fortune--2020-10-02--Stocks, oil futures bomb after Trump tests positive for COVID-19

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Good morning. There’s just one story driving markets at the moment: President Trump’s early morning tweet that he and the First Lady have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s sent markets into a tailspin. At the outset, investors poured into safe havens, particularly the Japanese yen and gold. Meanwhile, equities, oil contracts and U.S. futures fell off a cliff, with Nasdaq futures down as much as 2%, before stabilizing somewhat. It’s also a bad day if you’re long Russian assets: stocks in Moscow and the ruble are among the worst performers.
Let’s check in on the action.
Markets update
Asia
The major Asia indexes swung to the red in early afternoon trading with the MSCI Asia Pacific down 0.3% , erasing earlier gains.
swung to the red in early afternoon trading with the down , erasing earlier gains. After yesterday’s outage in Tokyo, Japan’s Nikkei is back online, down 0.7% in afternoon trade.
Europe
The European bourses are awash in red with Paris, London and Frankfurt all down more than 1% at the open.
are awash in red with Paris, London and Frankfurt all down more than at the open. In FX news, the Russian ruble is down significantly, off 1% , as betting odds swing further in favor of a Joe Biden victory in November.
is down significantly, off , as betting odds swing further in favor of a Joe Biden victory in November. Brexit trade talks wrap up today. And, no, there’s been little progress in this round, making trade in the pound sterling incredibly volatile.
wrap up today. And, no, there’s been little progress in this round, making trade in the pound sterling incredibly volatile. Tesla got a crucial green light for its German factory and is expected to begin producing its electric vehicles there beginning next year.
U.S.
At approximately 54 minutes past midnight in Washington D.C., President Trump tweeted his COVID diagnosis , and the U.S. futures promptly caved, giving up earlier gains.
tweeted his , and the promptly caved, giving up earlier gains. The final jobs report before Election Day is due before the opening bell today, and analysts are projecting that 875,000 jobs will have been added in the past month, putting the unemployment rate at 8.2% .
before Election Day is due before the opening bell today, and analysts are projecting that will have been added in the past month, putting the unemployment rate at . Google on Thursday pledged to distribute up to $1 billion to news publishers over the next three years as part of its unveiling of a new product called News Showcase. Don’t imagine for a moment this will settle the differences between the two sides.
Elsewhere
Gold is up, nudging above $1,910/ounce .
is up, nudging above . The dollar has been gaining all morning.
has been gaining all morning. Crude is down sharply, with Brent off 3%, trading below $40/barrel.
***
By the numbers
380
Political pundits often talk about an October surprise, a piece of breaking news that rocks the presidential campaign. Investors are no fans of such bombshells. And so far the markets are treating today’s COVID tweet as just that—a shock. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bombed down in overnight trade immediately following Trump’s COVID tweet. The blue chip index was off 380 points, before stabilizing. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was off 265, down more than 2.3% at one point. The bulls have been focused on the stimulus package negotiations over the past two weeks as a potential markets jolt. The bears, meanwhile, were still worried about COVID and further lockdown measures. Look for that bearish chatter to intensify now that the president has tested positive.
-6%
Even with Nasdaq futures sinking this morning, the tech-heavy exchange appears on track to close higher for the week, the first time in the past five weeks. Exactly one month ago today, on Sept. 2, the Nasdaq hit an all-time high. It’s off 6% since then. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Nasdaq is up 3.7% in the past week.
And while I’m talking about the Nasdaq, I have to correct the record on something I wrote yesterday. As a reader pointed out, I short-changed both the bull run of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since their mid-March lows. The latter is up 62.7% since then; meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up 50.3% in that stretch.
$4.54
The price of Brent crude has performed, as an asset, worse than equities in the past month. A barrel of Brent is trading around 39 bucks, down $4.54 in the past month. That’s a 10.2% drop in the past month as doubts hang over the recovery of the global economy.
***
Have a nice weekend, everyone. I’ll see you here on Monday.
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 read
What Wall Street wants. It's no secret that finance stocks have been the big laggards of 2020. But could the sector's fortunes be primed for a comeback after Election Day? I spoke to a lot of Wall Street pros in recent weeks to get their take on what Big Finance—and, by extension, investors—would like to see from the next administration.
Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a discount offer for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.
Market candy
Quote of the day
The third quarter is usually weak, but when it is really strong, like it was in 2020, this says the rally isn’t over yet.
That's LPL Financial's Ryan Detrick who points out that the traditionally weak Q3 was anything but this year. And when the third quarter outperforms that typically bodes well for the remaining three months of 2020. Here's why.


fortune--2020-10-02--President Trump and First Lady test positive for COVID-19

The White House unveils a new stimulus package with $ 400 weekly unemployment benefits and $ 1,200 checks

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, the president tweeted early Friday.
Trump’s positive test comes just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks came down with the virus after traveling with the president several times this week. Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and looked to be in good health. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has now killed more than 200,000 people nationwide.
“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump tweeted.
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Trump announced late Thursday that he and first lady Melania Trump were beginning a “quarantine process” after Hicks came down with the virus, though it wasn’t clear what that entailed. It can take days for an infection to be detectable by a test.
Subscribe to The Capsule , a weekly brief monitoring advances in health care and biopharma, delivered free to your inbox.
The diagnosis marks a major blow for a president who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them even as cases continue to rise with less than four months before Election Day. And it stands as the most serious known public health scare encountered by any sitting American president in recent history.
Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.
Campaign trail
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday, Trump said he was awaiting results of a COVID-19 test. “Whether we quarantine or whether we have it, I don’t know,” he said, adding that first lady Melania Trump was also awaiting results.
Hicks traveled with the president multiple times this week, including aboard Marine One, the presidential helicopter, and on Air Force One to a rally in Minnesota on Wednesday, and aboard Air Force One to Tuesday night’s first presidential debate in Cleveland.
Trump had consistently played down concerns about being personally vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, even after White House staff and allies were exposed and sickened.
“I felt no vulnerability whatsoever,” he said told reporters back in May.
He has instead encouraged governors to reopen their states and tried to focus the nation’s attention on efforts to revive the economy — not a growing death toll — as he seeks another four-year term.
Some studies suggest COVID-19 patients who are obese may be at higher risk of being seriously sickened by the virus, although it’s unclear whether that’s because they are more likely to have other health conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. In his 2019 physical, Trump met the technical threshold for obesity.
The news was sure to rattle an already shaken nation still grappling with how to safely reopen while avoiding further spikes. The White House has access to near-unlimited resources, including a constant supply of quick-result tests, and still failed to keep the president safe, raising questions about how the rest of the country will be able to protect its workers, students and the public as businesses and schools reopen.
Daily testing
Trump, the vice president and other senior staff have been tested for COVID-19 daily since two people who work at the White House complex tested positive in early May, prompting the White House to step up precautions. Everyone who comes into contact with the president also receives a quick-result test.
Yet since the early days of the pandemic, experts have questioned the health and safety protocols at the White House and asked why more wasn’t being done to protect the commander in chief. Trump continued to shake hands with visitors long after public health officials were warning against it and he initially resisted being tested. He has been reluctant to practice his own administration’s social distancing guidelines for fear of looking weak, including refusing under almost all circumstances to wear a mask in public.
Trump is not the only major world leader known to have contracted the virus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a week in the hospital, including three nights in intensive care, where he was given oxygen and watched around the clock by medical workers. German Chancellor Angela Merkel self-isolated after a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive for the virus, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau worked from home after his wife fell ill.
The White House got its first COVID-19 scare in early March when at least three people who later tested positive came in close proximity to the president at his private Florida club. That included members of the Brazilian president’s delegation, including the Brazilian chargé d’affaires, who sat at Trump’s dinner table.
In mid-March, as the virus continued to spread across the country, the White House began taking the temperature of everyone entering the White House complex, and in April, it began administering rapid COVID-19 tests to all those in close proximity to the president, with staffers being tested about once a week. The frequent tests gave some staff the false impression the complex was safe from the virus, and few, as a result, followed recommended safety protocols, including wearing masks.
But then the bubble broke.
On May 7, the White House announced that a member of the military serving as one of the president’s personal valets tested positive for the virus, followed a day later by a positive diagnosis for Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary.
Even then, Trump said he was “not worried” about the virus spreading in the White House. But officials again stepped up safety protocols for the complex, directing everyone entering the West Wing to wear a mask.
“I think it’s very well contained, actually,” Trump told reporters on May 11.
But by June, concerns at the White House had dissipated once again, with few staffers bothering with masks even as more and more people tested positive for the virus, including campaign staffers preparing for a Tulsa rally and Secret Service agents.
On July 3rd, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., tested positive in South Dakota before an Independence Day fireworks show at Mount Rushmore. Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality who works for Trump’s campaign, had not flown on Air Force One and had not been in direct contact with the president, though she had had contact with numerous top GOP officials.
In July, Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, tested positive.
While there is currently no evidence that Trump is seriously ill, the positive test also raises questions about what would happen if he were to become incapacitated due to illness. The Constitution’s 25th Amendment spells out the procedures under which a president can declare themselves “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the presidency. If he were to make that call, Trump would transmit a written note to the Senate president pro tempore, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Pence would serve as acting president until Trump transmitted “a written declaration to the contrary.”
The vice president and a majority of either the Cabinet or another body established by law, can also declare the president unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, in which case Pence would “immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President” until Trump could provide a written declaration to the contrary.


fortune--2020-10-02--Trump is being treated with a COVID drug that wasn’t one of the questionable therapies he’s previous

Trump is being treated with a COVID drug that wasn’t one of the questionable therapies he’s previously touted

Pelosi says Trump ’ s COVID diagnosis has improved the odds for another stimulus package

An insane year got just a bit crazier Friday with the news that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19. Hours later, we learned that the President was sick enough, with symptoms such as a fever, to be airlifted to Walter Reed hospital and treated with an experimental coronavirus drug from the pharmaceutical giant Regeneron.
Regeneron’s stock spiked more than 4% after-hours on the news. The drug Trump is taking is a cocktail of antibodies, an approach that other companies such as Eli Lilly have been testing to fight COVID with existing products for other conditions that can be treated with these biological protectors.
Here’s what the President is taking, according to White House physician Sean Conley via a press release: “Following PCR-confirmation of the President’s diagnosis, as a precautionary measure he received a single 8 gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail. He completed the infusion without incident. In addition to the polyclonal antibodies, the President has been taking zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin, and a daily aspirin.”
What he’s not taking, or at least has not said he’s taking, is any of the products or questionable therapies he’s has played up to the public, often to the outright condemnation of public health officials such as his own former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Scott Gottlieb. Specifically, hydroxycloroquine: the supposed anti-malarial miracle cure for coronavirus that Trump has touted on numerous occasions despite a lack of compelling scientific evidence that it can lessen COVID’s impact.
Regeneron released data just two days ago showing that its antibody cocktail can reduce the so-called viral load of coronavirus, specifically among those who may be symptomatic but not seriously ill. That may explain why Trump and his physicians chose to go down this particular therapeutic route.
Other COVID treatments which have shown promise against the pathogen include Gilead’s remdesivir and common steroids such as dexamethasone.


fortune--2020-10-02--Businesses from restaurants to health care need this election

Industries of all kinds need the election to work for them, infamous right-wing hoaxers face felony charges, and California becomes a champion ally.
But first, here’s your president-has-COVID week in review, in Haiku.
It’s hard to believe
that the fate of the world seems
to hinge on a few small
things: Like kindness and
regard, respect, a thought spared
the less fortunate.
There by the grace of
a mask go any of us!
A small thing looming
large in the time of
COVID. Well, we shrug, at least
he’s white. With a doctor.
High risk, with a twist.
At least we have a few small things,
like each other
Wishing you a collectively healthy weekend and a speedy recovery to anyone impacted by COVID. Take some time to go outside and breathe, if you can.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
On Point
What does business need from the election besides COVID-free candidates you ask? Fortune has you covered with this comprehensive package that explores the needs of constituents like working parents, the unbanked, unions, and low-wage workers, along with industry sectors like Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the health care.
Fortune
Two notorious right-wing hoaxers face felony charges for voter intimidation Jacob Wohl, 22, and Jack Burkman, 54, are in serious trouble for a robo-call scheme targeting residents in Black areas in Detroit and another cities that falsely warned residents that voting by mail in the presidential election could lead to things like debt collection, forced vaccination and possibly arrest. They face four felony charges, including conspiring to intimidate voters in violation of election law and using a computer to commit crimes. The men could face arrest and extradition if they do not voluntarily travel to Michigan to face charges, authorities say. Vile.
AP
California, the ally state, part one This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring public companies domiciled in California to diversify their boards racially, ethnically, and in terms of sexual and gender identity starting next year. By the end of 2021, at least one board member must come from an underrepresented demographic; by 2022, companies of significant size must have at least two or three. California State Assemblyman Chris Holden coauthored the legislation. “This is a win-win as ethnically diverse boards have shown to outperform those that lack diversity," he said in a statement.
CNN
California, the ally state, part two Then, on the same dang day, California became the first state to pass legislation that would pave the way for Black residents and descendants of slaves to receive reparation payments. While the legislation does not commit to a payment scheme, it does establish a nine-person task force that will study the impact of enslavement on people in California. It will also offer specific recommendations on the form and scope of any reparations offered. The legislation was authored by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, PhD, who serves San Diego’s District 79, and who chairs the California Legislative Black Caucus.
On Background
The Proud Boys, an explainer The ADL has a good one about the group, which was started by Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, to give voice to an odd mix of right-wing, male grievance, and described as violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic — and though not officially white supremacist, that’s not always how things play out. “In reality, the Proud Boys bear many of the hallmarks of a gang, and its members have taken part in multiple acts of brutal violence and intimidation.”
ADL
Yes, you are the asshole Writer Jessica Valenti has done the world a service by digging into the AITA forum on Reddit, an advice forum in which people post their response to real world conflict that almost always involves their romantic partners, and then ask the existential question: Hey, am I crazy? Am I the asshole here? What typically follows is a disturbing look at a toxic male culture run amok. “What makes AITA such a special look into gender dynamics is that the men who describe awful scenarios truly don’t believe they’ve done anything wrong,” she writes. “Sexism has fully lulled them into a sense of moral superiority that blinds them to their own explicitly terrible behavior.” Come for the misogyny, stay for the not-so-subtle racism.
Gen
There was a moment when we started fighting about politics on television If you want to understand what started the nasty, counterpunching debate dynamic that is now commonplace on the evening news and the internet— pre-trolls, even — you’ll need to go back to 1968, when cash-strapped ABC, then stuck in third place, hired conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. and the liberal Gore Vidal to participate in ten debates on nightly television. Best of Enemies, is a truly astonishing documentary about the debates, and reveals the actual moment when civility went out the window and television vitriol in service of deeply rooted ideological views, became good business.
Best of Enemies
raceAhead is edited by Aric Jenkins.
Today's mood board
The president in Minnesota, two days ago. Do NOT shake this man's hand.


fortune--2020-10-02--Social media erupts with conspiracy theories and death wishes after Trump’s positive COVID test

Since President Trump announced that he and First Lady Melania Trump had contracted COVID-19, Facebook and Twitter users have posted a deluge of conspiracy theories, death wishes, and misinformation—violating the services’ rules.
Some Trump supporters spread QAnon theories, erroneously suggested that the Democrats or Joe Biden had planted the virus on Trump’s debate microphone on Wednesday, and claimed that the diagnosis was fake. Some also used the diagnosis to further the false theory that masks don’t prevent contracting the virus.
Meanwhile, Biden supporters posted that Trump was faking a positive test for political gain, while others hoped Trump would suffer during his recovery. Other accounts, whose affiliation were unclear, posted satanic images coupled with Arabic messages.
Neither Facebook nor Twitter have commented about the matter. Instead, they pointed to their recent efforts to label misinformation about COVID-19 and ban threats and wishes for people to die.
But since introducing rules about COVID misinformation, both companies have struggled to curtail the spread of conspiracy theories, bogus miracle cures, and misleading health information.
Facebook said the workers who police its site were making it a priority to deal with posts about the president’s diagnosis. Twitter did not comment on whether it was prioritizing those posts, though by Friday morning most of the satanic responses had been removed.
The misinformation spreading on social media comes from a mixture of users, bots, and political figures—some of whom have large followings. For example, DeAnna Lorainne, a conservative commentator who unsuccessfully ran for Congress earlier this year, suggested in a tweet to her 391,000 followers that the Democrats purposefully infected Trump. “I’m just going to say what we’re all thinking. Trump was fine until the debate, where they set up microphones and podiums for him … I put nothing past the left. NOTHING,” she said.
Others backed QAnon theories that the president doesn’t have COVID-19 but rather is working to round up liberal pedophiles, as one user said on Twitter. Earlier this year Twitter removed thousands of accounts that spread QAnon theories and said it would block links associated to QAnon from being shared on is service. Nearly a month later, Facebook also cracked down on QAnon, collectively removing more than 12,000 related groups, pages, and accounts.


fortune--2020-10-02--Ransomware victims find themselves between a rock and a hard place

In case there was any confusion, the U.S. wants to remind everyone that law is law.
No one is allowed to transact with sanctioned entities, the Treasury Department warned Thursday in an advisory. The Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, specifically called out victims of ransomware for possible sanctions violations, a first for the federal agency.
The bulletin “officially puts companies on notice,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, cofounder of the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a security-themed think tank. The former chief technology officer for CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, described the action as “a significant shot across the bow to victims, incident response companies and payment facilitating companies,” alerting them their behavior could be criminal.
The Treasury’s insistence on following the letter of the law puts targets of ransomware in a difficult position. In order to recover locked-up data, ransomware-stricken firms often have few options but to meet hackers’ extortion demands—even though doing so by no means guarantees data recovery.
Many organizations prefer to pay up rather than remaining hobbled or risking going under.
“I get the point [of Treasury’s notice] but wonder if the implications of this have been considered,” said Phil Reitinger, president and CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance, a cybersecurity nonprofit group. “What if the victim is a hospital? A city government?”
No organizations are immune to ransomware breaches—and the business landscape is replete with examples of companies caving to hackers’ demands. Cities and hospitals are, indeed, among them.
Reitinger, who is also formerly a Homeland Security Department deputy undersecretary, fears the Treasury’s strict rules may ignore the reality of the situation. “It seems to me those who most ardently oppose ransom payments are those who don’t have to deal with real consequences,” he said.
Garmin ultra soft
Multiple industry insiders told Fortune that recent rule-flouting, and a particularly egregious incident this summer involving Garmin, the GPS tech-maker, spurred the Treasury to issue its advisory.
After suffering a crippling ransomware attack in July, Garmin reportedly employed the services of an incident response firm. The two are said, ultimately, to have paid a multimillion-dollar ransom to a blacklisted, Russian cybercriminal group. (Garmin declined to discuss the matter and Arete did not reply to Fortune’s request for comment.)
Garmin’s case is not unique. Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of Mandiant, the data breach recovery unit at FireEye, a cybersecurity firm, said he knows of several companies that have paid extortion demands ranging from $10 million to $30 million. Hackers tend to target smaller companies with six-figure demands and larger ones with seven-or-eight-figure demands, Carmakal said.
The frequency of the attacks appears to be the rise. Carmakal says his team is aware of more than 100 organizations currently being preyed upon this month alone, more than double what it was aware of last September.
The intention of the Treasury’s notice “is positive,” Carmakal said, “but it will certainly add more pressure and complexity” to victims seeking to bounce back from such hacks.
Permission denied
All this means more businesses are facing a tough dilemma: Pay up and break the law, or remain knocked offline.
According to the Treasury’s notice, ransomware victims are expected to check its list of sanctioned entities before making any payments. If a payment could run afoul of the rules, companies must submit requests for exemption.
The odds of an exemption are low, however. These license applications “will be reviewed by OFAC on a case-by-case basis with a presumption of denial,” the Treasury notice said.
Plausible deniability is no excuse. A Treasury spokesperson told Fortune that companies could be held liable even if they aren’t aware they’re paying a sanctioned entity. Victims should report incidents to law enforcement as cooperation could be considered a “significant mitigating factor” in possible penalty determinations, the spokesperson added.
Joshua Motta, CEO of Coalition, a cybersecurity insurance startup, said the Treasury’s hardline approach puts ransomware victims “in an even more precarious position” than they were in already.
The difficulty of attributing attacks amid the murkiness of cyberspace adds complexity to the situation. Anyone who paid off the perpetrators of the “SamSam” ransomware campaign in years past might not have initially been aware they were based in Iran, for example. Suspected North Korean ransomware hackers have recently been trying to cover their tracks too.
Because many hackers operate abroad, it can be difficult for U.S. authorities to catch them even when they are identified. “Ironically, the victims of ransomware may well face more severe consequences than the perpetrators,” Motta said.
No negotiating with terrorists
So far, the Treasury has not prosecuted any ransomware victims—or industry partners who help make ransomware payments—for breaching sanctions laws. But some people believe that should change.
Ciaran Martin, the former head of the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre, is one proponent of adopting a tougher stance. “If I had one policy card to play in the next year, I would ask for a serious examination of whether we should change the law to make it illegal for organizations in the U.K. to pay ransoms in the case of ransomware,” he recently told the Royal United Services Institute, a British think thank focused on defense policy, according to Bloomberg.
The position has support from some in the cybersecurity industry. Treasury’s warning is “a much-needed step in the right direction,” said Brett Callow, a threat analyst at Emisoft, an anti-malware firm that tracks ransomware.
But, Callow continued, “we’d prefer to see a complete ban on the payment of demands. If the flow of cash stops, the attacks will stop.”


fortune--2020-10-02--Will there be a second Trump-Biden debate? Probably not, but it may not make a difference

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Just days after the first of three planned presidential debates, President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, putting the likelihood of further debates in serious doubt ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. But after the debacle that was the first debate, a second appears unnecessary anyway.
Commentators ranging from the New York Times editorial board to Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez called Tuesday’s debate— an unproductive shouting match levied with personal insults and constant interruptions—a “national disgrace.” The debate did little to swing decided voters to the other side, while perhaps the most significant aim of a presidential debate—convincing undecided voters—had a minuscule pool to work with in the first place.
A recent NBC News poll from Sept. 20 found that just 6% of voters were undecided, suggesting little room for the election to dramatically swing either way following a debate. Meanwhile, a FiveThiryEight poll in conjunction with Ipsos found that voters planning to vote for Biden only changed from 5.0 to 5.2 on a scale of 10 (with 10 meaning absolutely certain). Trump voters only changed from 3.8 to 3.7.
Furthermore, a CBS News survey found that just 17% of respondents felt “informed” by the debate. The majority, 69%, said their main takeaway from the debate was feeling “annoyed.”
It’s unclear if Americans would have wanted to proceed with the debates even if Trump hadn’t tested positive for coronavirus. Calls to cancel the remaining debates following Tuesday’s showing echoed across social media. “The debates are now a danger to public safety and a direct threat to Black life. Cancel the debates,” former MSNBC host Melissa Harris Perry tweeted, referencing the President’s refusal to condemn white supremacy during the event.
“Presidential debates rarely make much difference in the race. Even the most infamous debate gaffe of them all, Gerald Ford’s 1976 insistence that there was ‘no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe,’ had no real effect on the election,” argued The Atlantic‘s David A. Graham. “This is likely to be especially true this year, when the polls have remained surprisingly stable. Beyond that, tens of thousands of voters have already cast their ballot, and more are returned each day.”
The next debate is scheduled for Oct. 15. Given the timeline of the diagnosis, Trump could potentially recover in time—but polling data suggests there’s no reason for him to rush back.


fortune--2020-10-02--Timeline of Trump’s activities in the week before he tested positive for COVID

With just a month to go until the election, President Donald Trump had a busy schedule in the week before the coronavirus hit home with him. Trump tweeted early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus. Typically, it can take four to five days for symptoms to show up after someone is infected with coronavirus. The incubation period can extend up to 14 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Saturday
—Trump announces the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Two people who attended the Rose Garden ceremony — Utah Sen. Mike Lee and University of Notre Dame president John Jenkins — announce on Friday they have tested positive for the virus.
—Trump holds a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pa., attended by thousands of supporters, many not wearing masks.
Sunday
—Trump visits his golf course in Sterling Va, and holds a late afternoon news conference in the White House briefing room.
—The president and his wife hold an early evening reception for Gold Star Families on the White House State floor.
Monday
— Trump surveys a truck produced by Lordstown Motors on the White House South Lawn at an event attended by two members of Congress and three representatives from the Lordstown, Ohio, manufacturer.
— Trump holds a Rose Garden event to announce an administration effort to distribute millions of coronavirus test kits to states. The event is attended by administration officials including Vice President Mike Pence, members of Congress and state officials.
Tuesday
— Trump travels to Cleveland for a 90-minute presidential debate against Democratic rival Joe Biden. The two men are both tested ahead of the debate and stand behind lecterns positioned a good distance from one another. They do not wear masks during the faceoff, but also do not shake hands under pre-arranged rules.
— White House aide Hope Hicks is part of a large entourage that travels to Ohio with Trump aboard Air Force One for the debate, including members of the Trump family. Trump’s adult children and senior staff do not wear masks during the debate, violating host rules.
Wednesday
— Trump travels to Minnesota for a fundraiser at a private home in suburban Minneapolis and an outdoor rally in Duluth.
— Hicks is among the White House aides who accompany Trump on the trip. She feels unwell on the return trip and isolates herself aboard Air Force One.
Thursday
— Hicks tests positive for the coronavirus.
— Trump flies to his Bedminster resort in New Jersey for a private fundraiser. Several aides who were in proximity to Hicks scrap plans to accompany Trump. White House officials say they learned of Hicks’ positive test soon after Trump boarded Marine One to start his journey to New Jersey.
— Trump announces in an evening interview on Fox News that he and the first lady are being tested for the coronavirus. He later tweets that they will “begin our quarantine process!”
Friday
— Trump tweets shortly before 1 a.m. that he and the first lady have tested positive for the virus and “will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately.”
— Dr. Sean Conley, physician to the president, releases a statement that the president and first lady “are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.”
—White House officials say Trump and his wife are experiencing mild symptoms, and that senior advisers who were in close contact with the president and Hicks have tested negative. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says that he anticipates more White House staff will test positive.
—Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien says campaign events involving the president and his family are being moved to virtual events or temporarily postponed. Vice President Mike Pence plans on resuming his scheduled campaign events.


fortune--2020-10-02--Pelosi says Trump’s COVID diagnosis has improved the odds for another stimulus package

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On Friday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC viewers that President Donald Trump’s positive COVID-19 test result is likely to bolster the odds of a stimulus deal getting passed.
“This kind of changes the dynamic,” Pelosi said. “[The White House will] see the reality of what we have been saying all along. This is a vicious virus.”
Earlier this week the White House upped its offer from $1.3 trillion to $1.6 trillion, however, Democratic leaders said that wasn’t enough aid. So on Thursday, House Democrats passed the revised $2.2 trillion Heroes Act. That bill is unlikely to get a vote in the Senate.
But as negotiations move forward, Trump’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis, Pelosi says, could help the president realize that more aid is needed to address the deadly pandemic. “We’ll find our middle ground … we’ll get the job done,” Pelosi said.
While the two parties disagree on the dollar size of the next stimulus package, they do agree on lots of the spending areas. Both parties reaffirmed support this week for another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for adults and $500 for dependents. Both parties support more funding for education, coronavirus-related projects, mortgage and rental assistance, food programs, and state and local government funding.
Their main areas of disagreement—outside of the total package size—are on items like a steep increase in federal aid to state and local governments, which Democrats support, and COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for businesses, which Republicans support. And Republicans would like to see $400 weekly enhanced unemployment benefits, while Democrats would like it to go back to $600 per week.


fortune--2020-10-02--Harvey Weinstein charged with the rape of two more women in California

Harvey Weinstein was charged Friday with the rape of two more women, Los Angeles County prosecutors said.
Weinstein was charged with three counts of rape and three counts of forcible oral copulation involving the two women, the district attorney’s office said.
A criminal complaint alleges Weinstein raped a woman at a hotel in Beverly Hills between September 2004 and September 2005, and raped another woman twice between November 2009 and November 2010 at a Beverly Hills hotel.
Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer said, “Harvey Weinstein has always maintained that every one of his physical encounters throughout his entire life have been consensual. That hasn’t changed. At this moment we cannot comment on the additional charges until we learn more about them.”
The new charges mean Weinstein is now charged with 11 felony counts in Los Angeles County, involving five women.
The 68-year-old former movie mogul is serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York on convictions for rape and sexual assault against two women.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles have begun the process of extraditing him, but agreed last month to delay attempts to bring him to California because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Weinstein was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this year while serving time in a maximum-security prison near Buffalo, New York.
Another extradition hearing is scheduled for Dec. 11.


fortune--2020-10-02--What Trump’s COVID-positive presidential campaign could look like

On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump stood before the nation on the debate stage and downplayed the effects of COVID-19, the deadly virus that has killed more than one million people across the globe and 200,000 in the United States.
“I don’t wear face masks like him,” Trump said of his opponent, former vice president Joe Biden. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
When moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump about the large rallies he’s been holding as a crucial component of his presidential campaign, the President joked that the only reason Biden didn’t do the same was because “nobody shows up to his events.” He would continue to have them, Trump said, and insisted that were safe.
What a difference two days can make.
Trump, his wife, Melania, and top aide Hope Hicks announced early Friday that they had tested positive for COVID-19 and were mildly symptomatic. The effects of the virus have been known to linger for much longer than the month left until the election.
Now campaign staff, analysts, and operatives must scramble to figure out what a presidential campaign looks when one candidate is incapacitated, or at the very least, quarantined. Unfortunately, said Thomas Schwartz, distinguished professor of history and political science at Vanderbilt University, there isn’t much historical context to help them.
While Woodrow Wilson had a severe stroke while in office and left many of his duties to his wife, he wasn’t running for reelection. Ronald Reagan had cancer while in the White House but, again, was not campaigning. “You really have to stretch for comparisons here,” Schwartz said of the problem.
Dwight Eisenhower suffered a massive heart attack a year before winning his reelection campaign in 1956. His opponent, Adlai Stevenson, attempted to use the issue to argue that Eisenhower was too old to run; he was six years younger than Trump at the time.
Still, there have been times throughout American history, during the Civil War and World War II, for example, when sitting presidents were not around to campaign in-person. Front-porch style campaigning has been used by a number of candidates, namely Joe Biden. As long as the President’s symptoms remain mild, said Schwartz, he’ll likely participate in virtual rallies and interviews much like Biden has in the past. The debates could even continue through video.
But in-person rallies, debates, studio interviews, and Rose Garden announcements will be unlikely to resume for the duration of the campaign.
“This is terribly damaging to Republicans in general. Trump fed off of crowds and the absence of that can’t be helpful right now. It’s a damaging thing for his prospects,” said Schwartz.
If the President does bounce back quickly, however, he’ll be able to play to the argument of strength while eliciting sympathy. But if his illness is prolonged or worsens, his 2020 hopes will take a serious ding, Schwartz said.
Meanwhile, his campaign will likely rely heavily on the use of surrogates in lieu of Trump: Vice President Mike Pence has tested negative for the virus and will likely be in front of cameras this weekend. If the President’s family members, Ivanka, Tiffany, Eric and Donald Jr., test negative they will also likely pick up some slack for the President, as will Lara Trump and senior advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle.
There’s also little legal precedent about what would be done if the President were to succumb to his illness or become critically ill before November 3. “You can speculate to the moon on this,” said Schwartz. Many Americans have already cast their votes through early voting and vote by mail, further complicating the situation. Early voting begins next week in earnest across the country, and millions more will vote.
Deceased candidates have won local elections before and have typically been replaced by another candidate of their party’s choosing, said Schwartz. “It would seem to me that a case could be made that people who had voted already voted for the Republican ticket, and the party could claim those votes.” Still, there would be a long legal challenge likely leading to the Supreme Court, he said.
Trump’s Supreme Court Justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett said Friday that she had COVID-19 earlier in the year but has since made a full recovery.


fortune--2020-10-02--These deepfake videos of Putin and Kim have gone viral

Russian President Vladimir Putin has a message for America. “America, you blame me for interfering with your democracy. But I don’t have to. You are doing it to yourselves,” the dictator intones in thickly-accented English in a video released on YouTube earlier this week.
In another video, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un addresses Americans from behind a heavy wooden desk. “The people are divided. Your voting districts are manipulated. Voting locations are closing so millions can’t vote,” he says.
Neither video is authentic. Both were created for RepresentUS, a nonprofit anti-corruption and good governance group, by an advertising agency using “deepfake” technology. The videos, part of a public service campaign called “Dictators,” carry the tagline, “This footage isn’t real, but the threat to democracy is.”
Deepfakes are realistic-looking video forgeries created using a form of artificial intelligence. Most involve grafting one person’s head onto another person’s body, but a similar method can be used to create a completely invented face. Since first appearing in 2017, most deepfakes have involved putting the heads of celebrities onto the bodies of pornographic actors, but many experts have raised concerns that the technology could be used in political disinformation campaigns.
In this case, RepresentUS has sought to play upon that idea, but to use the technology to raise awareness about what it sees as more pressing threats to American democracy from policies that it sees as disenfranchising voters, such as policies designed to make it more difficult to register and cast a ballot.
“We believe the U.S. government should be representing all Americans,” Joshua Lynn, RepresentUS’s co-founder and president, said. “Every American needs to be able to vote safely and securely.”
Lynn said that RepresentUS is a non-partisan organization and has both Democrats and Republicans among its supporters and advisors, although he acknowledges that in the current presidential election, President Donald Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting and his efforts to encourage state and county officials to close physical polling places, particularly in areas expected to vote heavily in favor of Democrats, are anathema to the group’s views. “I see what is happening right now as the ultimate expression of this degradation of the system as it was designed,” he said.
RepresentUS asked Mischief @ No Fixed Address, a New York-based advertising agency, to create the public service campaign.
Kevin Mulroy, the agency’s executive creative director, said the challenge was to find a way grab people’s attention and make them care about democracy falling apart without drifting into partisan debate. The team hit upon the idea of using the perspective of foreign dictators rooting for U.S. democracy to collapse, he said. At first, they considered hiring actors to play fictional dictators but decided using images of real foreign leaders who have an interest in seeing the U.S. stumble would be more effective.
“That’s when we started thinking about deepfakes,” Mulroy said. “The point of the deepfake is to get this message through in such a noisy area.”
Lynn said he liked the idea because it allowed RepresentUS to showcase the threat from both domestic political developments and from this emerging new technology.
Creating the realistic deepfakes was not an easy process, Bianca Guimaraes, another Mischief executive creative director who worked on the campaign, said. The firm cast actors with similar body types to the two dictators to produce footage that could be used to train the deepfake algorithm. It also had to find enough video footage of the two foreign leaders to train an effective deepfake. This proved harder for the Kim video because relatively little video footage of the elusive North Korean dictator exists, Guimaraes said. Mischief also hired native Russian and Korean speakers to voice the two dictator’s lines in the videos, adding an additional touch of realism.
And while the deepfake software did much of the work of creating a believable melding of the real dictator’s faces with the mouth movements and bodies of the hired actors, finishing touches needed to make the videos seem more realistic were applied using more traditional computer-assisted video-editing techniques, Guimaraes said.
She said she came away from the process somewhat reassured that creating completely believable fake videos was still more difficult than some technologists and national security experts have suggested.
The two deepfake videos have been a hit on social media, with celebrities, including comedian Amy Schumer, musical artist Sia, and director Adam McKay, helping to promote RepresentUS’s #savethevote campaign on social media. RepresentUS’s website recorded its two highest days of traffic ever after the videos debuted.
The videos were supposed to have been broadcast on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC in the Washington, D.C., area immediately after Tuesday’s presidential debate, but all three networks refused to run the ads at the last minute, pulling them without any explanation. “We have asked for repeatedly for an explanation but they haven’t provided one,” Lynn said.
Facebook has said previously it will ban any videos created using deepfake technology, regardless of their content.
Lynn acknowledges that there’s something unsettling about watching almost-perfect-but-not-quite digital avatars of Putin and Kim celebrating the growing failures of America’s political system—even if people know the videos aren’t real.
“If it makes people a little bit uncomfortable, that’s okay,” Lynn said. “People should be a little bit uncomfortable about what is happening in America right now regardless of political party.”


fortune--2020-10-02--Corporate America, here’s the secret to a better bottom line

Does employee wellbeing mean a better bottom line?
Fortune teamed up with Thrive Global, SAP SuccessFactors, and Qualtrics to build the Thrive XM Index*, a ranking of companies with the best employee wellbeing.
To create the index, we surveyed a sample of more than 20,000 full-time U.S. employees from over 900 companies. We asked them about everything: work-life balance, career advancement, mental health, company policies.
From this massive survey, Thrive Global researchers used a scoring algorithm to generate the score for companies.
Then they looked at the highest-ranked companies on the index to see if their better employee experiences translated into better financial results.
Here’s what they found.


fortune--2020-10-02--Why Trump’s COVID diagnosis spooks America’s trading partners

Even by the standards of Trump-era upheaval, the gyrations in Washington are leaving other countries reeling, with the prospect that election chaos could lead to turmoil elsewhere, and that the world’s biggest economy could be temporarily set adrift.
U.S. stock futures and oil contracts both dropped shortly after President Trump tweeted, at the beginning of Asia’s trading day, that he and Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19.
It’s not clear how sick the president is beyond some cold-like symptoms, or whether the contagion has spread within the White House. But the concern abroad seems to have reached a high point after weeks of violent protests, the shambolic presidential debate on Tuesday, Trump’s reluctance to commit to a peaceful transfer of power—and now, his coronavirus infection.
The unease is particularly stark within Europe, which remains heavily dependent on U.S. cooperation on a myriad of issues like terrorism, cyberthreats, and China’s global power.
“The level of nervousness is quite high,” says François Heisbourg, a defense analyst and Senior Advisor to the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. One of the issues most rattling officials outside the U.S. is the sheer potential for election chaos.
“The presidential election is a deeply flawed exercise,” Heisbourg says. “You have 8,000 different elections, each with their own system. What could go wrong?”
For some foreign governments, especially in Europe, it is hard to know which is more worrying: A deeply contested election on November 3 with weeks of uncertainty to follow; or the prospect that President Trump might win a second term.
With few exceptions, foreign governments are careful not to say which candidate they prefer. But the anti-Trump sentiments among regular citizens abroad are hardly a secret. The Pew Research Center in Washington last month reported that the U.S. image internationally had plummeted to its lowest level since the organization began conducting yearly polls on the issue nearly 20 years ago. Only about 16% of people said they had confidence in Trump, among those polled in 13 countries, including several in Europe, and Japan, Canada, South Korea and Australia.
As the elections have grown near, European Union officials increasingly have begun considering the real security implications of a second Trump term. “They are extraordinarily worried about it,” says Jeremy Shapiro, research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a London-based think tank.
Until now, he says, E.U. officials have retained strong communication with their U.S. counterparts over dozens of issues on which they cooperate. That has continued, even as relations between Trump and governments across the Atlantic have frayed badly, as Trump pulled the U.S. out of the global climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal, withdrew U.S. troops from Syria, and cut the U.S. funding agreement to the World Health Organization in the midst of the pandemic. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks regularly to President Trump, but has bluntly railed against his policies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has displayed almost open contempt for the U.S. President. Yet despite all that, Shapiro says, “There is a deep web of ties that runs up and down, and that keeps things going.”
Yet all that could change with a second Trump term. Officials, Shapiro says, worry that Trump’s “America First” “political” foreign policy would make it difficult for the “functional” work done by thousands of career foreign service staff to continue. “Exactly at what point that will be, we do not know,” he says.
That would be especially dangerous if the U.S. and Europe fail to cooperate on big global threats, like cyberattacks and China’s rising power.
Meanwhile, Trump’s announcement that he had tested positive for COVID-19 brought a sense of vindication in China—the country for which the U.S. President has named the virus. “President Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19,” Hu Xiijin, editor in chief of China’s pro-government Global Times wrote in a taunting tweet. “It will impose a negative impact on the image of Trump and the U.S.”
Heisbourg says European officials are already assessing the possibilities of Trump remaining in the White House for another four years. “Will NATO survive? That is a real question on people’s minds.” Heisbourg says. “The U.S. has gone AWOL. People are starting to act as if there is a serious possibility that the U.S. will no longer involve themselves in alliances.”
As the disarray in the U.S. has dragged on, another deep worry has surfaced too: Even if Joe Biden wins, it is uncertain whether the U.S. relationships can return to its previous state of calm.
“A lot of E.U. officials have emphasized to me that if Joe Biden wins, the Republicans and Trump do not necessarily go away,” Shapiro says. “Biden will go back to the climate agreement: Great. But the election could be reversed in four years.”


fortune--2020-10-02--As Biden’s election odds improve, the Russian ruble sinks

The Russian ruble has emerged as a barometer of Donald Trump’s chances of winning the election.
A slump in the currency in recent months has mirrored rising betting odds of Biden beating Trump on Nov. 3. After two days of gains, the ruble sank the most in emerging markets on Friday on news that the president had contracted the coronavirus.
The market is predicting a Democrat in the White House will more likely impose harsher sanctions on Russia, and the risk of such penalties might increase if the Kremlin tries to interfere in the vote to prevent a Biden victory.
The trend is the opposite of 2016, when the Russian currency appreciated as Trump gained in the polls. Trump promised during his campaign to heal battered relations with the Kremlin, but his presidency ended up mired in allegations that Russia influenced the vote to help him win.
Only the Turkish lira has performed worse than the ruble among major emerging markets in the past three months. Both currencies are down more than 10% against the dollar.


fortune--2020-10-02--A looming landslide? Biden expands lead to nine states Trump won in 2016

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Donald Trump went into election night trailing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He’d go on to win those three states by less than 1%—and the presidency.
But this go around the President would need a much bigger upset: Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads Trump in nine states the President won in 2016, according to RealClearPolitics poll averages.
If Biden were to win every state carried by Hillary Clinton along with the nine Trump states in which he’s currently leading (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), he would walk away with at least 368 electoral votes. A win requires only 270 electoral votes.
Most of these polling averages are from polls conducted prior to the first presidential debate on Tuesday, and these polls predate the announcement of Trump’s positive COVID-19 test.
In recent weeks, Biden’s national average polling lead (7.2 percentage points) has held steady, and his battleground polling has strengthened: Two weeks ago, Biden led in just six states the President won four years ago.
The reason for the state-level uptick? Some political analysts are pointing to the fact that Biden has upped his advertising spending in key battleground states. The Biden campaign spent $153 million on TV and radio ads in September alone, compared with the $57 million spent by the Trump campaign.
Most scenarios that give Trump a second term involve him winning at least seven of the battleground states in which Biden currently leads: Arizona (+3 points), Florida (+1.1 points), Georgia (+0.3 points), Iowa (+0.5 points), Michigan (+5.2 points), North Carolina (+0.8 points), and Ohio (+3.3 points). If he wins those, Trump can likely afford to lose swing states like Pennsylvania (+5.7 points) and Wisconsin (+5.5 points), where Biden is currently leading. If Trump wins either of the latter states, he can afford to lose Michigan.
As of Friday, FiveThirtyEight forecast the odds of Biden winning at 80%, while The Economist forecast the Democratic nominee having a 89% chance of winning the electoral college. In the coming days, we’ll begin to get the state-level post-debate polls.


fortune--2020-10-02--Sustainability: If your company has a great record, make sure investors hear about it

Over the past year, buzz around ESG investing has grown significantly. From BlackRock’s January investor letter to the resiliency of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds amidst the COVID-19 crisis, these financial products continue to gain in popularity, and managers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their analysis of companies’ ESG focus. And for good reasons: Consumers increasingly expect corporations to match their own values, and investors are aware of the long-term risks that ESG liabilities create for potential growth.
By understanding the criteria most commonly used to build investment funds and how key stakeholders are consuming this information, businesses can elevate their profiles and tap into the opportunity space ESG investing has created. As more companies are stepping up to take meaningful action on social responsibility, the challenge lies in finding the right balance between check-the-box reporting and self-promotional content. The goal: to identify an engagement strategy that allows your business to do well (with investors) while doing good.
Know your audience
Understanding the differences between the two primary stakeholders is key. First, the fund managers themselves and the research firms that support them (think MSCI or Morningstar) are focused on liability, risk mitigation, and maximizing shareholder return. They largely rely on a mix of data analytics, disclosure filings, media coverage, and brand awareness to drive their decision-making process regarding those companies best positioned to withstand future risks related to issues like climate change, human rights, and diversity. Research firms that support fund managers often highlight specific criteria and their methodology for ESG fund ratings, so taking into account data-rich reporting on carbon intensity, green and brown revenues, board composition, and other quantifiable ESG factors should be part of any positioning strategy.
The second stakeholder is the investor who cares about a company’s corporate values. To this cadre, brand reputation, public statements, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts speak volumes. While ESG funds have traditionally been tech-heavy due to tech companies’ more modest climate liabilities, these investors are increasingly interested in funds that include companies with an active stake in the environment. Amazon’s recent announcement of a clean energy venture fund highlights that company’s awareness of this particular trend.
Companies too often underplay the good news about their ESG practices, the authors write. EschCollection—Getty Images
The opportunity in corporate reporting
While these audiences are distinct in the company messaging they are consuming, the foundation of effective communications to both is corporate sustainability reporting.
GRI, SASB, CDP: These are just a few of the many frameworks that exist for corporate reporting on ESG practices, and they are a key part of the index research ecosystem. While the frameworks themselves may feel daunting, the good news is there is no requirement that companies undertake sustainability reporting, only best practices to help guide the process and avoid green-washing. Reporting can be resource-intensive, which is why it is so surprising when the final products are often relegated to obscure web pages upon release. But if companies consider these reports as opportunities to communicate with ESG fund stakeholders, the return on investment can be huge.
For starters, sustainability reports are a foundational resource for an organization’s overall ESG profile. They can provide not only the data financial research firms rely on, but a reservoir of content such as adherence to UN Sustainable Development Goals and mitigation plans that both audiences want to understand.
Get the ‘Comms’ team on board
To leverage these products, consider first their media value. While data aggregators and analysts will pick up on media signals, investors will also look for these cues to drive their strategy. Younger investors are particularly interested in the headlines around CSR, which has significant implications for the future of portfolios given the transfer of wealth set to occur over the next two decades. By aligning proactive communications efforts to the news of the day, companies can boost their reputation and expand interest in their stock. Over the past several months, the COVID crisis and Black Lives Matter movement have created significant opportunities for corporations to do just that, resulting in a spate of stories in mainstream media.
These events and corporate engagement also created a swath of opportunity space for brand building and thought leadership. As hundreds, if not thousands, of companies got involved in both COVID response and the discussion around racial inequality, those that did so authentically were the most successful. Energy companies like NextEra suspended COVID-related disconnections and committed millions to emergency assistance; airlines stepped up to fly first responders to the cities in most need of help; and apparel company Gap Inc. not only re-upped a conversation it started around equal pay for men and women, it doubled down and committed to fixing any racial disparities in pay this year.
Beyond these high-profile efforts to capture the zeitgeist, companies’ sustainability reports continue to provide the most transparent insight into where they stand and where they need to go. The snackable, fact-based content around issues like diversity and community support found in reporting can provide powerful data to back up buzzy corporate statements in times like these.
Pieces of content in the form of infographics can do more than back up buzzy statements, too. They provide ways to engage with consumers, investors, data aggregators, and even employees where they live: in the digital space. When companies increase their online engagement with a variety of audiences, A.I. is more likely to pick up on and incorporate corporate messaging into its research. Beyond data mining, these pieces of content also reach the human eyes that are ultimately scanning for qualitative and quantitative points to help them determine their investment strategies.
With a solid foundation based on CSR efforts and reporting frameworks, corporations can effectively communicate their values and long-term profitability to analysts and ESG investors alike. Messaging along these contours already generates enthusiasm at the consumer level; there is every indication that it has similar effects at the investor level. With effective communications around this work, companies’ CSR work promises to yield even higher returns on Wall Street, showing just how good social good can be for business.
Lindsay Singleton is a CSR expert and managing director at communications firm ROKK Solutions, where she leads the company’s social good practice. Josh Goulding is cofounder and partner at 4J Wealth Management.


fortune--2020-10-02--In final jobs report before the election, U.S. adds a disappointing 661,000 jobs amid signs the reco

In final jobs report before the election, U.S. adds a disappointing 661,000 jobs amid signs the recovery is sputtering

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The economic recovery is losing steam.
U.S. employment rose by 661,000 in September, bringing the total number of jobs added since May to 11.4 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics‘ Friday jobs report. But that uptick is down from 1.5 million jobs added in August and 1.8 million added in July.
In all, the U.S. economy is down 10.7 million jobs from pre-pandemic levels in February. At its current rate of growth it would take 16 months to fully recover. But if the current trajectory holds, that rate of growth will continue to slow and a full recovery would take much longer than 16 months.
“There’s still an incredibly high number of new layoffs,” said Dante DeAntonio, an economist at Moody’s Analytics told Fortune. While net job growth is still positive, employers are laying off workers in droves: There were another 837,000 new unemployment claims reported on Thursday. For comparison, the pre-pandemic weekly record was 695,000—a record that stood for more than three decades.
The economic recovery has run into two major roadblocks. For starters, the pandemic continues to rage across the country, preventing a full reopening. That is particularly hard for sectors like hospitality and leisure, where jobs are still down 22.8%. The other major headwind is that stimulus from the $2.2 trillion CARES Act has largely run dry.
Another economic stimulus package is needed to prevent further economic slowing, DeAntonio says. It’s uncertain if Congress can get it done before the election. Democratic leaders want at least $2.2 trillion, while the White House refuses to go above $1.6 trillion.
The unemployment rate in September dropped to 7.9% from 8.4%. That marks five consecutive months of a declining jobless rate after peaking at an 80-year high of 14.7% in April. But it’s still well above the pre-pandemic rate of 3.5% in February—a 50-year low.
Jobless Americans who aren’t looking for work are excluded from the labor force and the unemployment rate calculations. So the 695,000 labor force decline in September actually helped to pull the unemployment rate down. In all, the labor force is down 4.5 million from February.
The June jobs numbers also show the economic slump is still hitting some communities harder than others. The jobless rate among white workers is 7%, compared with 8.9% for Asian workers, 10.3% for Hispanic workers, and 12.1% among Black workers. Among adult men the rate is 7.4%, compared to 7.7% among adult women.
We won’t get another jobs report until after the November 3 election. An unemployment rate of 7.9% could hamper Trump’s odds of reelection. Then again, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama all won re-election with an unemployment rate above 7%. In fact, the 7.8% jobless rate in September 2012—right before Obama’s reelection—is just .1% lower than it is as of September 2020.


fortune--2020-10-02--What to watch this weekend on Netflix, Hulu, and more

Between traditional television, video-on-demand releases, and a growing number of streaming services, it can be hard to keep up with what one should watch week to week. Fortune is here to help you keep track of new releases as well as the occasional older title worth checking out. Take a look at this weekend’s notable arrivals, a couple you may have missed earlier in the week, and what else is coming soon:
Netflix
Lily Collins stars as the title character in Netflix’s “Emily in Paris.” COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Emily in Paris: The new rom-com series starring Lily Collins sees 10 half-hour episodes dropping on the streamer Oct. 2.
Song Exploder: The new documentary series based on the hit podcast of the same name features musicians like Alicia Keys and R.E.M., as they talk about how some of their songs came to be. The series debuts Oct. 2.
Hulu
Monsterland: Just in time for spooky season, this eight-episode horror anthology series comes to Hulu on Oct. 2.
Apple TV+
Paul Rudd narrates “Tiny World” on Apple TV+. Courtesy of Apple TV+
Tiny World: The nature docuseries narrated by Paul Rudd focuses on some of the world’s tiniest critters and what they do to survive day-to-day. The first six episodes arrive on the streaming service Oct. 2.
On TV
Ethan Hawke as John Brown in Showtime’s “The Good Lord Bird.” Kevin Lynch—Showtime
A good amount of broadcast TV returns this weekend. The 10th season of Undercover Boss comes to CBS Oct. 2, airing at 9 p.m. ET.
Documentary Kingdom of Silence, which examines the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia—juxtaposed with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi—comes to Showtime Oct. 2 at 9 p.m. ET.
Sci-fi series Pandora returns to the CW on Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. ET. Over on Showtime, limited series The Good Lord Bird—starring Ethan Hawke—premieres at 9 p.m. ET, while docuseries The Comedy Store—centered on the L.A. club—premieres at 10 p.m. ET.
Also on Oct. 4, the six-part docuseries First Ladies—narrated by Robin Wright—premieres on CNN at 10 p.m. ET. This is also the night The Walking Dead returns to AMC at 9 p.m. ET with the episode that’s technically its season 10 finale, while The Walking Dead: World Beyond premieres at 10 p.m. ET.


fortune--2020-10-02--Where will Peggy Johnson take Magic Leap?

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If VC short sellers existed, virtual and augmented reality startup Magic Leap would have undoubtedly been one of the most popular targets.
It’s a recipe for scrutiny: Headquartered in Plantation, Fla., the company raised roughly $3.5 billion in funding from investors such as Alphabet—much of it before a product was available for sale. But when the company finally began selling its headset to the public in 2018, sales were intensely disappointing. It sought enterprise applications over consumers, tried to sell itself at a $10 billion price tag (there were no takers), and resorted to layoffs amid the pandemic. Then Rony Abovitz, the company’s founder and CEO, stepped down in May.
Now the company is seeking a turnaround under the helm of Peggy Johnson, former executive vice president of business development at Microsoft, who took over as CEO in August.
It’s hard to give Johnson a report card, with just a month or two on the job—but we have clues for the direction she is thinking to take the company in. Johnson, who was one of Satya Nadella’s first big hires at Microsoft as CEO, is expected to focus on building business partnerships, bringing in her contacts from her old job as well. Already, Magic Leap is reportedly talking to Amazon about somehow packaging its headset with Amazon’s cloud services.
She added more color on Thursday, during her first interview since taking over the position, at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit. Per my colleague Lydia Belanger:
“What I’m focused on is ensuring we’re picking the right areas of enterprise to focus on,” she said, citing training, remote assist, and 3D visualization as the three primary use cases the company is zeroing in on. Given the rise of remote work owing to the COVID pandemic, Johnson says she sees promise for teams to meet virtually and review product designs.
For another example, far-flung diagnostics professionals may be able to help fix machinery: If a person on a factory floor is wearing a headset mounted with a camera and a screen, a remote worker can circle components and identify problems.
If Johnson can execute a comeback story—that’s always a good one.
GAMEAPALOOZA: Gaming has taken off during the pandemic, whether in video games or gamified platforms. Online gaming platform Roblox is now working with investment banks to potentially IPO or go public via direct listing in a move that could double its recent $4 billion valuation, Reuters reports citing sources. Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Uber Freight, the logistics arm of Uber, raised $500 million in Series A funding, valuing the unit at $3.3 billion. An investor group led the round by Greenbriar Equity Group made the investment.
- Kavak.com, a Mexico-based pre-owned vehicle buying and selling market, is now valued at $1.2 billion. Its investors have included Softbank, Greenoaks, DST Global, Kaszek Ventures, QED investors, and General Atlantic.
- Alkami Technology, a Plano, Texas-based cloud-based digital banking solution, raised $140 million in funding. D1 Capital Partners led the round Fidelity Management & Research Company, Franklin Templeton, and Stockbridge Investors.
- Flame Biosciences, a New York-based clinical-stage biopharma-focused on cancer and inflammatory diseases, raised $100 million. Rock Springs Capital led the round and was joined by investors including T. Rowe Price Associates, Cormorant Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Surveyor Capital, Samsara BioCapital, Adage Capital Management, Terra Magnum Capital Partners, Logos Capital, and Acuta Capital Partners.
- Olema Oncology, a San Francisco, Calif.-based biopharma focused on the commercialization of targeted therapies for women’s cancers, raised $85 million in Series C funding. Vivo Capital and was joined by investors including Avoro Capital Advisors, BlackRock, Deerfield Management Company, and OrbiMed.
- Bioshin, a Shanghai-based Asia-Pacific subsidiary of Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, raised $60 million in Series A funding, OrbiMed led the round and was joined by investors including Cormorant Asset Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Surveyor Capital, and Suvretta Capital Management.
- Payrix, a Frisco, Texas-based fintech company, raised $50 million in extended Series A funding. Blue Star Innovation Partners and Providence Strategic Growth.
- Tend, a New York-based dentists studio operator, raised a $37 million in Series B funding. GV led the round and was joined by investors including Tiger Global and Redpoint Ventures.
- Dewey's Bakery, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based clean-label cookie and cracker manufacturer, raised $25 million in funding. Eurazeo was the investor.
- Solo.io, a Cambridge, Mass.-based API infrastructure company, raised $23 million in Series B funding. Redpoint Ventures and True Ventures led the round.
- Braintrust, a San Francisco-based network for technical freelancers, raised $18 million. ACME and Blockchange the round and was joined by investors including Pantera, Multicoin and Variant.
- Eclypsium, Portland, Ore.-based enterprise device security company, raised $13 million in funding. Investors included AV8 Ventures, TransLink Capital, Mindset Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, Ridgeline Partners, Intel Capital, Madrona Venture Group, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ubiquity Ventures.
- Pixie Labs, a San Francisco-based way for developers to observe and troubleshoot their application’s performance, raised $9.2 million in Series A funding. Benchmark led the round and was joined by investors including GV.
- Altinity, Gillingham, U.K.-based cloud service provider, raised $4 million in funding from Accel.
- Lucid Scientific, an Atlanta, Ga.-based biotechnology tools company, raised $3 million in seed funding. Dynamk Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Georgia Research Alliance’s Venture Fund.
- QUIN, a German-based investment advisory service, raised €1 million ($1 million) in seed funding. Investors include sino AG, Runa Capital, and APX.
- Course Studio, a Vancouver-based online class startup, raised $1 million in seed funding. Read more.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- TDR Capital will acquire Asda, Walmart's U.K.-based supermarket chain, for 6.8 billion pounds alongside billioniares Mohsin and Zuber Issa.
- Mubadala Investment Co agreed to invest 62.5 billion rupees ($853 million) in Reliance Retail, the retail division of India’s Reliance Industries. Read more.
- Cinven is considering a bid for Clipper Logistics, a U.K.-based logistics company, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Cotton Creek Capital recapped ConeCraft, Fort Worth, Texas-based engineer and manufacturer of customized equipment for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Advent Internationa l invested in Grupo CRM , a Brazilian chocolate producer. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Supply Chain Services, a portfolio company of Sole Source Capital, acquired Miles Data Technologies, a provider of barcode, RFID, and mobility solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Via acquired Fleetonomy, an Israel-based developer of advanced fleet management software. Fleetonomy investors included TA Ventures and VectoIQ.
- Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) will acquire General Motors Co's (NYSE: GM) credit card business for about $2.5 billion, per the WSJ citing sources. Read more.
EXITS
- Cisco agreed to acquire Portshift, an Israel-based cybersecurity company. Team8 backs the firm.
IPOs
- Academy Sports and Outdoors, a sporting goods retailer backed by KKR, raised $203 million in its IPO. Read more.
- AmeriHome, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based residential mortgage producer, filed for a $100 million IPO. It posted $418.7 million in revenue and income of $174.5 million in 2019. Read more.
- Ozon and ivi, a Russian online commerce platform and a Russian cinema respectively, are considering IPOs in the U.S., per Reuters citing sources. Read more.
SPACS
- CONX Corp, a blank-check company formed by Dish cofounder and billionaire Charles Ergen, is seeking to raise $1 billion. It is looking at targets in the TMT space. Read more.
- Duddell Street Acquisition, a blank check company formed by Maso Capital, plans to raise $175 million and seek a business in the TMT, healthcare, fintech, and consumer sectors. Read more.
- Helix Acquisition, a blank check company targeting the healthcare industry, filed to raise $100 million. Cormorant Asset Management backs the firm. Read more.
F+FS
- Bullpen Capital raised $130 million for its fifth fund. Read more.
PEOPLE
- Blossom Capital hired Carmen Alfonso Rico as partner.
- Bullpen Capital named Ann Lai as a partner.


fortune--2020-10-02--A man caught committing ballot fraud in Florida proves mail voting is secure

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This election cycle, a number of Republican politicians, led by President Trump, have claimed that mail-in voting is open to widespread fraud and abuse. Democrats, meanwhile, have called on voters to use the system—in states that allow it—to avoid the potential of long lines and other issues related to the coronavirus pandemic on Election Day.
While electoral fraud does occur, and does occur with voting by mail, it is extremely rare and does not affect outcomes. According to a 2007 report by the bipartisan Brennan Center for Justice, which reviewed past elections, voter impersonation occurs at rates somewhere between 0.0003% and 0.0025%, and most incidences are due to clerical errors or bad data matching practices. A 2014 investigation published in the Washington Post found 31 cases of credible voter impersonation between 2000 and 2014, out of more than 1 billion votes cast.
A recent case of voter impersonation in Florida highlights how secure the system is. On Friday, the sheriff of Manatee County, on the state’s western coast, announced the arrest of a 62-year-old widower who had requested a mail-in ballot for his deceased wife. The attempt was caught by the county’s election supervisors when the wife’s handwriting style on the absentee ballot request did not match that of her voter registration. No ballot was mailed out. The man was arrested and released on $1,500 bail.
Nearly 4 million mail-in ballots have been requested in Florida, per the New York Times, making this a 0.000025% instance.
We don’t know the man’s party affiliation or whether he would have turned the ballot in. But we do know why he did it: According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the man told sheriff’s deputies that he was “testing the system to see if it worked.” It did.


fortune--2020-10-02--With AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine trials on hold in the U.S., a gulf widens between America and ot

With AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine trials on hold in the U.S., a gulf widens between America and other countries

Trials of a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate being produced by the drug company AstraZeneca remain on hold in the U.S. But human testing of the vaccine has resumed in at least five other countries, leading some experts to question whether American regulators’ caution is jeopardizing the country’s ability to access one of the most promising vaccine candidates.
Japan became the latest country to resume human trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the company said Friday. Trials have also resumed in the U.K., Brazil, India, and South Africa.
On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s drug regulator, announced it had begun what’s known as a “rolling review” of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. This means the regulator will begin scrutinizing data from the vaccine’s trials even before those studies are concluded and a formal application for approval is submitted. The process will allow the agency to speed up its potential approval of the vaccine.
The ongoing delay in the U.S. trial is due to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanding its review of safety data to include evidence from other vaccine trials that used the same underlying technology, according to a Reuters report.
“We are continuing to work with the FDA to facilitate review of the information needed to make a decision regarding resumption of the U.S. trial,” AstraZeneca said in a statement.
A spokesman for the University of Oxford, whose researchers developed the vaccine AstraZeneca is producing, said it was “continuing to provide all the data requested by the FDA to AstraZeneca, who are working with the FDA to resume the U.S. arm of the [vaccine] trial.” It said that this data included information about the technology underlying the vaccine and its safety in previous vaccine trials, as well as the current COVID-19 vaccine testing.
Trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine were halted worldwide on Sept. 6 after one volunteer in the U.K. developed a serious medical condition. It has been reported that the volunteer, a woman, had developed serious neurological symptoms that might have been associated with transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord that can be caused by an immune response.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot also revealed that the U.K. trials had been paused once before, in July, when a different female volunteer also developed serious neurological symptoms. It was later found that she had undiagnosed multiple sclerosis.
In both cases, an institutional review board of independent experts concluded that the COVID-19 vaccine was unlikely to be the cause of the symptoms. The U.K. medical regulator allowed the British vaccine trials to resume on Sept. 13, a decision that was soon followed by most other countries where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being tested.
“We work in a regulated environment to ensure safety of our volunteers and comply with all regulatory requests and requirements,” Andrew Pollard, a researcher at Oxford’s Jenner Institute, which developed the COVID-19 vaccine and is overseeing its testing outside the U.S., said in a statement.
Genetically modified virus
AstraZeneca’s method for creating the COVID-19 vaccine rests on using a different kind of virus, called an adenovirus. This virus has been genetically modified so that it does not replicate and so that when it infects cells, it instructs them to make a protein that is also found on the surface of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This protein then hopefully prompts an immune response that enables those inoculated to fight off a COVID-19 infection. In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the kind of adenovirus being used is one normally found in chimpanzees.
Researchers at Oxford’s Jenner Institute have used this particular chimpanzee adenovirus in a number of other vaccines, including ones designed to protect against Ebola and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Other researchers have used different strains of chimpanzee adenovirus in other vaccine studies too.
“There has been multiple trials for chimpanzee adenovirus vector, and I am not aware of a single serious adverse event in any of these trials,” Hildegund Ertl, a professor in the vaccine and immunotherapy center at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, said.
Alan Parker, a professor of translational virotherapies at Cardiff University in the U.K., also said the chimpanzee adenovirus was a safe vaccine technology. “It has been fairly extensively trialed,” he said. “The number of adverse events have been minimal.”
He said that given the number of people involved in the Phase III trial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the U.K.—up to 10,000 volunteers are being recruited—it was to be expected that the study would uncover a few individuals with undiagnosed pre-existing health issues that have no bearing on the vaccine’s safety. “My personal view is that the few serious adverse events found so far are likely just noise,” he said.
Ertl said the FDA was being overly cautious in holding up the U.S. trial of the AstraZeneca vaccine while reviewing safety data from earlier studies. But she said she could understand why the U.S. regulator might be more wary of it than its counterparts in Europe owing to varying degrees of anti-vaccine sentiment as well as the litigiousness of the U.S.
“The FDA has to be more careful,” she said.
Vaccine skeptics
Six in 10 Americans said they would not rush to get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as one was approved by the FDA, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll released last month. That compares with three out of four who said they would get a vaccine once one is available globally, according to another Ipsos poll released in August.
But the growing divide between the FDA and other global regulators may mean the U.S. won’t be in a position to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as other countries. The large 30,000-person clinical trial of the vaccine that AstraZeneca is conducting in the U.S. had only been underway for about a week when the trials were paused. And while Soriot initially said the delay would not set back the company’s projections of having a vaccine ready for FDA approval before the end of the year, that timeline is now in doubt.
It is unclear if the FDA will approve a COVID-19 vaccine based entirely on trial data from outside the U.S.
Meanwhile, two of AstraZeneca’s leading rivals in the race to be the first to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to market—drug giant Pfizer and biotechnology company Moderna—have large-scale U.S. clinical trials well underway. Pfizer has said that it should have enough data from its study to ask the regulator for approval by the end of this month.
The U.S. government has provided AstraZeneca with $1.2 billion to help fund development of its vaccine. In exchange, the company has promised the country 300 million doses, with the first doses ready to ship as early as this month. AstraZeneca said it would still be able to deliver those doses even if the U.S. takes longer than other countries to approve the vaccine.
This story has been updated to include statements from the University of Oxford and Jenner Institute researcher Andrew Pollard.
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune :


fortune--2020-10-02--How to start a podcast while working from home

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Fortune senior writer Michal Lev-Ram is filling in for Adam today.
As a journalism major in the early 2000s, I had two options: newspaper track or magazine track. I chose the latter. The dean of the journalism department at San Francisco State University at the time had regaled us students with stories of editing Hunter S. Thompson’s work at Rolling Stone, and it all sounded much more exciting than covering city hall meetings for a daily. (An aside: I also passed on an optional “online journalism” class because, you know, why take a course I didn’t need in order to graduate?)
Fast forward about 20 years and this dichotomy—newspaper or magazine—sounds painfully outdated. Not only do we have so many other categories within media, but the delineations between all of these classifications have blurred.
This week is a great example: On Thursday, Fortune, a nonagenarian print magazine, wrapped up a three-day conference—the Most Powerful Women Summit—hosted online for the first time. Also this week, we launched a new podcast, Fortune Brainstorm, a weekly audio show about how technology is disrupting our world and reshaping our lives, sometimes in ways we don’t fully realize. In the first episode, Aparna Bawa, COO of Zoom, talks about working from home and helping steer one of the most important apps during the pandemic.
I’m so proud to co-host this podcast project with Fortune deputy editor Brian O’Keefe. We’ve both gotten very good at building makeshift recording studios in our respective apartments—Brian in New York and me in Silicon Valley—using lots of pillows and blankets.
I don’t think either Brian or I ever thought we’d be starting a podcast while working from home, which is exactly what our first episode is all about. But we’re excited to dive into the many ways tech is changing us, and how our changing habits are, in turn, transforming tech. Our producers have also told us that my mom, a former computer programmer, can make occasional guest appearances. (She does not know this yet.) I hope you’ll check out the new podcast, subscribe in your favorite podcast app if you like it, and send us feedback and ideas.
I never did get to edit Hunter S. Thompson. But I’ve gotten to stretch myself in other ways over the years. As my editor, Adam Lashinsky, said just yesterday: “It all comes back to the journalism.”
Michal Lev-Ram
@mlevram
michal.levram@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
NEWSWORTHY
Infected far and wide. While today's biggest headline concerns a certain world leader who contracted COVID-19, over in techland, Amazon says about 20,000 workers in its 1.3 million frontline workforce have tested positive. The company calculates that's about half as many as should be expected based on local infection rates.
Where have I heard this one before? The latest critique of how social media are dividing Americans comes from former President Barack Obama. "People have gotten even more stuck in their own narrow biases,” he said during Signal, Twilio’s developer conference, on Thursday. “One of the things we’re going to have to figure out is how do we rediscover some common culture when you’ve got a bazillion websites and 100 channels?”
We light it up, we won't come down. Elsewhere in politics, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to subpoena Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to appear at yet another hearing. Republicans want to question the execs about alleged conservative bias while Dems want to talk privacy and media domination.
Sally smurfs seashells by the seashore. The feds weren't joking when they imposed anti-money laundering rules on digital currency exchanges. On Thursday, prosecutors filed a pile of charges against BitMEX and its top executives alleging they allowed U.S. citizens to trade without keeping adequate records and controls. Americans aren't supposed to be using the crypto exchange, which is headquartered in the Seychelles and operates mainly from Hong Kong. The exchange said it complied with U.S. laws and plans to fight the charges.
You want me to break something else? It wasn't quite as bad as when Sauron recruited Saruman, but the stock market debut of Palantir had a slight hiccup. One of the benefits of a direct listing is that employees are supposed to be able to sell their shares immediately. It seems Morgan Stanley's Shareworks platform suffered technical difficulties that prevented Palantir shareholders from selling for a few hours, meaning they missed the $11.42 high price for the day. Meanwhile, popular gaming platform Roblox is planning to go public next year but hasn't decided whether or not to use the direct listing method, Reuters reports. And electric truck component maker Hyliion completed its merger with SPAC Tortoise Acquisition and starts trading today with the symbol HYLN.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
One of the selling points of the USB-C connector was to simplify our gadget-charging days. But it hasn't worked out that way, as developer and writer Owen Williams explains in an essay in Debugger.
Anyone going all-in on USB-C will run into problems with an optional standard called Power Delivery. The standard allows devices to charge at a much higher wattage relative to older connectors, therefore allowing them to charge faster. But it requires the right combination of charger, cables, and device to actually achieve this.
If you buy a USB-C charger that doesn’t support Power Delivery and try to use it with a Microsoft Surface, for example, the laptop will complain that it’s “not charging” despite receiving some power. Fixing this requires figuring out whether or not it’s the cable or wall charger that doesn’t support Power Delivery, and replacing it with something that does support it. There would be no way for a layperson to hold two USB-C chargers and know the difference between one that supports Power Delivery and one that doesn’t.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few great long reads I came across this week:
The disruption con: why big tech’s favourite buzzword is nonsense (The Guardian)
How one magic word became a way of justifying Silicon Valley’s unconstrained power.
Can Podcasts Improve Our Well-Being? (The New Yorker)
“The Happiness Lab” is part of a wave of positive-psychology audio that takes a quantitative view of the quest to be happy.
Inside Cameo, the celebrity shoutout app hungry for fame (Wired UK)
Cameo lets you buy personalised greetings from sport stars, singers, influencers and zoo animals. What does it say about the nature of modern celebrity?
Hype Man of the Century (The Verge)
When Chinese millionaire Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent, was he trying to skirt the trade war? Or fly right in the face of it, no matter the cost?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How A.I. is playing a bigger role in music streaming than you ever imagined By Jonathan Vanian
Startup IonQ drastically ups the quantum computing ante By Robert Hackett
Magic Leap’s Peggy Johnson: Becoming CEO of a pivoting business doesn’t mean jumping off the ‘glass cliff’ By Lydia Belanger
What, exactly, does the U.S. Space Force do? Its secretary is glad you asked By Aric Jenkins
Companies need to emphasize skills over degrees, IBM chair Ginni Rometty says By Aaron Pressman
The World Health Organization is leaning on big tech to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic By Nicole Goodkind
In a time of crisis, Americans send a clear message to Corporate America: Focus on workers By Martin Whittaker
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
It was a running joke on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory for years, but getting a decent toilet to operate in zero gravity on the International Space Station is no gag to the astronauts who reside there. So NASA is sending up a new $23 million toilet made of titanium and shaped to better accommodate the bodies of women and men. Now go relax and don't flush your weekend down the drain.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com