the firm’s limited, though now growing, production capacity.”
That debt, at least, may be tended to via the company’s newest capital raise, but Morningstar’s Whiston believes there are some bigger issues: “We do not see [Tesla] having mass-market volume this decade. Tesla’s product plans for now do not mean an electric vehicle for every consumer who wants one, because the prices are too high,” he writes.
Meanwhile, the question of if Tesla deserves its sky-high valuation is increasingly at the fore—And according to longtime short-seller Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates, “Tesla’s not a market leader. The product at Tesla that’s always been first-rate is the narrative,” he recently told Fortune.
Yet following the company’s stock split on Monday, analysts like Morningstar’s Whiston have updated their tune somewhat: he believes Tesla’s “ability to make desirable vehicles while generating free cash flow and net profit is far better than it’s ever been, in our opinion,” Whiston wrote Monday, and notes that “for a young company like Tesla, we think long-term potential is the more important question and value driver than how many Model 3 or Model Ys get delivered in a quarter.”
Ives is willing to go even further: His bull-case-scenario sees Tesla popping over 40% higher from Monday’s close.


fortune--2020-09-01--Robinhood app stumbles amid surge in Apple, Tesla trading volume

A surge in share trading activity on Monday and Tuesday, which included an uptick in stocks like Apple and Tesla, has led to delays on the popular trading app Robinhood, and a flurry of customer complaints on social media.
On Tuesday morning, Robinhood users encountered messages like the one below, which noted the app has been experiencing an uptick in usage that had affected its performance.
The notices appeared a day after Robinhood issued an apology on Twitter to customers who had experienced delays in placing their orders.
This morning, some customers were experiencing issues with delayed order status updates. We’ve resolved the issue and Robinhood is operational. We apologize and thank you for your patience. — Robinhood Help (@AskRobinhood) August 31, 2020
The slowdowns this week appear relatively minor compared to those that occurred in March when a massive surge in trading volume led Robinhood to crash for long stretches, including one outage that lasted an entire day.
Customers nonetheless took to Twitter to vent about the latest delays, and mock Robinhood’s performance.
Robinhood users trying to get their app working (when the whole system is dead in the water right now) pic.twitter.com/wtAQ80A0LV — Robert (@outlaw2097) September 1, 2020
A person familiar with Robinhood told Fortune that “Some of our customers were briefly experiencing degraded performance on our web app” but did not provide additional details.
Numerous Robinhood customers on Twitter cited delays arising from their attempts to purchase shares of Tesla and Apple, which respectively carried out 5-1 and 4-1 stock splits on Monday that led to a wave of purchases.
Over 225 million shares of Apple changed hands on Monday, according to data from Bloomberg, which represents a more than fivefold increase from Friday. In the case of Tesla, Monday’s figure was nearly 120 million shares compared to around 20 million last Thursday and Friday.
Robinhood was not the only brokerage affected by the surge in trading, as on Monday Fox Business reported outages at TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab.
The latest service disruptions come at an awkward time for Robinhood. While the company has enjoyed huge customer and revenue growth in 2020, and raised large amounts of money from investors, it is also facing scrutiny over its customer service and technical stability.
Robinhood is facing class action lawsuits over the outages in March from customers who allege the incident caused them to lose money. And a new report noted that regulators received nearly 500 complaints about Robinhood this year, more than its brokerage competitors combined.
The controversies come as Robinhood is adding senior executives specializing in compliance ahead of rumors the company soon plans to go public.


fortune--2020-09-01--Google bolsters its A.I.-enabled flood alerts for India and Bangladesh

Google has improved and expanded a program that uses artificial intelligence software to forecast floods in South Asia, enabling governments to issue earlier and more accurate warnings that can potentially save lives, the company said in a blog post Tuesday.
The system now covers more than 200 million people at risk for flooding across India as well as large portions of neighboring Bangladesh, a country where an average of 5,000 people each year are killed in floods.
Changes in the technology underpinning the system have allowed Google to double the warning time it is now providing, giving people detailed alerts up to 48 hours before flooding occurs.
Floods affect an estimated 95 million to 240 million people worldwide annually, killing between 6,000 and 8,000 of them and causing up to $33 billion in economic damage. Those figures are expected to rise as climate change makes flooding, owing to stronger rainstorms and glacial melting, more frequent and severe.
Google began its Flood Forecasting Initiative in 2017, covering the area around Patna, the capital of the Indian state of Bihar, historically the country’s most flood-prone region. In 2019, Bihar experienced some of the worst floods in a quarter-century, which killed more than 130 people.
The Silicon Valley technology giant has worked with the Indian government’s Central Water Commission to improve the forecasts it relies on. It has also worked with the agency to improve the way it sends alerts to citizens warning them of danger.
Since then Google has steadily expanded the program, and the company says it has helped send more than 27 million flood alerts in India to date.
Sella Nevo, a senior software engineer at Google who leads the flood forecasting project, said part of its improvement in forecasting in India has involved working with the Indian government to improve how it collects data on water levels. This has reduced both erroneous water-level readings and delays that hampered forecasting in the past.
While some of these problems are specific to flood monitoring in India and other developing nations, some of the techniques Google has pioneered in India could change flood forecasting worldwide.
Nevo said even state-of-the-art flood forecasting had previously relied on hydrologic models that were based largely on maps of local topography and conceptual principles derived from physics. Each watershed was thought to be unique—leaving little ability to create a model that would work equally well across different river basins, Nevo explained.
Google, instead, took an approach largely based on A.I., in which software analyzes historical flood data taken from several different river basins in different parts of the world and trains itself to make accurate predictions for almost any river basin.
“One assumption that was presumed to be true in hydrology is that you cannot generalize across water basins,” Nevo said. “Well, it’s not true, as it turns out.” He said Google’s A.I.-based forecasting model has performed better on watersheds it has never encountered before in training than classical hydrologic models that were designed specifically for that river basin.
Of course, issuing these forecasts is one thing. Figuring out how to alert people based on them is another. And so far, exactly how people react to government-issued flood warnings and what kinds of alerts work best are topics that have been understudied.
Google said it is currently working with researchers from Yale University to try to answer some of these questions. Preliminary work by Yale and Google in India has shown that receiving an alert doubles the chance that someone will take action to protect themselves, with about 65% of all people who receive flood warnings taking some protective steps.
But the company has been working to improve these figures. This year, it said it overhauled its alerts to provide information in nine different local languages as well as in a visual formats, which can help people intuitively grasp the warning.
It is also providing people with more information about exactly how far the water is likely to rise in their specific village or area at specific times, based on the Google forecast.
This story has been updated to correctly describe the method Google has used to improve the quality of data fed into its flood forecasts. It has not used electronic sensors as part of the initiative and instead has relied on other ways to improve the timeliness and accuracy of the data.


fortune--2020-09-01--We won’t have a true economic recovery until we tackle the racial wealth gap

A global conversation about diversity and inclusion is growing to a roar no one can ignore. Yet still we do not see enough meaningful action from those in a position to drive real change.
Business leaders and shareholders must lead the charge, for the good of society and the competitiveness of their businesses and our nation. The economic impact of an equitable workforce is significant.
The coronavirus health crisis has provided visibility into how disproportionately vulnerable lower-income individuals are in our society—as an already pronounced racial wealth gap continues to widen. While there are outliers, we have unfortunately left major demographic groups behind, even disenfranchised them. We are at a tipping point; we can create a more level playing field by working together, or risk slipping further behind.
Closer public and private partnership
Complacency and lack of action by both business and government are to blame, and together we must fix those issues. Governments and businesses must move toward a new form of inclusiveness with built-in trajectory and compensation mechanisms for those who today benefit the least.
A major challenge for people of color to rise in economic class is the availability of social advocates—mentors within their communities, from early education, to home life and the workplace. These issues bleed into our education systems. It is hard to motivate young students who feel their future is already written for them. Youth must visualize the options for their future, and feel anything they dream is attainable. Community role models support that vision.
In secondary education, corporations and universities must work closer to identify skill sets most in demand, so schools can invest in teaching the skills that will best prepare students for the workforce—a campaign that should include community colleges and trade schools.
Training and reskilling talent in the workforce provides pathways to managerial roles. Companies must look harder to spot the talent in their organizations, and open pathways through coaching and mentorship. Formal mentoring boosts minority and female representation in management. At Harman International, where I was CEO from 2007 until earlier this year, we developed numerous career development programs that enhance diverse representation in management roles. These programs rely heavily on allyship, coaching, training, guidance, and support of leaders and colleagues.
The way corporations hire must also change. The talent is there, we need to do a better job of finding them through nontraditional channels. Public and private sectors must work together to ensure a more even distribution of wealth.
Establish targets
Where do we start? I think we have to start at every end, and meet in the middle. Start in the boardroom, in the conference room, in the classroom, and in the living room.
Goldman Sachs stepped up earlier this year with a strong position to support gender diversity, stating they will not bring a company public if they do not have at least one female director. We need similar benchmarks that bring more people of color, and more people from diverse cultures, into our boardrooms and our conference rooms. Diversity benefits all. I benefited immensely from the diversity-rich environment of having men and women of color in my teams throughout my professional career. The business community is in a powerful position to create change, and must be a purposeful participant and advocate.
Access to affordable secondary education is critical. Colleges and universities must evaluate their acceptance procedures and cost structures. Those administering scholarship and grant programs must consider how to reach underserved populations.
At the end of the day, conversation must start in the home. We all must diversify our consumption—seek out new voices with varying perspectives across news, podcasts, and entertainment. Each of us has an obligation to befriend people who are different from us and invite them into our homes.
Our children grew up in multiple countries and attended international schools where people from 30 to 40 nationalities learned together. My wife and I understood and challenged our hidden biases when our children introduced us to friends who were different from them. My wife and I learnt a great deal about race, caste, and social boundaries. I am convinced that a solid foundation of racial and gender equality and mutual respect starts from early childhood, and it starts from home and early schools.
Ongoing activism and advocacy
We can’t let this be just another short-lived civil rights movement and a moment in time. When the media stops paying attention to the daily headlines, let us not stop paying attention to our own daily actions. Each of us, not only the business and political leaders, have a role to play as changemakers. The future of our businesses, our economy, and our nation relies on us today to be allies for our neighbors. Talk is cheap: Let’s step up and drive real, continuous, and ongoing action.
Working together today, we can begin to repair the damage of decades of disenfranchising minority groups. Equality is not about philanthropy, it’s about integrity. It’s not about compliance, it’s about competitiveness. Unlike other issues, this will not pass, and we must do better.
Dinesh Paliwal (@dineshcpaliwal) is a board member of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Nestlé, and Raytheon Technologies, and former chairman and CEO of Harman.